PAX South 2015
This is my PAX South diary. It's long. So I'm putting it behind a cut. :)
Thurs Jan 22. We left STL at 11pm Weds night to drive to San Antonio. Arrived at around 4pm Thursday. As soon as we got there, Dave wanted to go see The Alamo, so we did, even before checking into our hotel.
I got myself a magnet that says “You may all go to hell; and I will go to Texas.” I tried sleeping (as I hadn’t slept for nearly 2 full days at this point), but no dice. So Alyssa & I wandered around the Riverwalk, & inadvertently snuck into the convention center to look around a bit. After dinner, we picked up @saargasm from the airport, then crashed for the night.
Fri Jan 23. We got up early so we could head down & get in line for the Storytime (keynote) panel with Geoff Keighley, so we could stay for the first Mike & Jerry Q&A afterwards (this was the only time at the con that they did not clear the room between panels). As we went to queue up, we walked past Bandland & saw Mikey Neumann & @KrisStraub at their table. Hardly anyone was there because it was so early. We got our place in line & I told Shannon "we should have gone & said hi, there's no one there." She said, "we still can. You want to?" So we left Dave in line & the three of us ran back around to say hi. I was shaking like a leaf.
We went up to the table & I hid behind Alyssa & Shannon. Alyssa made conversation with Kris, asked about Broodhollow, bought a Skull & Shovels pin to try to cover a hole in her shirt. Mikey left after a minute to run to the restroom. After standing there for a bit, I made eye contact with Kris & said "I'm Becky, by the way." He smiled and said, "I know!" He has a way of disarming you when you're nervous, making eye contact & sharing a joke with you; it was impossible for me to feel afraid around him. We talked for a couple minutes & Mikey hadn't come back, so we had to go get back in line. We raced over and got loaded into the main theater.
The keynote was all right, nothing special; but then, Mikey had set a pretty high bar for me at PAX Prime. Once the keynote was over, we were able to move up closer for the Q&A, which was hilarious.
As we were coming out of the theater, we ran into Alex, our twitter friend. We chatted a bit & Dave said his stomach was turning, so he went back to the hotel. He ended up getting super sick and staying in the room the rest of Friday, which sucked. He didn’t really feel well for most of the trip, but Friday was the worst.
Alyssa, Shannon, Alex & I walked around the con, had lunch, went to a Gearbox Q&A. Then it was time to line up for Chainsawsuit. We ended up being third row center.
I had a blast. Laughed so much, and it was so odd (and at times hard for me) being able to look up into their faces during the show. When they played the commercials, I just closed my eyes & listened intently. It was amazing.
As soon as it was over, Shannon ran to another panel. Alex, Alyssa & I were contemplating saying hi, but I was so nervous. Alex said he had brought candy from the UK for Mikey, so we went up. Again, I was shaking so hard. But there weren't many folks there so I figured what the hell.
Mikey asked me "so did you like it?" or something like that, and I said "yesssss" and smiled. Alex gave him his sweets, which he said he might give to @BenPaddon. I had Mikey and Kris both sign my badge & then Mikey signed one of my Borderlands comics (the new Tannis one, link). Since Alex had given him something, I got out the bracelet I made for him
& nervously gave it to him. He seemed to like it. We went to leave & I realized my badge was still on the table so he handed it back to me.
As we were leaving the expo hall, I saw Robert Khoo walking through & said I wished I could get him to sign my program. Shannon lent me a sharpie & I hustled over to him & asked him to sign. He asked "How are you enjoying your PAX?" I said, "It's amazing." He said, "Is this your first PAX?" I said yes. He asked, "Has it met your expectations? Exceeded them?" I said, “Exceeded, definitely." He was giving me a survey, haha. It was great. I was thrilled to have talked to him, thanked him profusely, & skipped away back to the girls. Literally. :)
We hung out in the Marriott lobby for a while, but other than Mikey walking by & waving at me, there were no sign of folks to hang out with. My Enforcer friend Colin got off shift after midnight & came to find us. We chatted for a while & then I said "ok well I never ate anything, want to go find dinner?" So at like 1am we walked down to Whataburger (Alyssa, Colin & I), had a late dinner, then to bed.
Sat. Jan 24. Dave and I walked around the show floor early. Dave got to play the new Zelda Majora’s Mask on the new 3DS XL. We had lunch, then came back for the Make A Strip panel at 1:30 which was hilarious. Then we saw the Pitch Your Game panel at 4, which was also super fun. After it was over, Dave said he was going to go back to the hotel and rest. The group said they were all going to go to dinner, but I wanted to go down & see if I had won a Lootcrate contest I'd entered that was about to be drawn for. So they left & I told them I'd find them later. I didn't win, and while I was on the floor, my phone totally died. So I went up to the AFK room to charge it, only to find I'd left my charger in the hotel room. So I was completely alone, with a dead phone & no way to reach folks.
I was coming down to head back to the hotel to charge, & saw that no one was at the table with Kris & Mikey. I had my sketch cover Borderlands #5 comic with me, which Kris had agreed to draw on, & I thought ‘what the hell’. Might as well try. So I went up & said hey. Said I'd brought the comic and Kris got excited. Mikey stood up and said "c'mere" & reached over the table to give me a hug. It was brief but nice. Wish there hadn't been a table in the way! I'm sure my face was bright red, I know I was shaking. Then Kris said, "well *I* want a hug TOO!" & I said, "ok, I GUESS". He also gave me a nice hug over the table. He took the comic & started flipping through. Mikey said, "is this the one with him in it? He hasn't seen it yet." But it wasn't. Mikey was like "awww man." I said "I have it here, but it's at the hotel, I can show you later."
Kris was flipping through trying to decide what to draw, & decided to draw Tannis, but in Broodhollow style. Mikey said, "you have to put 'Beware the Sandwich Plague' on there." Kris penciled out Tannis & she looked awesome, and he drew a sandwich behind her. Meanwhile Mikey was drawing on the table, saying "oh yeah, well I can draw Tannis too!" And he drew a Broodhollow style face shape and "goggles on her head, but 3D because Kris likes drawing in 3D. They look like drumheads." Then Kris did the drum bit from “In The Air Tonight” & they both started singing it. And Mikey drew a big angry mouth of teeth on his table Tannis, and "just dots for eyes, because those are Kris eyes." She looked very mad. :)
Kris finished up pencils & said "I guess I can ink it now...?" Then he looked up and noticed people behind me & said "actually, let me get some of these folks first." I said, "oh sure that's fine." I turned & saw there were at least 10 people behind me now, so I told Mikey, "there's no rush on that, he can give it back to whenever, I'll be around. I know where to find ya." Mikey said, "yeah it probably won't be til tomorrow" & I said, "that's fine, no rush". I told them I'd see them later, & floated away. I had my head in the clouds the whole way back to the hotel. I couldn't believe I'd had the courage to talk to them alone. I was so goddamn proud of myself.
I texted Shannon and she reminded me of the Club PA meet up at 9pm. I showered, changed & headed back over to the con. Hung out for a bit on 3rd floor until Khoo showed up. Right after he appeared, literally the entire PA staff showed up (Mike, Jerry, Khoo, Jeff, Fehlauer, Kiko, Dave, Gavin, Kristin, Jamie, Josh, Brian, Kenneth, Dabe, ummm... Probably others, but that's all I can remember now). Shannon & Alex also showed up, & I corralled them in with me. We all posed on the floor and they set up a photo to be taken from the 3rd floor balcony. I was right next to Jeff Kalles. Once that was done, Khoo herded us into the Gearbox theater & they proceeded to do a private Q&A just for us until 11pm. It was awesome & got real & emotional at some points.
(Editor’s note: my Saturday night wasn’t great, so it’s been omitted. Because this is about happy good things, damn it.)
Sun. Jan 25. Dave got up early & went to breakfast. After he left, I got up and took a shower, grabbed my stuff & started walking toward the con, & saw Alex tweet that he was already in line for the Inside Gearbox panel. Texted Dave to meet me at the con, which he did. We got into the Gearbox panel and sat super close. It was fun. After that, we walked around the expo hall a bit. I got a Claptrap shirt & plush, Dave got a PAX shirt. After that we decided to go get lunch. We walked down to Whataburger. My friend @Chimaera96 came down & met us & we sat & talked for a while, then walked back to the con. I knew I wanted to go to the Borderlands panel at 5. I told Dave to go run around with Chimaera & I went up to the console area & met up briefly with Meg (@girlhack) & said hi, which was nice since I'd missed her panels and she had an early flight out. We went down to Bandland again to see Kris & Mikey. At the base of the escalator, we said goodbye to Chimaera, who was on his way out. I hugged him & said it was nice to meet him finally.
We went over to the table & Kris gave me back the Borderlands comic, which he’d inked. It is amazing.
I was blown away, speechless that he would do so much on it for me. I realized that I had the 6th issue with me, so he could see his death. I showed it to him & he and Mikey were amused. Kris signed the front of it for me & drew a little crossbones next to his name. I bought an Iris and a Zane pin from him. Shannon and I talked to them a bit. I thanked them again, and turned to leave. I found that my friend @OMGChad was there, laying on the floor interviewing Paul and Storm
.
Once he got up, I said hi to him & we chatted for a few minutes, which was nice, as I hadn’t seen him since 2011!
We went to get in line for the Borderlands panel, but the line and the overflow were both full already (at 3:45pm; panel didn’t start until 5. I was so sad!) So Dave, Shannon, Alex & I went up to the 3rd floor to check out the Console Freeplay area. Shannon & Alex played some Hogan’s Alley on NES. Shannon and Dave and I played some Samurai Shodown on 3DO.
We were up there looking over the balcony at the line, & we noticed a bunch of folks coming out from the panel before, and they were getting into the overflow line. The Enforcers were all directing them into that line, so I said, “what the hell, let’s go try.” We hopped into the line, and I checked Twitter. I had tweeted before to Mikey that we weren’t going to get into the panel because the line was already full. My friend Linda tweeted to me that they were opening up the room next door (the Gearbox fun zone) and making the theater bigger. So we did manage to get into the Borderlands panel, standing room only. They talked a bit about the history of Borderlands as a franchise & the first game, then did some Q&A, & then Randy announced that they want to start working on Borderlands 3 ASAP. So they are hiring a TON of people. I want desperately to find some skill that will allow me to get a job there. (Pipe dream) But yeah, that was pretty awesome.
After the panel was over, we headed out of the convention center. I saw Khoo again on my way out, completing my Khoo sighting quotient for the day. We also saw Colin by the main theater & I hugged him, in case I didn’t see him again. Told him I’d let him know if anything happened later on in the night, so he could join.
We decided we needed food, so we went to the Mexican place at the Riverwalk. While we were sitting there, Ben Franklin (my Chatrealm friend who’s also from STL), messaged to ask where we were. I told him, & he said he’d be right over. So he came and joined us. Then Alyssa asked where we were, and she came to join us too. So we all ate dinner together. I told the group I had to go back to hotel & charge my phone (which was again dead). I was just tired, it was a long day. So Dave & I went back to hotel. I plugged in phone, laid down. Dave was ready to go to sleep because he wanted to get up crazy early & leave on Monday morning. Hahahahaha. I started posting my thanks & goodbyes to everyone on Twitter, thinking I wouldn’t see them again.
At about 9:30pm, Alyssa texted me “Hanging is taking place here. You should come down.” I answered, “Like actual for real hanging?” She answered by texting me a picture of Jerry Holkins sitting across the table from her, playing cards.
I replied “OMG are you fucking kidding me right now? Jesus H Christ.” She said, “just happened. Hurry down.” Me: “Is it just Penny Arcade folks? Kris & Mikey also? Damn it.” She said, “Yes.” So I threw my clothes back on and booked it over there.
When I arrived at the Marriott lobby, I found Kris, Alyssa, a stranger, Jerry, Shannon, and Alex all sitting around a table playing a card game called Paperback. Mikey and some of his friends were also sitting around in a group nearby. I walked up to the table behind Alyssa & said, “okay what’s going on, deal me in.” Kris got up from his chair and said, “You can sit here, I was just watching, not playing.” I thanked him, and he offered me a big hug. “How are you doing?” he said. “Good. I’m good,” I replied. He is really the sweetest. He always seemed to be around when I needed a hug that night. It was nice.
So here I found myself sat at a table next to Alyssa, across from Jerry & Shannon & Alex. They were playing a card game where you had a deck of letters & had to build words to get the highest point value so you could buy more cards. Jerry is a master wordsmith, I was nervous, but he too was so friendly and cheerful, so much energy and excitement about words, he disarmed me very quickly. I was helping Alyssa build words, and a few times, we’d play our word & Jerry would catch my eye and give me a “yes!” or “nice!”. To have him of all people compliment me on my word skills boosted my ego through the stratosphere. I had so much fun playing that game, I wish I’d been in it from the beginning. I was hoping we’d get to play another round, but the person whose game it was had to leave after the round was over. Still, it was fun. (I ordered the game while driving home, can't wait to play it again!)
Nika Harper was wonderful as well; she’s flirty and funny & flitted around the room like a gothic drinks fairy at times, making sure everyone was good and having a good time. She also complimented my hair, which made me blush. She, Kris and Shannon did a bit of Kris’s goofy thing where he speaks with a French accent, but doesn’t actually speak any French, which cracks me up.
Once the Paperback game was over, Nika gleefully brought out Gloom, which she had been dying to play with Jerry, as it’s a storytelling game. Nika, Jerry, Alyssa, and the other mystery guy at the table ended up playing, with the rest of us as observers.
Around this time, Colin texted me to say he’d gotten off Enforcer duty, & I told him to come hang out. He went & got dinner & then came over. He sat by me for a while at the table, then went over by Mikey’s group & started chatting, getting people to sign his Enforcer shirt. He has so much confidence, like he genuinely doesn’t give a fuck what people think. I love it.
I drifted in and out of the fringes of the game of Gloom, but contributed mightily to the plot of some undercooked barbeque bringing disease (Salmonella), and the cult of Salmonites (yes, that was me. Jerry approved. My heart swelled.) I went over & said hi to Colin a bit, drifting into his conversation with Mikey’s gang. Mikey seemed surprised that I knew Colin. We told him that we knew each other from Mikey’s twitch chat. “Oh… you guys think I read that?” What a lovable smartass. :) Colin also mentioned that we’re both copyediting The Ending, nudging Mikey for more chapters, bless him.
I sidled up behind Jerry at the table just as the Gloom game reached its conclusion. Things were wrapping up for him. But he did stand there & talk to us for a half hour more, suggesting board games for Alyssa (who is truly new to all this particular kind of nerd stuff), complimenting me again on my word choices, and taking pictures with all of us. He went to bed around 1:30am. Alex took off at this point too, as he had to get up early to fly back to the UK, so we wished him goodbye.
We then all headed over to Mikey’s area. Kris, Shannon & Alyssa sat apart, at one end, and I went to sit by Colin and Mikey. Colin got to talking with Jamie about his Pinny Arcade pins, explaining the trades he’d made that day. He’d traded away his Broodhollow Iris pin for another rare pin. Mikey said, “Hey, Kris? Do you still have your Iris pin?” “Yes.” “Can I have it?” Kris took off the pin from his lapel & handed it to Mikey, who gave it to Colin. “You shouldn’t have had to lose that.” Jamie then got out a Club PA lanyard & gave it to Colin, to put his pins on. It was so sweet.
Mikey got into a discussion about how Gearbox should do official Pinny Arcade pins, but no one understands. “All I want to do is make one pin, a Claptrap, and then they would see how insane it would get.” I told him I want a Broodhollow style Tannis pin with a sandwich pin as well.
We all hung out & just talked & joked & laughed for awhile. It was getting to be near 3am at this point, and we were all feeling it. Mikey got up and Kris came over to him & they hugged, like they were going to be parting ways. I took this as my chance to get up & ask if I could get a picture with both of them. Mikey, ever the smartass, said “NO,” then grinned. I said, “Shut up.” Alyssa got her phone out & I stood between the two guys. Mikey noticed Alyssa’s massive Nexus phone, and said “Whose phone is that?! GOD’S?!” and the three of us started giggling. Alyssa snapped three pictures, and it’s perfection. It encapsulates exactly how I felt in that moment, arms around my friends, laughing, so happy, finally.
We all hugged Kris a few more times. (He really is the most wonderful hugger. He gets in there. He commits to the hug!) I went over to where Mikey was, to say goodbye to Nika and thank her for being so awesome, gave her a little half hug where she sat. Mikey saw that we were leaving & stood up, reached out to me, “c’mere”, and gave me a hug goodbye. (Once again, there was a damn table between us. Curse you, furniture!!!)
We headed out into the night, and I was floating. Flying. So happy. “I can’t even believe that just happened, you guys. Jerry motherfucking Holkins complimented my words! Nika Harper said my hair was better than hers!” I was ecstatic. That night, those experiences, THAT was what I’d been praying my PAX would be like, and it finally, finally was. It made everything else worth it. We went back to the hotel & passed out.
Mon. Jan 26 We left San Antonio at 12 noon, after dropping Shannon off at the airport. We hit Dallas at straight up 5pm, rush hour. In the traffic and construction, we missed our turn off for the highway, & ended up taking a different route than we’d used coming down. We ended up going into WAY rural Texas and Oklahoma, including through the Indian Nation, in the pitch blackness, half the time with no cell signal which meant no maps. We ended up getting back to STL right at about 5am Tuesday morning. Gaaaaaah. Next time, we fly. Seriously. Or else, plan in TWO days travel time each way.
All in all, it was an amazing experience. Coming back to the real world was okay at first, but it started settling in after a few days that, who knows when I’ll see any of these people again, if ever? I already miss them terribly. It was such a great feeling to be in a room with a friend, to be able to make eye contact with them across the room & smile & have them within a few steps’ reach if the need for a hug arose. I wonder if I’ll be chasing that feeling forever now. Why did DragonCon never affect me like this? Maybe I’m not as close with those folks as I am with my PAX friends…? I don’t know. I want to figure it out though. Because it really felt like I was home, finally, in this place, with this assortment of people from around the world - that felt like coming home to me. And I want to go back.
Thurs Jan 22. We left STL at 11pm Weds night to drive to San Antonio. Arrived at around 4pm Thursday. As soon as we got there, Dave wanted to go see The Alamo, so we did, even before checking into our hotel.
I got myself a magnet that says “You may all go to hell; and I will go to Texas.” I tried sleeping (as I hadn’t slept for nearly 2 full days at this point), but no dice. So Alyssa & I wandered around the Riverwalk, & inadvertently snuck into the convention center to look around a bit. After dinner, we picked up @saargasm from the airport, then crashed for the night.
Fri Jan 23. We got up early so we could head down & get in line for the Storytime (keynote) panel with Geoff Keighley, so we could stay for the first Mike & Jerry Q&A afterwards (this was the only time at the con that they did not clear the room between panels). As we went to queue up, we walked past Bandland & saw Mikey Neumann & @KrisStraub at their table. Hardly anyone was there because it was so early. We got our place in line & I told Shannon "we should have gone & said hi, there's no one there." She said, "we still can. You want to?" So we left Dave in line & the three of us ran back around to say hi. I was shaking like a leaf.
We went up to the table & I hid behind Alyssa & Shannon. Alyssa made conversation with Kris, asked about Broodhollow, bought a Skull & Shovels pin to try to cover a hole in her shirt. Mikey left after a minute to run to the restroom. After standing there for a bit, I made eye contact with Kris & said "I'm Becky, by the way." He smiled and said, "I know!" He has a way of disarming you when you're nervous, making eye contact & sharing a joke with you; it was impossible for me to feel afraid around him. We talked for a couple minutes & Mikey hadn't come back, so we had to go get back in line. We raced over and got loaded into the main theater.
The keynote was all right, nothing special; but then, Mikey had set a pretty high bar for me at PAX Prime. Once the keynote was over, we were able to move up closer for the Q&A, which was hilarious.
As we were coming out of the theater, we ran into Alex, our twitter friend. We chatted a bit & Dave said his stomach was turning, so he went back to the hotel. He ended up getting super sick and staying in the room the rest of Friday, which sucked. He didn’t really feel well for most of the trip, but Friday was the worst.
Alyssa, Shannon, Alex & I walked around the con, had lunch, went to a Gearbox Q&A. Then it was time to line up for Chainsawsuit. We ended up being third row center.
I had a blast. Laughed so much, and it was so odd (and at times hard for me) being able to look up into their faces during the show. When they played the commercials, I just closed my eyes & listened intently. It was amazing.
As soon as it was over, Shannon ran to another panel. Alex, Alyssa & I were contemplating saying hi, but I was so nervous. Alex said he had brought candy from the UK for Mikey, so we went up. Again, I was shaking so hard. But there weren't many folks there so I figured what the hell.
Mikey asked me "so did you like it?" or something like that, and I said "yesssss" and smiled. Alex gave him his sweets, which he said he might give to @BenPaddon. I had Mikey and Kris both sign my badge & then Mikey signed one of my Borderlands comics (the new Tannis one, link). Since Alex had given him something, I got out the bracelet I made for him
& nervously gave it to him. He seemed to like it. We went to leave & I realized my badge was still on the table so he handed it back to me.
As we were leaving the expo hall, I saw Robert Khoo walking through & said I wished I could get him to sign my program. Shannon lent me a sharpie & I hustled over to him & asked him to sign. He asked "How are you enjoying your PAX?" I said, "It's amazing." He said, "Is this your first PAX?" I said yes. He asked, "Has it met your expectations? Exceeded them?" I said, “Exceeded, definitely." He was giving me a survey, haha. It was great. I was thrilled to have talked to him, thanked him profusely, & skipped away back to the girls. Literally. :)
We hung out in the Marriott lobby for a while, but other than Mikey walking by & waving at me, there were no sign of folks to hang out with. My Enforcer friend Colin got off shift after midnight & came to find us. We chatted for a while & then I said "ok well I never ate anything, want to go find dinner?" So at like 1am we walked down to Whataburger (Alyssa, Colin & I), had a late dinner, then to bed.
Sat. Jan 24. Dave and I walked around the show floor early. Dave got to play the new Zelda Majora’s Mask on the new 3DS XL. We had lunch, then came back for the Make A Strip panel at 1:30 which was hilarious. Then we saw the Pitch Your Game panel at 4, which was also super fun. After it was over, Dave said he was going to go back to the hotel and rest. The group said they were all going to go to dinner, but I wanted to go down & see if I had won a Lootcrate contest I'd entered that was about to be drawn for. So they left & I told them I'd find them later. I didn't win, and while I was on the floor, my phone totally died. So I went up to the AFK room to charge it, only to find I'd left my charger in the hotel room. So I was completely alone, with a dead phone & no way to reach folks.
I was coming down to head back to the hotel to charge, & saw that no one was at the table with Kris & Mikey. I had my sketch cover Borderlands #5 comic with me, which Kris had agreed to draw on, & I thought ‘what the hell’. Might as well try. So I went up & said hey. Said I'd brought the comic and Kris got excited. Mikey stood up and said "c'mere" & reached over the table to give me a hug. It was brief but nice. Wish there hadn't been a table in the way! I'm sure my face was bright red, I know I was shaking. Then Kris said, "well *I* want a hug TOO!" & I said, "ok, I GUESS". He also gave me a nice hug over the table. He took the comic & started flipping through. Mikey said, "is this the one with him in it? He hasn't seen it yet." But it wasn't. Mikey was like "awww man." I said "I have it here, but it's at the hotel, I can show you later."
Kris was flipping through trying to decide what to draw, & decided to draw Tannis, but in Broodhollow style. Mikey said, "you have to put 'Beware the Sandwich Plague' on there." Kris penciled out Tannis & she looked awesome, and he drew a sandwich behind her. Meanwhile Mikey was drawing on the table, saying "oh yeah, well I can draw Tannis too!" And he drew a Broodhollow style face shape and "goggles on her head, but 3D because Kris likes drawing in 3D. They look like drumheads." Then Kris did the drum bit from “In The Air Tonight” & they both started singing it. And Mikey drew a big angry mouth of teeth on his table Tannis, and "just dots for eyes, because those are Kris eyes." She looked very mad. :)
Kris finished up pencils & said "I guess I can ink it now...?" Then he looked up and noticed people behind me & said "actually, let me get some of these folks first." I said, "oh sure that's fine." I turned & saw there were at least 10 people behind me now, so I told Mikey, "there's no rush on that, he can give it back to whenever, I'll be around. I know where to find ya." Mikey said, "yeah it probably won't be til tomorrow" & I said, "that's fine, no rush". I told them I'd see them later, & floated away. I had my head in the clouds the whole way back to the hotel. I couldn't believe I'd had the courage to talk to them alone. I was so goddamn proud of myself.
I texted Shannon and she reminded me of the Club PA meet up at 9pm. I showered, changed & headed back over to the con. Hung out for a bit on 3rd floor until Khoo showed up. Right after he appeared, literally the entire PA staff showed up (Mike, Jerry, Khoo, Jeff, Fehlauer, Kiko, Dave, Gavin, Kristin, Jamie, Josh, Brian, Kenneth, Dabe, ummm... Probably others, but that's all I can remember now). Shannon & Alex also showed up, & I corralled them in with me. We all posed on the floor and they set up a photo to be taken from the 3rd floor balcony. I was right next to Jeff Kalles. Once that was done, Khoo herded us into the Gearbox theater & they proceeded to do a private Q&A just for us until 11pm. It was awesome & got real & emotional at some points.
(Editor’s note: my Saturday night wasn’t great, so it’s been omitted. Because this is about happy good things, damn it.)
Sun. Jan 25. Dave got up early & went to breakfast. After he left, I got up and took a shower, grabbed my stuff & started walking toward the con, & saw Alex tweet that he was already in line for the Inside Gearbox panel. Texted Dave to meet me at the con, which he did. We got into the Gearbox panel and sat super close. It was fun. After that, we walked around the expo hall a bit. I got a Claptrap shirt & plush, Dave got a PAX shirt. After that we decided to go get lunch. We walked down to Whataburger. My friend @Chimaera96 came down & met us & we sat & talked for a while, then walked back to the con. I knew I wanted to go to the Borderlands panel at 5. I told Dave to go run around with Chimaera & I went up to the console area & met up briefly with Meg (@girlhack) & said hi, which was nice since I'd missed her panels and she had an early flight out. We went down to Bandland again to see Kris & Mikey. At the base of the escalator, we said goodbye to Chimaera, who was on his way out. I hugged him & said it was nice to meet him finally.
We went over to the table & Kris gave me back the Borderlands comic, which he’d inked. It is amazing.
I was blown away, speechless that he would do so much on it for me. I realized that I had the 6th issue with me, so he could see his death. I showed it to him & he and Mikey were amused. Kris signed the front of it for me & drew a little crossbones next to his name. I bought an Iris and a Zane pin from him. Shannon and I talked to them a bit. I thanked them again, and turned to leave. I found that my friend @OMGChad was there, laying on the floor interviewing Paul and Storm
.
Once he got up, I said hi to him & we chatted for a few minutes, which was nice, as I hadn’t seen him since 2011!
We went to get in line for the Borderlands panel, but the line and the overflow were both full already (at 3:45pm; panel didn’t start until 5. I was so sad!) So Dave, Shannon, Alex & I went up to the 3rd floor to check out the Console Freeplay area. Shannon & Alex played some Hogan’s Alley on NES. Shannon and Dave and I played some Samurai Shodown on 3DO.
We were up there looking over the balcony at the line, & we noticed a bunch of folks coming out from the panel before, and they were getting into the overflow line. The Enforcers were all directing them into that line, so I said, “what the hell, let’s go try.” We hopped into the line, and I checked Twitter. I had tweeted before to Mikey that we weren’t going to get into the panel because the line was already full. My friend Linda tweeted to me that they were opening up the room next door (the Gearbox fun zone) and making the theater bigger. So we did manage to get into the Borderlands panel, standing room only. They talked a bit about the history of Borderlands as a franchise & the first game, then did some Q&A, & then Randy announced that they want to start working on Borderlands 3 ASAP. So they are hiring a TON of people. I want desperately to find some skill that will allow me to get a job there. (Pipe dream) But yeah, that was pretty awesome.
After the panel was over, we headed out of the convention center. I saw Khoo again on my way out, completing my Khoo sighting quotient for the day. We also saw Colin by the main theater & I hugged him, in case I didn’t see him again. Told him I’d let him know if anything happened later on in the night, so he could join.
We decided we needed food, so we went to the Mexican place at the Riverwalk. While we were sitting there, Ben Franklin (my Chatrealm friend who’s also from STL), messaged to ask where we were. I told him, & he said he’d be right over. So he came and joined us. Then Alyssa asked where we were, and she came to join us too. So we all ate dinner together. I told the group I had to go back to hotel & charge my phone (which was again dead). I was just tired, it was a long day. So Dave & I went back to hotel. I plugged in phone, laid down. Dave was ready to go to sleep because he wanted to get up crazy early & leave on Monday morning. Hahahahaha. I started posting my thanks & goodbyes to everyone on Twitter, thinking I wouldn’t see them again.
At about 9:30pm, Alyssa texted me “Hanging is taking place here. You should come down.” I answered, “Like actual for real hanging?” She answered by texting me a picture of Jerry Holkins sitting across the table from her, playing cards.
I replied “OMG are you fucking kidding me right now? Jesus H Christ.” She said, “just happened. Hurry down.” Me: “Is it just Penny Arcade folks? Kris & Mikey also? Damn it.” She said, “Yes.” So I threw my clothes back on and booked it over there.
When I arrived at the Marriott lobby, I found Kris, Alyssa, a stranger, Jerry, Shannon, and Alex all sitting around a table playing a card game called Paperback. Mikey and some of his friends were also sitting around in a group nearby. I walked up to the table behind Alyssa & said, “okay what’s going on, deal me in.” Kris got up from his chair and said, “You can sit here, I was just watching, not playing.” I thanked him, and he offered me a big hug. “How are you doing?” he said. “Good. I’m good,” I replied. He is really the sweetest. He always seemed to be around when I needed a hug that night. It was nice.
So here I found myself sat at a table next to Alyssa, across from Jerry & Shannon & Alex. They were playing a card game where you had a deck of letters & had to build words to get the highest point value so you could buy more cards. Jerry is a master wordsmith, I was nervous, but he too was so friendly and cheerful, so much energy and excitement about words, he disarmed me very quickly. I was helping Alyssa build words, and a few times, we’d play our word & Jerry would catch my eye and give me a “yes!” or “nice!”. To have him of all people compliment me on my word skills boosted my ego through the stratosphere. I had so much fun playing that game, I wish I’d been in it from the beginning. I was hoping we’d get to play another round, but the person whose game it was had to leave after the round was over. Still, it was fun. (I ordered the game while driving home, can't wait to play it again!)
Nika Harper was wonderful as well; she’s flirty and funny & flitted around the room like a gothic drinks fairy at times, making sure everyone was good and having a good time. She also complimented my hair, which made me blush. She, Kris and Shannon did a bit of Kris’s goofy thing where he speaks with a French accent, but doesn’t actually speak any French, which cracks me up.
Once the Paperback game was over, Nika gleefully brought out Gloom, which she had been dying to play with Jerry, as it’s a storytelling game. Nika, Jerry, Alyssa, and the other mystery guy at the table ended up playing, with the rest of us as observers.
Around this time, Colin texted me to say he’d gotten off Enforcer duty, & I told him to come hang out. He went & got dinner & then came over. He sat by me for a while at the table, then went over by Mikey’s group & started chatting, getting people to sign his Enforcer shirt. He has so much confidence, like he genuinely doesn’t give a fuck what people think. I love it.
I drifted in and out of the fringes of the game of Gloom, but contributed mightily to the plot of some undercooked barbeque bringing disease (Salmonella), and the cult of Salmonites (yes, that was me. Jerry approved. My heart swelled.) I went over & said hi to Colin a bit, drifting into his conversation with Mikey’s gang. Mikey seemed surprised that I knew Colin. We told him that we knew each other from Mikey’s twitch chat. “Oh… you guys think I read that?” What a lovable smartass. :) Colin also mentioned that we’re both copyediting The Ending, nudging Mikey for more chapters, bless him.
I sidled up behind Jerry at the table just as the Gloom game reached its conclusion. Things were wrapping up for him. But he did stand there & talk to us for a half hour more, suggesting board games for Alyssa (who is truly new to all this particular kind of nerd stuff), complimenting me again on my word choices, and taking pictures with all of us. He went to bed around 1:30am. Alex took off at this point too, as he had to get up early to fly back to the UK, so we wished him goodbye.
We then all headed over to Mikey’s area. Kris, Shannon & Alyssa sat apart, at one end, and I went to sit by Colin and Mikey. Colin got to talking with Jamie about his Pinny Arcade pins, explaining the trades he’d made that day. He’d traded away his Broodhollow Iris pin for another rare pin. Mikey said, “Hey, Kris? Do you still have your Iris pin?” “Yes.” “Can I have it?” Kris took off the pin from his lapel & handed it to Mikey, who gave it to Colin. “You shouldn’t have had to lose that.” Jamie then got out a Club PA lanyard & gave it to Colin, to put his pins on. It was so sweet.
Mikey got into a discussion about how Gearbox should do official Pinny Arcade pins, but no one understands. “All I want to do is make one pin, a Claptrap, and then they would see how insane it would get.” I told him I want a Broodhollow style Tannis pin with a sandwich pin as well.
We all hung out & just talked & joked & laughed for awhile. It was getting to be near 3am at this point, and we were all feeling it. Mikey got up and Kris came over to him & they hugged, like they were going to be parting ways. I took this as my chance to get up & ask if I could get a picture with both of them. Mikey, ever the smartass, said “NO,” then grinned. I said, “Shut up.” Alyssa got her phone out & I stood between the two guys. Mikey noticed Alyssa’s massive Nexus phone, and said “Whose phone is that?! GOD’S?!” and the three of us started giggling. Alyssa snapped three pictures, and it’s perfection. It encapsulates exactly how I felt in that moment, arms around my friends, laughing, so happy, finally.
We all hugged Kris a few more times. (He really is the most wonderful hugger. He gets in there. He commits to the hug!) I went over to where Mikey was, to say goodbye to Nika and thank her for being so awesome, gave her a little half hug where she sat. Mikey saw that we were leaving & stood up, reached out to me, “c’mere”, and gave me a hug goodbye. (Once again, there was a damn table between us. Curse you, furniture!!!)
We headed out into the night, and I was floating. Flying. So happy. “I can’t even believe that just happened, you guys. Jerry motherfucking Holkins complimented my words! Nika Harper said my hair was better than hers!” I was ecstatic. That night, those experiences, THAT was what I’d been praying my PAX would be like, and it finally, finally was. It made everything else worth it. We went back to the hotel & passed out.
Mon. Jan 26 We left San Antonio at 12 noon, after dropping Shannon off at the airport. We hit Dallas at straight up 5pm, rush hour. In the traffic and construction, we missed our turn off for the highway, & ended up taking a different route than we’d used coming down. We ended up going into WAY rural Texas and Oklahoma, including through the Indian Nation, in the pitch blackness, half the time with no cell signal which meant no maps. We ended up getting back to STL right at about 5am Tuesday morning. Gaaaaaah. Next time, we fly. Seriously. Or else, plan in TWO days travel time each way.
All in all, it was an amazing experience. Coming back to the real world was okay at first, but it started settling in after a few days that, who knows when I’ll see any of these people again, if ever? I already miss them terribly. It was such a great feeling to be in a room with a friend, to be able to make eye contact with them across the room & smile & have them within a few steps’ reach if the need for a hug arose. I wonder if I’ll be chasing that feeling forever now. Why did DragonCon never affect me like this? Maybe I’m not as close with those folks as I am with my PAX friends…? I don’t know. I want to figure it out though. Because it really felt like I was home, finally, in this place, with this assortment of people from around the world - that felt like coming home to me. And I want to go back.