Public play allows for safety for both the top and bottom. (If things go off the rails, people will step in.) But public play is also exciting. Part of the thrill is being on display. For the bottom this means a measure of vulnerability to the gathering.
I don't expect or want an audience to be passive. I expect the boy to be groped. I expect the boy to be harassed. I expect the boy to feel the surrounding people as part of the scene.
When a boy is left in bondage he will test the bonds every few minutes to confirm that they are still there. The gropes and snide comments emphasize and reinforce vulnerability in the same way, and so therefore reinforce the scene.
"Don't break the scene." is a motto and a tenet of the BDSM community. Sometimes the audience is part of the scene, sometimes not. Scenes can get broken by the audience.
The most common measure of the instantaneous status of the scene is the hardness of the bottom's dick. A change point from a hard dick to flaccid could indicate a break of the scene.
Which makes me sad. My dick seldom gets hard when I bottom for fantastic bondage. (topping is another matter)
Anyways... After two session of public play, the pup came over for private play. Without a group present I was able to get deeper into his head space. I was able to read his body language more clearly under brighter light. My group play with this same pup is some of the highlights of my year, but the private play is what I believe he'll think back to.
Some of the public bondage was pretty spectacular.
