Sophie and Mark by Twisted Smile

[twistedsmile]

02. "Stamina" Commentary

Original title: Shutdown. That felt like a good pair to "Set up", but then I worried readers would think 'shutdown' meant the story (series) was finished.

"it's going to help you with your self-control" - it's never explicitly called out in the story, but one of the reasons Sophie and Mark didn't have sex for so long was because Mark was getting gratification from porn (more on that in chapter 3). So one of the motives for caging him was to force him to go a week without jerking off. Though, tbh, I think he still watched some porn during that week.

"REMEMBER... NO touching" - Kinda moot when you're in a chastity cage. But he does give it a good old try.

At this point, we should address how messed up the situation is - she tricked him into a chastity cage, and kept him locked up for a week without warning. The consent is dubious at best. So there are several elements in the story intended to soften that.

"you can wait that long right?" is something like checking consent. Mark says 'sure', but clearly isn't happy about it. He was given a way out, but didn't take it because of pride or not wanting to appear weak or something. Emasculated by toxic masculinity, you hate to see it.

"Sophie would message me to ask how I was... was the cage causing me any problems" - another missed opportunity to back out.

"I was on my knees." - literally and figuratively

"Her hair was still damp... Her make-up was simpler" - she rushed getting out of the shower and doing her make-up. She didn't want to make him wait too long.

"she placed my palms flat on my thighs... 'no moving until I say.'" - this was inspired by a scene from the first episode of the "Irma Vep" mini-series. It wasn't even a sex scene, and yet the power play was strangely hot. I didn't watch the rest of the series, but that scene really stuck with me.

It was interesting to contrast not being able to cum due to the physical restriction of the chastity cage, against the 'psychological' restriction of submission.

"my own breath would be enough to finish me off" - foreshadowing

"I'd fill her up with everything she'd done to me" - not sure if that phrasing is sexy or gross

"What was stopping me?" - If Mark decided to jerk off, or "jump up and grab" Sophie, she really couldn't stop him. If she says "you lose, the cage is going back on", he could just say "nah, I'm not doing that", and what's she going to do? It's all a game, and Sophie only has power over Mark for as long as Mark chooses to keep playing along.

"Maybe another week wouldn't be so bad" - and he very much is playing the game, even as he considers breaking the rules.

The sequence of ellipses are meant to evoke that feeling when you're right on the edge of an orgasm and you're just waiting for it... to... pop.

"Cum sprayed from me like a fountain." - that's such a dumb fucking line, especially after the build up with the ellipses. I had a giggling fit when I first wrote it

"I felt like I was being turned inside out" - you ever cum that hard? Buddy, it's something else.

"Clarity" - as in 'post-nut clarity'

This final section is what I like to call the 'no hard feelings' epilogue. I use it in most of my stories. It's the after care stuff, and it's to reassure readers that whatever just went down, no matter how intense, everyone came out of it okay. Everyone's happy and there are no hard feelings.

"I don't think I can have normal, non-kinky sex anymore" - hurray, Mark's on board. The series can continue!

"I kept messaging you... if you used the safe word, obviously I would have let you out." - she's being a little underhanded here. Yes, she gave him opportunities to back out, but never explicitly told him he should use the safe word if he wanted to stop (because she didn't want him to).

"I hid a spare key in your flat" - do you believe her?

"I think it's called... a hogtie?" - I wanted to show Mark actively asking to do some BDSM. I didn't want the series to just be him passively going along with whatever Sophie wants to do to him.

The other thing was, since chapter 3 is a flashback, I wanted to set up the subsequent story (4) to reassure readers that there would be more stories. As indeed there will be more commentaries!