momebie | Dragon*Con Day 2: Captain Kirk is climbing a mountain.

Back to day one!

~~WHY IS HE CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN!?~~ Man. Friday started very early. Not as early as I was anticipating it starting, since

scifigirl decided that she didn't want to get up at 4:30 to be in the Shatner/Nimoy line at 5am, but early enough after very little sleep. As an added plus, though, I got to talk to unexpected!

hermione_like for a short while as we were both waiting for our groups.

This is the view from the 36th floor of the Marriott at 6:30 in the morning. It's not a bad view.

Even though we had heard that they weren't allowing people to line up for panels more than two hours in advance, when we showed up to the Shatner/Nimoy line at the Hyatt at about 7:45 it was already wrapped well around the building. This was incredibly misleading though, as when we were actually let into the room we were in the first set of chairs. This is me and

scifigirl waiting calmly for The Experience.

You guys, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are hilarious together. You can tell they've been good friends for a long time, the way they meander off on personal tangents and keep each other riled and in check. William Shatner actually reminded me a bit of my father, in that he's funny, and you can tell he thinks he's funny, and you're not sure whether you want to chuckle at him or kick him in the shins for that. Some guy brought up the Priceline commercials and received the finger. Of course, Nimoy reprimanded the Shat for this lapse in decorum, but Shatner said innocently that he was merely scratching his head. And then proceeded to demonstrate.

There was also some jocularity involving the moderator's beard. Shatner asked 'what kind of character would have a beard like that anyway?

After that it was off like a shot to the Gareth David-Lloyd/James Marsters panel over in the Sheraton. There was some issue in exiting the Shatner/Nimoy panel so we were afraid we were going to miss it, but we ended up screeching in just in time to see them start. Sadly, I have no photos from that panel that came out, because I was kind of far back. (Much thanks to

theemdash, btw, for saving some seats, or I'd have been EVEN FARTHER back.) There is video of James Marsters singing, which is going to be in my recap/mash up vlog this week. There is not video of Gareth David-Lloyd doing 'If I Had a Hammer' in a Nimoy voice, but I highly advise you to search for it if you're a GDL fan.

My favorite part of that panel was when they were asked what their least favorite questions to answer were and Gareth put on this hilarious falsetto and said 'what's it like to kiss John Barrowman?' ♥

This is a picture of the rather impressive Hagrid costume we ran into on our way to the Marsters/GDL panel. I don't even know how this guy walked around like that.

After that

theemdash and I tried to get into the steampunk overview panel and were thwarted by people spilling out into the hall. It seems like there are more people interested in steampunk this year, which makes me happy. Not only is it an exciting and lovely movement, both visually and in a hands on creator sense, but as someone who would like to sell a novel in that genre in the next year or so, I'm glad it's growing.

Being turned away from that panel we wandered over the dealer room, where I resisted the urge to buy all of my co-workers 20-sided die. See, my co-workers always bring everyone back something small when they go on trips. Magnets or jars of locally made honey ~~jelly~~ or something like that. I knew I was going to be in the mecca of nerd love for the south east, and could not think of a single thing to get them--because my co-workers are decidedly straight-laced and not fun like that--so I joked with one of them that I would get them all 20-sided die. It turns out dice are cheap, so that was tempting.

Then Em and I hightailed it back to the Sheraton to see the first 'An Hour with Draco Malfoy' panel. I was slightly mortified when the moderator asked Tom if he thought Harry and Draco secretly had the hots for each other, but I understand that if she just got it out of the way it might stop someone else from being infinitely more creepy.

The moderator asked him who he'd want to play, if he wasn't playing Draco. Without missing a beat he answered: 'Hermione!'

The thing is, Tom Felton is an utterly adorable person. He's attractive and charming and well spoken and very well settled for this being his first con experience. I mentioned his adorableness to a friend on the elevator later that evening and one of the strangers riding up with us kind of sneered at me and said: 'There comes a point when you stop calling a guy adorable and start calling him hot.' I waited for her to get off before giving the British salute to the closing doors. Thank you, adjective nazi on the Marriott elevators, for entirely missing the point.

Someone asked Tom if he'd heard the Draco and the Malfoys song 'Tom Felton is Kinda Hot'. He said that yes, Erin Pyne (of The House of Black) had had him listen to it, and he would love to work with Draco and the Malfoys on a song in the future. That makes my wizard rock loving soul happy.

Here's a video I put together of some of my favorite clips from the panel. I didn't record everything, because my card only has so much space, so I apologize if I missed your favorite part:

As we were leaving, Em and I spent some time loitering in the Sheraton hallways. Because, you see, the Sheraton had something going for it that the other hotels didn't, and that, was a TARDIS.

Sadly, it was not bigger on the inside.

From there we spent some time just wandering around and gawking at things, killing time before our ten o'clock panels.

There's nothing like shouting 'OI, TRIBBLES!' down a crowded room to get yourself noticed.

The sparklepire baseball team! I'm sorry, sparkly vampires will never, EVER cease to be funny.

I shouted 'OLD GREGG' and went skipping across the food court after this guy after I noticed him. Poor thing. I did not ask to see his mangina.

Zombie Abe Lincoln made me squeak with joy. I think some of you know why.

barbed_whispers and I went to a True Blood panel that evening, but we only stayed for about fifteen minutes. I'm not invested in the books at all, and that's basically what they were discussing. Plus, one of the people who loves the books and not the tv show said that the tv show wasn't funny, which a lot of people agreed with. I decided at that point that I was probably in the wrong place, because I think that tv show is one of the most hilariously cracky things I've EVER SEEN. Whether it wants to be or not.

After slipping out of that we employed the strategy of crashing panels we know nothing about. Here's

wiccanslyr,

sorcha_gaia, and

theemdash with their serious 'I'm on a panel' faces on in the Stargate track room.

After that

barbed_whispers and I slipped off to a panel on Tattooing in the Eastern World, which could probably have been much more interesting if the panelist had delved into the whys and wherefores instead of just showing pretty pictures (and some utterly horrifying pictures of what happens if your tattoo gets infected. I wasn't in the habit of getting dirty tattoos, but that'll turn off the urge real quick).

But it was all just filler, you see, until the main event of the evening for us, Abney Park.

By the time I got to this show I was running entirely on caffeine and giddiness. Some of the friends who'd only met me at the end of the AP set last year came with me for the whole thing this year, and I think I can count a good five new converts to the cause of rocking and awesome.

I spent most of the show dancing around like an idiot with

scifigirl and Corey, but I got some video too, for Em, who wasn't able to make it because SHE'S OLD.

Abney Park performing what I have been told is called 'Building Steam'. I believe it's from the yet to be released album. (I am way excited for that album, btw.)

Abney Park performing Sleep Isabella.

Abney Park performing Airship Pirates.

After the show, Corey wanted to go get an album and get it signed, but I am old and it was three in the morning, so I stumbled back up to my room to try and get some sleep. I had moderate success.

From here, head on to day three, which is a day heavy in steampunk and rocking out to awesome, awesome music, including more Voltaire and Abney Park, with a little bit of the Hellblinki Sextet sprinkled on the side!