Minimeet!

[superaielman]

-At Pyro's place, chilling out. Pyro was also a great host and did his best to keep up conversation even though I was quiet. This is also a test post.

-As others have said, I locked myself out of Pyro's place while taking a phone call. This is a shot from the Balcony. The Aiel way- if you're going to fuck up, at least make it funny and memorable. I certainly did that.

-He was rather amused. Bastard.

-Pyro 's Gohan!

-Just a shot of us driving up towards DC. It bears repeating, Pyro did an awesome job in bad traffic and even worse weather.

-Another shot. This was up near.. shit, Fredricksburg? It was well past Richmond. It was right before we hit the day one traffic. PS: Toll roads can blow goats.

-ENTER. THE. MEEPLE.

- Because I took a lot of random shots.

-Friday night, at Uno's. Pyro had a burger and fries, Meeple had a veggie burger, I had the same as Meep. Cid had soup and.. something? Fuck if I can remember.

-
It ain't nothing but more hot shit
Another classic CD for y'all to vibe with
Whether you're cooling on a corner with your fly bitch
Laid back in the shack, play this track
I'm representing for the gangsters all across the world -(This was the only picture I took of myself at the con. D'oh.)

- Pyro and El Cid reppin Soul Calibur 2.

[superaielman]

-When there's light, there's darkness...

-Shale is one chill motherfucker. He wandered in around 9pm.

- The begnning of the Guilty Gear wars. We sat down and watched Shale and Cid battle it out. Faust's instant death move is fucking hilarious, on that note.

-Last picture from Friday night. Guilty Gear wars are at hand, can anyone stop the terror of Millia Rage and Faust? Meeple's playing FFTLW, while Pyro's watching.

-Kitty! She was very friendly.

-Cid+Kitty. A little on the blurry side. Taking pictures with a RAZR camera phone is a bitch.

-Finali tried to spin the Hydra. Don't fucking spin the Hydra.

- The multiheaded beast of mythical legend cannot be slayed with slashing weapons nor can it be overwhelmed with arrows, it can only be destroyed with fire. Strike down one head, and two shall grow in it's place.

-Final picture of friday. Pyro and Cid just hangin out.

[Hunter Sopko]

Woot. My PSP makes an appearance.

[superaielman]

-Breakfast. Le chef Shale is in the house.

"A sword doesn't need fine lineage, it just needs to be sharp."

How many little piggies died to feed us? Zero! It was chicken sausage and veggie sausage. Luca would be so disappointed.

Mmm, chicken.

- Glory to the egg.

-Ta-da!

-Getting Meeple to stand still long enough to take decent photos is not an easy task.

I didn't snap any pictures of gamestop, the place was a zoo. Here's us at the store, grabbing drinks and deciding on Dominos for dinner.

Meeple drank most of his soda before he left. The current theory forwarded by Sages is that he in fact drinks soda to shift his molecules to another universe, hence explaining.. pretty much everything about Meeple.

-The irony of ordering Dominos was not lost on me.

- Really wish this had been less blurry.  I really liked this shot when I took it.

I was half tempted to ask if I could do the Elmdor fight for Meep. After doing it with Archers, it'd be a delight to try it with an actual team. I hope you enjoy that 700 damage Holy coming your way next game, Elmdor.

-Post music quiz. *Punts Meeple for the FE10 track*

-Yes, I saw the intro of FF12 and I took this picture entirely to use Rogue Tomato in NR light. Thank me later Tonfa.

-KITTY! Sadly I left the Kitty Kooker at home, though I suspect attempted useage of the cooker would have gotten a guitar smashed over my head.

-In front of the Silver Diner, right before we went in to eat. I somehow avoided getting one really good, clear shot of Cid the entire time. Go me.

-On the other hand, all the shots I got of Pyro were excellent.

[superaielman]

-Entering the tunnel that links Newport News and Norfolk.

-In the tunnel. I rather like this shot. In the tunnel.

-Escape. Stephen King would be so proud.

-Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

[Shale]

The meet was pretty great. Everything we got unlazy enough to do went off without a hitch, so big congratulations to our host. Thanks!

Gaming rocked. Lots of fighting games, especially Guilty Gear - which was just as much fun to show off for style as to play competitively. One of many reasons I love that game. FF12's intro was amusing, and the AI final fight was really freaking insane, mainly for RNG reasons.

The downside, of course, was XS3. DIE IN A FIRE, CHAOS BACKSTORY.

Cooking was fun, and seemed to go over well. Glad I finally got the chance to use that recipe.

Cid hosts a great party, as mentioned. He's pretty quiet in person; kind of unexpected judging from his chat persona, but online behavior has yet to be an accurate predictor for anyone not named Meeple or Niu, so I'm not sure why I'm surprised there. Fun to talk with once he started talking.

Pyro's pretty damn cool. I didn't think I'd get along with him particularly well for some reason, but he turned out to be a great guy to shoot the breeze with.

Super and Meeple were pretty much how I remembered them. Well, Super was healthier. But his sense of direction was intact! Pyro gets to tell that story, though.

[superaielman]

My sense of direction is perfectly fine, thank you. And XS3 was at least memorable.

[Meeplelard]

If nothing else, we balanced out XS3 with the DMC3 opening!

And yeah, JUST finished the Assassin Fight right before going to the Diner. Had you gone back to Cid's house, you'd have had the chance or something!

[Sierra]

Cid hosts a great party, as mentioned. He's pretty quiet in person; kind of unexpected judging from his chat persona, but online behavior has yet to be an accurate predictor for anyone not named Meeple or Niu, so I'm not sure why I'm surprised there. Fun to talk with once he started talking.

I'm not very talkative face-to-face with people I haven't known (personally) for a very long time, so a lot of my usual vocal mannerisms (addition of unnecessary affixes, the intentional manglings of conventional grammar you see in chat sometimes) probably didn't show up.

[Grefter]

I would say the same of myself. I am only really as much like my online style in person when I have known you for a couple of years and have ascertained that my sense of humor will not insult.

[Pyro]

Lots of fun times. Except for driving. But life has its necessary evils.

Cid's place was nice. Reminded me of my own place, except he his has actual personality to it instead of being mostly empty. Cid himself was a reserved and respectable guy. Largely similar to his online persona. Also had good tastes in pretty much everything.

Super is the same Super I've known for a while now. He entertained me greatly, even if sometimes it was unintentional. Yes, locking himself out on my balcony really was that funny. Needs to die for XS3 hype though. Seriously, I let him watch all of Gwendolyn's awesome cutscenes and he rewards me with that? Foul.

Meeple is Meeple. Far easier to get along with in person because he seems a lot more good natured than I thought. Hard to keep up with but I enjoyed what he had to say.

Shale is a very charismatic individual, which I wasn't really expecting. Very easy to get along with, a good conversationalist, enthusiastic, the works. Very glad for this as it made rooming with him easy and fun.

Gaming was good times, yes. Guilty Gear was as awesome as has been advertised. Although I don't really like playing fighting games, just watching it was a treat. Unique doesn't really begin to describe it, and Faust's instant-kill is something everyone should see at some point. Devil May Cry is as meaninglessly cheesy as I thought it would be, and so it was great fun to watch. Atelier Iris' final boss was random as hell for a variety of reasons, but got to demonstrate why we like Lita even though she gets beat with the nerf stick at endgame. FF12's opening... Reks hype takes a bow to ROGUE TOMATO and Vaan being beat down by a T-Rex.

Movies were fun. Didn't really dig Big Trouble in Little China, but it was fun to just laugh at the cheese. Clue was simply delightful to watch in full for once instead of just catching bits and pieces.

Glad I went, honestly. Which is saying something considering how much I hate driving any appreciable distance.