By Mister-X/Spartan

I had been working hard for several months. I wanted a weekend to relax and have some fun. Dore (Up Your Alley) was coming. My friend Strap-wizard (fetlife name) was also stressed out and was looking forward to some fun. He had reserved a large room at a motel, which was near to where Dore would be. He had contacted a friend who we had been chatting with on Recon (squirmman, takiem on fetlife) who was coming, as well as another friend (minddrive on recon and fetlife). Strap-wizard had some plans laid out. Little did I know what I was in for.

Strap-wizard and I arrived Friday at around 5 PM. Squirmman was coming later that evening, and minddrive was arriving the next evening. Dore would be on Sunday, but we were planning to have some fun before then. Friday, after arriving, strap-wizard wanted to check out the Mr. S store, which was four long blocks away (comparable in length to the long blocks in New York City between the avenues). He dressed up in his usual strap-restraint outfit, but I just wore my custom-made leather top and leather pants with no restraints. We got a couple of looks while we walked there, but nothing out of the ordinary. There wasn’t too much going on at Mr. S that night. The next day would be their big party.

Back at the motel room, squirmman arrived. It was the first time we had met. He brought quite a bit of rubber gear that he planned to wear that weekend. I didn’t bring much. There were two beds in the room. I brought the leather sleep sack I’d purchased a few months ago, which I’d never been restrained in. Squirmman spent the night restrained in strap-wizard’s deluxe Max Cita canvas sleep sack on one of the beds. I prefer a hard mattress, so I slept in my leather sleep sack on the floor. Strap-wizard put me inside.

The next morning, after cleaning up, we got dressed in gear to go visit the Mr. S store. Squirmman got into his rubber gear with his braided hair coming down the back. He has a policy of showing no skin when in gear, and he was completely covered. Strap-wizard added some heavy metal ankle restraints to him, which had a foot long chain between, with cuffs on his hands in the front with a leather belt connecting his elbows in the back.

I wore my leather pants and my Metalbondnyc T-shirt. Strap-wizard also put metal ankle restraints on me, which had a foot long chain between. I had my wrists cuffed in my Darby cuffs in the front. Normally I would have them in the back, but we would need to be able to reach keys. The topper I wore was the custom-made metal “psycho” hood. I’ve worn that before when passing out candy to kids on Halloween at Travis’ “hunting lodge for rich weirdos,” as well as at last year’s Dore. It’s always gotten a great response. It had belonged to Mark, the Serious Male Bondage webmaster, and he had given it to strap-wizard, who brought it with him for me to wear. The hood also had a chain attached, which had a leather grip at the end.

Strap-wizard wore his usual outfit, straps covering many areas: ankles, knees, elbows at the back, wrists in the front and neck, with other accoutrements. He has use of his hands, but is unable to move his arms from the sides of his body. He brought along his camera, which was mounted on a stick that he could hold in front of us while we walked, taking moving pictures of us. He also had a cord that connected himself and squirmman, with the grip at the end of the chain from my hood strung through the middle. We would be strung together as we walked to Mr. S.

Keep in mind, this was a normal Saturday in downtown San Francisco. People would be out and about who had nothing to do with the Dore event the next day, or with people dressed up for such an event. We would be walking along the sidewalk just like any others, except we would be in gear. I felt like I was one of that trio in the movie “Wizard of Oz.” I was curious to see what reactions there would be. We got a lot.

Leaving the motel, we didn’t encounter any of the maids. Down on the sidewalk, we began our trek. Clang, clang, clang, clang, the chains rattled on the concrete sidewalk with each step we took. The first people we encountered were some of the homeless who hung out near the Burger King. They just stared at us with open mouths without saying anything. Others walking by would look at us and turn to look ahead where they were going without any reaction. They probably just considered it normal for San Francisco.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, we had to wait for the traffic signal to change before crossing the street. The signal didn’t give that much time for us to cross, and with the short chain between our ankles, we had to immediately set out when the light changed. Squirmman had the hardest time making it across. His ankle restraints were the heaviest ones and his legs were shorter.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, we continued walking. In the next block we got some responses. Several of the pedestrians were amused and stared at us as we clanged by. At the next intersection, one of the cars turning at the light stopped, rolled down the passenger window, brought out a camera, and took our picture before driving on. We weren’t able to make that light, and since we needed to walk a block east to the street the Mr. S store was on, we chose to turn left. There weren’t any pedestrians on that street except one.

Getting closer to the street the Mr. S store was on, we encountered a guy who had a space hood on. I’d never seen one like that before. He was just standing there on the sidewalk. I don’t know whether he was waiting for someone or what. We exchanged pleasantries and continued our walk.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, crossing the streets, again in a hurried way, we started up the street on the side in which the Mr. S store was located. This time we encountered a lot of other guys who were either heading toward, or coming from, the destination we were seeking. None were dressed in gear. We got some looks from them, but no comments. I was thinking that these guys weren’t into gearing up like we were.

As we approached the store, there were a lot of guys out on the sidewalk in front. Getting to the entrance and looking inside, it was obvious that the place was packed. We walked inside, but it was very slow going, as well as difficult, since we were connected together. There must have been 100 people in the store. We walked around, slowly. At one point a guy asked me if it was okay if he took my picture. Giving him approval, he shot the picture, commenting that the hood was amazing.

Making our way finally around, passing a guy who was kneeling down, sucking off another’s cock, we paused outside at the sofa on the sidewalk which had been vacated. Squirmman’s ankle restraints were bothering him, particularly because he was having difficulty keeping up with us at the intersections. This was when having my hands cuffed in front of me was necessary. It took a combination of strap-wizard’s and my hands to be able to get the keys out of my front pocket to be able to free our hands to be able to get the ankle restraints off squirmman. Pocketing those, we put the other restraints back on and started our walk back to the motel. I was now the only one with a connecting chain, and I didn’t clang as much.

On the way back this time, we encountered one seemingly homeless guy who said “no, no more chains. I just got out of those.” He obviously wasn’t talking about being restrained for fun. I regretted bringing some bad memories back to him. And as we got closer to the motel we got some interesting reactions from some of the other homeless guys. One whom I’d encountered before got this bemused look on his face, and another asked, “what are you supposed to be?” I wasn’t sure how to answer him, because I didn’t know what we were supposed to be.

Later that evening minddrive arrived. He brought his favorite deluxe Mr. S leather straitjacket, as well as a few hoods. He wasn’t in the mood for any dressing in gear that evening, but strap-wizard wanted us to get dressed up again and take a trip on either BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) or MUNI (San Francisco Municipal Railway) that night, at least for a couple of stops. Minddrive went along as the photographer.

Squirmman was dressed again in his rubber gear, wrists restrained as before, but ankles not, since they were bothering him. He wore one of strap-wizard’s airplane pilot’s helmets. Strap-wizard was restrained as before, also wearing one of his airplane pilot’s helmets. With minddrive’s permission, I wore his straitjacket, along with a covering over my mouth and nose, but which I could breathe through. Strap-wizard put me into the heavy metal ankle restraints and foot-long chain that squirmman had on earlier. We were off again.

This time when we got down to street level from our motel room, the first person we encountered was a homeless lady trying to sell a leather chest harness for $10. It seemed to be well made and was well worth the price. Squirmman wanted to buy it, but none of the three of us had access to any money, restrained as we were. So off we went the two long blocks to the stairs leading down underground to the transit stations. The underground MUNI was out of order that weekend, so we decided to take BART.

On the way the first reaction we got was someone who said, “you guys look ridiculous.” The next one a short time later was, “wow, you guys look fantastic.” From one extreme to the other.

It was at night, and the stairs were on Market Street. There were a lot of people out walking on Market. But we got virtually no reaction from them. With the ankle restraints, I had to be very careful walking down the stairs to the underground stations. Both strap-wizard and I could only put one foot down on a stair, followed by the other foot on the same stair. With all the steps to go down it took some time. Fortunately I didn’t make a misstep.

Down at the station level, I had a “clipper-card” which the turnstiles accepted. Minddrive also had one. But we had to purchase tickets for the other two, since the clipper-cards would only accept one person boarding at a time. Minddrive, the only one of us who could use his hands, was used to the machines, since he used BART to get to work from the suburbs, and we decided to get two tickets to go two stops, leave the system, re-enter it, and return. This was cheaper than going two stops, crossing to return without leaving the system, and leaving at the same place we entered at.

With the tickets, minddrive was the first to go through with his clipper-card. He reached over to insert mine so I could go through. The other two put their tickets in to enter. Then came the next challenge. MUNI was on this level, but BART was further down. We went down on the escalator. This meant timing my foot placement on the step and bringing the other foot up, not as easy as it sounds when you’ve got those ankle restraints on with the connecting chain and have no use of hands. I wobbled a bit with my balance, but was able to make it okay. I wished I could have put my hand on the hand rail for support, but being in that straitjacket, I couldn’t. I was able to time my exit off the escalator.

Down at the level for the trains, as a BART rider of many years, I chose a place to stand where I figured there would be vacant seats at that time of night. When the train arrived, I was rewarded by finding three vacant seats just inside the doors. We three sat down in adjacent seats with minddrive across from us with the camera. He took a few pictures of us.

My next challenge was trying to figure out how I would be able to get up from the seat when we arrived at our destination to depart. I was used to standing and grabbing a strap close to time to leave the car, since there isn’t normally much time to leave, but being in that straitjacket with feet restrained, that wouldn’t be possible. When we got near time to stop at our destination, strap-wizard got up and helped me up.

Minddrive went off first to get pictures of us departing the train. That part went well. At this station there was a short staircase up to the turnstiles. Stairs I could handle much easier than the escalator, though it took a little extra time doing one step at a time. And at the exit turnstiles, we took our turns like before. Outside, we needed to come back in. At one point the station agent asked if we needed any assistance, but minddrive just replied that we were doing a photo shoot. He did take pictures of us leaving and reentering.

Back down waiting for the next train to arrive, there was one other person waiting to board at that particular spot. I noticed minddrive take a position to photo us entering the train, so I told the other guy that we were going to be photo’d. He immediately went to another spot to enter the train. I found it interesting that everyone just seemed to treat me as a normal person, geared up as I was.

Back on the train for the return was a repeat of the trip out. When we got off, there were more people at the station heading for the escalator. We waited for the others to go first. No one said anything about the gear we were wearing. I didn’t have any difficulty getting on, but this time I had a little difficulty getting off, timing putting my right foot on the fixed floor after getting it off the moving one, followed by my left one, without the use of the handrail. I was glad that I didn’t fall down from that difficulty.

Back at the turnstiles meant a repeat of the one-at-a-time exiting. After we’d gotten out and were looking for the exit, I heard one guy tell his friend “that’s Hannibal’s brother.” It was obviously a reference to Hannibal Lecter of the movie “Silence of the Lambs,” and had to be about the mouth covering I was wearing, as well as the straitjacket.

On the way down the corridor to the stairs up, we passed some more homeless people. They had apparently been having a disagreement, and were not pleased to see us dressed as we were. It didn’t help their frame of mind.

Back up on the street, slowly taking the stairs one at a time, we walked the two long blocks to the motel. It was pretty dark by then, and we didn’t get any comments. I’m not sure people noticed us. We were hoping to see the lady with the chest harness, but she had moved on. In the room, I was glad to get those heavy metal ankle restraints off. Even though they were locked over my leather pants, both my ankles had developed blisters. I could understand why squirmman wanted them taken off at the Mr. S store earlier. That night, squirmman slept in strap-wizard’s MaxCita sleep sack on one side of the bed, while minddrive slept on the other. I slept again on the floor in my leather sleep sack.

The next morning meant getting ready for Dore. Strap-wizard had brought along a couple of what he calls “pony carts.” These are former wheel chairs that have been modified with long handles for someone to pull. He and squirmman had parked their vans at the motel, whereas I had found parking Friday night a couple of blocks from the entrance to the Dore event. They both packed their cars with their gear, and squirmman took my gear in his van, drove to my van for me to transfer it, and drove over to where strap-wizard had parked his van. I was under a severe time constraint, having to drive to the east coast immediately after we’d finished our pony cart scene, and needed to be ready to leave quickly.

Squirmman dressed normally and brought his gear to change in one of the many temporary changing units at the event. He had earlier told me that this was his 25th straight Dore he’d attended. He dressed again in his rubber gear. He was to be a passenger in the cart pulled by strap-wizard.

I dressed in my leather pants and wore my Serious Bondage T-shirt. Strap-wizard had a harness for me to wear. And, of course, I had on the metal “psycho” hood that I’d worn the previous year. I would be pulling minddrive. I helped him get into his leather Mr. S straitjacket. He also had a purple kerchief around his neck, and a puppy hood. He was known locally for all three pieces of gear. Strap-wizard got me restrained to the cart.

Strap-wizard wore his usual strap gear. He also had a modified head harness and his leather collar with extra-long external spikes.

I was set up first and had to wait for strap-wizard to get squirmman restrained to the cart, then get into his gear, then get his gear connected to the cart. While I was waiting a couple of friends came by. These were mummyed (fetlife) and count_on_mike (fetlife). Count_on_mike had to come up to introduce himself because he was completely covered in an outfit that made him unrecognizable. Count_on_mike has hosted some sleepsack parties, which strap-wizard and I have attended.

Also while I was waiting for strap-wizard to get everything ready to go, a few photographers came by to get pictures. One of them I recognized from last year. He said that of all the pictures he took last year that he showed people, the one of my hood got the most comments. He said the comments ranged from “that is an amazing hood” to “why would anyone wear that?”

Another guy, luvrestraints (fetlife), joined us. He would be the cameraman. He was someone I hadn’t met before.

Finally I heard strap-wizard say “I’m finally ready.” Hearing that, I started walking, picking up the handles of the cart and walking it around the several streets that the Dore event was in. As usual, there were a number of booths strung out along the route. And, as usual, there were lots of people there with cameras taking our picture. With that hood on, I couldn’t look back to see where strap-wizard was, but I wanted to see what was going on, so I just looked forward.

The morning had started out overcast with the usual morning fog, but it had cleared, and the day was starting to get hot. We kept to the shade when we were getting geared up, but the route starting out was in the sun. After going as far as I could on the north side, I circled back on the south side in the shade for the return trip. People were continuing to come in, so it was starting to get to be difficult to walk, carrying the cart. But I finally got back to the starting point, only to find that strap-wizard hadn’t left yet.

He told me that just because he was ready, having gotten all the gear set up, didn’t mean he was ready to leave. He still needed to instruct the other guy how to use the cameras and which pictures he wanted taken. I had misunderstood him. Oh, well, there was still time to take another walk around. However, strap-wizard had sent the guy with the cameras out to find us, so we had to wait for his return.

When he got back, we set out again, this time with strap-wizard leading the way. He didn’t go all the way to the end like I did, but cut back about halfway, although the cameraman went on like I’d done the first time. So we found a vacant space and waited for his return. This provided a photo opportunity. Suddenly a bunch of guys with cameras showed up in front of us taking our picture while we were standing there. One guy’s comment amused me. He said, “You gay guys are so creative!” This was all strap-wizard’s doing, and he is straight.

Our cameraman returned, got some pictures, and we went back in the shade, slowly, due to the ever-growing crowd of people, to where we started. It was time for me to get out of my gear and get going. I was glad to finally get the hood off, since it isn’t the easiest to wear, not conforming perfectly to my head. But I was happy to have worn it at another Dore. I said my good-byes to the others, and scurried to my car to change back to my business mode. I drove 100 miles back to my shop, loaded up my car, drove another 550 miles until midnight that night before stopping at a motel, thinking all the time about the most unusual weekend I’d had. I won’t quickly forget this one.

 

The End

Metal would like to thank the author, Mister-X/Spartan, for this story and for the original pictures above!