darsynia

HI GUYS! Here is your long-awaited Story of Epic Proportions! Short version? I had quite literally the perfect 'first conference' experience a girl could have, I really did.

Okay, so I still need to finish up typing out my official con report, but I thought I'd do this one first, because, well, I wanna use the icon I made from one of my photo-op pics and it kind of gives away the story! SO:

A few weeks before the conference, Shirt Woot had this design for sale:

I was like, GRABBY HANDS, because really, who doesn't want a cool shirt to wear to a photo op?? I also was given a really gorgeous card by

vida_boheme which I'll display for real under the cut, but I wanted the image to be big to show detail! So there I am, wearing the bright green shirt with the terrified lemons on it and holding this adorable card of John and Rodney holding candy and flowers--and I got lots of comments on both!

Oh, and, I should add--it turns out, I don't get starstruck at all. This isn't to say that I'm not SUPER EXCITED to see actors I like, and hey, pretty much everyone I saw that was getting excited was adorable, but this was like, a really, really nice thing to know about myself, and it basically made the rest of my day possible.

****Here's where I link to

vida_boheme's AMAZING con report from Meet the Hewletts, where you can see more of her awesome South Parkesque art and David being pretty much the most amazing and funny actor EVER.****

grammarwoman, who is also amazing as well as generous, offered our lovely group of roomies (*waves to

ladycat777,

stillane, and

wolfshark*) the chance to horn in on one of her photo op pictures, and we picked the David and Kate one. So, when we trouped in to do the picture, the first thing I did was hold out my shirt ~~rather than hold it to my chest, cause, my chest is, um. Prominent enough as it is~~ and say, "Hey David! I wore this for you!"

David took one look at the shirt, held up a hand, and turned his back to sneeze. The four of us and Kate (

wolfshark graciously bowed out of our pic because she had bought one of her own with Kate and David) started to snicker, because really, that's kind of cheesy! David turned around and saw us laughing at him and kind of made the 'What?' face, and his sister said something about the sneeze, to which David replied "What? I had to sneeze!"

Kate: You are SUCH a loser.
Us: LOL

So as we're still laughing at Kate's comment, I turned to David and said, "Actually, it kind of looked like a fake sneeze--and I was surprised, because hey, you're a really good actor! So I figured it HAD to be played up because of the allergy thing..." I missed his reaction, because, well, DAVID HEWLETT, and because we were setting up for the picture. As we smiled for the camera, David said, "Okay, everyone look REAL" in a bit of a snarky tone, and my little heart went THUMP THUMP SQUEE.

So then...

When we got out into the hall,

grammarwoman and I danced over to the end of the line for those of us with photo op pictures with David by himself (SQUEE.). Here's where I apologize to

stillane and

ladycat777 because ladies, I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE YOU WENT after we left the group picture because I was so high from having teased David Hewlett... sorry! I should add that the hallways were narrow, poorly ventilated, filled with sweaty, excited people, and HOT. They were also a lot of fun, once you get past all of that! I met a really wonderful woman in a blue shirt whose username I wrote down (it had a dragon in it!) and promptly lost, so if that's you, let me know! So as we stood in line, I turned to

grammarwoman and said:

Darsy: I need to think of something funny to say to David when I go back in there!
Grammarwoman: You should hand him a tissue!
Darsy: YES! Do you have one?
Grammarwoman: *makes 'DUH' face* *hands me minipack of tissues*
Darsy: YOU ARE A GENIUS.

We panted, sweated, and vibrated our way (don't look at me like that! It's a perfectly interesting description for 'was excited and shaking'!) down the hallways bit by bit (with a break for David to eat something, which our wing of the line was all in favor of) until we were finally there and ready to do pictures.

Darsy: This is for you! *hands David minipack of tissues with a butter-won't-melt-in-her-mouth facial expression*
David: *friendly glare* Very funny.

Then we took the picture, and looking back I KICK MYSELF because I didn't touch him besides the handshake, but I think that's a part of my weird 'don't stare at special people' behavior pattern, cause I did that with the other pictures too. I did, however, tip my head sideways, and David... well, you've probably already peeked at the picture, 'cause I sure would have...

I really hope my squeak of 'DAVID HEWLETT POINTED AT MY SHIRT' wasn't audible from in the room, but my guess is that it wasn't. I also didn't actually say it very loudly, but you know how we all worry about those sorts of things... We went to get some air (THANK GOD) and water before the next picture, and I wandered off by myself and ended up waiting in line for my David & Jewel photo op by myself. I had a great chat with people in line, and I give a shout-out to some of the folks I saw in line throughout the day--

ailurophile06,

beeej,

unamaga, and others whose names I know and have inconveniently forgotten, because guys, David is ridiculously gorgeous in person. Like, WOW.

I was calm~~, hot,~~ and confident right up until I reached the ante-chamber thing where we wait our turn for the pictures, and then I realized that... I'd given David shit TWICE in a row! What was he going to say to me NOW?!

Darsy: *hooks her hands together in front of her and twists in imitation of someone who could possibly be shy* I promise to be good this time!
David: *teasing, exasperated, burning hot glare* Yeah right, Lemons.
Darsy's Fangirlish Brain: *haz a niknaem*

Poor Jewel probably wondered why I bothered to have a photo taken with her in it and I was too shy to say anything to her (plus it looks almost like I'm leaning away from her! AAK)! I feel kinda guilty about that in retrospect but that's mostly overcome by NICKNAME OMG.

And then... /oblique reference to Finger Story

Then, it was time for the Q&A.

vaginasaurus, you'll be proud to know I asked him the same question I asked you! I'll elaborate more on the AWESOME (yes, that's right, awesome, darnit!) that were the Q&A sessions later, but what you need to know for now is that there was a podium thingie with a microphone set in the middle of the audience (300 people, guys? 200? 400? I really have no concept of that kind of thing...) on an aisle, so everyone could hear the questions. I waited in line ~~through the really weird and slightly boring questions that David was wonderfully expert at turning into not weird and boring~~ until it was my turn, and then got up to ask my question.

Darsy: So, my question is a bit complex, but you already knew I was a troublemaker...
David: *squinting adorably through the lights at the audience* Is that you, Lemons?
Darsy's Fangirlish Brain: *melts*
Darsy: Yep! Okay--so, if you took Team Sheppard and let everyone keep their own personalities, but switched their roles, who would you cast as whom?
David: *blank look*
Darsy: *tries to make more sense*
David: No, I think you've got it--that sound is just me thinking.
Kate: Oh, so that's why I haven't heard it before!

Kate had teased David earlier about his wearing a 'listening face' in a similar fashion. I REALLY love those two together! Here's a video taken by

grammarwoman (who missed him calling me 'Lemons' in front of THE ENTIRE ROOM but that's okay!) of the question and his reaction/answer:

stillane showed me some of the pictures she'd taken once we got back to the hotel that night, and it turned out that I'd done Arms of Yay \o/ at some point during David's answer! We had to watch the video to figure out when it was, and I'm ashamed to admit I apparently did it without realizing it, because I couldn't remember it at all! We're pretty sure it was when David talked about himself in a dress. (He says "I'll play you--in a dress" to Kate)

hebrew_hernia has a picture of me trying to explain my question, ~~but it's not the best angle in the world~~ but I'll spare you that in favor of \o/.

And then...

I was pretty much on Cloud 42 at this point and thinking that the day really couldn't possibly get more awesome, but we still had the AUTOGRAPHS to go through! The line was long and windy--but VENTILATED THANK GOD--(and, that's 'whinedy' not 'win-dy') but we finally made it to the table. I'd decided to save one picture for the next day's signing, so I got the one of David, myself, and Jewel signed along with

vida_boheme's lovely card:

Which, Finn, is absolutely GORGEOUS and everyone who saw it was completely blown away and loved it like woah. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them visit my blog to find yours and ask you to put your Pegasus Heroes shirts onto Cafe Press or something...

Unbeknownst to me (and maybe David? Then again, he's got lots of practice ignoring video cameras...),

grammarwoman taped our interaction!

So, there's now VIDEO PROOF of my nickname! I honestly couldn't have had a better experience and that was just in terms of David himself--SO much additional fun was had for the rest of the conference! I hope you enjoyed my Story of Epic Proportions, guys!

OOPS! I almost forgot the signature on the back of Finn's card!