Reese had noticed how stiff his movements were the next morning and had offered to rub his back for him.
Just for a little bit more, Harold told himself. He'd feel better in just a moment and it would be enough, it would do and John would stop pestering him.
First of all: Although this fic is entirely nonsexual, the sensuality is played up a bit, and there are moans of pleasure in there. Don't listen on speaker if you don't want family members (or neighbors) to think you're listening to an entirely different kind of content.
The author listed the piece as Pre-Slash, but the fic itself could be read as Gen if you like; it's just one touch-deprived man giving a very paranoid man a very, very good massage. Content Warnings in End Note.
Anyway!
I'd hoped to finish this in time to post it during the August Intimacy event, but, alas, podfics take forever to edit and I can't manage the whole thing. So this is just the first section, so far, all the way to a natural stopping-point.
However, the whole thing is recorded (though I might have to do retake on a couple spots due to unexpected popping sounds throughout all the takes of those lines; I'm not sure what was going on with my mic there, but a dozen takes and they all have significant pops? I mean really), and most of it is spliced together. I just need several more hours to weed out the lesser takes and weave in the dialog portion (which I recorded separately, on account of trying to get the voice feels right); like I said, time-consuming. I am terrible at predicting my productivity, but at least September is less stressful than this month was, so I should be able to put together at least the next section.
Also, it's a miracle I managed to get it all recorded, because the one day this month that I managed to have everyone out of the house for a few hours (because recording moans of pleasure is embarrassing enough when I'm alone) was also the day that my neighbors decided was perfect for dirt bikes. Joy.
sapphire, you seemed to be quite pleased by the original fic, and it seems in line with some things you said on The Great Mistake, and I don't believe I've given you a gift yet, so this goes out to you. Hope you enjoy it! I tried to put a lot of moment-by-moment feels into the lines, rather than reading it more dispassionately; not sure whether this style works well or not, but I hope so. Also hope you're doing okay (what with everything going on everywhere and all).
(See the end of the work for more notes.)
Back Rub (part 1) by April_Valentine
Content Warnings: Dubiously consensual physical touch; Hurt/Comfort with physical pain; Flashback to a therapeutic massage where the masseurs failed to listen to the patient (Harold) and thus repeatedly hurt him.
Content Warnings: The level of touch between these two is Dubiously Consensual, on account of John pushing the boundaries even when Harold resists. Harold does seem to want it, or much of it, but is troubled by the particulars, and wants John to stop a while before John accepts that as an answer. This is a long-standing push-and-pull between them, and partly it is because John wants/needs the touch more than he values Harold's right to say no (even though Harold does get more benefit from saying yes than from resisting).
There's a flashback to Harold getting a therapeutic massage (from several doctors, over a course of time), and trying to get them to understand how to massage without hurting him, but they wouldn't listen to him, and thus hurt him, humiliated him, and made him feel helpless.
Other than that, I don't think there's anything here that particularly needs warning. It's not even a sexual massage.
Again, I'm bad at predicting my creative output, so no idea if this'll get finished soon or not, but since I was aiming to have it done today, and it's down to under an hour in length (that's, like, two or three times the actual length), I'm hopeful to get it posted sometime during September. In the meantime, I'm back to writing as many FMI fics as I can fit in today!