[Open!] Lock-con, the Locke City Science Fiction Convention

[unwakingwaters]

Who: NERRRRRDS. But basically everyone who would want to go to a science fiction convention. Also, Maya Aaronson, famous science fiction author.
What: LockCon, Locke City's science fiction convention! The name is a pun. Isn't it great???
Where: The Locke City Westin Hotel.
When: Semi-backdated; LockCon takes place July 12 - July 14 this year.

This is OPEN TO EVERYONE and intended as a fun casual way for people to get CR. Feel free to backtag and backdate stuff, even if your character hasn't formally introduced themselves to the network yet (as long as they've been accepted to the game is probably fine)

The Locke City Science Fiction Convention, affectionately called Lock-con (it's a pun!)

Lock-con was founded in 1990 as a sort of response to the dumb actions of a much older locak science fiction con, Keyvention. Keyvention had been founded as a strictly sci-fi con in 1953, but by 1985 had gotten really insular and exclusionary; for example, Star Trek, Anime, and comic books were banned from discussion at Keyvention because “we only talk about REAL science fiction here.” Eventually, they got so huffy at all these new fake fans trying to ruin their precious literature that they left the city. Keyvention still happens in the suburbs of Locke City, but very few people go.

Lock-con, meanwhile, was founded in 1990 by people disgruntled with Keyvention's draconian policies. Their philosophy? If it's sci fi or fantasy, or remotely related to sci-fi or fantasy, it's in. They cover the gamut from SF&F literature (which, admittedly, is still the main attraction) to Japanese media to Western comics to video games. Lock-con is small for a con (about 5,000 people) but pretty lively and considered one of the best local cons on the East Coast.

This is intended as a casual way to get CR with everybody. Feel free to backtag into the abyss.

Comments

REGISTRATION

[unwakingwaters]

UGH IT'S BADGE PICKUP. WHY IS THE LINE SO LONG? Better get to know the person next to you. It's going to be a long wait.

[shiromadoushi]

Getting to know other people is for people who don't have cell phone games. So unless someone bumps into him or tries to get his attention, him and his cell phone will be being amused at all the people grumping about the wait.

Re: REGISTRATION

[happybirthdaytoyou]

Eugene comes in rather later in the day for picking up his own badge, having had work to do at MAGNIFICENT BAKERY. On the other hand, no long lines!

[peacefulwinter]

Winter hasn't done this whole "convention" thing before, but it's in Locke City and it's something to do, so... why not? She was not, however, expecting the badge line to be so long.

That said, she's pre-registered, so the line isn't as obnoxious and she'll have a fancy badge with her name on it. Once she gets to the front of the line, at least.

SECRET VOLUNTEER HANGOUTS!

[unwakingwaters]

Are you a LockCon volunteer staff member? Are you here to wrangle lines? Turn over panel rooms? Clean? Security? Whatever?

Well, do volunteer things! Or go hang out in the Super Secret Volunteer Base (TM). They have potluck food for volunteers only, and a nice place to hide from the con goings on. There's a separate suite for con guests to hang out in too.

PANELS & EVENTS

[unwakingwaters]

Listen to people talk about your favorite thing! Or not favorite thing! Ask awkward questions!

For inspiration, I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE you to check out Arisia's 2013 Event Schedule, which is the convention that LockCon is based on.

MAYA'S PANELS

[unwakingwaters]

Maya is on a few discussion panels:

> In the Shadow of Saturn: Space Opera that ISN'T Saturn's Lord

> Mead Brewing Workshop

> Strong Female Characters: Not That Hard To Write, Actually, Jeez

> Minority Representation in Urban Fantasy: Why It's Important

> Dream Literature: Working Your Subconscious into Stories

Re: PANELS & EVENTS

[happybirthdaytoyou]

Wait, is that the weird bakery guy heading a discussion panel?

>Masks and Motorcycles: Fifty Years Of Karate Bugman

Yeah, looks like it's him.

... oh hey, it says there's going to be cookies for attendees.

COSPLAY & MASQUERADE

[unwakingwaters]

Half the fun of a convention is the costumes. Parade around in your cosplay, or attend the Masquerade costume contest.

Re: COSPLAY & MASQUERADE

[shiromadoushi]

While not attending the bulk of the con in costume, there's no way Bakura's going to not join the masquerade. Courtesy of his grandmother's amazing skills both with sewing and barter, he has a pretty sweet costume of that one guy from that one JRPG. You know the one, the white haired guy who betrayed the entire party for the sake of his own personal revenge? No, the other one. No, not the one with the wing, god. The other one. Yeah, that one.

Totally perfect match, right? Especially the hair. Barely took any gell to get it to do that too~

[entertainaplanb]

Becky's a little nervous about this, truth be told. And she's certainly not only doing this because her Tesla's a convincing prop to go with the costume. Whatever would give you that idea?

But anyway. You know that steampunk TV show with the collection of weird stuff? The one with the genderswapped sci-fi author? Yeah, that one. Turns out Becky had enough stuff to pull off a pretty convincing Jules Verne.

(Well, if you ignore the fact that she's a redhead and Jules isn't, but Becky dyes her hair for no cosplay and didn't have time to look into a wig. Deal with it.)

[espigeonage]

Advil and water helped Julien's headache, for now, and even if it hadn't it would be a shame to attend and not see the cosplayers, right? He was friends with more than a few of them, after all.

Someone had talked him into coming as Toushi, the protagonist from the anime Detergent. His hair wasn't nearly that bright but it was blue, after all. Having fallen out of love with the series some time back he'd gone the lazy route and just worn a white T-shirt with letters markered on.

DEALER'S ROOM & ARTIST'S ALLEY & ART SHOW

[unwakingwaters]

OH GOD

SO MANY THINGS

SO LITTLE MONEY

[originaloddcouple]

The Dian couple, proud owners of the Something Old Antiques, were here for business. You could find all sorts of interesting trinkets and baubles at a convention. So it was strictly business. Nothing more, nothing less.

And they certainly weren't wearing store-bought Inspector Spacetime costumes. No, Miria made her Fifth Inspector costume and Isaac's Rory Williams costume all on her own. So there.

[Tv tropes has an Imspector Spacetime page. Yes, they claim Rory was on their show first. It's amazing.]

[espigeonage]

Julien had showed up with some friends who were now excitedly dispersed and spending what they'd brought. Normally he would have been right with them.

But he had a sort of a headache that hadn't faded much after he'd taken some advil, and he had no idea if it was eyestrain from being out in the sun a lot or had something to do with all the sootball things he'd seen yesterday. If it got any sharper he'd go to the clinic, but he thought - he hoped, fervently - it was just the product of too long out in the brightness.

So he bought some pins and other small things some absent friends might like, and smiled and chatted with anyone who seemed inclined, and at every chance he got shut his eyes tightly to ease them.

BOOK SIGNING

[unwakingwaters]

It's the author book signings and -- oh my gosh, is that Maya Aaronson? The Maya Aaronson!? Author of The Starheart Saga? The line's long, but it looks totally worth it.

[salvagedlight]

He's not actually in line, nor is he thinking about getting in it - it's obvious that someone famous is up there, signing autographs, but he doesn't recognize the woman and the name only rings a fleeting bell. Not an actress, right? Then she's... uhh... It doesn't matter, because Ben is simply wiggling around the line to the open space on the other side of the crowd, looking for his brother and starting to look cheesed off. Way to drag him to a convention and run off without him, Ciel - you know he doesn't like being around huge groups of people, and the geek in him is almost purely scientific. And what isn't purely scientific isn't this open about stuff like this.

"Come on, Ciel." He's found a place to tuck himself up against the wall, not too far from the table where Maya is, as he pulls out his phone and starts dialing. The con staff seems to be content to let him be since he's not trying to break in line or assault a guest or whatever, just looking for a quiet(er) place to make a phone call. "Pick up your phone."

[depolarized]

Riku falls into line without a moment's hesitation, bag of books slung over a shoulder and one hand tucked into his pocket and hood still up. He'd already gotten the first few books signed way back when he was small, after all, about time that he got the others done, too.

So here he is waiting in line and occasionally checking out his phone.

[doomedtheworld]

Vanessa had spent even more time debating about whether she should even get in line than she had standing in it. Which was ridiculous, she had never spent so much time second-guessing herself before. She made decisions where she had to and let the consequences happen as they did. But this was... different.

The book she held was an old paperback copy of River And Wind, battered with the corners worn down, showing signs of plenty of read-throughs. Which it had. The book had been given to her when she was just a child, already used and basically discarded as not being the most well-loved in the series. To Vanessa, however, it was... well, hers. One of the few objects that had ever really belonged to her growing up, and the only one that had left the last foster home she'd stayed in, besides the clothes on her back. To her, it had been something to turn to when things got hard, a means of temporary escape and she'd kept it for years.

And now she was about to meet the woman who wrote it. She really should get out of here.

That thought kept repeating in her head each time the line moved, each time she got closer to that table and she felt her grip on the book tighten and the nervousness in her stomach get worse and worse. Each time.

And then, the last person ahead of her left with their signed copy and she was next.

[moarnomsplz]

Alex is so in line, carrying his old and well-loved copy of The Starheart Key. He hopes it's OK that he brought a copy instead of buying one here.

He thought about cosplaying, but couldn't think of anything cool that he could make a good costume for on short notice, so he's just in his usual jeans, and an Inspector Spacetime t-shirt in honor of the occasion.

Re: BOOK SIGNING

[ursoreckless]

Way back when he was a kid, his parents let him take a handful of yen into a used book store and buy whatever he wanted. He ended up with a stack of slightly obscure manga that was based off a series of books. When Shou was a little older, he came across the books, and also found out that there had been a game set around the stories. He proceeded to track a copy of that as well, but no one around him had ever been interested in The Starheart Saga.

The manga was at home, sitting in ragged splendor against all the newer and less read series that he also collected. They had been signed way back when Maya Aaronson had toured Japan and Shou had dragged his entire family to the event. Instead of getting a copy of the books signed - he wore them out too fast - Shou brought with him his autograph book. He was also dressed in a red leather outfit that had been inspired by the S&M video game series.

When his turn came, he sort of just stands there for a moment, with the dumbest grin on his face before he manages to snap into reality and hold open the book.

"Hi."

[espigeonage]

Julien's not the biggest fan. He likes the books fine, don't get him wrong! But when he's outside of the company of those of his friends who are serious StarHeartHeads (he tries not to use that term too often, but it's right there, come on) they're just sort of there.

Today he gets recruited into standing in line in place of one of them while she goes to the bathroom and stretches her legs and so on, and he does so willingly, carrying her battered copies under one arm. But "and so on" has gone on a bit later than expected and the line's moving faster, too... ah, well, so be it!

A text informing Lorry what she's missing, an internal check that he's prepared to talk like a normal person, and he switches it to polite mode just in time, because he's up.

Today his cheer is tuned down thanks to a simmering headache, and tuned further by the knowledge that anyone sitting and signing this much is going to be tired. Still, he smiles broadly. "Hey, this is for a friend, she stepped out... Would it be too mean of me to ask you to write something along the lines of 'Too slow, maybe next time'?"

GAMING ROOM

[unwakingwaters]

Tabletop games? Check. Board games? Check. Card games? Check. A corner of competitive console and PC games, including Rock Band? Check. Classic arcade corner, including DDR and such? Yep.

And holy shit, is that a set of BattleTech pods?

[shiromadoushi]

And this is where Bakura will be camping out most of the con. Every game will be played. Every. Game.

EVENING PARTIES!

[unwakingwaters]

The panels are winding down, the tabletop games are ending, but the fun is hardly over. This is an old school sci fi con, which means room parties. So many room parties. Some are 21+, others are more kid-friendly, but all of them are loads of fun. The Locke City Klingon Mak'tar Society is having a totally sweet Galaxy Quest themed party, and there's a rave in one of the upstairs suites. The Orlando Worldcon Bid is having a communism themed party to raise support so they can beat out Spokane this year. Party hard! Sleep is for the, and livers for the cowardly.

STARHEART PARTY

[unwakingwaters]

Maya is hosting a much quieter party with the help of her publicist and some friends. Hers is kid-friendly, though there are a few local beers and meads (including a few she brewed herself; Nerida [lavender], Zephyr [mint], and Kun [coriander]). The room is decorated with a key and star motif, and there's juices and snacks for the under 18 crowd.