Lexicon

Restraint

Restraint is being held in place. Cuffs, straps, a hand, a word that means do not move. The catalogue describes it as being held in place, and what that does to time, and the second half is the point: a person who cannot move experiences a minute differently, and fiction about restraint lives inside that minute. Readers tick it for the stillness, the waiting, and the particular helplessness of being unable to reach for something two inches away.

It is distinct from rope, which is restraint as craft, and from impact, which often happens to a restrained body but is its own theme. Restraint on its own can be a single silk tie at the wrists or a command obeyed with nothing physical at all. The theme is the state, not the equipment.

How the engine handles it. With Restraint ticked, the engine describes what is used, how it is applied, how it is secured, what it does to the body wearing it, and how it comes off, with the same precision it gives anatomy. It tracks what the body does under restraint, strain, circulation, temperature, and the difference between discomfort that is wanted and discomfort that is not, and it writes the untying. The story state knows who is restrained, how, and since when, so a later section cannot forget that she still cannot use her hands. Checking in and the safeword are part of the scene. The comedown is written. Everyone restrained is an adult, and that does not change with the theme or the level.

Your stories are encrypted at rest. We can read them to write them. Nobody else can read them.