Positive Action for consent or PAC is an extension of the safety check myself and WykD_Dave have in place for when we play, I am sure there are many other who do similar checks during play. I wanted to write a bit more on it, particularly in relation to consent during play.

Having a positive action for consent might be more beneficial for bottoms who feel they could have a freeze reaction to something happening mid scene. I use this particular signal mainly for indicating to my partner if my circulation and nerves are good, but have recently started adapting to to other communication.

If my rigger places their hands in mine I would squeeze back in response to let them know I am okay, my circulation is fine and my nerves are good and I am comfortable to continue with the scene. My rigger will then progress to make other checks, for example placing their hands on the back of mine so I can push back in response which indicates the strength and motor skills of my hand (and there for highlight any nerve issues).

If I do not squeeze back in response to the initial check, where my rigger has placed their hands in mine for a response, they will untie me. No response equals no more scene. No questions asked, I will be untied. The discussion comes later.

It is possible I was too spaced to respond in which case, great, no harm done, we can play again either now or another time. It could be that there was a nerve or circulation issue, again great that I have been untied, we can try to learn and treat it, or it could be that I was uncomfortable with what was happening, either the level of discomfort, pain, breathing issues, level of sexuality of just an off-feeling that things were not right. In this example, thats great too. you don’t always need to know why things felt off. The rigger will untie and discussion will follow after and appropriate care is given.

This will not in anyway guarantee your safety but if a concern is not being able to articulate when you may need to, it takes the responsibility to initiate a safeword (which can be hard to do a lot of the time) or indicate what the issue is away from the bottom. With this method, all you have to do is not respond.

I do hope that some people will find this method useful and I wanted to share it. I would advise that at the beginning of a scene you let your rigger know that you are a bottom who uses this method and their responsibility is to check regularly by placing their hand or fingers in your hands for a response, they will need to do this at any change during the scene and it can be done very regularly and discretely without impacting on the scene.

If anyone has seen myself and Dave play or perform we do this constantly through our scenes and performances.

I hope this is useful.

Clover X x