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I drove up on Wednesday, and on the way
up I drove up past this big plume of smoke. They were in the process
of closing down the southbound traffic, but the northbound traffic
was still going, though I suspect I was probably one of the last few
to be allowed through. I saw on the news later that I was probably
driving past a burning fertilizer plant that exploded massively.
Yikes. The rest of the drive was uneventful, though, except that the
bombcast I was listening to kept having to restart. I checked into
the hotel and was instantly on the lookout for people that I thought
would be at reapercon. I saw a couple where the guy had a star wars
figurine on his backpack. My people.
I realized that I forgot pretty much
all of my toiletries, but the hotel had free backup toothpaste and
toothbrush, and they also had some contact lens solution for sale. I
kept my lenses in creamer holders overnight, and then in the morning
I got some new cases, so I'm set. But I got up really early in the
morning because I didn't want to have to wrestle for breakfast and
also because I was *so excited* for the con that I didn't want to
miss anything. I got my food, did my shopping, and then found Reaper
HQ. It's a warehouse building on a normal road, and when I got there
the sign that said 'enter here' was pointing at a closed and locked
door. It was also raining, something else I hadn't planned for. But
before too long, the rain stopped and the door opened for
registration.
I was nervous about meeting people
cause I really wanted to, but always have trouble just introducing
myself. I needn't have worried, the guy right behind me, who is
named Aaron, and goes by Adrift on the forums (you have to have both
names) started talking me up, and I spent most of the rest of the day
just hanging out near him and meeting people he knew. I've also met
several on my own, though, it's really easy to just strike up
conversations with people you've never met before.
After taking my time looking around the
reaper HQ area, including the break room still dressed up like a
pirate pub from last year, the metal bits exchange where you can
trade random metal from a HUGE table of random parts, and plenty of
paints and minis everywhere, I dropped my stuff off and joined a
random RPG that needed some extra players. It was a hacked-together
system from a bunch of other RPGs that I've never heard of, but it
was easy to pick up, and the guy running it was a LOT of fun, very
enthusiastic and very flexible. The setting was far more
interesting.
For the convention, they came up with a
story about a hell-bound slice of Victorian London hosting a dark
carnival of the damned. They came up with factions, too, the
Carnival, which are all crazy legions of hell, animal trainers,
strong men, that sort of thing. The League, which are traveling
adventure-types, out for the forces of good. The street thugs,
urchins, cutthroats, dockworkers and other Victorian unsavories. And
my faction, the stickmen, which are crazed doctors and their
monstrous experiments that are looking for the secret of eternal
life. Your faction, both in the RPG events using this world and in
the actual convention, gets points for particpating in things, and
whoever has the most points at the end of the con, and the end of the
RPG stuff, wins. Pretty neat little thing. Anyway, the RPG was
great, I got to play a Frankenstein monster, I hit a lot of things
very well.
After that I went over to the
paint-and-take, where you can pick up random miniatures, paint them,
and then take them home. It's very nice, and that's where I got the
mimic I sent you a picture of. I painted him for a while, and then
got some lunch, all while chatting with random people that were
coming and going at the table.
Sonic was there, yes, the drive-through
place with the onion rings that you don't really like much anymore.
They brought a frier, and some hot plates, and a bunch of food, and
they stayed open from lunch all the way through dinner. The food
isn't *amazing* or anything, but considering that most Convention
food is actively junk, the fact that it's pretty decent is high
praise.
Anyway, after some more painting and
some more eating, I realized I was a little late for my first class.
I considered just skipping it, so as to avoid embarrassment (copping
out, as I do) but decided to be bold and walk over. I strolled right
in, apologized for being late, and jumped right into class. The guy
teaching it was Lazlo Jakusovski. If the name sounds familiar, it's
the guy that did the Hot Lead DVDs that I was watching that Todd got
for me. He was a good teacher, and seeing his technique was a really
big help, it gives me a lot to work on, which is pretty good,
actually. I messed up the technique on the example minis they gave
us to work on, but I understood why I was messing it up, at least, so
I have some hope of improving.
After the class, I went back to the
painting table to hang out with some new friends, a sensation that
was really quite pleasant. I worked on my mimic some more, and then
when everyone was going to head off for dinner, they asked if I
wanted to come along, and of course I said yes. We got in a few
cars, and I carpooled with Adam and Tanya. Adam really, *really*
reminds me of Kevin. You remember Kevin and Clarissa in Albuquerque?
Adam has the same long hair, same beard, same nerdy shirts, same
warm personality and everything. They were fun to hang out with.
Anyway, we drove down to Bjs, which is part of a Brewpub chain that
they actually have down in Austin, too. We've never been there,
though. Anyway, we got there first, and then I went off to the
bathroom. When I came back, everyone had arrive, and they were all
standing around a 5-year-old who was playing some dungeon game on his
Ipad, and everyone was entranced. My people! (Yes, the dad was there
too, he kept his eye on us, but he could tell we were all just really
being nerds. Totally harmless.)
We had a great dinner and cracked a lot
of jokes, told stories, compared convention plans, and generally had
a really nice time. I made a great joke about how scatterbrained
Aaron was being when he got hungry, and that became a running joke
for the evening. I also saw a tiny baby bunny outside of the window.
I guess they just live in the city around here. So cute!
When we were done with Dinner, I drove
Tanya and Adam back to the hotel. They said they were going to be up
for a while, working on some painting. They also asked if I had some
'Green stuff' (Epoxy modeling putty) and I did, and they were very
glad for that. They also asked if I had some superglue, and I had
some of that too. In exchange, they let me use their paints. I
worked some more on my guy, admired their pieces for the competition,
and then got sleepy and decided to call it a day. I got to sleep a
little after midnight, and had a great, great day.
-N
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