Wincon 2010: A Wrap Up

[tsukinofaerii]

NOTE: CURRENTLY SET TO PRIVATE, UNTIL I GET THE PICS UPLOADED.
NOTE 2: REMOVE NOTE WHEN FINISHED.
NOTE 3: DISREGARD NOTES.

Okay, finally! My procrastination has reached the point where I'm posting a wincon write-up. Go me!

My plane took off at dark o'clock in the morning, from Teeny Regional Airport. Teeny Regional Airport was, indeed, Teeny. So was the plane that flew from it. I got on the plane in costume; namely, I wore striped green tights with rainbow socks, a gray plaid skirt, my comfy red bra, a black lace busier over the bra, a chopped-up neon rainbow striped shirt (I'd removed the bottom have of it along with the collar, so it sagged over my shoulders) and a knee-length trenchcoat for warmth. Believe it or not, I was very comfy. Sadly, I did not get searched. (Note to self: dressing to attract attention actually deflects it!)

The flight was not bad. I met up with clex_monkie89 on my change over, and we sat together on the flight in to Chicago. She... does not fly well. But we avoided any need for airsickness bags, so I call that a win. Once we landed in Midway, we ended up hanging around for a few hours, waiting for Kate Monster! Who, bizarrely, I just realized I don't know on LJ. o.O Interesting things happened when we found out that the hotel would only accept cash if we paid upfront, when a bunch of people who would be giving us their monies were not showing up until later. D:< RAWR. It ended up being sorted out by those of us who were there ponying us, and then keeping the cash we collected. Still, very annoying. Once we collected Kate, we went to meet up with brynspikess and her Non-LJ/DW friend Sarah, who had brought Car. Well, Van. Van, you see, was very important, because Van took us from Chicago, Midway, to Windy City Ink. Yes, the Time of Tattoos was upon us.

It did not go so well.

The guy who agreed to do our tattoos was Rob. Rob was excellent. He listened, chatted with us, redrew over and over, and generally made the experience a positive one. He did Kate Monster's first—script across her shoulders that reads Lean into the Wind, with blowing leaves. It was very pretty!

After Kate came brynspikess. Bryn's was... hard. She wanted Atlantis on a shield of flame. First, it was large, and had lots of detail work. Second, we did not have a very good picture of it, and Rob did not speak Fangirl. Worse, most of us had been up for a long time, on tiny amounts of sleep and tinier amounts of food. It did not help translation. So they worked on it.

And then Mario came in.

See, we're originally agreed to work with Rob and, as backup, Pony. But because we had such a large group, Rob agreed to come in on his day off, and we actually got in before the parlor opened. Pony was due to come in at his usual time. Mario was completely outside the picture, but I suppose he wanted to get in on some of this lucrative fangirl action. He started working on clex_monkie89's tattoo, which was supposed to be the body shadow of Superman as if he were flying overhead, with only bits in color where the light would hit and the S on his chest. Mario did not listen. Mario, in fact, was an asshole. (As an example, he asked what I was getting, I said "Captain America's wings". His response was, "Are they greyscale?" Erm, DUH, no. He then processed to blow me off.) Mario tried to tell us that the cape is the iconic part of Superman, and also tried to convince clex_monkie89 to go with shading, when she wanted solid colors. It took a lot of work, and some complaining to a manager. In retrospect, the best idea probably would have been to tell him that we'd wait for Rob/Pony, but cranky fangirls were cranky and just wanted to get this done and go food ourselves. Meanwhile, Pony was working on a walk-in, who probably shouldn't have gone before us, but dude, Bryn's was going to take forever, and that was before the Mario Incident surgically excised my magnanimity.

Finally, Pony was free! Bryn was still under the needle, as was Clex (who will be referred to as P-chan from now on, lest I confuzzle myself). I originally wanted two, but by then, I was far too cranky. For those of you who have not heard me babbling for the past year, this is the mock up of what I wanted.

The major problem with this would be the white. I really, really wanted to avoid outlines, but white fades fast, even on pasty people like me. I essentially told Pony "no outlines, colors have to stay the same, it's from a comic book cover so really please don't change too much". This is the result.

I am really, really happy with it. (wiggles) It's not exact, but I can see how going with the beveled blue star off-sets the wings. In lieu of the "airbrushed" look that I really cannot have (until white ink is more permanent that is), this is amazing. The most difficult thing about it was not wiggling. ¬.¬ My back is really "sensitive". And not in the "ouchy ouchy" sort of way. Ahem.

Tattoos completed, we trekked through Chicago to our Hotel. It was the ride of terror. Chicago traffic scares the hell out of me. Once there we met up with more people, registered to get our schwag and sought Food. Over food, there was Massive Discussion about the Horror Panel, which I guess we owned. gigglingkat was on a cellphone, chatting with us while we ate. And there was much rejoicing. When we got back, velithya and her husband joined us in watching Iron Man 2. *\o/* Then, the passing out commenced.

The next morning, I discovered that my shirt rode up, and tattoos are completely transferable to white sheets. (facepalm) There was a trio of perfect impressions, where I'd clearly not moved for hours on end, until I did. It was decided that I would leave the maids one hell of a tip. Then, it was off to the Horror Panel! I did not participate much. I was mostly there for (im)moral support. The same thing happened with the BBC Panel. ¬.¬ I do not think I was drinking yet, more's the shame. Then, we had Pimp Your Fandom. I did not, initially, plan to Pimp, but then someone reminded me that I had a Captain America costume in my suitcase, and I ended up babbling incoherently about Marvel for a minute or so, while flashing my ass to anyone who wasn't standing up (everyone). After wards came the Vid Show, which was amazing. We have some very talented vidders. Sometime during this, my mother got a Twitter. She has not yet tweeted, but she's following me. ._.;

And then I failed to get drunk. We watched Supernatural, had a lot of fun, and had a Spider Incident. This was, apparently, the second, though I hadn't heard of the first. We ended up camped out in the consuite while it was sorted out. :\

The next day, I didn't really "attend" any panels. Ate breakfast, and then I broke out my glue gun (which has been lost *sigh*) and my Cap mask (which broke in transit) and set about making myself a tinfoil Cap mask for the Tinhat Pageant. The theme was "OTP", which made Cap a must. However, the other have of the OTP did not hit me until I realized that I had glowy bracelets and necklaces back in my stuff. And blue was amongst them. Click. The Result:

One day, I will attempt to recreate the arc reactor in order to get a close-up.

I did not win. Others had worked very hard, including print outs! I did, however, get a Great Rack mention. :3 I'd already been on with the drinking (this was my only truly wasted day at Wincon), and everything was happy and bubbly. I'd brought a flask, and I picked up a bottle of vodka. Life was goooood.

Then came what was, TBH, the highlight of my Wincon: Badfic Idol. Which, of course, you all know that I won. We had some horrible fic, including but not limited to angel eggs (from two different authors!), dolphin dubcon, I think I remember something about Pants of Virtue... Seriously bad, y'all. But they were no match for me and my total lack of coherency. WHEE! One of the "judges" (for a certain value of judge) had been consistently commenting that the fics made too much sense, had grammar/spelling/punctuation... She gave me a slow clap. So proud. The crown of it, however, was a reaction video of gigglingkat. It's not my fic she's reacting to, but it's still beyond hilarious. (That lovely voice you hear in the background is missyjack, who was well toasted as well.) Posted with permission from Kat.

For those who don't want to watch a video of someone else's pain, here's pictures!

This is Kat, rocking to stave off the horror.

And this is Kat drinking to stave off the horror.

This is Kat when drinking is not enough.

And then, Prooooooom and raffle. I got a fishie painted on my face.

That is KateMonster being blurry and sleepy in the background. HI KATEMONSTER.
There was more alcohol, dancing, singing, and I think we scared the hotel staff. Sweet Dreams came on, and absolutely everyone started singing. They did not expect that. We closed the place down and had a raffle, wherein I won some kickass jewelry and a book+hoodie. Gave the book to laser_radiation, kept the hoody. It's very warm. :D Also, my costume rocked, though I wish I'd remembered my hat.
Technically, everyone migrated upstairs. I meant to, but then I took a self-eval of my sobriety level and realized I was in that happy place where Drunk is very, very Drunk, but also Very, Very close to Sick. Deciding to avoid Sick, I went to bed instead.

On Sunday, we puttered around a bit, until the Comics Panel. There were almost no people. :( Sadface. So we ended up having a round table. It was fun! :D And then, closing ceremonies. More sadface. It was a very slow, comfy sort of day, wherein everything calmed down a bit. We ended up trooping out to have a Stragglers Dinner, which was less Stragglers and closer to Half The Convention. When we got back, there was a beautiful moment where KateMonster found out Dr. Who spoilers and flipped the fuck out with glee. I have that on a vid too (sort of. We did retakes), but need permission to post. :( And then with the packing and the goodbyes and the arranging of Transport. :( Monday, I got my stuff together, said my goodbyes, and went home.

TL;DR, Wincon is Made of Awesome, Shiny and Love. Next year, it is in New Orleans. You should all come with me. Seriously! If you buy now, it's only $100. Ask for it for the Holidays!