Okay, so responding to this has taken me forever because
a) it's really difficult condensing the options down, and
b) I had to recheck the stories themselves, got drawn into them all over again and...
distracted.
Here, in no particular order, is the current top ten (yes, ten) of TUG story characters whose predicaments I'd love to experience:
1.
Kyle in [mention]bondagefreak[/mention]'s great "lost classic"
'The Camping Trip'. My very earliest tie-up fantasies, as a little kid, were based on kidnap/capture scenes in the books, comics, films and television I consumed; this is perhaps why non-consensual scenes remain my biggest turn-on. There's also something hugely potent about the unbalanced dynamic, of being so massively outweighed/outnumbered that despite my protests at the unfairness of it all, I can be dealt with swiftly and effectively, rendered absolutely immobile by captors who just laugh at my helpless rage - and, when I get too mouthy, they address that too. I know that for a lot of people the father/son element is a big part of the appeal; for me, that probably is a factor but I think the more significant aspect is that it's essentially
safe bondage. Although my captors overpower me, they aren't out to cause harm; their aim is to keep me 100% secure in every sense. There's a Bonus Ball too in the chapter featuring the cousins, where they undo the hoods of Kyle's sleeping bags and seem on the verge of ungagging and unstrapping him but then add to his mouth-taping and fasten him up again. I
love scenes where allies unexpectedly "do the dirty".
2.
My second [mention]bondagefreak[/mention] character is the narrator of
'SNATCHED & SECURED' for, probably, a load of the same reasons: non-consensual takedown, massively unequal power dynamic, swift efficiency, overkill bondage - this time with comprehensive hogtying rather than padded nylon. I like the fact that there are multiple captives, all rendered entirely helpless to ease each other's bondage. Of course, if it were me, I'd want to be blindfolded/hooded as well as gagged so all I'd have to go on was the mpphhing of my fellow rope-packages. I'm mildly ashamed to say, I have very little sense of what airsoft actually is.
3.
Third [mention]bondagefreak[/mention] character is Kevin Mills from
'SUCKING UP TO THE BOSS: A BABYSITTER'S PERIL'. This one's a little different, falling into another favourite bondage genre or maybe the overlap of two favourite genres: "tricked into bondage" and "biting off more than he can chew". In terms of the story itself, one element stands out for me: the fact that Kevin is tied up
in his (unbearably sexy) boss's leather jacket. This combines several of my turn-ons: bondage in leather; clothing becoming part of the bondage; and the threat of humiliation (being discovered tied up in the boss's bedroom, in the boss's leather jacket and gloves). I adore the fact that the clothing itself hinders escape attempts and makes poor Kevin even more hot and bothered. I'm not entirely sure why but I find it a real turn on when the captive is effectively "trapped" in garments he can't remove - especially when they're supposed to confer protection. It's almost like the clothing itself has "turned the tables".
4.
Speaking of hot and bothered, [mention]Charmides[/mention] has got
me all of a fluster numerous times on this site, not least with his wonderful
'Night Shift at Cresswell Mall'. I return to this again and again and, even though I've played through all the endings several times, find a new little twist or nuance every time. There's so much clever characterisation, so much detail communicated so efficiently, and the protagonist is intentionally a blank slate but somehow instantly familiar. When, as a young teen, I realised how much I yearned to be tied up and gagged, I considered which career options might lead to this happening: basically, they boiled down to Escape Artist and Night Shift Security Guard. I'm neither but 'Cresswell' fulfils a load of the latter fantasies.
5.
It would be impossible not to mention [mention]Charmides[/mention]' epic
'Shadow of the Mountain'. Although vastly different in scale, it's similar to 'Cresswell' in its generosity: there's a multitude of hot bondage scenes, all beautifully written. It's difficult to choose one character - Elias gets the most enviable predicaments and I basically want to
live in the Red Haven barracks - but, on balance, I'd most like to "impersonate" a fairly minor character: Cal, "the man who almost got away", the burly stable-hand sufficiently naive to accept a Venesthian escape challenge in public and more foolish yet to trust his friends to release him when he fails that challenge. Hapless Cal's blundering into tight corners ticks a host of my favourite boxes: "tricked into bondage", "biting off more than he can chew", "failed escape artist" and even touches of "non-consensual" and "public humiliation". The fact that he reappears later in the story is a bonus. I would
devour a Calamitous Cal spin-off.
6.
Bit left-field, this one, but the protagonist of a Cacofonix tale imported from the old site:
'Dib dib dib' (am I right in thinking Cacofonix is an old alias of [mention]squirrel[/mention]'s or have I got those two mixed up in my head?). This one's short and sweet but includes various of my top tropes, including overkill bondage: not just rope and gag but blindfold, hood and, hottest of all, being rolled up inside a carpet then secured with more rope (I love being tightly bound
and then wrapped or rolled in a semi-rigid blanket, rug or tarpaulin to immobilise me even further). Brief it may be but 'Dib dib dib' even crams in elements of public bondage, humiliation and allies unexpectedly choosing to leave the captive bound and gagged.
7.
Next up, [mention]squirrel[/mention] proper and, for me, Peter in
'The Annual Event' has it all: asymmetric power dynamic, super-secure bondage and gagging, would-be rescuers who don't rescue (the cops) and allies who don't untie him (Zack). Best of all, the action is sustained over time, with plenty of manhandling from one inescapable tie-up to another. I've love to experience this kind of lovingly merciless restraint over an entire weekend, with opponents and friends alike deciding I'm better off bound and gagged throughout.
8.
[mention]Bondwriter[/mention]'s character Simon is perhaps another obvious choice. I'd link to a specific story but there are many 'Adventures of Simon', over several different threads, the novelty of restraint ranging in tone from intense-but-everyday to fantastically bespoke. The greatest villain of the 'Simon' stories - and, arguably, his all-time nemesis - is undoubtedly Wilhelm, and it's at Wilhelm's hands that I would love to experience a similarly ingenious level of long-term bondage and especially gagging. It's hard to pick a favourite from Simon's many and varied predicaments but I love those situations where Simon is wrapped up in something in addition to rope - a well-secured blanket, say, or the heavy hooded cape he is made to wear when venturing out in public (as a raingear fetishist, I wish there were more instances of captives being secured in sweaty, enclosing waterproofs) - or where rescue seems imminent only to be snatched away by Wilhelm's devious machinations. I love the "so near yet so fair" sense of Simon's frustration and despair when parents - or horny lumberjacks - are persuaded it's all an innocent game and the silenced prisoner should stay silenced and imprisoned. Although remarkably poor at his job, Simon is one of very few actual escape artist characters on this site; his negligible success rate must surely be a source of embarrassment.
9.
Escape artists make me think of straitjackets, again fairly rare in TUG stories but perhaps my favourite bondage device of all time (subtle clue there, in the name) and I can't not include Dean Winchester in [mention]Carnath[/mention]'s
'The Brotherhood'. Carnath spoils us with a tale both lavishly written and illustrated, featuring those asylum-chic jackets I love to hate to wear. Of the two brothers, Dean is the one with whom I identify: bullish, a touch bratty, hot-headed enough to provoke his captors into gagging, muzzling, hooding and strapping him up to the max - and, for me, one of the main reasons to strain, struggle and resist is to encourage one's captors not only to prevent escape but to "teach that little shit a lesson". I'd love to experience a padded cell scenario where I could rage and blunder around to my heart's content, utterly unable to reach let alone loosen a single one of my expertly-applied restraints.
10.
Last but not at all least, [mention]MountainMan_91[/mention]'s
'Burt "The Roper" Jackson'. Even growing up in the UK, fictional cowboys were a natural source of tie-up fantasies. Burt Jackson is wonderfully conceptualised, the perfect (anti)hero of all my teenage Western daydreams. As is undoubtedly obvious, I myself prefer to be on the receiving end of the roping and gagging but Burt also works as a non-consenting captive, resentful when in someone else's ropes and always scheming to turn the tables on his captors. In my fantasy version, he'd almost certainly end up Roped more often than Roper, his fearsome reputation ensuring that when he fell into the clutches of his enemies, they'd take extra precautions to keep him helpless.
So there we are! I can already think of several others I should've included in my bondage-greedy top ten and maybe I will at some future juncture. My thanks to all the authors of these amazing, inspiring stories and indeed all the stories on this amazing, inspiring site.