So after many fun times and shenanigans that lasted late into Saturday night (Sunday morning, technically) we didn’t really get out of the room until noon.  I once again donned my Blind Mag costume.  Jon and Marc went costume-less.  Oh, I forgot to tell a quick Jon zombie story.  We had a professional makeup artist across the hall from us who I ran into on Friday when I was getting dressed.  She popped into our room to borrow my tweezers and ended up adding all those gross vein details to Jon’s zombie look with my navy eyeliner.  So, new zombie makeup trick for Jon!  She also complimented me on my makeup which pleased me to no end.

Anyways that was Friday, but back to Sunday.

So we hustled out a little before noon to go to a panel for Being Human, SyFy’s new hit show based on the BBC series of the same name.  I started watching the show about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost all sharing a house earlier this year and found it to be a far better show than I expected.  All three of the leads were on hand for the panel and it was great to see that they legitimately liked each other.  We arrived a little late to the panel but an enjoyable time was still had.  Especially when the actors started tearing up the stage to demonstrate that they were, indeed, having a fun time at Dragon*Con.

Then, you know, the lunch thing happened.  I realize we only did four panels all weekend; usually I’m fairly panel-heavy at Dragon*Con, but this year with the parade and the photo shoots I just found myself re-prioritizing.  We have luckily seen all the Starfleet Captains in person (minus the guy from Enterprise, who doesn’t count) and we’ve hit a lot of the shows and casts we’ve wanted to in the past, so we didn’t feel like we missed out this year.  I still got my Con on, just in a slightly different way.

Also, some pictures from Sunday afternoon:

After lunch we wandered over to the Walk of Fame at the Hilton.  The Walk of Fame is where all the actors who aren’t in panels hang around, signing autographs and talking to folks and taking pictures.  I like to stroll through at least once a Dragon*Con to see what people look like in person.  Yes, Tricia Helfer and Mary McDonnell are really that attractive.  Yes, Tom Felton looks better without his Draco Malfoy bleached hairdo.  No, Elvira hasn’t really aged.  While we were walking through we found the Biggest Fan:

It took me a few seconds to understand why this dude was wearing a giant box fan, but once I figured it out it quickly became one of my favorite costumes.  Garrett Wang of Star Trek Voyager must have figured it out when I have, because we had a quick exchange about “oh how clever” while we were taking pictures of the Biggest Fan.  I guess Brent Spiner liked it too, because he tweeted the photo a few minutes later (thank you iPhone, thank you Twitter).

While in the Walk of Fame I had a quick conversation with Denis O’Hare, who was sitting next to the gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous Alcide over in the True Blood corner of the world (lucky Denis O’Hare).  I gave him my whole “I am glad you were on True Blood because you are awesome and Broadway is awesome and I wish I had seen you in Assassins because I had tickets for it and it closed but you are really awesome and my parents saw you in Assassins and thought you were amazing” and he did the whole “Oh Assassins is one of the best shows I have ever been in and thanks for liking Broadway and also I like your costume” thing and he was extremely kind and cordial for the two-ish minutes I spoke with him.  There was no one in line behind me but I didn’t want to take too much of his time (because I wasn’t planning on buying an autograph from him, some people spend so much money on this stuff y’all!).

Carrie Fisher, who I love, was having a solo panel at 4:00.  We lined up around 3:00 to ensure that we actually got a seat.  Other than some ladies giving out free Red Bull and a girl in a duct tape Slave Leia bikini, it was an uneventful time in line.

But Carrie Fisher, ooooh she was so good!  She was a bit late in starting but when she walked onstage she immediately jumped on the table.  And then she started talking about erections.  And tit sweat.  And how George Lucas doesn’t have a personality.  She gave the pink-haired bipolar girl I met on Thursday night a kiss.  She talked about her mother’s costume collection.  She was so fresh and honest and funny and I am thrilled to have seen her because she rocks.  Also, every other person who asked her a question began with “So I’m also bipolar and you’ve helped me a lot” or “I have also struggled with alcoholism and you’ve helped me a lot.”  I doubt that Carrie Fisher planned on being a role model when she wrote and spoke so openly about her issues, but I’m sure she is pleased that her struggles have benefited so many others.

Basically, Carrie Fisher was great.  She’ll be rolling through Durham in April with her one woman show, I might have to go check her out.

Jon and I decided to attend the Miss Star Trek Universe Pageant at 5:30, right after Carrie Fisher’s panel.  Before Garrett Wang took over the Star Trek Track the pageant was the Miss Klingon Empire Pageant.  I am guessing that Eric Watts, former director of the Star Trek Track, told Dragon*Con that they couldn’t do the Miss Klingon Empire Pageant without him, which is a bummer because it was probably more fun than the Miss Star Trek Universe Pageant.  Don’t get me wrong, it was entertaining.  Ten contestants all with a Star Trek bent, most of whom were wearing minimal clothing.  There is a talent portion, and it was pathetic that over half of the women did sexy dances, strip teases, or horrible hula hoop routines with a glow-in-the-dark hula hoop.  My two favorite contestants were Lal, a contestant who was in character as Data’s android daughter, and a Tribble in a fur bikini and Russian fur cap.  Lal performed all the Star Trek themes on the British horn (ACTUAL TALENT AND HUMOR) and the Tribble played guitar and sang John Lennon’s “Imagine” but with rewritten lyrics pleading for peace between Tribbles and Klingons (ACTUAL TALENT AND HUMOR).  I figured the Tribble would win because she combined sex appeal (bikini) and humor (peace between Tribbles and Klingons) and she did win, but Lal came in second which was great.  I am hoping in the future that the organizers place more of an emphasis on actual talent rather than stripping.  LADIES, there is more to us than our boobies, seriously.

And after the Miss Star Trek Universe Pageant (I know, the day never ends), I followed the handy clues of Twitter to track down another scavenger hunt item: Timmy the ThinkGeek Monkey.  According to Twitter the monkey was in line on Peachtree Street for the Dragon*Con Masquerade, Sunday’s big costume contest.  So I hoofed it from the Sheraton (where the Star Trek pageant was held) all the way up to the front of the Hyatt.  Through the rain.  With Jon and Marc struggling behind me to catch up.  I was not going to miss that damn monkey.

And guys, I found that damn monkey.  Look how happy I am to get my picture with the monkey.  And his little adorable Dragon*Con dragon jacket.

So what next?  One last dinner in the food court (as you can imagine I was pretty over food court grub by this point), one more DQ Blizzard (I will never be over Blizzards, also I lost weight at Dragon*Con, so take that!) and then onto one last night of fun and antics.  Since it was raining most of the crowds in line for the Masquerade Costume Contest had cleared out, so we were easily able to get into the Masquerade viewing room.  Usually it is a mob scene.

The Masquerade involves people in costumes, some of whom do skits.  The first round is all kids, which is adorable and/or scary depending on whether or not the kid is dressed up as Chucky from Child’s Play.  The hosts this year were not really adorable but they were scary because they kept cursing in front of and being mean to the kids.  Not cool guys, not cool!

The adult costumes filed in after the kids, my favorite being Cuddles, a giant, winged hell-spawn demon who played air-guitar while his wings folded in and out.  Extremely impressive and therefore not surprising at all that he won the entire Masquerade (and $1,000.  The kid who won got a video gaming system, so not too shabby for him either!)  I had to leave the Masquerade early, however, to head to an impromptu Repo! The Genetic Opera photoshoot.

I don’t think I’ve fully described how much better my Blind Mag costume was this year.  Last year it was just a beautiful and gothy costume that wasn’t necessarily a recognizable character.  This year, with my fancy contacts, people got who I was immediately.  A girl even stopped me in the street for a hug (except me, being an idiot, didn’t realize that out-stretched arms meant she wanted a hug because, really, why would someone want to hug me because I was wearing a costume?) which sort of blew my mind.  Another benefit of the costume was that I was easily recognized by all the fun, friendly Repo! shadowcasters wandering around Dragon*Con.  I made friends with members of Keyboard Samurai, Orlando’s shadowcast group, in the food court.  I also kept running into Ali, a Pavi cosplayer from Dallas’ Amber Does Dallas shadowcast,  and we made sure to exchange information.  She was working in the vendor’s hall during the day (and was therefore in street clothes), and so I was excited when she mentioned a possible Repo! photoshoot on Sunday night.  Her Pavi sounded super awesome, and I was looking forward to seeing it and to meeting a few other Repo! fans.

We held the shoot on the 10th floor of the Marriott, the same place as the Game of Thrones shoot.  It was a small group: myself, Ali as Pavi, a Shiloh from Long Island’s Zydrate Enthusiasts Network named Cheryl, and a Nathan Wallace in Repo Man gear named Wolf.  Wolf founded the first Repo! shadowcast group down in Fort Lauderdale but he is in New York now being an Equity Actor and doing the theater thing, so I am not sure if he is actively affiliated with any shadowcasts.

Anyways, here are some extremely gothy, monochromatic, but awesome pictures.  Thanks to Wolf’s fiance, Lindsey, for taking some of these:

Toward the end of the photoshoot the Give Blood Blood Drive Robot Shark made an appearance.

The rest of the evening was spent wandering around, taking photographs, and generally staying active so that we didn’t fall asleep before the 1:30 Cruxshadows concert (so late, Cruxshadows, why does your concert have to be so late, and on the very last night of Dragon*Con?!)

 

 

 

We found some seats in the Marriott and hung out for a bit, watching the crowds.  We had a conversation with a Spawn cosplayer who evidently has dozens of costumes.  He’s part of a group of cosplayers who dress as superheroes and visit children’s wards in hospitals, which I think is a lovely thing to do!

I also met a Baroness and we shared cat photos.  I was surprised that this was my first cat photo-sharing of the weekend.

Jon and I (Marc had gone to bed around midnight) meandered over to the Hyatt around 1:20 for the Cruxshadows concert.  Jefferson Starship (yes, the remains of Jefferson Airplane, no, Grace Slick was not there) was still finishing up their set.  While waiting for the Cruxshadows to start (nothing is on time ever, 1:30 is so late, whyyyy) we chatted with a Floridian couple who told us about Spooky Empire, a super-fun sounding horror convention in Orlando.  Something to consider attending, maybe?  I also saw a great Tetris dress, the lighted pieces moved!  Too bad she couldn’t rig it with the Tetris music:

The Cruxshadows didn’t start until around 2:30 (wah) and so we only stayed for five or six songs because, guys, we were tired.  And we had to drive home the next day (wah).  I hate going to bed on Sunday at Dragon*Con because that means the Con is over!

And indeed, after fourish hours of sleep, Con was definitely over and it was time to pile into the car and head back to North Carolina.  Atlanta was rainy and grey, and I was extremely bummed to leave Dragon*Con.

What else is there to say?   Y’all should come with us next year!