This weekend I had a great time at
Wicked Faire in Somerset, NJ with Puck and a bunch of our mutual friends and acquaintances. We stayed in a hotel room with four other people including Puck's friend Eric, so it was a bit crowded, but we didn't spend much time there anyway.
The theme of the event was "Fairy Tales Gone Wrong," and I loved the massive balloon structure of Rapunzel's Tower, which stood about 20 feet high in the lobby:

I arrived on Friday night after work and ran into Ryan and Beth shortly after I arrived. Puck came in later with Eric, who picked them up from Penn Station. The first presentation I attended was one on BDSM toys (floggers, paddles, whips, etc.) given by Dark, another of Puck's acquaintances. I knew him because they told me about him, but he didn't know me yet. He was accompanied by several women who served as test subjects for the various implements of pain. I've heard Morpheus' BDSM 101 presentation, so it wasn't all new to me, but Dark really knows his stuff.
Puck and Eric arrived in the middle of the presentation so I went out to meet them and organize our room situation. We went around looking at the vendors for a while because Puck wanted to buy some steampunk goggles, a vest and a few other things. We ran into Leon and Ardella from Open Love NY, and Roy and Michelle, who run the NJ poly group. It was everybody's first time at Wicked Faire, which I found rather comforting.
Beth, Ryan, Puck and I joined a small group in the gaming room to play a tabletop RPG called Deadlands, something I haven't done since the 1980s, when Dungeons & Dragons was new. Ryan played a crazy Russian hunter, Puck played a South American gaucho (cowhand) and I was a spy pretending to be a teacher. I can't remember what Beth's character was, other than he was named Mr. Smith. In the game we encountered a giant bear-gorilla in the woods of Washington State during the Civil War era, and we managed to defeat it. Ryan's character was almost killed, but I saved him by drawing the creature's attention with a daring attack on horseback.
Beth and Ryan went home after that, and Puck and I went to Dark's suite for my first kink play party. Puck put a box tie harness on me with rope, their first ever solo bondage scene tying someone up. I flogged one of Dark's subs, an Egyptian woman named Yasmine, which was a first for me. It was a nice crowd of people, and having gotten to know them at bit during the day made it more comfortable for me in the evenings. And of course some of them Puck knew from going to other parties in the past.
Saturday we went out to a nearby diner for breakfast with Eric and his friend Magdalene, and then came back to dress in our full costumed regalia. Puck dressed as a forest spirit and I dressed into my Renaissance Faire outfit. I teased and sculpted Puck's hair with hairspray, and they used my makeup to dramatic effect.

Later Puck bought a green leather mask that completed the costume nicely.

I stayed in the lobby to watch Leon in a grappling match where he dominated two other martial artists in a 10 minute match. This included a vicious body slam on the first guy, who then had to be replaced by someone bigger, but who didn't fare much better. I'm thankful Leon would be on my side in a street fight!