Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Alyce on Sunday morning

When I woke up Sunday at Otakon, I knew it would take more than coffee to get me going. The combination of a late night the night before, four days of oppressive heat and plenty of stress, and I was hurting.

Appropriately enough for the final day of the con, I wore the Con Staph T-shirt designed by Doc the Stampede, one of the staffers who is former head of the publications department and former con chair and who happens to be a graphic designer. The T-shirt lists the various side effects of being convention staff, including, among many others, hysteria, insomnia and voice loss.

After breakfast at the Staff Suite, The Gryphon sent me back to the room to catch up on sleep a bit. I slept for awhile, then called to find out where he was. He was in the Con Feedback session, so I walked over to the BCC to sit in on it. But I wasn't feeling up to sitting through it, so I text messaged him and told him I'd be in Con Ops.

Turned out I had really good timing, as a short while later, The Martial Artist and The Book Lover came by with their baby. They had made him a staff T-shirt by writing "Otakon Staffer" in laundry marker on a plain white T-shirt. The Martial Artist claimed he was in charge of "Baby Ops."

I also ran into the Cosplayer and told her that I needed an "after Otakon" picture of her. I didn't get to follow up on everyone, but hers was great.

When The Gryphon got out of the feedback session, he came to meet with me. We were meeting some friends of ours who lived in Baltimore, The Artist and her husband. Although we'd offered them both complimentary passes to view the convention, neither one of them had the time. We met them in front of the BCC at 1, and then we all walked to the Afghan Kabob, where we figured we could get food that would satisfy us all.

I ordered the vegetable platter, which was a lot bigger than I expected. I couldn't finish all of it. I was still feeling under the weather, and the restaurant was hot, which didn't help. So I apologized for not being up to my best.

We caught up with the latest news. The Artist is busy attending grad school, while her husband has been working for a Pennsylvania Democratic congressman. They both had some interesting stories to relate.

For our part, we told them that The Gryphon has been promoted at work and that I interviewed Robert Downey Sr. recently. When I said this, there was a spark of recognition in the husband's eyes. "Putney Swope," he said, citing Downey's best known movie.

"Yes. And he also has a documentary out now called..."

"Rittenhouse Square." I was impressed. We spoke for awhile about the interview and about a recent Baltimore Film Festival they'd attended where they got to see John Waters in person, a big figure in Baltimore culture.

We told them how the convention was going, and The Artist, who like The Gryphon works in IT, asked him for some tips on being a female in an all male work place. We also talked about some mutual friends before going our separate ways, promising to get together before next year's Otakon.

Since there wasn't a whole lot I had to do at that moment and since he'd need me to help setting up the Dead Dog party that night (which is the wrap up party for Otakon staffers), The Gryphon told me to go back to the hotel room, relax and get ready. He would come get me when he needed me.

In the hotel parking lot, I saw a truck promoting Red Bull in the parking lot, with a giant can on the top that looked about the size that I needed.

Truly, if Thursday at Otakon was characterized by bunnies, Friday by monkeys, and Saturday by dragons, I can't think of a better animal to character Saturday than the bull, because by then I think some of the staffers had more Red Bull in their system than actual blood.

So he came by and got me about 3:30 or so, and we caught a cab to the hotel where Dead Dog would be held. But it turns out the staffer who was organizing the event had already finished most of the preparations and was just heading back to the staff hotel. She gave us a ride back, along with a couple of her friends.

We chilled out at the hotel for about an hour or so. I changed into a white skirt with a blue sleeveless top and my long-sleeved Schiaparelli T-shirt over top, for chilly air-conditioned rooms. (As it was, I just wore the sleeveless shirt for most of the party).

Then we caught a cab back to the site of the party to help with final preparations. The Gryphon and I were assigned to go get ice, so we filled a large plastic tub for the bar tender. We also helped with a few other last minute items.

Then we took the hand stamps that would be used to indicate drinking age staffers and took the elevator downstairs to the dining room, where some staffers were already enjoying a buffet. We checked IDs for those staffers who planned on drinking that night and gave hand stamps to anyone over 21.

After we made an initial round of the room, we took seats at a table near the door, where we could catch other people as they entered. In the meantime, we got some food from the buffet, which was starting early and continuing as long as staffers were arriving. There was pizza, salad, cookies, water and punch. I got a little bit of everything, although I don't normally eat pizza anymore.

While The Gryphon made certain to stamp as many over-21 hands as possible before moving upstairs to the party, I had something else to occupy me. Mistress Chimera, or MC as she sometimes calls herself, had been planning for months to surprise The Doctor with a bridal shower at Otakon, including The Doctor's female friends on staff.

A bunch of us had brought presents and secreted them to the hotel suite ahead of time. At the appointed time, we led her out of the room and meandered to a quiet lobby area, where we sat her down on a couch and talked to her until MC showed up with the presents. Then we cheered, wished her congratulations, and watched as she opened them.

One of the gifts was a beautiful blank book where she can write during her honeymoon. Here she is with it, with Snugglebunny and Ralph (the pink stuffed bunny) in the background.

The Doctor said she was surprised but that she'd started to get suspicious when she saw that we were leading her off as a group. We had her tell us the story about how she and her fiancé met (introduced by mutual friends) and how he'd proposed. That was sweet.

A male Otakon staffer, who is currently engaged, came through and saw us gathered around. He wanted to know what was up and I told him it was a bridal shower and he could only stay if he provided a gift.

As it happens, he was carrying two fairy wands made by a friend of his who had been selling them in The Alley at Otakon, an area for artists and artisans to display their wares. So he allowed The Doctor to choose one and she took the red one. He told her it had two and half charges that could be used any way she wanted. She giggled and stuck it down the front of her shirt so that the poofy end stuck out the top.

We joked that now the bridal shower would turn into a bachelorette party. This primarily consisted of posing for silly photos whenever they saw someone with a camera.

In my view, the party was a lot more relaxed than it had been previous years, possibly because we had an extra room that had some tables in it, where the bar tender was located, and people could sit and mingle there. It made the party seem, overall, less crowded.

I ordered about three drinks over the course of the evening, the most interesting was when I asked the bartender to make "something with a Red Bull", so he mixed it with some vodka. It tasted kind of like a Screwdriver, with vitamins.

It's not that people didn't get silly or that they didn't enjoy themselves. Captain No-Pants, who has become legendary for removing his pants at parties, walked around in swim trunks. The funny thing is that people are always making jokes about him taking his pants off, and yet he's never been indecent about it, always wearing swim trunks or shorts. Frankly, he's usually more clothed than most guys on the beach!

A couple of the Otakon guests attended the party, including the musician Yoshiki. They mainly stayed in the room where the video gaming was and talking quietly with staffers. People seemed to be treating them respectfully and didn't swarm them asking for autographs and photos.

I hung out in the video gaming room for awhile, half watching some people playing Guitar Hero and talking to the older system of an Otakon staffer I met my first or second year on staff through my ex-boyfriend, The Invisible Man. This older sister reminds me a lot of Margaret Cho. She doesn't look much like her, although they're both Korean, but her dry sense of humor and her strong personality are similar.

Her inner strength often intimidates men, which she said she found amusing. She joked about how guys are often drawn to her because they like to be bossed around but that after awhile it loses her charm. She pantomimed wiping her feet on someone. "OK, your turn!"

I suggested that we ought to add a new department to staff, the Fashion Police. They'd patrol the convention and take people aside to give them advice on how to alter their costume so that it was more flattering to their body type. "You need some support, honey," I said.

She pantomimed opening up a trench coat lined with bras. "You look like about a 40D. Choose a bra." She said that I could be the fashion consultant and she would do the makeup, and our badges would have a giant lipstick on them.

We had a long discussion about things like being an older sister, love relationships and other deep things. I'd never had such a long talk with her, so I was glad to get that chance. I've always thought she was a cool person, but I'd never had a chance to get to know her any better, except through her younger sister, who is, as she described it, the sugar to her older sister's spice. It's true, when I'd only just met her, the younger sister saw that I was having a bad day one Otakon and went out of her way to make me smile.

In another room, Doc the Stampede was running a very official looking poker tournament, with a dealer who knew all the lingo. They were conducting it in a very professional way, so that you could have sworn there were real stakes, instead of only $100 (from 10 players each ponying up $10). In this photo, Doc is the one in the background with the paper.

Since it was nice and quiet over there, and since The Dormouse was playing, along with a couple other friends and acquaintances, I took a seat at the end of the table and watched for awhile.

That's when the head of Info Desk came over to say hello. She's someone The Gryphon has talked about positively for years, since his days of running Info Desk. This year I'd made a point of saying hi to her when she wasn't busy.

At one point on, I think it was Saturday night, The Cowboy (so named for the cowboy hat he wore all con) taped her arms together to take a silly picture. She seemed to be willingly participating, so I chided him in passing: "She's not a toy!"

When I caught up with her later, and I saw that her arms were still red from the tape, I'd jokingly offered to put some tape on The Cowboy's arm and rip out some hair while removing it. She'd assured me it wouldn't be necessary.

So at the Dead Dog party, she came up to me and complimented my outfit. She told me that it was cute. She added that I always looked cute and always made her smile. Now, she's a very delicate person with a bright smile, and I replied, "Oh, but you must hear that all the time about yourself!" It was sort of like having Hello Kitty tell you that you're cute.

It was getting late, and many of the staffers had already drifted home. The remaining staffers were spread throughout the different rooms, either talking quietly or occupied with games or back massages. I heard that one of the artists who does the popular web comic Little Gamers was playing impromptu DJ with a MP3 player in one of the rooms.

The end of Dead Dog is often when things get a little emotional; as people who have held it together for the entire convention sometimes finally let the feelings out. So The Gryphon and I made ourselves available to assist those who needed hugs or a friendly ear or other help.

And when the evening had finally worn itself out, we walked with a couple other staffers back to our staff hotel, making sure everyone got home safely. Truly, the work of the HR department is never done!

Mistress Chimera and an admirer.

More from Otakon 2006:

August 8, 2006 - Bunny Ears of Command

August 9, 2006 - Touch My Monkey

August 10, 2006 - Here There Be Dragons

August 17, 2006 - Otakon Photos

Musings on Otakon 2005:

August 23, 2005 - All Aboard

Musings on Otakon 2004:

August 10 , 2004 - Overture to Otakon

Musings on Otakon 2003:

Day One: Down the Rabbit-Hole

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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