So over the weekend, I 'attended' an online BL convention called CitrusCon, and let me fucking tell you: IT WAS AMAZING. HOLY SHIT. The artists, the panels, the convos I made... all of it was GREAT. And now I get to tell you fucks about it.
So first things first, I managed to strike up some conversations with other people about JJBA. It started with me and one other person talking about La Squadra ships, but other people started jumping on the train and getting into ships from other parts. It was overall very fun and cozy, and now I gotta read through the backlogs and follow some of the people I was talking to because I foolishly didn't do that at the time. Because...
I was busy AF ordering some sweet, sweet Artist Alley merch. My credit card was working overtime. I spent AT LEAST $100 total. And that's a splurge by my cheap-ass standards. But the artists I supported have great stuff. Special shout-out to
The Scum Bucket, whose Uke!Squidward zipper suit sticker was too fucking hilarious to pass up, as well as
Tokki Darling, who FINALLY gave me an opportunity to purchase merch for my beloved Phantom Blood rarepair, Zeppwagon. (as two separate enamel pins, but they'll arrive together, so I consider it ship merch.)
Even specialer shoutout goes to
DigitalPopsicle, who was running a special commission detail of any character you wanted lounging in a citrus-themed cocktail glass for $15. He did this lovely semi-chibified Venom Snake in a lemon glass, who now graces my AO3 and Aethy icons. (Side note: I initially assumed only the fruit would be considered in the citrus theming, which resulted in... an unexpected surprise when I saw the liquid was also part of the color scheme. But it fits with Kojima's vision, so I'll take it.)
As for the panels, I started off attending one which discussed people's reasonings behind liking villainous characters in BL/adjacent media, which I found quite interesting. It will likely be on YouTube later in September, so if anyone is interested, I will send the link. But the level of depth that the survey discussed in the panel went into was something else, covering topics related to neurodivergency, active vs. passive fandom participation, stances on fandom discourse, and even an unexpected correlation between liking villainous characters and being less emotionally invested in characters and plotlines as a whole. (Which made more sense once this point was elaborated on, but I wasn't expecting it at first.)
The rest of the panels I sat in upon were mostly party games like Scattergories and a caption-picture matching game. But the most enjoyable game of the con was a BL-themed Cards Against Humanity sesh, which I got to participate in. My best combination had to be (I forget the exact wording) "Check out this fic that's been trending on AO3: a crossover featuring Stalin x Count Chocula!", but it didn't win the round it was played in. I did manage to get one point with a combo suggesting Fox News had more impact than Gravitation, but I didn't really put as much thought into that combo as I did with the Stalin x Count Chocula one. Ah well. It was still tons of fun.
Sunday was a lot less busy because my computer would NOT let me join panels for whatever reason. But I was able to keep chatting with people, as well as find several new Discord servers to hang out in. Special mention to the Nu:Carnival server I joined which has a TON of gold art and fic, as well as a slew of events that I plan on doing something for in the future. (And you'll see it here, of course!)
So that was my weekend. Overall, great experience, and I would totally do it again. (They are offering one next year, which runs for 3 days instead of 2. Hopefully I'll be able to throw myself out there with a bit more oomph next time!)
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