adeline | "I couldn't pick a Klingon out of a line-up." (Reply)

It was a week ago already, that the grand madness started. I wanna go back, omg. In fact, I kind of have booked a room in Northampton for the Eclipse 2 dates already. The hotel convention is ALREADY FULL, by the way. Yes, for serious. The event is still eight months away. Who was it that first said this fandom is batshit insane? Can't argue that.

But that's a long way away, let's retrace the first Eclipse. Right. Let's go back to the start.

Friday, March 14th
We came down to the restaurant to have breakfast at about 9-ish, then went to McDonald's for a quick overview of the ShowMasters forums, e-mail, a quick glance at my f-list, etc. Oh, and I downloaded Lost, in about 8 minutes total.

Then we went to the train station to fetch Jules (

decadentdream) and came back to the hotel. After dropping her baggage in our room, we went back to the McD's to eat. We made it back to the hotel just in time for the registration process, which was pretty quick as we somehow found ourselves at the start of the queue. (Don't look at me like that, it was pure chance.) After checking we got everything we were due to receive, we went back upstairs and Carmen (

tweety_be) soon knocked on our door. There was much glomping.

We all had 'Adam's Anarchists' group passes except for Carmen who was a... 'Angela' something. Anvils, maybe? Or maybe 'Ando's Sidekicks'? Anyway, we decided to feign losing one of our Adam passes so we could get an extra. To that end, I went back to the registration desk and, while on that errand, met the lovely Mary (

fresleyforever). Cue glomping. Alas, the line was moving and the lobby was crowded and we soon parted ways.

The lady at registration told me tough luck, you only get one group pass, no exception, but it doesn't matter which one you get if you have a gold pass anyway. This may or may not be the point at which we spotted Brendan, Andrea and Tanya (lovely fangirls and -boy, whom we met during the Heroes World Tour. ~~Cheese factories ftw!~~).

I honestly can't remember what we did after that. Maybe that's when we actually ate? LOL, I can't remember. ;_; Or maybe we ate again, which is as likely as anything. Or maybe we just took another trip to McDonald's for no other reason than to mooch off the free Wifi. Either way, upon return to the hotel we ran into Becca (

dontburnhot) and Kel (

skypiratekella). Cue more glomps! We were back in our room at around 5:30ish to get ready for the Opening Ceremony and subsequent ~~Cocktail Party~~ Drinks Reception, the former of which was to start at 7.

Oh and we also checked out the Timeline Room and Dealer's Rooms at some point in the afternoon, couldn't tell you exactly when. The Timeline Room was pretty neat, but would've looked a LOT more impressive in a larger space. But I'm being picky now.

When the doors to the main hall opened, we briskly walked to the front row and took seats on each side of the aisle. I thought I recognized Tami (

aelora) seating eight-o'-clock from Zarina's 12, so she spun on her seat and said "hi" but there was no glomping because we were all sitting down by now, and leaving your chair seemed a significant risk. Then I thought I saw Bobby (

nothingtosay) sitting further down the front row to the left but we weren't 100% sure for the time being, LOL.

Soon after, Mark and Jason (ShowMasters) took the stage to introduce themselves and briefly present the event and what they were trying to accomplish, but mostly, to stall until the guests were ready. ;) It didn't take much longer though, and Noah Gray-Cabey ran up to the stage and greeted everyone in such a bubbly adorable manner that it made every potential parent in the house flail and internally scream OMG SO CUTE CAN I PLEASE HAVE ONE JUST LIKE THAT. He said we were his best crowd in the UK yet and just looked completely happy to be there. Awwwww! ♥

Up next was David Anders, looking right at home under the warm applause of the convention crowd. If I recall correctly, he opened with "how do I follow that pro?" and then proceeded to say he had been to Alias events in the past that were a lot of fun and he was looking forward to meeting all of us, shaking all our hands... And then, randomly suggested we all have tea at that moment. "I'll just sit here." And so he sat Indian-style on the spot. He did however get up and off the stage right after, but it was nonetheless a glimpse into the mad randomness that we would all come to know and love over the weekend. XD

Then came Cristine Rose, and, you know, for the two previous guests I'd noticed people in the aisle extending their upper limbs, effectively getting a handshake out of the trick. So I figured, eh, why not? And so Cristine Rose shook my hand. W00t! (Yes, I know how lame I am. I just don't care. Much.) Anyway, her speech was made of AWESOMESAUCE, and even moreso for the fact that I'm pretty sure she was winging it. She looked gorgeous, too. Basically in her 2 minutes on stage, she made everyone fall in love with her. Hee! ^^

Jessalyn Gilsig followed, and you guys, she was so freaking modest and just grateful about even being asked to come, it was really endearing and I just wanted to give her a big hug. I think she just wasn't sure what to expect, and possibly thought people would be less-than-thrilled to be meeting her when lots of attendees had booked with hopes to meet bigger stars... gah, just disarmingly humble. We made it a point to cheer just as loud for her as for anyone else.

And then, the announcement of DOOM!!1! Jason came on stage, took the mike, and I believe the first words out of his mouth were something like, "I'm sorry, we have a sad announcement to make, it appears Sendhil Ramamurthy will not be able to be here" and this is where we all went OMG *BAITED BREATH* OMG GTFO NOT A LAST MINUTE CANCELLATION OMGOMGOMG *HEARTCLUTCH* OMG until Jason said "tonight." OMFG RELIEF! Jason went on to say Sendhil was stuck in traffic on the M1 and we were all, like, OMFG STUPID BRITISH TRAFFIC *SHAKES FIST* I H8 U SFM!!!!!1! D: D: D:

But then we were given some more pretty to pacify our tempers, in the person of Santiago Cabrera. He wore his hobo beard, and dubious hat, and the extraordinary thing in all this is that he still looked so positively fuckable. *_* He also looked like he had no idea what to do with himself, and was kind of shyly mumbling into the microphone things like "it's great to be here." To which I replied, "it's great to have you here," unsure whether or not he could hear me, and he actually said thanks! Hee. And then the greatest thing happened when he mumbled something like, "I'm not sure what to do here, lulz" and Carmen cheerfully suggested "give a hug? :D" Santiago wasn't sure he heard that right, so Zarina and I echoed, each from a different side of the aisle, "she wants a hug!" LOL. Then he said, I quote, "Oh, okay!" and Carmen went to him and they hugged! LMAO, it was adorable! <3

So then, the opening ceremony wrapped, and we were told what room to go in for the Drinks Reception. Hartford 3. See, the useless little things, I'll have no trouble remembering. Sheesh. *rolls eyes at self* Anyhow, we went in before the guests got there, and scored our group 2 chairs and a portion of a teeny tible table, heh. The guests soon joined the reception and mingled amongst different groups of people to introduce themselves and share bouts of conversation. There was no proper structure to the process, so not everyone got to meet everyone, and we certainly didn't, but that was all right. At least the guests weren't getting mobbed every which way.

Jessalyn made her way to us first, shook all of our hands, and again she all but apologized for not being Hayden. And we were like, "dude, stop it." Well, not exactly in those words but, y'know, that was the sentiment. Brendan, Carmen, Zarina and I were like, "you know what? We've met Hayden, we haven't met you. She's old news!" And we all had a LOL with that. But she was really, really sweet you guys. I kind of want Meredith Gordon to come back now, heh. I mean, surely Mohinder could contact her at some point? Yes? No? Anyway, we made small talk really, about Montréal, shoes, Los Angeles, her time in England so far... And as soon as she left we were all like, "she's so niiice!"

I think Bobby and Zarina's run-ins with Santiago and David occured slightly before this, but the memory is fuzzy so I'll refer you to their own recounts.

Shortly thereafter, I saw Santiago leave, and went (in a different direction) to get a drink from the watercooler. That's right, I don't like wine. What of it? When I returned to my point of origin, David passed by me towards the exit. So I was all "O_O" and somehow, he looked at me and we exchanged these crazy grins and crazy "hi"s. I mean, I was bewildered. He's just crazy by default. And then he was out, but that was pretty cool.

Then I was chatting with Brendan, Tami and

icalynn (whose name I'm afraid I never did catch, I'm sorry), I think we were talking about Comic Con and various TV shows that we watched, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zarina, Carmen and Jules talking to Noah. Naturally, I subtly made my way over. And that was THE MOST CUTEST CONVERSATION EVER, for real. And in case I forget to say it later, Noah is really a phenomenon insofar that he is all at once probably the most intelligent person I have ever talked to in my life (including university professors) and also obviously such a 12-year-old kid. It's astounding, really. I want to draw sparkly hearts all around him. <3

The reception came to an end, and as we exited the room, we found ourselves face to face with Cristine Rose, who shook all of our hands and told us she looked forward to meeting us. Lol, err wut? ~~I think she enjoyed the wine.~~ Whatever, it was awesome. XD

After this, we went back to our room for a few minutes, I uploaded a couple of pictures (posted two entries back) while Zarina and Jules changed into fake!Zane and a cheerleader, respectively, for the High School USA party. It turned out to be quite fun. There were themed drinks at the bar, with names such as Sylar Sling, Petrelli Punch and HRG. (I tried the former two - tasty enough, but I'm guessing it would take a LOT of those to get a buzz going.) Poor Brendan was suffering the whole time this emo cover band was playing, LMAO. I sang along and randomly jumped around to the tunes I knew. There was also a lot of Yatta! posing. And I vaguely remember some ice-cube throwing. Typical party, amirite? ^^

A little before midnight, I went with Becca, Kel and a couple of new recently-met friends to, you guessed it, the McDonald's - for fresh air and possibly food and drink. Alas, their menu at a such hour was lacking. As was the bus stop bench we stopped at to consume said food and drink. Right, Kel? XD Also, it was getting pretty frakkin' cold at that point, so we made a quick return to the hotel. I went back to our room where we talked for a bit with my Team Yatta teammates. We agreed to grab breakfast at 7:30 the following morning and got ready for bed. Night-night!

I'll post about Saturday and Sunday shortly, but I've been typing for about 3 straight hours, so... I do believe a small break is in order. Pics from Friday here, btw.

More Friday pics: