[mention]FrenchGinger[/mention] [mention]gaggedfeety[/mention] Guys, you don't ever have to apologize or feel bad about writing lengthy observations and reviews. As you've no doubt seen in your respective read-throughs, many of my readers have shared their in-depth thoughts and ruminations about Nick, Brad, Shawn and other characters.
While Brad's motivations and objectives remain unknown, his actions make it easier for us to label him a villain.
As you guys (and now [mention]CorbD91[/mention]) have so eloquently explained, we have no similar luxury with Nick.
The fact that you guys have all expressed ambiguity towards his character is probably the biggest compliment you could've given me.
Had Nick been collectively painted as a hero or as a villain by my readers, it would've signified my failure to portray him the way I originally intended to. But the fact that the overwhelming majority of this story's reviewers respect and revere Nick in a slightly cautious, semi-uncertain manner is a
huge mark of success for me.
His alignment has changed from what it was in the first two parts of the adventure, but the man remains a somewhat grey presence nevertheless.
He's been an instrument of evil and a force for good so often that it's become increasingly hard to hate him or adore him.
His alignment remains grey, and even though he's matured a lot and proven himself reliable, caring and protective of Steven, his track record has us remaining somewhat cautious and perhaps even a little wary.
The man exudes control, confidence and stability, but even so, he hasn't been able to fully persuade us (or Steven for that matter) that the dangerous wild flame inside of him has been completely extinguished. That much can be confirmed by Steven's own testimony of thrill and exhilaration whenever he's being eyed up by Nick's feral-like blue orbs. Has the beast truly been tamed? We're not sure.
I think that's part of the excitement for a lot of Nick's fans on here.
There's still that sense of danger to him that makes him appear a little bit...carnal, for lack of a better work.
On the subject of grey characters, Nick's kin does a fairly good job at incarnating what it's like to deal with a chaotic-aligned, wild card.
I don't like interfering too much with your perceptions of the characters from a non-Steven point of view, but none of what I'm stating here should come as a surprise or prove to be a spoiler to any of you.
I think Shawn really stands out as being the greyest (at least to me) most morally ambiguous character of the cast right now.
And as such, he doesn't get many friends or foes from the readership-audience.
Much like Steven, a lot of you guys are still trying to make heads or tails of this guy.
Steven has shared with us his loathing of the man, while also flaunting his qualities and apparent lack of malice.
Steven
also goes out of his way to tell us that he doesn't feel in danger with Shawn and that the hunk's reprehensible moves seem to have stemmed from foolishness, curiosity and carelessness rather than pure evil.
Shawn doesn't strike Steven as a force for good, but he doesn't strike him as a force for bad either.
Perhaps unbeknownst to himself, Shawn has been useful to some degree in securing Jeremy's current fate.
His blackmail attempt really dragged our (and Steven's) perceptions of him to an all time low. But his ensuing lack of motivation to do anything to hurt his hostage helps to halt (but not reverse) our downward spiraling perceptions of him, at least to
some degree.
The small acts of kindness and the signs of intelligence that Shawn gives his ward
may have helped him win a few points back.
Combine that with Steven's natural submissiveness, his natural attraction to guys like Shawn, and the common blood the hunk shares with his lover, and you have a perfect recipe for ambiguity.
Steven's willingness to
consider forgiving the man for his reprehensible actions,
if a sincere apology and suitable reparations are made, paints a somewhat clearer picture of Steven's perceptions regarding Shawn. If I had to sum it up with three words, I'd chose: "grey", "uncertainty" and "in-between".
The overall feedback I get about Shawn from you guys, borders somewhere between general discontent and begrudging acceptance.
Somewhat fitting for a person of his alignment.
Like Steven said though, the ball is in Shawn's court right now.
He has the potential to improve his standing in your eyes and Steven's, but that might take some doing.
Unlike the Steven vs Brad conflict in the earlier parts of the adventure though, Steven's perception of Shawn is not being coloured up by the "love to hate" aspect.
That being said, I wanna give a great big special welcome to our newest reviewer: [mention]CorbD91[/mention]
Welcome onboard, buddy!
Three new faces joining this already
fantastic choir of reviewers is a welcome surprise, and one that greatly motives me to continue my work!
About your mention of Stockholm Syndrome, that will undoubtedly be the title of this saga once the e-book/kindle version of this sees the day of light.
I don't know if many of you will find this interesting or not, but Bound and Gagged in a Sleeping Bag was only intended to be a short one-off and was actually my first foray into writing an English language text, back in 2010.
The forum demographics were very different from what they are today, and there were very few mature themed stories being published on the board. Scent-play was also practically unheard of on here, so the material I was presenting felt very new and refreshing to the readers back then.
A sizeable amount of support came my way after I'd published the first chapter of the story, and I quickly found myself being motived to write a second, and later on a third chapter.
The title of the story "Bound and Gagged in a Sleeping Bag" seemed entirely fitting at the time.
Today, not so much
As a young Dom and someone who was known by coworkers, friends and acquaintances as being incredibly level-headed, down to earth and balanced, I found myself increasingly frustrated at the prominence of Cash Masters gouging money from naΓ―ve, vulnerable and/or psychologically unstable subs on communities like Tumblr. I was also greatly disappointed at the lack of realistic, down to earth, everyday life BDSM-themed material on the web.
There are tens of thousands of BDSM-themed stories floating around.
But the vast majority of them deal only with Master/sub relations during play sessions and/or sexual interactions.
The few that
do make mention of BDSM as a lifestyle, merely brush the subject and never give any detailing about how such a thing could actually work in real life. Even today, almost everything out there features whips, chains, pain and artificial penetration.
Sadism and Masochism are portrayed in a literal sense, and are given no freedom to include a broader meaning.
This makes BDSM seem incredibly shallow and artificial. At least, to me it did.
My growing dissatisfaction towards the lack of substantial BDSM-themed stories eventually pushed me to transform Bound and Gagged into something more substantial. And as the story grew, so too did support from the readership.
This story is still very much the black sheep of this board, and the majority of the more active M/M members on here give it a wide berth.
My audience mainly stems from readers outside this forum, who begrudgingly, yet courageously jumped onboard to express their support (like you just did
) and became regular supporters.
The fact that Bound and Gagged explores an untapped niche pretty much accounts for it's level of success.
I've been wanting to change the title of Steven's adventure for a very long time, but it's become something of a trademark.
And on a sidenote, it's also been fairly amusing to learn that many readers who were lured into this, initially expected Steven's tale to be about sleeping bag bondage.
Misleading title indeed!
In any case, I'm really looking forward to hearing more from each of you and reading your thoughts as you continue to make your respective ways through the story.
Cheers, guys!