Totally Legit Everfree Northwest '23 Recap · 12:28am Aug 16th, 2023
After going to BABSCon, I was unsure if I was going to be going to a second convention this year. But fortunately I was able to, though it was relatively last minute. That meant that my options were limited, and I once again had to rely on the kindness of friends offering up hotel room space. Fortunately, Cash Flow came though with his generosity, and I was happy to help split the hotel bill.
THURSDAY
But first, I had to get out of Boston. That was a trick unto itself with the Thursday morning traffic jam of planes on the taxiway waiting to take off, further delaying my already-delayed flight. But eventually we did take off and get to Seattle.
Scarlett Ribbon picked me up from the airport, along with Conifer and Quirky View.
We went to the convention hotel where Cash Flow had already checked in. I dropped my stuff off at the room, said hi to Del, and we went to go grab something for dinner. Google said there was a Subway down the street but along the way we found the superior Jimmy Johns and went there instead. A Gargantuan sandwich is easily two meals, and it packs well in a day-bag. After a run to the local Bev-Mo for provisions, Gary Oak and I cracked open a bear. Thursday night was full of excitement, hotel parties (meeting the lovely Jane Shadow). There was also booze and other activities that I can't post photos of. 
Friday
Like any convention morning, the first order of business was the standard handful of Excedrin and some Gatorade, followed by a hearty breakfast at the hotel restaurant, Eques. Good food but a bit overpriced. Such is inflation. Next was catching the beginning of Opening Ceremonies before trotting downstairs to the opening of the Vendor Hall. I needed to deliver my printed copies of Permission to add to Twilight's Book Nook.
Bottom center. Zoom in.
It just goes to prove that ANYONE can be a published author if your story is about 1000 words long and you have a printer at work that you can abuse when nobody is looking. I sold it at the Book Nook for one crisp dollar each, and 100% of all sales went to charity. (I printed it for free after all and I didn't need the money.)
And who was first in line to buy my book? Why it was none other than my biggest fan, Pen Stroke!
I hung out at the Book Nook for a while, but I couldn't take pictures with everyone buying my book, there were just so many!
This convention was a little strange for me overall. I didn't spend so much time at panels as I usually would. Not for a lack of content, there was a lot to see and do. I went to Jackbox, Hooves Line, Sketches from a Hat, etc. But for me, this con was more of a focus on actively being with the community itself, rather than another spectator. Much of my time was meeting up with friends and spending time with them. Playing in the Tabletop Games Room.
I hijacked the Hero's Journey panel. The panel was very informative, but no offense meant, the presenter put all of their points into Intelligence and needed someone with Charisma to liven things up. The presenter was actually quite grateful, even if it did give the con staff a bit of a fright. Ha!
Though one activity that will stand out for me was Bill Newton's Karaoke Night on Friday, where Cash Flow and I melted faces with Bohemian Rhapsody. Bill Newton sang a couple tracks too, but the cherry on top was seeing surprise special guest Nicole Oliver sing a few numbers, including the final song of the night, a banger of a title: Don't Stop Believing, which had everyone singing along!
Of course after that there were more hotel parties. BABSCon had its own hotel room party, as did the Canadian Bronies, and I would be remiss to not mention the Military Bronies hotel party. SEMPER FILLY! But one thing that was absolutely imperative for my pony convention experience, was a drunk Tarot reading by Horizon.
I don't ordinarily consider myself a spiritual person, but in all my years knowing him, the cards have never done me wrong. And that night was no exception. I was fortunate to be the very first reading of the convention. One of the cards I drew was the World card, which was very relevant in personal context. But as if to prove the the deck was "working" both the next two people pulled the World card in their readings after thorough shuffling. In fact, during the third reading which seemed off/strange, I don't know how it happened, but Horizon's hand slipped when he was trying to re-draw a mulligan card and three cards popped off the top of the deck and landed face-down, perfectly on top of the back of his hand, as if to announce that these were the proper cards of the reading. And BAM! World card. I would not have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. But I swear on all I hold dear that is a true story! You can ask Horizon and Gary Oak. They were both there.
Saturday
Saturday morning we got breakfast at the Wendy's right next to the hotel. The dining room wasn't open, so four of us walked up to the drive through in car-formation and ordered our food. After that it was a bit more table-top games and vendor hall spending before sitting on the Book Nook Authors panel.
It was fun, if a bit too subdued for my usual fare. So I dipped out a little early to go check out the Cosplay Chess event.
With Cosplay chess, each time a piece took another piece, there would be a brief fight acted out. But as with the BABSCon cosplay chess, neither of the hosts really knew how to play chess. And not so much playing to win, but playing for spectacle. Fortunately I am an excellent chess player and I knew how to put on a show! I didn't hijack the panel so much as I advised the hosts' moves. I turned it into a bloodbath!
The kid playing Rainbow Dash started out as a pawn, but we promoted them into a queen. Along the way, every move they made took out another piece, including taking by En Passant, which I was only too pleased to teach everyone in attendance, (along with Castling). They were on a killing spree until I accidentally (almost) checkmated the other team too early and we were forced to eliminate them to continue playing. But they had a blast just the same. Both sides were practically annihilated until it was a rook and a pawn vs the other king. Mate by promotion *chef's kiss*. Everyone on the board got to move and be involved in the combat.
After that, several of us got together to go to Woobly Korean Barbeque for dinner. It was a good new experience for me. We got back to the room to pre-game a bit before going to the Pony Anthology viewing. The theme was Beating a Dead Horse and it was a greatest-hits montage. It was still very enjoyable and I'd got to that panel every year and not get bored of it. Quite in fact, there were several occasions over the weekend where there was a song or an episode playing playing on someone's laptop and we would just stop and watch for a bit, and fall in love with the show all over again. That magic hasn't faded even one bit.
After the Anthology, it was back to more hotel room debauchery.
Sunday
Sunday moring was weird for me. I don't know what I ate at Woobly's that I was allergic to, but my uvula (the dangly thing in the back of your throat) had swollen up. I could breathe okay. But it made it hard to eat breakfast or speak clearly. And it was a constant irritation. Like the feeling of a pill stuck in your throat. Fortunately a couple Tylenol got the swelling down by mid-day and I was otherwise fine.
I went to go see the Pony Family Feud panel which was fun. Played a bit more in the game room with my friends before circling back to the Charity Auction. I caught the first bit of Closing Ceremonies before heading down to catch the last 15 minutes of the vendor hall. I didn't buy many things this time, but I am happy with what I got for myself.
And in keeping with our tradition, Scarlett Ribbon and I both got something for each other from the vendor hall. I bought him some cute Sweetie Belle stuff, and he got a Fluttershy/ Treehugger wall scroll for me.
Once the con proper was over, we commenced with the traditional Writer's Dinner at Fogo De Chao.
On the way to dinner.
Cash Flow bottom right, looking dapper in the red, and Gary Oak on the left walking just a little taller that day after a very life-changing weekend.
Fogo De Chao.
Meat.
All you can eat.
By the time they rolled us out, I was full of meat and beyond tired. I had partied hard enough and I knew I needed to travel in the morning.
Monday
Monday morning the Hyatt lobby was a quiet gathering place of Bronies that had checked out of their rooms and were waiting to leave, either to the airport or car travel beyond. People came and went, chatted, shook hands, and hugged. "It was a hell of a weekend." I stayed for as long as I could before I had to leave, myself. I split an Uber to the airport with Quirky View. Their gate was next to mine so we played Twilight Sparkle's Secret Shipping Folder until I had to board.
It was great seeing everyone again. When did we get so old?
It was good to feel young again, watching the show and singing the songs and being proud out loud like it was 2012 again and the world was ours for a bright, shining decade.
I miss all of you so much already!
Writing these post-con blog posts always feel a little bittersweet, because the con is over. But this past weekend is a reminder to me, to all of us, that the fandom is far from over. We are gonna ride this train until the goddamn wheels fall off, and then we're getting out and pushing!
EQUESTRIA FOREVER!
Great con, had a good time meeting friends and enjoying my first EFNW of many more to come.
glad you had fun
Three World Cards?
But.
Theres only supposed to be one in a pack.
Glad you had fun! I was that dude in the Mario hat covered in pins; you signed my copy of Permission after the Book Nook panel. We didn't talk that much, but it was great seeing you there! Hope to see you come back!
(And I love that flutterhugger wall scroll lol)
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I remember you! A shame I didn't think to get your picture with me.
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Magic.
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Looks like fun. I've got a friend brow beating me to attend CONvergence next summer. I may have to give in. It's been a while.
Holy hell.
Looked like an incredible weekend :)
What an amazing weekend.
Looks like everyone enjoyed it.
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It was great seeing you, and I appreciate the ability to add a little magic to your life! I can confirm the Tarot story happened as described, but it's actually better than that.
I called a mulligan on the reading because I was putting together a decent and self-contained narrative from the cards which absolutely *refused*, no matter what I did, to reflect the actual facts of the situation I was reading for. It was a four-card spread, and I picked up the outside three while leaving the face-down central card (which I had not yet turned over) in place. As you pointed out during the mulligan, that weird back-of-hand thing (which happened in the process of my cleanup) gave us just enough cards to replace the pick-ups. I remember remarking something like, I wish I'd done that intentionally, it would have been the most brilliant trick of my career.
The card which *didn't* get replaced: The Fool, representing a new start in a way that reinforced the Tarot's cyclical nature which had already come up in World discussion, and bookending the journey that the World ended/started anew.
I described the cards-on-back-of-hand incident to my tabletop gaming group as critfailing my Tarot check, burning an IRL reroll, and rerolling into a critical success.
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There was (fairly thorough) shuffling in between the readings; it just kept floating back into the cards dealt out.
That said, my MLP Tarot deck actually DOES have two Devil cards, and if you ever get a drunken pony Tarot reading from me, ask me for the story. Which is even more perfect because the Devil in that deck is Discord.
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google en passant