MiniMerlin Con Report

[alixtii]

So I spent the weekend doing MiniMerlin in Philly. Registration was just $20, and it was right there in Philly so I didn't have to pay for the hotel, so, yeah. $20 + $5 a day for the Speedline, to spend the weeking with thirty-something (that's quantity, not age) squeeing fangirls = Best. Deal. Ever.

I got there Friday night at around 8:30pm, and there was already a bunch of people there, taking turns reading fic out loud. ("There's a boy!" someone said when I entered.) But then someone--I won't name names--couldn't get through the porn without laughing (although the next day, once we got some alcohol in her, that definitely changed), and more people came, and so that kind of came to an end. We spent the rest of the night alternating between BEING REALLY FRAKKING LOUD and hushing each other to be quiet, while we consumed cupcakes and bread (who baked the bread? I don't remember) and other delectables, and comparatively small amounts of alcohol. (Well, small compared to Saturday, at least.)

I don't really remember much about Friday night other than the TOTAL FRAKKING LOUDNESS. Apparently the first kiss of the con happened then, but I don't think I noticed (although I've seen the photographic evidence). I remember commiserating with a lot of people about how REALLY FRAKKING LOUD it was, and getting engaged in a "Why Slash?" meta discussion. Plus a lot of meeting people, pleasantries, etc.

Did I mention it was REALLY FRAKKING LOUD?

As it got later, the party began breaking up as people went to their hotel rooms, probably in part in order to escape the TOTAL FRAKKING LOUDNESS. There were still people in the con suite when I left around 1am, but they only had to walk down the hall and I had an hour trip home (divided between walking to the PATCO station, waiting for the train, the train ride, and driving home from the station--it was actually a very pleasant trip). If I knew that everybody was going to call it a night so early on Saturday, though, I probably would have stayed later on Friday night.

I also wasn't sure what it would be like taking the Speedline that late at night/early in the morning, although it was fine and the walk to the 8th & Market station was just a quick walk down the well-lit Market Street. I was surprised at how many people were riding at that hour, though; people had to sit next to each other.

I brought my notebook to do some notebooking on the train ride there and back. As seemed appropriate, I worked on a Merlin fic--something which looked like it was working up to be some sort of permutation of Morgana/Nimueh/Merlin. As the guy who was sitting next to me got up to exit at the station before mine, however, he began giving me concrit. Now, I'm as firmly in favor of concrit as anyone in fandom, but that is NOT OKAY.

(What's with all the caps lock?)

I was in bed by 2am.

I woke up at 8am on Saturday, and that was the start of a great day. An hour to get ready and an hour of transportation got me to Philly at 10am. Now solar_cat said 10am was when the next day's festivities would start, but I was still a little more prompt then I wanted to be--I knew I would have to call her to come down to the lobby and get me. So I was glad when I ran into a bunch of fangirls leaving the hotel to get breakfast; I went with them and got a wheat bagel at Dunkin Donuts and a green tea blended crème at Starbucks. We took up the entire counter along the window at Starbucks.

We hung out good-naturedly in the con suite, performing several rounds of introductions, until around noon when we headed out for cheesesteaks because a lot of the people there were Philly virgins.

Walking through Philly was actually a good change, because it meant that we didn't have thirty-something fangirls jammed into a single small hotel room. We could clump together however it felt naturally, and migrate from conversation to conversation if the need arose.

MiniMerlin was at the high end of how many people you can support without structure--more people ended up going than solar_cat had originally expected--but there weren't so many people that everybody lost track of everybody else (if one day I go to a con that's my flist is attending, you guys will come find me, right?) and so the whole weekend was really "fangirls just hanging out and having fun." And can you think of a more fun time to spend a weekend?

My social anxiety totally didn't kick in once all weekend. Why should it? These were people who spoke the same language I spoke. While the group was big enough to require some clumping, cliquishness just wasn't possible. There was no conversation for which everyone wasn't welcome to join in.

It was interesting, too, watching us navigate our offline and online identities--this was only the second time, remember, that I've met up physically with people I'd previously only known online. No grand thesis as a result of my observations, but it was interesting watching. There was at once a licitness and an openness to our encounters, and there were some really good conversations about the fannish closet going on, for example about which fangirls were out to their boyfriends. Only problem is, there was so much talk of bisexuality that weekend--not to mention the practice thereof (see below)--that I could never keep track of when people were talking about fannishness and when they were talking about sexuality.

I'm trying to remember who I sat with at lunch. rageprufrock I'm sure of, and libitina and gblvr I'm pretty sure of. Topics included the need for a fannish dating serve. I agreed with the benefits of dating intrafannishly, but seriously doubted such a project could be put into place without endangering the safe space. The last thing we need is a re-run of the OSBP. And while I'd love to have a slasher girlfriend, to say anything beyond that would be, I think, to fall into Nice Guy-ism.

A bunch of the group went back to the hotel; I stayed with the group that wanted to walk around because the last time I experienced Philly as a tourist I was probably five. Sites I remember visiting include Christ Church, the Betsy Ross House gift shop, and a comic book store. I picked up the new Runaways hardcover. After buying candy at the Reading Terminal Market--some of which would later be put to obscene purposes, apparently (again, I've seen pictures)--we went back to the hotel.

Episode watching was underway. I was surprised by how pessimistic everyone seemed to be about the fate of the female characters; there was, it seemed, a general consensus that series 2 was going to screw them over--and this was from hardcore fans of the show. I'm unconvinced--I hope that Gwen and Morgana will continue to be the awesome, empowered characters they were in series 1, and that we haven't heard the end of Nimueh (since I'm still 'shipping Merlin/Nimueh)--but I have to admit my faith was shaken a little bit.

There is no way to describe what happened next other than to say the drinking began. Or at least, some did--I'm not quite sure when the division between the con suite and the "quiet room" happened, but I know it was before dinner. I'll say that I had some wine, a cider, and a screwdriver, which is probably more alcohol than I've ever had at one time before in my life. This was still in the afternoon/early evening, before dinner, so I gave myself plenty of time to sober up before I had to make the drive back from the PATCO station.

Does it need to be said that I was comparatively sober compared to most of the people in the room?

The pizza came at, what, 8:30pm? 9? The quiet room (which wasn't all that quiet; I've seen video) took half the food and left us to our drunken revels. Vid show came next, running concurrently with fan-girl makeout sessions. Having been in fandom and on LJ for some time now, this didn't surprise me; on the contrary, I mostly took it for granted that it would at some point.

I did pay attention to at least part of the vid show, because I realized during one of the Nimueh vids (it might have been heyiya's?) that the Nimueh in the story I was notebooking was a bit OOC. I'd been writing her as this sort of Goddess figure, sort of Galadriel-ish, and while she has that element to her, she also has a lot more spunk than I was giving her credit for. I think it was in part a reaction to the feminist debates over the show's treatment of women--in my insistence that the show wasn't painting her as evil, I ended up white-washing her, ignoring the complexities that the show gave her, the fact that, yes, she could be a vindictive bitch. And the ironic thing is that I think my portrayal of her was even less feminist, because it stripped away her agenda and made her a passive agent of the Old Religion and, really, how tired is that trope? (And my narrative kinks were clearly manifesting on some level or other.)

So I'm going to have to go back, rewatch the eps with Nimueh in them, re-write the whole fic, and give Nimueh a little more spunk. The fic will be the better for it because, really, canon!Nimueh is pretty awesome and doesn't need to be improved upon.

Then porn was read aloud, to much laughter and excitement. Video was taken. We really should have done more of this; I always enjoyed it when we did dramatic readings of porn (NC-17 Merlin/Arthur fic, of course) and would have liked a chance to have done some myself. The author (rageprufrock) was alternately not pleased and not aware (alcohol will do that to you), however.

Eventually, we all exited the con suite, and I went home.

Since I wouldn't be able to go to my usual church and have lunch with the fangirls before I went home, I considered going to services at Christ Church, the historical church we had visited the day before. It was, after all, an Episcopal church (actually, it pre-dates the ECUSA by quite a bit, which makes it a bit more complicated, but we don't need to go into that) and that's my denomination. But to get to Philly by 9am would require leaving home at an ungodly hour. I originally planned to do it, and even set my phone, but when it went off Sunday morning I was like, "Yeah, heh. No."

Well, there was some more nice hanging out as people began to depart, and at lunch we had a nice meal while the fangirls on my right, who were J2 fans, plotted some sort of CW RPF/Merlin RPF/Chili's RPF crossover (although is it really a crossover if they're overlapping canons like that?)? That's right, they were using the restaurant (and our waiter) as a source text. I'm not sure what the details were, but really, how awesome is that? RPFers after my own heart.

All good things must come to an end, though, and soon all the fangirls were gone. I wandered around Philly by myself for a little but eventually went home. I got home around 4pm, and promptly fell asleep for a two-hour nap.

Comments

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

Chili's RPF

AHAHAHAHAHA. FIAWOL, indeed.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

It is indeed--or at least it was for 48 hours in Philadelphia this weekend.

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

The fan events I've been to have never turned into makeout rooms. Apparently, I'm going to the wrong con parties. Must hang out with more slashers.

[solar-cat.livejournal.com]

Ye Olde Chili's is going to be fucking epic. =3

Glad you had a good weekend! ^^

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Good--because I'm dying to read it. It sounds like exactly the sort of thing I want from my RPF.

Thank you for organizing the weekend! I did, indeed, have a blast.

[treewishes.livejournal.com]

I'm still convinced we need a slashfen dating service. How about.... to meetup in person, you have to actually attend a slash con, and your identity won't be revealed until you are sufficiently outed as a REAL slasher.

???

But it was great to meetcha!

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

I thought it might have been you--but I could visualize a face and a username, but just wasn't sure the two went together.

There could be a test! And people who fail could be dumped into large vats of liquid or something!

I agree there's a need, or at least a niche that could be filled.

Back atcha!

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

Eee! So glad you had a good time! Not surprised at the total frakking loudness. I'm a little anxious for the con I'm going to this weekend. (Note: pack Excedrin by the bucketload.)

If you're ever at a con I'm attending, I'll find you. You shouldn't be too hard to find in a sea of women.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I had an excellent time, and am sure you will at your con too! (Painkiller might not be a bad idea, though.)

[gblvr.livejournal.com]

I liked the walk too, even if it was LONG. It was nice to be somewhere quieter than our hotel rooms wound up being.... It was nice to meet you, too!

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the quiet of the outdoors was a major plus. And while I know a lot of people did find it long, I don't mind long walks--I was out sightseeing afterwards, after all--so I didn't even think of it as long at all. I was too busy chatting, which was nice.

[rageprufrock.livejournal.com]

*covers face in shame*

Oh my GOOOOOOD.