So this past weekend I went to Connecticon. Without a camera.

Needless to say, I kicked myself as soon as I realized I'd forgotten it, but it was nice to absorb everything with my own eyes. It just means I get to record it all in words.

Seeing as it was my first con, I couldn't really compare it to anything else. It occurred to me there that I'd forgotten how immature and silly high school students could be - just watching them was very entertaining, but conversations tended to be unrewarding.

That said there were plenty of great looking cosplayers about, and you could easily tell who was being serious about it. It was especially amusing to watch the in-character events, which included cosplay dating and "chess". "Chess" turned out to be a fancy word for "bloodbath" because basically the audience would scream the most when the "lovely assistant" pointed to whomever they wanted to see fight. So it became a screaming match that decided who would win the mock fights. All moderated by Mookie (in a leather trench coat!), who got really into the catering-to-the-bloodthirsty-audience act. At one point, the audience got so short-sighted that they pitted the best two cosplayers against each other: The Joker and Captain Jack. The screams were apparently louder for Jack, although I couldn't tell and between The Joker licking his lips just right and Jack's perfect posture and gesturing, so Jack had to win. It seemed they'd planned it out, because they went back and forth for a whole minute with each trying to talk the other out of killing. Jack finally handcuffed the Joker and asked if that was far enough..but the audience (sans myself and a handful of others) said NO! Silly bloodthirsty audience. Somehow, the whole tournament went to Princess Tutu, who'd accepted a parley against Jack and kicked Mookie's ass with an eye-boggling combination of authentic ballet and improv karate. Basically, flying kicks with perfectly pointed pink toes. It was very, very amusing.

Between events my friends and I got to meet up with some really cool artists and listen in on some interesting panels. Some were boring, of course, but it all balanced out. It was really fun walking around in clothes I'd otherwise never wear and meeting new people. Next time I definitely want to cosplay at least one day, go to some of the events I missed, and talk to more of the cosplayers my age.