Drew Linky
There was basically no chance I wasn't going to write about this. Located at Momocon in Atlanta, Georgia, a great number of us decided to attend, listed below at the places they stayed at each night.
Airbnb 1 - closest to the con, designated hangout space for whole gatherings and the first space to be reserved, by Lat way back when he originally intended to attend. Occupants: myself, Cyrene Savage, Delux, Bolas, and Icedream. Spacious and somewhat nice interior though there were some obvious signs of rushing and cheapness. Plus, the building it was located in was under extensive construction by the time we arrived. There was a different airbnb that 1 would be situated at originally, but the reservation was canceled last minute by the hostess without explanation other than “I do not own this property anymore.” Mystery and anger abounded, although Cyrene worked with Lat to figure things out.
Airbnb 2 - thebadnut, faeby, BeeesWith3Es (with whom faeby is married), Kreuz, Mommy, and Mint. Described by B3es as being “very long,” regarding a singular hallway that was only big enough for one person to move through at a time.
Airbnb 3 - Wheals, Wizard of Chaos. Wheals describes that upon arrival someone offered them weed and then acid. Says the whole place was “tight.” Caledfwlch was originally going to stay here according to the logistical notes, but ended up staying with some friends elsewhere instead. According to Nut, he “had a charmingly humble air of delight at being invited to hang at 1 despite us telling him multiple times that he ought to come over.”
Cyrene, Wheals, Bolas, and Deluxe were the first to arrive throughout Thursday, then relaxing in airbnb 1 for the day or generally taking care of pre-hangout business. Upon myself, thebadnut and Icedream arriving around 10 PM EST, everyone was already kind of exhausted; my initial suspicion was that there would be no hangouts that night, and resigned myself to just scrounging up a quick meal.
I briefly went out with Delux to try and score some food, but none was to be had; the entire neighborhood was a bit of a shambles, not entirely surprising for downtown Atlanta. After deciding we didn’t want to wait for chicken wings from a local joint we eventually got some quick snacks from a very sketchy convenience store nearby and hoofed it back to the airbnb as quickly as we could (I joked later that I specifically felt an obligation to “protect” Delux on the way, though at the time it was genuinely a tad scary walking back in the dark).
After returning, I divided a Little Debbie’s snack cake with ice as our poorly dinner, figuring we would just suck it up until we could get something the next day. We sat in tired silence for a little while, but then Wheals, faeby, Kreuz, Mommy, and nut all came by for the first night, immediately showering the residence with their abundant reserves of energy
While the Magic nerds consisting of Bolas, Cyrene, B3es, and Mommy all immediately went to go play the Gathering in the master bedroom, the rest of us managed to shore up for a game of drunken charades. We had no clear winner due to none of us really giving a shit about that, though it should be noted that Kreuz was very concerned about doing well ("This was more due to the fact I mostly don't know American popculture so I had no idea who the people I was supposed to play even WERE"), and did so after some cheering on from everyone else participating. After everyone went twice or so we decided to give it up, so fae and wheals started to talk about observing Shabbat during the weekend and made appropriate plans.
Nut and I fulfilled a long promise that we would “fight” each other upon getting to the airbnb (she had envisioned a full on wrestling match) and so we ended up doing some arm wrestling. Given that I’m nearly twice the size of most people who were present I won handily against everyone who challenged me, and nut had the good sense to record the match between myself and fae.
The next day, being Friday, was the first that we decided to actually go to the convention, and the beginning of the journey was kind of a fiasco. All residents of airbnb 1 got up at various times, hungover to one degree or another, and we made our way onto the Atlanta subway around 11 AM or noon. We got off one stop too early and, not realizing our error, shambled across a portion of the downtown area just trying to find the convention center. We decided to take the first group picture whilst situated in front of the absurdly large Mercedes Benz stadium.
From left to right: Icedream, Drew Linky, Delux, Bolas, and Cyrene.
Upon seeing it Makin specifically said, "that is the gayest picture I've ever seen."
inally making our way over to the World Congress Center, we took an unfortunate amount of time trying to get to building B through building C, because most entrances were actually zip tied shut due to congoers the previous day forcing their way in. Finally arriving, we were greeted with the biggest mass of people I have seen since the pandemic started, all situated in a building larger than any I have ever seen in my life. According to estimates posted by the con organizers after the weekend ended, something like 42,000 people were in attendance.
This was in the basement where we spent most of our time. The density in this particular photo isn't very high (all my others showing the full scale of what was going on somehow got deleted), but there's like four or five full length warehouse sections like this and they were all mostly crowded with people at certain times of day.
We spent most of our time walking around on the lower level, which contained the Magic: the Gathering tables as well as a full scale arcade room, the vendors/artist alley, and other assorted oddities such as an anime car show and–seemingly at random–an amateur pro wrestling ring complete with announcer’s table.
A couple of ideas were started here: Delux decided to purchase two copies of a lovely piece of art of a husky dog, and he got everyone present to sign it. He declared that one copy was for himself, and one was for me. Nut got a similar idea to have everyone sign the juggling clubs for her cosplay, and having three, she dispensed one to me, one to Ice, and one to herself.
Along with the "WOC Is A Loser" hat, this is now one of my most prized possessions.
Around 5 or 5:30 PM we decided to take a break and head back to airbnb 1 to await the arrival of WoC and Mint, arriving from Virginia. Upon returning to airbnb 1, Wheals and Fae took part in Shabbat like they had described the day before: a couple of candles dedicated to the purpose were lit, Wheals produced some bagels and Israeli wine, and then Bolas was able to contribute with a book of relevant, translated prayers. They were nice enough to include me in their celebration, the first time I’ve ever participated in a Jewish religious ceremony, and after the appropriate blessings all four of us partook of the bagel and wine. It was a strange experience for me, but no less pleasant for that fact.
WoC and Mint arrived around 6 PM and both proceeded to go to the con for the night, and after an hour or so several members from airbnb 1 (myself excluded) went back to the con to scope out more merchandise and see the artist alley. Friday was taco night, for which we had my own contribution of shredded Mexican chicken while Cyrene and Nut made a vegetarian option from cauliflower; Nut and fae both brought over a plethora of fixings and tortillas for people to use.
As more people filtered back from the con, dinner was served and we put on various shows to pass the time including Seinfeld (surprisingly funny except for the standup intros/outros), Yugioh (excellent peanut gallery material), Fairly Oddparents (I don’t recall who did this) and then finally some madman put on Osmosis Jones. Many details from this time are fuzzy because as soon as Osmosis Jones came on I lost all my inhibitions and imbibed alcohol like the wind. In our general mania, we did manage to snag a group photo.
Back row: Mint, Mommy, Wheals, B3es, Fae, and Nut
Middle row: Wizard of Chaos, Cyrene, Drew Linky, Kreuz
Front row: Icedream, Bolas, Delux.
Not pictured: HarpyHour, who wished to avoid photographs during his brief stay.
The night seemed to be ending as people gradually drifted back to their airbnbs, but for Wheals, Fae, Nut, and Delux it was merely the prelude to an event called Emonite, which was an appropriately themed rave. Wheals and Nut decided to make a stop at airbnb 1 on their way back and asked me to mix them a drink before their uber rides arrived. I mixed them a shittier version of my favorite, the kamikaze, and while Nut took it with relatively little fanfare, Wheals started to pass out shortly after, lapsing briefly into speaking expressly Hebrew when we tried to keep him awake. At the time I was worried he was suffering from alcohol poisoning (I had a nightmare that I had killed him with my shitty mixed drink), but the next day he bounced back just fine. He explains that he usually takes a nap on Fridays and was simply dead tired, a more palatable reason for his collapse.
Saturday afternoon I had intended to take it easy, but after being shamed by everyone at the con I made a mad dash for Momocon around 4 PM. I didn’t make it in time for the greater Homestuck photoshoot, though I hadn’t intended to participate anyway
We managed to get our own photo in cosplay taken as well. It should be noted that every Homestuck shirt here was lovingly made by Fae before the con.
Back row: Kreuz as Karkat, Delux as Terezi, WoC, Ice, Cyrene, Drew as Kanaya
Front row: Nut as Gamzee, Mint as Aradia, B3es as John, Fae as Vriska, Wheals as Walter Bishop from Fringe, Bolas as the Sicko from the Kelly comics
Yes... Ha ha ha... YES!
After milling around at the con for a while we decided we were hungry and returned to the airbnb en masse. For dinner we did pizza from The Mellow Mushroom and watched The Room, which turned out to be both messy and highly enjoyable. Bolas, being an ardent fan of the movie, had to be told not to quote every line multiple times. We did our best to assemble some spoons but, opting not to create a mess (and because we forgot to pick them up), we had only about a dozen or so to work with. WoC had picked up a giant foam D20 from the convention which served as our football during the relevant scenes. Fae made two specific comments, noting that Lisa was “the most accurately written woman” she had ever seen, and that our cheering for Johnny’s death was “demonic.”
Having picked up a baguette, I felt obligated to recreate the classic Bred image.
After the movie wrapped up most people went back to their respective airbnbs and we prepared for the next day.
Sunday was bittersweet, as Bolas and Delux both ended up leaving partway through the day. After this, Fae and I attempted to cook in the kitchen together, but ran out of space and utensils to work with. Nut decided to step in and finish Fae’s cooking for her because “she was a toasted magical catgirl,” the drink proving too much to overcome. After a much longer amount of time spent on the project than we expected, most everyone went back to the con (right before we finished cooking, as well, so they had to come back later to a somewhat cold dinner).
While Nut continued work on dinner, including an absolutely preposterous amount of eggs, Wheals and I put on the regular weekend streams, managing to watch Community with the usual suspects from the Discord. After some time of this people then managed to return from the con and the last night began in earnest. We attempted to teach Nut how to play some variations of poker, which mostly went poorly due to collective drunkenness. WoC attempted to step in but the situation quickly spiraled out of control due to aforementioned drunkenness, and too many people trying to hop on.
Eventually we gave up the ghost and decided to do other stuff: B3es brought a Wii upon which people played Super Smash Brothers Project M, where Caled claims he got his ass handed to him in Smash by B3es and Mommy for approximately an hour. Additionally there was Mario Kart Doubledash, the latter of which most people actually played and got quite rowdy. The rest of the night was spent in general camaraderie, just talking with each other over the rampant noise of the TV.
Near the end of the night, Faeby burst into tears because we would all be leaving soon. In a way it signaled the end of festivities, but that’s just how it had to be. As WoC claimed once they were settled at a different airbnb, her sentiment sums it all up: “My drink tastes like I love my friends.”
Monday morning we abandoned airbnb 1, letting Cy deliver the keys to the owner. Nut, Icedream and I all went to deliver the remaining alcohol to Fae and B3es and give them one last goodbye, then the trip was officially ended.
I keep thinking of what I want to say about this, but I feel like it’s hard to describe without having been there; words don’t quite do the hangout justice. Meeting with everyone felt like rediscovering part of who I am, stirring around ideas that I had long forgotten. Tiny details still stick out to me, like the clap and sting of Cy’s hand on my back as we hugged for the last time, or Fae maniacally bouncing around the airbnb after a few drinks, or Mint staring at the TV as she tried to process her ill-advised soju and vodka combo out of an emptied Gatorade bottle.
Long ago I had envisioned an idea of owning my own place with enough space to indefinitely invite people from all over, so that they always had a place to meet up if possible. Being able to interact with people like this again has made me want to pick that idea back up and really work with it somehow, to provide a physical hub of sorts. I know how childish that dream is in reality, but a part of me has reawakened and can’t stop thinking how it would be gratifying to have a space where people can feel comfortable congregating with each other like that.
For now though, the current plan is simply to meet up again in the future. Our main prospect is ACEN, another anime convention being held in Chicago next year. With luck, we’ll have some of this crew and probably some new faces join us then. For now though, as the good Bard once said, “parting is such sweet sorrow.” I’ll miss you guys.
Cyrene Savage
and so, the homestuck discord meetup comes to a close. it was a pleasure meeting all of you, i will cherish these wonderful memories for a long time. altho the parting is bitter, the sweetness of our friendship will be an enduring palliative. perhaps another time the server can come alive again and we can once again feel the buzz of excitement and anticipation for meeting other in the real once again. until then, see you later
Delux
I had always thought of cons as a cool and potentially enjoyable activity, but, being kind of a stick in the mud, decided they probably weren’t for me. However, I feel like attending this convention has awoken a desire to go to more, and to do more nerdy convention things like cosplay in earnest. Over the year or two that I spent interacting with these people through HSD, I grew fond of all of them and I sprang at the chance to meet them in real life. Now that I’ve seen how easy it is to have a fun weekend with friends, I need to do it again. I think this feeling is mutual among most of us who went, because not two days after we got home from Momocon, we’ve already begun planning for a new one.
thebadnut
Upon reaching a laughable milestone in the server, I said, among other things, that 'I don't care if it's cringe, because it makes me happy'. This feeling was put into a three-dimensional understanding with this meetup. To be friends with someone for years and then finally get the chance to hug them! To sprawl across a room together, surrounded by con merch, eating the food we made for one another, and talking about our favorite anime and video games, at first with some hesitation but by the end of the weekend with fervor! To put on my first ever cosplay and feel joy over shame as we passed grey facepaint back and forth and listened to Homestuck AMVs! The strangest part is how it was at once the same and completely different from spending time online. The repeated question I've been hearing since the first time I met with an HSD user IRL is, 'what are they like in real life?' Well you see, we are different, because it's a different medium, but we are also the same, because the bonds of friendship we share transcend mediums.
Kreuz
I will never financially recover from visiting US of A from Poland for just a weekend, but honestly it was still 100% worth it. It was honestly, unironically best weekend of my life. In a funny turn of events, my very first experience of America was godawful public transportation system, where moving from international to domestic terminal at the airport took 45 minutes due to the traffic. Hanging out with people I never thought I’d actually meet IRL was definitely a surreal experience. It was also the first time I got to play arcades, and I have to thank Mint for playing with me. God it was all such a blast, I hope I can do this again next year but I really don’t know if I can afford this two years in a row.
Caledfwlch
Even though I’ve been in this server for over five years now (christ it’s really been that long) and active for most of it, I would still honestly describe myself as someone who falls more than most into that “lurk moar” mindset. That, combined with me unsurprisingly being a generally shy and even more reserved person in the flesh, made me both surprised and a little anxious when I got added to the big roster for the meetup when I off-handedly mentioned I would be at the con by sheer coincidence. Equally as unsurprisingly in the end, though, was how great of a time I had with everyone I got to see, even if it was only for a little while. Being able to chat and put faces and voices to names for people for the first time, shooting the shit about games and collective nerd interests, and the environment of everyone just being happy to be there and meet each other, made it a memory for me where my only regret is not being able to be there for more of it. Already can’t wait for the next one!
Mint
I consider myself a convention veteran, but every con ends with its own set of memories. This was definitely one of the more unplanned conventions in my life, having come back to the server a few weeks before, but it was one of the better decisions I’ve made for sure. It was nice to just unwind and be in the company of others for a few days after busting my ass during my break. Everyone just embraced me being there, and I’m just really grateful that even after all these years, this community continues to be a place I can come back to. It was also an honor to witness so many people going to a con for the first time– to experience cosplay culture, the random pauses for photos in the hallway, frantically putting on makeup and costumes before a photoshoot, and just milling around a building for hours without any concerns. Thanks for having me, and see you at the next meetup! ♡
Wheals
While this wasn't the first time I've met people from HSD, I had only dreamed of meeting so many people all at the same time and genuinely hanging out for an entire weekend. I'm still in disbelief that it happened.
Wizard of Chaos
