#a whole rainbow just because i didn’t have enough funds for a wig

[raspberrylix]

if I had a nickel for each time I got so intensly interested in a sports shōnen character that all I could think about is cosplaying as them, I'd had two nickels

which isn't a lot, and that wouldn’t cover the cost of outfits and other stuff for said characters' cosplays

[reflectingiridescent]

Kylee Goes to the Star Trek Convention. Here’s what happened. (Part 1)

(Ok, sorry about the title. I miss being a journalist sometimes. Only sometimes.)

GUYS I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START. Everyone told me that the con high would go away, and I’d be so sad the week after, but I feel like I’m maybe still on the high? It was just such a good and wholesome experience. I’ll try to break it down.

An important thing, I guess, to point out first and foremost was that Jonathan Frakes couldn’t come (got stuck at work and there were no flights going out, supposedly). So this upset a lot of people because it was advertised as the only time the TNG cast was going to be together all of 2017 (their 30th anniversary year). But this didn’t mean anything for me because I was there to meet my space moms, grandmas, and aunts! <3

So for a little background, I love Star Trek, and I love DS9 the most, but I watched TNG for the first time a couple years ago and liked it well enough. And then I watched it over the past few months during my layoff (and visa troubles). It was kind of this happy family place I could come home to. And also these actors are getting old! So I thought it would be best to go see them while I (reasonablyish) had the funds during a milestone? Also the TNG cast is fucking funny together, and I wanted to see that alone.

Wednesday

(So I only went to three days of the five-day con because that was cheaper , and also I have a cousin who lives in Las Vegas who I really don’t see often, and I see her daughter even less often, so we were squeezing in family time too - and I like never slept, and I made up for all of it yesterday by sleeping THE WHOLE DAMN DAY NOT EVEN SORRY.)

So they’d halted ticket sales online before I got there, so this was only a little stressful (I hadn’t heard of them running out of tickets before, and they were pretty much up for grabs once the actual con started on Wednesday). So I got there at 7:30am and was like I NEED TO BUY TICKETS FOR ALL OF THESE DAYS, etc. And the TNG reunion panel was set for Friday night and was an additional cost...whatever, cons are super capitalistic, and that’s like, the language of the US right? (I was also very happy to be home. Jury’s still out on the home thing, but I think I will always consider the US my home. Specific place? Not decided yet.) But I got everything, which was the most important.

Cool Stuff!

The Gaaays in Spaaace panel (literally how it was spelled), which is like this set of Trek parties thrown across the country with different ST actors showing up to them. So their party was on Friday (I went!), and Nana was the featured guest for both the party and the panel, which was really cool, because everyone was bringing up everything from the kisses on DS9 to polyamory, and we were discussing it like it was breakfast food.

Nana told a story about how when she used to be a dancer on Broadway, all the men she was in a production in once died because of the AIDS epidemic.

Kinsey scale brought up in relationship to DS9 characters, and basically they didn’t say that Kira/Dax wasn’t a thing, so like...that was kind of cool lol.

I won a rainbow tribble for answering trivia about same-sex kisses on DS9!!! I WILL KEEP IT FOREVER.

I stopped by the Gaaays in Spaaace table later and asked about a plethora of other relationships, and one of the dudes was like, “I’m sorry Gates girl, but Sub Rosa was the best episode because of the hair. The wigs in that episode were on point.” And then we had a long conversation about TNG hair, and it gave me life. (Don’t read me wrong - Sub Rosa is terrible, but the hair in that episode was fucking great, rivaled only MAYBE by All Good Things hair and Troi’s in Parallels.)

Also said by this guy: “I can’t believe they used a season 1 shot of Dr. Crusher on the con program. Like, really? Really, girl?”

I FUCKING LOVE THE INTERSECTION OF STAR TREK AND GAY OK.

I was too late (because I didn’t even know if Singapore would let me leave the country until like 5 days before I flew) to get tickets for Nana’s autographs, but I got a picture with her, and she was so cool! I tried to quickly tell her that she was my favorite, and it worked out pretty well.

AND THEN I TOOK PICS WITH NICHELLE NICHOLS AND MY RAINBOW TRIBBLE. I didn’t know then that the smart thing to do was to bring back the pics to be signed by them, so I had her sign my program. She was wearing a ST necklace and a little Uhura pin. So wonderful. So obviously I couldn’t say anything of substance because I was freaking out, but she told me that my name’s pretty close to her son’s name, so obviously I was over the moon for the rest of the day.

Nichelle crashed Mae Jemison’s session, which was really interesting. She discussed the 100 Year Starship project. This led to a really important moment when Mae told the audience, “If you’re looking for someone to give you permission to be in the room, I’m giving it to you.” She then turns to Nichelle and says, “You did that. You gave me permission to be in the room.”

I cried. The lady sitting a row behind me cried. The lady sitting three seats down from me was crying.

And then I got very emotional and Facebook-messaged my 6th/7th grade science teacher (who, btw, is the reason I possess the Greatest Real Life Love Story I’ve Ever Heard - a story for another day) and was like THANK YOU FOR BEING SO EXCITED ABOUT SPACE BECAUSE I AM WATCHING MAE JEMISON SPEAK AND I AM SO EXCITED AND ONE OF THE REASONS I’M EVEN HERE IS BECAUSE OF YOU.

She literally offered me a job doing research for her husband (who works for NASA). Oh my god. And she knew exactly what Mae was talking about because she’d just seen her speak at another event. I had such good science teachers.

I told this story to a lady in line behind me for a photo op, and she started crying because she had quit her banking job to become a teacher, and I was like, “Ok, but remember that scene in TNG - like one of those times Wesley saves the ship - and Picard says they should thank his science teacher? That’s you!”

She’d moved from Idaho to Nevada because the school system she was in in Idaho had cut math and science from the curriculum. :(

I did leave before any of the karaoke stuff so that I could go hang with my family though!

Oh and I was wearing glitter the whole day, and Nichelle and Nana both told me it was nice, and Nichelle complimented my hair color (I’d had it red). So lovely. I didn’t have time for a costume but wore red in both their honor.

I shook Daniel Davis’ hand but didn’t have fucking cash on me (still hadn’t changed my Singapore dollars and didn’t want the crazy ATM charges from Not My Bank), so I couldn’t get a pic. But he was so nice. And we chatted a bit about The Nanny, because that’s really where I knew him from first? Hahaha. He stayed the whole con and mentioned wanting to be able to meet the producers from his episode so he could thank them. Class act.

Half-DS9 panel! Terry, who wasn’t supposed to appear until the other DS9 half panel on Sunday, crashed it. Nana screamed, “Oh my god!” and flung herself across stage to hug her.

Ira Steven Behr basically coming out and saying that we’re never going to get to Roddenberry’s vision and that DS9 was as good as it was going to get.

Rene had crashed Nana’s Gaaays in Spaaace panel that morning and really hadn’t known how to answer a question about Odo and asexuality. He took time to clarify during the panel - he’s not against Odo being asexual - he was not familiar with the term but basically agreed. He didn’t want it to come across that he was negating that identity.

Ok, going to do another post later because this is going to be hella long, I think.