Brett and Darren by Twisted Smile

[teanndaorsa]

You can view the story here on the plaza:

https://www.selfbound.net/storiesad/brett_and_darren.html
Sbm; mpov; caught; M/m; toys; gag; rope; cd; chastity; buttplug; cuffs; oral; cons; X

https://www.selfbound.net/storiesad/brett_and_darren2.html
M/m; mpov; M/f; cuffs; Sbf; Sbm; oral; clamps; sex; anal; mast; cons; XX

Please feel free to leave your kind comments and feedback about this story here.

Thanks 

[twistedsmile]

For anyone interested, Brett makes his next appearance after chapter 2 (chronologically) in "Sophie & Mark: 14. Searching".

That story should more or less work as a standalone if you don't fancy catching up on the whole series

[twistedsmile]

Over on the Sophie & Mark threads, I've been doing chapter-by-chapter 'director's commentaries'. And because I love explaining myself, I'm going to do them here too

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Firstly, yes, the title is Brett & Darren so that, combined with Sophie & Mark, the initials are BDSM. Secondly, yes, the chapter titles Daydreamer/Believer are a Monkees reference.

With erotic/pornographic stories, I think it's easy for readers to assume that the writer is sharing their personal sexual fantasies, and that the main character is an author self-insert (especially if the story is written from a first person pov). So flipping from an F/m series to M/m, and telling stories from both a dom and sub perspective was, to some extend, an attempt to complicate that interpretation.

I have this suspicion that M/m stories are the least popular gender pairing. And it's likely that most fans of an F/m series would not be interested in M/m stories. So writing this series can only be viewed as an act of self-sabotage


01. "Daydreamer" Commentary

I wanted to do a classic "caught in self-bondage" story, like the ones I used to read when I first found this site many years ago.

The way this story was developed was, I started with that opening scene: a man tied himself up, a stranger finds him and sticks his cock in the bound man's mouth. Then I said, okay, how does this make sense - who are these characters, how did they end up in this situation, why are they doing this?
Working backwards from a sex scene led the stories in a direction I wouldn't have thought of if I had planned the story top-down. To be fair, Brett's motivations are pretty straightforward. The real problem was how to convince readers that Darren isn't a rapist (to put it bluntly). Given the story earned the 'cons' tag, I guess I pulled it off.

We start in media res, partly because (as I said) that's the first thing I wrote. But also it's meant to hook the reader, rather than start with a load of backstory. Though now I'm thinking back on it, maybe it would have been better to tell it in order, to give it more build up/suspense? Instead it plays out like a slow motion car crash, where you can see all of Brett's bad decisions stacking up.

"Now then... Not a bird after all, eh?" - I didn't want this series to feel like "Sophie & Mark except Sophie is a guy now". So I made the characters' relationship very casual and emotionally distant. Likewise, I didn't want the character voices to sound the same as Mark. For Darren, this was done by giving him a particular accent/vernacular. For Brett, I did something more subtle - he never swears or uses vulgar terms. The funny thing is, writing like that also changed his affect to be much more 'bubbly'.

"I imagine he's dangerous. I imagine..." - this is the stories recurring motif, and what the title "daydreamer" is referring to. Brett's kink is the IDEA of being caught and humiliated. What if your fantasy came true, but not in the way you expected...

"Open your fuckin' mouth." - I was unsure whether to include 'fuckin'. In the end I went with it for impact, but it does come off as a little threatening (for better or worse).
"The previous owners took the curtains with them" - I thought this was a more interesting framing that just leaving the curtains open
"a group of women. Maybe a hen-do passing by" - I didn't specifically intend this to be "Zara's hen-do" mentioned in Sophie & Mark 4, but it can be read that way. I think the timeline works out.
"I imagine her, I imagine this woman" - hammering the point that he's fantasising about women. The punchline being, his introduction to Darren basically plays out the way it's described in that paragraph, except with a man.
"I needed something to take my mind off it" - With Sophie & Mark I'm more conscious of saving ideas that can be their own story. In this case, I burned through like 5 potential stories in one go. That's probably why there's only been 2 chapters
"he was singing a football chant, I think" - apropos of nothing, did you know "Sweet Caroline" is sometimes used as a football chant?

"It wasn't until the clocks went back" - I bet daylight savings doesn't come up as a plot point in many porns. When I was about ready to send the story in, I realised this actually introduced a plothole, and I had to do a last minute re-write of the ending. Looking back, I reckon if I'd left it as was, no one would have noticed (or cared). But it mattered to me.

"pink, pleated skirt; thigh-high, stripey socks..." - I will admit this outfit is very 'femboy' -coded
"There's a standing lamp" - I actually hit this detail by accident. I realised the thing about the windows not being so see-through in the dark, which could have screwed the whole premise. The solution was to introduce the lamp, which in turn justified putting a blindfold on Brett.
"There's a safety latch on the cuffs" - putting my thumb on the consent scales again; he chooses to stay bound when Darren shows up.

"Darren: (🗸read)" - that's meant to be a read receipt, meaning Darren saw the message and Brett knows that he did.
"Darren: (·..)" - that's the bouncy dots you see when someone is typing. It's meant to imply Darren spends some time figuring out what to respond, then goes with the very short "pub?"

"The Dog and Pony" - if you've read Sophie & Mark 11, you may recognise that pub name. Small world, eh?
"Sometimes he drinks alone" - this was a bit of a mean joke on my part. But it ends up being the driving theme behind chapter 2
"A little rough around the edges" - there's a bit of classism going on here
"Until it got too dark to see anything" - this is what I meant about the rewrites
"some shit I dreamed about. But in real life!" - chapter 2 is trying to make these lines make sense
"just try the door. 'Cause obviously it's gonna be locked" - see earlier: "I imagine leaving the front door unlocked."

"I'm not... gay" / "me neither" - truth be told, that was originally just a joke. Like, Darren just had sex with another man, of his own free will, and now he's claiming to be straight. But then I thought, well suppose he's telling the truth - how does that make sense? That's what chapter 2 is about.
I think in practical terms, Darren is bisexual or at least hetero-flexible. But I also think he's the type of person who thinks there are only two sexualities (straight and gay); and he's into women, so he must be straight. Brett, on the other hand, probably never considered that he might be anything other than straight. And now, he's very much considering it...