But he hasn't yet figured out the rules, he's just tried everything and it's still not perfect. He's enforcing rules for himself I never even thought to give him, he's humiliating himself in ways I would have taken months to work up to. He has developed rituals that may or may not appease his God. He tries hard to perfect it,but what I didn't tell him and what he doesn't need to know is that every month I change one or two of his rules so he can never be sure and the same thing that got him treats last time gets him a beating this time. He can't get it right. Perfection is just another tool to keep him worshipping on my altar. To make him feel small and pathetic.

I guess

yes fucking please

On the other hand a blindfold makes most people quiet. They still want to have situational awareness, they still want to track your movements, so they focus on their hearing and stop making sounds that would make it harder to hear you.

Most people use breathing to regulate emotions and manage pain. Deep consistent breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth. You can take advantage of this by either blocking their nose or mouth or by interrupting their breathing with will timed stimuli. Suddenly your high pain tolerance sub becomes a wimp, your composed and mature sub becomes a panicky baby

Like in horror movies tension is important in scenes. You might think that to make your scene really intense you have to be serious the entire time but what you'll find actually happens is you wind the tension up to a certain point and then can't get it any higher and the scene becomes stale. But if you let yourself relax, loosen up, and make a few well timed jokes breaking the tension a little you can then wind it up again and make it more tense than you could previously.

And if you know what someone is expecting you can functionally read their mind, better than that you can control their mind, you don't just know the thoughts they're having you put them their. Plus now you have all of these opportunities to create wonderfully strong emotions and reactions by going against their expectation. Don't do this too frequently or you'll ruin both their feeling of safety and the effect this has but keep it in your back pocket and use it with precision.

Your sub wants to impress you, they want you to be proud of them. So when they're approaching their limit if you point that out to them ("OK darling I think that's just about all you can take") they will try to convince you they're not ("no please I can take more for you please") and if you give them an opening to do so ("are you sure?") they will jump at the chance to impress you. Follow this up with praise so they know they did a good job. This will leave them feeling satisfied and proud of themselves in a way that reaching their limit and having to tell you they've had enough won't. If you're careful you can use this to gently push their limits and comfort zone so you can both experience more intense sessions in the future