Everfree Northwest 2018: Friends, Magic and Connections - Day 0 - Thursday · 11:49pm May 25th, 2018
Thursday started early for me. The entire family got up at 5 AM to take me to the airport.
My co-pilots for the drive to the airport.
Saying goodbye to the fillies
I’m always nervous going through security, too. Just because it’s a hassle and I’m always worried something will go screwy. Thankfully, nothing did. I even had time to get a London Fog (Earl Grey Tea Latte that Ebon introduced me to last year).
Still, I guess I’m used to being super early at the airport, because very soon, it was time to board. I do love Alaska’s assigned seating. It makes things so much better, especially since I love me my window seats.
My flight was actually smooth and easy and after bouncing around with a few books, I decided to read The Twilight Enigma by iisaw.
A few of the recommendations the Archivists gave me didn’t really work for me and for some reason, I wanted something that jumped right into Adventure… and what an adventure it was! Got all the way to Twilight Town before the flight landed in Seattle!
At Gate N7. Mass Effect fans represent!
Welcome to Seattle
While I didn’t get a lovely welcoming rainstorm like last year, I did get a wonderfully cloudy day. In fact, I met up with someone as I was heading down to the transit. Glad I did, because they were going to pay for a Lyft! Instead, I guided him down to the airport shuttle and after waiting a little while, it arrived!
Now… well, the socialization gets a little muddled. I know I’m going to mix up the next few parts, but I’ll do my best.
I know I met up with Fourths at least, and another person I hadn’t met before named Codaulux. It took some time, but we stashed our stuff and then hung out and waited for Ebon, Scroll and Katya Nott. After getting the first room arranged and my luggage set up in Ebon’s room, we headed out. Ebon was going to join us, but that didn’t happen. Poor guy passed out from exhaustion (he works too hard).
We met up with Silver Flare on the way there, but he was going to follow us in his truck later. Little did I know he had magical stalking powers.
It took quite a while to get to the light rail and the train seemed to take forever as we headed to Downtown Seattle, but we did make it, where we met up with Corejo, Ruirik & Loofa, plus Hap, Jeryn and Fourths.
And so began…
Hap’s Forced March
Little known fact: despite Hap being a flippin’ physics professor, he’s a terrible judge of walking distances. We ended up walking up Pine Street from the Westlake Station downtown.
I was ill-prepared for an uphill walk of a little under a mile (he said it was half a mile!). I’m not terribly out of shape, but I’m not in great shape either. (Damn you Corejo for your cross-country voodoo). I may have whined a little. But it was just a little, no matter what everyone else in our party says.
Still, the result was wonderful. We had lunch at the Oddfellow’s Cafe. The best part was that Silver Flare literally slipped in behind us without any of us noticing… so we ended up going WTF DID YOU COME FROM?! Apparently, he’s an amazing stalker. (He actually ended up just driving to downtown and stumbling across us without anyone noticing)
That’s when I got to meet Oroboro for the first time (who I can confirm, does bear a resemblance to his OC). I was super excited to meet him, even if he ditched us for his brother and other friends. :derpyderp:
We had some good chats there (though I can’t for the life remember what they were now). Afterwards, we went to a fantastic little ice cream shop that smelled like rainbow chip birthday cake. Some minor drawing may have been done there.
After getting some noms, we wandered into a nearby bookstore and maybe got a few death glares from a few people.
But we did get a group picture!
Left to Right: Myself, Loofa, Fourths, Haps (Foreground), Codaulux (Background), Corejo (Background), Ruirik (Foreground)
Anyway, we didn’t get any books (I can’t actually read print books after my injury without pain, sadly), but we continued down Pike Street (which is famous for coffee or something) where we stopped for like “the greatest espresso in the world.”
...there are days I wish I liked coffee.
Anyway, the exhaustion was starting to get to me at this point and I was fighting my meds, trying to stay in control. It was hard, but as long as I was engaged with people, I was fine.
...little did I know that this would become a major thing for me.
Then, at long last, we headed back to the Light Rail station.
I have to say, hitting rush hour on that train was not fun. It took a lot to keep the panic in, but having friends around really helped. And then, at long last, we headed back to the hotel, chatting and joking all the way.
Adventures in Badge Acquisitions
After getting ahold of Ebon (poor guy had totally passed out from exhaustion) and getting my room squared away (fun fact, he’s stayed in the same room I stayed in last year), Corejo and I decided to go for the registration line. I have to say, I always feel a little bad for registration folks. They have an intense job. It must be exhausting to hand out badges to nearly 3,000 people.
Let’s see… who else arrived during this time? I think… I think some of the Jurists? I sorta moved up and down the line a little bit while Corejo and Ebon talked for a while. Also? I met up with Shimmercoat.
...who just happens to be Heartshine’s roommate.
For some reason, he sent a message to Heartshine afterwards saying “I just met Novel and he’s an absolute delight.” This disconcerted Heartshine a little. I can’t imagine why.
We only talked about how “Mad Heartshine” is always adorable because of her scrunchy pout (though seriously, if you get real Mad Heartshine, run for your life). And what she did when she got a certain silver box with stuff inside of it, in addition to another thing of a floral nature.
And maybe how she reacted to a specific picture…
What? Just because I get enormous joy out of real-life shipping doesn’t mean anything!
So, now that we’re done with shipping (for the moment), we have a fun factoid:
For EFNW 2018, I was both Staff and a Community Guest.
You see, I’d worked with Heartshine for months about organizing some of the Writing Track community guests (namely Mono, Albi and Oro). We talked panels, events and all sorts of stuff. She was kind enough to let me focus basically as “Community Guest Liaison” for the Writing Track.
However, when EqD announced that they’d be at EFNW, they wanted a list of all members on staff. Since I was going to be there, I put my name on the list. So they submitted all of us as Community Guests. And I was added as that!
So… heh. If you’re wondering, I did get a staff badge and shirt, but I acted in both capacities for most of the weekend.
The Albinocorn & The Writers Dinner
This part is a little fuzzy for me. I don’t actually remember much of what happened between getting my badge and Albi’s arrival. I was super excited to see him again and found him waiting in the line for his badge. We chatted for a bit, caught up and had some fun, then I got pulled as Xephyr prepared the annual Writer’s Staff Dinner at Sharp’s Roadhouse Steakhouse.
After a brief discussion and flurry of figuring out people, I offered Albi a spot. He got to choose between standing in line and a steakhouse. He chose well.
We all had a great time. It was the first time I think I really got to have an actual conversation with Titanium Dragon. Sadly, I apparently didn’t get a picture of the entire group. But the fun thing was that we had a few newcomers! I honestly can’t remember who all was actually there, sorry! (Seriously, my memory is all kinds of screwed up). But here’s a short list!
We’ve got Kryptastic and his fiancee, Corejo, Titanium Dragon, Xephyr, Lovely Laughter and her significant other, The Albinocorn, EbonQuill, Heartshine and Silver Flare. I think there may have been one or two others (Maybe Blazzing?), but I honestly can’t recall.
At one point, our table became so full that two of us had to split off. Who were these two, you ask?
Heartshine and Ebon. 
And yes, I was squeeing like a crazy person. Albi can attest to this. I’m a shipper in real life as much as I am for ponies. I was mocked for this, but I so don’t care. I love it!
It was great just to hang out with Albi again. We just bantered back and forth just like we usually do online. I barely felt a difference at all. I don’t think there was one! I don’t even remember the specifics… but I do remember us having fun!
Twilight Sparkle’s Secret Shipfic Folder, Part 1
Okay, I can’t remember who all joined me for the first round of TSSSF in my room. I’m pretty sure Albi and Corejo was there, as was RedSquirrel, Ruirik, Hearthshine, Ebon and maybe Loofa?
I don’t even remember how this ended! I remember that I got to teach Albi how to play, which was awesome. We had 5-6 players, I think. I may have won… hrm. Then again, it’s not really fair since I know this game way too well. Ah well, I should have just bowed out or passed or something. I have this annoying competitive streak in me sometimes.
I do remember some pokes at Hap about all the math stuff he forced into the Nook when he first arrived. I was actually worried I would have to add a math channel to the server… which made me feel just WRONG inside.
That’s when RedSquirrel made a comment about flunking a math course at some point. The next exchange went like this...
Corejo: “Aren’t you Asian?”
RedSquirrel: “I’m half Asian.”
The entire room just about fell over laughing.
Anyway, we were all exhausted from the travel, so we turned in pretty early last night (or at least they said they were turning in. Who knows what they were actually doing! 
)
Myself, I got ready for bed. Because Friday was gonna be a big day.
...that being said, it would have been nice if I’d manage to go to sleep before 2:00 AM. But I maybe got a little lost in reading and wanted to be sure Mono, Swan and Jyki got in on time. Oh well. I mean… it’s not like I’m going to lose a lot of sleep anyway this weekend, right? 
To be continued tomorrow with Day 1 - Friday!
London Fog! Dude, best tea combo in the world, just wish I could drink it without regrets later
Thursday sounds like you all had a lot of fun, with the exception of having to walk all over pike street, being a Washington Native I know thats... yeah that's really not a really fun walk when it's hot or when you'd just gotten off a plane and are tired. Also, swear to god that book store looks amazing
I am going to need to track it down when if I am in Seattle at all this summer.
>_> Alliance scum.
<3
I'm glad you had such a nice time. Gives me high hopes for BronyCon. Here's hoping nothing explodes before then!
Your girls are super cute!
Thursday, I was still at Mt. Saint Hellens with the wife, because we just didn't quite get far enough before it got dark. On the plus side, we got to visit the visitors center the next morning for free because of the anniversary (the big boom, not our wedding anniversary which is the same day) and still made it to the convention on Friday around noon. The plus and minus of driving for three days instead of flying. Minus: scheduling. Plus: rock samples. (Honest, the mountain looked like that when we arrived. We have witnesses. Just don't look in our trunk.)
Sounds like it was a lot of fun for you Novel! Not gonna lie. I'm a huge shipper as well lol. You and your whole family are freaking adorable together. Those are definitely some goals I want to aspire for when I get married and have a family, as scary as it is to think of that. What was your favorite part about the con?
Great :) though when you sign the Cleave cover? And what did you end up doing with your extra copy?
4869553
Tell that to Hap.
Right next door to the Oddfellows building!
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Yeah... it's hard being the GOOD GUYS.
Cons are awesome. ^^
4869642
Yeah... the problem is that they know it. And they use it against us. It's so not fair.
4869667
I'll make sure to tell that to the Rangers when they come asking for witness statements.
4869715
Definitely Saturday night.
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The Cleave cover was handled on Friday. I didn't need a copy, as I have all the originals.
4870091
Did I see you at EVNW? Pretty sure I did...
I am progressive enough to be down with the idea that little girls can also like ponies.
4870202
I am absolutely positive I saw your name at one point! In fact, I remember going "I know that name," but I'm pretty sure something distracted me at some point! Sorry!!!
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I'm very proud of you.
The Pine Street Death March will go down in history.
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FOREVER.
Did you know I didn't even follow you on FIMFiction before now? :V
It's really crazy how easy it is to just not really interact with people, despite it seeming like fanfiction would be a relatively tight community.
It was cool getting to know you, though, and you're quite affable.
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Heh. I did notice that. ^^; I also find it ironic beyond measure that you picked Crown, which is easily my most controversial story. Not for the subject matter, but more as to the delivery of the subject. People seem really split as to if it landed or not. Crown's also a special case and not necessarily indicative of my standard writing style (if you're looking for RariTwi fun, I'd actually recommend Diamonds Amidst the Stars instead).
Cliques are an easy thing to slip into, especially online!
The feeling is completely mutual!