The second part of the con that wasn't

[hils]

We had a bit of a lie in on the Sunday as we had nothing to do before Misha's panel except pick up the 8x10 prints that should have come with our upgrade packs (hah!) and even though the clocks went back so we technically got an extra hour in bed I woke up early and still felt tired.

By the time we'd stood in line, ascertained that we weren't getting the six individual prints we should have received, it was time for Misha's second panel.

There was a very different vibe to this one. Misha was obviously tired and pretty much as soon as he got on stage he said he wasn't going to answer any hypothetical (If you could be...) questions. He wanted them specific and interesting.

littlehollyleaf went first and pretty much became a fandom hero for Cas fans. She first of all told Misha that Castiel is missed, and that a lot of us are unhappy about the way he's been written out and not really mourned by Sam and Dean, and finally she asked how Misha felt about it all and whether he's coming back.

Misha: How do I feel? *extends middle finger*

He basically said that he has no idea if he's coming back, and that he understands Sera has said that he is but no one has said this to him. He then joked that Sera probably just said that to stop the fans harassing her. But he also added that dead doesn't mean dead on SPN and that there's always a chance he could come back. He just has to hope he doesn't have another job by then.

I feel bad, I really do, but I'm still not going to condone the spamming of the writers who have no input into the overall plot and I'm not going to condone the vicious levels of hatred that are being directed at Sera. That sort of thing is never okay, no matter how strongly you feel about a character in a TV show. Believe me, I understand it though. I felt the same way about Marti Noxon and her treatment of Spike back in the Buffy days. But nothing is just cause for calling Sera a whore and wishing for her to die. Just...people need to calm down.

So, moving on from that let me tell a nice story. A couple of nice stories in fact.

Misha was joking that he was a terrible father for missing his son's first Halloween. He said West was going to be a zombie because he's just learned to walk and he kind of stumbles around with his arms stretched out for balance. He also said that West has just said his first word and it was 'dog'. How bad is it that I know more about Misha's kid than I do about the children of people I am actually friends with.

Anyway, the other nice story. Someone asked Misha what he was most proud of having made as a carpenter and he told this lovely story about how a huge branch from a maple tree fell in his mother's garden during a storm so he dragged it off to his dorm room in college and spend ages sanding it down and carving it into a bed for his girlfriend. 'It might sound weird, but she ended up marrying me so it can't have been that bad'

He said that Vicki's parents were very catholic and Misha always had to sleep in a separate bed. They gave Vicki a promise ring and when they were moving the bed into Vicki's house her finger got caught and the ring broke.

Ah, symbolism at its finest.

He then immediately launched into the story of how they got engaged, despite saying they're not supposed to tell personal stories at these things.

He said that he and Vicki had been going through a bit of a rough patch because he really wanted to get married and she was against it (not because she didn't love him but because she didn't believe in marriage as an institution when gay couples can't get married). So they danced around the issue for ages until they got to the point where it was either going to happen or they were going to break up.

On the approach to their ten year anniversary Misha was filming Finding Home in Maine and he found this little jewellery shop and he went in during breaks in shooting to make an engagement ring for Vicki. It took him about a month and he made the box for it too. When she came out to visit him he prepared a picnic, got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.

At this point he had to stop because he had tears in his eyes and was actually getting choked up. I think pretty much everyone in the room wanted to get up on stage and hug him at that point. God, most of us were getting teary too.

He pressed on, after apologising. He said he proposed and started with 'We've been together for ten years' when she interrupted and said it had only been nine years. By the time they'd discussed it and worked out it had in fact been ten years Misha said he was feeling a little deflated and asked her 'so, is that a yes?'

Her response? 'I guess so'

The next day Misha was filming and got back late. He said he got into bed and Vicki was sort of fidgeting under the sheets. Then she slipped a ring on his finger. It turned out she'd been having a ring made for him too, and that it was marked with a dot for each of the years they'd been together. The only reason she'd been weird with him when he'd proposed was because she needed to go and get the ring adjusted. Apparently Misha's proposal only beat her by a day.

I honestly never really believed in soul mates until I heard about these two. God, they are so perfectly matched.

He got all teary and apologised again, saying he now understood why they weren't supposed to tell personal stories.

It really was the most beautiful thing.

Now, whenever I watch Finding Home I'm just going to see it as the place Vicki and Misha got engaged <3

Moving on to more jovial matters Misha talked about the WWF coin prank when someone asked him for his version of events.

Misha: My version? My version is that Jared's a dick!

Apparently when Misha first changed the money into coins he was going to dump them in Jared's car but since Clif drives Jared to work he had to dump them in the trailer. When he told Jared this Jared stole the idea and dumped the coins in Misha's car.

Those were the most relevant parts. Mitch came in right at the end and said 'I'm supposed to be doing a coffee lounge now but nobody's going to turn up until you get done'. LOL! It was amusing.

So, as I said in my last post, all my solo photo ops were included in my upgrade. I wasn't going to get one with Misha because I felt kind of weird about it but whenever I told people this they stared at me like I was insane. So I caved to peer pressure and got one. Again, it was quick. Said good morning and asked him how he was, we had the photo and he said he'd talk to me later (our meeting got postponed because everything was running late the day before) and that was it.



After that Chelle and I did a couple more Twitter contests and then a lady came over to discuss the Director position so we talked shop for a while.

We were just about to go and get lunch when we got called into our meeting. Luckily because everything was running late (again) it was only a quickie.

After lunch it was finally time to get autographs. We saw the girls first. Amy was awesome and drew angel wings and a halo on herself. Lyndsey then added devil horns. They were all lovely and we were done pretty quickly.



Julian, as I'd heard from some of the stewards, was making time for everyone and asking questions about where they were from etc. Just trying to make a personal connection. He really is so lovely. I hope they get him back for another con. He asked me what 'Hils' was short for and when I told him he facepalmed. LOL

Rob totally misread the sticker with my name on it so I am now 'Lils'



Saving the best for last I went to see Misha. I got in a total flap because somewhere between speaking to Rob and getting into Misha's line I lost my card which they have to tick off to say I've had my autograph. Luckily I'd already chatted to Misha's handler earlier so she knew me and got me to move over next to her so I could look for it and not lose my place in line. Once I'd found it she let me back in and laughed at the photo.

Misha glared when he saw it.

"You know I still can't believe you beat me."
"Why?"
"I just find it suspicious that out of everyone I've played it was you who beat me first."

By this time he'd started writing on my photo (even though he wasn't supposed to be personalising) so I got distracted from making a witty retort and I just came back with "You're never going to let it go, are you?"

"Never."

And that was it



I'm not quite sure how he can play words like 'murein' and 'dorty' yet claim I must have cheated because I played words he'd never heard of. Such a bad loser.

So the con was pretty much over after that. We gave away the last few pieces of RA swag we had and then it was done. I couldn't even be bothered to go to the closing ceremony as that involved getting up from my comfy leather seat.

We ended by going out for a big group meal which was nice as I'd barely seen littlehollyleaf and katie_f_thomas all weekend so it was nice to see them (and talk them into coming to A8)

Unsurprisingly we ended the weekend having a room party ;). It was awesome. None of us were drinking but I think we'd reached the point of being tired to the point of almost hysteria. We were crying with laughter over things that, in retrospect, were not funny at all. Apart from when I stole Chelle's phone and tweeted about her love for Sebastian. That was pretty funny and certainly revenge for all the hilslovesjensen twitter stuff.

All in all I'd say a good con in terms of having all my friends together in one place, bad con in terms of organisation. Bad, bad, con.