At last, the day finally arrived. After a month of mental and physical
preparation, I was ready for my first fic meet: Subrealicon 1999.
The idea started (as most good things do) with Kielle, The Scribe and
CFAN Goddess(tm). Jealous of the lucky souls who got to venture to
Toronto, Canada for DexCon, she decided to get up her own con for the comic
book fan fic fans out here on the West Coast. We talked about it briefly
during my interview with her and she extended
out an invitation to me at the time. I took it gladly, got on the mailing
list and just a short month later, I was tooling up the I-210 to Mice's house
in Pasadena.
I learned a lot about Mice during the half hour it took to get to the next
destination. She was a theater arts major at the Academy of the Arts, she
formerly lived in Idaho, she's a Monet-Bobby fan (Monet-Iceman), and she gets car sick. More on that later.
In no time at all, we were at Pebbs' house in Buena Park, not too far
from Knott's Berry Farm. She was very excited about the whole trip, having
gotten into fanfiction fairly recently. We jetted across the surface streets to
Anaheim, and Spark's house. She lives in a gated community, but was waiting
for us outside the gate. She hopped in the car, and we took off with great
haste towards the con site.
Now, I will admit, I am not the best driver in the world. I do know my
way around this state, having lived here most of my life. But there are even
some freeways I'm not that familiar with. When it came time to turn north
on the 405 towards Costa Mesa, I accidentally went south. No biggie, right? Just
turn the car around, go back in the other direction. Well.... remember how I
said Mice got carsick? Yep, right over the edge of the freeway, onto the cars
below. I apologized profusely, and chagrined, drove meekly to the Denny's.
Like a good den mother, Kielle was already there, with Laersyn in tow. David
Amaya was also there, with his surprise.
You'll see that I brought one, too. We learned
that Rogue and Kerri would be arriving later, then JB McDragon much later, and then
last of all, Dandelion (whose birthday was Wednesday). We talked and talked.
We learned that David was investigated by the Secret Service while doing research for
his story "First Mutant". Laersyn talked about Kielle's evil mind and how
she was responsible for some of the more gruesome death scenes in "Devil's
Due". And we also learned that Chester, Kielle's red panda, is French.
We must have talked for a good three hours before we decided to order.
I'd like to take the time right now to apologize profusely to the Denny's staff,
especially the poor boy who had to take Pebbs' glass of lemonade back to the
kitchen because we kept seeing black specks in it. Kerri and Rogue showed up,
and we hunkered down for a late lunch.
After eating, and much more gossip, we took off across the street to
the Inn at Costa Mesa, where Kerri had booked her room. We talked some more,
and it was there that Pebbs rescued Chester from my evil French-spouting clutches.
I'm sorry, Chester! Don't jump off the balcony! We shot the breeze
some more inside the room, where Rogue proceeded to embarass the heck out
of Kerri by mentioning her very good erotic fanfics. We were going to do
a role-playing game with a Subreality plot, but had the good sense to go
mini-golfing instead.
Palace Park in Irvine is a real fun place to be. There's a small mini-golf
course, a race track, bumper boats, a laser tag arena, batting cages....
There was a special deal where you could get three attraction coupons and
$2 in tokens for $13, so we all got that. First up was mini-golf. We
all got our balls (of course, Laersyn picked black), and headed off to
the greens.
The rules were that you couldn't have more than four people on a course. The
group was nine people strong. Somehow we had to split up. Of course much
later that weekend, we realized that we could have gone one group after
the other on one couse, but hey! we were all punch drunk. :) It got split
up into two teams: Me (not Me, but me), Sparks, Mice and David on one team, Kielle,
Laersyn, Kerri, Rogue and Pebbs on the other. Our paths intersected at one
point on the course, and it was then that we learned that Pebbs had named
her ball "Pedro" and would coax it down the green, bribing him with Spanish rice
and beans. We all did fairly well, but none were more surprised than me when
it turned out that I won, with a 52, Kielle coming in second with 58. If you
don't believe me, click on the scorecard:
Well, after that we just HAD to do the laser tag. We strapped on our vests,
charged up, and were ready to go. Kielle did the honorable thing, and went
to the red team so us green team people could shoot at her. There was a lot of runnilng, shouts of
"Cover me!" and in my excitement, I even did one of those little kneeling diving
rolls to get in better position. I think I got Kielle once, and I got hit about four
times. Poor Rogue couldn't get her vest to work and was only in for half
the allotted time period. Final score was Green Team 52, Red Team 4.
It was here that the group split up again. Pebbs, Sparks and Mice wanted
to do the slick track, and the rest of us were thirsty. We got drinks at
the McDonald's inside and I brought a Coke out to David, who was taking
pictures of the girls racing. Pebbs was in second place, with Mice just on
her tail when some crazy kid and his dad cut her off, sending her into
a spin. Then, she got rammed again when the track attendant was trying
to straighten her out. Mice avenged her honor by taking second place.
Then, they decided to go again, this time with me joining them. Kerri and
Rogue didn't want to use their third ticket, so they gave them to Mice
and Pebbs, and Sparks had to buy another one. The slick track was great. As we
were going 'round and 'round, I kept hearing that one song:
He's going the distance, he's going for speed,
She's all alone (all alone, all alone) in her time of need.
Our time there ended all too soon, when we realized that we still
had to meet JB McDragon back at Denny's. So it was back into the car,
a brief detour for directions, and off to Denny's.
I have to say right now that JB's family is so cool, and her little sister isn't
nearly as annoying as JB says she is. She's even read some of Laersyn's
stuff, which earned a shocked gasp from him. Her mom gave Kielle a polite version
of the third degree, and JB got directions back to San Diego from her dad. Now, the
group was nearly complete. We talked some more, and it was here that we got
our autographed copies of "X2-MST3K". If you read the inscription on
mine, you can tell she still hasn't forgiven me for turning her panda to
the "French Side". We also got an
exclusive look at the one and only "Laersyn" doll in existence, made
by the generous and talented hands of SabreBabe. I'm sure she'd be
willing to make one for you, too... if you gave her $10,000 that is.
Then, we were introduced to JB's friend, "Freddie-Bob
the Tiger", and the three mascots condescended to pose for a group shot (calm down, there's
only ketchup on that fork).
Sparks had to be home at midnight, so I drove her back to her house.
By that time, we still didn't know what we were going to do the next day.
I told her I'd give her a call, and said goodnight. When I returned to the
restaurant, they were still at it, though people were obviously starting to
wilt. We called it a night, and I drove Pebbs home (Mice elected to spend
the night with JB, Kerri and Rogue).
Go to Kielle's version of the Day One festivities!
Back to the Main Page
exclusive look at the one and only "Laersyn" doll in existence, made
by the generous and talented hands of SabreBabe. I'm sure she'd be
willing to make one for you, too... if you gave her $10,000 that is.
Then, we were introduced to JB's friend, "Freddie-Bob
the Tiger", and the three mascots condescended to pose for a group shot (calm down, there's
only ketchup on that fork).