Announcements From The Realm: Busy Times Last Weekend
Hey, everyone! ZeldaQueen, checking in with you all. Originally this post was meant to be very different, but then it got deleted because such is life.
Long story short, I kind of fell behind on a bunch of stuff because last weekend was Tekkoshocon, Pittsburgh's own anime convention! I had a ton of fun with everyone and was planning to give a very detailed account of what all happened. Given that I was hit with a few more things to address here though, I decided to make this post an update on things in general. So! *claps hands* What's going on!
On the sporking front, I'm pacing According to You as best I can. That one is actually sporked in its entirety, so I just have to post it. I also have another sizabe fic sporked and a third in the process of being finished up, so there should be a steady stream of bad fanfiction sporkings at the comm. I'm also trying to pick up again on my co-sporkings (Hush, Hush with Ket and HP & the Girl Who Lived with Raxis) as well as How I Became Yours.
I'm also being mindful of Marked and Divine By Mistake, I promise. Both of those have ended up on the backburner mainly because I've got a sporking project that I need to devote my time to right now. I'm sporking a novella which I hadn't actually planned on sporking. I took it out of the library because I heard of it and it was a sort of companion to one of my favorite Disney movies and I though it would be great. It wasn't. So I decided to spork it. The trouble is, this book was called in from a library branch nowhere near where I live. So once the renewel periods are used up, I'll have to wait for it to be sent back and then re-request it, which is one giant waste of time. I want to get as much of it sporked before then as possible. When I spork something, most of my progress gets made when I'm on my break or lunchtime at work. That means that with this novella taking up most of my time, I haven't been able to work on my other sporkings, as I'd like. So please, hang in there, folks. Once this is taken care of, I'll get everything caught up again.
On that subject - Gabriel's Inferno. That is still in progress. I have most of the chapters in, but I'm still waiting on several more. I've been dreadfully behind on the game as well (my own chapters are amongst those uncompleted) and I apologize for that, but if anyone else is still working on their chapters, I would like to have them in as soon as possible. The announcement post listing all of who has which chapters can be found here. In short, though, the following chapters are still being waited on with NO WORD AT ALL on their status:
THE DEADLINE FOR LETTING ME KNOW WILL BE MAY 10TH. YOU MUST LET ME KNOW BEFORE THEN. IF YOU ARE NOT DOWN AS HAVING SENT ME YOUR CHAPTER AND DID NOT IN SOME WAY RECEIVE CONTACT FROM ME ABOUT YOUR SPORKINGS, PLEASE CONTACT ME. THANK YOU!
I do hope to get this group sporking off the ground soon! Lots to discuss with it, and I'm very excited!
So, that's the business side of things (so to speak). Now, for more fun things to discuss! I know I said I decided to pass on an in-depth write-up for the convention, but I wanted to give a few highlights. Things like:
On a sadder note, I know I mentioned my family dog here a few times in the past. Friday evening, my mom called and told me that she had passed on. She was a very, very old girl (we got her when I was ten, so she was fourteen and some months) and her health was on the decline, so we all had been expecting this for about a month now. She really did hang on for much longer than any of us had thought, and she was happy until the very end. She had her fill of doing all the things she loved - eating whatever she wanted, sleeping on any comfortable service, taking walks, frolicking in the yard - and I am glad that when she went, it was lying comfortably in the dining room, where she'd had so many naps.
I realize it must feel random, considering I only mentioned my dog a handful of times here. But I just wanted people to know about my sweetie and I wanted to say some last words for her. She was a good girl and a loving dog and however things are, I just wanted people to know that there was this one wonderful German Shepherd-Lab and we loved her.
Julia, thank you for everything. May you have a wonderful time in the Sofa in the Sky, eating all the pig ears you'd like and playing with all your favorite squeaky toys. You were my zubba girl and everyone else in the family's, and we all will love and miss you. Goodbye, sweetie. We couldn't have asked for a better girl.
I do apologize for the sad turn that took. I miss her, but as I said, she was old and sick and having trouble walking, and I really am glad her suffering is over. She lived a long happy life and for that, I am glad. And I've had time to work out my own sadness over this, so I'm handling it. The news itself was sudden, but it's fine.
To make up for that mood whiplash, I'm going to conclude this post with a story from Tekkoshocon which I swear is 100% true and in no way embellished. Because my panel had run over its allotted time and hit the point where the convention center rooms were supposed to be locked up and I still had one last fanfiction to have read, I told everyone present that if they wanted to have an unofficial reading of the final scene, we could meet at the roof of the convention center at noon the next day (this would be Sunday, the last day of the convention). The reading was the sex scene written for Sword Art Online in its original light novel format (sporked by Raxis on the comm, for anyone interested) and the turn-out was respectable. We were all having a fine time, reading away and pausing for rants like "WHY WOULD A VIRTUAL VIDEO GAME PROGRAM FOR BODILY FLUIDS TO DISAPPEAR IN BEADS OF LIGHT?" We were about halfway through and things were really getting uh...steamy, so to speak, when something happened that could not have been more perfect if it was scripted.
Two cosplayers - a boy and a girl - stopped by on the roof.
They were dressed as Kirito and Asuna, the leads of Sword Art Online and the subjects of our reading.
They were far enough away that they couldn't hear us, but we could all see them and freaked. This was the most hilarious thing we could think of, and nobody could decide what to do. Call them over? Say something? Ignore them? Read louder?
As we were deciding, my boyfriend just decided to take matters into his own hands (he does this often) and walked across the roof to them. We could see him saying something to them, which none of us could actually hear. We could all probably guess though, because a split second later, Asuna whipped around to face us and shouted, "YOU'RE READING WHAT?!?"
She then came running over, Kirito in tow, and grabbed the chapter we were reading. I asked her if she wanted to read along with us. She gave it a shot, but only managed to get out one sentence. After that, she quickly left the roof, laughing hysterically and followed by Kirito.
The rest of the reading passed by relatively uneventful. We saw two other different Kirito cosplayers, but none of them ended up interacting with us like that. The whole thing was just brilliant.
I think I'll bring that particular chapter back to read at the panel proper, assuming I'm approved for Round Three next year.
So, that's about all the news from my end. If there are any thoughts, questions, concerns, or observations related to any of this or anything I should have addressed but didn't, please drop me a comment! This is my moment for catching up, so if there's a sporking you'd like to see taking higher priority or something you'd like me to deal with or take care of, now's an excellent time to say so. I promise, unless you're insulting me directly or whatever, I will not be angry. Hell, if you're creative enough with your insults, it's possible even then that I'd be impressed. I'd rather you didn't, but still.
So, yeah. Tell me what is on your mind, hope to pick things up soon! Have a wonderful Sunday evening!
Long story short, I kind of fell behind on a bunch of stuff because last weekend was Tekkoshocon, Pittsburgh's own anime convention! I had a ton of fun with everyone and was planning to give a very detailed account of what all happened. Given that I was hit with a few more things to address here though, I decided to make this post an update on things in general. So! *claps hands* What's going on!
On the sporking front, I'm pacing According to You as best I can. That one is actually sporked in its entirety, so I just have to post it. I also have another sizabe fic sporked and a third in the process of being finished up, so there should be a steady stream of bad fanfiction sporkings at the comm. I'm also trying to pick up again on my co-sporkings (Hush, Hush with Ket and HP & the Girl Who Lived with Raxis) as well as How I Became Yours.
I'm also being mindful of Marked and Divine By Mistake, I promise. Both of those have ended up on the backburner mainly because I've got a sporking project that I need to devote my time to right now. I'm sporking a novella which I hadn't actually planned on sporking. I took it out of the library because I heard of it and it was a sort of companion to one of my favorite Disney movies and I though it would be great. It wasn't. So I decided to spork it. The trouble is, this book was called in from a library branch nowhere near where I live. So once the renewel periods are used up, I'll have to wait for it to be sent back and then re-request it, which is one giant waste of time. I want to get as much of it sporked before then as possible. When I spork something, most of my progress gets made when I'm on my break or lunchtime at work. That means that with this novella taking up most of my time, I haven't been able to work on my other sporkings, as I'd like. So please, hang in there, folks. Once this is taken care of, I'll get everything caught up again.
On that subject - Gabriel's Inferno. That is still in progress. I have most of the chapters in, but I'm still waiting on several more. I've been dreadfully behind on the game as well (my own chapters are amongst those uncompleted) and I apologize for that, but if anyone else is still working on their chapters, I would like to have them in as soon as possible. The announcement post listing all of who has which chapters can be found here. In short, though, the following chapters are still being waited on with NO WORD AT ALL on their status:
- Chapters 2 and 3 (assigned to aurasio)
- Chapters 12 and 13 (assigned to Ata)
- Chapter 22 (assigned to textureoftime)
- Chapter 28 and 29 (assigned to mine_turtle)
THE DEADLINE FOR LETTING ME KNOW WILL BE MAY 10TH. YOU MUST LET ME KNOW BEFORE THEN. IF YOU ARE NOT DOWN AS HAVING SENT ME YOUR CHAPTER AND DID NOT IN SOME WAY RECEIVE CONTACT FROM ME ABOUT YOUR SPORKINGS, PLEASE CONTACT ME. THANK YOU!
I do hope to get this group sporking off the ground soon! Lots to discuss with it, and I'm very excited!
So, that's the business side of things (so to speak). Now, for more fun things to discuss! I know I said I decided to pass on an in-depth write-up for the convention, but I wanted to give a few highlights. Things like:
- I ended up running late when I set out to get to the convention, which was not too great since I was the one who made the hotel reservations and thus was the only one who could get myself and the three other roomies checked into the room. I was in such a hurry that I forgot a few items and didn't have a chance to finish getting my panel ready (more on that in a minute). After getting calls and texts from everyone as I hurried downtown, finally I got everything set up. I went to text everyone to let them know we could get into the room... and found that my cellphone decided to stop texting. So I went to make a call, at which point I learned that my phone also decided it'd be hilarious if the person on the other end could hear me, but I couldn't hear them. By some miracle, I managed to contact the others about their room number. My phone decided to start texting, but not let me hear conversations over it. After spending the weekend texting for most communication, I found that all I had to do was get a new Simms card. Go me.
- There were a ton of awesome cosplays! I took a lot of pics, all of which I uploaded here. I think the most fun one I saw was the perfect replica of Howl's Moving Castle, which a family from Florida made and which was worn by the dad like a fast food mascot's outfit. Again, I took pics, check it out!
- I myself cosplayed as Seychelles (Axis Powers Hetalia) on Friday and Black Jack (Black Jack) on Saturday. The Lusty Wench was Ukraine (Axis Powers Hetalia) for part of Friday, but switched to Misa (Death Note) after the Ukraine wig kept itching her head. She was Black Widow (Marvel) on Saturday, to go with Friend 1's Quicksilver cosplay that day (he was The Doctor on Friday). Friend 2 was Belarus (Hetalia, again) on Friday and Chihiro (Spirited Away) on Saturday, and did a fantastic job on both! It was her first convention, and her costumes were FANATASTIC! My boyfriend went as Samurai Jack on Friday and Dr. Kiriko (Black Jack) on Saturday. They both went pretty darned well, in my opinion. :) And no, I put no pictures of them on that Photobucket account. I'm sorry, I don't like pictures of myself or people I know up online. ^^;
- I did my bad fanfiction panel for the second time this year! It was another success, which I was happy to see. This year I not only did my panel right next to and at the same time as J. Michael Tatum's panel, but a surprise fire drill (we'll get to that) and an unexpected time and location swap meant that I was worried folks would have trouble finding the place on time. It was a full house and we all had a grand time, though! We read two sex scenes sporked at the comm (one was a non-harlequin hentai Gethsemane Butler one, the other was Legend of Zelda) as well as one that I will be sporking for the comm in the future, boy howdy. The last one was the most successful, particularly during a memorable moment when my boyfriend's friend had his turn and read an entire page in his Hellsing voice. Oh, and at one point, I managed to lead everyone in the room in a completely impromptu rendition of "Still Alive". I think that ought to be something of a Nerd Litmus Test - sing that song and if everyone can sing along perfectly, yeah.
- The band probably could have been better, but they were fun. I can't remember their name. I actually didn't go to the dance at all and spent, like, five minutes with the band, really. The drummer was hilarious. In between songs, he lead a rousing rendition of Let It Go!
- After those five minutes or so of listening to the band, I found myself, Friend 2, and my boyfriend herded out of the convention center with everyone else. Apparently some jackass set off the fire alarm, so we all had to get out until it was determined that there actually wasn't a fire (there wasn't). It actually wasn't too bad, though. The weather was perfect, it was just getting dark, and the Pittsburgh Pirates just won a game, so we could enjoy the celebratory fireworks across the river. Also, the Star Wars cosplayers had an impromptu parade (or "Nerd Pride Parade", as my boyfriend called it) and someone with a guitar led a rousing rendition of the teeth song from Fairly Odd Parents.
- I spent a good chunk of my free time on Saturday engaging in a "quest" given to me by "NPC Guy" (in the pictures, he's the one in the vest with all the doohickeys hanging off of it). My quest was three things - first, to get a "prideful soul" from one artist vendor in the Dealer's Room (she gave me a tiny blue stone from a chest), second, to get a picture with another specific artist vendor (found him easily enough) and third, to get a picture with another artist vendor. That last one was what tripped me up. NOBODY could tell me where this person was! I guess it's appropriate, really. Who ever heard of a video game quest that was ever easy to complete? For my troubles, I won two kinda-melted Butterfinger heart candies. Yum.
- Also on Saturday, I had to go out and edit the fanfictions I was going to have read at my panel. As they were, they were way too long and I had to cut bits out to make them managable. The only place nearby with a printer was the downtown branch of our city's library. Folks, if you ever had to do anything awkward before, just mentally compare it to spending fifteen minutes on a public computer in a library, reading through twenty-five pages of bad smut and trying to figure out what to keep and what to delete, all while praying to God that nobody reads over your shoulder and that the librarian won't look at it when you go to pick it up after printing.
- Because of the abovementioned smut-editing, I was late for the "Save Case Closed" panel I had to rush to make. It was a very well-done panel, I must say. For anyone into the series Case Closed (otherwise known as Detective Conan), there are podcasts by the group here.
- By chance, I stumbled across a group photo session for cosplayers for Five Nights at Freddy's. Those pictures are on my Photobucket account. One of the Foxys was hilarious. At one point, a Chico stole his hook, causing him to chase the guy around. Chico's defense for what he did? "IT WAS SHINY!"
- My boyfriend and I went to the gaming room, shortly before my panel. They had Rockband set up there for playing. When I went up there earlier in the day, there were no signs. When I went up there shortly before midnight on Saturday, there was a sign that said "Bohemian Rhapsody is not to be played more than once every two hours". As we were watching, someone apparently decided to cash in on that and started playing it. Within seconds, there was a sizable crowd gathered around (my bf and I included), singing along. My boyfriend noted that the singer could have just held his microphone in the air and not had to sing a note and he would have gotten a perfect score.
On a sadder note, I know I mentioned my family dog here a few times in the past. Friday evening, my mom called and told me that she had passed on. She was a very, very old girl (we got her when I was ten, so she was fourteen and some months) and her health was on the decline, so we all had been expecting this for about a month now. She really did hang on for much longer than any of us had thought, and she was happy until the very end. She had her fill of doing all the things she loved - eating whatever she wanted, sleeping on any comfortable service, taking walks, frolicking in the yard - and I am glad that when she went, it was lying comfortably in the dining room, where she'd had so many naps.
I realize it must feel random, considering I only mentioned my dog a handful of times here. But I just wanted people to know about my sweetie and I wanted to say some last words for her. She was a good girl and a loving dog and however things are, I just wanted people to know that there was this one wonderful German Shepherd-Lab and we loved her.
Julia, thank you for everything. May you have a wonderful time in the Sofa in the Sky, eating all the pig ears you'd like and playing with all your favorite squeaky toys. You were my zubba girl and everyone else in the family's, and we all will love and miss you. Goodbye, sweetie. We couldn't have asked for a better girl.
I do apologize for the sad turn that took. I miss her, but as I said, she was old and sick and having trouble walking, and I really am glad her suffering is over. She lived a long happy life and for that, I am glad. And I've had time to work out my own sadness over this, so I'm handling it. The news itself was sudden, but it's fine.
To make up for that mood whiplash, I'm going to conclude this post with a story from Tekkoshocon which I swear is 100% true and in no way embellished. Because my panel had run over its allotted time and hit the point where the convention center rooms were supposed to be locked up and I still had one last fanfiction to have read, I told everyone present that if they wanted to have an unofficial reading of the final scene, we could meet at the roof of the convention center at noon the next day (this would be Sunday, the last day of the convention). The reading was the sex scene written for Sword Art Online in its original light novel format (sporked by Raxis on the comm, for anyone interested) and the turn-out was respectable. We were all having a fine time, reading away and pausing for rants like "WHY WOULD A VIRTUAL VIDEO GAME PROGRAM FOR BODILY FLUIDS TO DISAPPEAR IN BEADS OF LIGHT?" We were about halfway through and things were really getting uh...steamy, so to speak, when something happened that could not have been more perfect if it was scripted.
Two cosplayers - a boy and a girl - stopped by on the roof.
They were dressed as Kirito and Asuna, the leads of Sword Art Online and the subjects of our reading.
They were far enough away that they couldn't hear us, but we could all see them and freaked. This was the most hilarious thing we could think of, and nobody could decide what to do. Call them over? Say something? Ignore them? Read louder?
As we were deciding, my boyfriend just decided to take matters into his own hands (he does this often) and walked across the roof to them. We could see him saying something to them, which none of us could actually hear. We could all probably guess though, because a split second later, Asuna whipped around to face us and shouted, "YOU'RE READING WHAT?!?"
She then came running over, Kirito in tow, and grabbed the chapter we were reading. I asked her if she wanted to read along with us. She gave it a shot, but only managed to get out one sentence. After that, she quickly left the roof, laughing hysterically and followed by Kirito.
The rest of the reading passed by relatively uneventful. We saw two other different Kirito cosplayers, but none of them ended up interacting with us like that. The whole thing was just brilliant.
I think I'll bring that particular chapter back to read at the panel proper, assuming I'm approved for Round Three next year.
So, that's about all the news from my end. If there are any thoughts, questions, concerns, or observations related to any of this or anything I should have addressed but didn't, please drop me a comment! This is my moment for catching up, so if there's a sporking you'd like to see taking higher priority or something you'd like me to deal with or take care of, now's an excellent time to say so. I promise, unless you're insulting me directly or whatever, I will not be angry. Hell, if you're creative enough with your insults, it's possible even then that I'd be impressed. I'd rather you didn't, but still.
So, yeah. Tell me what is on your mind, hope to pick things up soon! Have a wonderful Sunday evening!