burntcopper | Discworld con the Eigh-:coughcoughcough: (Reply)

Where I was for some reason put in the sect of Tuvelpit, the god of wine. can't think why. Amazingly so were many of the Seamstresses. (the others seemed to be Evolutionists and Neolodians (god of technology and engineers)) And, as this one was based on Colour of Magic / Light Fantastic era, several people had it explained to them why I wasn't dressed as Conina: 'She's not bloody gestated yet, is why.' So, outfits went 300 > tunic > gold sequin > stripy vest & gold hotpants. which works out quite well as a sequence if you think of them as 'posh outfit, normal workaday, didn't go home yet, oh god morning after'. Got several people recognising the 300 outfit on friday, which i smirked about a lot. 'This woman is dressed as Gorgo. Do not piss her off.' 'Especially if you go with historical Gorgo.'

Anyway. *Very* busy con with an utterly stuffed schedule, so many people were visibly wilting on monday or falling asleep in Dunmanifestin $. Damn Monks. Did not help that I got volunteered into helping out by Kirsty and Holly, our Sect deputies for whenever they were knackered or busy.

Friday: got there just before noon, changed, lolled about, bounced around, got hugged a lot, went 'ooo' at some of the new costumes on show, went to the bar, got ear tugged by Kirsty for the first time. Went into Chaos Costuming to say hi at 1pm, emerged at 4-ish having taken up a dress, re-did its chiffon outer layer to drape nicely, re-glued leaves on Pam's outfit and helped design a teenager's wood nymph outfit which she wore for the rest of the weekend. Opening ceremony started with a bar fight in the Drum. as you do. Didn't go to Bedtime Stories for once because I got caught up gossipping and reccing fanfic and tumblr with Diane and merely gossipping with Pete. (Pete has been shown the Evil Plotting Raccoon and now does an impression of it whenever he can.)

Saturday: odd whatsit of having breakfast be utterly tasteless. it was like eating unflavoured tofu. Could smell it, didn't feel ill,

cynicalcylon assured me it tasted fine, so don;t know what was going on there, since an hour later I was fine. weird.

Went to How to Buckle a Swash to be glamourous assistant - Pete giving the talk this time with various demonstrations. including me showing off the armoured glove, cos the bloke it was made for has *tiny* hands. After, was playing with all the weapons, though I think I was most comfortable doing defence with viking round shield against Carmilla. Who had a sword and does viking reenactment. But am not bad with shield.

Got my arm grabbed by Gareth at end and found myself helping in preliminary construction of the most holy 8 foot champagne bottle, which was to be our idol for a Sect competition on sunday. I figured out how to do the narrowing to the neck bit, helped make that, then left Gareth and his dad to it. apparently they spent half of saturday doing it. Joined them many hours later to finish off the decorative details like the foil top and label. Gripleys of Wrath - your usual item from the bag, explain what it is according to your Sect game. Muchos fun. Neolodians & evolutionists being some of the best explainers. Then went to the Terry and Rob and Stephen talk. Muchos fun. Including pictures of orangutans. Then Fighting Arts of Agatean Empire, where there were self-defence lessons. At the end, the girls, who'd been very interested in this, were talking amongst themselves and someone asked if we remembered how to sing. Cue cheering and me demonstrating for the benefit of those who hadn't seen Miss Congeniality. After that, more bar, maskerade - which had a few genius entries, some very good, and a lot of 'er, wtf?' entries. There was an awful lot of polite clapping and mutterings about 'is there any way to screen these for relevance? or a point? Especially the song entries, please god' In the awesome: an Igor writing a sonnet to his love, the Mona Ogg on Hartbeat's gallery, the puppets, Death of Rats, the Ballad of Nanny Ogg. Pat Harkin outdid himself on the ducks front when hosting it (lots of quaking and farm animal noises and heckling). We also got 'Next Top Sacrifice' in the interval, where the sacrifices got interviewed about what their sacrifice would achieve, how they wanted to be sacrificed, and why they were dressed like that. Many cheers for the Moon Goddess who was a bit peeved that no-one else was wearing the union-approved white virginal robes. Tuvelpit's wanted to drown ina bathtub of wine, which got a yell from the crowd of 'I volunteer as tribute!', Patina's was dressed as a penguin and then explained the *book* was the sacrifice, and it would be sacrificed by being handed over to four year olds. Much wincing. Neolodian's pointed out that he had tied his own bowtie and that bowties were, of course, cool. then more bar. and Just a Minute and Mornington Crescent with Andrew, Davina, Essy and pete. And thoroughly confused Barbara who had no idea about Mornington Crescent.

Sunday: got up, went to That Would be an Ecumenical Manner, aka sunday worship, hosted as ever by Lionel and Mole. Where the Sects had to provide curses and prayers of what to do against the coming of the red star. Volunteered by Kirsty again. and me and Holly did a spectacular impression of hungover, helped by the fact that i still had the coffee mug from breakfast. Our curse was Sobriety, and we left a special mention in our blessings for the followers of Bilious. Kirsty tired us out with Dancing with the Feegle - Gay Gordon and other such things again, you always forget how tiring a couple of rounds of that dance are. Then came the Idol Home Show, where I had to run off to Ops to find the most holy 8 foot champagne bottle because some bugger had nicked it, run back to get people to help me carry it, then carry it back... Cue singing in praise of our gods. (we did gospel. neurrrgh.) And Kirsty grabbing me to explain that I was now going to be making the speech explaining what our idol represented, advertise the cocktail tasting at 1pm and then round up people/organise it. fed her a mars bar to make sure she didn't fall over from exhaustion then and there. Cue me insisting that we would go last, looked very interested at the hammer of Neolodian, the statue of the Moon Goddess, The Thinking Chair of Evo, Offler, the hymn book of Patina, the definitely not a Dalek, very definitely the unaesthetically pleasing but lethal postbox of Fedeks, and the eye of Io. Me, in best insincere barker mode: 'It's a champagne bottle. if you need this explained to you I really do despair. But might I invite you to join us for cocktail tasting in Dunmanifestin at 1? However, we're buggering off to worship our god. To the Bar!' Cue the entire Tuvelpitian sect running out the door.

Watch team interview: Terry and co have set up their own production company for full control over his works, got BBC worldwide behind them for a City Watch series (still in planning and writing stages). producer and the writers there too. We have the bloke who write a bunch of the Borgias, whose agent told Rob that he'd assassinate all the competition to get the role, but that doesn't mean he's cheap. And we has Rihanna, who was initially reluctant as she's spent the last decade or so having her won distinct writing career in gaming but she found out she absorbed the entire disc in her head. Plans involve filming it in the UK, and starting with pov of new recruits, like Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms - main being a posh lad whose family lost all its money and thinks coppering will be a doddle, and an Igorina who'll be doing forensics. Us: 'Abby from NCIS! YAY!' This means we don't get infodump, just them knowing that Captain Carrot is a stickler in first ep, etc, etc... Got a mood reel (stitched together from Underworld and Sherlock Holmes and Reign of Fire etc) and one for Good Omens too. OOOOoooooOOOOOOO.

Buggered off for a Klatchian. which was stuffed with other con attendees when we got there. clearly we'd recced it rather too well after last time. Duly stuffed with seriously tasty food.

Monday: aka 'fuck off we're knackered and fallign asleep during Werewolf'. THere was a generally confused thing of quiz-cum-race for end of sect stuff, finally got a swim in. All other days I'd simply been too knackered... The play being Eric (v well done by Tim, Andrew, Richard and co) and closing ceremony. and left with many hugs. Theme for next time has been declared as Modern Ankh Morpork. Many of the Neolodians squeed and fainted. (as you might guess, they were mostly comprised of the steampunk contingent) Random is planning strange and terrible maskerade ideas, having made terrible and evil comments earlier on sunday night about me perfectly fitting a role if we genderswapped it.

$ Dunmanifestin, aka the main room off the reception, is a fabulous idea. Own personal lounge space with a bar (not always staffed) and loads of couches, ie our own space for crashing/gaming/holding Sect meetings with the back converted into kids play area. The bar is still our one true love and home from home, but definitely nice to have the crash space.