The last week was hell in a handbasket.
As I write this post, I am at Xaara, being dressing while Spitfire DJs her heart out. She told me “yesterday” she was going to take the set. It was morning for her, and she sent me to bed.
Little did she realize that I was going to give it to her after my experience sleeping last night for me.
My vertigo’s back. In spades. Instead a of a few seconds of my world spinning – maybe three or for breaths at most, it was long enough, and bad enough, that I had to deal with the aftereffects of a topspin.
Yes, those after effects. I didn’t vomit, even though my stomach rebelled.
Spitfire told me to art, and I couldn’t. I was able to start writing a story bit, so I did that just before passing out in my bed.
See, we were both told we were doing too much DJing and all three of us would have to cut back, or else. I don’t think the one who told us that realized that this past week was an abheration on what normally happens in a week. With Coyote doing DS, and no special events, we three do a total of 24 hours of Djing, with me carrying the bulk of the load, and Spitfire a good second.
Yup, I had 12 hrs. Spitfire has 8, and Coyote 4. Reshuffling our schedules, Coyote will keep her 4 hours, but Spitfire and I are going down. Spitfire’s sets are being cut in half, and I’m loosing one set. So, I’ll have 10 hrs, Spitfire will have 6, and will be able to cover two of my shifts if she needs to. I can cover all of Spitfire’s if I have to, and both of Coyote’s, hopefully not all in one week. That still leaves us with 20 hours of djing in a week between the three of us, but only on weeks that Coyote has Divine Sadism to do. 18 hours is what we have in a normal week, with Coyote only having to do 2 hours.
Spitfire is cutting one of her Whip shifts, and both of us are cutting the Old Guard. We’re both extremely not pleased with it, but the math was being done last night, and we have to. Coyote is going to keep on doing it for the time being.
See, when we were each originally hired, DJs got 500L/shift to show up and play, even if it was empty. The “if we build it, they will come” method. Except, last June, the owner’s two partners, his land partner and submissive, both vanished on him, leaving him with the bulk of the landfees (re:all of them). The Djs were asked to keep on playing, but for tips only. All but I wanted to do that. I wanted to be on a leave of abscence until things got better for the owner, or if it shut down. There’s other issues there, but the main one was that the owner couldn’t afford the djs anymore.
So, the rest decided to keep playing out of loyalty, and I wasn’t about to say I wasn’t a team player. But now, all these months later, it’s Spitfire’s set that is the only one that makes lindens, and only if the YMO people show. I’ve cut mine short too many times, because there’s been no one there.
What got me, was that my last shift there, right after Coyote, the owner was there, and not even HE tipped either of us. Yes, I know I have some political differences with him, but his lack of presence, and lack of at least tipping us something, is disheartening. The people that show, if they tip at all, it’s tiny amounts.
So, when the word came down that we had to cut shifts, that was the first shift both Spitfire and I went for. It’s not fair to the other Djs if people are only coming for Spitfire. It’s not fair to me to have to Dj to an empty sim when there are other sims who have wanted me to have _that_ slot free for months at the least. Coyote doesn’t want to stop her set for her own reasons, and we do support her.
The next part is going to be the diplomatic dance. Both of us saying “we quit, but we still want to do whip shifts there” dance is going to have to happen. We don’t want to quit. We want to try to support the place some more, but, as it is right now, it’s futile. The math doesn’t lie. Each DJ there is owed between 10-15000L. Yes, Ten to Fiften Thousand Linden.
We were hired with a promise of a base pay. We haven’t gotten it in months. Why should we stay? Loyalty? Why? The owner hasn’t bothered to tip us in ages. Bryan is why we stay. He has the ability to soothe frayed DJ nerves. A bit too well.
Here’s a few photos from the sets this week…
Spitfire at Xaara as I’m typing this.
A hint of the crowd size at Xaara. One of my promises was that if I couldn’t DJ, I would have a spare. Ooo look… That’s Spitfire DJing in the background, as my backup!
CFNM with Coyote and Spitfire for “bunny day.”
Spitfire and I during one of the two sets I did at YMO. I love this bubble effect. I have a ton of images of it.
Coyote knocking herself out.
We’re not abandoning the Old Guard. We have bills to pay and we earn the lindens we need to pay them through djing. We have to go to where lindens drop like rain, and hope our buckets are big enough to catch some.
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