#authors notes
Arts in Author’s notes
↳ by Eiichiro Oda
The Author Notes series is a long running segment on my Patreon that covers my personal thoughts on my published stories, including writing tricks I used for certain scenes as well as how and why I set up my stories in a certain way.
Going forward I will be publishing Author notes that are at least one year old to the public.
I hope you enjoy this behind the scenes format of this post while I continue to work on the next story.
***
I decided to tackle this story, a week before I was planning on writing it, in part because I was obligated to deliver to all the amazing Avid Readers who partook in the voting poll but the other part was because I was feeling a bit tired writing about the Spray on Suit saga for a solid month. I wanted a change of pace and more importantly to knock this Poll Suggested story out first before I felt burned out on writing.
As many other times, this story starts out in the handler’s house as the sub does house chores in that maid outfit, opening with the handler deciding that it was time for both of them to go for an outing.
The maid outfit was something I threw in my first story on a whim for a bit of additional bit of writing spice as well as showing an additional level of control in the power dynamic. Now, like my choice of writing in the second person, I guess that maid outfit has become a staple in most ongoing short stories.
With this story I wanted to try something that wasn’t so gear focus while still having that classic power dynamic in place. That was is why I had the handler go off and pick out the clothes for the sub to wear.
With the undressing and dressing I decided to let the handler remove the chastity cage from the usually locked sub, causing a bit of extra tension and pressure for the sub to ‘control’ himself while having the additional senses of an erection pressed up against his blue jeans. To continue the plan of a power dynamic occurring without any of the traditional gear or items, which is why the lock came off and why I chose the underpants and T-shirt for the main focus on this story.
I will be 100 percent honest with all of you, the pink satin panties were something I threw in on a whim.
It was something added to the story when I was moving from notes to typing the rough draft. I knew that I was going to spend a dedicated amount of time describing the feeling of yourself against the underpants fabric, so in that moment I thought, ‘why not make them more fun and interesting than just plain white undies?’
The color pink and the material of the panties were just another detail. Like the later installment of the Mall Trip stories, I do like playing around the idea of concealing a risque thing under normal appearances.
While I don’t own a pair of those underpants, I do -like most people- have a pair of favorite underpants that i like to wear, so i took a few sentences dedicated to going into full exotic mode about the feel and sensation of the clothes on the sub and Voila! I just added a bit of cross-dressing spice to the story for practically nothing.
After the small little reverse strip tease we finally are able to get to the main object of this story the T-shirt with a naughty sex logo.
For the record, the “very popular exotic sex toy store” was suppose to be Bad Dragon. A friend of mine showed me that they had branded T-shirts and bumper stickers of just the logo and I realized that someone must have a ton of courage to ever slap a Bad Dragon bumper sticker on your car.
That was where the idea of the graphic T-shirt came from I wanted something that is only recognized and identified by someone within that particular group, like a insignia of a sports team or a comic book team. I don’t like to use copyrighted stuff in my stories, so I left the actual T-shirt logo vague and let the reader’s imagination fill in the blank.
With that item introduced I used it as a tool to build up the main suspense of the story with the sub being unsure who could be secretly kinky enough to pick up on the T-shirt’s logo while they were out in the public.
You might have noticed that I tend to use coffee shops a lot for my public outing stories, like from here and in the Mall Trip posts and you would be right! I chose that location because it’s an open and public location, with a lot of foot traffic, where people can sit down and chat for as long as they want and leave at the drop of a hat, no need to wait for a check from a waiter.
After a detailed walk to the cafe from the car with a touch of the sub’s body acting on it’s own accord with the extra sway in the walk because of the panties, and dash of findomming when the two were ordering the drinks at the cashier, it was finally time to introduce the main reason why the handler chose this place with that outfit.
Now, If you were gambling on trying to get someone to notice something it would make sense that you would have that thing, that person or that item, to be up and about most of the time and if it can have it constantly moving or at least sitting in a spot with the most visibility, so that every unsuspecting person could get a glimpse of the thing, in this case a shirt, if they decided to look up.
That was my train of thought that led the handler to order the sub around to get sugar for his drink, asking for napkins so on and so forth. Each time I tried to up and ante on the sub’s own fear and anxiety of getting caught, constantly scanning the room looking at people seeing if they were looking at him, looking to see if they saw what was on the shirt, reading their faces to see if they recognized it.
That part was easily exaggerated from the times I had an embarrassing stain or tear on my clothes and I’m too far away from changing outfits anytime soon. You might have experienced this from the rush of potential embarrassment when you realized you had a fly down and frantically looking around the room to see if anyone else noticed it before you.
I chose that no one -initially- recognized the sub’s T-shirts because the story didn’t need it. The embarrassment and suspense came from the sub’s own paranoia from withing and that was all that was needed to build story. Like the real world, I wanted the Handler to not get what he wanted. It was supposed to be a gamble for the handler as well and not everyone can win all the time.
That doesn’t mean that a meaningful conclusion was off the table. After the Handler left the cafe, leaving the sub to clean up after him (in another subtle example of no gear power play) it was then when I wrote for one of the cafe patrons made the discovery and connection.
For the ‘getting recognized’ moment I based that almost entirely off of the ways we all acknowledge and communicate with each other from across a crowded room. The ‘I see what you got there’ nod that so many do when we find someone sporting a video game sticker on a laptop when you heard something truly outlandish during a work meeting.
Following that quiet head nod moment the sub dashed to the handler’s car by going back to the story’s main theme of subtly sharing a naughty secret between people within a public place.
***
As before if you have any more questions about anything about this post that I missed, send me a message or leave a comment. I’ll gladly clarify or talk more about anything from this story.
Once again, thank you for the support.
The Author Notes series is a long running segment on my Patreon that covers my personal thoughts on my published stories, including writing tricks I used for certain scenes as well as how and why I set up my stories in a certain way.
Going forward I will be publishing Author notes that are at least one year old to the public.
I hope you enjoy this behind the scenes format of this post while I continue to work on the next story.
***
“This entire thing was supposed to be just a short story…. With only three parts.”
That was the phrase I kept repeating over and over again as I kept cursing myself while I continued to keep writing more and more into this one installment. Even at a whopping 7.5 pages there was still so much that I had to cut from this story to keep myself on schedule.
The story started out with the tub of polish after doing a full day of chores. I wanted to provide a sense of continuity between all these parts and show off the side effects of spending the entire day doing the choirs on the sub’s latex body.
While I don’t have any latex stuff of my own did used to own a pair of dishwasher gloves and a know what happens to socks when you wear them in even the cleanest the house all day, hence the depictions of scuffs, soap residue on the hands and dust and crumbs clinging to the feet.
I did have to call up a friend as a reference on gear care for the depiction of the pre-treatment and what are the steps to take like while polishing up. Which was why I mentioned going to the bathroom and the laying out of towels on the ground.
For all the Patreon members here, I’ll let you in on a writing secret. The reason I was able to describe the polishing scene in such wonderful and intricate detail is because I just described the steps I take when washing my hands.
How Scandalous!
From cupping the soap into the palms then rubbing and lathering it the inside of the hands, then going on to the back of the hands then working between the fingers then down to the wrists, per the suggestion of the CDC. The rest of the polishing scene was just the steps of washing one’s own body in the shower with soap and a loofah. From hands to arms, chest, and torso then down the legs, it’s literally the same motions.
I did add the moment of the sub sticking his tongue out at his own reflection, to provide a change of pace from the polishing scene while highlighting what little power and control he had in expressing himself while in that suit.
When it came to the foot and toes moment, I’ll be honest I am not even a remote fan of that stuff. But it was incredibly easy to just add two paragraphs paying hyper focus attention on it for the enjoyment of someone out there on the internet. I can’t tell you how many times I have received so much praise for some small detail I added on a whim, something that cost me nothing except to spend a bit more and text time depicting it. Be careful though, because adding just one more little thing will soon turn into adding another then, then another and so and so forth until it balloons out of its initial scope and you’ll have a monstrosity of a story to work on.
Fun Fact: All of my suspense building scenarios throughout my stories can all be attributed to the famous H. P Lovecraft quote, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” I love using the unknown and fear of the unknown in my stories to build suspense and anticipation because neither the sub nor the reader have a clue on what’s going to be thrown at them next.
The calm before the guest arrived is no exception. I just threw in another free bit of writing imitating how most people handle stress moments before they are called to perform in front of a stage, fidgeting with their hands or an item and drinking a bunch of water, and that scene was good to go.
With the guest entrance and getting that moment of them geared up I was gunning for the feeling of a locker room or backstage at a theater, a bunch of athletes or actors getting into their equipment and costume while amping each other up for the night’s big performance.
Oh boy, let me tell you it was difficult writing the entrance and following action scene without the ability for the sub to hear anything. Which is why I used the Notes and text messages earlier in the story, for this part I relied on all the non speaking ways people can ‘talk’ with each other. Which is why there’s such a focus on body language, head nods and body gestures. It was also done to show how the dom and sub were on the same wavelength for the entire night.
As for cut content, beyond the basic boots and harness with high visibility I had two other outfits for the sub to go through as well. One was a very feminine pink tutu set to play off of the contrasting colors of black and pink, while the other had metal chains, bracers and a heavy metal collar with a focus on the weight of it all and how the metal clink and clangs over the sub’s body.
On top of that that there was also planned to have a scene where the group orders pizza and the sub would be forced to watch the delicious pizza being served and eaten when all he could drink was more of that chalky slim fast shake. Both of those things were removed from the final product because to quote what I wrote in my notebook as I was at the writing stage of the story, “Fucking skip this shit”
But finally after the group action scene it was time for the handler to step up and reveal what was the big twist, the big reveal of where I wanted this story to go when I first drafted it back in July…. A handwritten note informing the sub that he’ll be forced to leave the house to get the solvent he wants while still being covered head to toe in latex.
I hope you enjoyed this insight behind writing of this installment. If you have any questions about anything I skipped or glossed over let me know, I’ll shed light on anything I missed
Thank you for the support
The Author Notes series is a long running segment on my Patreon that covers my personal thoughts on my published stories, including writing tricks I used for certain scenes as well as how and why I set up my stories in a certain way.
Going forward I will be publishing Author notes that are at least one year old to the public.
I hope you enjoy this behind the scenes format of this post while I continue to work on the next story.
***
No one really knows exactly why Red in the Face and Cheeks started and anyone claiming they do is lying to you.
But here is where it started, the first one.
I wanted the first post to paint a scene of a BDSM fantasy but still be grounded in the realistic world. I thought a good power exchange to explore would be a stay at home sub with a bread-winning dom.
I didn’t want a high gear and intense action to show off the power dynamic, so i wrote about a sub just staying at home doing chores and preparing a mixed drink made just in time to greet the dom after a long day. A simple concept.
I dedicated a paragraph to the description of the sub’s minimal, yet still taboo maid outfit was done to serve as juxtaposition to the handler’s normal clothes, as he returned from his normal day job.
The handler’s entrance and interaction with the sub, especially at the dinner table, was done to establish that this dynamic isn’t new or exciting anymore. Having the sub spending the day chores and preparing dinner and having the Handler casually respond to be greeted with a drink and dinner is just the norm and should be viewed as as a mundane and expected by both of them.
Because this is a Naughty Story, there has to be a bit of fun during and after dinner.
Again I wanted to depict this type of relationship as normal with the sub going straight to the bed, getting into position, and complying with everything just from the dom’s one command.
The plug and the ‘No Conversations’ elements were my way of introducing new information and plot twists half way through the story keeping the readers on their toes.
The plug was another normal thing for them, so there was no need for either characters to draw attention to it until it was acted upon.
The plug holding back all that lube was a fun work around on my end to try my best to realistically depict a porno scene where the people go right at it without any lube or prep time. It’s a more believable detail within the story to assume that if the sub was at home all day it could stand to reason that he could have time to groom himself for that evening.
Introducing the ‘no conversation’ rule was added to show another layer of the power dynamic and to surprise the reader since wasn’t revealed that it was an established rule until it was broken.
The bedroom scene is mostly standard, well…. Relatively standard all things considered. I did read in another story/comic the idea that the size of a sub’s toys shouldn’t be bigger than the dom’s size, to make the real thing more exciting and impressive and I unabashedly -100%- stole that idea for this story. As T. S Eliot once said, “good writers borrow, great writers steal.”
The post sex scene was a fun punishment for breaking the rules and keeping the fun going well into the evening. It also was the start of one of my writing habits of leaving most of my stories open ended on the off chance I would want to return back to that particular scenario/topic and expand on in the future.
Fun Fact! I have constantly used The Handler and [You] as on going characters for my stories because I am incredibly lazy.
I really don’t want to constantly go around creating new characters and spend my energy introducing each one to the story and end up wasting time describing their looks, features and their introduction into this world with every new story. Not when I could easily just make it about [You] and jump into the meat and potatoes of the plot.
Although I have no doubt that the Point of View perspective of my writing has helped some readers to more easily insert themselves into my stories.
As before if you have any more questions about anything about this post that I missed, send me a message I’ll gladly go over it with you.
Once again, thank you for the support.
I can’t believe it’s been four years! I can’t express how happy I am that you’re here, if you’ve been here since launch, or found me last week. Thank you for everything!
Stay tuned for more fun stuff including Mil-Liminal being available free to you through the weekend
Sunday Livestream/raffle winner
Comic Page redraws
Fan stuff shares
I wouldnt be where i am now without you!
sitting here in my living room,
back home mornings just begun. Five years ago, a Sunday. Your voice was shaking, broken. It had been that way for a while. You suddenly broke the idle chit chat with a message. You asked me if i knew it wasn’t my fault. You told me it wasn’t my fault…sometimes though, i still think it wasbut maybe that’s me being greedy, wanting something to hurt myself with for the moments i missed…
you said you were proud of me. I didn’t know for what. I didn’t feel very worthy. but words like this were sparse with you, so when you said it I knew you meant it.
you told me you needed to hang up. that the pain was too much. you never said that. you also never said good bye.
you said ‘Talk Soon.’
and you were gone. like my breath this morning.
hearing your voice with a smile still it, when i call to no one. four small words. i cant hear it anymore. Leave me a Message.
I’ll leave it here, in the ether. maybe some way you’ll get it.
Talk Soon Cowboy. I hope youre still proud of me.
one more thing i want to make clear, cuz my students mentioned this yesterday.
YES. make me fanart.
YES. cosplay my characters, ANY person can cosplay them. I’ve had people worry about not physically resembling a character but seriously anyone can cosplay my characters and i will be absolutely over the moon and it will be perfect.
YES. write me fanfic/fancomics, poetry/prose, music, playlists.
YES. make an oc that hangs out with mine.
Do the thing. and make sure to tag me so I don’t miss it!
Tomorrow is Seemingly Dark’s four year anniversary, I can’t wait to spend it with you! The day I launched, I also created this tumblr account! Neat!
Me: say nice things to me
Also me: melts into a pile of goo cuz I wasn’t expecting you to say SUCH NICE things to me.
I’m so excited for Seemingly Dark’s four year Anniversary this coming Friday the 17th! I made this cute Caro Tamagotchi keychain as a fun giveaway. You’ll have from now til next Saturday, the 18th to enter! I’ll announce the winner on my Anniversary Livestream on Sunday the 19th! You don’t have to be present to win, as long as I can dm you via your handle, so here’s the deal.
Reblog this post to enter once!
Comment to enter twice! (tell me something like your fave thing about my series)
You can enter a total of two times, one reblog and one comment.
I’ll see you next Sunday on my Twitch channel, Raptorjules, at 10pm Central European (1pm Pacific)
I did one of these with character traits a while ago in my discord, and this time we have stuff that has influenced me over the years. I tried to put stuff from my teens and early 20s, because a lot of my readers are in that age group now and it seemed like it would be fun to kinda compare! Anyway you don’t have to do it, it’s more of a list of things that added a little something to my art and stories over the years, but if you want to, just throw your finished one in the comments. I’d love to see!
Friendly reminder to follow my twitch channel (Raptorjules) if you want to join for next Sundays 4 year Seemingly Dark anniversary stream! We had a blast last year and I’d love to see you there, and of course it will include a spooky story time with Caro, as a live episode of Mil-Liminal! Are you excited? (I am. Scared actually. But I love hanging out with y'all so fear be damned)
It’s foggy and rainy today so lighting isn’t the best to show you progress on the tamagotchi key chains BUT here is a life size Caro i made for the shaker. And tiny ghostie for scale.
the heiress & her companion has been posted to AO3!
like the last post, making this post for some traction on the ao3 tag for this series. :’) some revisions & additions, I guess the most notable(?) being the Shimadas (side characters) with their name edits, haha. The Shimada father has a first name now (Masayoshi) to make differentiation and referring between him and his son easier. The son is also now Itsuki instead of Kou, so that his name isn’t so similar looking to Kuro’s.
in for a penny, in for a pound has been posted to AO3! making a whole post for it bc i think the ao3 tag for the series gets like…no traction whatsoever LOL.
did some proper editing, so it’s a tad bit longer and hopefully a bit more polished. working on editing the heiress & her companion, so that’ll be up there eventually as well. (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧ (maybe tomorrow, maybe next week? who knows!)
