Convention Afterthoughts · 5:19pm Dec 1st, 2019
In which SEAPonyCon had free chicken nuggets.
"Free Nuggets by @Tridashie"
Disclaimer: Due to transportation issues and some miscommunication, I had to sadly ration my convention experience for a total of six hours over the intended two twelve-hour sessions, one for each day. Still, I had a good time with my first ever convention.
With that out of the way, here's my (mainly photographic) recap of my SEAPonyCon experience.
Taft Avenue at night.
One word I keep repeating through the whole experience was the word Phantasos. The more direct reason why is because of an SCP-001 proposal, but the meaning of the word itself as a mythological Greek god's name for inanimate objects in a dream (or fantasies, I guess), is more relevant in hindsight.
I get very giddy as I close in on the building and went up to the penthouse where the convention was. When I reache it and got into the convention... there I am. Smack into the middle of a talk about Dungeons & Dragons and how friendship is cultivated through tabletop gaming, surrounded by fellow fans with some of them cosplaying (with a Big Mac/Applejack pair at the front row). The speaker has a Princess Luna cutie mark on his wizard(?) costume, while behind him are two paintings involving his original characters. The sheer energy he has while conducting the talk and the Q&A session overwhelms me, but it's reassuring. It's a warm welcome to say that I've finally arrived.
The speaker and his two paintings which he had painted. I need to get better shots.
At the center of the main gathering area is this table where plushies watch talk (and then, afterwards, the wall).
Plushies on the table.
They wouldn't stay that way.
Things escalated from there.
Among other things on the first day, I finally see Them's Fightin Herds and the people who play them.
I only now realize that those fighting gamepads are portable versions of the gamepads they have in arcades.
Speaking of games, someone's brought a deck of Twilight Sparkle's Secret Shipfic Folder, that game I've heard bandied about for some time.
Hidden by the Pinkie Pie cosplayer is a Princess Luna and a Princess Celestia pair.
The staff/band setting up the carol karoke session.
I've heard of Tridashie and have watched some of his videos thanks to Applegeek reacting to them. I also learned today that he's from just across the pond and lives in nearby Indonesia.
So I met him by asking the nearest person if the free chicken on the table was really free. And then it turns out that person is actually Tridashie after I ask his name.
I decide not to get the free chicken, but he does. He eats the free chicken.
I know that there are celebrities like Keanu Reeves who are very much normal off the screen. However, it's quite a different experience when such a celebrity just does that in front of you. It's a very humanizing experience: seeing him eat chicken, because I eat chicken too and so do most other people in the convention.
Plate post-eating.
On that note, I think I may've bumped into Jhayarr23, but I couldn't tell. Just goes to show that they're the best kind of "horse famous" people: just here to have fun and enjoy the show.
Trixie cosplayer/lip sync singer contestant. Has a cute little Trixie plushie complete with robe and hat.
I began Day 2 with stumbling into a lip sync battle: the Trixie impersonator does Tricks Up My Sleeve, the Celestia one does Let It Go from Frozen, and someone in casual clothes does Singing in the Rain. It isn't just songs, though. In order: a three-man act involving the incorrect pronunciation of the word milk, a mixed martial artist performing to music, and a stand-up comedian who assaults us with pun after pun he just made up the Friday before.
All the contestants on stage.
The winner is Princess Elsa Celestia.
His prize is a Rarity pillow.
It's amazing how the mind can recognize familiar faces.
Everyone else who participated gets a prize: those pixellated deal-with-it glasses. They actually work as shades, to my surprise.
I am not sure if this is standard practice for many hotels/apartments. It still astonishes me that even/odd floor operations is a thing.
I talk with several people over the course of the convention.
There's someone who seems to be around my age. First time going to a convention too, wearing a Pinkie Pie shirt (jacket?), a Vinyl Scratch hat, and a Rainbow Dash backpack—props to him; merch like that seems rare here. I ask where he got his backpack from and he says he got it from overseas. Had to wait weeks for the backpack to come over.
On Day 1, in my journey to get a commission, I meet an artist. Says she isn't really that much into the show—it's really her friend (who isn't present at the time) who got her into the convention, but she looked forward to it and is enjoying the event. She and her friend sell pins, stickers, and commissioned sketches (of which I get one). They stand out by drawing the characters a little like dolls, complete with button eyes and stitched mouths.
There's someone from Vienna, Austria. An organizer of conventions and meetups over in Europe. This is his first time in the Philippines—and in Asia, really. He's trying to get used to the tropical weather here, and I share that I don't think I'll be able to survive in the Austrian winter where single-digit temperatures are a thing. Have I mentioned that I've never encountered snow at all? We get to talk outside the convention—the karaoke is starting up, and it's getting hard to continue a conversation with loud music in the background.
I get a Day 2 commission from a nearby artist who specializes in military-esque drawings. I am very surprised with how respectful he is with his customers: he gives me constant updates on the commission I have. I remember his appearance for his Vinyl Scratch-colored hair. Then I am surprised at how advanced his canned food is: there is rice in the canned tuna. Someone passing by praises him for eating like it's an MRE.
I manage to get a free sketch from someone (to my disbelief, especially since I just commissioned a second drawing) by being the first to say yes to a shouted question: "Who here likes Trixie?" (A few seconds of silence warranted someone else to say, "See, no one likes Trixie!") This leads me to meeting the artist of said sketch who rightly said that I am quite nervous. He's pretty calm for his first convention (I think; details are beginning to get muddy now). His attitude seems to be, "I am happy to be here," and the constant mellow smile he has on his face says it all (and with everyone smiling, that's saying something).
There's a programmer for a game studio who is also a fellow fan fic writer; his in-progress story I will not divulge the premise of out of respect. His friend hasn't been in the fandom for a year and a half and is amazed at all the developments that's happened in the franchise since he's left. We explain Pony Life to him. He hopes it does well. He's also looking forward to a deeper, more lore-based/grounded G5.
There is a Them's Fightin Herds finals. I can't post much of it here since all the in-game footage I have is in video form. There's a post-finals photo though.
That's Twilight standing on a box of instant coffee.
After the winner is determined, the Celestia cosplayer (who just won the lip sync battle earlier) challenges the champion to a duel. The cosplayer wins, defeating the champion.
DualShade studios, of My Little Pony: The Abridged Series fame, finally meet face-to-face in the same room. As a generous bonus, they have a panel introducing the audience to the world of MLP abridged series.
The trio setting it up.
Why phantasos? The whole experience is like a dream.
While I do have comics and a pony plushie, there's not much else that I can say is tangible about my fandom and love for the show. The fan fics I write and read are technically just words in a file. The fan art I have are just files in a laptop. The fellow fans I meet here and on Reddit are indeed flesh-and-blood people but I never physically interact with them: just online. This makes up an experience where the show and everything surrounding it doesn't feel real—at best, something mostly in the realm of the digital, the realm of the imagination.
So to be in a convention like this is to enter a dream. All those "other fabled bronies," so to speak, are now right in front of me, in the same room as I am. They bring their own merch, their own joy in the fandom. A sense of security and happiness that can only be had when you're confident that you can just enjoy the show and its trappings, and no one's going to mind because they're into it too.
And that's that.
Some stuff from the convention.
Commissioned Zephyr Breeze clean line-art piece by @Kaiskea
Two pins and one sticker
A free sketch I was able to get dibs on by being the first to raise my hand when someone shouted, "Who here likes Trixie?!" By DoughtNut Wubbs.
On the right, a military-themed pony sticker. On the left, a commissioned Zephyr Breeze line-art piece. Both by Lor's World.
Yes, I really like Zephyr Breeze.
The whole experience was pretty good, by God's grace! Looking forward to next time.
Oh, yeah. Seeing horsefamous people in person can be overwhelming, relieving, or both at the same time depending on the context. Just remember, at the end of the day, you're both there because you like a goofy show about cartoon horses.
Glad you had such a great time!
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Yeah, though this isn't my first rodeo with "[insert adjective]-famous" people. Once, at a church-held retreat, one of the local pastors I'd only seen from afar and have read his life story about in a book decided to come over on the final day and I managed to chat with him for thirty seconds. Though, in hindsight, I shouldn't have had that celebrity attitude especially toward pastors.
I guess this one's a bit more special because it was already such a wonderful treat to meet fellow bronies in real-life, I never really put much thought that horsefamous people would come over too.
And, yeah, thank you for the nice words about the great time! I wish I'll be able to get the transportation hijinks sorted out to achieve the full experience the next time.