This weekend I attended Dark Odyssey's Winterfire, a weekend-long alternate lifestyles convention held at a local hotel in DC.
Attending the convention without a play partner (although I did have a comrade-in-crime, my good friend Tarkin), and not having any pre-arranged scenes, I was more voyeur than active participant.
I made it to several classes, picking up a few tips on rope bondage, flogging, and knife play. In particular, the bondage class was memorable, as the teacher (Shibari Warrior) had a very nice rapport with the victim he was tying up; he had her responding very nicely, illustrating to us just how enjoyable a knot in the right place can be.
I was able to meet up with Tess, although I didn't get nearly enough time with her; she bought a very nice black and red corset, and though I only caught her in it from across the room (she was occupied at the time), she looked…delectable.
And then there was the burlesque show, put on by Melody Sweet and the Rouge Coquette, which Tarkin and I attended with the ever lovely Mistress Dolphy, and her friends (Angelina, Lucy, and Shazz). French maid outfits, the can-can, and Melody Sweet dressed (and then undressed…) as an angel while singing a hauntingly beautiful song about falling. What more could a decadent sadist want?
But as much as I enjoyed the classes and burlesque show, what stands out most in my mind are the various scenes I saw taking place in the dungeon play areas.
My favorite may be a knife scene, found in a side room (a room where a man and a woman were being pierced with small colorful pins that turned their skin into art, and another girl's back was made into a living corset).
The knife scene: the girl was bound and laid out on the floor, leaving her vulnerable to the variety of knives being run along the more sensitive stretches of skin. Her top's use of edge and knife tip kept her writhing, her cries a mix of surprise, fear, and pleasure. A blade drawn across her throat, slowly; the piercing sharp tip of hand-daggers pressing into the palms of her hands; her feet untied, twisting and moving as cool steel traced lines up the inside of her thighs.
Oh, and did I forget to mention the bachelor party we attended? The one with the hot pole-dancing nurse, the one where a very pretty blonde was on his knees, arms bound in red ribbon, and giving head to the bride-to-be while she clung to the pole and the groom got spanked?
No? I'll have to save that story for another time.