Mia stepped out of her car, and popped the trunk. She pulled out her duffel bag and backpack and then closed and locked it, then looked around her. Distantly she saw a few other groups forming, and hoisting her bag she made her way towards the nearest.
She knew that these were her people because a woman was dressed in a full medieval skirt with a wide brimmed hat plumed with feathers. A man standing next to her, had a foam sword stuck through his belt. Next to them a man and woman fought, with their own foam weapons, an axe and morning star, laughing as the woman's chain got entangled in the hooked blade of the axe.
"I presume I'm in the right place?" she said by way of greeting, sweeping forward in her own cloak and high boots.
They acknowledged her, the woman giving her a nod, the man just looking, and then turned back to their own conversations. Of course - the kind of crowd this thing attracted were usually geeks, or nature people - not always high in people skills.
Of course this event was a little different . . . over to the side she watched as a troop of motorcycles rolled in. The people who got off were dressed in leather, with only the barest touch of the medieval, more like the sexy versions you got around halloween. These people came and broke into a group together, forcing the circle to widen and accept them. She saw introductions being made.
A woman wearing a homespun dress, and a gold ribbon across her chest approached and introduced herself. "Hello! Welcome! I'm Marie. Have you been to the Protean gatherings before?"
"Yeah, I've been to a couple."
"Oh good, we're just waiting for a few more people, and then we'll bus everybody we've got in."
It wasn't long before the bus loaded up. Mia ended up sitting next to one of the leather clad men. He introduced himself as Mark.
"Have you been before?" She asked.
"Has this happened before?" He asked. "I've never been to the land before, no."
"Protean gatherings have been happening for seven or eight years now - one in each season. We're all thinking of this as just as between gathering, gathering."
"Oh, gotcha. So what normally happens at one of these things?"
"They split us into two groups: The Village - which lives in the village - you'll see, they've done an entire reproduction of a medieval village - and then the other half are the Wildfolk. They go set up in the woods."
"Oh cool," Mark encouraged.
"They do workshops in both camps - The village learns how to shear wool, or make butter, or build a medieval hut. The wildfolk learn to hunt, and forage and track and all the stuff they need to survive in the woods."
"But what's up with the swords?"
"Well, the wildfolk aren't allowed to bring food. It's to encourage them to learn to hunt and all, but the other thing they do is raid the village. We have pitched battles - totally unscripted - between the Village and Wildfolk. If you die you reincarnate on the other side - so it's a pretty big deal. We've had gatherings where by the end everyone is Wild or the village has killed all the Wildfolk and we live the last couple days in peace."
"That's awesome," Mark said - so presumably it's the same thing this time, just . . ."
"Yeah," Mia said, "With sex."
*****
"So we have a couple special rules for this gathering,"
They were all sitting in the great hall together, packing the building so that some people in the back had to stand. Marie the coordinator stood in the center.
"Everyone is going to wear a ribbon" - she gestured to her own gold ribbon. "Gold means a moderator. We are completely off limits while wearing a gold ribbon. Always obey our directions."
"Even if it's dirty?" Someone shouted,
"Especially if it's dirty," she deadpanned, and then laughed shaking her head, no - "moderators are outside of the action. Our job is to make sure nobody gets hurt and things flow smoothly. We will take off our ribbon and put on another one if we want to play."
She continued. "Red ribbon: You're potentially up for anything. Orange ribbon: You're good with anything as long as it's opposite sex. Yellow Ribbon: You're good with anything as long as it's same sex. Green ribbon: Keep it consensual but interested in everybody. Blue ribbon keep it consensual but opposite sex only. Violet ribbon consensual only but same sex only."
She paused. "Everyone got that?" several people laughed. "If you mix these up the person wearing them can correct you. The one I want to stick in your mind is silver: playing, but off limits for sexual play."
"You can change ribbons at any time. Maybe you were wearing red, and you got gangbanged and now every hole in your body hurts." She paused to wink "And you just want to take it easy for a bit - come get a silver ribbon."
"Stop, no, don't - are all words we use in our roleplay. We have only a single safe word which everyone uses, which is 'Pause game.' The universal symbol for this is," here she raised her hands to form a T, "The times gesture. I hope you're all familiar."
"What I hope, is that we can make space here for a lot of different roleplay, depending on what you're into. This is roleplay that includes the erotic, as opposed to specifically erotic roleplay. I hope that we can have romance, affairs, incest, honeymoons, abuse, rape, and every combination thereof, all coexisting in a roleplay that maintains a good story and a truly midieval context."
"Oh, and since undergarments will be revealed, I strongly encourage you to dress entirely in costume, not just cover up with it."
*****
Mia adjusted her orange ribbon, which she had tied up in her hair for the night. Here at the Protean gathering everyone did everything in character, including sleeping. She had joined with three other women, as sisters who lived together in this fairly large hut - allowing her her own room. They had gotten along well throughout the night, making a hearty stew together and eating it around the fire. It had started to lightly drizzle outside and Mia didn't envy the Wildfolk who wouldn't have had time to set up a proper camp yet.
As with most of the huts, this one came with a closet full of clothes, and Mia selected a nightgown from among them and slipped into bed.
