Conference (and meetup?) Debrief

[icmezzo_archive]

As you may have read earlier, zeitgeistic and firethesound have been in town the last few days, hanging out at my place and attending the Con.txt conference here in the DC area. I think we can safely say we had a great time. :)

It was requested that we share a little bit about the conference, so we decided to debrief on the sessions we attended and what we learned and experienced over the last few days. We put our thoughts into words via gchat, and I'll pretty much post it unedited below. Hope you enjoy!

ICMezzo: So, Zeitgeistic and FiretheSound and ICMezzo just spent three days attending Con.Txt, a fandom slash con in DC. We'd had some requests to talk about the con, so this is our attempt. La! Okay, so, how many people were there? It wasn't huge.
Zeitgeistic: 70ish
is my guess
Firethesound: definitely not huge. i'm terrible with estimates, so 60-70ish?
ICM: Not like a huge con. 3 sessions going on simultaneously.
Should we talk about some specifically?
Zeitgeistic: slashbabies
Firethesound: SLASHBABIES
that name begs for all caps
Zeitgeistic: surprisingly not mpregged
ICMezzo: Okay. Yes. Slashbabies. That was the first day.
Zeitgeistic: wishes
Firethesound: wish babies
ICMezzo: It was all about different ways (accidental and not) for our gay characters to get babies.
Zeitgeistic: weirdly no regular options were discussed until like 5 min til the end.
ICMezzo: I think there were a lot of RPF fandom folks in the panel, which maybe was part of it.
Zeitgeistic: stanley cup pregnancy featured, as i recall? or lilke, the stanley cup issues you a wish baby?
ICMezzo: They don't have potions to take and such. (Reason #436 why HP is the best.)
so they had to like. Discuss adoption and surrogacy. It got kinda heavy. I think i'd hoped for more mpreg itself.
Because Slashbabies.
Firethesound: same here. i was sort of disappointed by the lack of mpreg
Zeitgeistic: yeah. and i was also baffled that wishing for babies and them coming from storks was considered a valid option for non-magical fandoms. very gabriel garcia marquez, but without the literary value
Firethesound: magical realism ftw?
ICMezzo: Babies being left on doorsteps does have its place in our fandom...
But anyway. Less mpreg than we wanted. That's the consensus, I think. So. What else did we see that day? Slash through ages. That was ancient pairings. Think Gilgamesh/Enkidu. Some biblical pairings. Ruth/Naomi.
Zeitgeistic: there was a lot of posturing.
and irrelevant trivia
regarding roman naming systems
of which i knew from wikipedia
but didn't comment on because it wasn't the fucking topic
Firethesound: there was also a lot of knitting that happened. I'd just like to say that i was both surprised and excited by how many people were knitting during panels
Zeitgeistic: one girl was making this really elaborate blue lace
Firethesound: for once, i was not "that weird girl with the knitting"
it was strange and wonderful
ICMezzo: There was a bit of cosplay.
I don't know. The panel wasn't terribly cohesive as a panel.
Firethesound: yeah, from what the mod said she'd asked friends for help who are in relevant fandoms, and they all flaked out on her
Zeitgeistic: so we talked about les mis
surprisingly large fandom
Firethesound: which is a shame because i feel like that panel had a lot of potential for being sort of awesome
Zeitgeistic:
yeah i was really hoping for gilgamesh slash recs
ICMezzo:
yesssss..
okay. Well. We'll just have to write some.
Zeitgeistic:
curling
ICMezzo:
(We said that about 234872034875423 times this weekend.)
Firethesound:
(so many things to write!)
ICMezzo:
Oh! And Rivers of London panel!
Zeitgeistic:
which is cool but would be hard to write for, imo
ICMezzo:
Yes. Magic for adults, pretty much. Based in London, but would be very hard to write as someone not based there. And the characters don't necessarily lend themselves to slash.
(Though I've only read the first book so far.)
But that panel was pretty interesting, thinking about alternate magic systems and such.
Firethesound:
i think that was one of the more interesting panels we attended. the discussion was more meta than slash, but i really love meta so it worked for me
ICMezzo:
Yes. Agreed. It was a good discussion.
Firethesound:
Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronivitch
*Aaronovitch
ICMezzo:
Definitely worth a read. (It's a book series.)
Firethesound:
(and all of them are awesome!)
ICMezzo:
Any other first day takeaways?
Finding HP folks was tougher than I thought.
Firethesound:
yeah, i thought there would be way more than there were.
but it was a lot of hockey rpf and teen wolf and stargate sga, i think were the big ones that kept coming up
ICMezzo:
And Avengers.
Firethesound:
oh yes, avengers
Zeitgeistic:
captain america and avengers
ICMezzo:
Because Steve.
:)
Firethesound:
because bucky feels, is what i got from the captain america panel
ICMezzo:
Right. We went to Captain America panel on day 2. That was a good one, I thought.
Firethesound:
yes, definitely one of the most fun and engaging we saw, i think
ICMezzo:
Energy.
Zeitgeistic:
it made me interested in the fandom. or at least watching the movies (which i haven't done)
Firethesound:
it made me want to go read captain america/avengers fic, so i think that's a success
ICMezzo:
Yes. I know. I read a bit in the fandom, but I want to read some more now.
we may need some recs...
Zeitgeistic:
^^
Firethesound:
seconded!
ICMezzo:
So, we also went to a session on writing AU.
Zeitgeistic:
there was bingo.
which sort of showed all the different AU tropes there are
ICMezzo:
and the point of AUs... such as characterization.
Zeitgeistic:
(coffee shop AU is apparently in every fandom everywhere)
ICMezzo:
Remember Friends TV show? Makes me wonder if that Fandom has a coffee shop AU...
ANYWAY. (irrelevant)
there were some AUs that seem to be prevalent in a lot of fandoms but not so much in HP. maybe tehre are things we need to explore?
Steampunk. Space?
Firethesound:
yes, there were a lot of things that came up (in other panels as well) that i just had never encountered before, since like 90% of what i read is HP
definitely makes me want to branch out a little more
::coughAVENGERScough::
ICMezzo:
and adopt what works back into HP too.
Firethesound:
ooh, yes!
ICMezzo:
(I need more steampunk art)
Firethesound:
(everyone needs more steampunk art)
Zeitgeistic:
yes
ICMezzo:
Regency
That would also be amazing for art.
(As would space.)
Oh, it did seem that "HP" serves as an AU for almost every other fandom. I think that's cool.
Firethesound:
ha, yes! i found that amusing
ICMezzo:
Why did I put scare quotes around HP? #novice
Zeitgeistic:
lol harry potter AU was one of the bingo spots
ICMezzo:
yes. EVERYONE wants to go to Hogwarts. :D
Firethesound:
well who wouldn't?
Zeitgeistic:
or make fun of hogwarts
ICMezzo:
Pffft.
Firethesound:
they're only jealous they didn't get their hogwarts letters
ICMezzo:
Last session that day was on Harry Potter.
Harry Potter Now and Forever.
Firethesound:
the one i think we were all looking forward to most!
ICMezzo:
Something like that.
It was...odd. There was a lot of discussion about JKR and her work on characters like Neville and Draco and treatment of Slytherins.
Zeitgeistic:
and some pats on the back about JKR coming out against hermione/ron
i got the feeling that no one in the room was aware of harry potter fandom at all
ICMezzo:
a lot of strong opinions about canon though.
Firethesound:
or they'd been out of the fandom for a few years at least
Zeitgeistic:
i think lettered was recced in every panel we went to tho
ICMezzo:
Yes. They seemed surprise that people were still writing.
Zeitgeistic:
including this one
ICMezzo:
Yes. in many fandoms.
We exchanged recs toward the end.
People seemed surprised that things were still being written and had nooooo idea where to find anything.
I hope we helped?
Firethesound:
we pointed them at capitu's my_drarry_recs
which is where i get a lot of my recs from
ICMezzo:
Yes. And some people knew of fics by saras_girl (Turn and Stanley-fic)
Oh, and A Piercing Comfort by talithan.
We had to fill in a lot of the titles and authors, though.
Firethesound:
we impressed them with our vast knowledge of authors and titles
ICMezzo:
They thought us to be encyclopedias...for knowing TURN!
Zeitgeistic:
i also got to rec zero at the bone, so my life has meaning
ICMezzo:
Tell us more about that one?
Zeitgeistic:
lol this is like a coke can in an avengers movie
ICMezzo:
lol. Mkay. You can comment with a link or more info in the LJ post.
Someone knew about Smoochfest.
So some people are still reading current fests.
There were some other Harry/Draco shippers there.
Were there other ships? A few rarepair folks?
Didn't HP_beholder come up?
Firethesound:
yeah, along with snarry
Zeitgeistic:
someone really wanted dumbledore/snape recs
ICMezzo:
Yes. I...didn't have much to offer there.
#nojudgment
Firethesound:
it was fun to be around fellow HP fans, but it felt like most of the other people there had moved on to other fandoms in recent years
so many of the recs we got were either very popular stories we'd already read (eg: Turn) or things that have been around for years
luckily we had each other and a free evening, and now i have enough recced stories to keep me going for several weeks, at least
Zeitgeistic:
good lord yes
ICMezzo:
Yes. After the con we had a fun dinner in DC with a beautiful waiter who was clearly Harry/Draco's child.
Zeitgeistic:
and all the new fandoms we discovered too
oh god, yes. he was the product of legit mpreg
Firethesound:
oh, that waiter
Zeitgeistic:
tall, pointy, blond, with glasses
ICMezzo:
headcanon green eyes?
(he had his father's eyes)
Zeitgeistic:
yes and headcanon named kevin because draco would never let harry name their child after harry's parents and harry would never let draco name their child something like scorpius
Firethesound:
compromise!
ICMezzo:
He often paused to watch the England/Italy game...
Zeitgeistic:
(Italy won)
ICMezzo:
Quidditch not being broadcast on this side of the pond.
Zeitgeistic:
and we ate bacon wrapped dates
or firethesound: and i did
Firethesound:
good lord those things were fucking good
Zeitgeistic:
i licked that fucking kebab stick
Firethesound:
fellating?
ICMezzo:
It was a delicious evening.
We had sangria.
Zeitgeistic:
let's talk briefly about our effective margaritas
ICMezzo:
Oh. Yes. The first night.
Firethesound:
HIGHLY effective margaritas
ICMezzo:
Luckily in walking distance of my house.
Firethesound:
i had half of mine. just half
Zeitgeistic:
we didn't fall in the bay on the way home thank god
near thing.
Firethesound:
because i would probably have been unable to manage the short walk back if i'd had the whole thing
ICMezzo:
It was a close call.
Zeitgeistic:
they were so strong and so delish
like a good man
ICMezzo:
We had a pitcher. Or rather, it had us.
New pairing firethesound/zeitgeistic/icmezzo/margaritas/hotwaiter
I ship it.
Firethesound:
HIS NAME IS KEVIN
Zeitgeistic:
god OT4
and curling
Firethesound:
OT5
Zeitgeistic:
icy toe sex
Firethesound:
and coffee shop AU
Zeitgeistic:
YESSSS
with rimming
Firethesound:
it works because curling has brooms, which would somehow be involved in all this
Zeitgeistic:
(we are not drunk right now)
Firethesound:
(sadly)
ICMezzo:
(pauses to go open a bottle of wine)
Zeitgeistic:
#yolo
we now all have wine
Firethesound:
thank you, mezzo!
ICMezzo:
YAY!
Let's see. Today we went to 3 other sessions. We started with Tagging.
Zeitgeistic:
not a kink
Firethesound:
sounds like one
Zeitgeistic:
actual AO3 tagging
ICMezzo:
could be a kink
metadata is hot
So one of the AO3 tag wranglers was there.
Firethesound:
not the most exciting panel we attended, but probably one of the most informative
ICMezzo:
She was helpful, i thought.
Firethesound:
she gave us sort of "behind the scenes" info about how exactly tagging works
ICMezzo:
I wanted to download her brain about how it all works.
Zeitgeistic:
i learned why " - Freeform" shows up after some tags
ICMezzo:
and why is that?
Zeitgeistic:
but I won't tell you
Firethesound:
you're such a brat
ICMezzo:
(takes away your wine)
Zeitgeistic:
it's super difficult to explain oh my god
okay fine
Firethesound:
lol
Zeitgeistic:
because you're doing it wrong, basically
Firethesound:
so not a brat, just lazy
Zeitgeistic:
if it shows up it means that someone has already used that tag either as a canonical tag or a freeform tag and since there can't be 2 tags that are exactly the same, the system adds that fugly freeform bit to the end
so if you see it, move your tag. or don't and accept the freeform.
ICMezzo:
Or change the punctuation slightly?
add a final space or something?
I wasn't listening.
Zeitgeistic:
that is the cheap way
don't be lazy
like me
ICMezzo:
We also learned to be careful with the Penguin tag.
Zeitgeistic:
Penguins*
ICMezzo:
Because you'll end up getting a lot of hockey fic when you just want to read about Penguin!Draco.
Firethesound:
i'd love to read about penguin draco
just saying
ICMezzo:
Our fandom is awesome enough to have several.
So that's that sorted.
Firethesound:
we learned about tumblr too
for example, only the first five tags listed are searchable
i had no idea
or if you reblog something and add tags, your tags are not searchable
ICMezzo:
I suppose I'll be less inclined to write ridiculous tags in the future on AO3, I suppose.
Though I sort of love ridiculous tagging.
Firethesound:
i do too. i probably won't stop
Zeitgeistic:
even tho i really love long tags
ICMezzo:
But now that I know there's someone behind the scenes who has to deal with me tagging for centaur euphemisms...
Zeitgeistic:
but i think it should be differentiated...like "oh my god I can't believe I wrote this" tags are annoying, but I like "sherlock is a hot mess" tags
Firethesound:
yes, that's an important distinction to make
ICMezzo:
mmmm. hotmess!sherlock
Zeitgeistic:
it gives insight into feels
Firethesound:
really, hotmess!anyone
Zeitgeistic:
this
ICMezzo:
srsly
The second panel we did today was on bisexuality.
(non-monosexuality)
Zeitgeistic:
i liked this one a lot. it was so well prepared
ICMezzo:
The mod was fantastic.
Zeitgeistic:
the mods were really on their game. or one was at least.
Firethesound:
yes, it was really well organized and engaging
Zeitgeistic:
and good discussion
Firethesound:
and they made pins for everyone
Zeitgeistic:
good call to action
ICMezzo:
Serious at times...heartfelt...and then discussion of bi-characters.
Zeitgeistic:
loved that
ICMezzo:
in canon or plausibly canon.
Zeitgeistic:
again, made me interested in other fandoms, although now i can't remember which fandoms they were from
13 from House was mentioned.
ICMezzo:
There are a lot of bisexual vampires in various fandoms.
I remember that.
Zeitgeistic:
And Teen Wolf of course
ICMezzo:
Right. And Queer as Folk came up.
Zeitgeistic:
vampires were talked about in detail, because they're so old it's like, after so many years, gender doesn't matter to them (or this was the theory)
ICMezzo:
What were some of the others where it was plausible?
Steve Rogers was mentioned there. Stiles from Teen Wolf.
A lot from minor fandoms.
Tom Daley RPF
Zeitgeistic:
Penny Dreadful
ICMezzo:
I missed the call to action for a bathroom break. Explain?
Firethesound:
basically, WRITE BI CHARACTERS IN YOUR FIC
ICMezzo:
Accio Ginny
Zeitgeistic:
acknowledge characters who have canonical het relationships that you are now slashing instead of conveniently ignoring the fact that harry once liked cho and ginny
that was the takeaway
Firethesound:
yep
ICMezzo:
less handwaving. i could do some of that personally.
Firethesound:
same here
Zeitgeistic:
me too
and THEN.
THE PANEL OF A.
ICMezzo:
Last one we went to was an Asexuality Roundtable.
Zeitgeistic:
mezzo has opinions
so did one mom
who was using it as group therapy
ICMezzo:
There was a sharing of resources, basic ones, like AVEN, which was helpful, I think.
There is a lot that's not known about asexuality and demi and gray-A sexuality by the general population. So the sharing of resources is never a bad thing. There are a few dedicated tumblrs too.
and some of that came up in the panel. so i hope in some ways there was some education for folks.
Please, please, please. If someone tells you they are asexual, don't tell them they aren't or tell them they haven't met the right person or ought to seek medical help for hormones or whatever. That can be so, so damaging.
steps down from soapbox
Zeitgeistic:
Agreed.
I think that part stood out to all of us from this panel, but I also came away from it with some broader understanding of demi-sexuality. And of course, some asexy recs (mostly Sherlock but there was one Pacific Rim one that sounded good enough for me to toe that fandom)
Firethesound:
seconding all of that
ICMezzo:
And Lettered's Fall of the Veils of course. <3333 (Rec came from another multifandom reader, but I was pleased to learn she'd found it!)
Zeitgeistic:
Lettered's everything was recced
ICMezzo:
Haha. True.
Zeitgeistic:
we personally recced the correct spelling of her name
Firethesound:
the other message i think we all took away from the con as a whole: lettered is awesome
Zeitgeistic:
and curling
ICMezzo:
and margaritas.
and Harry Potter.
Zeitgeistic:
and we are incredibly cool people
ICMezzo:
We srsly are.
(I hope you all get to meet these two someday.)
Zeitgeistic:
and we suck at writing things while hanging out with icmezzo because we have such a good time that we can't concentrate
Firethesound:
yes, that. it'd be a problem if it wasn't so much fun
ICMezzo:
(Zeitgeistic is so full of life and firethesound has the absolute best giggle.)
Zeitgeistic:
(I'm sorry I asked for a tropes extension, Nox and Mari!)
(but thanks anyway!)
Firethesound:
(and i just learned that i giggle...)
ICMezzo:
:D
Zeitgeistic:
And CHOLERA needs a cameo
ICMezzo:
Cholera is my cat. Actually named Clara.
I think the margaritas were responsible for that as well...
Firethesound:
the margaritas were responsible for a lot of things
ICMezzo:
>.>
Any closing remarks, ladies?
Zeitgeistic:
there was a starfighter update
and also tropes
Firethesound:
not really. just that i feel like our little corner of HP is really something special. everyone i've met so far, especially these two here, have just been the nicest people <3
it's incredible to meet someone for the first time and within a few minutes we're talking like we've known each other for ages
ICMezzo:
It didn't take long.
Zeitgeistic:
i knowwww! we've had a really good time
Firethesound:
(wine makes me all lovey. blame mezzo for that. she brought it to me. because she's a wonderful hostess.)
Zeitgeistic:
yes she is
ICMezzo:
My work here is done.
Zeitgeistic:
she keeps asking if we need anything. my mom doesn't even do that
ICMezzo:
LOL
OKAY....
I think that's it.
Thanks for reading. and feel free to ask us specific questions or whatever if you have them.
BYE!


Addendum: (Because we forgot this one earlier)
We caught one other panel that first day, on inverted tropes.
Firethesound:
run by Beneficent
ICMezzo:
That was the bestest mod.
She had wings.
Firethesound:
like Maleficent, except the good fairy version of her
she was sparkly
Zeitgeistic:
i love her
ICMezzo:
Wings are magical.
Zeitgeistic:
i want to friend her on LJ but I don't knw her name
ICMezzo:
I want them.
Yes. I feel like she should be our BFF immediately.
So what did we talk about?
Zeitgeistic:
parent fic!
lol surprise parents on your doorstep instead of baby on the doorstep
someone write this
ICMezzo:
lol.
Firethesound:
seconded
ICMezzo:
oh, and like waking up straight instead of waking up gay.
Zeitgeistic:
pretend divorce and forced divorce. those sound awesome
so much potential for angst
Firethesound:
so many fic ideas there...
Zeitgeistic:
and there was also losing super powers instead of gaining them
Firethesound:
aliens kept them from having sex
ICMezzo:
FtS is giggling again.
Firethesound:
(it was house-elves)
(it's always house-elves)
Zeitgeistic:
(of course)
ICMezzo:
houseelves will do it every time.
but that's a different pairing...
Zeitgeistic:
(she's gigglng)
ICMezzo:
Kreacher/Dobby. Yummy.
Aaaaand the wine has kicked in.
So that was a fun panel.
Firethesound:
yes
ICMezzo:
Good for ideas.

Comments

[gracerene]

Oh I know! I have to admit I wasn't ?that crazy about the first Captain America, but I've heard such fantastic things about Winter Soldier that I am dying to see it. And I fully expect to fell the need to immerse myself in Steve/Bucky fics immediately afterwards

And I am seriously hoping there is a lot more Steve/Tony interaction in the next Avengers, because they are great together :D