Hurricane Who Con Report
WEDNESDAY
Spent all day on a plane and met up with Lina at the airport in Orlando. Got picked up by Jarrod and ended up driving to the hotel with Rob Shearman who wrote the series one episode "Dalek". He’s not the biggest Torchwood fan but is very sweet about it and is a nice man.
We got to the Ramada, set up in our hotel room, and immediatly headed to the bar. On our way there we saw a bunch of kittens and a squirrel going ape shit, which I think Lina has video of. When we got to the bar we saw the wonderful and always tall Simon Guerrier who actually remembered us from Gallifrey. We talked for a bit and he happily informed us that he appears in James Moran’s Girl Number 9, much to our squees. At some point Gareth and Gemma showed up and we talked to them for a little while. It was the first time I ever really got to talk to them and they were both lovely.
Lina and I eventually returned to the bar to have a few drinks because for the first time at a con I was old enough to consume alcohol. It was awesome until this weird dude sat down next to me and started talking to us. He seemed harmless enough, drunk and flirting with a slightly drunk Lina, but when she would go to the bathroom he would turn into a total ass. He kept saying how I had a hopeless crush on Lina and had no chance with him and Lina would totally get with him. I don’t know what part of that sentence is more incorrect. Anyway, the guy eventually fucked off after we turned him down a billion times to go smoke pot in his room and Lina and I went to bed after having a nice talk and a few cigarettes down by the pool.
THURSDAY
The great and powerful Mr. Tony Lee arrived today. I always can’t wait for cons because it usually means I get to see my dirty fake Uncle Tony. I was vaguely playing the part of his assistant at this con. He didn’t need one, but it gave me a job and him entertainment during signings.
That night there was a meet and greet thing for people at a near by pub. Lina mostly hung out with Gareth and Gemma and I sort of floated in between various groups. I got to talk to the Torchwood Babies girls quite a bit, which was mega awesome because they make me happy all day. Met lots of fans that night, some were awesome and some I sort of wanted to beat with a shovel. There was this sweet girl Laura who was sort of like if Emily, Natalie Portman’s character from Garden State, and my inner voice had a baby, she was sweet. I believe her name was Laura but I’m shit with names and am probably getting it wrong. If I do get it wrong and she reads this I apologize, you’re lovely.
There were many Ianto fangirls there, some of them a bit on the crazy side which is starting to get on my nerves. I love Torchwood, I’ve been cosplaying and rping it since before it came to America and Ianto is my second favorite character. I sobbed like mad when he died, I would LOVE to have him back....BUT IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!! I love that the fans have raised so much money in Ianto’s name and all that stuff, but I wish they would stop shouting and bitching about saving a character that isn’t coming back. I know I’ll get yelled at for this but it’s a bit annoying. I don’t remember this much bitching when Tosh and Owen died. Ok, sorry, had to get that off my chest.
Tony spent the evening surrounded by ladies as per always, which amuses the shit out of me. I would come talk to him every so often which earned me confused and sometimes annoyed looks for one or two of the ladies. A few times during the weekend I was questioned about why I got to hang around him, I tried to explain that we had known eachother from other cons but that still just stared at me with slight disgust like I was stalking him or something, which made me sad all day. Some of them kicked ass though, I would name the ass kicking ones but to be I suck at names and you should be able to tell if you're lame or not. They showed part one of The Wedding of Sarah Jane but I decided to wait and watch it when I’ve seen ANY of the Sarah Jane Adventures. We eventually returned to the hotel, hung in the bar/lobby for a bit, then went to bed.
FRIDAY
Ah, Friday...it would be one of the worst days of my life if it wasn’t for the occassional awesomeness. We got up at a decent hour for the first day of con, Lina put on her snazziest Ianto suit and I decided to skip costuming out of laziness. We wandered around for a bit, finding a cute Rose cosplayer along the way. Eventually I weny tp Tony’s first panel and Lina went of to get her wallet from the room before going to pick up Gareth for his first panel of the day.
Part way through the panel a terrified Lina came up and told me somebody broke into our room and stole her purse. I honestly figured she was overreacting and had probably just missplaced her purse but no, we were in fact robbed. They seemed to have broken in through our sliding glass door and cleaned us out pretty damn good. From me they got: my leather journal, "Mad Love" by Paul Dini, my leather wrist cuff, Children of Earth DVD, glasses, Dinseyland pass, Dollhouse DVD, backpack, wallet, bank card, laptop and case, suitcase, video Ipod, and my six pack of pierrie I had bought the day before. They pretty much left me a pile of clothes, a pile of comics, and a pack of cigarettes.
The cops showed up and we filed reports and all that good stuff. Lina was in a bit of a daze so I went to the front desk and got us a new room and shouted until the room and $60 worth of food a day was comped since we had no money. With Jarrod taking care of Gareth for the day Lina went to the bar for a much needed drink and I went off to find Tony.
Sadly I missed his Harker panel that I really wanted to go to but he was awesome, telling me that Lina and I would be taken care of if we needed anything. That already made him nicer than my parents had been to me when they found out. I helped run the Rob/Simon/Tony autograph session and they were all awesome. Simon even gave me a signed copy of one of his audio books because he is made of yay.
I convinced Lina to go take a nap and chill for a bit while I went to the Just A Minute panel. It was awesome and hilarious and I came out of the panel with a remote control puppy. Then I woke up Lina because it was time for the pool party. To be honest I thought it would be kind of lame but it ended up being SO much fucking fun. Tony jumped in the pool with his shirt and vest on because I bet him two dollars to do it and he’s a total sz.
We played around in the pool for a bit, then Lina went to bed and I strayed up with Tony and some people I always see at Gallifrey but never end up talking to like Nicole and Zack. They ended up being made of awesome and we stayed up dicking around the lobby till about 4:30.
SATURDAY
On Friday I had met this chick in passing who complimented me on my Decemberists shirt so she was automatically made of mega win. We ended up hanging out most of Saturday and it was so much fun. Her name is Thomas, she’s a girl to guy transgender which I know is rare but they all seem to find me because I can name four off the top of my head that I know. Anyway, she was amazingly cool and we hung out talking about weird old horror movies and stuff like that.
I went to the Torchwood Babiez panel which was fucking hilarious. I just love those girls so much and I wish them much success. I was going to go to the Doctor Who Comic panel but was distracted by the previously mentioned Tommy so I skipped most panels that day. Eventually ended up helping Tony with his signing later on which was much fun.
Lina was still sad about our stuff being gone, rightfully so, and I wanted us to do something fun for Halloween since all my horror movies had been taken. Thankfully Gareth and Gemma swept in like magical Welsh pixies of distraction and took us out to dinner at Downtown Dinsey. That was beyond cool of them since they know and are friends with Lina but barely know me and still let me tag along. We went bar hopping for a bit around Downtown Disney and arrived back at the hotel at a mildly decent hour. I was sad to know that I had once again missed Toby Hadoke’s one man show Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf and will probably never get a chance to see it again, but I still had a damn good time that night. Gareth, Gemma, and Lina went swimming for a bit and Thomas and her friend and I chilled by the pull and drank the hot chocolate Thomas made because again, and I can’t stress this enough, she wins. I was pretty drunk so we just hang for a bit before we went to bed.
SUNDAY
Was going to wear my geeky!Owen costume from the series two episode Adam but my glasses had been taken so I wore civies again. I went to the Writers Round Tale panel which was mega awesome and probably my favorite panel of the very few panels I attended. Simon informed us that he had written a Being Human novel and I promptly shit myself with joy, unable to hold back the insane squees that news brought on.
After that Gareth had a panel and I suddenly realized that I had missed all of his panels so far so I decided to stick around. It was kind of since seeing the last one of the con because most of the fangirl questions had already been asked so we got to hear some cool stuff from him. Lina ushed Gareth out of the panel once it was done and then we both had lunch with Thomas and her friend (whose name I THINK was Kali but I’m embarassed to say I’m not sure).
I went off and helped with Tony’s final signing of the con and Simon showed me some pics on his phone of the Being Human house which made me happy inside. Gareth was doing an audio commentary of Day Four, the dreaded Day Four of Children of Earth and after much debate I decided to go to it, at least to keep Lina company. It was a good commentary, people cried and all that jazz. Lina and I hadn’t seen it since it aired and I think I remember Gareth mentioning he hadn’t seen it since then either so it was definetly an experience. I skipped closing ceremonies to hang with Thomas because she was leaving soon. If I could have taken her home in my suitcase I would have.
Going against my usual nature I actually tried to make plans that evening with people. I decided we should go to a nearby seafood place so a few of us from con got together and had an awesome dinner! When we got back there was some drama about how Lina and I were getting to the airport since I had no suitcases and she had no ID but con people are the best people in the world and everything was taken care of. We swam for a bit and started saying goodbyes because the taxi was arriving for me at 5 in the fucking morning for an 8:30 flight. Much to my sadness I never got to say a proper goodbye to Garthe, Gemma, or Tony since they all vanished early. I chatted with Simon in the lobby for a bit about British TV and then Lina and I went to our room. I ended up getting 45 min of sleep but oh well.
All in all it was a good con. I barely went to any panels, only cosplayed once, and got my shit taken but I got to hang out with people I rarely see and met some cool new people as well. Geeks are the best, can’t wait for Gallifrey. Jarrod and everybody did a great job and I bet next year will be even better.