Morrigan Kig

This post is a writeup of my visit to the Birmingham NEC for MCM ComicCon 2023

History

It's amazing how much has changed since my last visit. MCM Brum was the very first convention I went to where I actively kigged, so it has a special place in my heart. In a way its where my kig convention career started, back in 2019 -- 4 years ago...

Back then I debuted Y'shtola and Renamon, my handler was CISCO Clown back then

And now, four years, later, I return with multiple new characters and an entire wardrobe of costumes

Yes, in case you didn't know, in the time between my first convention and now, I've developed some tricks, including using an old studio frame, originally intended for holding a green screen drape, as a makeshift hangers rail. It's not totally stable, but it does collapse into a very handy and compact space, so I use it in all my trips -- I just need to make sure there's enough space to put it up.

Weather

The UK has been going through a very cold spell with temperatures often hitting, or dropping below 0 deg C (32 deg F)

I was planning on taking Jessica Rabbit to the convention, but wasn't sure if I could survive the sub-zero temperatures, so on the way up, I decided to pick up some suitable winter wear

Day 1

On day 1, I was solo, so I went up to the hall unkigged in order to get my lanyard -- but it turns out they were using wristbands instead of lanyards, so I had to ask them not to put it on my wrist so I could put it on myself. I ended up using the loosest hole so I could slide my gloved hand through it later.

I bought some One Punch Man prints so my boss (their kids love the show and he found out I was going to MCM so asked me to keep an eye out -- however forking out between £40-£100 for figures was probably a bit too much of an ask)

so I took Jessica in her Winter coat up to the hall and then removed the coat and put it in a bag I was carrying. I had her heels there, but I opted to stay in sneakers for now

I discovered the life lobby had a floor-to-ceiling mirror surface, so perfect to show off Jessica in her full glory...

I also had a nice visit from Moxxie Hellhound who was very keen to get to be closer to Jessica.

VERY close (not that I'm complaining!)

Funny thing is, I've only known Moxxie since I happened to get a picture of him during MCM London in October last year.

Problem here was that during that visit, my Jessica skinsuit finally decided to give up the ghost (it had been having problems since the beginning, most of the problems were hidden by the dress, but this time it was not having it and decided to rip, the zipper decided to stop working (you could zip it but the teeth would no longer hold), and the zipper decided to detach from the fabric entirely...

So no Jessica for the foreseeable future. However, combining Azami with it might still be possible

ChaosKig arrived in the evening to do Days 2 and 3

Day 2

I went through the ticket queue with ChaosKig even though I had my wristband already. Looks like they are giving single use bands for the single-day ticket holders

My first kig spot was Sakura Lotus. Here she is talking to two cosplayers whom I'm 99% sure were female maskers (the two on the right of the picture). I didn't get a chance to get a picture of their faces.

After picking up ChaosKig's band, we headed back and got changed.

I made use of the mirror again

As we went around, we bumped into a random person who turned out to be a kig themselves: ConvolutedKig and they helped act as handler for us and even got some pictures

I went back (Jack Izumi walked me back to the hotel) and on the way, we stopped off at the nearby hotel where some of the kigs were staying, Skye snapped this of me:

I swapped to my newest girl: A Tio-model Sigma (as yet unnamed). We bumped into Skye Hayashi and a HK kig: "touch"

Sakura Lotus got some selfies with Tio

Back at the hotel later that evening, ChaosKig tried out Tio:

Day 3

ChaosKig had to get his wristband for this day too, and decided to do it in kig. I went in ahead as I had weekend. I took Jennifer in again. I wanted to bring her black lolita look, but I couldn't zip up the side, for some reason. So I took her original look instead.

I got a photographer who took this using my phone. I actually liked how this came out. My only minor critique is that I wasn't framed in the middle of the picture but other than that, I really like this picture.

While going around during this round, I stumbled on this Sailor Moon kig: thatcrazymagicalgirl -- who appeared to be staying at the same hotel as Chaos and I

And we walked about together, hand in hand. And as we headed out to cool down, we bumped into Helenako Chan

I swapped out to Tio again, but this time with a darker theme. I have a Dark Gothic themed coat and dress, so took it with her. Unfortuately, the video doesn't pick up all the detail on the coat. It is very figure hugging and I like it :)

After four hours, I headed out of the hall while ChaosKig (and Sakura Meiji) went round together and took the chance to run my zentais and under armors through the wash, leaving them to hang overnight to dry.

One underarmour dried pretty quickly, Jessica's zentai also. The second underarmor took a few hours and the BJD zentai took overnight.

Post Con

Most people checked out on the Sunday. I always prefer to spend an extra night so I don't drive tired. Walking 4+ hours then driving 2+ hours is gonna be dangerous.

Gah, so while cleaning the house, my vac decided to start making this weird noise but it was different enough that I could hear it, even with music in my earbuds.

And I could smell some burning electricals.

The vac could still run, but distinctly had way less power.

I think something's shorted.

Oh well, time to buy a new cleaner. 💰

Got a weird one for you.

I had a really strange dream last night. I dreamt I entered myself into a convention cosplay show and went using one of my many masks.

Almost immediately after, I started getting weird messages on my Instagram and Facebook. And they were all in FRENCH.

Why were they in French? I haven't the foggiest.

The temperature is really starting to drop here.

My heating is on, I'm wearing multiple layers....

And my energy consumption costs are going up again.....

Today I found out about Friendica. It's basically a decentralised version of Facebook, in the same universe as Mastodon and Pixelfed.

It also allows you to link to Twitter and read and tweet from the Friendica interface, so you're not tied to Musk's algorithm and adverts.

Being decentralised, it's also self-hostable, so I might give that a tinker. I had a play on on one of the public servers and found it doesn't seem to be a "live" feed (it was behind by about 3 hours for me) and you can "follow" both people on Twitter and on other Fediverse platforms.

I personally haven't tried that yet, but in theory, you should be able to follow people on Twitter, Mastodon, and Pixelfed and have them all show up in your timeline.

There are rumblings of Meta/Facebook making a Twitter rival.

Just... no.

The hospital called me today to give me an update on the lab results and check-in with me and my healing.

Healing has been fine. 10 days of pain until the stitches dissolved but other than that all good. No issues.

The labs showed the lump was a tumor. Not cancerous and not malignant so I should be fine, but they advised I keep monitoring it to be sure and come back if there are any issues or if it returns.

Invested in this. This is making my life a LOT easier with zentai zipping and costume zipping.

Oh boy, the fallout is getting worse, not just inside the company but outside too.

I was chatting with a colleague at work and happened to mention the state of Twitter and he told me they had some app that interacted with Twitter and he was in the process of ripping out the entire Twitter integration, directly in response to Elon's actions, since that integration could become a financial liability the way it's going.

I'm pretty certain they're not the only ones taking this action.

Twitter's future is looking more and more bleak so in preparation for its demise, I've decided no longer to post any media on Twitter. I will still (try to) tweet, subject to the stupid decisions made by its idiot-in-residence

If you want to see my pictures, you can find them on:
IG: [www.instagram.com/morrigank...](https://www.instagram.com/morrigankig/)
Mastodon: [mastodon.xyz/@morrigan...](https://mastodon.xyz/@morrigankig)
Blog: [morrigankig.wordpress.com](https://morrigankig.wordpress.com/)
FB Pages: [fb.me/bunnyazam...](https://fb.me/bunnyazami)
DeviantArt: [www.deviantart.com/huangjlin...](https://www.deviantart.com/huangjling)
FurAffinity: [www.furaffinity.net/user/azam...](https://www.furaffinity.net/user/azamimacleod/)

If you want to see my videos:
IG: [www.instagram.com/morrigank...](https://www.instagram.com/morrigankig/)
Mastodon: [mastodon.xyz/@morrigan...](https://mastodon.xyz/@morrigankig)
Blog: [morrigankig.wordpress.com](https://morrigankig.wordpress.com/)
FB Pages: [fb.me/bunnyazam...](https://fb.me/bunnyazami)
TikTok: [www.tiktok.com/@morrigan...](https://www.tiktok.com/@morrigankig)
YouTube: [www.youtube.com/c/](https://www.youtube.com/c/)玲黄

You can also find the full list of links on my link tree [linktr.ee/morrigank...](https://linktr.ee/morrigankig)

So my boss and I had our yearly performance review and one of my comments was increased workload (due to us being a person down due to paternity), poor planning, a constantly moving target (sound familiar?) and friction when raising concerns.

My boss' comment surprisingly acknowledged all of this, and he did admit to "having his head bitten off by me on more than one occasion".

And he also said that I severely underrated myself in the review (we're supposed to put ratings on our own performance and the boss is supposed to do the same) -- with him putting my rating higher than my own.

Personally, I'd rather it be this way around. Ranking yourself higher than your boss's ranking of you would likely be seen as arrogant here. Or that your boss is an asshole.

So it's been a couple of days since the operation. The pain has now died down enough to be tolerable without painkillers - or at least as frequently.

I'm able to eat semi-solid food now stuff like soups, porridge and congee (look that up if you don't know what that is). I have been able to drink hot drinks without too much pain now, like tea, although I still need to mix in a bit of cold water to cool it down first.

Brushing my teeth has been easier now and I've started using salt water rinses as instructed -- although the side effect of that seems to be that it dries the hell out of my lips (well, that's what salt does, after all).

I'll be heading back into the office next week, but only for one day since I'm training for three days and the fifth day is taken up by another f***king train strike.

Back from my operation, Took four stitches and less than 30 minutes. I do now look like someone who took a punch to the face, or someone who wouldn't be amiss on the "Botched" show, with one side of my upper lip swollen more than that other but that's only because my lip is swollen from the operation. Should hopefully go down in the next few days.

My cup seems weirdly happy

Due to recent events on an unnamed social network, swathes of users have been switching social networks. This has led to some easy targets for hackers and phishers as people setup new accounts. I'm putting together a few tips to help try to keep yourself off the victims list.

PASSWORDS: Passwords are the #1 weakpoint for every account. Your password should NOT be something simple like "Password", "letmein" or "hello". It should contain upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and (ideally) symbols.

So instead of "password", you could use "P@sSw0r6!". Use a password generator. Password managers often provide this as part of the app, or you can use something like [www.lastpass.com/features/...](https://www.lastpass.com/features/password-generator) if you don't want to use the app version.

PASSWORD MANAGEMENT: Use a password manager to save the password so you don't have to remember so many. Many of them are free and include password generators (definitely use the password generators).

Examples include LastPass, 1Password, BitWarden, and Dashlane, though be wary about LastPass; they recently revealed they were hacked: [www.theregister.com/2022/12/2...](https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/23/lastpass_attack_update/)

ACCOUNT CARE: Never give, share, or change your password or any private profile information just because someone tells you to, including people you may seemingly know

As a case in point, on Instagram someone I had friended many months ago, suddenly tried to get me to change the email address on my account (I didn't, and blocked and reported that account as I knew at that point that the account had been hacked).

MFA: MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) are additional ways to authenticate yourself to a service. The concept comes from the different "factors" of proving your identity: something you KNOW, something you HAVE, and something you ARE (fingerprint, palm print, iris scan, etc).

2-Factor authentication (2FA) is normally 2 of the three factors.

Most commonly the something you KNOW and something you HAVE. You can use your phone for this (SMS message); an authentication app such as Google Authenticator or Authy; or something physical like an RSA Keyfob or YubiKey.

The concept is simple: you get a code (normally 6 digits) generated via the app or device; or sent to your phone via SMS, and you enter this into the site during login. Make sure you enable this on the site as soon as you can.

If the site doesn't support it, assume the site is not secure.

MFA BACKUP CODES: When enabling MFA that involves you using a physical device like your phone, you will usually be given a list of backup codes. These are codes you use to get into your account if you have lost/stolen your MFA device.

These codes are ONE-TIME USE codes, so only use them to get into your account if you need to disable MFA because you have a new device.

Make sure you save these backup codes, they may be the only way you can get into your account after your MFA device is lost/stolen, unless you raise tickets with the social network's support team, but from experience, that is never a good use of your time

Going to do a minor rant now, so bear with me.

My thoughts on Apple and their hardware is well known - I dislike them immensely.

My workplace has been trying to get me to use Macs for ages and I have stubbornly refused to do so.

Sure, running Linux on a non-supported machine does have its problems, namely that I have to fix my own issues when they appear, but it does help the company when they hire contractors who are also running Linux and have the same issues that I do, and that I have already solved.

The company VPN for example, they provide a VPN client by Palo Alto which is horrendously bad -- provides no UI and returns after connecting so I have no idea if it's connected or not and it broke when the company implemented SAML.

I used OpenConnect with a SAML wrapper to work with it.

All of these are minor compared to what I found out this last week.

It seems like the company has installed some software on the macs it issues that calls back into the central office so the business can track what you're doing.

How detailed? Well, apparently to the level they can see what tabs you have open in Chrome and how long you've been on them.

I, of course, am not subject to this tracking since my machine and OS are not installed by them, but this really scared me.

I also found out several years back (before I started here), they actually tried to track people's time at desks to see if people were having too many/too long cigarette/toilet breaks.

If you think Macs are the only target, then nope. Windows users have to use Citrix to log into a "virtual" PC, where they can probably track the same things.

I guess I will continue being the black sheep of the team. The moment they force a mac on me, I will be heading in my notice.

It's not often I get to do two conventions in a year, but I did this time. I attended MCM London's second convention, attending the previous one in May.

Generally OK, same problems as May though.

I attended with Hazel Ferret joining on one day, bringing her Twinkle mascot and Coral The Cat (bringing her Charly partial).

I brought Y'shtola who took up pretty much half the room, primarily due to her staff. While offloading the boxes into the room, one of the housekeeping staff took major interest in that and wondered what was in that box, so I brought it out and showed her how big the staff was.

Y'shtola's staff is about 6 ft in height and reached floor to ceiling in the hotel corridor.

Coral brought her partial up on the Friday and since we would be attending the event all three days, she left her partial in my room.

Charly and Y'shtola side by side on the bed

Coral trying out my Y'shtola mask. Proportions were a bit off due to height differences.

Getting Y'shtola ready for her first convention outing since 2019

Hazel came to the event on the Friday, bringing Twinkle:

I ended up being photographer for the group instead of actually going in kig since having all three of us visually impaired could be extremely dangerous. Here's a selection of the photos

On the Saturday, I took Y'shtola out for the entire day. She was extremely popular, and the hall was very crowded. She even got interviewed for an Indonesian cosplay channel on YouTube and Instagram, although being a kig, she couldn't talk and ended up flailing her arms a lot.

Only a few pics were taken by the group, although a lot of pics were taken by others. One or two I managed to scrounge in the later days, such as this one with databunny_cosplay (IG):

One of the main reasons I took Y'shtola this time was because someone I used to play FFXIV with (and had actually had married in-game) was attending. After so many years, Y'shtola met her in-game hubby:

And an obligatory selfie

Sunday, both Coral and I went in suit, and my FFXIV hubby acted as spotter. We got this pic, which I absolutely ADORE

I also got a pic of Charly with Tigress from Kung Fu Panda

But, come mid-afternoon on Sunday we knew things were coming to an end, Y'shtola looked sadly out of the window wondering when the next time she will come out to see the world

Other pics that we found after the event:

So this will be my writeup to the event. This will be cross posted to other sites also.

MCM London was my third MCM Convention, and my second MCM London one.

I have to admit upfront, this one was not as good as I expected, but more details on that shortly.

The Days

Friday was, as always the quieter day of the event since people were still working.

But Fridays are normally very good for buying stuff because it's quieter

I found out from Jilly (https://twitter.com/JillyDutchie) that there was another kig in the same hotel as me, so we arranged to meet up. This kig was Kityoko (https://twitter.com/kityoko_) and was really fun to work with during the event, I was her handler during Saturday when she brought out her furhead and proceeded to charm almost all the convention goers. Even the police got in on the fun and pretended to arrest her ^_^

I brought two characters with me -- Jennifer (the Kingmask doll), and Jenny (from Bucky O'Hare)

I ran both of them during all three days of the event, posting ready pics on the Friday -- which surprisingly someone at the event mentioned on the Saturday that they spotted my IG posting Jenny ahead of the convention. Perhaps I should spend more time working on my IG presence? But the site is horrible to work with...

Saturday was.... horrendous. I know in general that Saturday is the busiest of the three days of the event but this was insane.

You couldn't even walk in a straight line down the hallway, which had very little air conditioning, so if you were in a fursuit or costume like I was, it turned the costume (and mask) into a sauna.

The side halls were marginally more comfortable, but the around 20 deg C heat didn't make it much more comfortable.

Sunday was much easier going. which was expected as some people either checkout Sunday as they only got a Saturday ticket, or go to the Sunday early, then head home for the afternoon. Also, some vendors close up on the Sunday either entirely or close up early if they run out of stock.

Costuming Experiences

Generally, Jenny had the most positive reactions. Understandable since she's a very toony, friendly looking character. Kids love her look because she's a personification of a cartoon from TV. Adults love her because she's a reminder of their childhood and the nostalgia is strong.

I had a Sub-Zero cosplayer ask me if the character was from Bucky O'Hare and it feels SO GOOD when someone recognises your character :)

And for the first time, someone actually asked me about the costume construction. Specifically, how the shape of the head. I simply told them it was pretty much a motorbike helmet.

Later, at the same place, a couple were giggling over my costume. They're probably of the opinion that only weird people dress up.

Also later, when I wasn't in costume, a visiting American (who I found out was from Dallas Fort Werth) happened to ask me about the event, probably because I wasn't wearing anything Anime related, he probably thought I was a "normal" person (oh, how wrong he was... ) so I explained about cosplay, anime, and about the event and how the event was purely about dressing up, that there were vendors selling their wares there and how some actually rely on events like this to survive, get their name out there and make a living on commissioned work.

Jennifer on the other hand had a mixture of reactions. Some were impressed by the detail of the costume, others were unnerved by the face. BJD looks are very niche and not everyone "gets it". But I loved being the doll. It also picked up the attention of a few professional photographers, so here's hoping I find them at some point.

Kitokyo also found Jenny in an IG reel the same day: [www.instagram.com/p/CeHNeH9...](https://www.instagram.com/p/CeHNeH9Dv_E/)

Not found anything on Twitter yet. And I don't really want to trawl through YouTube videos :P

Negative Experiences

Oh boy, where to start....

A couple of days before the start of the event, MCM notified that the East Exit of the ExCeL, which is entranced used by the Aloft, Hilton DoubleTree, Premier Inn would be closed and only people with accessible needs would be able to use that entrance. This pissed a LOT of people off, since MCM then recommended using the DLR. That's right, take public transport to go to the other entrance, and pay for the trip, costing £1.80 at peek, £1.60 off-peak or £6.30 cash:

Even more annoying, a construction worker then told me the single station journey would be free (which is contradictory to the screenshot above).

Not everyone could change hotels. Helenako managed to though: [twitter.com/HelenakoC...](https://twitter.com/HelenakoC/status/1527300722014191623)

Walking down the dockside was also not an option as that was blocked. Walking along the other side where the lorries go was an option, but when I tried to do that in costume, I was yelled at by a DLR staff and had to go up the stairs, but was then refused entry and had to take the DLR.

When I finally got in and walked through and got to the other side, there were bag searchers and security there, so the entrance WAS open. I asked if I could leave and return through this entrance. Security guy said as long as I have my pass, yes. But guess what, when I tried to return (with Kitokyo), a different security guy said unless I had wristbands, they can't let me in. So a completely different story. then when we looped around and again tried to exit through the East Entrance we were refused and had to walk all the way around and back. Security were not consistent through the event. Some would let you in, some would not.

The consequence of this was that all the crowds were trying to get in through the one West Entrance. MarioMeta (https://twitter.com/MarioMeta_cos) and I were stuck trying to get back into the event after taking some pictures outside together because of this mess.

By the time Sunday came round, security seemed to understand and as soon as I walked up the stairs to the entrance to go to the DLR, security spotted my pass and directed me to the entrance.

Mind you, as a consequence of the DLR requirement I can now say I've travelled on the TFL network as a kig and as a furry...

Another negative experience, though not one I directly experienced is the lack of security at panels. Found at these tweets:

Generally it was an enjoyable event, severely tarnished by some stupid management decisions.