Monday, April 25, 2011

Frolicon



I spent a good chunk of this past weekend at a local convention called Frolicon.  Developed as a gathering for science fiction, gaming, and fantasy fans, geeks, lovers, writers, and other general nutcases, the convention has morphed into a pretty serious avenue for pansexual kinksters.  Since I'm not a real fan, geek, lover, or writer of the genres I put myself in the category of general nutcase (where I humbly belong), and had a remarkably good time the entire weekend!  It was My pup who got me there (many thanks!) mostly because in his general excitement he'd registered for the event twice!  (He shall hereafter be known as "the boy so excited by Frolicon he registered twice", or BoySEFHRT.

Over the course of the weekend there were a wide variety of presentations for the various communities served by the Con.  Examples included general discussions and how-to's on furries, bondage, tag-team dominating, negotiating scenes, creative costuming, zombie makeup, lacing corsets, Victorian flirting, and the creatively-titled "Shish-ka-Dick."  A nice collection of vendors filled a ballroom with a wide variety of BDSM tools, kinky clothing, corsetry, and jewelry. 

My favorite activity, by far, was just being a people-watcher.  Every time I entered the vendor area Lee and Miles were busily lacing up women into beautiful corsets at the Marvelous Mayhem booth.  They are magicians.  The first woman I saw laced up they got down to about a 25 inch waist.  Her enormous breasts (cup size "I"...as in two large turkeys) floated beautifully atop the tightly cinched waist.  I turned around and saw four Littles bounce by.  These "Littles" are adults of 21-65 dressed as 5 year-olds complete with lollipops and crayolas heading down for the cookie-decorating panel.  Later I was headed up the escalator and a tightly-corseted woman was descending to my left.  She shrieked, "oh, FUCK."  A few seconds later, twice as loud, "Jesus!  Please!  FUCK!  JESUUUUUUS!"  I thought it might have something to do with it being Easter weekend.  A few steps behind her I saw a man with an evil grin hitting buttons on a remote control.

In a matter of a few square feet of the hotel lobby you could see a dominatrix in full gear next to a Little next to a cross-dressing maid in full latex costume next to a Furry next to a zombie next to a Steampunker (see above photo).  I have to admit the Steampunkers have my total admiration for some incredible imagination and creativity in their costuming, gadgetry and weaponry. 

And pretty much anytime day or night you could find some sort of dungeon party taking place.  Times were set aside for W2W, M2M, women who love M2M, spankers, and general pansexual play.  For the big late night dungeon parties 3 large ballrooms were opened to each other with a variety of cages, suspension sites, whipping crosses, and wrestling mats set up.  On Friday night the line to get in to the dungeon had to be at least 50 people long when I finally had to give up and hit the road for home.

The dungeon play was hit and miss.  Both literally and figuratively.  It was a thrill watching BoySEFHRT swing a flogger.  He also did some gorgeous rope work on a variety of guys.  His dance card was VERY full for the weekend.  And both Friday and Saturday night he ended up having to ice his shoulder from all the flogger action.  He was laser-focused, caring, devilish, and extremely good at what he did.  I could easily have just stayed nearby and watched him every single minute, but I also didn't want him to think I was "overseeing" his work, him worried that I was on the sidelines ready to critique his every move, because nothing could have been further from the truth.  I was just intrigued by how good he was.  But I forced myself to walk around, to leave the dungeon for good chunks of time, and occasionally do a little play of my own.

At the M2M party a handsome couple joined the party about half way through.  The Top was a rugged, broad-shouldered man, dark in features, with a Unikilt and some nice boots.  The boy was equally good looking with a much smaller build and one of those grins that draws you in.  A bit later the Top put some really nasty looking steel cuffs on the boy leaving him strung up and alone in the dungeon.  A few guys gathered to tease the boy a bit (nice!), but a little later when he was on his own I took the opportunity for a little grab and grope of my own.  Mid-nipple-pinch the handsome boy asked, "Do you have a blog?"  "Um....yes?"  "I thought I recognized that goatee!"  

Later we got to talk a bit more.  (This was after a rather large metal collar was locked on the boy.)  I voiced my own hope that he'd be wearing the collar for the rest of the weekend.  That threw him a bit as I know he was probably pretty closeted about his kinks, but sure enough, later that day I saw the two of them in the lobby with the boy still collared.  Cool!  And I'm hoping this couple may be joining us for our own dungeon parties down the road.  Nice guys, nice kinks, all good energy.  My kind of people.

I have always tried to remain very positive in this blog, but I have to admit the dungeon play I observed was much more "miss" than "hit."  In fact some of the behavior was so awful and dangerous and stupid I found myself getting quite angry.  You think driving and texting is bad?  Try flogging and texting (yes, really, I saw this.)  To the bored dominatrix lazily and with no focus or care swinging a flogger while constantly looking around the room--what were you looking for?  To see if anyone was watching you?  To find a better victim?  Really?  To the groups and groups and groups of noisy, loud, disrespectful people standing too close to the whip handlers or the riggers--Do you not see how distracting you are?  Did you not read the signs concerning a ban on cell phones?  Whose fault do you think it is when that flogger hit you in the back of the head?  To the idiotic, pompous, and totally unprepared Dungeon Monitors--Why did the rigger have to ask you to move the cackling, texting, screeching crowd right behind him?  And why did you just push that same crowd into the midst of another scene rather than actually solving the problem?  And when that woman collapsed from the flogging and single-tailing she was taking (by a very capable top who was clearly rattled by her fainting), how is it possible that the five of you DMs could just stand there, watching, and leave it to me to get her a blanket, water, sugar?  Really?  To the guy who offered up his girlfriend as flogging practice for anybody walking by--I kind of like the idea, but you might want to help people understand that the lower back is off limits.  Oh that's right, you were the one texting while flogging.  I'm surprised you hit the target at all.  I really hope that woman isn't still peeing blood from the abuse her kidneys took.  And to the guy who was flogging Tiny Tim (hearing falsetto screams from a guy with some of the skankiest hair I've seen in a long time was a bit disconcerting), rolling your eyes multiple times at the crowd watching won you no fans. Just because your bottom couldn't take your poorly-placed strikes (have you even noticed how a whip or flogger will wrap around the sides and to the front if you stand too close?), nor your whacks at full force without even a hint of warming him up, please understand:  This is NOT HIS FAULT.  Of course it was no surprise to see you toss him aside without a hint of aftercare and put on your orange sash and assume your pompous role of Dungeon Monitor.  Grrrrrr.

Deep breath.  Another deep breath.  Let it go.  We all start somewhere.  Hubby and I started with little $10 velcro restraints nearly 25 years ago.  And I'm sure when we purchased our first little flogger some 20 years ago we were clueless how to use it.  We survived.  Hopefully all these folks will too.  I just hope they're smart enough to sober up and go to a few of the classes at the next Con and learn real technique.  Or stop looking at their iPhones and watch BoySEFHRT's technique!

Okay, I promise to stop calling him BoySEFHRT.  Loki was amazing.  Is amazing.  And it was totally great for me to get a glimpse of a significant part of his own history and journey.

2 comments:

  1. It was a pleasure meeting you this past weekend. I'm sorry you didn't get to come back Saturday night. Loki had a very intense scene that I think you would have enjoyed watching immensely.

    As for the Dungeon situation, I think what makes Frolicon itself great is kinda what makes the Dungeon the way it is. You have such a cross-section of people, and many of them are not as well-versed on the ins and outs of Dungeon behavior. (I am sure that I have fallen on the wrong side of this myself numerous times, even though I try not to.) With the DM's being volunteers as well, you get hit and miss in that area also. Some sessions they DM's were on top of everything that was going on, others not so much as you saw. All in all, it sounds liek you had fun, and I hope to maybe see you there again next year.

    I'll be thinking of you on Wednesday.

    Labratt (Scott)

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  2. Unfortunately, the people who set up situations like that don't "vet" the "Tops" who want to come in.

    I remember once walking around a Con in L.A. in Leather pants, boots, a flogger on my hip, long-cuffed leather gauntlets and a leather vest. I was wearing it for a costume gig, and you could've heard the jaws dropping all over the room. Unfortunately, the only ones who actually approached me were just really unappetizing subs.

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