• Member Since 18th Jun, 2012
  • offline last seen February 16th

Rarity Belle


A Dutch gentleman of leisure, living for pleasure, since mirth is my measure. Writing stories that are (mostly) unique and psychological of nature and visiting conventions whenever I can.

More Blog Posts35

  • 393 weeks
    Expanding my horizon

    The time is now finally there. Finally there to do something what I've been saying to do for a long time. If you remember a previous blog of mine, I said that I was kinda done with MLP fanfics. Hence why I expanded my horizon of writing gibberish. The first story to see that light of day, is the story that I wrote to

    Read More

    4 comments · 837 views
  • 397 weeks
    Galacon 2016 aftermath

    So here I sit in my 23rd year,
    How I wish I was at a con right now,
    It's been five days since we drove away,
    and I just made home yesterday,
    Celestia damn them all!

    Read More

    6 comments · 771 views
  • 403 weeks
    Done with MLP:FiM fanfics?

    Well, kinda, sorta, maybe, not entirely... This needs a bit more explaining, I'm afraid.

    Read More

    10 comments · 682 views
  • 414 weeks
    BronyFair 2016

    Read More

    2 comments · 602 views
  • 420 weeks
    Hearth's Warming Con 2016

    Read More

    11 comments · 606 views
Aug
2nd
2016

Galacon 2016 aftermath · 7:56pm Aug 2nd, 2016

So here I sit in my 23rd year,
How I wish I was at a con right now,
It's been five days since we drove away,
and I just made home yesterday,
Celestia damn them all!

And with that slaughtering of Barret's Privateers, I'm sitting here looking back at yet another amazing Galacon. One to which I had my question marks from the start. But as per usual, and courtesy of these things, we shall start with the day on which the adventure all began. Because this Galacon might have been one of the best for me.

Happy birthday Canni, and happy birthday Galacon!

Friday
Keeping in the tradition of waking up way too early and having to travel a lot, my alarm rang at 7am. About an hour later I was on the journey that would lead me to Rotterdam Central station. From there would the journey be made to the wonderful, yet still not wholly-seen city of Ludwigsburg. In the end, me and eight others just got in the van and drove. The previous two years I went by train, but that was a little bit costly. This year I was asked if had interest in possibly joining the ragtag group that would go in the van. I didn't had to think twice.

And boy was I right about that. Yes, it was about 10 hours of driving, but we had so much fun along the way. Just the entire trip, despite the soaring heat was over rather quickly for my feelings. On the other end, if you're going 170km/h with open windows, blasting Alestorm through the speakers and everybody singing along, time does tend to fly, heheheh. It certainly was an experience. One I would do again if the chance if the chance is given. On a little side note, the traffic jams that we encountered were also dissolved rather quickly. Every jam we encountered, I still had the feeling we could cruse along with about 30/40. So no complaints from me on that one!

Eventually we arrived at the hotel and as soon as we got out of the van, we saw the first thing that actually kicked off the entire event. Because the car that drove into the garage after us. actually had a Rainbow Dash dakimakura in one of the backseats. My roommate walked away and around the corner, only to start singing a line or two from 'I want a dakimakura for Christmas'. The laughs we had for the moment, priceless! ...And with that was the bar also set for the rest of the weekend.

Dropping our stuff in the hotel room and collecting ourselves for the pre-meet at the local Irish pub turned out to be a bit more problematic then we had anticipated. But with a hot pizza in our stomachs and a thirst for booze, the squad was finally on its way. Although the group did split up, as in, some went earlier than others. But when I finally arrived at 10 or 11 in the evening, a lot of people already had a glass too much. To me, that wasn't fun at all. Yet you could spot the Dutch bronies almost in an instant, as they were all cluttered together. Said my hello's to them of course and spoke a bit with them. Until one person invited me to have a drink at his hotel to calm down. It was truly busy and to get a drink took about an hour (so was I told), so I went with him and spend about the rest of the night there, being joined by another friend halfway through.

Now the night of Friday and Saturday was about the worst. Only two hours of sleep for me. People got to notice I was cranky during the Gala evening. But we shall come to that later. When the sun rose over the hills around Ludwigsburg, every brony knew that the first day was there. The time had come to celebrate. Maybe their first Galacon, maybe their first convention, maybe their forth. Everyone, had something to celebrate this year, for good reason of course.

Saturday
When I opened my eyes, I knew there was no way back. So I prepared for everything while my roommate and I slowly managed to work out way in our cosplays. Somebody in the group of idiots got the crazy idea to do 'Friendship is Manly'. The two of use already got in our cosplay and we went out. Unfortunately, I couldn't fit in my shorts so those were only reserved for the contest itself. Suffice to say, we looked ridiculous, and the only two who would come in such fashion. It didn't took long for the both of us to take off our muscle-shirts. I was glad that I packed an extra shirt.

When the clock struck 9:30, we were allowed to enter the convention hall and most went straight to the vendor area. Something I would have done as well, but would take my time for. With a limited budget, it was all I could do. Which meant that the first thing I did was of course joining the opening. All of the special guests of that year were announced, with something very special for us all. Anneli Heed herself, managed to make us all shed tears. She was either brave, or insane, enough to sing 'Lullaby for a Princess', in front of the whole auditorium. Suffice to say, she received a standing ovation afterward. Something she well and truly deserved.

Though the rest of Saturday was rather quiet for me. I'll admit that Galacon 2016 wasn't the most interesting appealing one for me. All the guests were meh, a lot of the vendors were meh, the whole con felt that way to some degree. On the other end, visiting it for four years in a row makes you have some expectations. Anyhow, it was time to look for merch and my eyes were set for Nightmare Rarity (could you have guessed?) and found surprisingly little. A plush that was way out of my budget and in my opinion, not up to par to the one I have. But what I did found, was a custom created brushable with clay modeled mane. Haggled a bit with the price and got her for €40,- Just having that custom, made my entire Galacon.

But since there was nothing I wanted to go to, I decided to go to the hotel for a little while to prepare everything for the cosplay contest. There was another reason why I went back...but I forgot that one. When we got back, we got the signal to get dressed in our manly man cosplays. Five idiots went down the stairs to the toilets, five epic looking man came out. Imagine that however you like. We knew that with our cosplays we wouldn't win anything, but since the group acts were the last one, the audience had seen some things already. They weren't prepared for us. The entire auditorium cheered and roared like mad when we got on stage, I think that they loved it. That is what I prefer to believe, anyway. Not to mention that our act was less than a minute. It was all for the lols and keks, as them young folk like to call it these days. Though I would lie if I didn't say I enjoyed myself.


(Not depicted: our Fluttershy)

After the cosplay contest we remained in our manly suits (which for me was more like chest > abs > giant blubber belly, in that order) for people to take pictures. And they were taken. If there was a prize for what the audience loved the most, we would have won it. Particularly one group of cosplayers also wanted to have their pictures taken with us. All fine by us, of course. We did it for fun after all. Yet within the hour, everything was changed back to normal though. And I was just my silly self again.

But that meant going to the hotel, get a shower and dress for the gala evening. Or in other words: get in your NMR cosplay. When we arrived back at the venue, we strolled around a bit longer and I walk passed a vendor (this might have been earlier on the day, I can't remember) which I happen to know. The Belgium guys that I also know must have seen my hat and decided to join to say hey. But the guy behind the table said he got something for me. He reached to the bottom of a pile, and took out a detective Rarity cutting board. I wanted it, everybody around me knew it...there was only one logical conclusion afterward. I bought it and currently it's standing on display, just waiting to be used.

Time went on and by and dinner soon came around. Some Dutchies gathered themselves and all decided to have some food. But since I'm a clumsy idiot, I spilled some of mine on my suit. Went to get napkins and what do you know, Dustykatt stood behind our table, calling 'eh boss' since somebody started it. We approached one another and, all I can say is, we had a classic Pinky and the Brain moment together. Just having a bit of a laugh. It was good, good company and good food. Had a great dinner and no complaints.

Yet the gala evening itself was were everything went a bit sour for me. It was evident that I was having a lack of sleep. I wasn't my usual happy self and snarled even to some of my friends. Small advantage that the gala evening itself was never that interesting to me. Though, I still regret it that I politely declined a dance with a Luna cosplayer (with whom I had a duel earlier that day and always have a skirmish in character since BronyDays 2015). Maybe next convention. Plushie-con couldn't interest me less and I when I stood by a friend that was drawing and heard (just heard) hardcore coming from the gala party, I had to get out. What did I do? Sit outside and sing shanties to calm down. To each their own, I guess. So in the end, I just left the venue entirely and before midnight struck, I was asleep, and slept until the next morning.

Sunday
The sun rose again and I felt like manure, though after a quick wash and hoisting myself in my clothing, I was ready to hit the day. As said before, there wasn't really something that I wanted to do this particular Galacon, but still wanted to see the VA panel at least. Which was good fun and enjoyed being there. Amy Keating Rogers played a lovely song on her ukulele which in return gave her a standing ovation from the auditorium, which she completely deserved if you ask me. The questions asked were fair and square, they got a couple of good laughs and interesting answers coming from both Amy and Rebecca.

Next was a slot of spare time, PonyFights looked like a nice concept, but it seemed 'staged' in my opinion (which I can understand), and even with the audience input, it wouldn't made too much difference. Kudos to them though. Originally I didn't plan to visit the signing session but felt like I should have anyway. Which meant that I would stand in line for about an hour to get three autographs. Fortunately was I one of the early ones to arrive and had some great company from two Finnish girls. Both dressed as Twilight and Sunset respectably. Rebecca wanted to take a picture of them with her, which was just a joy to see.

But during the signing session I came up with a stupid little idea: have them write something silly on the cards, because you can. They were happy to oblige with the silly cause! It was just fun to meet those people and give them hugs. Even Julia Meynen (German Twilight) was a pleasure to meet, though I didn't have a silly quote for her. Next convention I will, next one I will! Hugs were given, signatures received, I would say that that was a good trade-off. After they took my money of course... Didn't have anything for Brenda though, which was a bit of a shame.

Another run for merch was made until the charity auction began. Didn't found something I like but people liked my cosplay, so there was that, hehehe. But the charity auction itself was just madness again. Everything you remember from every Galacon, times ten, easily. With the exception of one item did everything go easily over the €100,- Not surprisingly when the hosts are both Perry and Dusty. More items than ever went over the €1000,- mark and the Fanta-joke got topped, twice. First there was a fanta-plush. As in, a bottle of fanta plush. Later during the auction, somebody gave off a pony-plush that was basically a ponyfied fanta bottle, with interchangeable caps as hats, and even a leather cowboy hat. It's like, all the Galacon-auction-jokes combined in one. And I hope that it was the last we saw of that joke, honestly. After four years...I kinda want it to die, but it's glorious at the same time! I seriously suggest that you look for video evidence of the con online, since it's worth a watch. Not to mention that two of my friends donated items, which went for €250,- and €300,- respectively.

The closing ceremony was just as it was always since days gone by. But, it has to be said again and again, a massive thanks to everybody who worked their backs off during the convention. It wouldn't have been the Galacon that it was without any of them. A massive, massive thanks to each and every last one of them! When we were kicked out of the venue, we joked a bit outside before group-photo's were taken. I decided to join in the madness but made the mistake to sit on one knee. That knee got destroyed in ten minutes...and I was kindly reminded as to why I walked around with my umbrella those two days.

The plans for dinner were made, dinner was consumed with three other friends and basically we held our own little aftermeet. An aftermeet with soda and schnitzel! I'm in Germany dammit, and I hadn't had any schnitzel yet! Had to rectify that quota. Which it was, and I was a happy man. After dinner we went to the Irish pub again, but it was late on the evening and made the decision to just head back to the hotel and start packing. Because Monday, Monday was lurking around the corner and with that, our end...to this convention at least.

Monday
I can only describe this day as Friday, but going the way back. The same things happened with the exception of one little thing. Memories came flowing back through me when we drove through the Mosel-area. A particularly favored area of mine in Germany because of its beauty. We even made a stop because of that, for which I am very thankful. But yeah, a long trip back home, and now I'm sitting back here, writing this while letting the memories sink back in.

As they entered the van and the engine revved, each and every last one of them knew, that the end was nigh. The final pages in the book they had been writing the past couple of days would soon come to closure.

That was what I said just after we left Ludwigsburg (or something in that fashion), and it was true. But with everything said and done, there's one little thing that I still want to add. Conventions are, and always will be, about the people who visit them. I've gone to so many of them by now, stated wearing the same cosplay to most of them and you will always find people. People who you didn't even knew existed. You meet new friends, have fun with them and get to know them. And even if you don't speak to each other for months, but see each other again at a convention, it's like you never left. And for that, you all deserve my biggest thanks. It's meeting you people, all you strange, strange yet wonderful people that make conventions worth going for me, Galacon '16 more than any other. For that, I tip my purple top hat.

An amazing weekend, amazing people, insane stories and even greater tales. I don't know what else to add to this, I think I've rambled on for long enough at this point so...have a group-photo, I suppose?

(not depicted: me (I'm behind Dustykatt))

Comments ( 6 )

4132983 Believe it or not, but it has been four years. Time just goes way too fast these days to keep up.

4136662 Not in that cosplay, I'm afraid. But yeah, if you want to do that, and the others are in for it as well, I see no problem with it. Our 'manly' man cosplays were just for one time usage.

4137261 It's really weird how it all came together in the first place... Talk to Moontune about these kind of things, that's the only real advice I can give you.

Login or register to comment