Anthrocon 2008 reporty-thingy.
Well, back from my first Anthrocon.
DEAR GOSH.
It was incredible, in ways you can only image.
I can not tell you how great it was.
In so many ways.
But let's start at the beginning shall we?
I went to Anthrocon for a bunch of reasons. I had always been into anthropomorphic animals, in animation, comics, numerous webcomics and video games and for a long time used the avatar of a fox on the internet which I just liked having and representing me. I'd wanted to visit Anthrocon for a while, to see what it was like, meet many of the cool personalities and webcomic creators who I'd seen so much of on the internet, and it tempted me on more then one occasion even with me looking up flights, torturing myself at the possibility. However, in the last year, I found a webcomic by the name of Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures (DMFA) by Amber Williams. It was an awesome furry comic with fun, adventure, characters and most things I couldn't even begin to describe and pretty quickly became my most favourite webcomic. I liked the feel of the comic, and so reasoning that the style of comic affects the community that gathers around it, in time I joined the community. This led to a fateful IRC chat where I talking with a bunch of others from the community who were discussing Anthrocon months in advance. After another look at flights, I saw some prices that actually seemed more reasonable then I expected and considered going for real. In the end I went for it. Not just for all the above, but for excitement, for doing something different, for bringing something new into my life. The last thoughts in my head before hitting the buy button were "I'd like to go, but I have absolutely no idea what it will be like." Suddenly, I realised that for me, that was a reason for going, not staying.
Wednesday
I hit Dublin airport pretty hard and hurt my fist... okay, bad pun. Anyway, after being dropped off the blue bus, I entered the terminal and went through all the boring stuff before jumping in a Delta plane and making my way out there. In getting there, I went to this terminal I knew, and found out the terminal I was meant to get to was UNDER it. I think I was panicking about something or other... probably convention worries.
Flight was awesome, not only great service, but had TV for each seat and a selection of movies, Popcap games and TV programs you could start whenever you wanted to. I watched throuhgh Cloverfield (cool movie, some great parts) and I Am Legend (not good movie, seeing post apocalyptic New York is by far the best thing about it, everything else isn't as good and the ending is like watching a car drive by) as well as half of my first episode ever of House. Would have watched more of House but I'd been reading Yes Minister (book related to classic British political satire sitcom) and the difference in viewpoint of a government healthcare institution was a little jarring for me to take at the time. Nabbed an hour sleep too.
I hit JFK having been craning my neck to see Manhattan (if I did, it was very hazy) and contemplating the irony of watching two movies set in New York and then landing there. I'd also managed to admit why I was traveling to America to two Irish girls I'd been talking with under the premise that “I'll never meet them again.” (a fallacy for any Irish person to say about any other Irish person, but that's another story). Their names were Susan and Aoife and they were in college and were going on to Callifornia for a J1 Visa (work abroad for the Summer). I considered buying at Burger King to celebrate my arrival at the states, but since I can get that at home, I decided it was pointless. I was tempted to buy PSP video games from a vending machine as well as a toy helicopter, tried to connect to the internet, went to the right terminal, tried to connect to it again, asked someone what that bridge was (to the right of the red plane tail in img_0149.jpg ), it turned out to be the bridge to Rhode Island. Tried again to access wireless, panicked when I thought I was late for my flight, and finally boarded.
The hour and a bit long flight was tense if nothing else, I wasn't sure what I was in for. I stayed fixed upon the present, almost afraid to look ahead. The plane was smaller then I was used to, I was in row 18 and that was more then halfway down the plane. I was also at the emergency exit, so if something happened, the lives of many people would depend on my actions, however the opportunity didn't come up.
A while into the flight, I looked out the window and went “THAT's Pittsburgh?” In the flat landscape, skyscrapers shot out from it in magnificence. American's sure like to build high buildings. In talking to the guy beside me, he told me he was from Pittsburgh and it was a good place to live in, but not as nice to visit (nice inversion!). He'd been to Dublin, so we drew comparisons such as the city being big enought to have everything you need, but small enough so you don't feel anonymous. I was sure to point out though that we had a building in Dublin that was 13 stories high and anything higher then that wasn't a building.
Got through the terminal okay, it was a nice place and I wanted to hang around but felt I needed to get to baggage reclaim where I retrieved my bag. I saw a T-Rex skeleton on the way (ad for Natural History Museum in Oakville. Once there, through the advice of a nice woman working there, I was able to connect to the wifi and get some vital details that I'd been worrying about. This of course included a map of the area, Reese's (who booked the room) contact details, and the DMFA Anthrocon planning thread.
I missed a bus, and this left me waiting for a while before discovering there was a far more frequent bus in a different area. However, on racing and getting into it, I found I didn't have enough exact change so a guy kindly gave me 60c and I was away. I fortunately avoided getting very lost after the befriending of the guy next to me led to him lending me a map of the bus route and me discovering it didn't go anywhere near the Greyhound bus station which had been marked on the AC map and which I'd based my navigation off of. I figured out the right stop, thanked him, worked on phoning Reese only ever getting a “Network Busy”.
I got off and made my way in the right direction but then I wasn't sure where exactly the hotel was. A local taxi driver saw my plight and asked where I was going. When I replied the Doubletree, he pointed out a great big building with the sign “Doubletree” on it, I felt slightly embarrassed but relieved and having an idea on where to go.
I knew Reese's real name from the hotel confirmation I'd asked him to send me so I used these really cool phones that looked like a rotary dial but had buttons to connect to the reception and be put through to him and find the room number. This did not stop me from getting the room number mixed up and banging for a while on the wrong door though, but a quick use of the phone on that floor, and he was opening the door as I reached the room.
Meeting him was sorta surreal. I honestly knew didley squat about Reese before, except that orange plush cat he had, which incidentally was perched on a bed pillow, but we struck up a conversation and things went well. He had, appropriately enough, Irish inspired music playing on his PSP, and we talked about the group, whether I would be offended by bad language (short answer, I used to be, but telling people not to swear usually has the opposite intended effect and it doesn't bother me much any more; besides I consider a lot of Irish people capable of swearing in a non offensive way) and about this cool Dutch (I think) artist who forged paintings in a wonderful way (It all started as a way make fun of critics, but he had the “misfortune” to be offered a large amount of money for the fake painting before he could trick the critics with it).
I also took out my video camera and figured I'd make use of it by filming intros for both Reese and I. It was a trend I followed throughout Anthrocon, to the amusement of some, and abject panic of others. In my recordings, I'd learned a lesson about cutting it off before it dragged on. Fortunately, on my first recording, I started it just has Reese had been heading downstairs to meet Shades as he arrived, and so had a perfect excuse to cut off the recording early. So Shades was cool aswell. We talked, I was still a little nervous as well, and then there was the great matter of... who would be sleeping on the floor. I had my sleeping bag vaccum packed from Ireland but I had been here first. Determining a battle of some sort was necessary, we worked out that Shades had a copy of Starfox, we both had DSs, and so spaceship battles commenced. He won, but I at least had the comfort of improving as we battled.
Sleeping bag time, and night. I can't think of much else to say about that day except I'd heard “Chasing Pavements” on the radio the night before and it was stuck in my mind the whole day.
Thursday
My sleep was broken as much by my not taking a pillow, but also by Zedd's very late arrival The morning found him very tired with only 5 hours sleep, is bus having been very delayed. Hazzy also arrived, and we talked on.
But no, that was not it. For you see, Kenji, Mischa and Hazzy also arrived, and we turned the hotel room into a concentrated DMFA gathering. We talked a fair bit, IRC was stormed with a huge amount of irritating comments and the occasional suggestion that since we were all together, we get back to real life. It was pretty exciting and a buzz to have everyone there, and we streamed out of the hotel (passing some nice cathedrals and a Cadillac display[which I'm sorry I missed]) looking for something to eat. We settled on Subway since we couldn't find that place that begins with a Q (we don't have that chain here in Ireland) and then made our trip to the Westin. It was hot and humid, and I got into a conversation with someone (I think it was Shades) who mentioned how a lot is to do with all the concrete and how a city he knew got very hot after they built it up. There was however a shopping mall with trees on the roof which I found cool. Also conversation about something else: “Pittsburgh really likes the con. You see they learned that Furries eat... a lot. And so it brings a lot of money into the city,” said... Shades? I think.
“Ah,” I replied, “It's nice to see the fear and prejudice being overcome by pure and unadultered greed.”
The person replied with something to the effect of that that was what America was about.
We got to the Westin, found very many people there, and managed to get to the right forum. I conveniently found out that because I was a sponsor, I got to go to a much shorter line, and was happier as a result. My badge, my yellow bag of stuff, with these acquired, I and the others made it to the Zoo.
The Zoo is like a big ballroom with tables and chairs, a lot of people talking, and a bank of internet computers nearby (of course, if you use the computers at the con for anything more then touching base or quick looking stuff up, you need to reexamine why you're there, though I did use them to find out about and play, or more watch, the beginning of Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb [I didn't even know there was a Furry adventure game]).
While there I saw the Spy from TF2 and couldn't resist taking his photo. He then directed my attention elsewhere, I looked, and when I looked back I found he'd been sneaking up on him. Quickly, he ran away.
So we went in as a group, I suddenly found myself without the others, found them again and for the rest of the day, I sorta followed a pattern of talking with the group, going off and talking to others, then meeting back with the rest of them. I saw some cool art, and noticed some cool communities. I also saw Amber for the first time, but she was in a hurry so she only saw me briefly. I did spend a bit more time with Candi and Ryan Dewalt and I gathered courage to tell them how much I loved Vinci and Arty. Candi actually was taken aback at the comment, and sweetly explained how when people complimented her she was like “wow, I have a comic.” I was surprised she wasn't used to that now, but naturally repeated my praise.
Also got to meet some of the other guys there such as Rafe, The Lurking Dragon, Saist, Tapewolf, TGH (along with the cookies) and Keaton. It was pretty cool meeting and talking to the guys. I heard from Rafe that Amber would be at the Furries in Heaven, Furries in Hell panel so I definitely made a note of it, and kept telling others about it. I met some other cool guys in the room that I hadn't known before. Punkwolf who I talked to about art and stuff, and another guy who I'd started by expression my lack of interest in the “adult” furry picture he was holding and ended up talking with him about numerous things including American politics (as much as I enjoyed it, there's only so long you can discuss that before depression sets in). Things went well and in the end I and a few others headed up to the dance for a while and then headed back to the hotel room.
It was in checking things up on the laptop when I heard a yell from behind me. Shocked I turned to see Zedd on the floor yelling. I thought he was having a seisure but it turned out his knee was in agony, he'd just been bending down to get something and apparently a pop or tear was heard before this happened. When he was quiet enough to explain the agony in his knee, and we'd got him off the floor and onto the bed, I suggested getting ice and we placed ice against the knee while also looking up on the internet to try to find what the problem was. There was no question of Zedd not getting the bed that night and I tried to wrap the towels around his knee in a way that kept the ice against it.
Friday
The next day, I was disappointed that the Cadillacs weren't there anymore, but there were more important things. Zedd's knee was better, but still bad. The hotel didn't have anything that could help us, so based on some advice and info on a map, I made my way to the nearest pharmacy and got a knee brace. On the advice of both the hospital and the pharmacy, we also got some Idiprouin and we all made it towards the convention hall.
That day was pretty active, we finally made it to.... the dealers room. I looked around, I saw tables, activity, and crowds. I knew somewhere out there was someone wearing a Mow hat, and this time, I would introduce myself. On the way however, I bumped into the RCSI stand (Codename Hunter) and talked to Gyr and Darc. I'd been meaning to talk to them, say I'd liked their work, and give them the Codename Hunter book for them to sign. I did all three. On top of that, I bought the comic for the next set of comics that haven't even gone up on the web yet, even in the sponsor area, and I also mentioned how I'd been a spellchecker on some advance issue of Codename: Hunter. At the time, Darc had seemed to get pissed at some of my nitpicks; I hadn't expected her to remember, but she not only did but defied expectations even more by explaining the story behind her behaviour. Apparently, around that time they had joined Furaffinity, they had posted a wedding themed pic, and had got a comment something to the effect of “That's cool, but you should draw them naked, I can't get off on them.” I actually started blushing, something Darc was happy to point out.
From there, I could see the purple Mow hat of Amber, but somehow had difficulty approaching her, just getting nervous and doing something else every time I got close. I finally got to meet her, and it was awesome. She was cheery, upbeat, constantly witty and I talked with her a bit also getting here a cheese dog. Of course talked to Tikiman who was beside her (ironically, by the end of the weekend, I ended up probably making more of an impression on him then on Amber, despite not intending to or maybe because of it. His closing comments were that he wanted me to come back to the next Anthrocon because who else was he going to make fun of, which went along with earlier comments of him saying I was now their “whipping boy”. To be honest I kinda like him, he reminds me of some friends I had in school; you know, the ones who bullied me in my earlier years and I was friends with by the later years. He also said at one point he reminded him of JD [from Scrubs] and had me “think of something” at which point he burst out laughing at the apparent resemblance. At the time I was thinking about what I should think about, and then started a line of thought as to whether what I thought about affected my appearance of me thinking. Given JD's character, that was sorta ironic).
Naturally, I also got to meet Zina (in puppetacular form) there and of course, had to get pics with her. I spend more time eating and messing around in the dealers room, talking with Tape and other, until I found HollyAnn's stall, and being reminded, asked about the getting the Zina comic. Having being pointed out the sign that said in no uncertain terms “wrong purple canine”, I was directed to Farrel Moon's desk. I hoped any offense at my mistake was amended by my offer of a Kinder Egg.
I obtained Zina's comic, admired that numerous comic that guy made about why various people are in the furry fandom.
The Floyd Norman talk was on that afternoon and I made sure to be in attendance. It was great learning about Pixar, Disney, the legends of the time, how they reacted to animation, a bit about Don Bluth and many other things too. A pleasure hearing from him. I also met Shades there which, given the size of the place and attendance, took quite a bit of chance. Jack Sparrow came up at the end of the talk and asked Floyd whether there would be an animated series based on him. Floyd assured him he'd pitch the idea to Lasseter as soon as he met him when he got back.
I think around that time I was hungry, and made it outside to a place called Fernandos. Eating there, and talking with other Furries (It's like the con turns the whole place into a Furry City!) I felt a lot better as I felt that everything had exhausted me. By the time I came back, the dealer room had closed so it was back to the Zoo!
A lot more talking was going on that time. I got on with everybody and that was cool. I got to read a bit of a book called the Dog Days of Summer but had to leave soon to go to Uncle Kage's story hour. The first time I saw him, it was awesome. He's hilarious, tells great stories, has a great personality and mentioned things about standing on dead whales, laser eye surgery and fixing lightbulbs while turning off the circuit breaker, but then turning it on again so he could see what he was doing!
On the way out, apparently the Art Gallery was open for that time so I checked it out with Hazzy after I had met him outside on the balcony overlooking the river. Being a sponsor really helped me out there. I looked at some neat pictures, including one alking to a professional artist (I think it was Rabbi Tom or something along those lines) who talked about his being constantly burned when doing artwork for gamebook companies and other bad experiences with commissions. Also chatted with Jaguar, a legal guy to get some more insight into the legalities of commissions and IP. Yes, I know this bores some people to death, but it all boils down to “what can you do with what you pay for?” Also, coming from a legal background, I always like to learn about legalities even if I'm not interested in a career in law myself.
When leaving, I found Reese, Hazzy and Shades waiting for me. Reese, being cool, didn't want to leave without at least ensuring that if I did leave the hotel alone, it was by my own choice. I really appreciated it and headed back with them.
Saturday
This was an early morning, since we many of us were going to the Furries in Heaven, Furries in Hell, given that it contained Amber, Ryan and Candi Dewalt and of course, David Hopkins (of JACK) since his comic was sort of meant to be what the panel event was about. Reese however was going to Rails N Tails event as he knew the guy running it. I queued outside the dealers room with Shades half an hour beforehand with the aim of grabbing a commission off of Amber before the presentation since she said her commission queue was cleared by the beginning of each day. However, as I later found out, some unscrupulous dealers who will remain nameless (because I don't know who they are) got several commissions out of Amber before the doors even opened. By the time I reached the desk, the full up sign was already over her commission sign. It didn't bother me too much, my fursona that I wanted her to commission was still very undefined and in my head (Tikiman actually gave me advice about this, saying you commission one sketch, figure out what you like and don't like about it, use it to commission another sketch and continually reiterate until you have a character you like).
I hung around, got lost trying to find the room for the event, but then saw Amber pass by so that certainly helped.
Soon we got to the room. It was very cool as David did sketching under low light, I regretted having brought my headlamp all the way to America only to leave it in the hotel room when David could have used to to see what he was sketching, Amber heckled from the back and did a darn good job of it, I did press ups at one point, and a good time was had by all. Additional fun was had by a video being shown clips from a Law and Order episode where the name of an accused killer was actually David Hopkins. Hearing characters I didn't recognised repeatedly say phrases like "David Hopkins is a killer" or "I can assure you we'll bring David Hopkins to justice" (They always seemed to use his full name) just brought hilarity to everybody in the room.
Afterwards, we went back to the dealers room. Keaton provided amusement both showing her cool Keatsicle ( http://sofoxcentral.com/Anthrocon/photos2008/lowres/img_0390.jpg ) I'd seen Amber work on earlier and her reaction to the sudden appearance of a fursuiter ( http://sofoxcentral.com/Anthrocon/photos2008/lowres/img_0389.jpg ) (we all laughed about it afterwards).
I talked with the others and then decided to examine areas of the dealers area hitherto uncovered. I ended up chatting with Dingbat, who's work didn't remember seeing before, but loved anyway (she makes pottery too) and it was while making my way down the back row that... dear gosh... the fursuit parade begun.
I moved into a better position to look up at the path above us, and then a huge amount of fursuiters walked across it. And then another huge amount. And another. THERE WAS NO END TO THE FURSUITERS!!! At last it seemed to end... but no, Lucario had just held them back a bit and there were even more! After it finally ended I heard there were over 450 fursuiters there. I heard that the Guinness book of World Records were there and had to set up a camera on a telescopic lens across the river in order to photograph all the fursuiters at once. I don't think Anthrocon will have much trouble breaking the record, where else are you going to find enough people crazy enough to don a bunch of furry animal costumes and walk around in them.
My travels through the dealer art room continued. To be honest, I met the creators of Suburban Jungle and Kevin and Kell, but I never had been into their work so I didn't really make an impression. I met Eric Schwartz (Sabrina Online), David Hopkins and once again met Candi and Ryan Dewalt. After looking through Candi's sketchbook (the equivalent of having a syringe of sugar injected into your eyeballs) I came across this really funny sketch I just laughed at. It was a small sketch with a pun that so deliciously terrible, I loved it. Candi actually let me keep it for free, apparently wanting someone to take it off of her, though I felt it was more because she was a kind person.
It was around then, that I decided to go to another talk by Floyd Norman. It went into some more interesting details about this and that, such as more detail about his thoughts on CGI and how in the old days, animators could walk from Disney animation studios into WB animation studios and hang out with them. By the end of the talk, I had Floyd's signature in my sketchbook.
On leaving, something funny happened. I noticed the exodus of people from the direction of the Dealer's Room and in asking some people if the hall was closed (it was) got involved in a conversation about copyright, clearing it up in the area of commissions. It was then I realised that the group of people I was talking to included Gyr and Darc and they mentioned that they were going out to eat and if I'd join them. Grateful, but somewhat nervous, I said yes and we headed on down out of the hotel. It was when we hit the street that we saw a purple mow hat among a group ahead of us and... if you can't guess who it was by this stage you need help. Anyway, we walked along, chatted with one of the girls in the group, and it wasn't long before we entered the hotel that Amber had entered ahead of us... and that was how I was reunited with Tapewolf, Jouster and Kenji.
Okay, confession time. I've held it off this long but I'm going to have to be honest. I forget at various times during the con who I was with and/or what their names were. Sometimes it slips my mind, others there are just too many people, sometimes I forget the events so the memories of the people within the events become casualties. Also, sometimes while I see someone, they don't make an impression on me until later. From the start of the dinner, I was a little worried at not remembering everyone (why do you think I took so many photographs?) so I want to say that I apologies if I forget anyone or don't mention their name. This also goes for any events in the con. I've been trying to remember as much as I can but there's still stuff that escapes me. As Amber would say, I just suck.
Anyway, we were waiting in the lobby with Tape, Joust, Kenji and a few others. There was some mini drama about someone coming, but in the end we packed into 3 taxis (it was raining) and made our way to the restaurant. It was a very good restaurant. I ordered some nice dish I hadn't had before. Got into a good conversation with Tape with him telling me how he loves breaking games and how programming for the Symbian platform is “an exercise in sado-masochism” (though Tape took that quote from a guy who'd stopped programming for it a while back before it became even worse to program on). I really enjoyed the dinner. At one stage, Amber asked for paper. Misunderstanding her, I gave her some notebooks, before getting her and giving my sketchbook. When I got it back, it contained a great sketch the contents of which I can't reveal because they contained spoilers even though I didn't notice it at first. All I saw was that it contained a sketch of one of my favourite characters in DMFA.
My sketchbook now contained a sketch by Amber, I was now able to leave the con with no regrets and felt all warm and fuzzy inside.
It was nice, we left and got to the hotel.
Oh, and at some point Amber quoted the entire Picard “long incredibly unbroken sentence” quote. I was flabbergasted, in a good way.
As we headed back up the stairs to the Zoo (instead of the escalators) we somehow lost everybody except Amber, Joust and myself. For some reason, Amber took this opportunity to divulge some spoilerific DMFA material. I gave a “I knew it!” to the first piece but the rest was a surprise, though made sense after I'd absorbed it. Amber went on about how it just made sense and expressed wonder at why the forum came up with all these crazy theories when the simple solution was right there.
Anyway, we made it to the Zoo. Amber donned kitty paws and recited that song about eggs. Kenji was drunk, very drunk, and at some point tried to make Amber his with the result of them both ending up on the floor. Amber remained unphased and lying on her back sketched in her sketchbook with it held above here, sketching something themed around the Sistine Chapel which ironically I believe she'd started before ending up on her back. A raptor tried to attack Zina (situation normal) and more good times were had by all. Unfortunately, it was Keaton's last day so we said our goodbyes and made sure they went off safely and in the right direction. She left with her Mum, who was awesome and loved wolves. I didn't get to see Keaton's Mum as much as some others did but I did hear she was crazy (“Crazy in a good way?” one DMFAer asked. Keatons reply was “She came with me here didn't she?”).
Sunday
The last day.
It was good.
Went wandering around the dealers room again, looking for anything I missed.
But this time around I went into the artist alley for the first time. I'd sorta avoided it before for no good reason, but in getting there, I regretted not having looked around before. It was like looking through a real life DeviantArt of FurAffinity (something I'd felt to a much lesser extent in the Dealer's Room). I recognised and happily grabbed a copy of The Blackblood Alliance, a story I'd loved on DeviantArt about these packs of wolves with art looking like its straight out of a Disney or Don Bluth movie. Grabbed two Sixpack of Otters comics from Beanie and checked out some other artists I recognised.
Closing ceremonies were good (it had Uncle Kage so of course its going to be good) but dragged when people were giving constructive criticism so I left at this stage. Kage did point out an article about how furries are a “cashcow” brining $3m to Pittsburgh. He also gave some startling figures such as attendance (over 3,300) and how much was made in the Artists' Alley (over $14,000). He also took another opportunity to say how credit for making the con what it was went to a very many people, especially the 9 people sitting next to him (there were only 8, but one was missing). Amusingly, he phoned up 2 the Ranting Gryphon in order to “get his ass” up on stage for the closing ceremonies.
After leaving the ceremonies, I returned to the Zoo where I would stay until late in the night. I talked and got to know some cool people more, including Ash who I really liked talking too. There were the last of TGH's cookies which he was giving away to anyone who'd eat them. I helped hold up the sign “Free Cookies” and the reaction of some of the people who came was pretty funny. One girl game up to us asking if this was all just some sick joke. I of course replied, no, there are actually cookies here, and they are actually free. I think I saw tears of joy, or I could just be remembering incorrectly.
At one stage, Beetlejuice called out Jack Sparrow offering a rum bottle. Jack took the bottle, but found it empty, and when asking Beetlejuice why and getting the response of "because you are a loser!", he smashed the bottle over Beetlejuice's head. Beetlejuice hit the ground, but, being Beetlejuice, got up again fine and he and Jack left arm in arm all things settled.
I also talked to Indigo, and that was cool. I really admired her art and said as much and was surprised when she offered to draw in my sketchbook. She asked what to draw and after thinking asked here the sort of thing she liked to draw. Looking through her other sketchbook, she mentioned how she liked expressions, and I took that to offer the theme of “An awkward situation”. She asked me if I'd seen the flying.... okay, you know those things that tend to fly around at big events in Second Life and more recently happened in real life in a Russian thing? Well, someone had modified a toy helicopter to make another version of it and had it fly around the Zoo to many people's amusement. So, taking inspiration from this, Indigo drew a picture of me as a fox (I hadn't given her much details, and liked how it came out. I might even adapt the hairstyle she gave me which I'd only briefly described) glancing awkwardly over my shoulder has a apparatus hovered there. It was an awesome pic.
It was then a question of whether I'd draw in Indigo's sketchbook. Given the atrocity I had drawn the defaced Tapewolf's sketchbook, I initially declined, but in the end, gathered up courage and ever drop of artistic talent I had to give it a go. I was thinking of something starting Marty, a character in my platform parody webcomic. When I mentioned this, I learned about her video game habits, particularly how she loved the turrets in Portal. Hence, my pic was of Marty smashing his staff down on one of the turrets in the game. “I don't hate you.” “The feeling is NOT mutual.” Once again, Marty represented my unrestrained feelings while playing the game.
Finally, I was talking to Jordan Cunningham, a friend of Tailsteak that became a friend of Amber when she married (the guy who this
