Click here for the Anthrocon 2016 Fursuit Parade video.
Click here for pictures taken during Anthrocon 2016.

Kind of a macabre journal title, but it's true! AC 2016 is officially in the books, deader than a doornail, bereft of life. And I can say in four years of Anthrocons it was by far my favorite. Argent, Bronze, Neopuc, Orenthes, and myself meshed so well and clicked about as well as any group of five furs could.

After getting all of my suitemates together, we began on Thursday night with a trip out to a steakhouse. Fitting for a room full of macros that we feasted on the finest meat.  Orenthes possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of cuisine, and so he guided us through many of our restaurant tours. Quite a few times we visited the restaurant on the first floor of our hotel, the Crazy Mocha coffee shop around the corner, and even a greasy spoon for breakfast known as Hanlon's Cafe. Everything from syrup penetration to gelatinous meat was discussed. Orenthes and  ArgentVZ went to an Uzbek restaurant called Kavsar that I hear was quite a treat. Argent, Bronze, and I attended the supersponsor luncheon as well. No suit, though! Too much sauce around...

Our hotel room, up on the 25th floor, had one hell of a view. One night we even spied (and heard!) a Billy Joel concert taking place at PNC Park. Initially its energy saving features flummoxed the five of us, but I'd say on the whole it was a great setup. I wish the elevator lines were shorter. There were a few times we had to wait more than 15 minutes to get back up to our room.

Friday officially kicked off the convention, and early into the afternoon was the macro/micro meetup. There I stomped around with Rogue (in painfully slow-motion, no less!), and met with, let's see....Scales, Myr, Sylox, and Startide in suit. Wait, wait! Guess who was there? Yesssss,  cantstopgrowing! His friend Jamesfoxes set up the dragon growth animation in 3D, and I got to strap it to my head. Yes, it was as awesome as you'd think! I was staring up at the dragon, slowing craning up more and more, and sneaking peeks lower down every other moment. This is the future of macro, folks, and it's awesome! Geemo presided over a meetup that was the biggest ever, I think approaching 200 people in total. Bronze and I raffled off a story commission, but for now I'll keep the details under wraps and we'll see where that goes.

I flitted in and out of the Dealers' Den/Artists' Alley this weekend, but from what I remember I was able to get some really cool stuff. Dark Natasha is ridiculously popular, such that even in the sponsor line Neopuc and I rushed over and barely managed to get a badge, let alone a full-on commission. Mine (featuring Alix) is actually done and will be posted soon.  likeshine is an artist I knew but didn't really know before the con. She's the creator of that "Being a Dragon Means..." meme that I like to share every once in a while with Argent and Bronze. Anyway, I was able to come up with a plan to get some Telegram stickers from her. Finally, on Friday, I flew over to Kadath's table and continued my tradition of commissioning him at AC. This year features Tegon and Puzzle. Rage Studios had a table where they sold "Fatzilla," or the most adorable plush kaiju. You'd better believe I got me one of those!

Friday night the five of us played Cards Against Humanity. Together with Argent's original deck and first expansion, I brought along two official expansions: Crabs Adjust Humidity (5th and 6th) and Guards Against Insanity (1st). It was the first time I played the game in person and not just over the Internet. Fucking. hilarious. We were all in stitches for most of the night. Props to  Neopuc for selling the acting on a lot of the black cards. I can still hear him say "Mmm! _________! And it's still warm!"

The macro party at the Doubletree was also that night. I met the "mysterious" owner of the BiggestStory macro twitter account, and Tyrnn showed off his suit. Despite the venue being a little small for him, I can definitely understand the big guy showing off because the airline shipped his suit off to another state for the first day. I remember we chatted with Kurrikage, Dialuca, and had a nice conversation with Aerys. Sapphy was brewing up some verrrry interesting drinks. I came *this* close to getting Argent to down one of the neon-colored ones, I swear! But I definitely got him to play me in Words with Friends.

If you're a suiter, much of Saturday revolves around the parade. Recently I called the time between when you're supposed to show up for the photo, and when you actually begin to walk in the parade "the hour from hell." For me, it's more difficult to take off and put my head back on. There's some tucking that goes on, and your handlers are not allowed in, so I kept the full suit on for the duration. Soooo hot! I noted that the parade was almost twice as long this year as in previous years, too, so that didn't help. But enough complaining about this, because the moment you step out of the convention center you feel like a fucking rockstar. A good number of Pittsburghers line the street outside. All of their eyes and cameraphones are trained on you. They cheer, there's music, waving, hi-fiving with the kids, it's probably the closest I'll ever get to feeling famous. Whoever decided to take it outside deserves a medal, because if anything it makes our whole fandom more inclusive. Nothing but good, positive vibes from the crowd, and a whole lot of showboating on my part! Err, within the official guidelines, of course.

I decided this would be the last time in my suit, so  geldazane patiently stayed with me while I got some professional pictures taken. I look pretty scary in these! They're supposed to come out in about two weeks, so I'll post them here when they do. I also snagged a fursuit badge, and doled out a few hugs. Artie wondered by in suit and I finally got a picture with him too.

Saturday night we tried a different game, Snake Oil. For those unfamiliar, you go around in a circle. Each round, you become some sort of occupation (e.g. soldier, pirate), and each person plays two cards from their hands (nouns and adjectives) and tries to sell you something. I think speaking frankly the lot of us were unsure how much fun it would be, especially compared to the night before, but it delivered in spades. While Argent was unable to sell the soldier Orenthes a baby cannon, he pitched me, the pro wrestler, a freedom cape quite nicely. One of my few successes for the night was a revenge movie to Orenthes the hitchhiker. I can't quite recall if Neopuc sold his sleep worm to Argent the alien, but it was one hell of a pitch. Also, for the record, Neopuc was really good at both of these games.

The charity auction on Sunday has become a yearly tradition for me. I really wanted to get this painting that a lion from the Pittsburgh Zoo painted, but alas, it wasn't in the cards. What I did snag was a pair of oversized badges, titled "MACRO" (like last year's) and "HUGE" (you can see that one on my Twitter page). Since I already have a macro badge, and since  Tyrnn has to work the Artists' Alley each year, I decided to strike up a trade: badge for art! I was lucky, too, since he opened while I was at the auction and was promptly swamped with commissions. Argent came along with me and both of us very much enjoyed Kage's antics. Thisssss close to bidding on the ability to choose his badge name for next year, but I also did not have over a grand on me XD

From there it was about time to bid the convention center goodbye, at least until 2017. Argent, Orenthes, and Neopuc joined me in the hotel's restaurant one last time. I had to order the furry strawberry shake, which came with a sparkler on top. Not bad, either. And with that, we parted ways.

I must wholeheartedly thank Bronze for being my handler for the second time. He's always there to adjust that pesky flap on my head, to slip my gloves back on after fooling with my phone, and to shoo away any riff-raff!

Any art commissioned this time around will be posted in the coming weeks. I also followed up with artists from two remaining commissions from AC 2015: Cyberscribe (the Tegon plush) and redrusker. Both have promised me updates or completion soon. If you check my commission queue, you'll also see a "surprise" that's coming soon, as well as an animation from Corvidius. There's no way those two could be linked. Nuh uh.