#and i REALLY liked it. even though everyone died it felt. kinder. like. the duos. no matter what the world threw at them they had each othe

[bdoubleowo]

New Life series general spoilers and also a bit of personal taste neg (under a read more just in case u don't wanna see it)

me, yesterday: Yeah last life was probably my least favorite of the 3 seasons. I didn't really like the boogeyman mechanic, I thought it disrupted the players relationships in a relatively unsatisfying way. Similarly the extra lives made the deaths feel less dramatic and less important. Some of the most compelling moments were when people resisted this, Scott taking the life penalty, or Etho refusing to abandon Bdubs when he turned red. Frequently people who were red/boogey and became green again didn't face consequences because they were just following the rules of the system. Bdubs boogey kills Tango and its a VERY funny moment because of how Tango reacts, but its mostly brushed aside by the team as a whole, compared to when Cleo held a grudge against BigB for his boogey kill, leading to the absolutely iconic "do me a favor, die for me". 3rd Life I think also benefited from contrast, everyone was very kind and excited at the beginning before id devolved into chaos and bloodshed, whereas everyone was distrustful from the start in LL. So yeah, I'm glad other people like it but really wasn't my cup of tea like 3rd Life was.

Limited Life (same acronym as LL): Boogeyman is back :] and we did extra rounds of it

me: cool

LL: everyone basically has 24 lives

me: sick.

LL: like 10 deaths already on episode one

me: awesome

[jemmafitzsimmons]

Meeting Iain and Elizabeth - My Weekend at C2E2

I don’t really know how to start this because this weekend was such an experience, and I had to the most wonderful time. I know a lot of you have been asking about my time there, so here’s a full rundown of my weekend. Most is under the cut because IT’S A LOT.

I’ll start with what you really want to hear. As most of you already know, Iain and Elizabeth were both the kindest human beings on the planet. Iain was just so nice and thoughtful, and he genuinely enjoyed meeting everyone at the con. You could just tell he was having a lovely time, which made the whole experience even better. And of course, Elizabeth was a complete angel, running a guy down to return his pen, and was completely sweet throughout the whole weekend.

Now, onto my Saturday experience!

First off, I have to thank @eclecticmuses​ for letting me follow her around like a lost puppy all day Saturday. Honestly, I had no idea where to go, so thank you for being so kind and leading the way. You were a lifesaver, and so much fun to hang with all day!

After meeting up with some of her cosplay friends, we went directly to Iain’s autograph line. We were about 15th? in line, so we didn’t have to wait that long, but let me tell you. Once Iain came out and sat down, the f-bombs were flying amongst our group bc we were losing our shit. After about a minute of everyone having a little excited panic, we calmed ourselves (as much as possible) and waited for our autographs.

ngl - I was a little nervous bc I wasn’t sure if they would let us give them gifts. But Stephanie went first and asked, finding out it was completely fine, so I let out a huge sigh of relief. And this is the part of the story where I introduce a kind stranger (I should call him an angel, bc he truly was amazing) as he would literally make my day. So this man is in line behind me and he overheard me saying I was happy I would be able to give the book to Iain, so he was cheering me on and said he was happy for me. (a note so this makes more sense - two people can be at the table at a time - one to get their autograph and the next person to wait their turn). I’ll get back to this man in a bit.

Once I got up to the booth, Iain greeted me and was just. so. nice. I first showed him these monkey stickers I had (I put one in his book) and asked if he wanted one, which he responded with a resounding yes. He couldn’t figure out which one he wanted, so he asked me to pick it out, and then he put it on his shirt. After that, I showed him the book and explained the whole thing, and he looked so shocked and thought it was amazing. I explained that some messages were to both him and Elizabeth, but I made a book for her so they didn’t have to share. But he said it was fine bc he would just cross out Elizabeth’s name. :) I then told him I put my own message on the last page of the book, so he said “Oh, that’s so great! I’ll read that one first. Right now. Out loud. In front of everyone.” Yeah, I nearly lost it.

While I was showing him the book, Elizabeth came out! She was running a little late, so she ran over to Iain’s table and gave Iain a big hug, and then marveled over all the Jemma cosplay from our group. Iain then showed her the book and stickers, so she took one of the stickers and started looking through the book. I told her I had one for her, and she got all excited but told me to give it to her when I got to her table to not spoil it :)

And then the most amazing thing happened. Remember that kind man behind me in line? Well, while Iain was signing a photo for me, the man was next to me at the table waiting his turn, and he leaned in to Iain and said “You should give her a hug.” Iain said “oh yeah, of course!” and he FUCKING LEANED OVER THE TABLE TO PULL ME INTO A HUG. I was the first person to hug him that day, so it was wonderful. I was surprisingly calm. But it was a lot.

And god bless @nanorii​ because SHE RECORDED THE ENTIRE THING. And in the video, while Iain is hugging me, the man next to me gives the camera the biggest thumbs up and it was perfect. Naturally, after the hug, the man leaned over to me and said “you’re welcome.” He found me afterwards once he got his own autograph and you bet your ass I gave this complete stranger the biggest hug I could muster. Okay, back to Iain. After he signed my photo, I shook his hand and he told me he hoped to see me again. Yep. It was fine. (but let’s not talk about how I almost walked off with the book and had to run back and give it to him. lol)

(Side note - I won’t be posting any photos or the video bc I’m in them and I would like to keep myself private for my own sanity. Please don’t ask for them. I really appreciate it.) 

Next, we went to the panel! Nothing really exciting happened beyond what was filmed for the livestream, so there isn’t really much to tell, but we had a lot of fun watching it live. I smiled throughout the entire thing.

After the panel, we went to Elizabeth’s autograph line. To preface this, I’d already met her at another con in October, so I wasn’t nearly as nervous. Once it was my turn, she got all excited bc she remembered me from Iain’s book. I told her that @eclecticmuses did the artwork for the front, and she started flipping though the book and was just stunned by all the messages. I told her they were from people on Tumblr, so she asked if I wanted to record a video, to which I obviously said yes. You can watch that video here! She’s a gem.

After that, she signed my photo, marveled over my rings (I was pretty stoked about this bit - they’re Monica Vinader rings if anyone is curious), and then we took a photo. When we were lining up for the photo, I showed her my shirt (which said Nevertheless, she persisted) and she loved it. I gave her a hug afterwards, and we said our goodbyes.

Onto the individual photo ops! This part is sort of a blur bc they happened so quickly. I probably spent at most 20 seconds with each of them. Iain was lovely and remembered me, and was overly nice through the whole thing. And thank god the photo turned out lovely as well. I honestly hate taking photos, so I was relieved it turned out great. And he smiled in mine. :) When I walked up for Elizabeth’s, she told me again how much she loved my shirt, and we took the photo, which also turned out lovely.

And that’s the end of day one!

But then, oh god, the next morning took a turn for the worst. I woke up with the most horrible stomach pain and thought I was going to be sick all morning. I don’t know what it was (something I ate, anxiety, who knows) but I felt awful, just lying in bed for a few hours that morning, and was scared my day was going to be ruined. Luckily, I slowly got ready and was able to make it to the convention without getting sick. I was a little unsteady on my feet, but I managed. 

Once I got there, I randomly found Karen, one of the girls from our group on Saturday, so we went together to the autograph lines bc I wanted to get some of Stephanie’s art signed. While we were in line, we ran into @shieldsil​ and @jsimmonss​! They were both soooooo lovely and we had a nice chat before getting our autographs.

When Karen and I got to Iain’s table, he was so sweet, saying welcome back. We chatted for a bit about our weekends, our flights home (he wondered why I had to leave so soon, and I said bc of grad school. He said oh shit - which is basically how I feel about the rest of this semester). He then told Karen he loved her cosplay (she was dressed as Rey and looked amazing) and we laughed a bit about how her rolling BB-8 was just from Target (he thought she had made it, lol).

After that, I asked about the book and he said he loved it so much and was looking forward to reading all the messages. I then showed him the video of Elizabeth with her book. His response? “Ah man, of course she would do that. She’s such an asshole, and a racist, just the worst. I’m gonna have to one-up her or something. I’ll record a video, maybe with her.” Not getting my hopes up on that, but we’ll see. Once he signed my photo, he came around the table to give me a hug, and let me tell you, this one was probably the best hug I’ve ever gotten in my life. I told him thank you for being so kind and he said “oh, no. You’ve been even kinder!” I died.

(and of course, after that hug, my stomach pain magically went away ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ the power of IDC, I guess.)

We then went to Elizabeth’s table, and she got excited bc I was getting the artwork signed that was in the front of the book. She thanked me again and said the book was really sweet. We chatted a bit about our time at the con and our plans for afterwards - it was pretty short and sweet, but I told her I would see her in a few hours at the duo photo op.

After that, I said goodbye to Karen, and then a few hours later made it to the photo op area for my team up photo, where I magically ran into @shieldsil again! We had a lovely chat waiting in line, and it was so nice getting to have one last meet up with a tumblr pal before my last experience at the con. I got my photo with both of them - they were amazing and sweet, obviously, and I said my last goodbye to Iain and Elizabeth :(. And then I was floored bc the photo turned out amazing. (again, I hate taking photos, so I was so happy). Both Silje and I had flights to catch, so we said a quick goodbye and I was off.

Annnnnnd that’s my entire C2E2 experience! If you read this whole thing, I applaud you. Thanks again to everyone that participated in the gift project! They genuinely loved seeing all the messages, and Iain specifically said he looked forward to reading them. And shoutout to everyone I met this weekend - you all were so kind and amazing, and you made my weekend even more enjoyable. <3