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gnimaerdSo I went back to the food court, after getting my wrist stamped so I could get back into the Expo main area, and wondered over to the burger place where I'd arranged to meet up with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
andthedescent . I realise, however, that I'm not going to be able to stomach anything as stodgy as they're selling (I still feel pretty sick at this point - because now I'm faced with the idea that I'm ACTUALLY going to see the cast soon and probably be really close to them and get their autographs and OH MY GOD), so I go to the coffee place and get a tuna melt panini and a milk shake in the hopes of hyking up my blood sugar levels so that I can stop shaking. (Yes, I was shaking by this point - I know, I know, I'm a melodramatic fangirl - bear with me).
Anyway, I couldn't stomach the panini or the milk shake either, really. I forced down half the panini and stopped, scared I'd vomit. The milk shake (strawberry) was easier but too sweet for me to enjoy. Still, by the time I got half way through it I'd stopped trembling so I reckoned I was doing okay.
I sat on a metal bench against a wall and sipped away with my sign on my stomach, to helpandthedescent spot me if she could. It was only half ten so I wasn't expecting her until eleven anyway, so I was just trying to calm down a bit and get my shit back together. I watched the droves of cosplayers and ranked them in order of awesomeness in my head.
At one point a girl of about fifteen scurried up to me and said 'I'll hug you!' which she did. Then she made the Star Trek sign at me (there's probably a proper name for it - the thing where you part your fingers so there's two on each side?) said 'live long and prosper' and scurried after her gang.
I randomly felt WAY better. Clearly, hugs from trekkies have curitive powers.
Anyway,andthedescent managed to find me and was amazingly nice about my total failure to get her an autograph ticket. We wondered the expo together and looked at the stalls and chatted about my lack of sleep and how weird it was to see so many geeks in the same place. At that point we headed over to the main theatre where the panels were being held and peeped inside. I was exhausted, and I also still had a little niggling worry in the back of my head that we might not get into the panel if we queued too late, so I suggested, despite the fact that it was only half eleven and the Merlin panel wasn't till one, that we just slip in now and wait. andthedescent decided to tolerate my neurosis and agreed, and we went in and sat through a talk that went COMPLETELY over our heads about anime.
Then the original actress to play The Bionic Woman in the seventies came on and did a talk and the uber-geek in me was kind of impressed on that front; she was really nice and I thought it was a pity that the theatre was basically empty apart from a few people who were clearly her dedicated fans and people like me andandthedescent , who were Merlin obsessives sneaking in early.
The Bionic Woman and one of the producers(?) of the original show.
As time passed I felt increasingly sorry both for the guy who was MC-ing the panels and for the other panelists, because the theatre was getting more and more full of jittery, wound-up, hyper-active Merlin fans waiting for their panel to come on, and it was their job to keep us calm and entertained whilst we waited. Me andandthedescent slid down nearer to the front whilst those seats were still empty and set up camp there. A crowd of merlin fangirls came in and sat in the front two rows on the other side; I spotted a Lolita-wearing fangirl who I'd seen in the queue earlier, with a big home-made banner declairing her love for Colin Morgan on one side and Arthur/Merlin slash on the other.
The guy who played the Bunny in Donnie Darko. He was really funny, actually - also disserved abigger, more interested audience than he got. I felt REALLY bad for the panelists on before the Merlin cast....
I couldn't stop playing with my camera strap (people will tell you I'm a fiddler) and I noticed that a lot of the other fangirls were twitchy too. The tension in the air was beginning to mount and it was barely midday.
At about half twelve the MC guy asked anyone who was in the audience with a Merlin autograph ticket to hold it up so that it could be stamped to comfirm that we'd actually attended the panel - without that stamp the tickets were worthless so we all held our tickets up. The MC did his best to keep us entertained by giving away free stuff and getting us to cheer at random things - I was just finding it increasingly exhausting.
More panelists came on - a guy who'd written a movie I now really want to see, called Franklyn, which looks like Neverwhere meats Watchment; two guys who'd written and produced another movie called Moon, which looked like 2001 A Space Odyssey meets Alien. More free stuff was given out. More fangirls arrived. More people got very, very nervous.
The guy who wrote Franklyn.^
The guys who wrote and produced Moon. ^
The Moon guys were the last panel before the Merlin panel was due on so once they went off the mood hit a new level of barely-contained crazy. There seemed to be some kind of delay (a guy in a suit who I think was chaperoning the cast was striding about all over the place talking into a walkie talkie) because One PM came and went and the cast didn't. The MC guy was VERY aware that the audience was getting impatient, not least because the VERY vocal fangirls in the front, across from me andandthedescent were making their displeasure at the delay known. The more wound up they got, the louder they got, screaming and cheering about wanting Colin and/or Bradley. Even the rest of the audience was beginning to shift about nervously and I could hear people muttering with increasing frustration. It was now quarter past and no sign of them; now twenty past and no sign.
Finally, almost to prove that the cast WERE actually about, the MC guy disappeared back stage and got Bradley to say hi via the microphone, which sent the fangirls into such praxisms that if one of them had actually had a seizure I wouldn't have been surprised.
The MC came back and got us to do some more cheering - I was starting to feel week again so I didn't - he teased a couple of the girls down the front who had written Bradley's name across their cleavages and gave some more free stuff away and then finally, FINALLY whatever was wrong got sorted out and at half past one, the MC disappeared backstage a second time and announced Bradley James.
andthedescent . I realise, however, that I'm not going to be able to stomach anything as stodgy as they're selling (I still feel pretty sick at this point - because now I'm faced with the idea that I'm ACTUALLY going to see the cast soon and probably be really close to them and get their autographs and OH MY GOD), so I go to the coffee place and get a tuna melt panini and a milk shake in the hopes of hyking up my blood sugar levels so that I can stop shaking. (Yes, I was shaking by this point - I know, I know, I'm a melodramatic fangirl - bear with me).I'm so jittery that I don't spot the milkshake menu in HUGE FREAKING LETTERS on the front of their desk and ask the guy behind the counter what flavours they do. He was, however, clearly used to fangirls having absent-freaking-out-fangirly moments, though, because he patiently handed me the menu and told me not worry about it.
Anyway, I couldn't stomach the panini or the milk shake either, really. I forced down half the panini and stopped, scared I'd vomit. The milk shake (strawberry) was easier but too sweet for me to enjoy. Still, by the time I got half way through it I'd stopped trembling so I reckoned I was doing okay.
I sat on a metal bench against a wall and sipped away with my sign on my stomach, to help
andthedescent spot me if she could. It was only half ten so I wasn't expecting her until eleven anyway, so I was just trying to calm down a bit and get my shit back together. I watched the droves of cosplayers and ranked them in order of awesomeness in my head.At one point a girl of about fifteen scurried up to me and said 'I'll hug you!' which she did. Then she made the Star Trek sign at me (there's probably a proper name for it - the thing where you part your fingers so there's two on each side?) said 'live long and prosper' and scurried after her gang.
I randomly felt WAY better. Clearly, hugs from trekkies have curitive powers.
Anyway,
andthedescent managed to find me and was amazingly nice about my total failure to get her an autograph ticket. We wondered the expo together and looked at the stalls and chatted about my lack of sleep and how weird it was to see so many geeks in the same place. At that point we headed over to the main theatre where the panels were being held and peeped inside. I was exhausted, and I also still had a little niggling worry in the back of my head that we might not get into the panel if we queued too late, so I suggested, despite the fact that it was only half eleven and the Merlin panel wasn't till one, that we just slip in now and wait. andthedescent decided to tolerate my neurosis and agreed, and we went in and sat through a talk that went COMPLETELY over our heads about anime. Then the original actress to play The Bionic Woman in the seventies came on and did a talk and the uber-geek in me was kind of impressed on that front; she was really nice and I thought it was a pity that the theatre was basically empty apart from a few people who were clearly her dedicated fans and people like me and
andthedescent , who were Merlin obsessives sneaking in early.The Bionic Woman and one of the producers(?) of the original show.
As time passed I felt increasingly sorry both for the guy who was MC-ing the panels and for the other panelists, because the theatre was getting more and more full of jittery, wound-up, hyper-active Merlin fans waiting for their panel to come on, and it was their job to keep us calm and entertained whilst we waited. Me and
andthedescent slid down nearer to the front whilst those seats were still empty and set up camp there. A crowd of merlin fangirls came in and sat in the front two rows on the other side; I spotted a Lolita-wearing fangirl who I'd seen in the queue earlier, with a big home-made banner declairing her love for Colin Morgan on one side and Arthur/Merlin slash on the other.The guy who played the Bunny in Donnie Darko. He was really funny, actually - also disserved abigger, more interested audience than he got. I felt REALLY bad for the panelists on before the Merlin cast....
I couldn't stop playing with my camera strap (people will tell you I'm a fiddler) and I noticed that a lot of the other fangirls were twitchy too. The tension in the air was beginning to mount and it was barely midday.
At about half twelve the MC guy asked anyone who was in the audience with a Merlin autograph ticket to hold it up so that it could be stamped to comfirm that we'd actually attended the panel - without that stamp the tickets were worthless so we all held our tickets up. The MC did his best to keep us entertained by giving away free stuff and getting us to cheer at random things - I was just finding it increasingly exhausting.
More panelists came on - a guy who'd written a movie I now really want to see, called Franklyn, which looks like Neverwhere meats Watchment; two guys who'd written and produced another movie called Moon, which looked like 2001 A Space Odyssey meets Alien. More free stuff was given out. More fangirls arrived. More people got very, very nervous.
The guy who wrote Franklyn.^
The guys who wrote and produced Moon. ^
The Moon guys were the last panel before the Merlin panel was due on so once they went off the mood hit a new level of barely-contained crazy. There seemed to be some kind of delay (a guy in a suit who I think was chaperoning the cast was striding about all over the place talking into a walkie talkie) because One PM came and went and the cast didn't. The MC guy was VERY aware that the audience was getting impatient, not least because the VERY vocal fangirls in the front, across from me and
andthedescent were making their displeasure at the delay known. The more wound up they got, the louder they got, screaming and cheering about wanting Colin and/or Bradley. Even the rest of the audience was beginning to shift about nervously and I could hear people muttering with increasing frustration. It was now quarter past and no sign of them; now twenty past and no sign.Finally, almost to prove that the cast WERE actually about, the MC guy disappeared back stage and got Bradley to say hi via the microphone, which sent the fangirls into such praxisms that if one of them had actually had a seizure I wouldn't have been surprised.
The MC came back and got us to do some more cheering - I was starting to feel week again so I didn't - he teased a couple of the girls down the front who had written Bradley's name across their cleavages and gave some more free stuff away and then finally, FINALLY whatever was wrong got sorted out and at half past one, the MC disappeared backstage a second time and announced Bradley James.
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 11:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 11:21 pm (UTC):D :D :D
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Date: 2009-05-24 11:23 pm (UTC)Ugh, I sound like a moron (I really hate the sound of my own voice, though). Oh well. ^_^
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Date: 2009-05-24 11:27 pm (UTC)Although I feel kinda stalkerish for knowing what your voice sounds like now. XD Like, WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION or something.
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Date: 2009-05-24 11:32 pm (UTC)I've posted up my account of what happened if you feel like wading through my neurosis to get to my inner monologue whilst that moment was being taped.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 11:35 pm (UTC)It was really brave of you to comment. Like seriously, I would have been WAY too terrified. And I wish you had pics of the cosplayers! I'm getting all giggly just thinking about it.
Also, oh my god. Closer. The femmeslash gods love us, clearly.