Part 2 of the adorable Cooper’s write up of his adventures at CLAW – enjoy!
Part 2. Friday- Enough rope to go around
CLAW has returned to the Cleveland downtown for the past several years and attracts hundreds of men and women from across the globe. Because of the sheer size of the event there are several host hotels in addition to the Westin. Friday morning was my first taste of how big this event spans across the area. Sir Eric and I got had a complimentary breakfast in the lobby with more than 40 leather men and pups who were also staying at there; and I thought that was overwhelming. After breakfast I grabbed my bag and headed over to my hotel, Marriott. I wasn’t expecting a room to be ready so early in the morning but Ms. Mary who checked me in made it happen. This was my first impression of a local Clevelander and it couldn’t have been more delightful. Ms. Mary was most polite when she was asking about my visit. She asked all the right questions and was excited for a ‘such a lovely charity event’ to be held for the gay community. She only noticed I was in head to toe leather when stepped around the desk to hand me the keys. ‘My goodness you look fantastic. You must be one of the models for your event’ and all I could do was grin from ear to ear. I go up to my room to see that Ms. Mary really did hook me up with a beautiful corner room on the 19th floor, a king bed and about a dozen windows overlooking Lake Erie. I waste no time and I head to the Westin, register, get my name badge and volunteer t-shirt and look for the bus to take me to FLEXX Asylum for the bondage class.
I did my homework before CLAW weekend and there were 2 Doms I was eager to meet. Tom (thiktool) is a bondage artist who I have been following on instagram for quite some time. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I see Tom on my way to the shuttle, greet him and we chat all the way to the bondage class. The space was a large warehouse fully equipped with a stage, 3 slings, 2 St. Andrew’s Crosses, a fully functioning shower with a glass facade and plenty of comfortable seating. Tom myself and the others explored the empty space and slowly the attendees trickled in. Sir Eric, Nick and JJ arrived and we chatted about last night. Still no instructor but it’s still early so he’s ok.
The second Dom I looked forward to meeting this weekend I had met on Recon. He told me that during CLAW weekend he was going to be living out one of his own fantasies and I was curious to see just how his fantasy would work. Just then a bald man wearing a rubber wrestlers singlet, a thick collar, cuffs, and belt bursts into the room carrying bags and followed by his helper. Our instructor has arrived and it was the Dom I was so eager to meet, Master Dart except he wasn’t Master Dart this weekend. Instead he took on the persona of Strongman, an enslaved circus toy at the mercy of his Captor. A total of 8 padlocks secured the collar, belt, singlet, wrist and ankle cuffs and there were to remain locked all weekend. To complete the look Strongman had a handlebar mustache superglued to his upper lip that would also remain for the duration of the event. It goes without saying that instantly this man had our attention. Strongman apologized for his tardiness and introduced himself as both Strongman and Master Dart and explained his attire and fantasy and introduced his assistant as Sir Zack AKA Captor. During his classes he would be Master Dart but any other time throughout the weekend we was a leashed toy at the mercy of his Captor.
Master Dart started the class with a simple square knot then transitioned into how to use that same square knot to tie a cuff knot. After a few demonstrations weare told to pair up and practice on a partner, Tom turns to me and we pair up. lucky me. But what’s this?! Tom turns the tables on me and hands me his rope, ‘do you wanna practice first?’ He says. And I’m like what?! The bondage Dom I have admired for over a year is handing me his rope and offering to let me have a go first. I was so confused and conflicted but I do what I’m told and start to wrap the rope around Tom’s wrist. It’s not my first time tying someone so luckily didn’t make a fool of myself in front of a man I admired. Then it was his turn. Talk about butterflies. Tom has a slender frame with a good amount of muscle. It is evident his physical health is a high priority. He steps in close to me looking directly in my eyes and puts my palm flat against the center of his chest. He slowly drags the rope over my wrist and tie the cuff we were taught. He lowers one arm and repeats the process with the opposite wrist. I’ve suddenly become his puppet. He raises and lowers my arms adjusts them behind my back when we are interrupted by reality. Master Dart calls the class to attention to continue the lesson. Tom positions my hands behind my back and stands behind me. How convenient he and I are about the same height and I have something to hold onto during the lesson. Master Dart asks how we feel collectively and requests a pair of volunteers for a demonstration. With minimal hesitation he points to Tom and me and we join him in the middle of the class. So here I am, determined to meet 2 Doms over the weekend, and I have both of them in the same room and I’m already getting tied up and it’s only the first day. Happy boy Cooper. It took all my mental power to not faint.
Tom tells Master Dart he is comfortable with the knot and Master Dart offers a challenge and Tom accepts. Master Dart retrieves a blindfold from his backpack and blinds Tom asking him to tie the knot by feel alone demonstrating the importance of not being tied up on how a knot looks but instead on how it feels and how the sub feels. Tom passed with flying colors and Master Dart thanks us for our participation and we return to our seats. After the class ends, I approach Master Dart and make the connection that I’m the sub who he’s been texting with over the last few weeks. He flashes an award winning smile, looks me straight in the eye and asks if I would be a nude demo sub for his next class, predicament bondage. Without hesitation I agree. How could I refuse.
Tom and I arrive to the next class after a quick trip back to the hotel for a bite to eat and I find Master Dart and join the other demo subs including Nick. There is a table in front of the class with all sorts of seemingly ordinary objects. Master Dart introduces himself and gives a quick explanation about Strongman, introduces Sir Zack as Captor and moves swiftly onto the demonstrations.
The first demo sub was this, muscular boy with a slice through his beard giving him an edgy look. It becomes evident that his muscular Daddy, who’s in the first row, strictly conditions his boy’s body. Muscle boy stripped off his clothes and awaited instructions. Master Dart starts by tying muscle boy’s hands behind his back, lays out a hand full of gravel on the carpet and instructs the boy to stand on the gravel and squat. While in the squat position Master Dart takes clothes pins attached with a string and one by one pinches each clothespin up the right leg, across his balls and cock and down the other. After he made sure there was no slack in the string he ties the ends to each big toe. The muscle boy can end the scene by standing up straight but if he does each clothes pin will snap off in unison. But this boy is strong and is holding up very well. Then Master Dart introduces stimulus by offering magic markers to the audience welcoming them to write all over the muscle boy. Thus, while standing on gravel, in a squat position, with clothes pins attached, he is written on, poked and tickled from every direction but staying calm, concentrating in his sub head space.
With the muscle boy still in his stressful position Master Dart moves on to the second demonstration. My turn. I strip off my clothes and stand next to the muscle boy and I’m instructed to do 20 push-ups. I’m stopped after 15 and told to hold the plank position.Then, I can’t see him from my position, but the whole audience has a collective gasp and I thinking what the hell is coming my way. I look down to see Master Dart and Sir Zack sliding a newspaper underneath me with about 30 live mouse traps on top inches away from my bare skin.I look around and the audience is awestruck. Master Dart disappears again and returns with very very own gag. But not just any gag. After another collective gasp he places a hot chili pepper between my teeth and duct tapes it in place, cheerfully reminding me not to bite down. Then he introduces stimulus in the form of an electric wand. There I am. Maintaining a plank position, inches away from live mouse traps with a pepper between my teeth wincing with every electric poke that spans up and down my naked body. I look over and see the muscle boy in his squat, barely even shaking and I try to stay as composed. Master Dart is satisfied and ends the scene by pulling the newspaper out from under me setting all the traps off at once. I drop to my knees as he removed the pepper from between my teeth. I survived.
Master Dart went back to the muscle boy and carefully removed each of the pins and allowed the boy to step off the gravel then aggressively rubbed the boy’s legs up and down. It didn’t look like a very pleasant experience. Nick got it easy, even he’ll admit it. Master Dart offers the idea of sending your boy off to work while still in bondage. He proceeds to lock a long chain to each of Nick’s ankles and tells him to put his pants back on. So in this situation a sub would still be able to fully function at work but his coworkers might question if he was carrying extra keys for some reason. Master Dart then calls up Jonathan, a smaller built rugby player, has him take off his shirt and stands face to face with Nick. Each are blindfolded and have their wrists tied behind their backs. Master Dart attaches tarp clips to Nick and Jonathan’s nipples, the kind with teeth facing in that twist to tighten. Then he uses a pair of dowels to connect the boys and has them walks around the room. If they don’t walk in sync their clips tighten on their own. The night before, Nick claimed that his nips were dead to the world, well today it looks like they were finally awakened. The same electric wand was used to make the boy’s pull at each others nips. After Master Dart was satisfied the boys were released.
Jesse was then called up front. He is a very handsome tall man with a salt and pepper pony tail and a well toned body. Master Dart then motions me over to join him as well. Both Jesse and I are collared and our hands are tied behind our backs. Master Dart then connects our collars with a small clip and there I am nose to nose with this beautiful man and Master allows us to get better acquainted. We made out. Damn he’s a good kisser. Maybe this won’t be that bad after all. Then Master explains the kind of rope he used to bind our wrists. It’s a conductive rope that can hold an electric current. He then retrieves the electro box from the table and connects one wire to Jesse’s rope and the other to mine. Now everytime we touch the electric current is completed thus zapping us wherever our bodies touched. I am a fan of electro play so I enjoyed myself and I am confident that Jesse felt the same since we did end up making out again. I guess you could say there was a spark between us. Master Dart then invited someone from the audience to come and feel the current by touching both of us at the same time. Muscle Daddy jumps out of his seat and touches each of our ears. The tingling shock tickles in all the right ways. Master Dart adds stimulus with the electric wand just for fun and after we are released but were allowed to keep the collars on. I like collars.
For the next demonstration Sir Zack laid out a few pee pads on the carpet. Muscle boy laid on his back with his head centered on the pads. His mouth was taped shut and a posture collar was secured forcing him to look up at the ceiling. Master Dart attached muscle boy’s wrists and Jesse’s ankles to the same spreader bar. Jesse’s arms were tied behind his back and he was forced into a squat position with his balls attached to the same spreader bar. Master Dart attaches a strip of double sided tape with a line of thumb tacks pointing up to muscle boy’s forehead then places a popsicle stick between Jesse’s front teeth. Tied to the stick is a condom filled with piss, Master Dart jokes that last night it was a fruit punch Monster drink. So, if Jesse drops the condom it will land directly on the line of tacks soaking muscle boy. Master Dart then adds stimulus with his favorite electric wand and aggressive tickling. The condom finally slips off and falls towards muscle boy’s face and Jesse loses his balance. The condom bounces off muscle boy’s face, and Jesse falls on the condom and piss goes everywhere. To not spoil all the fun, Master Dart had a second condom and dropped it directly onto the thumbtacks soaking the muscle boy. He then revealed it was just apple juice.
Master Dart ended the class by sharing a few more hacks, hints and team building exercises for Doms with multiple subs. I was dismissed, got dressed and headed back to the Westin for a mummification class. I stopped at Starbucks, which is packed with leathermen, and recognize the handsome couple sitting at the bar. Such a simple act sitting and enjoying a midday snack in full gear but the fact that this is normal and celebrated is really incredible. We chatted about the predicament bondage class when Captor and Strongman walk in. Yes, it’s Master Dart and Sir Zack but in this moment a leash attached to Master Dart’s collar thus he is a sex toy owned by Captor. They invite me to their next class, Fantasy to Fruition, and after some debate i turned on my heel and head to the class. What can I say; I’m hooked. What more could I possibly want than to follow the Dom I have been so eager to meet.
Fantasy to Fruition, is a discussion based class that focuses on how to bring to life a personal fantasy. We went learned each participant’s deepest fantasies and what they are doing to make it a reality. I shared how I wanted to become an owned muscle boy, much like the muscle boy from the predicament bondage class. Have my whole life controlled from diet and exercise to sleep and service. Strongman has a similar relationship with Captor thus the idea wasn’t foreign to them and they were able to share some insight. At the end of the class I loitered so I could get a chance to thank Sir Zack and Master Dart up close and they extend an unexpected invite to dinner.Flabbergasted, I offer to roll their suitcase and we head to dinner at hotel’s restaurant.
Captor, Strongman and I have dinner at the Urban Farmer and it was as if I was sitting with a couple of celebrities because several attendees stop by our table to say hello. I’m introduced to everyone and some even recognize me from the bondage class. Master Dart and Sir Zack were understandably exhausted having taught 3 classes in a row in 3 different venues thus after a chill dinner they returned to their hotel before going out again in the evening. I thank Sir Eric for today because he mentioned the bondage class the night before or else I’d have missed out.
I made my way upstairs to the Bound and Beautiful showcase where six rope artists demonstrated their unique styles. Tom was one of the featured rope artists and his boys were wrapped in a colorful assortment of rope in various positions. It was really neat to see how each bondage artist was able to use their boys and rope to recreate pop culture references like dogs playing poker and captured superheros. I met up with Sir Eric, Jesse, Jonathan, Nick and JJ. Even Captor and Strongman made an appearance. We may have only met that that weekend but I could see a friendship growing between all these extraordinary men. Don’t know how I was able to stay awake after such a full day but JJ, Nick and I decide to go the Muscle Boy Dance Party. Cheap drinks, half naked men plus a drag queen are definitely an equation for a good time. I was recognized here and there as the demo sub with the mouse traps which was kinda hot but still haunting. After a few drinks and dancing exhaustion finally hits so we called it a night. I fell asleep before my face hit the pillow.