Theme: A Winter Howliday - Yule Love It!
Location: Scandic Infra City
We were staying in our small apartment in Amsterdam the night before, so we only had a short bus ride to the airport. After some expensive sushi we boarded our flight and had landed on time at Stockholm Arlanda airport. At baggage claim we ran into OWolf, also Sheppy who had to wait quite a bit longer for his luggage than we had to. We went to the FuzzBus, the hotel shuttle that NFC provided every year and had a short ride to the hotel with a stop at the overflow hotel.
At the hotel we ran into Mag and Intet. Since check-in wouldn't open until 15:00 and there also was a huge queue in front of the reception, we sat a bit upstairs until the line was shorter. We went up to our room on the 5th floor, I unpacked while Henrieke took a bath.
I also lied down a bit, then we went to registration where Shorty gave me 2 of the christmas bulbs I designed as supersponsor gifts. We also met Coorandilla and Aphinion, who was looking forward to Powerpoint Karaoke on Saturday! Since we were all a bit hungry, the obvious choice was Max Burger, the local Swedish burger chain.
We went together with Mag, Yamavu and Shorty and talked about Chinese knock-off fursuits and that NFC needs even more Mausie. On the way back we ran into Ethan which is always a good experience! He told me he would contact a member of Future Crew, the legendary Demo group, who apparently used to be involved in the fandom and now lives in Stockholm, to ask him if he wanted to drop by. I stocked up on snacks and drinks at ICA with Yamavu and Mag while Henrieke went to the room. I went to Mag's and Yotie's room and we made some beautiful music on his little Casio synthesizer. Henrieke dropped by later. Went downstairs to meet with Yamavu and to also finally met Paco, which I have been excited about for a long time! We sat a bit on the balcony area, Mag and Ekorren joined for a bit. Tracy and Lance as well.
Since we wanted to do some drawing, we moved to the temporary Artist Lounge which had just enough space for Paco, Shorty, Henrieke, me and Yamavu.
We watched some Mickey shorts, drew some art, talked about the 3 Caballeros and listened to Mexican music. I did an art trade with Henrieke and one with Paco. Yotie arrived later and we stayed until 2:00.
We got up at 9:30 and had breakfast with Ekorren, Coorandilla and Yamavu. After that I sat on the 2nd floor to make some Powerpoint slides with Yotie for the Powerpoint karaoke he organized. I went to ICA to pick up a big bowl of salad, some Red Bull and tasty ice cream mochis with Henrieke, then dozed a bit on the room and had lunch. Since every single year the awfully dry and stale hotel air gives both Henrieke and me a big headache every morning, I went on a quest to get a tool to open the window. We couldn't find a hardware store nearby, so I ended up buying a big screwdriver at ICA, which did the job just fine.
I met with Henrieke at 15:50, shortly before the opening ceremony. We met Cap and I finally got to see the fluffier version of Paco!
Since the main stage was way too small to house all attendees, we ended up watching the stream in the ballroom, where it was shown for all the people who didn't get a space. We watched together with Tabbie and Spikie. The ceremony featured a neat video made by Hiyu, amazing job there! Outside I ran into SlyCat and SkippyFox, who apparently was at Epcot with us almost 10 years earlier. I barely remembered, but it was nice to meet! Around 18:20 Ekorren, Yamavu, me and Henrieke went to the newly opened Italian across the street. Shorty and Paco were there as well, and I ended up drawing a little thing for Shorty. (I forgot the wings though, oops!). On the way out I chatted a bit with Trax, who told me about his plans to move to Switzerland. Back in the lobby I met Tabbie and Lance and we talked a bit about building costumes.
After that I went to get my beamer and Surface and we played some Jackbox on the 8th floor with Flacko, Ekorren, Procyon, Mag and Yotie until 23:00.
After that I went to check out the inflatable panel, but sadly no Sea Dragon was there. I chatted a bit with Layown, Sonny and Dracky and then met up with Shorty for some suiting. Baseball and Dog went roaming around the lobby a bit and also dropped by the Artist Lounge and the dance floor. Around midnight they went up to the room again. I went downstairs, ran into TomKitty and talked a bit, then found Henrieke, Tracy and Ekorren at the breakfast area. We moved to the Artist Lounge where Paco and Yamavu were already drawing.
I did a trade with Tracy and drew some Daffy Ducks. We went to bed at 2 and finally could open the windows thanks to the screwdriver I bought.
Got up at 10, for the first time not feeling like a raisin with a big headache thanks to fresh air during the night. We had breakfast with Lance and Tracy. Henrieke, Lance and I then went to the Cheese panel, which was in a very remote corner of the hotel.
There was no one there anymore, so we had all the delicious (and some not so delicious) cheeses for ourselves. Pinky also showed up and gently nudged us out since the panel was officially over already.
At this con, there was a big chat for people who play Pokémon Go, and since I recently started playing again and I never attended a raid, I went to a raid with Henrieke, Ekorren and around 20 other people. We had no trouble beating the raid boss and I ended up with a shiny Latias, which is great because it's orange
It was really windy and cold that day, so we quickly went back into the warm hotel. I went to the Artist Lounge while Henrieke went to get some waffles at the daily waffle buffet with Ekorren. Ethan dropped by and commissioned me for a picture for a series of drawings where every artist draws something inspired by a line from song lyrics. I ended up choosing "Alles klar, Herr Kommissar!" by the Austrian singer Falco. I worked a bit more on Powerpoint slides for Powerpoint karaoke, then Yamavu and I got some fursuit badges printed by Shorty at ConOps. I went to the Dealers Den with Yamavu after, talked a bit with Yamavu, checked out Mag's table with Jym and looked if KittyFluff, supplier of fake fur, had any new exciting colors to offer.
I went to the videogame room with Henrieke after that, then up to my room to grab a quick bite. Back at the arcade I tried Steel Battalion, a game with a very elaborate controller and a thick manual. I failed since I refused to actually read the manual. I played some Metal Slug and Bomberman 94 with Paco. Bomberman is great because it has adorable kangaroos in it! In the meanwhile, Henrieke drew a cute Yoshi on the Flipchart.
For dinner, we went to Subway with Ekorren, Yamavu and Paco after dropping by at the candy shop. Yotie also joined us to the candy shop. We got some gross Salmiak candy for Tabbie. Back at the hotel, I worked on some more slides with Yotie, then got Baseball down for his favorite event, Fursuit charades. The wait in front of the main stage was long, but luckily Paco was also there to make time pass faster. Baseball was in a team with Trax (which was odd, since the human Trax was hosting the show), Ryotsuke, and someone who's name I don't know.
The game was fun as always, with everyone first performing words by themselves, then with 2 on stage, then with the whole team of 4. After that it went more wild (and more fun) with the pass-it-on characedes, basically the telephone game with 3 critters in a row and a group of 5 people at the end who had to guess the phrase. Of course that went wrong in many ways and was both fun to watch and perform. At the end there were phrases to be performed by the whole group, and after about 1.5 hours the event ended. As every year, it was great fun, thanks to Ethan and Trax for organizing! Paco and Baseball were roaming around in the lobby a bit afterwards. They also met Cami.
After Baseball was done with being among the people, I went to the room and got my Jackbox supplies. I set up beamer, Surface and beefy battery pack again and we played some Quiplash, Split the room and Tee-KO with Procyon, Reev (friend of Procy), Yotie, Paco, Henrieke, Mag and Jym.
After that we went to bed at 2:00.
We got up at 10:00 and had breakfast together with Yamavu, Coorandilla and Procyon. Tasty scrambled eggs and bacon, some fruit and pancakes with strawberry jam and whipped cream, yum! No way I'd miss this even once at this con. Henrieke went to the art show. Like every year, the snack exchange was a very important event, with everyone bringing snacks from their home country. Paco brought some tasty Mexican treats and I probably ate more weird things than my stomach could handle.
There was a Chinese girl who offered dried fish, which was pretty tasty! Henrieke and I went up to the room to get Baseball and Dog for the fursuit group photo and parade. They made it just in time and met Paco on the way.
The parade was great and was at the same time as the "oppet hus" (open house), where everyone from outside was free to check out the con. Many people came and took their kids, and everyone had a great time! Baseball and Dog couldn't pass an opportunity to also leave some fine art behind in the Artist Lounge. After that, I took a quick shower. Ekorren dropped by with a cake he picked up for Yotie's birthday party later. Since we could open our window, we could keep it cool that way. Down in the lobby I met Kazzador, now owning a fursuit and Cyrilius, living proof that raptors are not extinct. Tracy was sitting on the balcony, so we ended up chatting a bit. She also had a cute children's book with her that she drew.
I met up with Yotie in the arcade, he was really excited about Steel Battalion since that was one of his favorite games. He showed me how it's done. I went to the flipchart to draw some Spyro fanart and then played some Bomberman with Jym. At one point we almost got to actually battle each other rather than blowing ourselves up. After that I went to the Dealers Den with Jym to annoy Mag. I also chatted a bit with Gatorguts. Trax, Radjin and Growl were in the Dealers Den as well and I ended up chatting for a while about the fursuit charades with them.
I chatted a bit more with Trax after the Dealers Den closed. Then I went to get some food and then to the 8th floor, where we celebrated Yotie's birthday with Yamavu, Ekorren, Mag an Procyon.
After that I went to ICA with Yotie and Mag and got a salad and a smoothie. I had my healthy dinner in their room while watching some Chinese TV show. After dinner I did an art trade with Flacko in the Artist Lounge, Paco was there as well creating adorable art as he always does. I went back to the arcade and played some House of the Dead on a Dreamcast with Yotie. He also made me try Space Channel 5. To prove a point we tried both Unreal Tournament and Quake 3, which were as expected horrible to play on a console. Though the Dreamcast did have mouse and keyboard support, so with those it might be playable. I hung up some of the drawings people did on the flipcharts and slowly the outside wall started becoming a little video game art gallery! Henrieke was at the auction, and I just dropped by at the exact moment her drawing of a fennec was up. A bid war ensued and the drawing went for a pretty nice amount! After that I wandered around a bit and followed up on an invitation to the Penthouse, an insanely huge suite on the top of the hotel where Trax and some other people were staying. There was a big party going on and I made some sketches for some people. Sadly a headache made my evening less enjoyable, but some ibuprofen took care of that. Later I went down to the lobby again and joined Yamavu, Yotie and Henrieke at a table at the Koi pond. Tabbie joined and we watched a Tex Avery cartoon about planes and the cutest Sylvester cartoon. Procyon and Atkelar joined too and I made the final Powerpoint slides with Yotie.
I ran into Luxen and talked about his plans for Daily Eurofurence this year, then went to bed at 1:30.
Today was the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 with the first crew dragon capsule. Unmanned of course, but still a historic launch. A few people organized a launch party in the lobby. I gave up on sleep and went downstairs to watch it together with people.
The launch at 8:49 was flawless, and we got a great view of the landing! I went back to bed for a little bit, then Henrieke and I went to have breakfast with Ekorren, Procyon and Yamavu.
I went outside with Ekorren and Henrieke to do an easy raid at the Pokémon Gym outside the hotel and got a Dratini. After that I went to the arcade and looked at all the new videogame drawings people did, then I met with Yotie to finish things up for Powerpoint Karaoke.
We originally intended the event to be in a small panel room, but it turns out that we got a slot on the main stage. Sadly due to some miscommunication, the main stage was in no state to be usable, but Fotofur managed to get things ready in time for our event to start. There were quite a few people attending, and the big stage certainly helped with making the presentations look more legit. I watched together with Henrieke, Mag, Yotie, Yamavu and Procyon.
Since there were enough people wanting to present, I didn't present any slides. The event went perfectly, and it was an absolute blast! We never did this before, and we experimented a bit with creating dumb slides. It all worked perfectly, and surely we'll do this again. Next time we'll try to not create all the slides during the convention though.
After that, Henrieke went to pick up the payment for her artwork she sold in the art show, then I drew some more video game art in the arcade with Henrieke. I drew a Putt-Putt and a Bub while Henrieke made an elaborate sketch of the Kanto starter Pokémon. I wandered around a bit and ran into Mausie, who looked like he needed a break, so I helped him into his secret hideout. After that I finished Ethan's drawing in the Artist Lounge and chatted a bit with Dexi while doing so. Since I knew Ethan was on the main stage, I delivered the drawing to him, he liked it a lot!
He also showed me some of the amazing commissions he got earlier. I wished him luck with his event and went back to catch the last few minutes of Kéké's panel on animating on a Nintendo 3DS.
Henrieke, Ekorren and Kéké were sitting in front of the Artist Lounge for a while, and I went to get Baseball down to the lobby. He went to the arcade, gave some hugs to Trax and met Paco. They did a drawing in the Artist Lounge together. Since there oddly enough wasn't a dance going on tonight, Baseball dragged Paco to the bar where they danced a bit to bouncy house music by Kana. After that, Baseball got to meet Kéké! Baseball was done at that point, so I went down again to Henrieke, who was drawing something for Kéké. He left soon after, and I was sitting and chatting with Lance, Henrieke, Ekorren and Yamavu. Cami dropped by as well.
At around 23:00 we had the great idea to call our friend C_Eagle. After some troubles we got Hangouts to run and had a very long video call! Jill, Shannon and Clawed also dropped by. Henrieke and Ekorren went to the room, I went to the Artist Lounge and did a trade with Christmas and chatted a bit more with Paco. I went to bed at 2:30.
Got up at 10:30, sadly Henrieke felt really sick today and felt like she had a high fever. I went to breakfast and brought some up to the room for Henrieke.
At the breakfast table I sat with Tracy and Lance and we talked about JPL until 11:30. I sat in the lobby with Yotie for a while, then brought some waffles for Henrieke. For lunch I went to MAX with Yamavu, Paco and Yotie and brought an espresso caramel shake to Henrieke, which she shared with Ekorren. I went back to the lobby and chatted with SlyCat for a bit, then met up with Yotie on the 8th floor. Henrieke was still feeling sick, she definitely caught the flu that was going around at the con. Luckily the comfy couches were enabling her to at least hang out with people for a bit today.
In the afternoon, Baseball was drawing sketches for charity again.
In the evening I set up the beamer again and we played some Quiplash and some Fibbage, then we watched some WB cartoons.
I left to get Baseball to the Dead Dog Party. He met Skippy and Paco, danced a bit and presented a court order to Jym that banned him from all conventions because he violated a prior order to not touch his nose. The bouncy castle was still up, and Baseball proceeded to get eaten by a big Lion (?) a couple of times, after Yotie figured out how to change the timing of the mouth closing.
After Baseball was done, I went down to the bouncy castle and had some fun with Mag, Jym, Yotie and Danza. I went to bed at around 2:00.
I went down to breakfast and sat together with Tabbie and Birko, also picked up some for Henrieke, who wasn't feeling well at all. I ran into Trax, who was nice enough to arrange late check-out for us so Henrieke could stay in bed until 14:00. I started packing a bit and then went downstairs and chatted with people, also sat together with Paco for a bit. I finished packing, then went for a PoGo raid at 13:00 with Jill, Ekorren, Shannon, Mag and others. I got some weird non-cute Pokémon (Dialga).
After that I helped Henrieke with stuff and moved our luggage out of the room with help from Yamavu. We waited a bit in the lobby for the FuzzBus and I tried finding some medicine for Henrieke at the pharmacy.
At the airport we ran into Mag again, then we checked in and met with Ekorren who also had about 3 hours to go until his flight. Lacking other cheap food options, we had a really tasty Chicken Hummus salad at McDonalds, then we sat a bit in a nice area above the train station. Luckily Henrieke was at least feeling a bit better, and the flight went alright. Henrieke's mom was nice enough to pick us up and we finally flopped onto our beds at about 1:00.
