Key Players in the Sorcyress's Life, circa 2024!

[sorcyress]

Key Players in the Sorcyress's Life, circa 2024!
Since it turns out the last time I did this was five years ago, and yeah, some things have changed!

Here are some of the important people in my life who I am likely to talk about without a lot of qualifiers!

Blood Family, the people who are directly genetically linked to me and who I grew up with in Maryland in the way-back-when.

• Mom also referred to as Werewulf or WerewulfMom occasionally, and very very rarely by their given name of Greykell. Far more often as mom, sometimes as mum, better than your mother by a goodly clip in all likelihood because they are _really_ a wonder and a delight. Everything good about me comes from them, to some degree or another. They're currently semi-retired as a mom, living in MD with da, and doing lots of good singing and other adventures.


• Dad also live in MD, and is less semi-retired as an anesthesiologist. He is much quieter, and gets referenced less often, but is where I get some of my sharpness and a lot of my high standards (for better or for worse). Sometimes referred to by Da (see above).


• Shannon the middle sister, the quiet sister, has a couple of online names that I know and probably several I don't. Does computer stuff in Seattle (currently looking so like...), is sometimes referred to as Shan. Very good at video games, has high and enthusiastic standards for action movies, has been growing more and more into herself in the past five-to-ten years and I'm here for it.


• Alys the youngest sister, the dramatic sister, definitely the sister I am referring to if I say "my sister" without qualifiers, not because Shan doesn't count but because Al is so very larger-than-life in the same way as me and mom that she takes up all that space. Currently in Minneapolis with her ~fiancee~, working as a writer and a whatever-else-pays-the-bills but damnit, she keeps selling short stories and essays and her and her agent are working on the novel. I call her Al a lot of the time, and she was Aly for most of our childhoods (which is why her tag in my journal is "Alys-the-eternal", because it was a tease at the time that she wouldn't keep her changed nickname --I am eating crow about that, I'm pretty sure she's been Alys longer than she ever was Aly).

Home Family, the people I currently live with in Boston. It's a pretty stable grouping, which I am very grateful for, and they are my family, not just roommates.

• Ezri, most likely to be who I mean when I refer to "my roommate" without qualifiers. One of the best friends I've had here in the Boston area, and one of the people I've known longest (solidly since my college days, although they didn't go to Lesley with me). Short, geeky, charming, likes cooking and researching things and reading nice novels and Animal Crossing. We lived together yonks ago, and we've been living together now since August 2019.


• Rey is Ezri's girlfriend, who I had met a charming handful of times before April 2020 and "hey is it cool if she moves in with us for a couple weeks during this whole lockdown thing so she's not alone" became a happily ever after. Tall, keen, very into Ham Radios, does the house sysadmin stuff, furry (fox-cat).


• Nigel is the only cat in the house who actually walks on four legs. Always hungry. Like, you've met food-motivated cats, but no, the man will literally run the length of the house for a single thrown kib (not even a treat!). Stereotypically orange-cat stupid. Absolute darling, even if we are constantly insulting him, in the tradition of proud cat-owners everywhere.


• The Ministry for Feline Advancement or "MFA" is the official name of our house. Sometimes gets abbreviated to "MiniCat". Yes, we are well aware it's confusing to have named our house that when we have such proximity to the other more famous MFA in Boston-proper, that is absolutely some of the appeal.

Good Friends, sometimes best-friends? I dunno, these are people I hang out with pretty often or have fairly specific relationships with and talk about or whatever.

• Veronica, sometimes V, online as Knit1Purr2. Since 1997, if I say "best friend" without qualifiers, she's who I mean. Lives in Maryland with two kids, a husband, a roommate and several pets. Smart as hell, competent as hell, deeply funny, a little corny, unbelievably kind and sassy and I cannot say enough good things about her no matter how I try. Likes knitting and board games and various nerderies!


• Elishka, sometimes 'Lishka, verdantry over here. My "same-brain" friend, not _only_ because we're both fucked up by too much exposure to the Heralds of Valdemar at too impressionable an age, but that's plenty of it. Deliciously goblin, has too many hobbies but is somehow willing to let me drag them into more sometimes, we never ever hang out enough because we're both busy as fuck but it's pretty much always good when we do manage it.


• Tailsteak rarely "my favoured" never by his actual name even though he's pretty thorough about linking Mason with his various creations these days. "a d-list webcomics celebrity which is like a z-list real celebrity" as he described himself once, trying to make me be less starry-eyed that this amazing creative person was actually talking to little ol' me. (it didn't work). We watch Taskmaster together almost every week (with occasional forays into not-Taskmaster, but we currently have *several* seasons we're behind on). He makes lots of cool art!


• Clayton who I think I usually just refer to as "work bestie". Emphatically not my "work-husband" and thank god we know each other well enough that we've explicitly had that conversation and shared our mutual revulsion for that kind of terminology. He's idealistic as hell and cool as hell, and does Japanese Tea Ceremony like I do Scottish Country Dancing, which is to say, at way deeper a level than the average person realizes is even possible. One of the like, two coworkers _ever_ who has been a real friend enough for me to come out to as polyam.


• jere7my likes yelling about Star Wars and taking photographs of mushrooms and going on adventures and I am so grateful and excited to join him for all these things sometimes. We go bicycling and wandering around the world and watching movies and dancing and playing and generally having a grand time together.


• Magus is back to living in the greater-Boston-area and I am very happy about it, since there was like a decade of not doing that. Good for dancing and board games and snark. Was the reason I got into SCD and thankfully we were both able to keep it in the breakup.


• The DnD Group which is a misnomer since we play Pathfinder. JoshZed is our DM and the one who brought us all together and so the one I've known the longest. He's a math teacher at a private school, and it is very funny for us to compare notes. Satvik does computers out in CA with their fannnnntasticly cool wife Mandy and incredibly adorable baby-now-toddler who we get to see on the zoom camera sometimes during games. Scoop lives in the Boston area as well (now that he's a Real Doctor, yay!) (to be clear, "of Astronomy") and I sometimes get to make him watch Middleman with me before or after gaming.

Partners (current): I'm polyamorous and date a bunch of people at once. It goes well for me! In general, I do non-hirearchal "always-secondary" style polyam, which means most of my partners are Srsly Entangled with someone else. Yay!

• Fetian (known sometimes as mek, or my California-boy) is my beloved clone who I've known forever and been dating nearly as long. He's into conlanging, funny internet stuff, writing, creating art, and weird fae shit. Lives with his partner Ash, and Ash's husband Erik. We started our cross-country romance in 2008, and generally I get out to Cali for February or April vacation (note to self, need to check dates etc for this year).


• Terrapin is my sir. We've been dating formally since 2010, with some weird pseudo-datey vibes before then. He's into kink and geekery and other nice stuff that I don't specify to try and not out him as polyam. I generally get to spend Arisia with him. Lives with his also-not-out-as-polyam wife.


• Austin is my most freqeuntly seen partner --we manage to have date night about once a week. He loves trains and transit, change ringing, contra dance, and percussion. He lives about a mile from me with his spouse Phoebe. We've been dating since 2017, the weekend my whole life changed. (I acquired a relationship, job, and hobby in the span of about 48 hours).


• The Polycool is the name for me-Austin-Bee-Todd, plus whoever else we get on mine or Todd's ends at any given time. Todd lives about another mile from Austin and Bee (and it is sickeningly convenient that when they bought their new house, they managed to land one almost perfectly between their other partners) and the pile of us all get along quite well and have semi-regular hangouts which we're trying to be more organized about. Lots of video games and board games and arguing and goofiness.


• Tuesday lives in Providence, and we manage to get together about once a month (yes, we would like it to be more) for a weekend at a time usually. She and I met ages ago at a NEFFA, and started dating in 2021 after a failed Pinewoods one-night-stand. (the failure was not in the standing, but in the one-night). They're into linguistics, biaural recordings, plastic guitars, folk music, and other good stuff.


• Sam, frequently SamSam, is my most recent partner. They live in Burlington VT with their wife Bean. Yet another failed one-night-stand (I am not good at loving 'em and leaving 'em, apparently), we started dating in 2023. They like books, Sailor Moon, biathalon, ice skating, bicycling, and other nonsense.

There are a couple comets I have --Master SoNSo, Maia, LisaK*****-- but mostly I am busy enough to not be trying to cultivate new relationships on purpose.

Partners (former) There are other people who I used to date but still come up sometimes for various reasons.

• kSatyr, also known as the abusive ex. Writing this across several days mean I get to write this paragraph on the 17th anniversary of breaking up with him. Good. We broke up in 2007, and have been basically no-contact since mid-2008 and actually no-contact since 2011. I could happily go the rest of my life without ever hearing of or about him again. He was sexually and emotionally abusive, and the sort of dude who was so pathetic about figuring out his own life he had to groom and date a teenager, there's not really more to say.


• Sparr, also known as the exhausting ex. Dated for a long time, because he's smart and interesting and involved with a lot of neat things. Broke up for various reasons and honestly, I don't actually need to publish the rest of this paragraph. No is a complete sentance.


• Melisande is probably the most likely person to be referred to as "favourite ex" especially now that I've been broken up with Magus for over a decade and use just "friend" as a referent at this point. She lives in Seattle and is into storytelling and piracy and tea and witchy-shit and being queer and awesome.

Categories and Locations are not actual people, but they're other things I mention sometimes that you should probably know about.

• Scottish Country Dance is usually abbreviated to SCD and it is my favourite form of folk dancing. If I mention RSCDS that's the Royal SCD Society and I'm either talking globably (HQ, in Scotland) or local (Boston branch, covers most of New England). Sometimes I go to meetings for RSCDSBoston Exec or TMC (Teaching and Music Committee). I have recently started a class, which is officially called Gender Neutral SCD but I frequently refer to it as "Queer Scottish" or QSCD.


• Pinewoods is the camp I go to in the summer to do folk dance and singing. I usually attend ESCape (English-Scottish-Contra) and Scottish Sessions, although the last two summers I've done volunteer/paid crew work and attended several other random sessions (Harmony, English, American, LabourDay). It is a very good home and I am very happy there.


• Bellringing or Bells is my referent for English Change Ringing, which is my other major hobby these days. I do it in one of the two churches in Boston that has proper bells, or sometimes other places like Smith College or out on the cape at Orleans. The Bellringers get a lot of casual mention, and several of them are actually active around here which is great, frankly.


• Free Space Dinosaur is my discord server. It is half social space, half collective ADHD brain management, half place to play parlour games. It's a dictatorship, not a democracy, but somehow my policy of being aggressively explicit about the sort of space I want has worked out to have a quite nice culture, actually. If you're the sort of person who uses discord and likes having social spaces and want to come hang, let me know and I'll drop you an invite. The vibe is meant to be "focused on mostly our own individual lives and small talk, rather than grandoise discussion of serious topics" but if you're into the latter, I know some people who run spaces for that as well.


• The Denizens is the collective name for the other people who live in my head. Continued exposure to LB has reassured me that "Multiple" is not diagnostic so gatekeeping it is stupid and I am Multi enough to count, so yeah, I guess it's that. No one fronts except me, although Gabe and Alis and Hyde are all perfectly willing to have conversations over text if you poke 'em.

~Sor
MOOP!

Comments

[ckd]

I am very much an online social spaces person (what with having found them in the 300bps dialup days and having that bend the course of my life the way a gravity well bends a path into an orbit), so I would be very happy to receive an invite.

[sorcyress]

Sure! This link should work, and if it doesn't, let me know! There's a bunch of channels and not currently any sort of useful user-guide but feel free to poke around and ask questions as needed.

~Sor

[ckd]

It worked; thanks!