Events, Social Circles, and Inclusivity

No matter what you do, try to do, or try to avoid: every large enough community you will ever be a part of, whether you lead it, make it, or simply be in it without a strong role, will have subdivisions, a big enough social circle will have small social circles within it.  And often times those subdivisions, whether intentionally or not, will feel like cliques, will feel closed off to “outsiders.”  This goes for at any workplace, this goes for school groups, this goes for other vanilla groups, this goes for the kink scene as a whole, and this goes for smaller communities within the kink scene.

Hell, we can very much debate the topic (and it already HAS been, and will continue to be), but in my opinion, the Erotic Hypnosis community is a clique within the kink scene. For those that say “I’m not kinky, I just find erotic hypnosis and mind control hot,” I want you to realize, there are plenty of Spankos, spanking-enthusiasts, that feel the exact same way about making someone’s ass so bruised that it’s purplish-black: that they’re not a part of the “kink scene” really, they just find spanking hot. Labels get silly after a while is all I’m saying.  As this is not the point of this piece, I will leave this here, dangling, and I humbly request that if this gets discussed, it get its own independent thread of conversation.  Now then, back to the concept of “cliques,” and, in particular, those within the erotic hypnosis community…

NEEHU7: Phoenix Rising

During NELA’s winter Fetish Fair Fleamarket in 2016 (mid-February), MentalConfetti and I had bought, among other things, a lovely silk outfit (from Reyen Design Studios, btw) in various shades of yellow, orange, and red, meshing together: a top, a dress, and a wide veil/scarf of sorts.  I say this as on Saturday afternoon/evening, when kitchen work was all done (as Saturday’s dinner was specifically for volunteers and presenters, and was delivery food, so, ya know, not volunteer-handled), this is what my girl was wearing.  Actually, it was the first time she wore it (about 1 month after buying it).  There were a couple of joking comments thrown around of “Hmm… if I didn’t know any better, I’d say… you like fire?” (FYI: she taught a class titled "Flaming Hypnosis."  Take from that what you will.).

So that said, my girl had requested that, later in the evening when neither she nor I were in the middle of anything, if I could transform her into a phoenix.  Just a side note… I’m honestly wondering if I was the only one that did a “physical transformation” scene that didn’t involve pain IN the transformation throughout NEEHU7… not a problem with that, just surprise.  Anyway, a phoenix… yea, sure, I could see that.

NEEHU7: "I AM! ...Yours..."

So leading up to NEEHU7, I was in communication with my pet, Katrina.  She knew she’d do her damnedest to attend the second she knew the date, as NEEHU6 was amazing for her and there’d be most/all of her favorite people there.  As soon as MentalConfetti and I both promised she wouldn’t need to sacrifice more than a couple of hours, Katrina signed up for volunteering, and knew she’d be helping out to make peoples’ con time great (including other volunteers: more on that in a bit.  Katrina: good girl).  Then, days prior, she had worries of just how much of NEEHU7 she’d have to miss because of people that aren’t paid enough to give a shit about other people… regardless, and thankfully, she was able to arrive Friday evening, just in time to work on Friday meet n’ greet treats and allow everyone to get food they needed, including volunteers.  She gets in and texts me, “I’m here” she says.  So, of course, I rush out of the class I was in (just really there to review anyway), we get her checked in (a tad bit more complicated than expected: always make sure you get a confirmation e-mail on ticket payment, folks) and I tease her a touch… with touch… and after all her bags and coat are stowed away, “Service sub needs service!”  Well, just in time for Friday evening food work, do we have a job for you!

NEEHU6: Friday Daytime

This post is mostly about classes, thoughts, discussions, and concepts ran through.  If you want the hot stuff, you’ll see it in Friday night.  However, if thoughts, ideas, and discussions about kink are within your interest in this moment, continue for more of this post.

So this morning was a fairly normal morning.  We each got up, MentalConfetti, Katrina, and I, and we each got down to breakfast in the hotel cafeteria area in our own time.  I caught MentalConfetti in the last 15 minutes before she headed off to The Society to handle morning kitchen duties, and sat back for breakfast with DrHeadCrash, Fleur_, and panavatar, with Katrina eventually joining us.  Katrina agreed without hesitation to drive me to The Society, since Confetti and I came in the same car.  Btw, I like me a hotel that has a free continental breakfast that includes French toast and sausage patties and links… mmm…

Anyway, after a brief adventure of seeing how the GPS got us to The Society, I promised to show Katrina the more direct route next time (it’s approximately 0.7 miles and maybe 1 minute longer, so GPS no likey).  We got in at about 10am, just as the first classes were starting… and there was a line to the registration desk at the front (going up the hallway inside, not outside) about… hmm, at least 20 people long, I’d assume.  It wasn’t long at all before Mephki was running up and down the line telling us “Classes are starting!  Go ahead and go to classes, you can register later,” the part she didn’t include is that she recognized basically everyone in the line, and some of the people in the line were presenters for 10am classes, but meh.  The schedule had a ton of good classes, including the first classes of the morning, but I wasn’t in a “sit still in a class” mood, and apparently neither was Katrina, so we got our badge stuff and all the info we needed, along with a schedule for Friday.

NEEHU6: A Preface and Thursday

I’m going to preface all talk of NEEHU6 by mentioning that I was feeling pretty introverted and disinterested in crowds throughout the entire weekend, while still wanting to be around people.  I very much looked forward to NEEHU, to seeing so many rarely-seen familiar faces, online voices, and online personalities, both that I’ve met at former *EEHUs and the ones I only have known from online conversations and discussions.  But from the very first moment, I would’ve also been fine with sticking myself in a corner and just listening for about 50% - 75% of the entire event, as long as I got to see these awesome people.

I both wanted to be involved, help out, and not have to be involved, if that makes sense?