wanderings

masters, doms, slaves & subs: mysterious ways by tree
Mysterious Ways (U2 song); Rating: G; Art: cross-stitch
The "on your knees, boy" cross-stitch is such a great kink piece. I love how it lifts that lyric from the song and highlights that kink that wouldn't necessarily be noticed by listeners; I think there's a lot of kink - purposeful and not - in music that not everyone picks up on; it's easy not to think about lyrics, so I love how this puts it on display. Of course, the cross-stitch is also removing the lyric from the context of the song; it's not something that someone's likely to look at and identify as a U2 lyric - it's not something that's unique to being a U2 lyric.
"On your knees, boy" is an order. On your knees is a less defensible, more submissive position. A boy is someone with less authority than an adult. Everything about that phrase is kind of screaming "do as I say"; it's incredibly kinky. The part where it's gilt-framed text makes me think of all the other framed orders I've been around in terms of kink, which is pretty fun.
As a cross-stitch piece it's really great to think of in relation to other word cross-stitch pieces; I'm used to seeing sayings that are valued in that house or things that serve as affirmations or reminders and thinking of tree's piece that way is really wonderful.

A Beginner's Guide to Vulcan Sexual Practice, by Captain James T. Kirk by thingswithwings
Star Trek; Rating: NC-17; 4,621 words; James T. Kirk/Spock
"It is tradition," Spock says blandly. "Surely you would not ask me to abandon Vulcan tradition." "Uh," Jim replies.
This is a fic that was written, as its notes say, in response to a comm that was set up as a place for fic featuring kink-free sex. It had this long list of all of the kinks that weren't welcome in the comm that the Kel-Toth that Spock follows in this fic is based on. The Kel-Toth and how Kirk and Spock interact with it are such excellent manifestations of obedience kink. The Kel-Toth is this long document full of rules, so many rules, about how Vulcans should have sex; it is pretty inherently kinky.
I really like this story for everything that it does with the obedience kink: it's got straight-up obedience, a look at the wrong/forbidden that rules create as well as the opportunity for the perversion of those rules. Spock's adherence to the rules comes with a fair amount of sorting out what he can and can not do; the Kel-Toth highlights kink. Kirk reacts to the rules by diving into the material head on, obeying the rules, and then finding all of the loop-holes and things not forbidden by them. It's fun. The story's an interesting exploration of obedience kink and kink in general.

stones to turn and stare at by summerstorm
Teen Wolf; Rating: NC-17; 4,126 words; Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
The window clicks shut as Derek turns around and says, "What?" His face is—hilarious, actually, but if Stiles is going to go through with this he can't allow himself to crack this early, let alone crack up. Cracking up is not something you come back from. So he repeats, "Sit down," widening his eyes to let Derek know that this is really freaking easy to figure out if Derek just puts his mind to it.
This is such a wonderful first time obedience kink story. I love that it's Stiles giving the orders in this, and that that's something that Derek wants and has asked for; it's a really interesting and enjoyable story, characterisation-wise. I really love thinking of this story in relationship to Derek's history with Kate; I think that this story is all kinds of hopeful and positive in relation to that.
It's a great expermentation fic. There's conversation and communication; the fic touches on the negotiation and discussion that Derek and Stiles had about this and details all of Stiles' thought processes and strategising as he feels out how to give orders and what sort of orders to give. There's uncertainty and awkwardness in it, which are both pretty fantastic in a first time fic. There's cooperation between the two of them. It's a really great fic about them exploring the kink together.

Pull Your Tangles Out by boweryd
Bandom: Panic at the Disco; Rating: NC-17; 9,000 words; Brendon Urie/Spencer Smith
If this is like a thing you two do.
This is another sort of first time story; it's an accidental kinksters or kink discovery fic, where someone doesn't realise that what they're doing is kinky or kind of falls into a kink. Spencer doesn't realise that the dynamic that he and Brendon have, where Brendon does what Spencer tells him to, is kind of kinky until its pointed out to him and then he thinks about it. Spencer processing, experimenting, and ultimately falling into the kink is all really fantastic; there's this lovely repetition of If this is like a thing you two do with Spencer turning that phrase over and figuring out what it means, what those obedience and submission kinks mean for himself and Brendon. It's a really wonderful progression.

New Message by jedusaur
Bandom: Fall Out Boy/My Chemical Romance; Rating: PG; 1,320 words; Pete Wentz/Mikey Way
Mikey's ringtone is a single half-second chime, because if it were anything more obnoxious than that, no one would spend any amount of time with Pete without throwing his phone out a window.
This fic contains an incredibly interesting expression of non-sexual obedience kink. Mikey takes on making a lot of the small decisions in Pete's life for him, making those orders. The way those little decisions tie them together and the level of knowledge and involvement that Mikey has with the minutiae of Pete's life because of them is neat. The orders are pretty simple on the surface, but what they mean isn't. There's that level of knowledge, to start with. There's also how connected Mikey and Pete are and the way they carry each other around and interact via text all day; they're very much a part of each other's lives. The way that chime is a connection and something grounding for Pete is very powerful. I love the way it's a kind of Hey, I'm here. Here's this little thing that you don't have to worry about anymore.
The obedience kink is this fic is really interesting to me in how firmly it's rooted in care-taking on Mikey's part. I think that care-taking in fic with a D/s slant shows up more commonly as aftercare or an aspect of play, so the amount focus there is on it here is remarkable.

This rec set was made for the obedience square of my kink_bingo card. It is more than 500 words long. :)