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ConFuzzled 2023 - Brok In The Multiverse
May. 31st, 2023 10:04 pmIf last year's ConFuzzled had a frentic energy, this year's iteration was a far more chilled affair. With cons and meets being back for over a year post-COVID, there was less of the novelty and relief of being able to meet up again, which made this year's con far less of a whirlwind. Despite this, I still managed to cram an awful lot in, experiencing the full range of activities one would do at a furry con, often on the same day. This included but was not limited to sex, kink, drinking, panels, dancing and fursuiting. Indeed, I was so busy that I only got round to fursuiting on the final day for the Dead Dog Party, and I made myself do that as I had carted the thing all the way from Germany. I love fursuiting but I found it so much of a hassle that at cons particularly I often just end up doing something else. I really wish I had greater motivation though, not least because many people only know me by my suit.
I have come back to Pudsey showing the signs of COVID, although as of this evening I am still testing negative. I do hope this is just an annoying fever which will quickly go, as I don't want to remain in the UK for an additional ten days as happened last year. Part of the reason for this, I feel, was my new-found sexual confidence, meeting up with many friends to enjoy certain activities. Many of these were related to specific kink scenarios, while I also was able to live out one of my deepest fantasies, which was incredible. I am still a little shy when it comes to full anal penetration, which is why I tend to dodge the parties, but Rallicat's Gear Party was good fun, even if there was a little misunderstanding between Wolfie and I when he thought I was ignoring him. I went up there half an hour before he did and the fact was my phone was in my bag as my petsuit doesn't have pockets and he had been trying to get hold of me. It all got sorted out in the end and I ended up meeting a few new fun people, as well as hooking up with old acquaintances.
Rallicat's party was so good that we ended up getting down to the dancefloor for the rock and metal DJ sets way too late, forty minutes into the pop-punk one in my case. This was still a great time to cut loose though and Dorje was very shocked with my energetic and aggressive dancing to Rammstein's Sonne. I had intended to fursuit at the DJ sets but fortunately I was too late getting out of Rallicat's as I think I may have overheated very quickly. It was definitely the best night of the con and I was buzzing for two hours after the completion of the set, needing to go to the bar and decompress with some soft drinks and beer.
The Dead Dog dance was the time I did fursuit but I felt a little left out on the dancefloor, although standing near the door did allow me to meet the likes of Rikev and Bladewolf. Indeed, it highlighted why I really should wear my suit much more often as many people only recognise me through it. It was wonderous being noticed though and catching up with so many friends. What was also wonderous was the ability to wear female clothing throughout the convention (even if on one occasion a photo from Sy's balcony highlighted just how up my arse my short blue skirt was going - Sy spend quite a lot of time photographing me from his balcony and then sending the pictures to me). Alas, I ran out of outfits pretty much halfway through the con, but Arcais was on hand to point me in the direction of a seller of neat hyena bags in the Dealers' Den, which accentuated my look and provided the perfect pocket for my phone and credit card (I must get Apple Pay set up next year). I also bought a white and pink rope necklace from Arcais and some bright pink wings from another dealer, which I will be wearing at Berlin Pride next month. Through wearing female clothing at the con, I am pretty sure my pronouns are she/her, even if Lupestripe is definitely male. I'll likely announce this on social media shortly, if I pluck up enough courage to do it.
The Dealers' Den was very friendly and I also got to meet the fantastic Wolf Watch charity, buying a T-shirt and a vial of wolf fur for Wolfie. This was on the Sunday, when he was in bed with a busted foot, and speaking to their representatives, they were overwhemled with the kindness and generosity of furries. We raised over £41,000 for the wolves and I also attended their main talk about the enclosure they have in Shropshire, as well as the history of the organisation. The talk was perhaps a little dry, but the passion was there, and it was great to hear more about what they do.
The kindness of furries was a common theme, with all of the snack vendors in the car park outside independently telling me how they loved the attitude of our group. This was why it was so sad to read about the bunch of chavs on bikes who were threatening furs as they made their way from the Hilton to the Moxy via the NEC. I am sure this is just an isolated incident, but it did happen two days in succession and necessitated furries being marshalled into groups in order to protect themselves.
Interestingly, as I was walking around in female clothing, I kept hearing the opening to Stereophonics' Just Looking, imagining me playing it on stage. This isn't the first time I have lusted for performing on stage at a con and suggests my heart is really wanting to be a performer, despite having no self-belief whatsoever. It's interesting too that this hasn't changed despite me being a published furry author now, although I was happy that a couple of furs did congratulate me regarding this achievement at the con.
The theme for this year's ConFuzzled was Brok In The Multiverse, which was done well, while the conbook was the most professional I had ever seen, particularly the one with the hardback cover for Sponsors. There were loads of puzzles and codes to crack as part of the weekend, but I never get time to do these, while the panels were quite wide-ranging albeit they started much earlier than they usually do. There were also a number of weird clashes, including the LGBTQ+ writing panel and the Writers' Coffee Meet which took place simultaneously. I went to the latter, wanting to meet writers following being published in February, as well as sharing tips and skills. Alas, I didn't really get much chance to chat writing with Televassi, my main writing muse, although I did chat to him in suit about a range of other topics on the Sunday evening. I also attended two writing panels on the Sunday run by Amethyst Mayre and Alex Clawford, one on self-publishing and the other on writing erotica. These too were interesting, but it was sad to see that the only writing available in the Dealers' Den was Amethyst's own self-published works. I am aware this is largely due to Brexit-related supply issues but it's sad that furry fiction does not seem to be as big as it was in the past.
Another interesting development was the token collection system based on which team you were on, Bracken for Mel or Aegis for Dylan. This determined the theme for next year's con, with Dylan winning, thus it being an ocean theme (or soggy con much to the delight of many of my friends with let's say particular interests). Seeing the new mascots was quite weird, but the artwork on display on them was incredible, again with loads of little Easter eggs in them (including the bar code number on a comic book frontice featuring Mel). The work that goes into this con is incredible, even on a smaller scale such as Shiro's small story book which was full of misspellings and threw people off the scent of the official puzzles which formed part of the conbook.
Wolfie had a much better con aside from his foot issues on Sunday, but then he wasn't dealing with a toxic relationship breakdown between friends. He did spend quite a bit of time relaxing in the room and on two days I had go and get breakfast for him, but he got into the swing of things when he could. He was down at the VR Chat meet, with the main room for this (or first instance as we called it) being half the size of the room last year and thus it filled up too quickly. We set up a second instance in the Blacksmith bar. We also managed to get some good pony play pictures outside while I spent a lot of time with Blacksnip, sampling whisky, chatting and on Tuesday going to my first Nando's in four years. It was average in much the way I had remembered it. Saturno, Gordon, Vulo and Sy also deserve a special mention as I spent a lot of time with them too, probably more than anyone else aside from Blacksnip.
All in all then it was a very good weekend, even if the dryness of the hotel prevented any good sleep whatsoever. Indeed, most nights I had to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night on five or six occasions, which was incredibly frustrating. It was a great con though and we'll likely register for it next year too, and leave it to the randomness of the lottery. In the meantime, it's back to normality tomorrow and back to our main home on Sunday, provided I recover from whatever this illness is.
I have come back to Pudsey showing the signs of COVID, although as of this evening I am still testing negative. I do hope this is just an annoying fever which will quickly go, as I don't want to remain in the UK for an additional ten days as happened last year. Part of the reason for this, I feel, was my new-found sexual confidence, meeting up with many friends to enjoy certain activities. Many of these were related to specific kink scenarios, while I also was able to live out one of my deepest fantasies, which was incredible. I am still a little shy when it comes to full anal penetration, which is why I tend to dodge the parties, but Rallicat's Gear Party was good fun, even if there was a little misunderstanding between Wolfie and I when he thought I was ignoring him. I went up there half an hour before he did and the fact was my phone was in my bag as my petsuit doesn't have pockets and he had been trying to get hold of me. It all got sorted out in the end and I ended up meeting a few new fun people, as well as hooking up with old acquaintances.
Rallicat's party was so good that we ended up getting down to the dancefloor for the rock and metal DJ sets way too late, forty minutes into the pop-punk one in my case. This was still a great time to cut loose though and Dorje was very shocked with my energetic and aggressive dancing to Rammstein's Sonne. I had intended to fursuit at the DJ sets but fortunately I was too late getting out of Rallicat's as I think I may have overheated very quickly. It was definitely the best night of the con and I was buzzing for two hours after the completion of the set, needing to go to the bar and decompress with some soft drinks and beer.
The Dead Dog dance was the time I did fursuit but I felt a little left out on the dancefloor, although standing near the door did allow me to meet the likes of Rikev and Bladewolf. Indeed, it highlighted why I really should wear my suit much more often as many people only recognise me through it. It was wonderous being noticed though and catching up with so many friends. What was also wonderous was the ability to wear female clothing throughout the convention (even if on one occasion a photo from Sy's balcony highlighted just how up my arse my short blue skirt was going - Sy spend quite a lot of time photographing me from his balcony and then sending the pictures to me). Alas, I ran out of outfits pretty much halfway through the con, but Arcais was on hand to point me in the direction of a seller of neat hyena bags in the Dealers' Den, which accentuated my look and provided the perfect pocket for my phone and credit card (I must get Apple Pay set up next year). I also bought a white and pink rope necklace from Arcais and some bright pink wings from another dealer, which I will be wearing at Berlin Pride next month. Through wearing female clothing at the con, I am pretty sure my pronouns are she/her, even if Lupestripe is definitely male. I'll likely announce this on social media shortly, if I pluck up enough courage to do it.
The Dealers' Den was very friendly and I also got to meet the fantastic Wolf Watch charity, buying a T-shirt and a vial of wolf fur for Wolfie. This was on the Sunday, when he was in bed with a busted foot, and speaking to their representatives, they were overwhemled with the kindness and generosity of furries. We raised over £41,000 for the wolves and I also attended their main talk about the enclosure they have in Shropshire, as well as the history of the organisation. The talk was perhaps a little dry, but the passion was there, and it was great to hear more about what they do.
The kindness of furries was a common theme, with all of the snack vendors in the car park outside independently telling me how they loved the attitude of our group. This was why it was so sad to read about the bunch of chavs on bikes who were threatening furs as they made their way from the Hilton to the Moxy via the NEC. I am sure this is just an isolated incident, but it did happen two days in succession and necessitated furries being marshalled into groups in order to protect themselves.
Interestingly, as I was walking around in female clothing, I kept hearing the opening to Stereophonics' Just Looking, imagining me playing it on stage. This isn't the first time I have lusted for performing on stage at a con and suggests my heart is really wanting to be a performer, despite having no self-belief whatsoever. It's interesting too that this hasn't changed despite me being a published furry author now, although I was happy that a couple of furs did congratulate me regarding this achievement at the con.
The theme for this year's ConFuzzled was Brok In The Multiverse, which was done well, while the conbook was the most professional I had ever seen, particularly the one with the hardback cover for Sponsors. There were loads of puzzles and codes to crack as part of the weekend, but I never get time to do these, while the panels were quite wide-ranging albeit they started much earlier than they usually do. There were also a number of weird clashes, including the LGBTQ+ writing panel and the Writers' Coffee Meet which took place simultaneously. I went to the latter, wanting to meet writers following being published in February, as well as sharing tips and skills. Alas, I didn't really get much chance to chat writing with Televassi, my main writing muse, although I did chat to him in suit about a range of other topics on the Sunday evening. I also attended two writing panels on the Sunday run by Amethyst Mayre and Alex Clawford, one on self-publishing and the other on writing erotica. These too were interesting, but it was sad to see that the only writing available in the Dealers' Den was Amethyst's own self-published works. I am aware this is largely due to Brexit-related supply issues but it's sad that furry fiction does not seem to be as big as it was in the past.
Another interesting development was the token collection system based on which team you were on, Bracken for Mel or Aegis for Dylan. This determined the theme for next year's con, with Dylan winning, thus it being an ocean theme (or soggy con much to the delight of many of my friends with let's say particular interests). Seeing the new mascots was quite weird, but the artwork on display on them was incredible, again with loads of little Easter eggs in them (including the bar code number on a comic book frontice featuring Mel). The work that goes into this con is incredible, even on a smaller scale such as Shiro's small story book which was full of misspellings and threw people off the scent of the official puzzles which formed part of the conbook.
Wolfie had a much better con aside from his foot issues on Sunday, but then he wasn't dealing with a toxic relationship breakdown between friends. He did spend quite a bit of time relaxing in the room and on two days I had go and get breakfast for him, but he got into the swing of things when he could. He was down at the VR Chat meet, with the main room for this (or first instance as we called it) being half the size of the room last year and thus it filled up too quickly. We set up a second instance in the Blacksmith bar. We also managed to get some good pony play pictures outside while I spent a lot of time with Blacksnip, sampling whisky, chatting and on Tuesday going to my first Nando's in four years. It was average in much the way I had remembered it. Saturno, Gordon, Vulo and Sy also deserve a special mention as I spent a lot of time with them too, probably more than anyone else aside from Blacksnip.
All in all then it was a very good weekend, even if the dryness of the hotel prevented any good sleep whatsoever. Indeed, most nights I had to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night on five or six occasions, which was incredibly frustrating. It was a great con though and we'll likely register for it next year too, and leave it to the randomness of the lottery. In the meantime, it's back to normality tomorrow and back to our main home on Sunday, provided I recover from whatever this illness is.
