So as I type I am hacking up green death and unable to breathe... But even with the Con Crud that was passed around at MysticCon, it was so worth it!So you've probably guessed by now that Shade and I are old-school goths turned Steampunks, right? We also love costuming and all things gaming, sci-fi, fantasy, and geek. There's a project in the works that revolves around all of this, but for the meantime we've been enjoying Con season quite a bit in our costuming and finery.
We even got our older two boys involved this time! In the pictures below you'll see a Tardis and the 11th doctor; those are our boys! They won Best Kids Costume at MysticCon (which is awesome!) Both of our boys are high functioning autistic, so getting them up on a stage is nothing short of a miracle anyway, but accommodating their anxiety once there was quite a concern. My oldest likes to hide, so Shade and I constructed a full-proof plan to let him hide on stage. We built him a Tardis out of foam project board that he could hide inside! He did a great job getting around in it too. And his next youngest brother turned out to be quite a ham onstage as the 11th Doctor! He even made a friend in a little girl who was dressed as the Weeping Angel! 
As for Shade and I, I dressed up as Adria Kelenoire, The Steampunk Alchemist, who is a character that I'm writing a book about to be released sometime in 2014. Shade entered as a Steampunk Gentleman (isn't he always? ;) I have never been so shocked as I was when Podcasting's Rich Sigfrit announced me as the winner for Best in Show! Costuming has always been a passion of mine, and so there will be a lot of costuming posts on this blog with ideas to help other make costumes as well.
Aside from the costuming, we had the absolute pleasure of meeting David Lee, creator of the Steampunk Daelek, and Hatten Cross Steampunk at MysticCon. It was really a thrill to see all of their creations and gadgets. My favorite was the modified Gatling Gun.
And speaking of gadgets, trust my children to find the robotics people! Roanoke Robotics was there and got my oldest completely addicted to wires and gadgets. He's talked about nothing else since we left... I guess we're going to have to build that R2 unit after all. LOL. 
We also played in our first (I know, a shock to be sure as we're such die-hard gamers) Pathfinder game. It was waaaaaay late on Saturday night, around 4am when we wrapped up, which is why I look like I'm half asleep in the photos.
And if all of that wasn't enough, we got to meet the 5th Doctor himself, Peter Davison! The boys were looking forward to meeting him for weeks, but there were so many people in the Dealer's Room that they were terrified by the prospect of going in. They were hanging out in the video game room when who should appear (courtesy of the AMAZING Carla Brindle!) but Peter Davison himself! He hung out with them for quite a while talking about video games and his own children. It was quite an experience and Shade and I were definitely geeking out for awhile afterwards too...
As for the Dealer's Room, I wasn't as thrilled with it as with ShevaCon. It was good to see B&D Comics there, and the Crystal Cottage too of course. There was a t-shirt vendor, "Geek Boy Press", that had some pretty nice designs so we bought a few of those. There was also a woman who had made clay horns which the boys loved! Beyond that, not much grabbed our attention this year. But the panels, costume contest/masquerade, gaming, steampunk, writers, and meeting Peter Davison made this Con rock! We had a blast and will definitely be back next year!
