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The Post Pax11:Prime Stories Post

Below are stories. If you want to skip to the games, you will find that here.

PAX11 is over, and it was amazing. For 5 days I was in heavenly bliss. I can’t wait for next year.

One thing to change is skipping any Colorado-centric activities. Not that I didn’t enjoy hanging out with the same people I live 10minutes away from, but if we all want to go out to dinner we should not travel to Seattle to do it.

This was my first year as an Enforcer, and I cannot wait to do it again. I won’t lie, it was a lot of work. I had to give up doing somethings that I wanted to do such as a cheese tour Sunday morning and playing Indie RPGs. But I got to experience much more PAX. I wore the shirt in a Morning-Morning-Afternoon shift pattern, which I think is /the/ way to do it. Next year I’ll need to bring another shirt with me to shift so that I can skip going back to the hotel room. And yes, I will be wearing the shirt again next year. I cannot imagine going back to PAX as a regular attendee.

I worked Spareboard, and the chaos of it really suites me well. I’ll go from running to the store for water to managing a line to carrying stuff around. The whole “Being dropped into a chaotic situation without a briefing” is my idea of heaven.

My first shift I got grabbed by some random Enforcer to help post QR codes all over the place. We finish up in one area, and hop into an elevator to the next. The Enforcer I’m with talks with some guy who got in with us, and the new guy gives a perfect straight line. I can’t help myself, and out comes the snarky reply. The new guy returns the favor, and for the next few moments we’re joking back and forth. As we separate into the crowd I get back to focusing on the task of taping little laminated sheets of plastic… cause holy fuck I was just throwing jokes with Tycho and there is no way I am going to freak out about that.  (I am totally freaking out about that.)

The last day I got tapped to help manage Wil Wheaton’s line. Turns out that people can be a little crazy for Wil Wheaton. I accidentally got a large chunk of the line into a discussion regarding the homophobic theme’s of a painting hanging above the line. At least, it started with themes of homophobia and went to themes of the burial of hope. We all agreed that whoever choose the artwork had strange tastes.

The line had gotten so long that I had to “break” the line across a traffic flow. By “break” I mean that I had to end the line, and start a new line on the other side of the main flow. As the original line moved forward creating space, I would move people from the 2nd line to the new line. This means I have to also stop moving people from the 2nd line to the new line.  Suddenly, as I’m stopping the line the woman I stopped says to me “You only stopped me because I’m Black”, using That Voice. No doubt you’ve experienced That Voice before. That Voice makes a statement. That Voice reaches in, and grabs hold of you, and you react. I can’t speak for anyone else, but That Voice says to me “This is why you broke up with me”, and I react. With a big old grin I point to the cosplayer in front of her and say “No, I stopped you because you weren’t Link”. I keep the Big Grin up, to let her know how funny I think I am. She retorts back, and I twist it into the punchline of a joke. I don’t remember the back and forth of it, but a few lines of Attitude (on her part) and Snark (on my part) later I’ve got my fists on my chest like a heart, and in my best Doctor-Evil-Loves-You voice I say “You’ll always be special to me, Random Minion Number One”. She stares at me. The Line laughs at our exchange. Finally she cracks a smile and says “You get away with it this time”. (I get away with it all the time)

Sadly, the time comes where I have to cap the line for Wil Wheaton. There just isn’t enough Wil Wheaton for the universe. I have to break the bad news to countless Wil fans. Most are understanding, some try to talk me into letting them sneak in, one or two are upset. One guy I had talked to the day before when he found out that his stroller was banned. He was pretty upset then, and was still upset about it despite being sent as far up the chain as possible. But we talked for a bit, and while I don’t think he liked that he couldn’t bring his kid’s stroller in or get into the Wil Wheaton line, he was able to vent for a bit and I think he felt better for it.

Perhaps the strangest thing about the Wil Wheaton line was the people asking for autographs. Not just autographs from Wil Wheaton. When they couldn’t get autographs from Wil Wheaton, I had 3 people ask for autographs from me. One girl asked me to sign her purse.

Later I am walking with Paul & Storm shlepping some stuff for them with another Enforcer. The four of us get into an elevator, and Light Link and Dark Link jump in with us. Light Link bumps into the Enforcer, who makes a comment, which ellecits a comment from Paul (or Storm? Not sure), which leads to joking, and laughing, and smart ass comments heading back and forth. Suddenly, after a few minutes, the conversation dies in an awkward pause. We are in an elevator, we shouldn’t be having a conversation for a few minutes. And everyone had just realized that. Sheepishly someone looks at the control panel, and upon finding it blank pressed a button.

There are so many stories to tell; like how Spencer is a huge Narc and I can’t trust him for anything, to staying up till 3am talking with a perfect stranger. Walking around the Utilikilt store in my underwear, and flashing random women on the street when they asked me too. And so much more.

One Trackback/Pingback

  1. Blue Lochiel › The Post Pax11:Prime Games Post on Sunday, September 4, 2011 at 11:26

    […] Below are quick reviews of games. If you want read the stories, you will find that here. […]

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