Kitsuria Network
The Lounge => General Discussion => Topic started by: Samui on Dec 10 2014, 01:30 PM
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Oh, yes. "Survival Story". You'll see what I mean a few paragraphs down, though I'm sure you've seen it in the news, all over Twitter, Facebook, meme sites, and maybe on your toast. Anyway, I got back from MFF on Monday. I had an amazing time there, hanging out with friends and meeting new people. I sadly haven't taken very many pictures. I've been all over the place, and I kept forgetting to take out my camera to...well, take pictures. Need to get back into that habit.
Thursday: I arrived in the evening, and the first thing I did was unpack. Then I played an Ingress mission designed specifically for the convention. It took me a few tries, but I finally completed it, and got a shiny thing at a party later that night. I wandered around and met up with a friend of mine before attending the party, where I played card games and drank with fellow Ingress players. After that, I wandered a bit more and hung out with a couple more friends.
Friday: The true beginning of the con. I woke up, had breakfast, and played some Ingress for a while before heading to the nearby mall's food court with a group of other furs. After eating, we visited the T-Mobile store, where I learned when they'll have the Nexus 9 available. We returned to the hotel, and waited for the artist's alley to open. I browsed for a bit before meeting up with an old friend of mine. We hung out for a while, had some sushi, then went with another friend of mine to drink and watch funny videos.
Saturday: Returned to the food court at the mall with a couple friends to have breakfast. We went back to the artist's alley, and I commissioned a badge of my Glaceon character. After that, I attended the Ingress panel, where they talked about the game and new features to come. I even got to meet a representative from Niantic Labs, which was awesome. Later on, I gathered a group to go to Giordano's and have some deep dish pizza. We went back to the hotel, played some card games. Then I went up to the fifth floor to a room party, where we drank and played Smash.
Around 1AM, I started hearing people talk about a gas leak or something. I checked on Twitter and saw several tweets about a chemical spill. I thought nothing of it, though I did smell something like bleach. I also heard they were evacuating the hotel, and again, I didn't think much of it, figuring they'd sound the alarm if they really wanted people to get the hell out of there. And guess what, they did right when I was inviting another friend to the party. I was like "Come on over....er...after the fire drill." It was difficult for me to take the alarm very seriously at the time, as MFF had a history of jokers pulling the alarm just to fuck with people. This time, it was serious.
I started to leave the hotel with everyone else in the party, holding the hand of a friend of mine, as he seemed to be nervous in such a situation. When I stepped out of the room, the smell of chlorine got much stronger. I masked my face with those extensions on my Glaceon hoodie (what are those even officially called?), and kept walking with my friend until we left the hotel. I immediately started messaging every friend I could think of to let them know I got out safely. My main concerns at the time were my friends' well-being, trying to get them to a warm and safe place, and finding a restroom (as I had quite a bit to drink). I couldn't find my other friends in the crowd of thousands of people. My idea was that we'd go to the Denny's down the street, or to the overflow hotel.
Eventually, they let us back into the hotel, but told us to stay in the main ballroom, which crushed my hopes of getting to a restroom at the time. Our stay didn't last long, as we were told to leave again, and go back to the convention center across the street. After a while, my friend and I went to the overflow hotel across the street, where I was able to use the restroom. My friend got in touch with his friends, and brought me to their room at the hotel, where we were able to sit down and relax, and I was able to rehydrate (again, alcohol).
We kept up with the live Twitter feed, which reposted updates from the police scanner, where they said it was a chlorine leak. Our mutual friend was experiencing symptoms of chlorine poisoning, the list of which was also posted on Twitter. With enough persuasion, we got him to go to a paramedic to get checked out, and he was taken to the ER. There was a bit of debate on which chemical was actually spilled in the stairwell. Local stations and news sites were already posting articles about the incident, a few saying it was intentional.
While waiting for the "all clear" to be given to return to the main hotel, we watched Toonami. A little after 4am, everyone was being allowed back into the hotel via the stairs. We were told to dispose of any exposed food or drink to avoid the risk of contamination, and to open any windows or balconies if possible to air out the rooms. We later found that the reason it took so long was that the hotel was being treated as a crime scene. Supposedly, a broken glass jar was also found with chlorine powder. The perpetrator(s) have yet to be found.
Sunday: Woke up a bit later that morning. Not a very eventful day. I eventually went out with a group of friends to the nearby German restaurant and had some food there. After that, some of us went to closing ceremonies interested in the statements regarding Saturday's incident. They confirmed it was being treated as a criminal act, and police were still investigating. 19 people were hospitalized, but some did return - including the friend from last night.
After that, we returned to the lobby, and made a few attempts at getting another room party going. We had people interested, but there was no room to host one - either people were napping or they had no drinks (a problem I was willing to solve with a simple phone call). After hours of searching on Twitter, I eventually found someone trying to do the same thing, and we join him. We spent a good part of the night there, just chatting and playing fighting games (or spectating).
Monday: Said goodbye to my friends and went home.
That's pretty much it. I didn't get to do everything I wanted, but I did enjoy myself, at least. It was great meeting all my friends, old and new.