The BronyCon 2017 Extravaganza! · 3:27am Aug 19th, 2017
A lot of people went to BronyCon, and a lot of people have posted blogs about their trips. I'll probably come nowhere near the greatness of some with this unedited rambling madness, but that's okay. It's time to roll back the clock and get some perspective.
Last year, my life effectively stopped after BronyCon. I returned home to get stabbed in the back by a person I called my best friend. Lots of things happened in the wake of that. Sober and I started writing NLD, which is about the single greatest thing, but there was a hidden cost that I've never really stated before. Tail emerged, Trigger shielded, and Wing... well Wing went on autopilot. Everything that was Wing got thrown into a small few, and to everything else, the ticking clock stopped.
Just when it seemed that I was getting my smile back, my dad passed away, and the loop began again. There was additional net drama swirling and job interview failcakes, and while things were, and still are damn awesome on cute adorable fronts of fluff, Wing was hanging onto Wing. I mean.. if I'm being honest, if it weren't for Neon, and Sober, and Tea, and Rossby, and even Match.. even though he's a giant douchecanoe ;), I have no idea where I'd be right now, or what state of mind I'd be in. The magnitude of thanks towards those folks is undeniably strong. Well... we can now all get back to doing things better... because...
Then along came BronyCon...
As it always does, cons give me a jolt to the heart that's quite perplexing. Everything that makes up the root of my playful nature comes out, and the weight of everything else just goes off and dies somewhere... probably a bit north of the convention center. Upon my arrival Thursday night, I could feel it. The Universe was aligning. I met up with Rossby and Tim. We picked up our badges and took some seats in the convention center, where I had the esteemed pleasure of meeting Monochromatic. She and Tim took one another's glomp virginities. Then, Mono just bathed Tim in praise for his amazing writing skills. Of course, being me, I did not let this go without my additional comments, which then got shifted to Rossby. I made both of them squeak during this con. Mission accomplished, and thank you, Mono, you delightful RariTwi shipping cathorse enthusiast you. I can only hope that one day something I write inspires someone like Tim's delicious words inspired you. :3
Then Thursday passed, and Friday came! The truly first day! I had one mission Friday morning: get to the vendor hall, and get NCMares to draw Tail. That was like... my only real convention goal. While waiting in line, I ran into BP (BronyPhysicist) and we caught up about this and that. So we're talking, and a guy walks up to us. Turns out, a guy in line by the name of Dirk was taught by BP. Dirk is also in physics, so the three of us had a little triangle of science. In fact, Dirk chilled with me for the rest of the day, which was awesome. Eventually, we got into the vendor hall, and I went to NC's booth right away, as promised. At 11:10 AM on the first day, his spots were filled. Crazy, right.... I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not.
At some point, I spotted RedPlush's booth, regaled her with the tale of last year's plush giveaway, and then picked up a cute RD to be my giveaway plush for this year. The hunt was then on! Find a kid with the proper vibe, get parental approval, and bequeath plushy for the 5th consecutive year. I could feel it. The WKF was strong in the hall, but alas, I could not find the target. The Universe works in mysterious ways, and Dirk clearly tagged along with me for a reason. This is how this went down.
Wing: "Man, I can feel that the person I want to give this to is in this hall. The excitement is palpable."
Dirk: Looks to his left. "What about that kid?"
Wing: Looks over to see child dressed as Rainbow Dash... and mom is dressed as Vinyl.
Now, if you've been around me for this, ya know how it goes. Kid rocking a costume = good candidate. Kid rocking a costume and portraying an excellent attitude = even better candidate. Parents getting in on the costume antics = so much respect and so much yes. So I run over... to the BronyCon Swag Shop line, pull a, "Hey there, excuse me... Yes, you seem appropriately dressed for this, this is now yours." Kid looks really confused, mom looks even more confused. Kid asks me if I'm serious, and I say yep and run the hell off. Now, behind me, the line erupts into a clamor of awesome, and the mom calls me back to get a picture with "just that creepy guy who gave my child a plush at a con." In all fairness, BronyCon is probably the only place where I can get away with this and not have it be creepy as hell.
At this point, I'm stoked. I've got my commission squared away, I keep running into people I know, and the plush giveaway happened. It's only the morning of day fucking one. Fuck yes. We pop by Quills & Sofas, where I run into the stunning MidnightDancer... who to me... will always be SOAP LADY! She brought me Drunkberries soap. So much yes. We pulled a quick lunching, and I wandered off to the autograph hall to get cards 91-97 signed. My collection is obnoxious, but I love it. My plan is to stop at card #100, which will probably go down at Ciderfest, but we'll see. Props to Kelly, Cathy, and Maddy for adding their latest.. and in the extreme latter case... first contributions to my signature collection.
After the card signing, I found Dirk again, met up with Floofy and some of his badass crew. We played a game of Shindig that inevitably got me punched in the arm by DustyKatt. Totally worth it, but Dusty, if you ever read this, ya hit hard bro. For real, that had some sting all the way through Sunday. It was around this time that Dirk revealed to me that he would be leaving at the end of the day. I said fuck that noise, and he spent the night with me. Fantastic! Science swept over the con like a magical angel, and it was good. I even got to be a judge in the Prance tournament! Yeah! I did something official. Much wow. :P
Saturday, the magic simply continued. Anzel and Crystal overcame their train woes, and we met in the secret spot for the Q&B lunchtime meetup thing. Now this, to me, is the perfect example of things coming together in all the right ways. No group is immune to net drama, and there has been a fair share of layers in here. Layers that had me wondering just how smoothly BC was going to go. Not going to hide that or beat around the bush on it... But guess what happened when everyone was in the same place and chilling in the aura of ponies! There were no bad vibes. There was no drama. There were lots of good vibes and pictures, which just goes to show you that people can chill their shit online and remember the valuable lesson that when there is body language, hugs, and lots of laughter, text-based drama can go screw off and rot. I got to introduce everyone. Hell, Anzel even told me to grab his ass in the photo op. And you know what, I did because I'm Wing, and that was only the 2nd gayest thing I did at the con. This was followed by lots of wandering, some commission pick-ups, pestering Skygunner, and---of course--the Q&B live event and panel.
The live event was hilarious, mostly because Tim took amazing pictures. Larscis did his mic thing, and a storm swept through that garnered a lot of attention. Rossby, however, was totally unimpressed. He's seen worse, and so have I. In between this and the panel, we jacked some dinner that ran long because ya know.. Pratt Street Ale House. Eventually, I threw money at Milk and left with Crystal and a small entourage to escort her back to the panel that was about to begin. Oh, I also got Snu hugs, which were hot n sexy. ;)
Anzel and Crystal did a phenomenal job with the panel. As a guy who lectures and teaches, I can tell you that the message was on-point. People took something from it. Tim, maker of adorable words, also embarrassed the holy hell out of Rossby, who makes adorable art. I know Crystal had a lot of nerves going into this, and had a lot of feels on the flip side, but seriously... ya two did a fantastic job on this panel. Like... don't sell it short. The shy little pink one can deliver a lecture just fine, and Anzel was there too... or something. ;)
Sunday was another adventure of mostly running around the vendor hall. I was hoping to grab another magical art jam with NCMares and Co. But the man himself had to run off after the hall closed, and plans -- like they always do -- changed on a dime. RedPonyPlush gave me five free plushies to add to the one I gave away on Friday. I was able to give away three of those to some deserving, good spirited kiddos. One boy actually got super lucky. He came by right as Red was handing them over to me, and said he didn't want to buy anything. It was pretty damn obvious that he wanted one. So he got first dibs and ran off with his prize. The second went to a girl chilling with her mom by the fountain near registration, and the third went to an adorable kid being carted around by her dad. Frankly, the biggest win factor for me in these plush giveaways is if I see a child being happy and demonstrating good behavior -- and if the parent/parents are having a good time and embracing the moment of the convention. Usually, those parents get it. We get a good laugh over how creepy this would be anywhere else, and there is happiness essentially all around.
I then went to chill in Quills for a while, where we found Monochromatic again with her cohorts. Tim and Rossby were going to join them for dinner. I had some other plans and was going to hold off, but at the last second, I decided to tag along, and boy, was I glad that I did. I did a sick card trick for Monochromatic, and the poor dear was just so confused. We had to have been at Noodles for a couple hours, and for quite a long time, she'd look up at me every few minutes and mouth, "Wing, what the fuck?" Now, I haven't communicated much with Mono. I'd seen her stories before. Hell, I even read a few, but it's always nice to get to meet a person in person. I feel like we could tease Tim a lot, and I like that. :P
Eventually, we disbanded and I said my goodbyes. That was the last time I saw Rossby and Tim... much sads. I wept on the inside, but then I was off to meet Floofy and head out for the dinner thing that was actually my plan. I got suckered into some sort of gopher dinner? I guess? Maybe? I got to meet a first-timer named Kelpie who was fascinated with my stories and science. That was fun! Anyhoo, the location was about a mile north of the convention center, and this is when things actually got dramatic. At some point, Floofy went to go do some things, and the order of operations as to what he did, did not get communicated to the rest of our little band in a way that was useful. We got news that someone had been jumped, and that there were serious threats in the area. Travelling in large groups was advised, and Floofy couldn't be reached. We thought, perhaps, he had gone to the Hotel Indigo with PirateDash to deliver something, but alas, he was not there. We finally got in touch with him, and he was back at the HIlton. Wing may or may not have been upset... We made a safe venture back to the Hilton. Floofy and Xeirla spent the night with me. I momentarily became Pinkie Pie, and all was well in the world of Wing.
When anyone tells me Pinkie breaks physics, I can point to that image and say, "Bitch, please, it was an inside job all along." ;)
Monday was evacuation day. Floofy, Xeirla, and I needed food. We grabbed Rain and were about to depart for Corner Bakery Cafe when we ran into some Q&B friends. Dash, Aerus, and Cobbie joined us, and we made the merry trek. That place is awesome. Had a chipper wait staff that day, and I got some damn good food. While we were there, we got the notice that Anzel and Crystal were going to head out soon. Some of us departed from Baltimore, and some of us went to the Sheraton for a successful rendezvous with Anzel and Crystal. There were some good laughs... mostly jokes about Iry being French or something. (Psst, he's from the Netherlands.)
Several of us chilled in the Sheraton after Anzel and Crystal left. Skygunner even joined us to regale us with vendor stories. Then the time came. We fled, and TAM and I decided to take the train together to the airport. That was a fairly easy experience.
I'm just going to throw this out here now. The whole weekend is a blur, and I'm probably forgetting a bunch of people and a bunch of experiences that I'd otherwise talk about. I just want you to know that if you chilled with me at all at this con, you made my vacation damn awesome, and I love the shit out of you for it. A lot of shit happened in the past year, so there's a second thing I want to make clear before I sign off from this bad boy. Now that I'm home, I can reflect. I can sit and listen and think. Do you know what I hear? I hear the ticking. Wing's clock is moving again, and I, for one, couldn't be happier.
Now get the hell off my blog... you Celestia-blessed hippies!
~Wing
It's always amazing to see you, Wing, and I'll always have some Drunkberries tucked in my purse for ya ;)
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THE TRUE SOAP!
So is that a sketch of Flicker Tail up there? Also I'm deeply sorry about that best friend of yours who became a Benedict Arnold in your life. If only I were there, I'd probably give him/her a very deep black eye for whatever he/she did to you.
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That is indeed Tail.
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She looks gorgeous! Almost like Fluttershy.
It was kinda overwhelming on the social front, but am glad that things went well haha was stressing all over that jazz. :)
Sounds like it was very nice