We were joined for our repast by our good friend Flavio, who was in fine form in his gentleman's garb. We still had his hat and camera bag from the last adventure, so once equipped and breakfasted, we all climbed aboard Thax's carriage and made our way the short distance to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, where Clockwork Con, Austin's first Steampunk Convention was in its second day.
We quickly registered at the desk and found ourselves in a genial crowd of what appeared to be mostly Fallen Women and disreputable Gentlemen of Questionable Pursuits. What fun! I immersed myself in people-watching as we toured the Hotel and oriented ourselves as to where the various events were taking place that day, and then we walked through the Dealers' Room, where two corsetmakers and a shop selling silly hats were taking up most of the space. Perhaps living in Austin has refined my taste in esoteric bits and bobs; we have seen far better variety at the smallest and poorest-attended of The Mysterium's Steampunk Saturdays. The goods that were for sale at Clockwork Con were attractive and of good quality, please don't misunderstand, but there could have been more, had the space been better allocated and the vendor coordinator perhaps a bit more acquainted with the local artists and craftspersons to be found here.
The first event we attended was the Gadgeteer Festival in the main room; a far greater variety of craftspersons than could be found in the Dealers Room. Most if not all of the gadgets were simply made for the artist's own amusement and not for sale, but we very much enjoyed looking at the varieties of creative endeavors, strange machines, and blinky lights.
After that, we attended part of the "Pirates in Steampunk" panel, which appeared to be nothing more than a handful of drunken pirates recounting rambling tales of how they met one another. It was not quite what we expected, and drunken blather is no fun when one is unfortunately sober, so we moved along to the Tea Room, where we were joined by our friend, the lovely Lady Lyn, who was looking fetching in her airship garb. Her Aetheric speaking and photographing device had taken an unfortunate fall as she exited her carriage, so she was unable to get the machine to save pictures of her adventures for the day. We hope she is able to touch bases later with the many gentlemen who took her image and proffered their cards, but as I said, it was mostly a disreputable-looking crowd and there is no way of telling what these chaps might or might not do; however I'm told many pirates and scalawags have their own code, so it is to be hoped that they'd be gentlemen of their word so long as there is no rum, murder or plunder involved.
Lyn took her leave of us, wanting to attend the panel on Vintage Hair for the Modern Steampunk, and Thax wanted to try his luck with the panel entitled "Steampunk LARPing and Proper Roleplaying" so Thax, Flavio, and I made our way to Panel Room 3, where we saw our friend Doctor Richard M---, who was accompanied by his lovely young ward, a Miss Kat. We traded small waves and nods across the room, so as not to disturb the presentation, and then we learned a bit about SCARS, their etheric postings and attempts to bring some of their typewritten adventures to real life. It was established that if one feels insulted by a member of SCARS, they are more than likely "in character" as their daily personas are all quite pleasant folk, and the SCARS game they play allows them to portray sinister, wicked alter-egos. They issued many commonsensical bits of advice, such as "We're all friends, so try not to take things personally if the game becomes difficult for you," and "If you don't know what's going on, ask a Storyteller," and "Do not frighten children," There were also admonitions against the use of foul language in-game, as there are delicate ears and eyes about, and also it is more fun to insult someone creatively than it is to merely be vulgar.
At any rate, these seemed fairly straightforward and certainly a bit more oriented toward people who had never LARPed before, so we quietly excused ourselves into the hallway, where we were joined by Dr. Richard M-- and his companion. We enjoyed a pleasant, if short, conversation, and then we wandered on.
At this point, Thax decided it was time for a pipe, so we stepped out into the lovely afternoon sunlight. We were joined by several very kind and upstanding gents who were eager to make Thax's acquaintance, as he cut a splendid figure with his fine handlebar mustache and new imported pipe. Several amateur photographers wished to capture his likeness, and the gentlemen traded cards. It was very proper and quite gratifying to watch Thax engage his new friends with his usual approachable charm. We spoke with a young pipe aficionado by the name of Matthew, who attends university in nearby College Station. He had a charming moustache and impeccable taste in both pipes and tobacco. We also met a young alchemist by the name of Jedediah E. I--- , whose card was an unusual brass plate he had engraved himself. He was very smartly-dressed and also quite charming. It was quite refreshing to meet gentlemen of quality in the crowd of riffraff and rapscallions we had previously encountered. We also chatted with some lively young women from Anomaly Pod-Cast group, who were kind enough to take my image and give me a card so that I might contact them at a later date. Though their garb was more befitting to the night, they were in fact quite genteel.
Flavio mentioned that it might be time to enjoy a late lunch or early supper; what in a more civilized milieu might be properly called tea-time, but being in strange surroundings, we instead found ourselves back at my home enjoying a repast prepared by the heathen Chinee nearby the venue.
As it would soon be evening, I donned a skirt, blouse and corset more befitting to evening revelry rather than daytime adventures, my new shoes given to me at Christmas-time by my step-father (quite naughtily showing a bit of ankle!) and also my new Lobster Hat, which I made myself in the style of Isabella Blow. I think the look of the hat is quite lovely, but there were some logistical issues which I hope to remedy. My adventures in Millinery have only just begun, I think.
We were joined at home by another member of our Society, our Native Guide, Joseph, and we returned to the convention in time to enjoy a drink in the Crowne's pub, where we also enjoyed a fast and entertaining game of Gloom. Joseph, in the Way of his People, though he'd never played before, very quickly learned the rules and devised a winning strategy. Through some means of native cunning, he got Flavio to play what Flavio thought was a BAD trick on him, which ended up allowing Joseph to win the game. Never trust a smiling Indian.
After enjoying cards and beverages, we noted it was time to go and see the musical entertainments that had been procured for the evening. We went back to the Main Room, which had been expanded for the evening's festivities. The first [Edit: I am informed that Giraffe was actually the *second* band of the evening. Apparently we somehow missed the first band, the aforementioned sodden pirates. I stand corrected on my recounting of the order of events in the ballroom] was called Steam Powered Giraffe, and featured very life-like mechanical men who played instruments and sang songs. They were quite delightful. We also enjoyed watching our fellow convention-goers dancing. Steam Powered Giraffe's mechanics must have been quite capable, as the mechanical men went on for quite some time with very minimal losses of power.
After their nice long set, there was a brief interlude, and then the next band came on stage. These chaps were called Marquis of Vaudeville, and aside from their look, which was a sort of haberdashed emo-kid affectation, the music was fairly repetitive and not very interesting. We dubbed the style of music "Steamo" and quickly took our leave of it.
We met the lovely Lisa, the Artiste in Residence of Turners Tokens in the hallways, and had a chat with her. We'd seen her once earlier in the Dealers' Room as well. She was visiting as a 'mundane' rather than selling her fascinating wares (In this writer's ever so humble opinion, the organizers of Clockwork Con made a grave error in not allowing Turners Tokens space in their Dealers Room). Accompanying Miss Lisa was the peppery Chris-Rachel Oseland, an authoress of some repute, whose latest volume, SteamDrunks is available only through the Aether, via Kindle. Thax had a lively discussion with Miss Oseland about the desirability of the printed and bound word, but Miss Oseland refused to be moved by his entreaties. Alas, her insistence on Kindle may prevent her work from reaching this audience. She spoke of releasing it to various other Aether-based media, such as Nook and other infernal devices. The Aether-book phenomenon is in its infancy and the lack of consistent formatting between devices is limiting. One would not care to purchase an Aetheric Reading-Device at this early stage of the game. We shall see.
At this point in the evening, it was growing late and other than the unfortunate Steamo band, drunken hallway revels and some reports of upstairs goings-on in various chambers of the hotel, there was not much going on. We decided to close our day with a trip to Kerbey Lane for pancakes. In addition to multiple short encounters with Doctor Richard M--- and his protege Miss Kat, we had also been running into Daniel S---, Esq. and his lovely wife Mrs. Wendy S---, and they were kind enough to join us for pancakes and more lovely conversation at the restaurant. We were seated with alacrity by the attentive staff and had two very kind waiters who saw to our needs for the evening. As we chatted and dined on fine pancakes, we were approached every few minutes by interested fellow-diners who wished to know who we were and why we were so well-dressed. Luckily, Thax had gotten calling-cards printed earlier in the week-end, so he was able to present his credentials and introduce our group properly. One fellow diner even went so far as to ask for our image, which he obtained with the ubiquitous Aetheric pocket talking-and-image devices that are so common nowadays.
The hour was getting late, and we all had begun to turn our thoughts toward home and bed and the long tomorrow ahead, so we took our leave of one another and departed in our various carriages।
And here I am in blogger, which presented a challenge in posting, as it will only allow me to choose between five heathen languages which I cannot read, and therefore had to compose this entry in another Aetheric journal and then copy the writing here। What fun!
वहत फूं इन्दीद!
