3. Jess #2
I spotted my good friend, Brayonna Risengard, running a special one-shot for some lucky players.
She was in her element and had gone to the extreme with her outfit.
She dressed for the occasion as a full fey queen, complete with a blue gown, and a crown made of vines with silver threads.
To complete the look she had done an intricate bit of facial art with blue glitter around her eyes that stood out against her dark skin.
I hung back a bit until she saw me, giving me a wink and nod of approval for my outfit.
But today wasn’t all about walking around and having a good time.
The convention was also a work event for me.
I had two collaborative posts scheduled with new indie romantasy authors that I needed to film.
I wanted to at least get two posts done today showing off my outfit and highlighting some of the events going on for the first day of the con.
Brayonna and I were supposed to hook up later to do a collaboration video on the con events we would be attending, highlighting Bray’s BIPOC in TTRPG panel.
I also needed to track down one of the authors to help promote the “Women Authors in Fantasy” panel that I would be moderating towards the end of the convention.
Most of my time this week would be spent in Author’s Row, where indie and traditional book authors showed off their newest or debut books.
There were a couple of clients I’ve edited who were here, and I needed to check in on them as well.
This was undoubtedly where I would be spending most of my money this week.
My to-be-read list was over a mile long, but after the SDCC next week, I had a solid month of low effort events.
This meant I could dedicate myself to solid book reading and posting reviews, which just felt heavenly.
During my first run-through around the con, I was surprised by a group of fans of my stream.
We had a long rant session about the “Marlin Sinbad” casting.
Then we launched into another rant on MaxFlick, completely disregarding the wine tasting scene from the first book.
It was one thing to vent about these topics on a stream, but having a real conversation about it with passionate fans was definitely a nice change of pace.
By then I had finished most of my social media obligations and stopped for a quick bite for lunch.
What I really wanted was a giant turkey leg, but I had pushed my luck with the glue gun this morning.
The turkey legs were always good here, but I wanted to wear this cosplay at least one more time this week.
So I stayed on the cautious side and away from the potential grease stains.
Brayonna finally caught up with me early in the evening. Her fey queen outfit was still on, giving her a royal air about her as she fell in step with me in Author's Row.
“Hey babe, I don’t know how you can manage to be in heels all day and still look that good,” she said, giving me a quick slap on my rear as she usually did to greet me.
“My feet would like to kill me for looking this good right now.” I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek in greeting, trying to avoid getting blue glitter all over me.
“Have you seen him?” she whispered conspiratorially. When I gave her a quizzical expression, she appeared shocked. “You haven’t?”
“I have no idea who you’re talking about.”
She scanned everyone around us. “There is a man–Nope, a god–cosplaying Tyrst’an. I swear to you it’s like he stepped out of Nana Richard’s books.”
I gave her a light slap on the shoulder. “Hush. You know I don’t like to throw that around.”
“Bitch, please. If I had that connection to her books, I’d be singing it from the rooftops.”
I shook my head, not wanting to go over it with Bray again. “Maybe he should get the role of Tyrst’an instead of that Sinbad guy.”
Brayonna rolled her eyes at me. “Yeah, I caught your stream yesterday. Have you ever seen Daniel Finnegan in action? You’re selling him short.”
“You’re telling me that Marlin Sinbad deserves to be Tyrst’an?” I scoffed. “Unlikely.”
“Uhh, I am. Listen, remember when I did that Debutantes and Dragons campaign with the ladies from multiple soap operas? Gina Walters was one of them, and Daniel popped in for one of the tapings to show his support. I talked to him for almost an hour explaining the game to him. He’s a real class act.
Knows shit about TTRPG’s, but Gina and the ladies adored him.
He was super cool to the crew. Sent flowers to all my players and me the next day.
If I wasn’t married to my little dough boy, I would have thrown myself at him. ”
I held my tongue and didn’t say anything.
Bray was always talking about ‘throwing herself’ at men, but the truth was she couldn’t flirt outside of a role-playing game.
She’d been married to her husband for ten years and he was far from a dough boy.
Bennet got that nickname due to his pale skin and blue eyes rather than his size and never liked it.
Also, just because an actor was nice didn’t mean he could play the part, but I knew better than to debate it with Bray.
“Well, I’m interviewing him tomorrow instead of Peony, so we’ll see if he holds up to my scrutiny,” I offered, not wanting to go to bat with Brayonna on the subject.
Bray let out a howl of laughter. “Oh, man. That’s going to stir up some shit on the internet. I am so going to be at this event. Did you know you were quoted by the regular press on that?”
I blinked. “What?”
Brayonna smirked and launched into her impersonation of a news broadcaster. “Online personality and self-proclaimed Tyrant expert, Jessica Richards, had this to say about the leak….”
I was both horrified and delighted at the same time.
I pulled up my phone and checked the stats on my Glitch channel.
Between the good timing with the leak and my stream, my count had increased.
But with the media mention, my follower count had gone up by over five thousand users.
That type of jump had never happened to me before.
“I spent all day yesterday finishing my outfit before coming here.
I didn't even check my social media or feeds. Which quote did they use?”
Brayonna bit the inside of her cheek and rolled her eyes at me. “The one where you rated him a solid meh.”
I thought it over and shrugged. “It’s still a fair assessment, in my opinion. You know how I feel about actors.”
“Do me a favor and give the guy a chance tomorrow,” Brayonna said, dropping her usual fun-loving persona. She leaned into me to make sure we were making eye contact. “The guy is special. I know Marlin Sinbad isn’t your beloved Tyrst’an, but Daniel Finnegan is worth another look.”
“Okay.”
Apparently, my tone wasn’t convincing. She grabbed me by my shoulders and used two fingers to point at my eyes, then her own.
Something about Bray in her Fey Queen outfit made this moment seem intense.
I had to force myself not to take a step backward.
Her eyes met mine, and I realized she wasn’t joking around.
“Promise me, Jess. I got a good feeling about this guy.”
I was a little intimidated by her, to be honest. There were only a few times I’ve ever seen her this serious and it was enough to make me have second thoughts. Maybe I had given the guy a bum rap. “Okay, okay, I’ll give him a fair shot, I promise.”
Her smile returned, and she gave me a friendly slap on my arm. “That’s my girl. All right. I got an hour before I have my live show with my usual players. Let’s do our thing, because there’s a turkey leg over there with my name on it.”
My stomach rumbled in response. The smell of it alone made my mouth water. I made a mental note to grab one before heading back to my hotel room.
We got kicked out of the first spot we tried to film as it was “too close” to a certain booth.
Not that anyone was lining up for a has-been star from the Heracles show in the 90s, but apparently Kyle Sorbet took offense at our presence.
So, Bray and I switched locations to the elevated walkway that looked down upon the convention, which turned out to be a better spot anyway.
Once we got my mini cam set up, we launched into the typical spiel we do at cons.
I talked about the upcoming events to look out for, Brayonna highlighted some of the vendors we had relationships with, and the appearances that were planned for the week.
I made sure to hype the multiple live shows that Brayonna was hosting, featuring various well known TTRPG players.
Then we gushed about some of our favorite moments of the day.
Of course, Bray had to bring up that cosplayer again.
“Mmmm. I’m telling you Jess, this guy must be seen and appreciated. The man is literally Tyrst’an personified.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure.”
“Uh-uh. You don’t get it. His cosplay is drop-your-pants worthy,” Brayonna insisted. “As in screw the public: bend me over that author table and show me what Fiona craves.”
“I am editing this bit out,” I said directly into the camera. I wouldn’t, but Bray needed to dial it down a notch. Despite the adult nature of Valley of the Red Tyrant, I tried to keep my feeds somewhat family friendly.
“Don’t you dare,” Bray growled at me. “When you see him, you’ll know what I mean.”
“My girl, you are married.”
Brayonna shook her head like it didn’t matter. “Bennet will give me a hall pass on this one.”
I once again spoke directly with the camera. “Bennet, I swear I will safeguard your marriage, as it is the only thing good and pure in this world.”
“Jess! You do not understand! His ass is the stuff of miracles!”
“Stop! Stop! I’m ending this!” I laughed and went to turn off my camera. “You were kind of overselling it there.”