#consanity

And ye gods, they are glorious.

I saw some really great pop culture cosplay. There were quite a few “I understood that reference!” moments for me. These are some of my favorites.

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Watch out for my body rolls!

I’m Rick James, Bitch!

Would you like some pancakes?

Mighty Morphin’ Prince

Hi, my name is Matt, not Kylo Ren

Dogs playing poker

Old Spice Guy

There were some great mashup/remastered cosplays. These always impress me the most. There is a lot of creativity and imagination that goes into these ideas and it is just all so brilliant. Sometimes it’s the costume, sometimes it’s fandoms colliding. Sometimes it’s just everything.

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Colonial Era Star Wars

John Snow Shite

Adidas Storm Strooper

Hello Kitty Warrior

Doctor Who/Star Wars Crossover

Venusaur

Victorian Deadpool

He had business cards!

And then there are the straight up TV/Movie/Comic Book/Gaming cosplays that are just incredibly well done. There are hundreds of hours, blood, sweat and tears poured into these costumes. And the absolutely joy of their fandoms really shine through.

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Matrix

Fairy Godmothers

DELETE

Silver Surfer

The Most Terrifying Thing Ever

Ghost Busters!

Sully

Ruby Rhod

Eleven really loves Eggos

Game of Thrones

Boogie Woogie!

Kilgrave

Orgasmo!

Jim & Kermie

Mario and the Gang

Wonder Woman

Blade

Beauty & Her Prince

Cabin in the Woods

Mad Max Fury Road

SWEETUMS

Agent Carter

Steven Universe

Legend of the Seeker

War Machine and Loki, hanging out. NBD

Box Trolls!

LEGO Ghostbusters

BARF!

And then there are those cosplays that you’re like, “OMG!” Or, it’s 1:00am and you’re all, ” I don’t know what this is, but it is AWESOME!”

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Chess with a Jawa

The Last Templar

Um…yeah

This was everywhere.

Sweet Dreams!

Bar 2.0

These guys.

Spartans taking the escalator.

Blade Runner hanging out with Daft Punk

NOOOOO!!!!

Yaaaaaassss!!!!

Um…ok?

And that is how you DragonCon in a laid back manner. Catch some Pokemon, catch some panels, see a lot of cosplay, play some games, and wonder how it all went by so fast. The plus side to taking this approach? You really can fully enjoy every moment. Get the sleep you need. Drink the coffee that is life. Stay up as late as you like. Be chill, and avoid con crud.

Aloha and Mahalo

In previous years, the gaming area was in the basement of the Hilton Hotel. It was great, since it was in a host hotel, but sometimes finding a table was difficult. This year, the gaming area was in the Americas Mart 1 building and it was sprawling and spacious and packed full of all manner of gaming – arcade type dancing games, virtual reality pods, old school games, console games, and of course, my beloved board games.

Seriously, y’all. PONG.

This is how we chilled and kept that relaxed vibe alive at Dragon Con this year. When we’d had too much walking around or too much standing in line and just needed some down time? We’d come to the gaming area and play a board game.

Castles of Burgundy

This is one of my favorite games. It doesn’t look all that impressive thematically, but the balance of strategy and luck and the race to be first is exhilarating. I’m always excited when I get to share favorite games with friends, and I do believe I converted Regan to love this game as well. We also tried our hand at Sentinels of the Multiverse. We… were unable to master the game. I’ve heard great things about it, though, and I’ll definitely try again.

We also spent some time oohing and aaahing over the gorgeous gaming tables by Geek Chic in the vendor hall. Not only are they functional tables that you can use to play table top games and board games, but they are gorgeous works of art in and of themselves. Some of them even function as a lowly dining room table too, if you are so inclined. The cost is…well, I will need to save a lot of pennies (or win the lottery) to be able to own one of these, but it is on my bucket list. And one day, I am going to make it happen.

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Seriously, y’all. Have you ever seen such a gorgeous table?

But as you know, it’s not all board games and drooling over gaming tables in the vendor hall. We were in downtown Atlanta with blocks and blocks of walking to do in prime Pokemon Go real estate. And we played So. Much. Pokemon Go. I mean, how could you not?

Remember how Fievel and his family were singing about how the streets were paved with cheese in An American Tail? Well, change the words of the song to “…and the streets were lined with Pokestops lured up to the gills 24/7.” and that’s what Pokemon Go was like at DragonCon for 4 glorious days. I started out at a newly arrived Level 25 when I got to DragonCon, and I was at Level 27 when I left. Regan started out as a Level 15 when we got there and was at Level 19, just shy of hitting Level 20 when we left. And while, yeah, we did catch an awful lot to Pidgies and there were too many fucking Zubats around, there were also some really great Pokemon popping up. The two that got away from me (and yes, I AM STILL BITTER ABOUT IT) were a Lickitung and a Blastoise. Despite those detrimental losses, I snagged some majorly awesome Pokemon, either from hatching eggs, and/or evolving Pokemon. Behold.

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And sometimes, even when you’re sitting in a panel, a seriously cool Pokemon would show up out of nowhere. Plus, if you were in a really good spot, not only could you catch Pokemon while in a panel, but you could also hit a Pokestop or two.

Oh, hello Snorlax. What a crazy, random happenstance finding you here.

Or maybe your hotel room happened to be situated between a couple of cell towers, causing your avatar to run back and forth constantly while you’re just chilling in the evenings watching DragonCon TV. Plus, you had the good fortune to be surrounded by several Pokestops that you could hit for loot and also catch more Pokemon. All from the comfort of your hotel room.

So yeah. This year, not only did I suffer from post-con depression, but I also experienced some seriously painful Pokemon Go withdrawals. (In case you’re wondering, no, I have not yet caught them all, but one day I will. And it will be glorious.)

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