ravenna_c_tan

OK, so the mad friending frenzy post Terminus is going on and so I thought I would post a little hello to all who are new to reading my journal and such.

I look more like this than my default icon:

There's a lot of hair hidden in the bun on the back of my head.

I write Snape-Harry-Draco in any and all combinations and I'm allergic to fluff and schmoop. Give me the NC-17 stuff that makes me have to change my panties, please. I write dark and I write kink, too, though not all the time.

I'm the mod of the hp_tarot comm, and it looks like I'll be the main conspirator in starting a Snarco & Drapery Smut Fest of some kind, thanks to discussions that grew out of Terminus.

I try to mirror all my posts on LJ and IJ, though once in a while I get distracted midway through the process and only hit one or the other. I've found it impossible to check that I have everyone I want friended in both places! I also have a JF account but hardly ever use it.

On AIM I can be found as "veileddraco" or "pinstripepen", but I don't always chat much since I'm in the middle of a dozen things at all times.

I am a Ravenclaw. But apparently in a group like Terminus-attendees, which in some respects is made up of people who would be more Ravenclaw than the general population, among *them* I become a Slytherin. (It made sense to me, anyway...)

I forgot my camera at Terminus so if you have pics with me in them, please send me copies! And yes, it's totally OK to label them with the name "Ravenna C. Tan" if you post them.

Two things I went to that I didn't crack out the laptop for were fiona_fawkes roundtable on Controlled Substances in the Wizarding World and a great panel about Snape that featured goseaward, djinnj, bethbethbeth, and femmequixotic.

Actually, wait, I *did* write up the Controlled Substance one in my post about day four.

So, Snape... and his depictions in fanfiction. ( Read more... )

So I'm the dork who forgot her camera. I know 12-15 people all took photos with me and for me at various points but I... am too fried to be sure I remember who they were. (dracofiend at the Ball? And...?)

So if you have photos of me, please point me at them if you put them up?

It's totally OK to label your pics with my name "Ravenna C. Tan", too. I'm not shy. :-)

Back in the room after the Leaving Feast, which was a breakfast. Everyone is bleary eyed but that's to be expected.

It's sad to see it's over, but these things must end.

Last night's Bon Voyage Ball was a blast. The dance floor was packed with close to a thousand dancers for much of the night, people costumed and dressed to the hilt, there was an incredible dessert buffet (which I was too full to eat), the ballroom was incredible, probably one of the most ornate and beautiful rooms in the city, and overall it was just an incredibly good time. Look for the picspam from people who, unlike me, remembered to bring their cameras!

After the ball I settled on the eighth floor in the elevator lobby with r_grayjoy, vals_wickedgrin, gatewaygirl, lesyeuxverts00, and some others whose LJ names I have either forgotten or at the moment I am too fried to remember, and we drabbled/drawbled for a while.

I did two in the time I was there, but I shall post them a bit later, as I have not transcribed them yet from my notebook.

Breakfast was a bit of a blur. I signed a lot more people's books, which meant writing a lot more haiku, until the last few I just had to do yearbook style (my apologies, anyone who wanted a haiku and just got a "hi, I love you" message instead... comment and I'll write one when I have more brain cells!).

Kohilo House ended up winning the Tempest Cup, though Brubu House (my house) did win in overall accumulated points from random sources. Kohilo had a lot more volunteers and people in the Quidditch and such, though, so they won the overall thing.

As it turned out, I won the silent auction item I bid on, a 1945 edition of Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope! So I went to pick that up, and I bought an Aeolian University messenger bag while I was there, since my longtime travel/computer bag actually developed a fairly fatal hole in it sometime this weekend. (Some seams are actually giving out.) I've been carrying the previous one for TEN YEARS, and I got it FREE at a trade show, so I'd say I got my money's worth out of it...

We got late checkout, but I'm not going to the slashers pool party at 11am. (That's 5 minutes from now.) I don't want to get wet--I'm too tired for that--and I realize if I stop now I've probably managed to avoid any tearful goodbyes.

There was a young 'un last night (I'm guessing he was 18? If that?) who was blubbering as his friends dragged him from elevator to elevator, that in his school he's the "Harry Potter nut" and here everyone loved and accepted him and was like him and now he had to go back to the real world.

I had my own "OMG, it's over" moment at the ball. At one point I was up on the balcony looking down on everyone and realizing it. It's just like the end of summer camp, or a lot of other great experiences I've had, and it made me appreciate how really lucky I am. The "real life" I go back to is not all that different from the conference in a lot of ways. I've surrounded myself in my life with not only the sort of people who go nuts for Harry Potter, but who accept me for who I am and support the fact that I go nuts for Harry Potter (and other things).

I'll still bawl if something hits me right, but it'll be a happy, emotional-release kind of crying, not grief. I'd still like to avoid it--I'm getting on a plane and being stuffed up is the last thing I want. (And I forgot to pack enough allergy meds. Oops.)

Time to pack!

Terminus Day Four, Part Two

Artists and Authors Night

Just a quick recap of tonight's festivities. Got to see chibitoaster's portfolio presentation, which was not only awesome because the art is beautiful, but she gave a really fascinating presentation on artistic composition and technique (about which I know very little) and paints and pens and such. I was wholly captivated. And I got a Snape button to go with my Draco button so I am very very very happy. The simplest things can make me happy sometimes. :-)

Also saw the art/craft presentation by Shae Merrit in which she showed the time-collapsed Youtube video of herself making a Witherwings purse out of duct tape and electrical tape. It had gotten featured on Youtube and has been watched like 700,000 times. It's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO72seZKgu0

It apparently caused the spillover of like 3000 hits to the wizard Wrock band whose logo is on it.

I also dropped by the drabble booth and chatted with various people at the Fiction Alley table, and then went upstairs for an hour to read the two chapters I am behind on Jordan Grant's OWNED series. (Because if I didn't, I was surely going to get spoiled about what happened very soon... all three of my roomies read the series, too.)

Then I went back downstairs to catch Mechaieh, aka Bronze Ribbons, read from the Snape/Lupin story D'Accord, D'Accord, which is in the zine I edited for the reading night. Baklava is mentioned in the story (in which postwar Snape and Lupin are in Chicago, having taken up positions in Muggle academics, and eat in Greektown) and she very thoughtfully brought baklava for a treat for her audience. Yum! (Every time I read the story, I get a craving for it!)

And then it was back upstairs to do some hp_tarot mod duties, and take a turn in my RPG, and then, oh yeah, make this post. Time for sleep now. We get to sleep in tomorrow because we didn't pay the extra dough to hear Tamora Pierce speak! She's awesome but, I need the money and the sleep more.

Last day is tomorrow!

So here I am at Terminus still. I dont' have all my notes from today because in the Snape panel I took them b hand, but here's most of what I saw and did today.

gatewaygirl, one of my roomies, explained what her "Spice" icon is/means! (It's apparently a photograph of actual spices she was using in baking and she put the lettering for "Spice" on it, and it became her default icon. Many people think her name or journal name is "spice" because of it...

Missed the 9am session because our breakfast was supposed to be delivered at 8am and at 8:40 they called to say, oops, we lost the order you placed last night, sorry... (They are giving us free breakfast coupons to make up for it!) Anyway, we didn't get woken up on time. And as it turned out the 9am talk we wanted to see we wouldn't have made it into anyway. (It was on fandom and censorship.) It was in a room with only 24 chairs, and they got filled early. So it was just as well we took a little more time and then went down for Mijan's 10am roundtable on ( Using Fanfiction as Sexual Exploration. )

( How Borders Marketed Book 7 )


( Severus Snape: Gender and Heroism )

( Fluidity of Sexual Identity in HP )

Then we went off to the Slashers Meetup, and met lots of folks, many of whom we had met at the H/D meetup, but some new. Got to talk to kabal42 a bit more. Met supes. Got more swag, and my badge lanyard is now pretty much at the capacity it can be for buttons. We went right from there to the Snarry Meetup, which was a dinner at a pizza place that closed down for the night for our private party. Much fun. Sat with stupid_drawings, twilightsorcery, coconut_ice, dacro, my three roomies, and Kat. jin_fenghuang sat with us for a bit, too.

Then there was drabbling (which I missed), and we went to a party that will be showing up in sly references in my fic for months to come. You know who you are.

Getting up in 5 hours, ugh, but much con awaits us tomorrow!

Terminus packing problem #1:
I cannot find my tie.

Terminus packing problem #2:
Normal clothes + robes + leather + ball outfit + shoes = too large for my suitcase.

I can bring a larger suitcase if I have to--I have one that is bigger than my usual one--but the tie is being a problem. I found a plain black one, perhaps I'll wear that.

And, hm, do I bring the Draco wig or not?

And what about my tarot cards?

And it's so long since I travelled with my BDSM gear I'm not sure what's illegal to carry on anymore. Probably all of it...

Only 6 weeks until...



I'll be announcing the actual lineup soon, once I get confirmations from all readers. (A few are straggling...)

*hyperventilates*

Yes!!! I am going to Terminus!

I just bought my membership and made my hotel reservation!!!

*leaps with gleeeeee*

Now the really cool part:

( I've been invited to host a Slash & Fanfiction Night at Quimby's Bookstore! Click for details! )