I guess I think of "gift" as having two distinct meanings. One is something like "a natural talent or ability," as in "she has a gift for story-telling." In that sense, it's something given by nature (or some divinity) to that person. The other meaning is something like "a thing given willingly."

If we assume that the radiant doe has the gift of story-telling, that doesn't mean that she's compelled to gift a story to every soul she meets. Indeed, if she did we'd assume that she was either slightly crazy or Irish. And so her choice to share a story with me, particularly, seems to say that she has seen something in me that might be enriched by something she could offer. (As is surely the case.) I'm not sure how else I'd describe it than as a gift. In giving the gift, she creates ... or perhaps shifts the terms of ... the relationship between us.

It's the element of choosing that, to my mind, makes it a gift. If some poor creature had no control - she flung herself at every plausibly dom/me-like creature, crying "take me!" - it wouldn't be a gift. It would be a pathology. But that's surely not the case here.

I would probably differ from the sweet rose's use of terms, though mildly. In my mind, dominant and submissive are terms that describe personal characteristics. Ways of approaching the world. ("I parallel park dominantly.") Master and slave are terms that describe one's status in a relationship. And so rose without Crusher (I assume that's His name, apologies if I've done so in error) would still be submissive but would not be slave. Likewise for Crusher without rose.

As ever,

S.