So this was a thing that happened.
My M&G experience (as best I can remember it at this point) and a few other impressions of the evening behind the cut.
The photo op is set up in a 10x10 pop-up with curtains that don’t quite go all the way to the floor. I was about halfway back in the queue when I looked up to the front and thought “...wait, are those the burgundy monk straps?” When I got a little closer, the assistant pulled the curtain aside to let someone ahead of me in, and I saw him there in the red suit. @copias-little-lab-rat had already warned me that any coherent thoughts I might have had before walking in were likely to depart as soon as I walked in, but that suit was enough to render me incoherent all on its own.
Finally it was my turn, and I walked in. Even allowing for the fact that I was ignoring the eye with the white contact lens, that man has the single most intense gaze I have ever encountered in my life. I had brought him gifts - an amigurumi rat I had crocheted and a copy of Space Opera by Cat Valente - and I was totally babbling at him as I handed them over (“I made you this and I...bought this”).
“Ah, yes,” he said, looking me in the eye, “this is a mouse.”
My brain was equal parts “...I can’t correct him!” and “Jesus did I really do THAT badly with the pattern?”, and I wish the photographer had gotten a shot of that, because I can only imagine what my face must have looked like.
Right up to the point where he said “...I’m fucking with you.”
GODDAMN YOU TOBLERONE FROSTBITE
Amazingly enough, I managed to rub two brain cells together, and came back with “Maybe later.” A pause from him, and a thoughtful “...maybe later...” in reply.
NO REALLY GODDAMN YOU RIGHT TO HELL YOU IMPOSSIBLE FUCKING MAN
He went to hand stuff off to the assistant...then pulled the rat back and said “I will keep this for the picture.” Thanks, dude, I’m really dead now. We stepped into position, I put my arm around his tiny-ass waist - he stopped, pulled back, and darted his hand under my arm. “I have to...” No idea what that was about. (I had a couple of theories, but then I saw the other photos from Reno and none of them remained plausible.)
We posed (he “spooked” the photographer with the rat for the second one - I actually think the rat was the only thing in focus in that shot!). I thanked him again, trying once more (and failing) not to drown in that sea green eye, and floated out of the tent. “Enjoy yourself,” he said as I departed. Can’t remember now if I said “I will” or “I plan to” in reply.
Other details I can recall, in absolutely NO particular order:
Aether no longer “loses” the duel at the beginning of Cirice! They trade a few licks, then go into the song.
Swiss was feeling some kinda way last night...he shimmied at Copia during Dance Macabre, then did it again, and Copia was so completely overcome he had to crawl back up the stairs to stand up.
Speaking of DM, Aether slapped his cheek (...on his face you dirty fuckers) on the first “a sting in the way you kiss me.”
Cirrus’ keytar solo in Mummy Dust was 🔥🔥🔥 - and she got so into it she was down on her knees by the end.
Speaking of fire - OMG PYRO. Actual flames for Year Zero. A couple of cannon pops elsewhere in the set, and a rain of fireworks along the proscenium at the end of the show.
“Is it too hot for you, Reno? I know I’m going commando, but...” COPIA PLZ
The juxtaposition of the White Suit of Sex with The Fucking Tricycle was exquisitely ludicrous.
I was sorry to see the red cassock go, but getting the red suit in exchange was a worthwhile tradeoff. The Cape is still there (and I stand by - no pun intended - my previous theory as to why he only wears it for one song...).
He does not do the groan from the end of the studio version of Kiss the Go-Goat - which is probably just as well, because the cleanup after that if he had would’ve been a nightmare.
TWO confetti cannons, not just the Mummy Bucks. (And the pile of confetti I picked up this morning from where I took off my corset last night was loltastic.)
Speaking of Mummy Bucks, a nice security guard picked up all of the ones that landed in the moat and was handing them to folks at the railing, so I now have one I acquired at a show in addition to the one I won in a FB giveaway. (I’ll put that and the confetti in the frame with my photo.)
Said nice security guard also took the crocheted roses I’d made for the band (with tags reading “Made with love [and a few swear words] by $MYREALNAME”) - he initially offered to hand them up to someone during curtain call, but his supervisor stopped him, so he said he would take them backstage for me. Now I just have to hope they actually got them...
I do NOT want to go back to work tomorrow.
