First of all, let me lay out a few words and concepts... What you are using is a restraint, that is meant to keep yourself or a friend of yours secure. This is independent of any BDSM consideration, and that's why I won't use the terms "sub" and "domme" too much. I will use "captive" and "top" respectively. I will also assume that both players are female, for convenience. "She" and "Her" can be used as generic terms in English anyway, when the gender is irrelevant.
So, to me, "secure" means "having her under control at any time". In other words, if you leave your captive hogtied on a bed for a couple hours, you may expect to have a good chance of finding her still hogtied on the same bed (albeit maybe a little furious) when you return. Many things could have happened in the meantime, but if you did things right she should be unable to call for help, or to get out by her own means in your absence.
But, but... where is the "safe, sane and consensual" part in this ? What if the captive doesn't find it fun anymore and decides to leave ? It is a game after all, isn't it ?
Well, if the captive decides to leave for whatever reason, it is her choice and responsibility to break the rules and cheat out. The whole concept of "restraint" in SL is based on the assumption that the captive is not going to cheat out and ruin her reputation in the process (provided the captor is not a jerk or a lousy dom/me who just doesn't care for her prisoners). And as you have certainly noticed, reputation is everything in SL. If you're known as someone who casually cheats out of your restraint when you start getting bored, then only casual players will want to play with you in the future.
Okay, that being out of the way (sorry for the looong intro), let's get our hands secure and dirty. All my products work more or less the same way : a few core features (lock/unlock, take/leave keys, set timers, struggle out) common to all restraints, and a bunch of extras (plugins, animations etc) specific to each restraint.
All the restraints I make are commanded by touch only, seldom by voice commands (though some third-party plugins allow that). This is because my arms restraints can prevent touching, allowing for interesting power exchange games. Using voice commands simply ruin that but some people need them. The only other exception is the fact that the captive can operate one of her restraints by saying its name on channel /77. Or a part of its name, or even just "*". The rest of the world needs to be able to touch it to operate it.
When you touch a restraint and you have access (i.e. the key is available to you), you get a menu with several options. The most obvious one being... "Lock".
What happens when you click on "Lock" ? Well basically... not much. The restraint says it has been locked by you, you see the "Lock" button has changed to "Unlock", the "Take keys" button has become "Leave keys" because now you hold the key to that restraint automatically, but at first glance nothing else happens. Let's do this again, in slow motion this time...
You click on the restraint, the menu appears. You press "Lock" and the restraint says "blah blah has been locked by so-and-so". In the meantime, keys disappear from view, the restraint is made to think that "now only you have full access to it" since you own the key, and the captive is unable to remove the restraint anymore, if she's using the RestrainedLife viewer. The concept of "access" is fundamental to my products. You have "full access" when you own the key, unless you are the wearer and a timer is running. You have "reduced access" if you are the wearer and do not have full access, and you have "no access" in every other case (in world it gives you an "unauthorized" message when clicking on the restraint). These different kinds of access change the buttons that appear on the menu when clicked on.
So what now, that the restraint is locked ? These are cuffs, you'd expect them to actually chain your wrists in front of you or behind you, right ? Why are my arms still dangling free then ? Well that's the exact purpose of the six buttons on the two top rows of the main menu. They usually have bizarre names, but they are all explicit. Let's click on "1 Hnd Front".
"Tshkshk shriiik... shrik"
That's it, and my hands are now secured in front of me. Whatever I do, they will stay in that position until I'm uncuffed by clicking on the "Unlock" button. Which may or may not be in my reach, depending on who owns the key... Right now I can, because I have "full access" (I have the key and no timer is running). Look at the line on the menu that says "(by Marine Kelley)", this means I hold the key. I hold it because when locking my cuffs I am automatically given the keys, to make things easier.
We have been talking about "keys" quite a lot since the beginning of this post... let's clarify that a little. The "key" is merely an internal piece of info contained inside the restraint, that tells it who is granted full access. The key can be "available" (it shows "keys on") or held by someone who is commonly referred to as "the keyholder". Once again because I don't think a dom/me owns cuffs, they own the sub held in the cuffs, but not the cuffs themselves. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against setting an owner and a secowner etc, but I stick to realism here, and in RL cuffs have keys, not owners. And as such in SL it is less dramatic to "leave the keys on" than to "revoke owner rights". I will never stress this enough : as far as BDSM is concerned, restraints are just tools to make sure the sub is kept under control. Some subs need more control, some less, but admission of ownership lies in the mind, heart and soul of the sub, not in the steel or leather she wears.
But I digress. That's all there is to know about keys anyway. Either you hold them or you don't, and if you're the wearer and your cuffs are locked and a timer is running, whether you hold your own keys or they are available to all matters little, you won't be able to unlock yourself.
Oh and now, where is "Lock" ? My hands are cuffed in front of me, but what if I want to have them just "Locked" without a pose, and without having to unlock them first ? I could want to keep my timers up, after all. Well the "Lock" button has migrated to the second page because the first one suddenly lacks room. Just go to "More..." and it will show. In fact a lot more interesting options will show.
The "No timer", "+30 mn" and "+3 h" buttons will be explained in the "Timers" tutorial, while the "Block", "ML" and "Autoref" buttons will be explained in the "Arms restraints" tutorial.
But for now, let's end this first tutorial by getting free again. I go back to the first page by clicking on the "Back..." button, then on "Unlock"...
"Tshik tshik tshuk"
All free again ! And as I'm using the RLV, all the abilities that were taken from me while I was cuffed (typically, the ability to touch objects that are far away) are now restored !
I hope this helped you to understand the very basics of the RealRestraint products...
Have fun,
Marine
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