#charmed2020

Remember last year’s zine? It doesn’t matter! This year we’re new, we’re improved, and we’re coming for you with some great stories and contributions put together by some of the most creative minds I know.

Ally Brinken - Editor-in-Chief

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Ari - Author

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Chelicerate - Author

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Doctor D - Author

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SarahDemoness - Author

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Sleepystephbot - Artiste Extraordinaire

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strange item - Author

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I've tried and failed to write this post several times. And the problem I'm having is that there's that much to talk about I just find myself diving down rabbit holes… let's try again.

Last weekend, I attended my first hypnocon ever, Charmed 2020, and it was glorious. There are so many highlights from it, it's difficult to pick them out, so in brief:

Highlights

Getting to play publicly with my amazing, beautiful play partner, the legendary and fabulous @lizzidoll (@tennfan2 called us "aggressively cute").

Getting to meet Lizzi's circle of friends: @enscenic, @zanydanger, @hypno-sandwich, @theleeallure, @carneggyblog, @tennfan2, @h-sleepingirl, cckitten… the list goes on.

Watching Lizzi's friends, most of whom she's not seen for some time, greet her with such genuine love and affection that it filled my heart with joy and brought tears to my eyes.

Being Lizzi's assistant / handler for the Gallery of Living Art, turning her into a poseable and stunningly attractive doll with a twist for those brave enough to investigate more closely.

Being sung down into trance by @enscenic, Lizzi, @theleeallure and @zanydanger — by far the most intensely beautiful hypnotic induction I've ever experienced, and a wonderful surprise which felt a lot like an initiation ritual.

Watching @zanydanger tie Lizzi in the dungeon in a scene that was so unbelievably fucking hot.

@hypno-sandwich proving that I am very responsive to a spiral drawn in the air in front of my eyes.

Demo-bottoming for Mazirian and Velvetine Rabbit's dual induction class — I was told afterwards that I had a hot trance face, much to Lizzi's agreement.

Trancing with and fractionating Blue Prime, which was a journey for both of us -- and for me, my first time solo-topping with someone other than Lizzi for the first time in far too many years.

Spending a few days post-con decompressing in Baltimore with Lizzi — we can firmly recommend Sullivan's Steakhouse and the Lump Crabcakes at Faidley's in Lexington Market.

What I wish I'd done

I don't know if it was the intensity of the experience, the jet-lag from flying 8.5 hours, or the late nights (most likely a combination of all three) but I spent quite a bit of time sleeping during class times. Next time I'd like to do more classes and less napping. But I love napping, so…

Also, I wish I'd have played with more people. That was partly down to my own insecurity — it was only thanks to Lizzi that I actually tranced with Blue at all — and partly down to the fact that even when I put my search for partners on Discord it was actually pretty difficult for us to find each other. Also, there wasn't really a quiet space to do random trancing in, which would have been nice.

What I learned

Oh, so much. I learned a bit of history, a lot of theory, a huge number of little tricks that I'm dying to try (even second-hand learning: @theleeallure apparently had a genius method for bringing someone all the way out of a deep trance which I'm going to keep in my back pocket).

Most importantly, though, I had it reaffirmed to me that I'm not alone in my weirdness. And that not only am I not alone, but that most of the people who are in this weird and kinky hypnoboat with me are thoroughly delightful human beings, around whom I want to spend more time ere too long.

General Thoughts

Charmed! is a great con, especially for a con newb like me. Sure, there could be some reorganisation of classes to make things a bit easier to access for journey-folk hypnokinksters like yours truly — being able to chop and change between -101 and -201 would have been great, for example. But that's a difficult thing to orchestrate.

Much was made of the new consent policy, which explicitly disallowed CNC play (or at least stated that "CNC is not an excuse in the event of a consent violation). I'm not going to go into that here too much — the ConCom took legal advice and were following it in the best way they could. Some CNC-playing people felt kink-shamed. I didn't, but I can see why people did. As far as I can tell, though, the consent policy didn't cause any actual problems, and was more of a problem in people's minds than in actuality.

What's next.

Here it is! The Charmed 2020 Silent Trance Dance Playlist!

Curated by DJ DangerSnap (SnapMeDown & Zany Danger), we put this playlist in 2 different places so it will be easy to find. Our class will be in Mainsail East, on Sunday 1/19/20, from 2-3PM.

Spotify

Youtube

Please if you are planning on joining us at Charmed, endeavor to have this playlist pre-loaded. We will help you find it if you are behind or need help! Don’t panic!

PLEASE BRING A PAIR OF HEADPHONES! (I’ll bring a couple of extras to loan.) 

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Class description:

Welcome to Silent Trance Dance #2 with DJ DangerSnap! We know that the day can get pretty long, so here is the perfect opportunity to connect with yourself, tune out the world, and move your body! We will curate a playlist for you. We’ll be releasing several ways to access it a bit closer to the event!

Please bring your own pair of headphones, they will not be provided. Why headphones? We love the benefits of having your own experience among a group of people. Also, less disruption of other classes.

CW: The touching of other people during this class must be agreed upon beforehand. Just because this is a trance dance does NOT give you permission to touch at will. Also, some of the songs on this playlist contain explicit language and suggestive themes. Looking forward to seeing you there!

That's right, it's just two weeks until Charmed! By this time two weeks from now, the Charmed School will be already over and folks will be getting to Annapolis in a state of high excitement over the coming weekend! If you haven't yet gotten your membership, there are still slots available!

https://charmedhypno.org/registration/

If you need to arrange a rideshare from BWI, there is a room-and-ride-share channel on our Discord!

https://discord.gg/PE2ujdP

This is not a drill, people!

Charmed 2020 is getting closer, and we know you've been itching to plan your time for one of the best weekends of the whole year! And now, you can!

https://charmedhypno.org/programming/