BotCon 2001 Lith do no sleep anymore THURSDAY: Up until I actually called Greyhound and got a jaw-dropping quote, I was going to bus up from my house in sunny Florida to Casa Del Hooper_X. I divebombed some fellow Transfans down the street (Illmatr and co.) for a possible last-minute mercy-ride, but their vehicle was already overflowing. Ah well, it was only seven lonley hours to Hoop's. I buckled down, pumped my poor sweet 280 Z full of hot hot gasloinengs, and took off around noon. The ride was unexpectedly pleasant what with the rain and the me with no air conditioning. There was no Hoop at Hooper_X's place, but there was Zack and a crazy dog. After a while, Hoop showed up with Recharge, and there was food, and there was strange strange TV, and there was a little snoozing, but not much. And then it was Friday. The Southern #WiiGii! roadcrew: Recharge, Hooper_X, Zack, and me. FRIDAY: SO MUCH HICK. Okay, Indiana was full of corn. More corn than anyone should ever have to see. But the route to BC this year was a world of skank. A decidedly sleepy Hooper drove us past the miles of burnt-out hourly-rate motels and strip joints between Georgia and Durham, keeping himself alert with the POWER OF SKA. Charge and I had some RID stuffs to play with, which we'd picked up during our Squirt-Gun Buying Mission just before the voyage proper. There were a slew of Battle Unicorns in the trunk, but they were spoken for, so I couldn't play with them any. I had some more SNOOZE. Little did I know all the tires would be melted off my Deluxes before I would have the chance to play with them again. All of a sudden we were there, and got to sit around in the hotel lobby watching Transfans mill around while we waited for clearance to actually go up to our rooms. Our rooms, according to the hotel staff, were UNCLEAN, and we couldn't go there yet, since they were crawling with more filth than loose Transformers. The rest of #WiiGii! filled up the lobby by and by. Shcockwave stopped and chilled with us for a few before being dragged away. Unfortunately, Lynxor was there to take his place. Whenever we noticed the prereg line, bits of us wandered over to stand in it. The aforementioned fellow Transfans from my town were there up near the front, and most of #WiiGii! wandered up and skipped the line while we chatted. We are assholes. We got our stuff, I broke my Indestructable Lanyard, we milled around. Eventually they opened the art room. I threw my stuff down, as did Hoop and Swift-Eagle. We looked at the other entries so far until the staff told us to go the hell away. Paul Davids, the G1 cartoon production coordinator, was already wandering around and allowing various fans to accost him with fannish explanations of the fandom. I felt a twinge of geekremorse, watching some kid yelling his favorite fantheory at the guy, but the good Mr. Davids just wandered between bored, bemused and entertained all weekend, so I guess we didn't hurt him too much. While the Dinner (which was fun in that I got to see Megatron33 in a suit) was going on, the cheap half of #WiiGii! and Lynxor went on a Voyage For Food. We split up between a pub with great Guiness and the Chinese place next door. The bill at the pub got mangled but we're pretty sure we left a decent tip.

Recharge and Scylla at the pub. The Guinness there was terriffic.

After some climbing around in the bushes, the dinner let out and Megs let us play with his exclusives. "The chip is in the box!" was the great revelation of the evening. I was relived that Arcee, like Aplinq before her, was uglier'n shit, so that I would have no toylove heartbreak when I pawned her off in a year or two. Hoop was chuckling at the comic, but I didn't know why till I finally read it on Monday. Then we made fun of Particle_Mann, who never *did* buy me the sandwich he promised me last year, got sleepy and trickled off to bed. I forget who I slept with. I think it was Max. Me, Coolslider, the Guy Whose Name I Always Forget, and Trent's friend, who bought me lots of beer. SATURDAY: Thar be toys here! Monocle was the first God of the day; he gave me a juice box while we were all waiting for the dealer rooms to open. The dealer rooms opened a bit then shut again, and then opened, and then they were full of hordes of slightly overimpatient Transfans. Zack hooked up with a sweet-ass Microman Megatron, which looked hella real, and which he foolishly let Max play with all day. Max hooked up with Stumpfucking Caveman and his friend, Abusive Irish Cop. He had to hold both of them in one hand so he could point Megs at people with the other. I hooked up with.. um.. some Battle Beasts.. an' a Seacon. Hellbat let me play with the Dezaras at his table, an' he gave me a sticker as a 'thank you' for all the porn I have given the fan community. Woo! Free sticker for me! Helldamn I like free stuff. I was kinda surprised that Raksha didn't give me any free stuff, since I gave her a not-great-but-decent-and-definitely-free fancel of Thundercracker. Ah well, she *did* have trading cards for nearly-free last year. I managed to only miss a few minutes of the G1 Voice Actors panel. I'd been stoked for weeks about getting to see Michael Bell and he definitely did not dissapoint me. He was awesome, and John Stephenson was fun to listen to. Greg Berger didn't have much to say outside of quick bits of Grimlock Wisdom. They all had real, thoughtful responses to all the questions, and the skill to twist silly questions into entertaining tangents. I snuck out a little early to go sit in line, and got to talk to Ben Yee for a while. I already had a drawing of Swoop for Michael Bell to sign, and Thundercracker for John Stephenson, but nothing for Greg Berger. One of the kids in line let me borrow his Grimlock PVC figure to draw. Thanks, whoever you were! It turned out pretty nice. When I actually got to the signing part, I went all fanwibble and had to shut up to avoid saying anything goofily dreadful. They were all supercool. I missed the #WiiGii! lunch outing, so I went back to milling around the dealer rooms and once again missed only the first few minutes of the BW Voice Actors panel. Scott McNeil and Gary Chalk entertained the hell out of everyone despite being asked to say 'whazzup' fifteen times in various voices. I was amused by their annoyance with Beast Machines' character-guttings. Someone asked them to do a bit of Reboot's Hack & Slash, and they did one of my favorite scenes, "Who's gonna push the button?" I skipped out on the signiature line since it was a mile long, and I didn't have any drawings for them anyhow. Hoop stuck it out and got Dirk Dinobot signed, much to Scott's and everyone else's amusement. Most of #WiiGii! piled into one van and went to Arby's. I was going to ride in the cargo space with Coolslider, but Lynxor invited himself right through the cargo hatch. Walky very kindly ran up and squeezed back there with me for the ride back. What a trooper. I finally got around to picking up my exclusives. Tigatron was begging to be let out of his box, so I freed him. Arcee was telling me, over and over again, that she was more than just a pretty face, so I put her in the closet. #WiiGii! met up again to play with Swift's Bionicles and partake of Monocle's Botcon Beer. That was some mad fuckin' tasty beer. Monocle. The Bringer of Beer. Trent's friend kindly bought me a couple more beers to nurse while we all went outside and hung out by the fountains. I spent some time molesting MadMaxMFP and Picard42, while Xiph was molesting Windy. When I finally got tired around 2 AM, Scott McNeil was still shmoozin' with the fans right outside the lobby. What a trooper. Max had spent most of the party being ultramellow so naturally he perked right up when it was time for bed. He poked Megatron in my face every few seconds, but I was goodnaturedly buzzed so I just told him to cut it out a few times and went to SNOOZE. Max in Lith's clothing, at the party. SUNDAY: I was sleepy. I finally rolled out of comfy bed thing and stumbled downstairs in time for the second half of the MSTing, which kicked ass. A bunch of us crammed into the van again and went to the mall for lunch. Lynx missed us by inches.

Zack and Max, ready for action.

I ran out of spending cash, so Hoop very kindly bought my Apelinq sight unseen. Back at the Con, I checked up on the art contest/auction, picked up my Snake repaintbash and Laserbeak render and.. uh.. my Soundwave fancel was gone. The auction control guy said it had gotten up to $5, but it hadn't been officially picked up and paid for. I was struck with a mighty pang of guilt as Karl Hartman pulled a fiver out of his pocket, handed it to me, and wandered off, glowering. I went back to the dealer room and wandered around a little more, agonizing over whether to buy Captain Shark. I actually found the Actionmaster Starscream leg I needed. Hellbat sold me a few PVCs for repainting fun. I took over Walky's dealer table for a little while so he could go to the 3H panel. While I was there, I sold my Laserbeak render to some guy who was apparantly trying to mack on me. Thanks, guy! You bought me a sandwich. The dealers were starting to pack up, so I did I final round. Captain Shark called to me, "Liiith," he said, "Buy meee.. you know you want me.." "Yes!" I shouted. "Yes, I do!" So some cash flew forth and Captain Shark was mine. He good. Captain Shark, dammit! Then the Con was over. We goofed around for a while, me hoping that the squirtgun fight would happen, since I'd lugged my godawful huge CPS Supersoaker all the way there. At last, it *did* happen, though I missed the beginning. Megs, Zack, Bobbi and I ran around madly watering each other for hours after Trix, Hoop and Charge had given up. My Supersoaker, aside from looking blatantly phallic whenever you were trying to pump it, was a fuckoff watergun and I drenched everybody in between three minute pumping sessions. It tired me out pretty fast, so I handed it off to the very athletic Bobbi, who proceeded to run around and douse everyone throughly. Meanwhile, Megs was practicing some kind of firespitting kung-fu which inspired his opponents to great dodging feats. Then we all got cold all of a sudden, did the polite thing and had a hotel staffguy open the stairwell door for us, and went up to fucking change into dry clothes. Poor Zack and Megs had to walk around barefoot, having waterlogged their only shoes. Me, my gun, and Trix. We came back down to the lobby where the rest of the #WiiGii crew was talking to a very sleepy Tengu. After some more hanging out, huggin' and heartfelt byebyes, I went up for some sleepes. Max had gone home, so this time I got Charge. In the morning, he amused us with tales of my Goofy Sleeping Habits. Sleepy Tengu. MONDAY: Snooze. Hoop, Charge, Zack and I stuffed all our stuff into the Hoopmobile, left my crappy cooler behind for lack of space, said goodbye to anyone that was still around, and rolled out of town. This was when I realized my new RID cars had been in the sun the whole con. Their lovely rubber tires had melted and gone all squooshy. Lith sad. So I played with Crosswise instead, until I dozed off again. I'm terrible company in a car. We stopped off to say Hi to Abby, then to drop off Charge. Back at Casa Hooper we were fed, then watched Cannibal: the Musical while Zack and I put together Gundam models. More SNOOZE, then morning, then, uh, afternoon, and I finally said my g'byes and headed out. What a great fuckin' weekend. Me, Charge, and Zack, ready to head out. Lith's Haul: Cobra Interrogator: trade AM Starscream leg: $1 Seawing: $5 Deltastar's Tracks stickers: $5 Battle Beasts (Sly Fox and Pillaging Polar Bear): $6 Tallgeese kit: $7 PVC figs: $10 '84-'86 toy guide book: $20 Comic Hardcover: $25 Captain Shark: $40 Arcee an' Tigatron x 2: however much they were