LeakyCon Part 3: In which I meet the Warblers, find myself in a Vlogbrothers video, cry some more, and help break a World Record

Part 2 |x|

SO, on Friday, I woke up after about four hours of sleep and went to MuggleCast, which was the coolest! I went alone because I didn’t know anyone who liked MuggleCast, but it was so amazing to see Eric and Andrew and BEN for the first time. Especially Eric because he’s the cutest ever ahhh

At some point, Ben mentioned how some asshole would probably put scans of The Casual Vacancy online, and Andrew’s like, “Dude, you can’t say asshole here!” And then Melissa walks by out of nowhere and she’s like, “It’s fine, say what you want. They’ve heard worse.” And we certainly had. During the birth scene of Maureen’s Midnight Breaking Dawn party.

After MuggleCast, I went to the Nerdfighter Meetup. It was so hard deciding between going to that and going to JMOMS, and to be honest, that’s my one regret of LeakyCon. I think I should have chosen JMOMS. I thought there would be a singalong sort of thing at the Nerdfighter Meetup, and more… I don’t know. It ended up just being a Q&A, and don’t get me wrong, it was so fun! I just think JMOMS would have been a more special memory.

BUT. I made it into John’s video today, saying “Good morning, Hank, it’s Tuesday!” So that’s kind of amazing. It’s at the 0:03 mark. I’m in the Pizza John shirt, in the second row, holding the camera in front of my face.

SO, after that, I made my way over to the Warblers signing. That was fun because I didn’t have to wait in line with everyone else, being a Rockstar. So I got through the line fairly quickly. I didn’t have anything special for them to sign, so I had them sign my LeakyCon book.

The boys were too precious. I told Dom that I loved I Want You Back and that he was fabulous in it, and he got super excited and said “THANK YOU!” super exuberantly. Then I asked him if he was having fun and he like perked up in his seat and was like, “YES, I love meeting you guys! I love this so much! It’s so fun!” I didn’t talk to Riker and Curt and Titus besides just saying hello, how are you, thank you, because again, we were a bit rushed because Curt kept talking to EVERYONE way longer than he was supposed to. 

Theeen, I went to this panel about Girl Books and Boy Books, which was super fascinating. John and Robin Wasserman and Holly Black and Maureen Johnson and Lev Grossman talked about the disparities among the book market and at signings and such, and it was just really interesting. It was nice to sit back and just enjoy a panel and not worry about lines and signings and meeting ~famous people and whatnot.

I had to leave early to go see Potter Puppet Pals, though. IT WAS SO FUNNY. I got to sit with Liz, so that was cool. I have a super grainy picture of the adorable Neil Cicierga and his puppets.

So then I went to the Harry Potter Actors panel, which I ALMOST skipped because I thought I would only care about Evanna anyway, but I’m SO glad I went. It was so fun. It was amazing to see what genuine fans they all are. I mean, I knew Evy was a fan of HP before being cast, but I had no clue that Robbie Jarvis was just as big a fan as she was. He made me cry so many times during the panel, because he just kept saying that we would never have to say goodbye to Harry Potter, and he was just so sweet. You could hear in his voice how special his brief time on the movie was. He was also really, really funny. And Will Melling was super awkward and adorable but it was weird finding out he’s seventeen. I was simultaneously like, “Oh my god, you grew up so much!” And “oh my god, I’m OLDER than you and I’ve done nothing with my life!” Louis Cordice was also hilarious. He rapped Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for us, and seemed way more energetic now that he wasn’t jetlagged. EVY WAS A TROLL and mentioned that she’d love to be in a Starkid show, which I CALLED as her hinting she would be in one, and lo and behold, she was the very next day.

SO, then I’m about to leave the HP panel when it’s over, but I stand next to the exit and call Cassie because I wanted to meet up with her before leaving. And who the fuck walks past me? Nick Lang, Jeff Blim, and Chris Allen. Like, literally right in front of me. So my conversation was like:

Me: Hey, Cassie, where are…

Cassie: What?

Me: OH MY GOD.

Cassie: WHAT?

Me: STARKIDS.

And then Nick Lang sees me because I am stUPID and said it SO LOUDLY when he was only like two feet away from me, so he turns around and glances at me curiously, then scurries off with the other two, and I’m kind of in a daze so I follow them but down a different aisle, just talking on the phone to Cassie and stumbling over my words and my feet as I watch them and walk. And eventually I regain my senses and leave them the hell alone and find Cassie, and then I leave Cassie because I forgot I was going to the Lizzie Bennet Diaries panel.

SO, I go to that, which is actually super fun even though I sat by myself again. I was in the very front row, and Hank came, which I hadn’t expected! So that was awesome. They showed us a sneak peek of Wickham, and he was SO HOT omg. And then they teased us by saying that they had invited a special guest to talk about who was playing Darcy, and then Michael Aranda comes up, so everyone’s freaking the fuck out, but then Michael’s just like, “I’m so excited to be able to announce that I… am NOT playing Darcy.” TROLLS.

I had to leave that panel early to go meet Brett to head to the second wrock show. We ended up finagling our way to the front of the stage AGAIN. Like, we were right up against the front. And somehow, this wrock show managed to be even BETTER than the second. So, so good. Lauren Fairweather was the most adorable thing and she made me cry. Gred and Forge were amazing, as were The Whomping Willows. I fell in love with Alex Carpenter that night. TOO CUTE. Too freaking cute. And he sang Teenage Werewolf which is like my favorite song. Hank did a really awesome job, and he also filmed Brett and I SO MUCH that I’m pretty positive I’ll be prominent at SOME POINT in his video!

Also, Hank did the most KICKASS version of Accio Deathly Hallows EVER. It started off soft, then rock, then reggae. Amazeballs.

AND HARRY AND THE POTTERS BROUGHT THE FREAKING HOUSE DOWN. Right from the “I’m Harry Potter-” “-and I’m Harry Potter-” “-and we are Harry and the Potters!” they had the audience hooked. It was so unique. They did the best at interacting with the crowd and pumping us up and it was so funny. Evanna came and played bass guitar while we sang a song for her lying on the ground. Ugh. It was SO GOOD jfc.

After that, which ended at like… 2:30 or so?… Brett and I changed into our footie pajamas/onesies and went to the Pajama Meetup. It took FOREVER to get everything settled, but eventually we beat the world record of 310 with a whopping 622. Will Melling and Robbie Jarvis even came to the footie pajama meetup and participated, which was awesome. Brett and I spent the whole time bemoaning the fact that Will and Robbie didn’t come near us, talking about how much we would tap dem asses, and generally being immature. It was super sweaty when we had to actually be in this huge group for ten minutes to prove we won the record, but it stopped being terrible when we all sang Total Eclipse of the Heart and the coolest Bohemian Rhapsody ever. Ever sung a kickass song with over 600 people, doing guitar solos and instrumentals a capella in unison? It was exactly like that, except more awesome than you’re imagining.

So it got out somewhere around 4am, and Brett and I took a detour from going back to our rooms. We just went to the closed Vendor Room and other places where we shouldn’t be and took a bunch of photos. Then we went to our magical we-met-Maureen-Johnson-here elevators and rolled around on the carpet going, “I can’t go to Pigfarts! You need a rocketship! Do you have a rocketship? I bet you do!” And it was around that moment that I realized we were destined to be friends. :’)

AND THAT WAS IT.

Part 4: |x|