The Reading Room -- Fic: Monopoly by Kitty Fisher

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/5/monopoly.html
or
http://hatstand.slashcity.net/kitty/mono.html

Monopoly by Kitty Fisher hits all of my buttons. It's what I consider gritty BDSM but gritty really makes me happy in this case. I will read almost any BDSM story that is fully consensual and I can take a lot of rough sex between two men. This story gives us two hard men fucking to within an inch of their lives. I fully realise that this isn't a story for everybody. It's definitely an acquired taste. *g*

I think the first few paragraphs nicely set up the scene. It's not love, we're led to believe from the lead in paragraphs. It's dirty sex between two men.

Doyle is waiting:

Doyle straightened, listening to almost silence as the TV clicked off. Without the brash noise the alley seemed to close in. Shadowy, like the molasses his nan had used to make ginger cake; thickly cloying, shiny, sweeter for his own anticipation of the final result. He licked his lips, and plucked at the untucked hem of his T-shirt, wafting air. He was lightly dressed. No gun. No jacket. Nothing to get in the way... of whatever was coming. Whatever Bodie brought. Wanted. Gave...

This paragraph is just about perfect to me. I really like the description of what Doyle thinks of Bodie's confidence anywhere :

A shadow-shift at the edge of his perception, and a figure approached from his left. Unexpected when the road was a dog-leg of alley to his right. Left was... what? Nothing. Something. Somewhere Bodie knew. But then Bodie was at home in the strangest of places. In back alleys. In the secret hours between midnight and dawn.

And this description of Bodie makes me all tingly:

Black polo neck under a black biker's jacket, scratched and dulled with age, black jeans, boots. Unsmiling, his face hollowed and sharpened in the muted streetlight. Doyle knew -- just from the tension in the wide shoulders -- that Bodie was hard. Needy. He felt his sphincter tighten, felt his balls crawl upwards as his cock surged. Hungry Bodie. A dark night and a secluded alleyway. And games as expiation, as benediction. The slow twist of time stopped, here.

The game starts and we're treated to lines like this:

Not fighting. Lost on the cusp of the illusion of helplessness, the reality of submission, Doyle shivered. Hot night air on his skin. Nipples hard, sensitised beyond belief. When Bodie smiled Doyle arched into him, whimpering helplessly, saliva wet on his wide-stretched lips, cooling on his chin.

And just so further emphasise that this is consensual, we're told:

Jesus, he wanted this so much. Wanted Bodie. To fuck him. Hard. Though the tongue was making thought impossible. Making everything impossible, except simple need. Enough to make him sob. Breathlessly, wordlessly begging, the tension rippling in his arms as he held on, stretched and bent, held just as Bodie wanted him.

There is pain and pleasure, and hard fucking and more pain, until Doyle gets what he wants. Until we find out why they picked this night, this alley, this time together to celebrate:

Looking up he (Doyle) caught a smile that showed a flash of white teeth. "I'm alive. I didn't die."

"Just as well." Doyle slid his face between the jacket and Bodie's neck. Snuffled skin. Sweat and animal and scent. Life in the pulse of blood. "Don't scare me, cretin. It's not good for me."

And then the lads toddle off together to head to home and another sort of game and maybe Doyle will now get his turn.

So... Rough story, pain mixed with pleasure, some straight-out painful moments, and by the end, trust and love. I've read almost every story in my three fandoms classified as BDSM and I consider this one the best short story in the genre. I like the timing of the sentences and the way the author constructed them. I like the "textures" we're given of the entire experience: the alley and the clothes and the sex, their reactions and feelings. And for me the complete trust we know exists between Bodie and Doyle is clearly conveyed.

Everything in this story is so easily pictured here for me, so them for me that every time I read it, I'm left with a good feeling that they'll always be there for each other and always cover each other's backs -- in more ways than one.

Comments

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Late, late, late to the party, and I adore this story! It was one of the first Pros stories I read, since Kitty Fisher was my original introduction to Pros fandom and slash (!) and it doesn't seem to matter how many times I read it, it's wonderful...

I love the way it starts - the author slows down time so that we're right with Doyle for every breath, really bringing us into the story, the place, the atmosphere. I can feel not just the crumbling brickwork, but London itself, with all it's history and its future (the holidaymakers leaving on the jet) and then perfectly what is now for Doyle - him and Bodie, there in the alley. I'm sure I actually find myself breathing more slowly as I read, more deeply in time with the rhythm of the words - right there with Doyle. And we stay with him all the way too, because everything's so perfectly described - not just what's happening, but the way it looks, and sounds and feels - and his anticipation and thoughts. It's all a mish-mash of experience, just as things really are, so it pulls you even further into the story.

And of course the sex between them... *vbg* I think Fisher's done a brilliant job of showing what BDSM is - it's not pain and humiliation at all, it's what's behind that that's important. Doyle feels pain from the gag and the nipple clamps, but he wants to feel the pain because it means something to him - it means that he's giving himself to Bodie totally. When they risk their lives for each other, they're not really doing it for each other, they're doing it for Cowley, for CI5, for "the greater good". Bodie risked his life and was nearly killed today - now Doyle's giving him something in return, he's giving his submission, his own promise that Bodie isn't alone in anything, no matter what Bodie wants. It's not conscious, it's something that's coming out in the very basic instinct for sex, but its no less meaningful for all that...

And Bodie - Bodie's reaffirming his own life, that he's not at the mercy of bullets and death (though of course he is), that he has power, he has control, and that power means something because it's shared with someone who knows exactly how he feels about what happens to him every day, exactly what he needs and can give it to him.

I love that everything they are in the job comes out here too - their strength, the way they work together so well, the way their wants and needs fit perfectly. That they're creative and imaginative and can surprise each other - that Doyle is so affected by the idea that Bodie has planned around him, has risked bringing the gag and nipple clamps to work in his pocket, that Bodie doesn't hesitate for a second in knowing that Doyle will accept his need for control, and his inventive ways of making it enjoyable for Doyle too...

Oh, and at the end we see even more how it's not just sex to them at all, it's not just lust and getting off in an alley - they're soft with each other, they're able to deal in just a few words with their real fears because they've tamed them through sex. Bodie knows that what he did nearly got him killed, and he knows how that affected Doyle as well - he knows that he took it out through the sex, but Doyle tells him that's okay as well. And we know that they're equal, that Doyle will get his turn at fucking Bodie, and that they've still got their edge of competition as they wander off talking about Monopoly (which of course takes us back to the history of London, again... *g*). They know that tomorrow things might be different, because that's the job they've chosen for themselves - tomorrow Bodie might be dead, or Doyle and there'll be no more sex-to-make-it-better in the alleyways... Doyle takes his happiness "on the fly" - they're living their lives, and it's a kind of feeling of immortality there too...

And okay, I've rambled on quite enough! *g* Did I mention that I liked it? *vbg*

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

[I just replied at greater length, but the comment wouldn't post and got deleted, harrumph. Computer must be getting tired, time for bed.]

In short, this is a wonderful analysis.

It would have been helpful (to me) to know from the beginning that Bodie had nearly died that day, it would have indicated that it was an occasion, a celebration, not just the end of an ordinary day. But to have introduced that would have spoiled the atmosphere of the beginning of the story.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

See, I like that we don't know, because as a writer, I often do exactly this sort of thing. I don't like being told every bit of information immediately, and I think the timing of the revelation is exactly right. But I understand how you'd have liked this, almost like a warning so that you could prepare for what was to come.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Yes, totally agree! In life we're very rarely told everything up front, it all comes to us in a series of revelations, little moments where we make connections between one thing and another, and when writers use this in a story, like Kitty does here, I find it so much more powerful as a result - as powerful as real life, which means that I can be dragged in and lost in the story, which is what I want from my reading!

So if we'd actually been watching B/D at this moment (*sighs*) we wouldn't have known the background to it unless/until we heard one of those telling moments - something said, a particular kind of touch or look. And our curiosity in watching in the first place would have come from wanting to know what was going on - not just what they were doing, but why. Otherwise, why not leave? Why watch/read anything?

Once we know what we think is the "full story" our attention wavers, we might actually walk away from something/turn over the channel - it's the same in fic. If there'd been any sort of explanation up front about what was going on, it would have taken away immeasurably from the story - because what would be the point of continuing to watch? That's when it would have become PWP - if we were watching without wondering about anything! (Whee - there's that little moment again! *g*)

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

Well, wow. You certainly summed up exactly what I feel about this story. I did try to explain how much I see the trust and the love in this story, and how the boys must deal (at times) with their lives and their jobs. You said it very well.

I believe that this sort of behavior is almost a treat, a celebration for those times when things are just too much, and they both need to release everything that's built up inside. It has to come out or else. And this is how they deal with it. Much to my happiness. *beg*

It's not too late! Heck, we have all weekend to talk lads. Thanks for your much welcomed comments.

For or against, bring 'em on. *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

a celebration for those times when things are just too much, and they both need to release everything that's built up inside
Yes! *g*

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

I was going to do a long response post today, but you've described pretty much perfectly what I love about the story! And like you I read it very early on - amongst the first half dozen, I think, before I rewatched much of the series or looked up any show-specific pages - because I didn't have a very strong image of leather-clad Bodie in my mind.

Bodie risked his life and was nearly killed today - now Doyle's giving him something in return, he's giving his submission, his own promise that Bodie isn't alone in anything, no matter what Bodie wants.

Yes! Kitty describes it as "... games as expiation, as benediction.... Doyle angry with the "stupid fucking risk-taking bastard", scared for him, wants him to live. The game restoring trust and balance. The way Doyle stands there at the end, smelling Bodie's sweat, feeling the life in the pulse of (his) blood is perfect.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

Thanks for joining in. I'm happy to see that you liked the story as well.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Kitty describes it as...
Yes! She actually does tell us what's going on, and she does it so skillfully, so much inside the flow of her writing that we barely notice, because that's just what it is! *g*

[blkandwhtcat.livejournal.com]

I think it's very good as a stand-alone BDSM story, but I never buy any of the stories in which Bodie and Doyle are into serious BDSM. The psychology doesn't work for me. Bodie and Doyle have to trust each other every day. Doyle puts his life in Bodie's hands, relies on Bodie to protect and/or save him, every day on the job. And the same is true of Bodie, when it comes to knowing Doyle is there for him. So, to me, it doesn't make any sense that they'd need to carry that over into their sexual relationship, especially since they have the same degree of reliance on and trust of one another. I don't see either Doyle or Bodie needing to show love by proving they trust one or the other to stay in control during sex games, when trust and reliance on each other is the entire basis of their working relationship. Just doesn't compute. They'd play around, like most couples do, and have some fun, but not this seirously. I don't buy it, although I understand the reasons the author is offering as the basis. Just doesn't work for me.

But as a generic, non-B/D story, it's pretty hot.