Sparkley Vampires: This Year's Running Joke

[shirozora]

First and foremost, my heart goes out to Norway. There are no words for the absolutely horrific events that took place there. I found out while discovering the free Wi-Fi at the convention center at 7AM PST and it's just...oh my god. They were teenagers.

My shift was from 7AM to 9AM but I was a dumbass and didn't just wait in the ridiculously long line for Shatner's panel because I forgot how big 6BCF was. I'm still hating myself for it. Instead I got my free shirt and wandered around for a bit, snatching up freebies and all that jazz. Then I sat in the volunteer line for too many minutes and watched Monty Python's King Arthur gallop by with his trusty steed behind him clapping coconut halves. Then I bought a bigass Captain America poster and a smaller TRON: Legacy poster and sat through two DC panels and Vertigo's American Vampire panel to get to Rifftrax.

• DC Superman: I don't mind listening to Grant Morrison talk forever. I like me a bit of a Scottish accent. Basically they showed off covers and panels (gorgeous artwork, by the way) and discussed exactly what the reboot does, which is that they're depicting Superman in the early years of his...superhero-dom thingy. They revamped the Daily Planet to include a division for the Intarwebs (lol) and explained that Superman, being younger, is more brash and shit. Y'know, young adult exuberance amplified by superpowers. It was pretty cool but once the Q&A started (much too soon, in my opinion) I plugged into my Zune and started watching a Rachel Maddow podcast while trying not to doze off. Sorry, but DC doesn't interest me. The Falling Skies panel in the room next to us was quite loud, though, and the moderator decided to have us yell back at them. That was entertaining.
  
• DC Comics: Justice League: Well I have now seen Geoff Johns and Jim Lee in person. They explained what they were doing with the characters whose new covers they were showing today - mainly Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, Green Arrow, Sinestro, and Flash - and were pretty hilarious in making up sound effects for, say, the Flash getting his costume on. The artwork was ridiculously pretty, especially for Supergirl, and the panel was cool...until the Q&A. Again I didn't pay attention and watched the Maddow podcast while trying not to doze off. I was tired and the 5hr Energy thing's a fucking lie. And since I was plugged in for most of the excruciatingly long Q&A (in my opinion) I missed out on something that was fucked up and only heard about it later from the two women sitting next to me. Basically a woman went up to the mic and asked about the women in DCU and why they didn't show more covers for the superheroines or talk about them as much as they did the superheroes. The audience fucking booed her and apparently even the panelists waved her off. What. The. Fuck.
  
• Vertigo: American Vampire: Actually one of the neatest panels I've been to, mainly because the panelists were so enthusiastic and hilarious and adorable. They pretended that we weren't all there just for the next panel *coughcoughrifftraxcoughcough* but they did get new converts. And really, they were lucky to score a slot before something as big as Rifftrax since this was their first panel at SDCC ever. Basically they created this fascinating new vampire mythos involving different bloodlines, different races of vampires that have various power and weaknesses, and it just sounded all around badassly awesome. I kind of really want to check it out.
  
• RiffTrax Live - Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett: What can I say? They were fucking fabulous. They did a live riff of a really bad and hilarious short about a day at a carnival narrated using a really bad country song written for little kids, made cracks at each other and everyone in the audience, and took suggestions from the crowd for the next film(s) to riff. It came down to Jaws 3D and Logan's Run, and Mike absolutely refused to do Jaws so they chose Logan's Run as their requested riff. I am fucking excited. I was not so amused when someone nominated Thor and the audience booed loudly when it came up for a vote alongside the Green Lantern.
  
• Slashers Dinner - Got there late because of RiffTrax but totally worth it. Also got very tipsy and yeah, drunk!me gets pretty porny. And Tron got really handsy. Also I drew a really crude chibi!female Hawke and chibi!Thor. And did I mention I was heavily buzzed? That Mai Tai was all rum. JFC.
  
• Did I mention that while I was waiting in line to get into 6DE so I could sit through three panels in order to see Mike, Crow, and Servo riff on bad films I had to wait behind this white guy who decided it was a fucking great idea to cosplay some sort of Plains Indian with a weird blue splash on his face? People kept taking photos of him. I was at a loss for words.


So when my Zune warned that I was running low on battery I had to quit the Maddow podcast but that meant dealing with the rest of the DC: Justice League Q&A + 15 minutes between panels without anything to distract me and keep me awake. So I decided to poke at the plot for the Pilots!verse sequel.

10 pages of notes and a crude outline later...

Apparently there are three "acts" loosely labeled "balance", "tension", and "collapse". Apparently I am outlining backwards; I have a lot of the third act planned out but the first two acts are just me shoving a lot of different scenes and ideas into some sort of order and oh my god I started organizing the fic in this manner because of Dragon Age 2 didn't I?

Sonuvabitch.

The more notes I wrote and the more ideas poured into my head the more I realized that I had been going about things all wrong. All I really needed to do is go back to the original prompt about guilt and the corrupting code, and just make it 100x worse. Considering this incredibly vivid image in my head there's no other explanation for how things reached a certain point.

I just...feel really bad for Tron. And it's going to be traumatizing as hell for Sam. But hey, at least I'm finally getting brave and outlining the sucker. Thank god for that incredible and powerful creative and energetic vibe from Comic-Con.

And I should go to bed because I have a 7AM-10AM shift. Also, it's Saturday, the single worst day in SDCC. It's gonna be hell getting into the Futurama panel and it's going to be a nightmare and a half getting into the Mythbusters one.

OH I FORGOT TO MENTION THE PART WHERE I WAS CROSSING THE STREET AT GASLAMP WHILE GOING TO SLASHERS DINNER AND THIS PEDICAB MADE A LEFT TURN AND I THOUGHT, "HUH, HE LOOKS A LOT LIKE THE DOCTOR-WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE, THAT'S DEFINITELY KAREN GILLIAN WHICH MEANS OH MY FUCKING GOD THERE GOES MATT SMITH AND KAREN GILLIAN IN A FUCKING PEDICAB IN SAN DIEGO'S GASLAMP DISTRICT LIKE NBD MY LIFE IS OVER GOOD NIGHT."