As I mentioned in the Monday Recap, Saturday evening we headed over to Crystal – Zalera to partake in the Aethercon Event. Specifically the Roleplay Market, which was all set up rather nicely within a section of the residential District in Mist. I really did not know what to fully expect upon our arrival, but thankfully their site had a little map with places of interest marked onto it. There was the feeling of precaution lingering in my mind about even going still, but that melted away fairly quick upon our arrival.
It was bustling with activity! Everything from some of the small little shops selling wares to passing customers, and a lot of discussions about! We really just enjoyed listening to it all as it was so lively. We didn’t really engage, but just listen to everyone along with the bard bands playing on the beach below us; however, Aikirees and I did wander off from time to time to see what else folks were up to. It kind of sprawled from this area and up the sidewalk leading to a few other places sprinkled in the vicinity.
I tended to wander a bit more, curious if I might run into anyone that I would have known in the past, but no one looked familiar. Some of the side paths branched off into little groups talking as well, and it all lead up to a house that was holding outdoor performances. One person that we did know was performing here, and it had been a very long while since I had the chance to see her perform. I don’t believe Aikirees ever hand the chance to even as far back as the Aether Event Center days.
Leading into that portion of the evening: April Cleo, a macro dancing performer who started out many years back. I first met her back in the incredibly early days of the Burgundy Room and the Aether Event Center. Regardless, she’s excellent at her craft and has been honing on it all these years. Part of heading to Aethercon was to see her performance since it has been probably about 3 or so years since the last time when she performed with the now long gone ESprit group.
While a bit on the shorter side to accommodate the convention’s schedule, she was absolutely stellar! It was a very enjoyable show that we were glad to have made. Afterwards she went around to say hi to everyone and thank everyone for coming to the show. After a little bit of mingling, since she was the last performance, everyone started to head back out to the rest of the convention area as did we to finish out the evening.
So we listened to a few more bard bands play, hear the talks of the area, and about an hour or so later, it started to clear out with folks either heading to rest or to the venues having live DJ’s. That’s really not our thing, so we decided to just pause, and decompress before heading back to Aether and HQ.
It really was a fun evening seeing everyone interact and enjoy a part of the community that I had stepped away from in an official sense (we’re always in character if you ever see us). Supposedly next year they’re going to host this again with it possibly being a bigger event, and if they do, we’ll be back and more than likely put the ‘RP’ tag up as well to let folks know that we can be approached to interact with as well.