Fandomonium!: Animal Farm

   Fandomonium[!] yesterday, I'd been going to write about this in the post but it's just an unwieldy tangent. Which is more of a postscript anyway. All takes place, at the end and afterward.

   I was the last in line, for the cosplay contest queue up to the stage, which gave me so many more photo ops when I didn't have to stay in character... maybe I should have gone as Peter Parker? Like the swordwielder said to me as a group of us sat outside the Little Theater waiting to get in before Fandomonium[!] officially began, "good costume, bad character choice." Seeing as how I only had black duct tape, the Gorilla stuff, (ZOOTOPIA FRIDGE LOGIC: forget humans, heck, there aren't any primates in the world of Zootopia!), yeah it would have been easier to just cut a spider out of that, than just having the S over this '90s era, Dark Age of Comic Books-style black void like I did (not having any decent yellow markers.))

   I was the last in line, and the dude in front of me, the guy who'd cosplayed as Big Brother. Just wearing a suit, with a printout of this big long riddle taped to it explaining his plan and asking, "Sympathy for the Devil"-style, if you could guess his identity. Which was, Big Brother. Totally Big Brother.

   (Apparently I, wearing a suit as well, got mixed up with him on (at least) one occasion ("I thought you were over there..."))

Here he's reading out the riddle for everyone.
Also, watching you through the screen. Right now.

   And... backstory, here, on what went down before Fandomonium started, before I continue on about the end: being part of the Comic Book Workshop, helping set up beforehand, except not setting up at all because there was nothing for me to set up, I was asked to leave. So I did, and went back to the apartment, and, everything coming out for the better, that Art of Zootopia book I'd pre-ordered had arrived for me, which I wouldn't even had known for three and a half, maybe four more hours had I stuck around from setup to end. It wasn't slotted to arrive till tomorrow, but it came yesterday, and I do believe it understands my darkest fears and wildest dreams even more than bread does.

   So I saw an opportunity. I grabbed the mail package, unopened, my clipboard (working on, designs for Intro to Graphic Design class,) and shoved my bookbag full to bursting of my obsessive collection of other Zootopia merchandise, taking that all back to the MC Little Theater, Fandomonium[!]'s venue. (There was a Harry Potter booth being set up, why the heck not?) Only I'm not entirely certain what it takes to get a booth, especially one at the last minute, and, that probably not being possible, well I just abandoned my hopes and dreams, and I settled. I settled hard.

   But I still had the Art of Zootopia book with me, so (in between coming up with sick new designs for a poster advertising a fictional Saul Bass exhibit at the SFMOMA) I unboxed her, and smelled her new smell, and flipped her open, and squeed over her. If only there were someone around to gush about this to...

   Backstory over.

   There were, at the con, a couple of lady-furries who, I don't think arrived together, but saw each other's fake tails, became besties, and hung out from then on. Is the story that it looked like, just their body language looking from a distance, the way they talked with each other near the beginning when they both got in, and how that rapport evolved over time? Maybe they already knew each other, I don't know, but there aren't many opportunities around BYU-I (or, like, anywhere else for that matter) to let any freak fur fly, so... I don't know, that was the narrative I'd assumed, and never thought to question it up till this point...

   Looking through my meticulous documentation of the event, they first meet sometime between 3:35:44 and 3:37:54, and are never seen separate after that (except where the edge of the photo or something in the foreground cuts one or the other off, but, you know.) So I had it right. Thank you, meticulous documentation of the event!

Pictured: the moment of meeting.
Also Mica in the background, who. although not a cosplayer or public figure, is currently borrowing my Squirrel Girl TPB. So I guess it's okay to have them randomly in the photo?

   And so, after the con was over, they continued to chill, outside of the doors of the Little Theater, and chatting with, Big Brother of all people. I could hang nearby. I could bring over my Art of Zootopia book, to someone who'd appreciate it. I could gush. Though one of them hasn't seen it yet...

   I flitted in and out, oscillating between continuing my design homework and using the water fountain nearby to where they were hanging out. I eventually resettled down to the area of the MC Crossroads next to the stairs to continue my idea sketches, and at the nearby area outside the food court I had one of them take the photo of me as Clark Kent. Such a costume is not very assistive to selfies, and I needed documentation of what I looked like too. And then I had to go. I'd been planning on going up to Idaho Falls at 5:00 to shop at Hastings again, it was so great the first time.

   My ride was sick, though, so, standing outside of the apartments and texting her and wondering if they were still back at the Crossroads where I'd left them last, who should be walking right on by but, those guys. Being unsure whether it would be weirder to join them again or not to, I made the choice that was the most interesting, and we ambled around, loitering at random intervals and hopping over low stone walls (just as amazing as it sounds, with a big fluffy tail that stretches all the way to the ground. Oh yes I've got photos. Of course I've got photos.)

   I didn't catch anyone's names, though I do know where everyone lives since there was this big long meander-and-chat wandering all around until 5:45 (with the event having gotten out at 4:00,) when we went our separate ways to our respective apartments which it turns out are all pretty close to one anothers'. Except for Big Brother's. He was also part of the group.

   Which I am calling, Animal Farm. Because of course.

The crowd I run with now, Ma.