ysabetwordsmith | Cuddle Party

Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!

In the interest of promoting the concept of introvert parties, we've decided to start adding more communal features. You know how some folks just like to sit around and read together? You can do that here by sharing a link to an online story. I'm rereading "Those Who Walk Away from Omelas." Because someone needs to take a torch to that city.

Current Mood: busy
Crossposts: https://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/5165622.html

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From:

technoshaman

Something new this time... the Bear shambles in tugging a stake-sided Little Red Wagon, containing a bucket and two slow cookers. The bucket has the usual caramel corn; one of the slow cookers has fresh spaghetti (just pasta, no sauce), and the other the something new: Cincinnati chili. (CW: Onions, fish (Worcester sauce); it is savoury, but with just a hint of pepper-heat...) Having plugged in the cookers and set them to "keep warm", the Bear shambles over to the pile o'pillows and flumps down.

"That was a VERY nice weekend, including quite a few of y'all in hugspace (!) but I could use time with y'all to just *be*."

Time to explore Matthew Fox's On Becoming a Musical Mystical Bear, the link for which was gifted me by

librarygeek...

From:

ysabetwordsmith

Mmm, spaghetti!

From:

librarygeek

Yippee, welcome to Deep Ecumenism thoughts! Here's his blog: http://www.matthewfox.org/blog and a center he's been involved with: https://cac.org/

Here's the Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1660472.On_Becoming_a_Musical_Mystical_Bear

I'm reading parts of Matthew Fox's "One River, Many Wells" then typing on a Freewrite instrument for my paper. :-p

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1135267.One_River_Many_Wells

Edited (Added blog and Center for Action and Contemplation) Date: 2019-05-15 10:36 am (UTC)

From:

fuzzyred

J makes a plate of spaghetti and just a little bit of the chilli to try, before sitting down next to the Bear, close enough to lean on, but not demanding any specific attention. She then pulls out a book to read. "Time to just be is nice." :)

From:

technoshaman

*leans*.

*also plots to smash the patriarchy on his smartphone*.

From:

ysabetwordsmith

You know that theory about every record player having a record that would destroy it if played on it? Well, for every society, there are ideas it can't contain or it will tear itself apart.

So I'm over here cranking out "All genders are equal! All genders are equal!" as fast as I can turn the crank. I'm showing people what it would look like if men could do emotional labor and women could be dominant and nonbinary folks could be themselves. And every turn of the crank makes it just a little harder for the patriarchy to hold itself together.

From:

technoshaman

*nods* we planted a few seeds in a patriarchist's head this weekend before showing him the door... most important being, yes, women do in fact run this con and this household and enlist other women to be their enforcers... matter of fact, when we were recruiting enforcers we approached the president of my congregation (whom I knew as an Old Guard filker LONG before I knew him as a UU) and he deferred to his partner, who informed me later that she used to run security for Furry cons... the woman _looks_ unassuming, but if she can wrangle recalcitrant furries one mildly cranky Trumpie was gonna be light action.

(I was _so proud_ of

alatefeline for singing a protest song along similar lines in front of him... :)

From:

ysabetwordsmith

>>most important being, yes, women do in fact run this con and this household and enlist other women to be their enforcers...<<

>>she used to run security for Furry cons... <<

BAMF enforcer goes BAMF!

>>(I was _so proud_ of

alatefeline for singing a protest song along similar lines in front of him... :) <<

When I was in college, I used to walk through campus after dark belting out songs from the Firestorm album.

Frat boys crossed the street to get away from me.

From:

librarygeek

I'm into singing "You're Always Welcome At Our Camp", the SCA PENNSIC spoof on Shel Silverstein's song. "Make a tiny meat pie of your family jewels" while walking an anxious reactive Pibble gets me left alone...

From:

technoshaman

EEEEEEEEEhehehehehehehe...

Both M and a family friend of ours (also M) (also Jewish) (but a lot closer to you) are huge fans of Uncle Shel.

From:

fuzzyred

Oooo, snashing sounds like fun. I could smash some things, if you need a hand 😀😈

From: (Anonymous)

*slinks in* *plops down on pillows* *curls up near the people* happyflap bounce "mmmmrrrrrttttt" skritches welcome any time. *PUUURRR Puuurrr purrpurrpurr*

From:

fuzzyred

Fuzzy J sits down next to her friend and starts skritching the hair and behind the ears, watching closely for preference. *skritchskritchskritch*

From: (Anonymous)

FUZZYFRIEND!!!!! *HAPPYFLAP PUUURRR* *headbumps so back of neck and behind ears is easy reaching* So happy to see fuzzyredfriend!!!*Puuurrr Puuurrr purrpurrpurr purr PURR purrpurrpurr purr PURR purrpurrpurr* *happyflap happyflap snuggle happyflap snuggle happyflap skritches skritch skritch skritch*

From:

fuzzyred

*ginormous smiles* Hello flappy friend, it's good to see you *obligingly skritches back of neck and behind ears* *pet pet skritch skritch skritch snuggle grin snuggle*

From: (Anonymous)

*brushes appear* brushes and braids???

From:

fuzzyred

Yes please 😊😊😊😊😊

From: (Anonymous)

Works a high crown braid with rope twists along the hairline, for fun twists ribbon into the rope twists and pins them up pretty.....

From:

fuzzyred

Oooo, pretty 😊😊 I like the look, and the way it feels :)

From:

gingicat

Can I ask for a book recommendation? A pre-teen of my acquaintance is questioning their gender identity, and they're not quite ready for your poetry, and they have huge self-esteem issues. Their parents are supportive of gender identity changes, and, in fact, there are a lot of out trans people in their parents' social circle, which is how the kid knows it's safe to investigate. But all the recommended books are pretty much the opposite circumstances.

From:

gingicat

PS. If any of the Finn Family writers would like to try writing from Halley’s point of view, I will fundraise for it...

From:

fuzzyred

Different Impressions is

dialecticdreamer's latest story with Halley, and mostly from thon's point of view if I recall correctly. Dialecticdreamer also does two prompt calls a month, so you could specifically request Halley there, if you like. Feathering the Nest is a good time for that because the main focus is fluff. I will gladly help pitch in to sponsor any of those stories too :)

From:

gingicat

Thanks for reminding me! I've printed that one out because I'll be seeing the kid today. She doesn't currently have email access, but I might well pass along questions to the author. :)

From:

ysabetwordsmith

It's totally fine to relay prompts from someone else too. We can always make up new characters if needed.

From:

ysabetwordsmith

Upcoming prompt calls include:

May 18-19 Crowdfunding Creative Jam on "Justice"

June 4 Poetry Fishbowl "Oaths and Promises"

Since my other poetry is off the mark for your purposes, a more specific prompt would be helpful.

From:

ysabetwordsmith

Sadly that matches my observation. All the books I've seen focus on the problems, not what it looks like when people are okay with it. Probably because most people here aren't so smooth. >_<

Even most of the trans characters I've written have a challenging past. The only one I can think of where the parents just went "Oh, okay" is Halley and that's one of

dialecticdreamer's characters, and not a book.

From:

fuzzyred

Fuzzy J comes in, carrying her knitting bag, some colouring books and reading books, and chocolate cake. She sets the cake on the table, grabs the book she is currently reading, and curls up near friends to offer company and skritches.

----------

Fasta vas igi dasa naga iki da vaga. Kash da vadi iki da. Just .... Naga. Naga. Ahhhhhhhhhh.

*end of Naa Vodo rant*

😑 Work got extremely irritating and I just want to be done.

From:

ysabetwordsmith

The cake is not a lie! :D I love chocolate cake.

From:

fuzzyred

It is not! 😀 And it comes with fudge frosting!

From:

technoshaman

I say, my friend. What language WAS that? And dare I ask at whom to aim the karmic ICBM?

From:

fuzzyred

That was Naa Vodo. I made a post about it, with that tag, but I have no spoons to add the link right now. Most of that doesn't translate directly to English, though I've come to realize that "Fasta vas" is a curse word, and a few have individual meanings, like "naga" meams "no". It essentially boils down to "I am extremely irritated and out of spoons for politeness. Why do I have to deal with your incompetence?"

The macgine at work didn't want to cooperate; everything kept going wrong. At least part of that was due to incompetent set up by electricians, amd possibly the mechanics, though some of it did get fixed.

From:

technoshaman

*skims the top of it*

Innnnnteresting.

And also *hugs*. I get the wanting to be DONE bit.

From:

fuzzyred

It's still very much in the develooment stages, and not really consciously so, but it is good for venting frustration.

*hugs* Thank you. I'm very glad that I'm done now. And I actually do have chocolate cake with fudge icing here. The icing is homemade, the cake is from a box.

From: (Anonymous)

*mrrtpurrr* *breaks out brushes* *plops down in Fuzzylap* *starts braiding hair and skritches* *gives good strong black tea to go with chocolate cake... or opens the intimate drinking fountain to get beverage of choice*

From:

fuzzyred

*purrpurrpurr* Braids! Yay! *melts into braids and skritches* *skritch skritch skritch* I will return braids later, melting now. ☺😌😌😌 Ooo black tea! Or maybe a hot chocolate? Tea first I think.

From: (Anonymous)

Makes rope braids and pulls them up into a coiled chignon...then undoes it to skritches scalp and make new braids

From:

fuzzyred

Eeeeeeee :D :D :D :D *melts into braids and skritches* *purrrrrr purrrrrr purrpurr purrr*

From: (Anonymous)

* skritch scritch scritch scritch* *brushes brushes* *starts French braiding hair* *skritch skritch skritch brush brush brush*

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