History Webcomic / Sunstone

* {{Meganekko}}: Ally ''rocks'' those glasses.

''[[http://shiniez.deviantart.com/gallery/ Sunstone]]'' by the author Shiniez (pronounced like the plural of "shiny") is a BDSM webcomic about the various relationships of four kinky people. It is hosted on DeviantArt. While the comic was mostly done for FanService in its earlier days, the artist/writer also considers it a way to [[AuthorTract communicate the message]] that BDSM can be performed in a SafeSaneAndConsensual manner and within loving relationships, and the story and strong characterisation now features as prominently as the fetish artwork.

The comic originally shared the author's name, largely because he couldn't think of a better title and enough people referred to it by that name anyway. But upon completion of the second chapter Shiniez came up with Sunstone, a word important to the characters in the series.

The strip started life as a series of unconnected fetish drawings featuring the same two characters, Allison and Lisa, purely for the fun of it. Continuity began to creep in when the author introduced Anne as a tattoo artist, who got a little too intrigued after doing some work on Lisa and ended up becoming their friend and playmate, and short sequences detailing their growing relationships began to outnumber the more isolated artworks.

By the time Alan was introduced as Ally's college friend and maker of fetish clothing, there was enough continuity to consider it a ongoing work of fiction (albeit one with frequent OutOfOrder pages), and with the introduction of the chaptered folders the strip has a definite starting point for ongoing continuity like any other webcomic. Additionally, an unofficial chronology can be found at Chronology.{{Shiniez}} for the strips not officially ordered. Please note that you must have a DA account and set the content filter to 'Mature' to read it, due to the frequent NSFW content.

* BodyHorror: Played in disturbingly realistic fashion when we're shown the dangers of careless rope work. Marion uses the wrong sort of knots on her wrists combined with improper positioning of the ropes on the bed out of obsession with "presenting" herself to Alan, and finds herself trapped and alone while the blood circulation to her hands is cut off. Her hands go lifeless and ''visibly dark grey in colour.'' It gets worse when we're told this had caused blood clots and Marion could have ''lost'' her hands, if not her life.

** CostumeTestMontage: in chapter three, where the majority of a strip is dedicated to Lisa and Ally spending an hour just trying on costumes and earlier in the first chapter where both are getting ready for their first meeting.

* GuiltComplex: Ally is determined to blame herself for what happened to Marion, Lisa points out that Ally is fully aware she wasn't responsible, but this knowledge doesn't make her feel any better. She is still pretty shook up about the accident and as a result she's not visited the club or used her rope skills since. Though we see that she gets over the rope aversion in time.

* IllBeInMyBunk: Alan sometimes has to head to the bathroom to do this when the girls' shenanigans get to be too much for him.

* BodyHorror: Played in disturbingly realistic fashion when we're shown the dangers of careless rope work. Marion uses the wrong sort of knots on her wrists and finds herself trapped and alone while the blood circulation to her hands is cut off. Her hands go lifeless and ''visibly dark grey in colour.'' It gets worse when we're told this had caused blood clots and Marion could have ''lost'' her hands, if not her life.

[[quoteright:336:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shiniez-logo_480.gif]]

* ArcWords: ''Sunstone'', Ally's safeword which she gives to all of her subs, and may end up becoming the official title of the comic.

* IdiotBall: Keen to convince Alan to try 24/7 dominance and submission Marion did something everyone including herself agrees was stupid, unfortunately for Marion she realised this only at the moment she slipped the knots about her wrists tight without a way to undo them.

* JadeColoredGlasses: Alan is noticeably jaded about his lifestyle and how people view it after being tormented for it in college and having had a tragic failed Dominant/submissive relationship.

* KnuckleCracking: Lisa does this at the very start of the series before beginning the memoirs and again later when to help wake herself up she ''cracks her neck.''

* BodyHorror: Played in disturbingly realistic fashion when we're shown the dangers of careless rope work. Marion uses the wrong sort of knots on her wrists and finds herself trapped and alone while the blood circulation to her hands is cut off. Her hands go lifeless and ''visibly dark grey in colour.'' It gets worse when we're told this had caused blood clots and Marion could have ''lost'' her hands.

* NestedStory: The outermost story focuses on Lisa writing her book detailing the events of her relationship with Ally, the main meat of the story takes place some years prior and shows us these events in which characters often elaborate on their backstory through another level of flash backs.

* {{Pride}}: This is what brought Ally and Alan's relationship to an end. The experience of dominating the other went to their heads and this turned into a competitive and destructive relationship when they didn't have the free time to share their desired role regularly. At the time the two of them also considered themselves superior to vanilla people; and this trait is still somewhat evident in Ally when she refers to casual practitioners of BDSM as noobs.

* SafeWord: The name of the comic comes from Ally's safeword, "sunstone," which she gives to all her subs, but most prominently Lisa. Alan's safeword, which Anne uses, is a three-note hum that can be used through a gag, though Marion's safeword with Alan was shown to be "mercy".

** Another has Allison dressed as WonderWoman, roping Anne -- dressed as {{Supergirl}} -- and Lisa -- dressed as {{Batgirl}}.

* CrackIsCheaper: InUniverse; Collecting BDSM equipment is Ally's only recreational spending outlet, when Lisa asks Ally how much has been spent on all this stuff Ally refuses to answer. WordOfGod is that it's been ''forty grand.''

* LoveMakesYouDumb: This hit Marion hard; being new to the type of relationship she was sharing with Alan caused her to discard her better judgement in favour of doing everything she could to take things further.

* MsFanservice: Ally, Lisa, and Anne. All three started out as softcore porn - it wasn't until later that the author decided to write them as characters in an ongoing narrative.

* NestedStory: The outermost story focuses on Lisa writing her book detailing the events of her relationship with Ally, the main meat of the story takes place some years prior and shows us these events in which characters often elaborate on their backstory through another level of flash backs.

* NostalgicNarrator: A now happily married Lisa fulfils this role.

* SecondLove: Ally is this to Lisa; her relationship with her first love ended due to Lisa never getting the confidence to explain her intimate interests to him; despite them discussing engagement before it turned sour; this causes her moments of doubts early into her relationship with Ally.

* ShoutOut:

* TheirFirstTime: This plays out when Ally and Lisa finally meet, but subverted as they've both had sex before; it's their first time with a submissive and dominant person respectively and naturally they are quite nervous about it.

* ComingOutStory: One major story element is that neither Ally nor Lisa considered themselved to be gay or bi before meeting each other, and have to come to terms with their mutual attraction along with their roles in the D/s part of their relationship. Ally eventually admits it to Alan ("I'm... gay." "Like a rainbow unicorn.") and a future strip teases at how Lisa will eventually introduce her girlfriend to her parents.

* ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin: Twice the comic has shown what can happen when people let BDSM go to their heads. Ally and Alan neglected their collage work and turned their relationship into a competitive game of ego feeding, which ultimately led to their breakup. Ally even referred to herself as having been like an addict at the time. Marion became obsessed with the game, and was so keen to convince Alan to go further with her that she lost her job and neglected to properly consider the safety issues of self bondage, leading to a nightmarish scenario that almost cost her her hands, if not her life.

* MaliciousSlander: In collage Alan was wrongly accused of being gay and subject to harassment because of this; things escalated when his sketchbook of BDSM artwork was discovered, stolen, photocopied and then posted around the campus. Worse still it was one of Ally's friends who kept the gossip about Alan circulating. This likely accounts for Alan's cynicism about mainstream society's views of his subculture.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In early strips where Ally doms Lisa, things seemed far less consensual.
** Though Lisa would more often look annoyed by Ally's actions than truly terrified, implying she is not truly forced to those things.

** UpToEleven in chapter three, where the majority of a strip is dedicated to Lisa and Ally spending an hour just trying on costumes.

* [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys Where Does She Get All Those Wonderful Toys?]]: Ally has a staggeringly impressive collection of toys; including an entire wardrobe of custom made outfits for both of her subs and herself, cuffs, chains, restraints and suspension rigs, a custom made ''mermaid outfit,'' the infamous "see-saw," a made to order bed just for sex and last but certainly not least an actual ''chariot.'' We are shown that Alan and Chris make a living out of making these things for people and that Ally is really quite well off, but WordOfGod [[CrackIsCheaper states that Ally has spent forty grand on this collection.]]

* CrackIsCheaper: Collecting BDSM equipment is Ally's only recreational spending outlet, when Lisa asks Ally how much has been spent on all this stuff Ally refuses to answer. WordOfGod is that it's been ''forty grand.''

* [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys Where Does She Get All Those Wonderful Toys?]]: Ally has a staggeringly impressive collection of toys; including an entire wardrobe of custom made outfits for both of her subs and herself, cuffs, chains, restraints and suspension rigs, a custom made ''mermaid outfit,'' the infamous "see-saw," a made to order bed just for sex and last but certainly not least an actual ''chariot.'' We are shown that Alan and Chris make a living out of making these things for people and that Ally is really quite well off, but [[CrackIsCheaper estimates on how much has been spent on this arsenal must be colossal.]]

* PropertyOfLove: There are aspects of this to Lisa and Ally's relationship. Lisa gets a tattoo reading "Property of Allison" and her wedding ring has the inscription "Mine forever" on it's interior. Lisa also likes to wear her collar in public under a scarf to remind her that the previous night she "was her's". Marion on the other hand was keen to enter a situation where she was submissive to Alan 24/7 and wore her collar and referred to Alan as Master at all times.

* SafeWord: Ally's safeword, which both Lisa and Anne use (and which Marion used back when she was Ally's sub), is "sunstone." Alan's safeword, which Anne uses, is a three-note hum that can be used through a gag, though Marion's safeword with Alan was shown to be "mercy".

** Anne as said tattoo artist has a tattoo of a dragon spanning her back, this shows Anne, like Cassie, is adventurous.

* TooManyBelts: From the outfits to the devices themselves, there are alot of belts and buckles.
* UnfazedEveryman: Chris to some degree, as the only reoccuring character in the strip so far not into BDSM, yet hangs around with the others because his sister and her partner are.

* WorldOfSnark: Not so much at first; but more and more magnificent snarkers have appeared and older characters have been seen holding their own against them in SnarkToSnarkCombat. ''ALL'' the many red headed characters in the strip save for Lisa are talented snarkers.

''[[http://shiniez.deviantart.com/gallery/ Sunstone]]'' by the author Shiniez (pronounced like the plural of "shiny") is a BDSM webcomic about the various relationships of four kinky people. It is hosted on DeviantArt, largely because he couldn't think of a better title and enough people referred to it by that name anyway. While the comic was mostly done for FanService in its earlier days, the artist/writer also considers it a way to [[AuthorTract communicate the message]] that BDSM can be performed in a SafeSaneAndConsensual manner and within loving relationships, and the story and strong characterisation now features as prominently as the fetish artwork.