CON UPDATE YAP- And I mean Y A P
MY HAUL!! :DD from someone with only half decent impulse spending and too much disposible income rn.
SO I started the day waking up stupid early to finish up my cosplay (Robin for those (prism) who asked) it was originally Tim Drake because I had my camera. But well- I ordered an uber and while climbing in my camera buckle broke and it fell. Already rough start, but I assured the driver all was well.
He asked me about Cosplay and while not quite understanding he vehelementry preached that "art should always have community, be proud, and your community will come" which damm okay man. Otherwise ride over was nothing special, arrived at like 8:30 when nothing OPEN opens until 10.
Right outside I ran into this dad and daughter, she had on a frilly skirt so I said she looked amazing and the dad beamed and started saying "I told you-" about her being fine dressing up. We chatted for a bit, showed off eachothers cameras, debated about old cameras vs new cameras etc (while I remained oblivious to my plight) and then I quickly chowed down a shitty granola bar and went in.
Inside said goodmorning to the workers who helped usher me upstairs to where I needed to pickup my badge. I spotted a hijabi girl who fashioned it in a way to cosplay red hood and we talked while getting lanyards for a moment before parting ways.
Off I went to find a bathroom to piece together the last bits of my cosplay (shitty wig and 3d printed mask I got off etsy) but after getting situated I wore the wig for a total of ten minutes before going "fuck it" and I was now Steph.
Meandered for a bit, just people watching- took a few peoples pictures. And thus where I encounted my FIRST dillema. My camera that I dropped? it was NOT fine- a plastic chunk that secured the lense when screwed in had completely snapped off and now unless I held it in a VERY specific way, it would not register it and would refuse to work.
Finally I ended up BACK in the registration area and got in line for the artist alley cue (early entry at least) and was the last person before they roped it off and opened another line to filter people through. Family of three were entertaining their baby who I showed off some bubbles too, and the guy next to me had a ton of lord of the rings barbies to be signed and we talked for over an hour.
Mostly about old vs new fandom, comic to movie adaptations, the pros and cons of each spiderman actor in this day and age, and the horrendous reality that is the green goblin costume. Then a kid next to me got my attention and complimented my costume, she was in a half fursuit so I of course returned the compliment and we chatted about creating our own suits and I congratulated her on attending her first con.
Finally a large chunk of time later- VIP is let in, and an even LONGER chunk- were let in. I bid farewell to my line buddies and begin exploring. I spent a good while wandering, almost got some comics but they had a minimum "25$ card requirement" so I passed. My first purchase ended up being from a sweet couple who sold tons of nature style earrings and had a mini gumball machine full of even minnier frogs! I bought two tokens and won a lil green and poison dart frog, chatted some more, they gave me a batman bookmark for free, and then I left. Also got a horn headband to match stephs lil devil horns.
Next group I ran into were historic reinactors, in a sense that they were part of a whole society dedicated to the "medieval lifestyle" and preserving the art of creation in such a way. The guy I chatted with was happy to show off his historically accurate and handcrafted costume which was part of his collection over the past 15 years. Ended up taking a group photo for them and still need to check my computer to fix up and give them.
More interactions included but were not limited to-
The sally face cosplay kid whose dad was very excited over having a picture to remember the con
Woman who I bought just about every bird sticker she had (as well as pigeon print) and proceeded to show me videos and pictures of the actual pigeon they were based on that visited her apartment
Native woman who we had a long talk about her culture in her art and whales spiritual meaning (got the sticker from her)
Lady who makes MLP classics, I bought Pinkie Pie on the Odyssey and she signed it for me- and we raged about toll scams and her friend went "May you never fall victim again to such bastards" which I appreciated
Man who wrote a book about a girl battling leaprecauns to rescue her estranged father (got a bookmark), and gave a mini history lesson about the timetravel arc
Sweet person who I got the bumper sticker from and suggested I name my car "Franny" or "Gladys" and said "You picked a good one baby :)" when I was checking out
Couple from Atlanta area who were very pleased I knew their hometown and handed me their card while we talked about region culture in media
Artist who was very sympathetic to my plight of picking which of her trinket trays I wanted- and whose friend kept making niche wii spots or adam sandler movie quote jokes in the background
Yet another artist who was VERY happy I "understood the assignment" when asking if her mermaid comic book series was sapphic and murder filled (got some zines from her)
Deadpool Robin who recreated the spiderman meme with me
Daftpunk duo shows up again (ive seen them at just about every con now) and started boogie-ing to their own music- idk where their speaker was
Trio of guys who were DISTRAUGHT they had not remembered Steph as robin and asked if I would accept their apology "to women everywhere." Which I did, they were sincere.
Girl who while I asked for "One of each of the titan stickers" met me with an expression of pure panic and tried to slowly get out her phone. Which I quickly learned was the vendors little sister left in charge and didn't know wtf she was doing- vendor returned pretty quick after
Overheard friends who were debating on if pokemon were real, how many ER related injuries would be tied to "my litten became a man, still thinks hes a lap cat"
Girl who we chatted about PC's and the new repo game- showed off a few doodles and I got a Pim blind bag from
Friends who one was lamenting their sympathies while the card reader wasnt working, and the other who kept being playfully pessimist. So it was a constant string of "Oh my god im so sorry the wifi is shit dont worry its so fine thank you for waiting!!" "No this is all your fault, you've cursed us- I hope you're happy."
Woman who happily offered me the fancy custom print bags from her shop after noticing I was struggling with too-much-shit-syndrome, I was a fan of her daughters work and bought a ton of shit as repentance
Older Gentleman outside the plaza while waiting for my uber that began donning layers of woven admission badges like war medals, which I praised him for and he happily showed off
Guy also outside playing on makeshift drums who complimented my "drip" when I gave him the rest of the ones I had left in my purse
Family that thanked me like id just saved their newborn child from a burning car after telling them where to find the express food center instead of dealing with the hour long lines
Fellow fan who was holding armfulls of Red hood comics and begged me to say which booth I got the red robin comics-
Guy dressed like Kronk who helped me pick "Only the finest dabloons" and gave me the "guess ill die" ribbon for free after I said he had "good vibes"
Watched a guy chase his kid through the foyer with a prop chainsaw, he was doing that kid "giggle screech" as he ran and hid behind someone dressed like Bucky who didnt hesitate to throw his arm out to "stop the chainsaw"
Felt like I was dying for a bit, and purchased my one regret whcih was a 40 dollar cup for unlimited soda which was ass- but in the moment I didnt care. Then almost left, only to find the express food and absolutely destroy a ham hogie and some grandmas oatmeal cookies. Went to wait for my uber and had my one and only slight neg experience which was a guy acting like he was taking a pic of my bag only to step back and very obviously go into frame- which was, fun. But then I had old guy and drummer so my mood improved.
40 minute uber later, I laid out my haul, organized my shit- and then began writing this post before heading to dnd (which im at rn and will likely last from when we started over 2 hours ago, to like 2am)
