@gag1195
I'm not sure if this is an ending or a beginning. Bastien knows Andrej will be safe, and he will find comfort in the knowledge that Andrej wears the token of his love.
Permanent slavery for the rest? Much as I think Sarge deserves what he gets for his betrayal of Bastien, it appears he had a change of heart. Can he and Danny be rescued?
To hell with the frat bros and actor, but poor Ortiz!
Methinks, You have set the stage for a sequel to this story. Bravo!
Website Migration Update
I moved the website to a new host, which I think will be more tolerant of the content this website hosts. Nevertheless, I do want to take a moment to remind everyone that the stories and content posted here MUST follow website rules, as it it not only my policy, but it is the policy of the hosts that permit our website to run on their servers. We WILL continue to enforce the rules, especially critical rules that, if broken, put this sites livelihood in jeapordy.
Moral Quandaries M/M (New Chapter 2/18/24) (Concluded)
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KidnappedCowboy
- Centennial Club
- Posts: 981
- Joined: 6 years ago
- Location: USA
- Contact:
@bondagefreak Thank you, friend! It was certainly an interesting road to travel with this story. I appreciate all the support!
@KidnappedCowboy One story's ending is just another's beginning! Though I have to admit, the idea of doing a sequel is... daunting... at least if I were to keep the same/similar format in place. For now though, I guess we'll just have to leave the fate of these various characters up to the readers' imaginations! Thank you for the kind words and continued support of my stories, friend!
@KidnappedCowboy One story's ending is just another's beginning! Though I have to admit, the idea of doing a sequel is... daunting... at least if I were to keep the same/similar format in place. For now though, I guess we'll just have to leave the fate of these various characters up to the readers' imaginations! Thank you for the kind words and continued support of my stories, friend!
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Straitjacketed
- Centennial Club
- Posts: 445
- Joined: 6 years ago
- Location: UK
One thing I find with your stories, @gag1195, is that I come back to them more than once, reread and appreciate them - or particular aspects of them - anew.
This one perhaps more than the others because of the particular way you based it around reader engagement and interaction. That, as I think we've all acknowledged, is not a straightforward prospect here on this forum because the commenters-to-readers ratio is low. I wouldn't ever claim that's unique to this place; lurkers are a fact of life, the "dark matter" of the discursive internet.
(It's not just with fiction, either. Back in the '00s, I posted a regular blog exploring aspects of kink and fetish - mainly bondage - but, much of the time, it felt like I was writing into the void. Eventually, for a load of reasons, it came down and, to this day, I still get messages from guys on social media saying, "I really liked your blog, how come you deleted it?". If even a quarter of those guys had actually commented while my blog was running, it wouldn't have felt like a pointless exercise.)
I'm ashamed to say that, despite being a story writer myself, I can be part of the problem in that I'll read something, enjoy it and just move on without adding a comment. I need to be better at that.
In the case of Moral Quandaries, I found the interactive element intriguing but saw it could potentially be precarious - for example, relatively early on, I voted for the plot to unfold in one direction and saw the decision turn the narrative in another. Weirdly, that put me off following the story for a little while. I say "weirdly" because if the interactive aspect hadn't been visible and the plot had just gone where it would without "showing working", I'd have been A-okay with everything. Somehow, knowing a different plot development could have been written - one more in line with my own specific turn-ons - but wasn't... felt like a missed opportunity?
I know that isn't a wholly rational response, it's sullen and arguably, rather selfish and it's certainly a Me Problem rather than any kind of flaw within story or storyteller. I just felt that, in the spirit of pulling back the curtain a little, I'd give feedback on that early response. At the time, I felt - and I still feel - that my saying what basically amounted to WHY DID THE VOTE NOT GO MY WAY WHYYY WHYYYYYY would've amounted to little more than whiny poor sportsmanship.
Now Moral Quandaries is concluded and time has passed, I find myself remembering this tale and being able to appreciate it for what it is: a masterful piece of bondage fiction based around an experimentally structured means of reader engagement - and, in the end, an experiment that you made work through sheer quality of writing and characterisation, perhaps against the odds!
So now I'm rereading it. Again.
This one perhaps more than the others because of the particular way you based it around reader engagement and interaction. That, as I think we've all acknowledged, is not a straightforward prospect here on this forum because the commenters-to-readers ratio is low. I wouldn't ever claim that's unique to this place; lurkers are a fact of life, the "dark matter" of the discursive internet.
(It's not just with fiction, either. Back in the '00s, I posted a regular blog exploring aspects of kink and fetish - mainly bondage - but, much of the time, it felt like I was writing into the void. Eventually, for a load of reasons, it came down and, to this day, I still get messages from guys on social media saying, "I really liked your blog, how come you deleted it?". If even a quarter of those guys had actually commented while my blog was running, it wouldn't have felt like a pointless exercise.)
I'm ashamed to say that, despite being a story writer myself, I can be part of the problem in that I'll read something, enjoy it and just move on without adding a comment. I need to be better at that.
In the case of Moral Quandaries, I found the interactive element intriguing but saw it could potentially be precarious - for example, relatively early on, I voted for the plot to unfold in one direction and saw the decision turn the narrative in another. Weirdly, that put me off following the story for a little while. I say "weirdly" because if the interactive aspect hadn't been visible and the plot had just gone where it would without "showing working", I'd have been A-okay with everything. Somehow, knowing a different plot development could have been written - one more in line with my own specific turn-ons - but wasn't... felt like a missed opportunity?
I know that isn't a wholly rational response, it's sullen and arguably, rather selfish and it's certainly a Me Problem rather than any kind of flaw within story or storyteller. I just felt that, in the spirit of pulling back the curtain a little, I'd give feedback on that early response. At the time, I felt - and I still feel - that my saying what basically amounted to WHY DID THE VOTE NOT GO MY WAY WHYYY WHYYYYYY would've amounted to little more than whiny poor sportsmanship.
Now Moral Quandaries is concluded and time has passed, I find myself remembering this tale and being able to appreciate it for what it is: a masterful piece of bondage fiction based around an experimentally structured means of reader engagement - and, in the end, an experiment that you made work through sheer quality of writing and characterisation, perhaps against the odds!
So now I'm rereading it. Again.
If M/M overkill bondage in stupidly excessive amounts of gear is your thing as well as mine, here's a list of my TUG stories.
@Straitjacketed thank you so much for this in-depth comment! It has honestly made my day! I really appreciate your honesty in regards to the format I chose and your own interaction with it and the story. This story was wonderful and unique and stressful and anxiety inducing! As has already been mentioned, the reliance on audience participation and voting caused a lot of stress, especially when interested seemingly waned partway through the story and a few chapters barely garnered enough minimum required votes. And then of course, was the story itself and all the different paths that were introduced, abandoned, looped around, and fought over in the comments!
More and more, this story makes me feel very retrospective. I do honestly believe its some of the best work I've ever produced, but due to its audience-led nature, makes me wonder all the "what-ifs". What if this choose had been voted on over that one. What if the story went in this direction instead of that direction. The possibilities often seem almost endless. I have very different plans in mind had the votes chosen Cliff or TJ instead of Andrej. Some characters like Gerard and Maxim would have had very different introductions, some characters like Ortiz and Jake/Benji might not have appeared at all. The TJ route would have brought in Gerard much sooner, and many of the choices would have been more focused on the Gerard/Bastien rivalry. Cliff's story would have brought in Santiago from my main stories, etc.
In situations like this, I think it's impossible not to think about all the ways this story could have ended. I'm on record stating that the ending is not the ending I would have written without the votes going the way they went, but I am by no means unhappy with the ending or this beautifully experimental story we created together!
Thank you again for the kind and insightful comment! Happy rereading!
More and more, this story makes me feel very retrospective. I do honestly believe its some of the best work I've ever produced, but due to its audience-led nature, makes me wonder all the "what-ifs". What if this choose had been voted on over that one. What if the story went in this direction instead of that direction. The possibilities often seem almost endless. I have very different plans in mind had the votes chosen Cliff or TJ instead of Andrej. Some characters like Gerard and Maxim would have had very different introductions, some characters like Ortiz and Jake/Benji might not have appeared at all. The TJ route would have brought in Gerard much sooner, and many of the choices would have been more focused on the Gerard/Bastien rivalry. Cliff's story would have brought in Santiago from my main stories, etc.
In situations like this, I think it's impossible not to think about all the ways this story could have ended. I'm on record stating that the ending is not the ending I would have written without the votes going the way they went, but I am by no means unhappy with the ending or this beautifully experimental story we created together!
Thank you again for the kind and insightful comment! Happy rereading!