Con Diary: Rainfurrest through the eyes of a lion ^_^
Copied from my FA Journal... looks like the formatting actually worked!
May be TL/DR, but feel free to skip around
and many people actually enjoy reading about others' con experiences (myself included) so heeeeeeeere we go!
Whew Friday at Rainfurrest is upon us!
FRIDAY
Had a fun Thursday with
leonnikate, my out-of-state visitor from Southern California who came up to visit me and of course for Rainfurrest, we went to the Puyallup Fair and I had an unusually good day with the midway games and came out with a bagful of (pretty cheap and ugly) plushes, and a set of nice crystal glasses and a plate from the dime toss game.
We got an early start on Friday (there were something like seven people staying over at our house that night before the con) and after triple-checking my checklist Leon and I were headed on I-405 south towards the Seattle Airport Marriott.
The first thing I did was to set up for the art show, and I was very surprised to see quite a limited number of panels up at this show, with a lot of them blank (unsold). I mean my last con was AC which you need about 2 hours to see everything up at that show, but I definitely think the art show at RF was bigger last year, especially the adult section which had only about 5 panels.
Anyway that was more busy work than anything and I just milled around the lobby while waiting for our room to be ready. Ran into a few people I knew including Niko who was sporting a green mohawk, and Alphapak (our 3rd roommate) right away. First fursuit hug of the con went to
silverrwolfe, who DID have my missing Under Armour shirt, sweet! We tried checking in again about 11am (normal checkin is at 3pm) and surprisingly we were good to go! Room 279, which I thought was a great omen because 279 is awesome in bowling (all strikes and one nine-spare somewhere in the middle).
We were able to take everything up in just two trips, and in time for opening ceremonies which were GREAT. Definitely the best opening in 3 years of RF I've seen, they really did well to explain the who Cosmonauts vs. Astrofurs deal and had a really great entrance with crazy lights and stuff for the fursuiters representing the different groups. Very well planned out.
After that we browsed the Art Show... didn't see much there unfortunately (and my fennec fox print "Rise and Shine" already got a bid!!! Yaaay!) and got in the monstrously long line for the dealer's den which actually opened up right on schedule. Okay a few minutes late but that's great considering Furry standard time ;)
Honestly, I'm very picky about my art and while they're all great in their own way, I was just floored by Rukis' art. I spent a good half hour at her table browsing prints (I bought two of them) and also a badge commission (unfortunately she did not offer colored badges at the con but maybe in the future). Her style just is amazing, a perfect blend of toony and realistic with natural colors. I also bought a half-price comic book (that I would have paid full price for) from Dan "Flinters" Canaan, the last edition of his "Roomies" series. Great stuff.
Saw a bunch more people in the Den that i haven't seen in AGES, in particular
charfox and her mate Sphinx who were in town from Colorado! They're great and it sure was fun to see them again. I <3 cons... they help long lost friends stay connected!
After that Leon, Alpha and I took in a SUPERB concert from the one and only Bucktown Tiger, and his song selection was just perfect... a little Linkin Park, Eminem, classic keyboard hits mixed in, theme from Portal (of course, the audience was singing along) and even The Internet is For Porn :D I've never seen the tiger play a whole concert live before and this was just a treat. I didn't want to... but we left a little early to attend a superb panel by
matrices and Maly of North Sound Costuming on Props: Character for your Character.
This was a very well thought out panel, they even had a 6-page handout that explained everything they covered in detail, and brought boxfuls of prop examples for situational, thematic and character-specific usage. I've been looking to add more props to my fursuiting and really got some great ideas from these experienced folks.
After that was a little bit of a break so Leon and I hit up the local Jack in the Box for some dinner, and actually after we got back ran into my mate Chaos Reign who had to drive to Seattle to pick up his photographic equipment for the con (he's the official con photografur). We actually drove him to Burger King lol because he hadn't eaten yet (though he probably regrets eating that Whopper...) Actually in between we checked out the "Iron Artist" panel which... well... was fail. Apparently the person running it was a no-show and the guy that took over was more or less clueless, one of those deals. Stayed for the first arting - the theme was Jackal Chan (as opposed to Jackie Chan) drop-kicking something - and promptly took off.
Then it was time to FINALLY get into suit! 9pm there was a Twister Tournament in the Hangar (the general con hangout space) and although this lion is probably not in prime Twister shape I'm not one to back down from a challenge!
While waiting for the Hangar to open up, ran into our old crew,
sekar had finished her Leka body suit yaaaay! No squeakers in the butt or bewbs yet though ;) And ran into Aesop for about the 4th time, so glad he made it up, and enjoyed a brief furpile with Niko and at least 10 other suiters in the main lobby.
Fursuit Twister is one of the most STRENUOUS things I've ever done in suit. Kijani has pretty limited vision as it is but I honestly could NOT see the colored dots (they laid out the board by hand, I think it was 8x8 and they had 6 of us go at a time) if I was in a certain position and just had to guess, but nobody called me out for cheating so I guess it was good. The first time I was 4th out of 6 (top 2 advance to finals) and in the consolation match I gave it everything I had in my aching leonine body and was looking good (though out of breath and sore from limb to limb) and in the final 3 with the top two advancing. We had I think two of our paws on green already so there were absolutely no green dots left on the part of the board I was on... and the WORST possible spin came up "RIGHT FOOT GREEN!"
I looked around and knew I was done... thank goodness because if I went any longer I probably would have passed out! ^_^ Got commended for my efforts though as I laid prostrate trying to regain the blood flow to my head.
Unfortunately I definitely did over-exert myself so after a visit to the headless lounge I decided to call it a night. Definitely will be dancing tomorrow though, and what a fun first day at Rainfurrest.
SATURDAY
I only do it once a con (my bank account pleads me to only go once) but I went to AquaTerra, the Marriott restaurant, and indulged in their super breakfast buffet of awesome. All you can eat BACON (tie a warthog to a pole in front of a hungry lion and see what it does, that's pretty much what happened), sausage, potatoes, eggs benedict, a full omelet station, waffles and about 20 different kinds of bread, cereal and fruit. Freshest best tasting pineapple in the world too, and Leon agreed with me. Food coma is fun.
After my $23 breakfast I went to pick up my significantly less than $23 badge from Rukis, which was just beautiful. Again too bad it wasn't colored but for a pencil work it was a really unique representation of Kijani, just in line with her balanced realistic and toony style, and I loved it.
I'll get it out of the way right now, I am a Kyell Gold fanboy. I never really read much furry fiction, but ever since someone recommended Out of Position to me, I have been addicted to his writing and am now working on my fourth KG book. Hence, the Sofawolf Press table was quite a daunting place to be. I finally decided on his collection of short stories, Bridges, at the recommendation of one of the Sofawolf guys. I better not read it until I get home though because I probably won't be able to set it down if I start.
After that it was time for the Fursuit Performance panel, which I have attended at every con I've been to, and what a perfect group to lead the way -
kodipup (the guest of Honor),
thumper, and Nicodemus! Wow! They could have done a 3-hour panel on this topic they all had so many good ideas but unfortunately they only had an hour, but offered a lot of stories from their extensive experience, and even touched on a lot of topics Aphinity and I were planning to cover in our panel on Sunday, "Fursuiting beyond the con".
Quick turnaround after that panel to get into suit for the Fursuit Meet and Greet, which actually ended up being me waiting in line for half an hour for the Fursuit Photo Shoot with
chaosreign! This was way fun and he had me do a ton of different poses and I can't wait to see how they turned out :) From what I saw, Matrices was doing a great job with the M&G, trying to get all the fursuiters to talk about themselves a bit so we could learn about the people under the suit, which is always fascinating to me.
From there, it was pretty much time for the fursuit parade! It was about as organized as a parade could be, and the route seemed just the right length to me. Also saw Odakota for the first time in suit here, and I caught up with Aesop (I seriously think there were only about 3 or 4 lion fursuits at this con which made us teh sads), Afterwards Chaos (the world's shortest dragon) climbed a 15-foot utility ladder - quite the sight to behold - as we did the group shot which he told me later he had to do a three-shot panoramic to get everyone in, kinda like what they did at AC.
At that point I realized that I had completely forgotten to buy Glow Sticks for the rave dance that evening, so I went on a Dollar Tree/Taco Bell run with Leon and Alphapak.
OMG the most awesome thing happened at TB too, apparently the workers there had been getting a steady stream of furries in all weekend, so they asked us what species we were and saw that I was a lion on my badge, and were making jokes about it like putting lots of meat in my burrito, and the best part was I paid by card and they take your name, so the cashier was about to write down Tim, and the other lady doing the order pointed to my Mary Mouse badge and said "No, look, his name is Kijani!" and takes the pen and writes "KIJANI" on the order sheet. That was epic.
I made it back JUST in time to snipe something at the art show, a stunning pencil original of a warrior wolf that was seriously underpriced at $5 to start and was only bid up to $10 which was a steal. Sadly, I did not sell either of my framed pieces at the show but the other two did sell for $15 (fennec fox, "Rise and Shine") and $8 (lion, "Morning Stretch), but I don't even think I broke even :( I learned that no matter how good it is, you need to remember your audience - if I do this again it'll be mainly foxes and wolves, not lions. No love for us!
Anyway, stopped in briefly to video some of the Nerf War, kinda haphazardly set up but was mildly entertaining and unexpectedly painful when I collided with a stray dart all collateral damage-like.
After that I was SUPER lucky to get a front row seat to the Variety Show. *HUGS a certain dragon* Anyway there were some good acts and some just meh, but a few that really stood out for me were Drew's original song that he wrote and played on guitar and harmonica (as always, he's amazing), Bucker Fuskyote's rendition of "Fly me to the Moon" that had Se'kar and three others dancing in the background and was awesomely choreographed, and the very last skit which made fun of Canada's obsession with hockey which was hilarious.
The timing of that was perfect so I made it to the "Writing Erotic Fiction" panel, the first 18+ panel I have ever attended at any con and also the first writing panel. Yes, ok, I really just wanted to see
kyell, who came in from a dinner engagement about 10 minutes into the panel, which was hosted by K.M. Hirosaki. I busily took notes while ogling over the dude responsible for Kory, Samaki, Dev, Volle, and all of these other unforgettable characters I really related and felt a connection to.
Finally, it was time for Kato to make his RF 2010 debut and he sure did on the dance floor. I got a late start (about 10:30 due to some registration mishap where I had to got to Con Ops) but it was still packed down there. Had a nice conversation with Hornet in the headless lounge, and I had no clue he was from this area (well Portland, but close enough) and his new suit looks awesome so far (has the body to make).
I did two short sets until my right thigh which has been bothering me since Twister was about to give out, so I went to the Hangar to get my free fursuit badge of Kato and went back to the room.
I can't believe it's Sunday already. If life had a rewind button, I'd srsly use it every con.
SUNDAY
Felt quite burned out still in the morning after a good seven hours' sleep, but got up in time for the "Professional Fursuiting" panel with
aphinity and Axelroo, which was a hard decision over Ithabise's Head Construction panel. I really just wanted to go over our outline with him for our panel later that afternoon, which we did to some degree (just vague one-line notes, I knew at this point we'd be more or less winging it).
Anyway the panel was good, though sparsely attended, it was good to get a perspective from a couple of guys that have done this a ton, it was astounding the differences between fursuiting and professional mascot work.
After that it was a tight turnaround to get into suit for the Fursuit Games at 11:30. Oh my goodness the games were a blast this year (except for wheelbarrow races... yuck).
The first one was a frisbee tossing game where we stood in a circle and tried to toss the frisbee to the critter directly across from you, which we won by a landslide mainly because I was the first one to toss and I immediately went over and tried to block the other circle's frisbee which was TOTALLY encouraged :)
The next one was an epic game of fursuit dodgeball, the balls we used were those giant playground balls that were super light and tough to handle with paws! I got knocked out mid-way through the first round on a missed catch, but the second time my cat-like reflexes were put to good use as I dodged ball after ball and took my share of Eastsiders (we were the Wes'side) out. I made an amazing save too in that round - I tried to catch a ball headed towards me but it slipped out of my pawpads, so I lunged out to grab it and was able to hold on without falling (I took a teammate out in the process) but hey I stayed alive!
If there's one game I dread it's always wheelbarrow races, as my upper body strength is mediocre at best and I have horrible grip on my handpaws. I sincerely apologize to Kwik for his embarrassing faceplant during his run which was 100% my fault as I just lost my grip. This one came down to the wire and our anchor pair of Thumper and Smartie came from behind to give us the dramatic wheelbarrows win!
The next game was kind of silly, we had to move little ball-pit colored balls to our side of the room without using our handpaws, we weren't even close to winning but I can't say I helped much on that one... but now for my moment of shining Fursuit Games Glory... the 2010 Rainfurrest Musical Chairs!!!
Just to set the stage, last year I got embarrasingly knocked out in the second round with an aggressive Torwin Husky ass-slide, and was determined to AT LEAST make it to the third round this year before my leonine pride was irreparably damaged during my sure walk of shame.
Well, this year was a different story. We had about 30 fursuiters start the Chairs game, and my lion instincts were sharp as I found a chair in each of the early rounds, and little by little the crowd was whittled away. In the fourth round (I was ecstatic to still be in it) I got extremely lucky as I missed the chair closest to me and had to run 1/4 of the way around the circle to plant my butt in the only remaining open seat!
From then on, I guess it was meant to be! I was in the Musical Chairs ZONE baby... Nothing, and I mean nothing, would stop me from victory. I made it to the Elite 8, when I was following a half-bull, half something muscle suit and I slid my fuzzy butt JUST under his as the music stopped, and he did everything in his power to knock me off (including locking my legs together and using force to remove me from the seat until he finally relented and I playfully did a "wut now, beotch!" at the poor horned hybrid as he sulked off.
Then came the Super Six, and at last the Final Four as the crowd, the drama grew more intense. At this point it was Yama (a rabbit), a werewolf, Belmont Wolf (Mousepaws I believe) and me.
The round of 4 was surprisingly easy as the werewolf stalked way too close to Yama and had no chance at the open seat between them, and I just barely beat out Belmont in the Round of 3 to get heads up with the bunny!
They REALLY drew out the music for the final to build up the tension and Yama had a big advantage in positioning when the music stopped as he was not only closest to the chair but facing the right way, I had to backtrack and had no chance. I wasn't going down without a fight though and knocked the chair over, and somehow Yama was able to stay in the chair for the win. Although it was brutal to come that close, it was still one of the most fun experiences I've had fursuiting at a con. And Thumper was a great emcee!
Thankfully, the games ended early so we were able to check out by the appointed time of 1pm (well, close enough). After the third trip to the car I went to pick up my two pieces that did not sell at the art show (ironically, the two that I spent a lot of time and money to frame nicely), and also the piece that I won, a beautiful pencil original of a wolf warrior by Richard Barthrop that I sniped for the unbelieveable price of $12.
And then it finally was time for the panel - "Fursuiting Beyond the Con"! I got to the room early and OMG it started to fill up in a hurry until there were no open seats left. Fursuiters were filing in and standing on the back wall! At 2pm I was nervous for two reasons: That we were more or less winging this panel with just a vague outline, and that Aphinity wasn't there yet! Apparently North held him up for something but he was only a few minutes late.
I think everything went rather well and we hit on all the major points we wanted to - I didn't talk a whole lot compared to Aphinity but every time I did pop in it was on a major point that Phin was glad I brought up :) Niko did awesome too.
Well after that there wasn't much left... closing ceremonies was pretty cool and North ended up winning the charity contest (most donations got a pie in the face), but the big surprise was Gene Armstrong's sister Bonnie offering to get pied in the face for $100 in donations at the ceremonies, and she raised $380 or something ON THE SPOT! the total raised was $1,505 which crushed last year's total and Rainfurrest matched that for a huge $3,110 for the Northwest Wildlife Rehabilitation Center which is just awesome.
Final numbers: 184 fursuits in the parade and 1045 attendees, making RF the 5th largest furry con in the world!
It was quite a great con, and lots of great memories to cherish for a while, at least until FC this January. I think knowing there is another con on the horizon helps with the PCD a lot.
Until next year, stay furry ^_^
May be TL/DR, but feel free to skip around
and many people actually enjoy reading about others' con experiences (myself included) so heeeeeeeere we go!
Whew Friday at Rainfurrest is upon us!
FRIDAY
Had a fun Thursday with
leonnikate, my out-of-state visitor from Southern California who came up to visit me and of course for Rainfurrest, we went to the Puyallup Fair and I had an unusually good day with the midway games and came out with a bagful of (pretty cheap and ugly) plushes, and a set of nice crystal glasses and a plate from the dime toss game.
We got an early start on Friday (there were something like seven people staying over at our house that night before the con) and after triple-checking my checklist Leon and I were headed on I-405 south towards the Seattle Airport Marriott.
The first thing I did was to set up for the art show, and I was very surprised to see quite a limited number of panels up at this show, with a lot of them blank (unsold). I mean my last con was AC which you need about 2 hours to see everything up at that show, but I definitely think the art show at RF was bigger last year, especially the adult section which had only about 5 panels.
Anyway that was more busy work than anything and I just milled around the lobby while waiting for our room to be ready. Ran into a few people I knew including Niko who was sporting a green mohawk, and Alphapak (our 3rd roommate) right away. First fursuit hug of the con went to
silverrwolfe, who DID have my missing Under Armour shirt, sweet! We tried checking in again about 11am (normal checkin is at 3pm) and surprisingly we were good to go! Room 279, which I thought was a great omen because 279 is awesome in bowling (all strikes and one nine-spare somewhere in the middle).
We were able to take everything up in just two trips, and in time for opening ceremonies which were GREAT. Definitely the best opening in 3 years of RF I've seen, they really did well to explain the who Cosmonauts vs. Astrofurs deal and had a really great entrance with crazy lights and stuff for the fursuiters representing the different groups. Very well planned out.
After that we browsed the Art Show... didn't see much there unfortunately (and my fennec fox print "Rise and Shine" already got a bid!!! Yaaay!) and got in the monstrously long line for the dealer's den which actually opened up right on schedule. Okay a few minutes late but that's great considering Furry standard time ;)
Honestly, I'm very picky about my art and while they're all great in their own way, I was just floored by Rukis' art. I spent a good half hour at her table browsing prints (I bought two of them) and also a badge commission (unfortunately she did not offer colored badges at the con but maybe in the future). Her style just is amazing, a perfect blend of toony and realistic with natural colors. I also bought a half-price comic book (that I would have paid full price for) from Dan "Flinters" Canaan, the last edition of his "Roomies" series. Great stuff.
Saw a bunch more people in the Den that i haven't seen in AGES, in particular
charfox and her mate Sphinx who were in town from Colorado! They're great and it sure was fun to see them again. I <3 cons... they help long lost friends stay connected!
After that Leon, Alpha and I took in a SUPERB concert from the one and only Bucktown Tiger, and his song selection was just perfect... a little Linkin Park, Eminem, classic keyboard hits mixed in, theme from Portal (of course, the audience was singing along) and even The Internet is For Porn :D I've never seen the tiger play a whole concert live before and this was just a treat. I didn't want to... but we left a little early to attend a superb panel by
matrices and Maly of North Sound Costuming on Props: Character for your Character.
This was a very well thought out panel, they even had a 6-page handout that explained everything they covered in detail, and brought boxfuls of prop examples for situational, thematic and character-specific usage. I've been looking to add more props to my fursuiting and really got some great ideas from these experienced folks.
After that was a little bit of a break so Leon and I hit up the local Jack in the Box for some dinner, and actually after we got back ran into my mate Chaos Reign who had to drive to Seattle to pick up his photographic equipment for the con (he's the official con photografur). We actually drove him to Burger King lol because he hadn't eaten yet (though he probably regrets eating that Whopper...) Actually in between we checked out the "Iron Artist" panel which... well... was fail. Apparently the person running it was a no-show and the guy that took over was more or less clueless, one of those deals. Stayed for the first arting - the theme was Jackal Chan (as opposed to Jackie Chan) drop-kicking something - and promptly took off.
Then it was time to FINALLY get into suit! 9pm there was a Twister Tournament in the Hangar (the general con hangout space) and although this lion is probably not in prime Twister shape I'm not one to back down from a challenge!
While waiting for the Hangar to open up, ran into our old crew,
sekar had finished her Leka body suit yaaaay! No squeakers in the butt or bewbs yet though ;) And ran into Aesop for about the 4th time, so glad he made it up, and enjoyed a brief furpile with Niko and at least 10 other suiters in the main lobby.
Fursuit Twister is one of the most STRENUOUS things I've ever done in suit. Kijani has pretty limited vision as it is but I honestly could NOT see the colored dots (they laid out the board by hand, I think it was 8x8 and they had 6 of us go at a time) if I was in a certain position and just had to guess, but nobody called me out for cheating so I guess it was good. The first time I was 4th out of 6 (top 2 advance to finals) and in the consolation match I gave it everything I had in my aching leonine body and was looking good (though out of breath and sore from limb to limb) and in the final 3 with the top two advancing. We had I think two of our paws on green already so there were absolutely no green dots left on the part of the board I was on... and the WORST possible spin came up "RIGHT FOOT GREEN!"
I looked around and knew I was done... thank goodness because if I went any longer I probably would have passed out! ^_^ Got commended for my efforts though as I laid prostrate trying to regain the blood flow to my head.
Unfortunately I definitely did over-exert myself so after a visit to the headless lounge I decided to call it a night. Definitely will be dancing tomorrow though, and what a fun first day at Rainfurrest.
SATURDAY
I only do it once a con (my bank account pleads me to only go once) but I went to AquaTerra, the Marriott restaurant, and indulged in their super breakfast buffet of awesome. All you can eat BACON (tie a warthog to a pole in front of a hungry lion and see what it does, that's pretty much what happened), sausage, potatoes, eggs benedict, a full omelet station, waffles and about 20 different kinds of bread, cereal and fruit. Freshest best tasting pineapple in the world too, and Leon agreed with me. Food coma is fun.
After my $23 breakfast I went to pick up my significantly less than $23 badge from Rukis, which was just beautiful. Again too bad it wasn't colored but for a pencil work it was a really unique representation of Kijani, just in line with her balanced realistic and toony style, and I loved it.
I'll get it out of the way right now, I am a Kyell Gold fanboy. I never really read much furry fiction, but ever since someone recommended Out of Position to me, I have been addicted to his writing and am now working on my fourth KG book. Hence, the Sofawolf Press table was quite a daunting place to be. I finally decided on his collection of short stories, Bridges, at the recommendation of one of the Sofawolf guys. I better not read it until I get home though because I probably won't be able to set it down if I start.
After that it was time for the Fursuit Performance panel, which I have attended at every con I've been to, and what a perfect group to lead the way -
kodipup (the guest of Honor),
thumper, and Nicodemus! Wow! They could have done a 3-hour panel on this topic they all had so many good ideas but unfortunately they only had an hour, but offered a lot of stories from their extensive experience, and even touched on a lot of topics Aphinity and I were planning to cover in our panel on Sunday, "Fursuiting beyond the con".
Quick turnaround after that panel to get into suit for the Fursuit Meet and Greet, which actually ended up being me waiting in line for half an hour for the Fursuit Photo Shoot with
chaosreign! This was way fun and he had me do a ton of different poses and I can't wait to see how they turned out :) From what I saw, Matrices was doing a great job with the M&G, trying to get all the fursuiters to talk about themselves a bit so we could learn about the people under the suit, which is always fascinating to me.
From there, it was pretty much time for the fursuit parade! It was about as organized as a parade could be, and the route seemed just the right length to me. Also saw Odakota for the first time in suit here, and I caught up with Aesop (I seriously think there were only about 3 or 4 lion fursuits at this con which made us teh sads), Afterwards Chaos (the world's shortest dragon) climbed a 15-foot utility ladder - quite the sight to behold - as we did the group shot which he told me later he had to do a three-shot panoramic to get everyone in, kinda like what they did at AC.
At that point I realized that I had completely forgotten to buy Glow Sticks for the rave dance that evening, so I went on a Dollar Tree/Taco Bell run with Leon and Alphapak.
OMG the most awesome thing happened at TB too, apparently the workers there had been getting a steady stream of furries in all weekend, so they asked us what species we were and saw that I was a lion on my badge, and were making jokes about it like putting lots of meat in my burrito, and the best part was I paid by card and they take your name, so the cashier was about to write down Tim, and the other lady doing the order pointed to my Mary Mouse badge and said "No, look, his name is Kijani!" and takes the pen and writes "KIJANI" on the order sheet. That was epic.
I made it back JUST in time to snipe something at the art show, a stunning pencil original of a warrior wolf that was seriously underpriced at $5 to start and was only bid up to $10 which was a steal. Sadly, I did not sell either of my framed pieces at the show but the other two did sell for $15 (fennec fox, "Rise and Shine") and $8 (lion, "Morning Stretch), but I don't even think I broke even :( I learned that no matter how good it is, you need to remember your audience - if I do this again it'll be mainly foxes and wolves, not lions. No love for us!
Anyway, stopped in briefly to video some of the Nerf War, kinda haphazardly set up but was mildly entertaining and unexpectedly painful when I collided with a stray dart all collateral damage-like.
After that I was SUPER lucky to get a front row seat to the Variety Show. *HUGS a certain dragon* Anyway there were some good acts and some just meh, but a few that really stood out for me were Drew's original song that he wrote and played on guitar and harmonica (as always, he's amazing), Bucker Fuskyote's rendition of "Fly me to the Moon" that had Se'kar and three others dancing in the background and was awesomely choreographed, and the very last skit which made fun of Canada's obsession with hockey which was hilarious.
The timing of that was perfect so I made it to the "Writing Erotic Fiction" panel, the first 18+ panel I have ever attended at any con and also the first writing panel. Yes, ok, I really just wanted to see
kyell, who came in from a dinner engagement about 10 minutes into the panel, which was hosted by K.M. Hirosaki. I busily took notes while ogling over the dude responsible for Kory, Samaki, Dev, Volle, and all of these other unforgettable characters I really related and felt a connection to.
Finally, it was time for Kato to make his RF 2010 debut and he sure did on the dance floor. I got a late start (about 10:30 due to some registration mishap where I had to got to Con Ops) but it was still packed down there. Had a nice conversation with Hornet in the headless lounge, and I had no clue he was from this area (well Portland, but close enough) and his new suit looks awesome so far (has the body to make).
I did two short sets until my right thigh which has been bothering me since Twister was about to give out, so I went to the Hangar to get my free fursuit badge of Kato and went back to the room.
I can't believe it's Sunday already. If life had a rewind button, I'd srsly use it every con.
SUNDAY
Felt quite burned out still in the morning after a good seven hours' sleep, but got up in time for the "Professional Fursuiting" panel with
aphinity and Axelroo, which was a hard decision over Ithabise's Head Construction panel. I really just wanted to go over our outline with him for our panel later that afternoon, which we did to some degree (just vague one-line notes, I knew at this point we'd be more or less winging it).
Anyway the panel was good, though sparsely attended, it was good to get a perspective from a couple of guys that have done this a ton, it was astounding the differences between fursuiting and professional mascot work.
After that it was a tight turnaround to get into suit for the Fursuit Games at 11:30. Oh my goodness the games were a blast this year (except for wheelbarrow races... yuck).
The first one was a frisbee tossing game where we stood in a circle and tried to toss the frisbee to the critter directly across from you, which we won by a landslide mainly because I was the first one to toss and I immediately went over and tried to block the other circle's frisbee which was TOTALLY encouraged :)
The next one was an epic game of fursuit dodgeball, the balls we used were those giant playground balls that were super light and tough to handle with paws! I got knocked out mid-way through the first round on a missed catch, but the second time my cat-like reflexes were put to good use as I dodged ball after ball and took my share of Eastsiders (we were the Wes'side) out. I made an amazing save too in that round - I tried to catch a ball headed towards me but it slipped out of my pawpads, so I lunged out to grab it and was able to hold on without falling (I took a teammate out in the process) but hey I stayed alive!
If there's one game I dread it's always wheelbarrow races, as my upper body strength is mediocre at best and I have horrible grip on my handpaws. I sincerely apologize to Kwik for his embarrassing faceplant during his run which was 100% my fault as I just lost my grip. This one came down to the wire and our anchor pair of Thumper and Smartie came from behind to give us the dramatic wheelbarrows win!
The next game was kind of silly, we had to move little ball-pit colored balls to our side of the room without using our handpaws, we weren't even close to winning but I can't say I helped much on that one... but now for my moment of shining Fursuit Games Glory... the 2010 Rainfurrest Musical Chairs!!!
Just to set the stage, last year I got embarrasingly knocked out in the second round with an aggressive Torwin Husky ass-slide, and was determined to AT LEAST make it to the third round this year before my leonine pride was irreparably damaged during my sure walk of shame.
Well, this year was a different story. We had about 30 fursuiters start the Chairs game, and my lion instincts were sharp as I found a chair in each of the early rounds, and little by little the crowd was whittled away. In the fourth round (I was ecstatic to still be in it) I got extremely lucky as I missed the chair closest to me and had to run 1/4 of the way around the circle to plant my butt in the only remaining open seat!
From then on, I guess it was meant to be! I was in the Musical Chairs ZONE baby... Nothing, and I mean nothing, would stop me from victory. I made it to the Elite 8, when I was following a half-bull, half something muscle suit and I slid my fuzzy butt JUST under his as the music stopped, and he did everything in his power to knock me off (including locking my legs together and using force to remove me from the seat until he finally relented and I playfully did a "wut now, beotch!" at the poor horned hybrid as he sulked off.
Then came the Super Six, and at last the Final Four as the crowd, the drama grew more intense. At this point it was Yama (a rabbit), a werewolf, Belmont Wolf (Mousepaws I believe) and me.
The round of 4 was surprisingly easy as the werewolf stalked way too close to Yama and had no chance at the open seat between them, and I just barely beat out Belmont in the Round of 3 to get heads up with the bunny!
They REALLY drew out the music for the final to build up the tension and Yama had a big advantage in positioning when the music stopped as he was not only closest to the chair but facing the right way, I had to backtrack and had no chance. I wasn't going down without a fight though and knocked the chair over, and somehow Yama was able to stay in the chair for the win. Although it was brutal to come that close, it was still one of the most fun experiences I've had fursuiting at a con. And Thumper was a great emcee!
Click to viewThankfully, the games ended early so we were able to check out by the appointed time of 1pm (well, close enough). After the third trip to the car I went to pick up my two pieces that did not sell at the art show (ironically, the two that I spent a lot of time and money to frame nicely), and also the piece that I won, a beautiful pencil original of a wolf warrior by Richard Barthrop that I sniped for the unbelieveable price of $12.
And then it finally was time for the panel - "Fursuiting Beyond the Con"! I got to the room early and OMG it started to fill up in a hurry until there were no open seats left. Fursuiters were filing in and standing on the back wall! At 2pm I was nervous for two reasons: That we were more or less winging this panel with just a vague outline, and that Aphinity wasn't there yet! Apparently North held him up for something but he was only a few minutes late.
I think everything went rather well and we hit on all the major points we wanted to - I didn't talk a whole lot compared to Aphinity but every time I did pop in it was on a major point that Phin was glad I brought up :) Niko did awesome too.
Well after that there wasn't much left... closing ceremonies was pretty cool and North ended up winning the charity contest (most donations got a pie in the face), but the big surprise was Gene Armstrong's sister Bonnie offering to get pied in the face for $100 in donations at the ceremonies, and she raised $380 or something ON THE SPOT! the total raised was $1,505 which crushed last year's total and Rainfurrest matched that for a huge $3,110 for the Northwest Wildlife Rehabilitation Center which is just awesome.
Final numbers: 184 fursuits in the parade and 1045 attendees, making RF the 5th largest furry con in the world!
It was quite a great con, and lots of great memories to cherish for a while, at least until FC this January. I think knowing there is another con on the horizon helps with the PCD a lot.
Until next year, stay furry ^_^