Answering questions

Two questions have recently come up, thanks to valkeriefire.

The first is not so much a straight question as it is her wondering about my "Standard Introduction."

Most people when they first meet me (and I'm not at work at the time) will get the following statement:

"Hi, I'm Kukla, and these are my breasts."

If memory serves, this started as a joke and an attempt to annoy a friend of mine. See, I have breasts. They're not small, but they don't come anywhere NEAR being the biggest set in fandom. I learned a long time ago that it was easier and more attractive to put them on display than to try to hide them under a sweater, so I often wear things that do call attention to my cleavage.
As a result of this, I often find myself having a conversation with someone who can't seem to meet my eyes.

The "Standard Introduction" (Hi, I'm Kukla and these are my breasts") would have fallen out of use if I hadn't discovered that it serves two functions.

First of all, it breaks the ice nicely. Even in fandom, people are sometimes shy when meeting a stranger. Sometimes my reputations proceed me, and I intimidate people. It's a way to let people know that I'm fun and silly and don't have any real body-consciousness issues. It usually gets a laugh and gives the person I'm meeting a chance to come up with a clever retort. (And yes, really, about half of them try to shake "hands" with the breasts.)

Secondly, it offers a direct invitation to stare at them. It's permission to take a few seconds to get a really good gander at what's poking out of my corset. When I give permission to gawk, I get one of three reactions:
I get a slow, appreciative once-over, then a smile and the person meets my eyes for the rest of the conversation.
I get a pair of eyes locked on mine, and the person flatly refuses to look at any part of me past my chin.
The other person is offended at the suggestion that I'm defined by my cleavage. This happens with men and women. The guys will get huffy because they think I'm implying that they're planning to gawk at my knockers.

At any rate, sometimes if someone does not recognize me from the last time we met, this introduction makes me a little bit distinctive. After all, the last time they saw me I might have been the Faerie Queen, whereas right now I'm a zombie. Not everyone can figure out that all my many faces belong to me.

So they're not spectacular or anything. Heck, there's at least four people on my flist with far more impressive racks than I. But I do sling them around a bit.

And, of course, there is a story.
I was hanging out at the coffee house one night. It was crowded. At this time, my friend (we'll call him TheCat for now) was the barrista. He called out across the hubbub to sevenstars7 "Hey baby, you look good! DAMN, look at that cleavage" (Or some such.)
This caused her to hide in embarrassment, which was at least part of the reason that he did it. I leaped immediately onto the nearest table and shouted back at him, "HEY! I'm KUKLA and these are my BREASTS!"
He answered, "Yeah, baby, you're titties are nice, too."
And so I began the following rant:
"Oh, NO. These are not titties. Titties are small and perky. THESE are BREASTS. Jugs. Gazoongas. HUUUUGE tracts of land. These are not TITTIES, they're BREASTS... and YOU, sir, are a BOOB."

I can't claim credit for that rant. I stole it gleefully from sevenstars7's mom.

bradhicks has a friend who stated something I've borrowed on occasion. "Oh, it's ok to look. If I hadn't wanted you to look at them, I'd have worn a different outfit..."

Faerie inspiration

I've been asked where my fascinations with Faeries and Faerie lore come from.

Oh, dear.
I don't know where it comes from.

I've always been fascinated by fairies and fairy tales. My mother used to get me to help her do chores by playing Cinderella with me, being both the wicked stepmother and the Fairy Godmother. One of the first real books I read myself was in the Oz series. There is something about the stories of magic that has always touched me on a visceral level, speaks to my truest self.

I believe in magic. I believe in strangeness. I believe that we don't have it all figured out yet.

I have always sought out information on ESP, dreams, ghosts, monsters, and of course Fairies. They're in our best stories, and they're reflections of ourselves in both the light and the dark mirror. I've pursued Atlantis, I've researched the Countess Bathory and Vlad Tepes, I've eagerly peered at photos of the Loch Ness Monster.

I love this stuff. Truly. I always have. The day I outgrow my fairy tales is the day I cease to be me.