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Walker Stalker Con Atlanta 2015 Part 2: Saturday aka Melissapalooza

This is gonna be long, so grab a coffee and settle in. Melissapalooza started right when the con opened. We got there early and had some time to spend before getting in Melissa’s line. We saw Josh McDermitt first, and he absolutely LOVED Tina’s @tinarakowski cosplay and told her she’s the “sexiest Eugene he’s ever seen.” Walker Stalker Con apparently agreed :) It was very cool to see them give us a little shout-out.

Connor also made Josh a custom pop vinyl of Eugene that he thought was “AWESOME.” Josh was super funny (as everyone knows) and he gives great hugs!

Cudlitz was next. And let me just say. He is everything that people say about him and more. He’s humble, dynamic, funny, down-to-earth, and so kind. Funny story: He kept poking my guts until he realized he was kinda poking my ahem.. breast… by proxy. It was a hilarious moment. I thanked him for his awesome social media presence and he said he worried that he was too snarky sometimes and people take stuff the wrong way. I told him, “The right people get it. The wrong people will never get it.” He knew exactly what I was saying, lmao. When we left him, he asked if my guts were wet before he hugged me and I said something with implied jokey innuendo which he loved. He actually playfully kicked me in the butt on the way out. The wonderful thing about Cudlitz is that he feels like that uncle, brother, friend, roommate, buddy you never had but wish you did. Or you that you have and never get to see. He’s a treasure, and we are so lucky to have him in our fandom.

Next we ventured over to Jordan Woods-Robinson’s booth (which was literally one away from Ross’) and met the adorable muffin that plays Eric. OH MY STARS is he great. I had a wonderful conversation with him about LGBT representation on television and he stated over and over how proud he was to play Eric, how important it is, and how humbled he is to do it. He and Ross both were so emphatic about that. I COULDN’T LOVE THEM MORE IF I TRIED. Here is the sweetest frigging picture of Jordan and Connor:

As if this wasn’t cute enough, the most precious moment of the con was next. Ross was in his booth, and we decided to bee-line over there again before the lines got long. This is when Connor presented Ross with the custom pop he made of Aaron. You’d think Ross was a kid at Christmas he was so gleeful and impressed beyond belief. Connor was floating so high on cloud 9 I still don’t think he’s come down. I periscoped the whole exchange which was great, but missed getting any pictures, womp womp. Here’s a great pic @leigh57 took of them with me periscoping them in the foreground. How meta!

Next we wandered over to meet Major Dodson. This kid, I swear. He’s like a wise, old sage and whimsical child all rolled up in a 13-year-old brain. He loved the CarolBo outfit and we took some awesome selfies together both as “Sam” and “Carol” and Naomi and Major. He’s a cupcake and basically “If Sam dies, we riot.” At one point I said to him, “We’ll be praying for him for live through the season” and he gave me the best, most coy, cat-that-ate-the-canary look that spoilers be damned, I couldn’t figure out. Well played, sir. This is my fave of us:

After that we noticed Melissa’s line start to fill up so we wandered over to await our visitation with the queen. Waiting in line for Melissa was one of the most incredible experiences of the con. It was like old home week, or the best high school reunion of both old and new friends you could ever imagine. The Minions (a mostly Twitter group of devoted Mel fans and friends) were there in all of there joyful glory, and many hugs were shared. One of the minions had her husband and two boys dressed up as matching Abrahams and it was quite possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. None of the boys watch the show but know of Abraham, and were having a blast!

https://instagram.com/p/9pSPWXq6co/

I couldn’t have asked for a better crew to wait in line with and the line monitors let us stay together and see her together. At this point I have to pause for the cause and give a TREMENDOUS SHOUT OUT to everyone who worked in Melissa’s line. It was so chaotic, and people frustrated and mean and taking it out on the volunteers who were simply doing what they were told to do. They were some of the nicest, most patient people working the con, and they deserve all the props in the world. So if any of you are reading this, I salute you, my friends. And to @carol-on, @leigh57, @connorrayyj, @tinarakowski, @silver-89, @faith5by5-1013, and @czaritsa, my TWD family and line family, I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. The experience was 4 billion times more beautiful because we did it together.

^^^^ Look at these happy faces! And look at @leigh57 giving some great shoulder!

When we got up to Melissa, like Shana said, she smiled and scanned our group, like “Whoa, hey it’s you guys!” The cutest part was when she pretended to be so taken aback, she put her hand on her chest and sat back in her chair. <insert collective internal screaming here>

@silver-89 took one for the team and went first to talk to her because she was the only one zen around here, and we were all eternally grateful that we each had a minute to gather some of our shit so it seemed somewhat together when we talked with her individually. I can’t remember who went next but then I think it was me, and when I walked up, she smiled and said, “Hiii! I almost didn’t recognize you with all that crap on your face! That looks really good! You look great!“ And then I died. But, somehow from the after life I managed to keep a conversation going and then she said, “I haven’t see you since the Talking Dead, you’re the sober friend, right?” Meaning, when I met Melissa for the first time, I was supposedly the grounded one while supporting Amelia in all of that wonderful Talking Dead madness when she and I were in the audience and then SURPRISE! she was brought on the show. Ahem. Little did Melissa know, I was INTERNALLY SCREAMING THE WHOLE TIME aka NOT SOBER AT ALL. Also, Amelia was, and always is, a STELLAR PRO. Anyhoo, Melissa and I then proceeded to talk about Carol and I told her about the picture I chose for her to sign, what it meant to me, how beautiful I thought it is, and how I thought it represented such a pivotal moment for Carol, while also serving as a symbol of how Melissa fought so hard for Carol’s life. I also told her that the artist was right behind me and pointed to Ashlee. I can’t even believe I got to have Melissa sign one of my most favorite pieces of fan art with the AMAZING ARTIST RIGHT EFFING THERE. Cons, man. This is why they’re epic. Melissa asked me what I wanted her to write on the print, and I told her whatever came to her mind. This was the result:

Did I mention being dead already? Because apparently I live, I die, I live again. It’s kind of hard to see, but she also wrote “Hi guts” on my guts, and signed the poncho “Mel.” (Never washes poncho again).

As amazing as it was to have a personal experience with her, even more amazing was watching everyone else interact with her and share the love. I got to deliver a beautiful scarf and card made by Micha @ciaomichaella another Carols United cosplayer, and Melissa was so moved by the gesture. Melissa was so enamored with Ashlee’s @czaritsa ‘s artwork she couldn’t stop complimenting it and making Ashlee beam like the sun. She adores Connor and his cosplay and told her how proud she was of him. She was in awe of Shana again and S’s talented artwork, while also telling Shana she should write more (Right?! I think we can all agree) And Amelia. I have said this before, but their connection is so profound and unique it’s hard to describe. It’s such a beautiful dynamic of mutual respect and adoration, and I for one feel so blessed to have gotten to see them together again.

Okay so skipping ahead to the photo op, we barely had like 20 minutes to eat before we had to hop in her line. And poor Melissa, who was also sick at this con, got no time at all between autographs and photo-ops. ONCE AGAIN, there aren’t enough words in any language to describe how incredible she is. So her photo op line was nuts, they completely over sold it I think, and it was disorganized, but finally everything fell into place and we all got a chance to get our pics. This is also when we ran into the lovely @argent-gale whose steampunk Daryl cosplay was amazeballs! So awesome to finally meet you! After Connor, Amelia, and Shana got their ops done, it was my turn. When I walked up to her, we talked for a second about what to do, and I can’t remember who suggested it, but we started to playfully fight over the gun. We were pulling it back and forth between us, when suddenly we heard a SNAP like the sound of something breaking on the gun. Both of our faces went into a little collective shock and I said, “Oh no, it’s Connors gun!” She said, “Okay if it’s broken, I can fix it.” BECAUSE OF COURSE SHE CAN. Anyway, when we realized the gun was okay, we resumed posing for the photo and got this ditty- one of my absolute favorite moments and pics from the con:

There are also some epic candids of the whole sequence of events that @tinarakowski took from the wings. I wish I could share them, but they were done on the DL and we were supposed to delete them. AND SO THEY ARE DELETED. Totally deleted. Moving on….

After the photo op, we all headed over to Eulyn’s panel and got to meet her and chat with her a little bit. What a phenomenal human and creative spirit! It was so incredible to see her in person. A bunch of other cosplayers were there, which was so, so great. There was even a Terminus Mary! @romeyro films was also there taking footage. If you don’t know who RomeyRo is, he’s the guy that makes all of the awesome TWD parodies and is pretty much the nicest guy ever. Here’s a link to check out his stuff! http://instagram.com/romeyrofilms

He took some great footage of Amelia and a Morgan re-enacting the chain scene from “JSS” and then asked me and the Terminus Mary cosplayer to re-enact the scene from the candle room in No Sanctuary. We had the best time, and he got this great pic of us facing off.

“I WANT TO SEE YOUR FACE.”

Never mind that I am about 2 seconds from cracking up, which I actually did. A few times. Before we got it right. Especially when Terminus Mary aka @nurse9ball was saying stuff to purposely make me laugh and I couldn’t contain myself. Melissa McBride I am NOT. At some point while we were all hanging out here, Danai Gurira cruised by in a golf cart and said this x quote about “the bevy Carols” that will forever be etched in my heart. Because Goddess and Queens and amazing people.

Important side note about cosplaying Carol: What an intense and amazing experience. It was pretty emotional and exciting for me to try and embody her, but even more amazing, was the experience of hearing people’s stories and feelings about Carol as I walked around the con. She is so loved and more than that, she is largely UNDERSTOOD. One of my favorite stories was from a woman who is a high school literature teacher and she said she just loves Carol and uses her story to talk about A) exceptional character development B) female empowerment, and C) the importance of telling the story of underrepresented women in popular culture. She said her students love it! So this resulted in my 3rd or 4th death of the day, obviously. But I figured I was okay because today I was Carol and nine lives, remember? Basically, I hugged the life out of this woman and thanked her profusely. Another thing about the Carol cosplay I did. This Terminus Carol build was the biggest of team efforts. It was definitely more of a costume, but I had the blessing of the amazing Carol cosplay group Carols United, the guts were given to me by Connor aka #ManCarol @connorrayyj and Micha aka #FatCarol @ciaomichaella, Connor let me wear Carol’s screen accurate Zahara shirt and use (and break, apparently) his awesome sniper rifle. I had the best cosplay mentorship from Amelia @carol-on, and a huge thumbs up from @carolatheart and my sweetest friend, @Anj aka #SurvivorCarol @hardlytheanjiwas. I think Melissa even liked it, too. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me be a part of the Carol cosplaying world for a moment. I loved every minute of it beyond words and I was so honored to represent her. Gah, my heart. Okay.

After playing TWD re-enactments and talking with Eulyn, the con was winding down so we all decided to leave and get like .03 seconds of rest before the WSC Necrosis Halloween Party. We got some food, freshened up, and got @leigh57 in her MJ Thriller costume, @faith5by5-1013 cutie patootie dressed up in Tara cosplay, @sockai-chan was in some gorgeous rockabilly zombie alien goddess make-up, Amelia continued to rock her amazing Wolf Carol, while @silver-89 rocked some seriously awesome genderbent Mad Max cosplay. Like AMAZING. Like Tom Hardy eat your heart out amazing. Look at all these beautiful people.

SilverMax with Shana giving good shoulder again, this time MJ style :

Molly @faith5by5-1013 being absolutely awesome and adorable as Tara:

Amelia and this awesome Morgan cosplayer KILLING IT LIKE HOLY SHIT:

And the beautiful @sockai-chan and some lady you might recognize, aka Melissa Squared:

So the Necrosis Party was packed and really loud, so we ended up hanging out in a bar a few floors up. Actually it was so much better because not only did we get more quality time with each other, but we got to hang out with a lot more TWD Family, got some insider scoop from a new friend, and generally just basked in the post con glow.

At some late hour, we all parted ways and I headed back to my hotel. In the elevator leaving the Omni, I awesomely ran into @argent-gale and @killerchickadee and somewhere there are some really great selfies of all of us, including one of me as Terminus Carol and @killerchickadee as Season 1 Carol. It was a Carol Evolution! After that I made it back to my hotel, tried not to disturb Connor and Tina, and got a solid 3 hours of sleep until Sunday aka Melissapalooza: The Sequel feat. Laurie Holden and @lookforastar

…To Be Continued…

Part 1

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