I know, I know. Too much rhyming on the index page, wasn't it? Couldn't help myself. I had been copying Gwendolyn Grace's beautiful filk songs in Calligraphy for my scrapbook, kinda went with the flow. Here's the sign Jess and I made after the Kestrels won the Cup. So we're completely shameless in our gloating! Playing Quidditch is the pinnicle of nerd-dom! ^__^ We're proud of it!
I miss being at Nimbus.
There. Said it. It felt like home. But how great was it for everyone to have been there!?! Alas, it had to end. So I'll recount everything here. If ye just want the pictures, the links to the left seem kind of self-explainitory, but here goes: My group was in costume most of the time, and therefore has everything under their character's name. Each page includes a brief bio, and then pictures. The Quidditch pictures did not come out well. There are three pictures from someone who took photos of our group, if they are your images, send me an Owl and I'll give you due credit. Cosplay... our little Macbeth scene. Dueling photos on the dueling page, some of the really good ones are repeated on the character pages. Cross-overs... well, a con's a con and I know we've some pictures of the anime folks in here. We did go see Pirates (again) with them, and Sara, our favorite Gryffindor.
!~Tell It Like It Is~!
Wednesday: Flight left at 8am. Got to Orlando about 1pm. Jess and Stacy were waiting with a "Snape Be Pimpin', Yo!" sign. Found 'em easily enough. Lots of hugs ensued. Got luggage stuffed into their jeep. Went to Stacy's house to pick up their luggage. (The amount of tolls in Florida are insane.) Listened to great music to and from everywhere we went. 'Everybody's Fool' by Evanescence is a Malfoy theme song--Val's so right!
Went shopping at their local anime store, picked up a Hayashibara Megumi cd collection and a NERV bag. I now have my new pocketbook. Jess got her One Piece (it's a pirate anime) plushies. Val got the last Yumi no Matsuei dvd. I don't think Stacy got anything. And off we went to Sci-fi City! Where Stacy made one of the workers climb up and take down their last Legolas cut-out, I bought the narrow Legolas poster and a G.I.Joe t-shirt--but only because it had a snake on it! Jess wore it to the Founder's Feast, so we do have pictures. Val bought some candy. And then we went to the grocery store. Munchies and soda for all. May they never stop selling Vanilla Coke. Checked in, decorated the room, took loads of pictures, met loads of con people in the hall and went to dinner together.
Thursday: Slept. Went to a kinky store, bought my 'Caution: Sarcastic and Cynical' bumper-sticker. Paid WAY too much for said sticker. Got in costume, registered, munched on some pizza, bought wands.
Went back to our room, changed, headed to Pleasure Island, got our passes, went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean. LOVED it. Recommend it to everyone. After the movie, we wandered around P.I. for a while, until the last bus, which left at two. So we hit the Adventurer's Club, 8-Track, etc. Found a great band doing covers as well as original stuff. Left at two. Passed out, didn't even kick Val during the night, I was so tired. And those beds were the most comfortable beds I've ever had the pleasure of sleeping on. I never wanted to get up.
Friday: Coffee in the place they gave us '3 dollars off' passes to was terrible. Somehow we made it in costume and on time to Parseltongue, which was really useful as a fanfic writer and artist.
Photo-shoot one, with lots of great dueling shots by people. Got a few photos with Dr. Roger Highfield, who played a Beater on our team, the Cape Canaveral Kestrals, and the Gryffindor is Sara, our Seeker. The Leaky Cauldron had an link to the article he published...somewhere...
The Judith Krug luncheon was hilarious! But, we needed more than soup and salad and a cookie. Food would have been good. Then it was off to Don't Tell the Grownups, Subversion in HP Fandom. Lots of big words, nuthin' in it that I didn't already know, but she was a great entertainer.
However, the Slash panel was up next, and I left to save us some seats. Jess and Val went to rest and missed the best panel that day! I just want to add also, I read slash for the sex. (Mostly Pirate smut, but smut none-the-less.) I tried not to strangle the girl on the panel who mispronounced 'yaoi' every time she said the word. (It's yah-ooh-ee. 'Yah' as in yahoo, 'ooh' as in Orlando, 'ee' as in squee--it's three syllables long, okay? It stands for 'without meaning, without climax, without resolution,' in Japanese it's Yama nashi, Ochi nashi, Imi nashi. It does NOT stand for Yamete! Ore ni no **** Itai!--Stop! My ass hurts! But it'd be kind of amusing if it did...) THE most entertaining panel of the day. Got loads of fic recommendations. To the panel, thank you! *read read*
Alas, then the Draco Malfoy's redemption panel came on. Wanted to strangle the Auror who declared pictures off-limits or risk being thrown out of the con. She could have just said that one of the panelists didn't want their photo taken. We're all fairly responsible people, she could have just asked nicely. And to the panelist??? Hello? you're on a panel at a con, pictures are mandatory! If ye donna want yer photograph taken, donna be on a panel next time.
This panel disappointed me greatly. I never thought of Draco as a cardboard character, or that he had nothing to be redeemed for 'because he hadn't done anything wrong'. Okay, so the boy's not yet a murderer, but Harry seems quiet capable to getting away with it in self-defense, why can't Draco? Oops, right. Slytherins are guilty whether or not they deserve it. Burn them at the stake, right? *bitter bitter*
The two girls 'supporting' Draco's redemption could have been slightly enthusiastic about it, or maybe they just stayed up too late and didn't have to wherewithal to argue back. We've two books left, people. Anything can happen.
The Kestrals won the Quidditch Cup. Go us! I slept, but Val and Jess played and Stacy took pictures. It was the textbook underdog team takes the win! Apparently we were three players short, and when announced, we got booed because most of us were Slytherin. Sara joined as our Seeker, Dr. Highfield played a Beater, Val was a Chaser, Jess was a Chaser--if you were on the team send me an Owl with your info and I'll add a page for you too, okay? Jess is an athlete and kept trying to pull actual basketball plays--the Three Man Weave--to little success, but thanks to Sara catching the Snitch 5 minutes into the second game, we won the CUP! *glomps Sara*
Ate at Kimonos that night. Good green tea.
Saturday: Slept. Cosplayed a scene from a background fic for Val's HP fic. (Here's the scene.) It's got two Slytherins and a Gryffindor chanting. Doc started it, I swear!
Lots more photos. Only went to the Snape panel this day. Again, wanted to throttle said Auror. Yes, deary, I know there are lots of us in the room, and we're all thinking the same thing. We. Love. Snape. We. Love. Slash. We'll hoot and holler all we want, thanks. Ye donna' need ta threaten us. We'll behave all on our own. But microphones would have helped.
I'll say this here, 'cause I didn't have the chance to say it at the panel: Snape's Worst Memory. I so doubt it was the underwear scene. I agree with most of the Slytherin Rising people, yes Hogwarts would have been a sanctuary for Severus, but I think his worse memory wasn't in the pensive. It was in is head: his home life. Harry's a twit, so of course he's gonna believe that Snape would put his most important memories in a student accessible pensive. I think Snape put that memory in and intentionally left it for Harry to find, knowing the boy's overblown curiosity to poke through other people's things. (Harry's so easy to predict, as Tom showed with that dream--in my opinion even Dumbledore used it, with that 'weapon' taunt knowing Tom would get wind of it through Harry's mind.) I simply cannot believe that out of all Severus's memories, something from high school is considered the worst.
Snape's a Goth. I'm a Goth. I was humiliated in school. Ya' know what? One year out of high school and I couldn't remember any of the bull shit that happened to me. I remember some of my teachers that rocked, I remember hanging with my friends, and the D&D/Vampire/Rifts/etc campaigns we had. Can't for the life of me remember the name of the boys that were hell-bent on making me miserable. And that's all I've to say on the matter.
Double Feature: It's the Hufflepuff kid! GET 'IM!
'Nuff said.
Sunday: Hung out with Sara all day. ^_^ Went to Disney, went shopping, had lunch...somewhere. Rested and packed with Stacy while Val, Jess, and Sara went swimming. Picked up the anime duo. Pan... and Alex was her name? Went to see Pirates again. This time with plushies. In the theatre was another anime and HP fan. We chatted for a bit, movie came on. By the end of it Sara was saying, "I get it now. PIRATES!"
"Yes! Pirates!" We chorused.
And she kept saying things like, "I don't want to be a Gryffindor anymore. Slytherins are cooler." She held up her scarf, "I want this to be silver and green now..."
lol. We've got her converted. ~_^ Now if we can just find that Potter boy...
That was our adventure at Nimbus. I miss everyone terribly. Guys, come up to New York for a while, okay? Road trip! R-O-A-D T-R-I-P!!! Do you hear me? Christmas in New York! You can help shovel my driveway so we can go places. *lol* So, for Nimbus 2005, you can expect at least me to show up as Captain Jack Sparrow, savvy? With scrapbook to explain why, in case any a' you scalawags forgot!
Till next time,
Bring more Rum.
Clef
Death: A Minor Setback.
Just Ask Tom.
