CONvergence 2019

Previously, the only non-anime con I've been to is C2E2 2017, so I really wasn't sure what to expect from CONvergence. But a bunch of my friends told me they went and had a great time, and I was going with a bunch of people I knew, so I was sure that it would be at least pleasant.

It was more than pleasant. It was amazing.

( Tuesday )

( Wednesday )

( Thursday )

( Friday )

( Saturday )

( Sunday )

( Monday )

I had such a wonderful time! As I said, I've only ever been to anime cons before, so I wasn't sure what I was getting into. The answer was "The Enchanted Forest!" But also a smaller con that's not blown up into a gigantic mess like ACEN is past the edge of becoming. I never had to wait in a huge line, I got into everything I wanted (as long as it didn't conflict with something else), and I didn't go to anything that wasn't worthwhile. Next year is a bit up in the air, since the con moved hotels this year and so CONvergence 2020 is in August rather than July, but if everyone goes I'll gladly come with them.

It was also nice to not feel like an ancient relic. At anime conventions, I always feel like I'm one of the oldest people there at 36. Admittedly, that does fit with anime--lisekatevans and I were pretty scornful when Cowboy Bebop revealed that grizzled, world-weary ex-cop Jet Black is 36--but it's still disorienting sometimes. At CONvergence I was right in the middle of the age range, which is about where I should be.

I used to make a con circuit, from 2005 to 2008, going to multiple cons every year. Maybe it's time to get back into that again.

Here’s one last picture of all the Bubbles and Baubles staff in their costumes:

( Welcome to the Enchanted Forest! )

"You may not go there"

I have the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy on the top of my re-read list--it's one of my favorite fantasy series, and while it doesn't really have much cultural cachet, it should--and just today I was remembering one of my favorite passages, when the hero Simon is in the Sithi (elven, basically) city of Jao é-Tinukai'i.

( Excerpt from 'The Dragonbone Chair.' )

I love that. The way that they're both speaking the same words and drawing completely different meanings from them. "You may not go there"--Simon assumes it's a rule that he's being bound by, but it's not. It's more like a physical law.

I reused this scene in my long-running Exalted game, when the Lunar Endless Chase (played by sephimb) was planning to invade the citadel of the Deathlord The Walker in Darkness to steal the monstrance (think phylactery) of his Abyssal lover The Reflection of Their Glory Undimmed. It even played out exactly the same way. Endless Chase suggested sneaking in, and Glory told him that, "The living may not enter the Ebon Spires of Pyrron." Endless Chase got angry, thinking that she was still somehow loyal to the Walker and trying to enforce one of his edicts, but she said, "You don't understand. The living may not enter the Ebon Spires of Pyrron" and clarified there was an ancient curse that would kill anything living that entered. Then they went on a quest for some way for Endless Chase to be dead for a while so that Glory could sneak him in.

They got caught, of course, and that led to a pitched battle that resulted in Endless Chase sacrificing himself to kill the Walker in Darkness and save his love.

One of my fondest memories of that game.