Orvan's weekend

[vakkotaur]

Orvan's first real outing was Thursday evening just wandering the hallways with a bucket of Cowtails candy, a sign on the bucket reading "EAT CANDY NOT CATTLE." This was well received, with many being happy for the candy and a few saying they wouldn't be eating beef just then. At least one person asked about chicken. A couple people went on about how great beef and burgers tasted. It was a bit a of a surprise that that so few did that, really.

The candy bit was repeated Friday in Artist's Alley and Saturday in the Dealer's Den. There were some polite declines of the candy, but the bucket was emptied fairly quickly each time. One person said she was a vegetarian, so Orvan was was very happy to hear that One surprising thing was how often Orvan was asked about the candy, "Is it free?" A bovine is carrying a bucket of candy encouraging people to eat it rather than him. Dealing with money or trying to make change with hooves?

Friday, with the much appreciated help of altivo, Orvan made his first delivery to cuttercoon which caught him off guard but in a good way. A second delivery was made to Altivo himself, since things could be reasonably arranged. Overall the first ACME deliveries were over fairly quick and they seemed to go over quite well. I did find one costuming glitch I need to take care of, which is I either need to get shorts with belt loops so the cloth (not leather for Orvan!) belt end doesn't flop around or find some other means of holding the belt end in place. I didn't have anything suitable handy so tried some tape but it only almost worked.

A third delivery happened either Friday evening or Saturday. Orvan was on his own then, without a photographer, so if any photos exist of this, I don't have them. Jim krag_carbine Groat was the recipient for this one. He was rightfully a bit leery of things, but did get a chuckle out of the 'handling notes' on the paper for parcel recipients to sign. While no deliveries were made to jugularjaguar his name was on the list with the note "CONFIRM: NO BELLS!"

I had another badge commissioned for Orvan for when he isn't delivering for ACME, but that wasn't ready until Saturday night or Sunday morning so a couple times he went out with his ACME badge with a bit of yellow paper taped over all the text other than his name.

Orvan was quite well received and not just because he was handing out candy. Even after the candy ran out (and he got asked about that a couple times) he was often hugged, photographed, and told he was cute. At least one person asked, "Did kiwihunter8 make that?" which is indeed the case.

I had been told that when performing one loses perspective. While I knew that in the intellectual sense of knowing it, I had my first real encounter with that Saturday night. I figured I'd bring Orvan out for a little while, wander through Artist's Alley once before it closed and not do all that much and be done in half an hour to an hour. Well, that's not how it worked out. Orvan did wander through Artist's Alley before it closed at midnight. Then he wandered the halls. At one point he found a dog playing with a luggage cart and so started to "help" the dog... by doing everything backwards so no progress was made. Then Orvan thought about it and headscratched and pushed the cart at 90 degrees, slowly spinning it. This turned into a very low-speed sort of giant doggy jump-rope for a turn or two and then it was off to something else.

One of the women who had been watching took off her coat and started waving it matador style and the bullfight was on. Orvan charged a few times, becoming puzzled each time he passed where the coat had been a moment ago, before spotting it again. Eventually he caught it, but it covered his head so he couldn't see it or anything else. Hopefully there are some photos of this event that I'll get to see.

After a bit more wandering I heard it was almost 1:30 AM and so Orvan departed. I felt fine. A bit tired and all, but generally good as I started taking the suit off. Then I took the hooves off and *WHAM* my feet hurt. Not really pained, but the tired of being on them for a long time. As Orvan, I simply did not notice that. On the good side, for me if not for Orvan, is that Orvan doesn't talk. While that means Orvan can't just say something, it also means I'm resting my voice while Orvan is doing stuff. I had no idea how much I would come to appreciate this.

Another thing I hope to see photos of happened Sunday evening. With the county fair theme there were midway games and contests with small prizes. Not all had been given away and Sunday evening a the contents of a bag of small plushies were dumped in a pile and if someone saw a toy they wanted, they could take it. Orvan started looking through them and someone said, "Get right down in there" or such, and so he did, as if he was one of them. A couple moments later he was buried in plush toys and then the sound of a successful bit was heard, "Don't move, I have to get a camera!" That is such a great thing to hear. Nobody seemed to want to take the big ox plush. Ah well.

I have some tweaking to do, mainly with how Orvan is dressed or how I am dressed under Orvan. I found that while I can't see very well it's not too big of a deal. At first I'm pretty much Mr. Magoo and only realize that the potted plant is a plant and not a person/fursuitter standing there when I get rather close. As time goes on, I don't know if my sight gets better but my perception does improve some. Not a lot. Orvan can't recognize much from any distance at all. Due to the tight fit of the head, glasses are not an option. I also found that while the suit is hot, it usually doesn't matter. Only when still for a period of time does it really seem to get bad. The Fursuit Meet & Greet was only tolerable because I could remove parts of the outfit. The parade setup was also one of those really hot times. The worst time was likely the impromptu group photo Sunday night. A couple suitters were being photographed and invited me into the shot. A couple photos later a couple more suitters came by and were invited into the the shot. This repeated until we were packed in fairly tight and the final count was 58 furs in the picture. And this sort of.. just happened. It was a neat thing to be a part of, but it sure got hot fast.

I had a great time as Orvan and am looking forward to being able to do it again.

Comments

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Orvan is delightful. By the way, if you haven't seen it yet, there's a video of the whole parade at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_qiovH04ss and Orvan appears between 3:30 and 4:00 in. 'Tivo is just a little bit behind him.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I saw the link last night and watched far enough in to see Orvan and then Tivo before I went to bed. I am still a bit boggled by how many suiters there were in the parade. It's as if MFF is threatening to become another Anthrocon.

[rummy-raccoon.livejournal.com]

Orvan is very cute/sexy =) Glad to meet ya there