risotto

Ha! I'm not sure that was an answer to the question asked! But fun.

I have been enjoying this series of yours. I kind of hate to see the Pope come up as I often find it something of a difficult card to read.

I also go blue, pink, yellow.

Not my kink, not that I don't enjoy a certain amount of scent, but I love the setup!

Oooh, I've had some pretty serious sessions. But I'm not a huge pain slut. What can I say, I'm a sensitive guy.

In the theme, my favorite card is "strength." I feel that the Emperor is a touch brittle. Strength holds open the lion's jaws, but not by force. The strength makes the lion submit, but it is not physical strength.

I'm constantly looking for new things to like. And I like most of them. I guess in substantial part I like the idea of kinky.

I mean I guess this could be foot fetish adjacent? I do enjoy picking up socks with my toes though. I've never felt any shame about it - it's a small extra power. But then I'm largely shame-free. If any Mistress can come up with a fun way to work this into a session, I'd love to hear the ideas. Always looking for something new.

Agreed. If one has to choose, 2 hours. I stopped doing one hour sessions quite a long time ago.

"Unforgettable" can be bad too. I haven't forgotten the worst Mistress I ever met, in Bangkok. Or the only Mistress I ever met at the Fortress who was totally not a match for me (she had a real fan base; unlike the one in BKK, she knew what she was doing) - first time I ever used a safe word. Otherwise, lots of things can make a Mistress unforgettable, though I think that is very personal. For me, I have strong memories of the Mistresses who love what they're doing and usually that means specific things. I love the look of concentration when a Mistress is doing a particularly beautiful tie, or working a pattern with dozens of needles, or, for a current FF Mistress, M. Dalisay's look of devious joy figuring out what disgusting thing to do with some piece of food. I love to see the delicate balance of the drive for control, with the care for the sub. I remember some Mistresses for their love of physicality, the ones who really love to punch and kick. Their is a unique look of joy that communicates, "I'm getting paid to handcuff this guy and then knee him in the kidneys!"

I do have some safety concerns.

Congratulations to M. Tang!

Well, the 8 trigrams from the I Ching, plus the two rings. Once upon a time I knew the symbolism for the trigrams, (and mostly the hexagrams) but I've forgotten it all. If I recall correctly, those things are used for feng shui, though I have no idea how.

Having visited M. Tang in person twice, I still find these just remarkable.

Sounds like fun! Awfully long time since I've worn way too much black eyeliner. I'm not sure whether or not that I appreciate that was from an era when people didn't take photos of everything, so there is no extant evidence.

I actually saw that done once, as part of a performance piece, years ago. Gotta love downtown performance.

I'm at two weeks from my session with this pair and I still have the bruises to show from it. Doesn't hurt when I sit down anymore, though.

I think the latter. It was all always there, and finally I had the courage to open that door and see all the beautiful glittering things behind it. I know different people have very different relationships to fetish. Some absolutely need to have their fetish element present. I don't. I'm still happy with pure vanilla, too, but now I have access to a much broader flavor palette. And I'm still trying every new thing I can.

The reality was beyond. After my first visit I had to wait for most of a year to come back because I was afraid of becoming obsessed. Did you ever read "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" as a kid? The scene with the magically addictive Turkish delight absolutely terrified me. And so did my first visit to the Fortress. But I did come to understand this is only one part of me - a fun part, but only one part. And now I can just enjoy the fun weird shit I like.

I think pop culture probably did amplify things a little, but most of it was there. Man, I loved the movie "Bound." Seriously, it's a popular Hollywood movie that's fundamentally a lesbian bondage flick. I saw Gina Gershon in "Cabaret" on B'way after that, and while she is not a great singer, she was super hot. And while it leaves a lot unsaid, Cabaret is probably the kinkiest B'way hit ever. And after "Bound" not shockingly both Wachowskis turned out to be trans and at least one a serious sub. And then the internet, starting with Usenet, which is surely before your time. Before it got killed by spam, I remember looking at alt.sex.bondage on Usenet thinking, oh just gonna be a bunch of nerds, should be funny and boy was I wrong. I was always too shy to try to ask for the things I was curious about. My very first experience was at the Fortress. Well, I dropped by one of the fetish clubs once, when they still existed, but I went way too early in the night and it was, uggh. The Fortress seemed like a safe space to explore things I was curious about. And it has been

I mean, you've met me.

Not really. The slave girl outfit in Return of the Jedi surely had a big impact on me - I'm a switch. But I'd been already having fantasies that involved me being tied up for as long as I'd been having sexual fantasies. They just, arrived. I didn't act on any of those thoughts until decades later, which is surely a shame.

Or maybe you could just singe them out with the lighter the way you threatened with me.