Ah, it seems I've once more fallen prey to leaving a stupid-long con journal up on my page for way to long. So here's a short one to fight that scrollwheel fatigue for those brave intrepid few trying to navigate my userpage.

So recently I found that it was once more time for that most generic of all-purpose conventions, Genericon. I recall being underwhelmed by it last year, but as they say in the real estate business "Location, location, location." Being that it's held in a place that I'm literally already at every day and only costs $10 for students, it's hardly an opportunity I could pass up, especially given that I now have a fursuit to show off. I actually had some admin to take care of on that front with the small window of time I had remaining on Friday after I was done with classes and cooking dinner up at the house. I'd gotten a nice opportunity to commission Elbi for some new paws for pickup at the con. She makes some seriously adorable bubble paws that I just couldn't pass up. After exploring the con, chatting a bit and picking those paws up, I figured it was too late to try them out. I'd blown over an hour and a half in the registration line (the con is growing, it seems, guess I can hardly criticize them for that) and other logistical stuff. So I just looked over the vendors a bit more, hung out for a bit with some people from the local furry group and went to a late night panel before turning in. The panel was one hosted by one of the guests of honor, a Joker cosplayer who goes by "Clown Prince Vincent James". It sounded like a fun time, so I dropped by. Our host was energetic, engaging, and had pretty good stage presence. He was definitely an entertainer. He was a little short on content, but he had a good dynamic with the audience and there were plenty of cosplayers who were into it. It was still a pretty good time.

Saturday morning was pretty quiet, but that was probably for the best. I knew it would be a busy weekend and I had a lot of work to get done by Monday. It's a bit of a surreal moment to think "oh good, I finished this essay on the Linear Non-Threshold model of radiation exposure control protocols, that'll free up time for dressing up like a cartoon fox and dancing around like an idiot the rest of the weekend!" I actually ended up putting that off a bit more because a Hearthstone tournament had been scheduled that weekend as well. Not as part of Genericon, but at the same time as it for some strange reason. So that left me with a tough decision to make. Zootopia also premiered that weekend of course, so yeah, that's a difficult spot. I picked the tournament because I figured it wouldn't take long and I could get back to the con afterwards. I was pretty wrong about that. Despite how badly I got humiliated in the tournament, it took a bit for me to get eliminated because of how the brackets work. I figured by then it wouldn't be too much trouble to stick around for the raffle, which also took longer than expected and I also lost. So yeah, grand slam on that one.

So eventually I did get dressed up and set off to do... whatever it is I was doing that evening. I didn't really have it planned out all that well. I figured that things would just kind of fall into place once I was suitably accessorized, and in fact they did. It's a very different environment suiting at a convention that's not furry. People expect to see fursuiters at a con specifically for that, so it's easy to fade into the very brightly-colored background. Hell, at even a modestly sized furcon I wouldn't even be the only orange fox in attendance. Here though, I really stood out. So many people were excited to see me. I couldn't make it 20 yards in the main venue without someone wanting a photo. It was really exciting. I think having the con going on puts people in the mood for some crazy nonsense, so they're a lot more open to interacting with costumed performers than they would be ordinarily. It was a really fun environment to be in when people aren't weirded out like they'd normally be. It's even better when you're in a group of other suiters, as I of course soon was. That way it looks like you've really got a thing going. If you’ve got a crew with you, people don't assume you're from a video game or something. They know you're just doing your thing. A few people actually did know what's up, going so far as to ask if I had a character badge. One person even seemed very disappointed that I lacked one. I guess I'm going to have to commission one of those, now that I have a character and all.

I spent a lot of time running about and getting into shenanigans with Kida Fusky and Farah. Elbi and her little floof Butterscotch were also along after the dealer's room closed. Yes, my memory is tipped disproportionately in favor of fursuiters, but that's just how it be. It's as though the impressions one gains from spending time with cartoon animal people are more distinctive for some reason. I took a quick break that turned into a relatively long one as we waited for our chance to tear up the dance floor. My saving grace in spending a long day suiting was that it was in the mid 30s out, meaning that outside provided an excellent replacement for a headless lounge. Having my head off for a long time out there got it pretty chilled, which of course made putting it back on quite a shock. Don't know if you've ever had the chance to have all of your body massively overheating and then jam a near-freezing helm of foam and fuzz down over your exposed head, but that’s definitely a thing. It's the sort of invigoration that in many ways resembles blind, flailing terror in terms of physiological responses. I'm glad I still have a young heart.

So after that brief out-of-body experience I was ready to bang to the beat for a bit. I had a lot of fun at the dance. They put on a really good show there given what they had to work with. I actually got out into the middle of the dance circle when we were doing one of those so I could strut my stuff a bit. That’s something I’d never had the guts to do before. I don't know if they were applauding my dancing or just my audacity, but I certainly got a rise out of the crowd there. Apparently I really was loving it, because I went pretty much to the limit before the idea entered my head to leave. Towards the end of the night both the available events and my blood oxygen trailed off quite sharply. It actually unsettled my contemporaries a bit when they saw the aggressive steaming that happened when I took my head off outside. Having given my all, I turned in for the night.

It sounds like such a simple thing when I look back on it now, but I guess I was really into it. The time just flew by without hardly any effort. I missed all the panels and events I was planning to attend and I never had good enough visibility to parse out where the photo booth was. So I accomplished very few of my stated objectives and yet managed to have a blast doing it. That night was the most wrecked I've been after fursuiting in a long time. Sure, I'm well known for crashing pretty hard after suiting, but I usually bounce back okay. This was one of those times where I gingerly lowered myself into bed, loosing a groan that morphed into numerous different vowels and completely consumed all my breath in its course. It was one of those moments where finally allowing yourself to relax produces that foreboding feeling that this is incredibly excruciating but God help you if you do literally anything other than lie perfectly still for as long as it takes for the hurt to go away.

Against all odds I in fact was alive the next morning. Quite fortunate, actually, as Elbi had expressed a desire to point a camera in our general direction for extended periods that afternoon. Being once more in possession of a functioning body I was up for it. Elbi has done a lot of other fun con videos, so I couldn't very well pass up the opportunity to be in one. Bizzy the penguin also showed up for a brief cameo in it. I had no idea Bizzy was from around here, I'll have to see if I can follow up on that. In any case, we did the thing and then the thing was done. Someone had turned up the thermostat on the outdoors by about 25 degrees though, so I didn't last much beyond that. Still managed to squeeze Zootopia in that night, as a few of my friends were going. It was too late to make a real experience though. It was pretty quiet there, so I felt kind of stupid fursuiting to it. The ticket-takers absolutely freaked though. They said I made their night. The exact words when they saw me carrying a fursuit head were “Okay yes you definitely can’t wear that into the theater so you’ll have to carry it but put it on real quick we HAVE to take pictures.” I hadn't realized it before, but you know what? Making two people I've never met really happy, it actually does make all that worth doing.

I won't say too much about Zootopia because it's approaching Undertale levels of internet saturation and I loved it so much that I refuse to allow myself to get sick of hearing about it and thinking about it. It was a great film, truly. Uplifting and inspiring in theme, engaging in content, with just enough cartoon gags and little references and in-jokes to keep everyone entertained. It was an excellent piece of work. It’s been a long time since I’ve been prompted to try and see where I’d fit into a story, but I came out of this one convinced that I’d most likely end up as one of the secret researchers at Cliffside Asylum. I suppose it's most telling that I really don't like seeing movies multiple times, but when I was asked about seeing it again the following week I was all for it. I absolutely wanted to see it a second time. There wasn’t even any question there. And despite my best efforts to fuck it up I enjoyed the hell out of it the second time through as well.

You see, whilst I was excited to have a chance to fursuit with actual people around, it had been so long since I’d seen a matinee showing on a weekend afternoon that I’d forgotten why I never go see a matinee showing on a weekend afternoon. Between getting ready to go home for spring break, fursuit logistics, traffic delays and having to park on the dark side of the moon because of how crowded it was, I missed our showtime substantially. Naturally I was endeavoring to hang out with a group of people I’d never met before, as one does, so I didn’t have anyone’s number and the prospect of trying to find them in a dark, crowded theater was pretty daunting. I would've loved to make this work, but coming off of exams Thursday and Friday in my two weakest subjects that I probably shat all over I just wasn't in the mood to jump through any more hoops before getting my much-needed time off. Fortunately, pulling the ripcord on that one was a simple matter of attending a slightly later showtime with a few of my friends from college. I say "with" somewhat colloquially, as by then there wasn't enough room left for us to sit together, but whatevs.

Really the last thing I can say on the subject is that the opening chorus of Gazelle’s “Try Everything” instantly made all of that better, and time absolutely flew by through the second showing. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie that could turn a bad day into a good one like that.

Really though, what con report would be complete without a bunch of hastily-snapped cell phone pictures?

Me showing off the new paws.
A good shot of the crew. Naturally we're all distracted by something off to the side.
Here's a great Rick Sanchez cosplayer that I got to hang out with.
And of course me on the subway headed to the big premiere.