Despite all my efforts to keep this short, it sadly won’t be, so I will just accept that and make this report as obscenely long as possible instead. >:3 Also let me know of any inaccuracies, there may be some time warps below.


Friday
I got to the local airport and I was confused for a bit but I eventually got onto my plane with time to spare. After not being on a plane for around a decade, (flying on my own for the first time too) I was pretty riveted to the window as we ascended and travelled high above the clouds. Everyone else on board seemed less than impressed for some reason. It was equally rain cloudy in Toronto as it was in Chicago.

The flight was rather quick and I travelled an hour back in time because of time zone magic. I disembarked into O’Hare Airport (after some delay with getting the jet bridge attached), asked around for the escalator while standing almost across from it, and found my way to the Hyatt shuttle bus area. I boarded the bus with one other passenger from Europe returning home from one of the other airport terminals along the way. After he left I was the only passenger, suddenly worried that I might be going to the wrong hotel. I quickly message Astroq and Procyon. Naturally, Astroq does not respond until like an hour later, but Procyon reassures me the Hyatt Regency O’Hare is the one in Rosemont and everything is well.

I get closer to the hotel and the driver asks me where my costume is and I give him an acceptable response. I arrive at the hotel and message Astro hoping he would be around our room, as he did promise he would not be out at the bar drinking at 3pm and I would not be interrupting his socializations. But of course he was already at the (closed) Red Bar and my messages were interrupting his socializations.

I had an elaborate plan of trickery planned when meeting Astro for the first time; but he was cleverly stationed right at the hotel room door as I approached and so my brilliant plan was foiled. I dropped off my stuff, we greeted, quacked and yipped awkwardly and made our way down to The Couches at the (closed) Red Bar. I recognized the Science_fox and it wasn’t all that hard to figure out the bearded VisMis, but there were two never-before-met-at-all people: FanaticFox (who also goes by FerretParade confusingly) and tekroo both who turned out to be actually pretty cool people! I happened to be around FerretParade’s presence a bit more than Tek Roo, who I only saw near the beginning and near the end of the entire adventure.

Swiftcutter joined us shortly after at The Couches (it was reassuring to see someone a bit more familiar to me and the eek-new-people-anxiety settled a bit). We broke the ice with some Cards Against Humanity which got us all in a good, laughing uncontrollably mood. Then someone new had to show up and we exchanged a few “who’s this guy” between each other before I introduced myself to RelaxingDragon1. We hugged awkwardly because… I was staring at his racoon tail. >__>

The Red Bar opened around this time and we all claimed “The Table”. I didn’t eat anything since breakfast, but after a few nachos and quesadillas I felt uncomfortably full (I think I was still full with a little anxiety). Simmo and Flyssa arrive, and although I never met them before, their personality felt familiar and it was pretty easy to adjust to their presence. Lizeh, Muffinpaws and TangyWolf (Javs) find us too, hugs and greetings were exchanged. Then the blue haired :link taikamiya: and the pink haired Airyu show up and Airyu gives these awesome badges to everyone and I get my first MFF badge! :3 I leave my Tai Papercraft with Tai which leads to Terrible Consequences later on. At some point here, Swiftcutter manages to drink my drink “accidentally”. :|

I travel with VisMis and Swiftcutter to pick up my official MFF badge and take a tour around artist’s alley and the dealer’s room. I wander around a bit and (unintentionally) lose both of my companions in my wanderings. Artist’s Alley begins to close and I manage to find my way back to The Table at the Red Bar with everyone seated just as before (minus Tai, Ariyu, Lizeh, MuffinpPaws and Javs). Tai left behind his papercraft, Science_fox enquires what I am going to do about it and I respond with a cold “it’s his problem now” or something along those lines.

Throughout most of this time, I appear to be rudely preoccupied with my phone, but I was in fact trying to coordinate with a badge pick-up and a papercraft delivery. I head out for a minute to receive my badge from the wonderful Shnellz who came from the other side of Canada! We chat and part ways and I return with the awesome and huge MFF badge #2. Nast and crazy table collabs happen and soon we all leave The Table in search of the games room. We converge outside the Red Bar entrance, there is a people shuffle as groups reunite. Airyu gives Astro a bunch of ducks and Astro proceeds to break them. I THINK I meet Bliz here for the first time, the party splits into telepictionary group and a new Red Bar group while I stay behind to attempt a papercraft delivery. The delivery fails due to lack of proper communication and I end up in a very sad looking video game room in my quest for the games room. After circling around a bit wi-fi searching, I manage to deliver my final papercraft to the amazing Peppercoyote. He was almost as musical in person as he was online and we talk at the conveniently placed chest-high wall separating the Red Bar from the outside world. He’s in a rush to pay his tab and I’m in a rush to get in on a game of telepictionary. Sadly, we pass by each other briefly only one more time (another time in Pepper’s suit during the parade) and didn’t get to accept his offer of “we’ll have to party” but there’s always NEXT YEAR.

I arrive just in time for telepictionary and meet a new stranger who turned out to be Procyon! He brought Taiwanese yum foods, a bunch of use play telepictionary (see here for results!). Procyon, having flown like a million miles without eating, is hungry so Astro and I bring him over to The Table, where he orders sushi that ends up being “disappointing” according to the raccoon. Astro’s response time is about ten minutes now so it’s like communicating with a rover on Mars (during opposition). :P izixs joins us who I only briefly saw in IRC once some year ago (I managed to get a rather detailed explanation that he was a dragon during that time though) and someone else who I had no idea at all who she was but she drank her furry-themed alcoholic beverage in like one gulp! Tai returns and I connect to wi-fi, causing Tai to get a message I sent him earlier.

Others rejoin us, I depart with RelaxingDragon for perhaps the longest (and only) game of Lupus in Tabula that I have played. I sit next to Wolfflax who RD introduces me to and I recognize his badge was similar to his FA avatar (Although I’ve only seen him around on FA at most). RD gives me a quick rundown of all the popufurs in the room and on furry social politics. The werewolves eat RD early into the game because of his crazy theories that may have worked, followed by a carefully organized eradiation of his nearby associated (namely Wolfflax and myself). I sit around as a ghost for a while before giving up at 2am. I find out Lizeh was deviously hiding her werewolf identity this whole time and ended up killing me, the innocent villager! :( RD returns in suit and he becomes the first full furry suit I hug! :3

I head back to the hotel room, Astro is sleeping and making cat noises and I attempt to charge my phone which had a sudden 50% loss in battery power while playing Lupus in Tabula (maybe due to the frequent wi-fi on/off switching, it was pretty hot and definitely not due to just general use). I realize I forgot a USB-to-wall-outlet adapter at home and head down to the hotel lobby to charge my phone briefly and get in contact with Procyon who was standing just around the corner! I chat with him and a bunch of his associates, whose names I don’t recall at all (there were too many of them!). We discussed engineering in academia and other serious topics before being really tired and ready to sleep at 3am. We try not to wake Astro up as fumble around trying to charge my phone some more. I didn’t understand the bed covers and force myself under them. In the morning I realized they were just tucked in really hard and I could have loosened them for a slightly less snake-like constricted sleep.


Saturday
I woke up at a timely 10am and PepperCoyote informs me of the fursuit parade happening soon. Procyon was kind enough to let me use his phone charger so I return the favour by waking him up for the parade. I depart on my lonesome to the con suite where free food is apparently served. One of the people RD mentioned the night before was serving food (Alkali) and yelling loudly. I had like two hotdogs and some junk food (cookies, Smarties, Cheetos, healthy furry food).

Tai walks right past me while trying to find me, and I test his Mynx-finding abilities. He finds me shortly after, still in his blue hair, and we smuggle out food illegally. We head to the artist’s alley where Airyu, Swiftcutter and Science_Fox managed to grab tables! I do my second artist’s alley journey then head out to find a spot for the fursuit parade. I stand next to a railing looking down at the parade, only to be surprised by it winding around and right behind me! I high-five many suiters and recognize some 4 of them in total. Many blurry pictures are taken, and choppy video footage due to my phone being wonky and deciding 4 FPS is a good frame rate for videos.

I return to artist’s alley and hang around some more with Airyu, Swiftcutter and Science_Fox at their tables, ask Airyu to draw in my sketchbook, buy some small things and Streetpass a bunch of people on my 3DS. I search for Wi-fi again and encounter VisMis on his laptop trying to get a signal as well. We try our luck with the nearby Ethernet ports, but none work (I carry an Ethernet cable despite not having a device that needs it). I go meet up with Astro and Procyon at the Red Bar where we this random eccentric gentlemen talks to us about his band, bobcats and meows. I take one for Astro and converse with him until this fellow leaves. Astro and Procyon tell me the tale of how they met and about Procyon’s secret raccoon website. The three of us head towards the variety show taking place somewhere near the con suite. We meet Bliz, Lizeh and Muffinpaws on the way and recruit Bliz into our party. We endure the variety show while Astro makes silly, snarky Tweets at every act as he slowly suffers. Tai, Airyu, Javs and an audience member perform their skit, which was perhaps the best one there (totally non-biased for sure!). I’ll leave the reader to lookup/recall the other skits. ;) Javs is in his suit and I stare at his GREEN.

We work our way back to the Red Bar, Astro, Procyon, Bliz and I buy some drinks and I try out a vodka infused furry drink and we discuss life, things and the variety show. Around this time we go to Tai’s and AIryu’s room for a ROOM PARTY, I tag along with Bliz to get their iPad and encounter THIS. :3 We return, I drink cider for the first time, and we play intense 4-player iPad games. VisMis is on IRC and I join him and make Tai’s phone make noises every time I ping him on IRC. Airyu, Tai, Astro, VisMis, Bliz, and Procyon are present around this time (maybe others).

Tai, Airyu and I head off the watch “Whose Lion is it Anyway” hosted by Alkali, which by now RD and Tai have told me about and given my furry history lessons. It was a fantastic show, wow, such funny, much laughs. Tai and Airyu go up, I make even more bad recordings, RD shows up in suit and hugs are exchanged. By now I’m getting quite experienced with hugs. Tai piggybacks RD and Airyu and I lose them. I have the otter’s phone for some reason, we wander around, freeze by the open doors and have an ADVENTURE of confusion. Tai messages his own phone and we regroup back at their hotel room and someone knocks over my cider before I can finish it. Astro informs us that we missed an awesome party in a room over, then Tai, Astro and I go DANCE. Procyon is in suit now and somehow manages to dance in it, Izixs shows off his unique dance moves (I thought they were pretty cool compared to the generic romp-stomp). We manage to drag Astro onto the dance floor and we romp around pretending to know how to dance. <insert furry rave here>. The final song was a suitable “Don’t stop me now” by Queen and then we all left.

We experience bursts of The Great Cold as we cool off. Some minor antics with Tai, Procyon, RelaxingDragon and Izixs. Tai, RD and someone whose name escapes me play zombie Fluxx until the wee hours of 3am. I make breakfast plans with RD at 3am, return to the hotel room to find both Procyon and Astro getting ready to sleep and we exchange furry goodnights.


Sunday
I wake up on time for breakfast plans, but RD’s lack of communication leads me to resume sleep for a few hours more. Eventually everyone wakes up and Procyon and I move our stuff to Izixs room who was kind enough to let us store our belongings until we leave. I meet the robot dinosaurs I’ve spotted during the con in the flesh as they were Izixs’ roommates or something! Procyon and I rejoin with Astro in the coffee line, then Procyon decides he wants something and we get back in line! >_>

We bump into FerretParade and Tek Roo again, I miss breakfast with Tai and would have made it too if it wasn’t for Astro’s and Procyon’s coffee antics. I prepare to have a lonely breakfast again but meet Lizeh, Bliz and Muffinpaws in the con suite and I beg them to accept my company. Bliz tells some interesting stories of World of Warcraft exploring places players shouldn't be and explains their pronunciation of “Procy” as “Procky”, and shares some pictures and Goodras. We try to collectively identify the heroes and villains in a furry ad for some convention that used this picture. I inquire Lizeh and Muffinpaws about tails, Procyon appears and we go to the artist’s alley for the last time. Flyssa, Simmo, Javs, Astro, FerretParade and others merge into our group, I lead a Javs to water and we talk about the 3DS. Flyssa and Simmo say their goodbyes, but it takes so long that I manage to bring up Leon in conversation mixing him up with Simmo! I examine the tail selection in the dealer’s room and buy a tail to wear on my butt. :3

We go back to Bliz’s room, play some more iPad games and co-op Spelunky. I go waggle my tail around everyone’s face to Michal’s disapproval. We discuss the paws of Muffinpaws, take group pictures and just hang out in the final hours before we depart. Slowly people start to trickle away. I’m unsure about airport lines so I leave a little early just to be safe and end up having to wait over an hour at the airport. On the shuttle to the airport is again just one passenger, heading home to somewhere in the eastern US I think. We exchange short stories, he talks about his suits and is rather surprised when he finds out one of his suits shares my real name. :3 He was a pretty cool guy and I wish I remembered his name…

My tail passed airport security without a problem, I get on a fancy Air Canada plane with touch screens on the back of seats and watch a part of World War Z but don’t finish because the flight is so fast. The person who sat next to me was just coming back from a rock climbing trip in the Grand Canyon and told me briefly about her adventure. The end.


TL; DR: MFF was pretty fun. :3