This past weekend was the Spanking Masquerade, a combined endeavor between the Tampa Tanners and the Tampa Bay Phoenix Club. The Phoenix Club invited us to join them for a night of spanking with a masquerade party theme. It was a pleasant change for Cookie and Katia to have someone else planning out the party instead of them, so it gave them a chance to just enjoy themselves. It was a mixed group of our own members and theirs, but our members were given a discount from the usual rate. They also provided food and drink, with pasta being the general offering.
As with the theme, many of our own members tried to come in masks, and the girls provided masks for everyone that didn't have one. Katia provided me with mine, as she felt that a devil mask would fit me nicely. I'm not so sure that I looked like a devil, though. I'm thinking that I looked more like a superhero, or maybe a masked wrestler.
The main thing to say about the Phoenix Club is that it is, in fact, a dungeon club, so it's a little different from the parties that we're used to having. By “a little different,” I mean a lot different. The spanking crowd and mainstream BDSM crowd have wholly different habits and protocols, so there was a significant amount of culture shock between the two. Many of the Phoenix Club regulars were surprised that we could carry on a spanking “scene” with others sitting right there and having a conversation with them. They were worried about our “headspace.” Likewise, our group didn't realize that the others would want conversations to be taken away from play areas, which led to Cookie and a few others to be scolded. Plus, the regulars are used to bottoms spacing out during a scene, so they expect someone to be woozy afterward, and didn't seem to understand that not everyone drops into subspace during play. I had to explain to Cookie and Katia why they were continually being given towels to wear over their shoulders.
The biggest difference, though, is probably the frequency of play. In the dungeon atmosphere, players generally know who they plan on having a scene with long before they even reach the club. They have one planned scene, usually very intense, and then they sit down for the rest of the night. By comparison, attendees of most spanking parties move back and forth between playmates at the drop of a hat. Any given spanker or spankee will probably have played with several people in the course of a party, and sometimes with every member of the opposite interest. So, this meant that our members and theirs really didn't intermingle much. Some of our bottoms played with their Tops, but I don't think I saw a single one of the BDSM bottoms having more than one scene. Our Tops and bottoms, though, were all over the place.
Well, not everyone was all over the place, that is. In a rather drastic change from my usual self, I didn't play very much at all. In fact, I only played once, and only because the spankee in question was one that I haven't seen in almost a year, and I had been looking forward to seeing her. Even then, if Cookie hadn't pushed me to go over and play, I probably wouldn't have. I really don't like the dungeon atmosphere. The rooms are always kept too dark, and the booming music that they play makes it hard for me to concentrate. I spent much of the party either walking around and observing, or sitting down and falling asleep from boredom. I pretty much knew that this would be the case, though, and warned everyone before we went. I really didn't expect to be very social.
There were a couple other Tampa Tanners members who were similarly affected by the ambience, but were still able to find some play. The majority of us, though, were able to adapt quite well, and there was a lot of play in the various corners of the room. We even made use of a few pieces of dungeon furniture that we normally wouldn't have access to. Cookie found herself lying across a spanking horse.
Katia also got on some of the equipment, including a St. Andrew's Cross. She probably should have been tied down, but I guess no one wanted to take the time to shackle her in place. She also played on a cross earlier in the night for a flogging scene, which was another instance in which the BDSM crowd expected her to have more of a reaction than she really did.
Eventually, though, it was finally time to leave the party and head back to the hotel. We actually called it quits earlier than announced, leaving a full two hours before the final closing time. Everyone else had already cleared out, though, so there was little reason for us to stick around. Plus, I was more than happy to head back to the hotel where I could spank in a well-lit room without background music.
Well, I could have, anyway, if I wasn't dead tired by that time of night. We stopped by Todd and Suzy's room to celebrate Katia's birthday, but I was already starting to fade. I was able to give Katia her birthday swats, but was out of it after that. Cookie was just as knocked out, too, sleeping on the bed in Todd and Suzy's room. I was likewise sleeping on one of the chairs. When everyone else was ready to call it a night, we hobbled over to our own room and got some needed rest.
The next morning, we woke up early and got some breakfast, and then returned to Todd and Suzy's room for some playtime. I was in a much better state, and was able to spank all of the females present, thus making up for a rather unspankworthy night. Unfortunately, a few of our friends had already left, so there were a couple of female bottoms that I wasn't able to get to, as well as a few that I missed at the dungeon. These things happen, though, and we made up for it by warming the girls up nicely before we packed up to head home.
Oddly enough, through the entire dungeon party and our time at the hotel, we never once cut even a single slice out of Katia's birthday cake. We ended up taking it home and cutting it in half, bringing one part back home with me and Cookie, and the other going with Katia.
