Armageddon 2013

This weekend I volunteered at Armageddon. Now, before I got there on Saturday, I was already pretty excited. I knew I would get two free photos (with Ben Browder and Claudia Black, woo!) as thanks, and that I would also get Claudia Black to sign Tara’s copy of Dragon Age. That’s two awesome people I knew I was going to meet, so understandably I was pretty damn excited. I didn’t know what my specific job would be, but I hoped it would be somewhat interesting, or that we would at least bounce around positions throughout the weekend.

But then I actually got to Armageddon, and my job was boring as flip. I was on the front, but there were so many of us that we often didn’t have a great deal to do. For the first hour or so we were competing over who would succeed in giving out showbags. I actually thanked people for taking mine. Then a few of us got sent out the front to work the lines, and man, that was terrifying. I hate talking to people, but I just had to suck it up and direct people to the right lines, answer their questions, and tell them to get their IDs ready.

After Evanna Lynch and Robbie Jarvis’ panel at 11, there wasn’t a great deal to do up the front, so we got to bum around or wander for a bit, so after checking out the floor, I returned to the staff area to have lunch. Well as it turned out, our staff area was between the photo booths and the greenroom. And as I was eating a rather messy Subway sandwich (with olives – gross), Ty Olsson walked past. So I said “hi!” and he flashed me a rather cheeky looking smile. It was brilliant. My day was made. But little did I know that that was the least of my day-making. Hayley (another front of house volunteer) and I were bumming around in the staff area, and one of the volunteers in the photo booth asked us to grab some napkins from the greenroom for the guests to wipe the sweat off their faces. We felt a bit awkward going in there, as we didn’t think anyone was supposed to, but we just kept walking and no-one stopped us. When we were grabbing the napkins, we saw Tony Amendola, Ben Browder, and Claudia Black (there were other guests in there, but I wasn’t paying attention) all sitting at different tables, playing with there phones. I was actually rather surprised, since I was hoping they’d be socialising with each other. But hey, as boring and antisocial as it seemed, at least I got to go in the greenroom. After lunch, I got Claudia Black to sign my sister’s copy of Dragon Age, and she said it was really nice of me to do so. What I didn’t tell her was that Tara had still given me money for the autograph token.

There still wasn’t much to do after then, so I hung out with Hayley some more. We found Ty wandering the floor, and asked if it would be possible to get a photo, but he apologised and said he wasn’t allowed to due to his contract. Towards the end of the day, when most of the autograph lines were empty, we just went up and chatted to the guests. We managed to chat to Catrin Stewart, Dan Starkey, Simon Fisher-Becker, Evanna Lynch, Robbie Jarvis, Norman Lovett, Rick Worthy, Jason Carter, and Billy Boyd. Rick Worthy thought Hayley and I were sisters, and when we told him we’d only met that day, he kept asking our ages and birthdays and trying to turn us into sisters anyway! We also talked a bit about Supernatural and a possible spin off. He’s such an amazingly cool guy, definitely the nicest one I met over the weekend. Oh, and Billy Boyd gave me chocolate.

When we had finished for the day, I called mum to tell her when I’d be home, and as we were talking about what to have for tea, I found the staff bus to the city and got on. When I hung up, I looked up and noticed that I was sitting next to Claudia Black. That was fair awesome/awkward (aweskward? awksome?). But she was already talking to her agent (well, maybe, I’m still not sure who the thin American diva was), and she looked exhausted, and she’d signed that contract, so I didn’t bother her. Well it turns out I was right about her being exhausted, because she fell asleep on the drive. And no, I did not draw on her face.

So yes, Saturday was amazing. I wasn’t expecting Sunday to be as awesome, but I was still super-excited. On Saturday, one of the girls wore a dress under her staff t-shirt, which she took off for her photos, so I took a leaf out of her book and wore my new cupcakes and unicorns dress on Sunday. When I got there in the morning, things were a lot more organised, so people were actually getting proper shifts. Because my photo with Claudia Black was scheduled at 11.30, I was given the afternoon shift. I wandered the floors with Anastasia, who was also on the afternoon shift, and I bought a few badges. When I went to get my photo with Claudia, I discovered that the schedule had been changed, and it was actually at 3. When Anastasia and I returned for our shift, there wasn’t a great deal to do, so we were sent to replace the volunteers at the train station entrance. Since the trains only came every 30-40 minutes, we got to return to wander the floor for a while. After lunch, a mix-up with the train times, and somehow losing Anastasia, it was time for my photo with Ben Browder. God I felt so pale next to him. After that, some volunteers who were supposed to be working at the photo booth disappeared, so Sarah (another front of house volunteer) and I took over there for a while. I also finally got my photo with Claudia Black! Later on, when we were nearly done for the day, I had a quick chat with Gigi Edgley, who I didn’t get to see on Saturday.

We also found out that some of the guests would be coming to our staff party afterwards – Jason Carter would definitely be going, and Ty told us that he would try to make it. I got a lift from one of the other volunteers, who seemed pleasantly surprised that I was into metal, and I realised later that we actually had a mutual friend. On the way to the pub, we were driving behind one of the vans. We overtook it to see who was inside, and saw Billy Boyd. I don’t know if anyone else thinks the same way about things like this, but we just thought it was awesome how Billy Boyd was in that van and people on the street just had no idea. Heaps of the volunteers came to the party, so the pub was pretty packed. And after a while, a few of the guests showed up. Since the actual convention was all over, I managed to get photos with Tony Amendola, Rick Worthy, and Ty Olsson, which I was very excited about. Now most people know I’m an enormous fangirl. I can’t help it. But thankfully I managed to hold it in in front of the guests themselves. So yes, I’ll definitely be applying for next year’s Armageddon as well. Not only did I get to enjoy the convention as a fan, but I also got a behind-the-scenes look at it. And of course, meeting the guests as actual people didn’t hurt!