The Prancing Skiltaire

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The Prancing Skiltaire

The Prancing Skiltaire is the given name of a private residence in Garden Grove, Orange County, California, owned by Mark Merlino. It is host to a group of furries that share their common interests in the furry fandom, and also have been host to a variety of public events in the past years: annual holiday get-togethers, ConFurence and Califur staff meetings, filking concerts, and more recently, has taken over the previous role of monthly parties that were hosted by the wildly popular Rick's Café Terrestrienne, which were just located a few blocks east until Rick and Tess Calhoun moved to state of Washington, USA in mid 2005.

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[edit] House party

Guests of the monthly house party are asked to provide their own food and munchies. A barbecue is available in the backyard. Parties are usually held on the second Saturday of each month, but consult the schedule for special parties (e.g. New Year's, Halloween, Fourth of July, etc) or changes of plans.

[edit] History

The name of the house was modeled after traditional Old English tradition: e.g. "Red Lion Inn", "The Boar's Head", etc. which signifies a place of abode and commune to weary travelers. Skiltaire are a species created by Mark for a personally-made RPG.

The five-bedroom house is known for its primarily furry-themed decor. Most of the walls and shelving space is decked out with original and re-created animation cels of past furry movies, Japanese and Chinese manga, original artwork by various furry artists, an extensive collection of DVDs, CDs, music, and offbeat movies, a large collection of plushies, memorabilia, collectibles, statuettes, etc.

[edit] Tiger's Den BBS

Date of Operation: 1983-1996

Not to be confused with Tigerden Internet Services, Tiger's Den BBS was a furry-themed bulletin board service in the mid-to-late 80's before the popularization of the Internet. The servers were located in the far east wing of the house. As a result of this and Mark's professional skills as a networking engineer, the house was rigged with a more-than-adequate Ethernet network, which was ahead of its time for a personal residence before the popularization of residential LANs.

[edit] Firstlight Internet Services

The Skiltaire also has a history with Firstlight Internet Services. Firstlight was/is a full-service ISP, once primarily based out of Orange County. Neil Whelchel, its owner, was a long-time resident at the house, and consequently, partners in maintaining the communication networks provided at ConFurence, along with Tigerden Internet Services. Many of the residents of the house were given complimentary web space and email addresses, some of which are still in use today. The ISP was also host of The Pride Lands MUCK, an offshoot of The Lion King MUCK.

The name Firstlight was chosen for the area of TLK MUCK which hosted the Firstlight Pride, for its positioning on the far-eastern borders of the muck; it being the first light of day. The Pride was composed of many various species of animal; something which the staff of TLK MUCK objected to. The idea of, say, a honey badger being mated to a lioness seemed a horribly taboo idea for many of the players and thus they were subject of regular complaints to the administration. The members of the pride decided to create their own Lion King themed MUCK, and thus The Pride Lands MUCK was born.

[edit] Politics

Many rumors surround the house as to the social circumstances of its occupants. These rumors have deterred potential guests from attending past events held at the house. Many of these rumors are just that: rumors. The house is host to many furries and has been, in the past, commune for those furs either displaced from their homes and given residence for rent or exchange of apprenticeship in Mark's network communication company, Lantana, Ltd. The house's occupants are friendly and open to visitors. Like any other house, it has met its trials and tribulations. If anything, the house has been a service to the furry community, and continues to be so to this day.

[edit] Current residents

Patches the cat is also a resident

[edit] Former residents


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