Arisia Tales, Vol. IV: Freedom!
Jan. 20th, 2009 07:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slipjig3There's something about the wee hours of the last night of Arisia that sucks out the very last vestiges of rational thought out of pretty much everyone. In 2008, this led to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eustaciavye and me adopting a bundle of red and black balloons by the name of Fird. Which someone promptly ate. You see the problem here.
This year, though, it all started whenmianathema, ultra_lilac, felisdemens and I, still buzzing from shadesong's party, landed in the niche, a little brickwork indentation in the Hyatt lobby, facing the elevators. It was a spot where much general hanging-out takes place—the now-famous squid-poking incident happened there—and as Sunday waned we found ourselves tucked into the corner with nothing to do.
So naturally, we seceded from the Union.
First step in creating the Grand Duchy of Niche (so called because it's fun to say "duchy") was establishing our national borders, a process that involved stealing a velvet rope and two brass posts, and assurances from the Arisia Information Desk that they would disavow any knowledge of our goings-on. From there we created a flag, with a central squid drawn byfelisdemens and peripheral BIM mark and other sundries by ultra_lilac, and drafted a national motto—"Voyeurism! Separatism! And a chair!"—which we proceeded to shout at random passers-by, frightening one poor lad so much that he veered a full 45 degrees to avoid us. Once we'd named Felis as our designated dictator (because she had the best mustache), we were in business.
Soon we were joined byeustaciavye and ringoffire75, and then daev and rafaela, and once we had assigned titles to everyone we began earnestly building our armed forces, with me (i.e. the only Quaker in the room) in charge. Early experimentation with pen missiles failed, mostly because we only had two, which meant I had to go hop the velvet rope and bring them back every time we used them. Luckily, the ever-more-complicit Information Desk supplied us with paper for making airplanes, which all seemed to have the very bad habit of smacking our fearless dictator square in the false mustache no matter what we were aiming at. Our navy, however, was much less successful because no one could fold a boat; mianathema's best attempt would have been a fine battleship, provided that the enemy was planning to stroll up to the side of the boat long enough for the sailors inside to beat them with sticks.
The Grand Duchy of Niche was a great success, in that we were laughing hard enough to induce an asthma attack, but the reality soon sank in that once one had entered Niche, there really wasn't all that much to do, aside from yelling, "Voyeurism! Separatism! And a chair!" at people. Alas, all things must come to an end, and we finally disbanded with the realization that we had basically gone from sitting around and doing nothing to sitting around and doing nothing behind a velvet rope. That, and our Grand Duchy didn't have a bathroom.
Next year, though? We're taking over on Friday. And we're not giving it back.
eustaciavye and me adopting a bundle of red and black balloons by the name of Fird. Which someone promptly ate. You see the problem here.This year, though, it all started when
mianathema, ultra_lilac, felisdemens and I, still buzzing from shadesong's party, landed in the niche, a little brickwork indentation in the Hyatt lobby, facing the elevators. It was a spot where much general hanging-out takes place—the now-famous squid-poking incident happened there—and as Sunday waned we found ourselves tucked into the corner with nothing to do.So naturally, we seceded from the Union.
First step in creating the Grand Duchy of Niche (so called because it's fun to say "duchy") was establishing our national borders, a process that involved stealing a velvet rope and two brass posts, and assurances from the Arisia Information Desk that they would disavow any knowledge of our goings-on. From there we created a flag, with a central squid drawn by
felisdemens and peripheral BIM mark and other sundries by ultra_lilac, and drafted a national motto—"Voyeurism! Separatism! And a chair!"—which we proceeded to shout at random passers-by, frightening one poor lad so much that he veered a full 45 degrees to avoid us. Once we'd named Felis as our designated dictator (because she had the best mustache), we were in business.Soon we were joined by
eustaciavye and ringoffire75, and then daev and rafaela, and once we had assigned titles to everyone we began earnestly building our armed forces, with me (i.e. the only Quaker in the room) in charge. Early experimentation with pen missiles failed, mostly because we only had two, which meant I had to go hop the velvet rope and bring them back every time we used them. Luckily, the ever-more-complicit Information Desk supplied us with paper for making airplanes, which all seemed to have the very bad habit of smacking our fearless dictator square in the false mustache no matter what we were aiming at. Our navy, however, was much less successful because no one could fold a boat; mianathema's best attempt would have been a fine battleship, provided that the enemy was planning to stroll up to the side of the boat long enough for the sailors inside to beat them with sticks.The Grand Duchy of Niche was a great success, in that we were laughing hard enough to induce an asthma attack, but the reality soon sank in that once one had entered Niche, there really wasn't all that much to do, aside from yelling, "Voyeurism! Separatism! And a chair!" at people. Alas, all things must come to an end, and we finally disbanded with the realization that we had basically gone from sitting around and doing nothing to sitting around and doing nothing behind a velvet rope. That, and our Grand Duchy didn't have a bathroom.
Next year, though? We're taking over on Friday. And we're not giving it back.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-21 01:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-21 06:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-21 01:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-21 06:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-21 01:29 am (UTC)I hereby secede from lurgi!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-21 06:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-21 03:03 pm (UTC)But yelling is Niche's principle export!
Yelling and bamboo.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-21 06:35 pm (UTC)Gads, we are so doing this again next year.