Matsucon 2024 – I got so scared I dislocated my arm!

 Hello geeks!

Matsucon came and went and I thought it's high time I post a report about my happenings and feelings about the con! This year Matsucon was held on 10-11th August in Pohjankartano's school, Oulu, Finland, like usual. Matsucon has been held in the same location for years so yeah, why change something that works? I went there as a con worker and despite one, err, unfortunate accident, I managed to do what I was supposed to do – namely take care of the green room.

But hey, let's get this summary started!

I couldn't find the official Matsucon poster anywhere
so have the Iltabileet ('afterparty') poster instead.

So just like on the past few cons my travel companion was Firith, once again. But, unlike our usual means of traveling by car or train, this time we had to use the bus to get to Oulu. It was both for economic reasons and also because the train's time tables didn't suit us this time. We left Kemi on Friday because we had booked the hotel for two nights, it's convenient.

I don't really remember when exactly we left for the bus station but it was during the afternoon something. We had booked Onnibus because it's affordable. When the bus arrived we were concerned we would have to pay extra because we had so much luggage but luckily the driver didn't charge us anything because I said I could keep my electronics bag in my lap. In theory this was a good and sound idea, I mean I'd make sure my PS5 and my TV were safe as no one would be throwing suitcases on top of them or handling them roughly in the hold – yet, in practice, this was an absolutely ass decision because my TV is quite heavy (even for being as small as it is) so my legs kept going numb and I had really little space in front of me so I could hear the TV's leg creaking (at least it's one of those adjustable ones that you can tilt slightly but still, nerve-wrecking) whenever the bus turned and it was so much worrying lol. The thing is that just before the trip I had bought a cheap oldish monitor from a thrift store, because it was light to carry, but lo' and behold it didn't work when I tested it and so I had to resort to my trusty TV once again in a pinch. I'm quite mad at the store because I feel like electronics should by default always be tried because no one wants to buy anything that doesn't work, especially if your return policy is literally within the next day or no refunds – or at least that's what the cashier told me at the time of purchase. I have not been back there yet because I have so much anxiety over the whole thing; I absolutely dread confronting people about literally anything face to face, even if I have full rights to do so as I paid for a faulty product. I mean, when I worked at a second-hand store a few years back we had a rule that all electronics had to be tested before they reached the customer and I'm sorry but that should be the norm. It's not too much to ask.

Carrying a fucking TV on my lap in the bus was an experience and a half.

The bus ride was a bit bumpy for other reasons as well. You see, I was wearing pants that had metal chain accessories on my left side and I didn't think much of it when I sat down on the seat.. until I then heard this kind of metallic clinking sounds and realized, to my horror, that my chains had gotten stuck on that heater thingy or whatever that metallic box running across the sides of the bus were! So yeah, I spent almost the whole one hour bus trip trying to forcibly yank myself free from my prison. My hands were all red and sore from the tugging and pulling and I was panicking so much but just had to mask it (nobody wants to have a meltdown in a full bus). I really didn't want to have to break the chains but because it was just one of the three rows that was stuck I was pretty much forced to, if I wanted to keep the other two. Needless to say I had to break a chain link with brute force and I'm saddened by it because yeah, those chains were a gift and I liked using them a lot...

Sokos Hotel Arina room, 'Summer Night' theme.

After that literal strugglebus experience we arrived in Oulu's bus station. Firith called us a taxi because no way in hell were we walking through centrum with that mountain of luggage! It boggles my mind why every con trip always comes with so much baggage, I mean for real, you're literally gone for a weekend and you have like half your apartment with you wtf? xD But anygays, once we got our hotel room we dropped off our stuff and just recovered for a bit before Firith went out alone to meet up with some acquaintances who happened to be in Oulu too (not for Matsucon) while I stayed behind and relaxed. While Firith was gone I was just lying in bed and scrolling through my sketch book, lost in thought. At some point Firith messaged me that he'd be back soon and although I had seen the message just prior I must have been so deeply inside my own mindspace because I didn't hear his approaching footsteps in the corridor at all and, when he opened the door, I got so scared by the sound from the door handle slamming down that I literally dislocated my own fucking arm from the sheer fright recoil! Not even a joke bro, it really happened. The first thing Firith sees is me squirming in pain and cursing perkele between my breaths lol, it hurt like a motherfucker because I had to push the dislocated arm back in place with my other arm or the pain would get more severe for every second and I literally can't move my arm unless I fix it. Yeah I know, this is one of those things that maybe would warrant a 112 call but this has happened to me more than once before (thanks to hypermobility and accidents) and I've always just dealt with it myself because of it being such an automatic reaction. So yeah, my arm was super painful and unstable for the rest of the day but we still headed out to eat at Itsudemo's sushi buffet. It was a bit of a disappointment this year when compared to last year, especially because we had been looking forward to it for so long. :< Sushis were dry-looking on the tray and several came apart when I moved them to my plate, which is kinda a bad thing if the rice doesn't hold together, not to mention that there was next to no refills of empty trays so a lot of the options were unavailable for the whole approximately 45 minutes that we were there. Luckily I managed to snag a few pieces of my favorites immediately when we came but yeah, I would have wanted seconds ngl so it was quite a bummer.

We went back to the hotel room and Firith rescued us some donuts from Arnold's. Honestly, ResQ is such a good app – it lessens food waste from restaurants, cafeterias, hotels etc and you can save food and get great discounts. What's available changes every day because it depends on what's left over so there's always a surprise factor on what you'll find!

I don't think we did anything else noteworthy, just chilled for a while and then we went to bed.

Saturday morning was groggy as usual. I'll just accept the fact that I'll never be a morning person lol. But anyways, we went to the hotel breakfast almost immediately after waking up and I broke my tradition by not indulging my mouth with karelian pastries this time – what a foul act of self-betrayal!
After the breakfast refreshment episode it was time to put our costumes on; I rewore Hotaru from Samurai Deeper Kyo while Firith was Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service and yes I know, exactly the same costumes as on Nekocon lolol. We weren't in an explosive hurry to get dressed because even though we both were con workers neither of us had the first morning shifts in our respective jobs so yeah, we didn't die from a stress-fueled heat death of the universe.

Matsucon entrance view.

Photoshoot competition desk near the entrance.

I can't recall what exactly the clock was by the time we arrived but Firith had signed up to be part of the cosplay competition so he had to go through some pre-judging stuff almost immediately by the time we arrived. At some point while we were walking near the cloakroom some recruiters came to ask me if I would like to enter the cosplay competition in my Hotaru cosplay because they needed more contestants (I got the impression that a lot of the originally applied contestants had ghosted due to number 13, Firith's number, being the first to enter the stage) but I kindly declined because I didn't even have my sword with me nor the proper cosplay shoes; I had intentionally left them behind to make the traveling easier. Not to mention I have extreme stage fright and anxiety and I wasn't mentally prepared to compete at all. Still, I find it weirdly flattering that I got asked lol.

Cafeteria view, except it was closed this year.

I had specifically asked for most of my work hours to be slotted into Sunday so that I could explore more freely on Saturday, another reason was because Hotaru is maybe not the most convenient costume to brew coffee etc in due to the long white kimono sleeves. x) An even bigger inconvenience was that of my recently dislocated arm, which had never really stopped being sus and hurting, and which I tried to ignore as much as I could. Yet at some point, during the first half of my shift, I figured there was a first aid room in the con (and it exists for a reason) so I had nothing to lose if I went and asked there if they could help me somehow. I was concerned I would hurt myself accidentally because even the slightest wrong or thoughtless movement made my arm wobbly and like it would luxate. I gotta say though that the people at the first aid station were extremely kind and really went out of their way to make sure I was comfortable – they even sent someone immediately to the pharmacy to fetch kinesiology tape because they didn't have any in stock. ;_;

Me with my sling in the green room while waiting to get taped.

It was kinda wild because apparently my condition did some rounds among the workers because at some point one of the organizers came up to the green room and told me they heard that a worker had an arm issue and came to check the situation and I was internally like "lawd I'm making a scene oh noes" but I appreciate the concern, I really do.
After some waiting the first aid crew came to pick me up and I got my arm and shoulder embellished with some hot pink tape. Very character accurate. It helped to stabilize the arm, slightly lessen that constant dull pain and it increased my trust in using said arm for tasks. Luckily working at the green room is quite relaxed and so I could function the rest of my work shift without accidents; I just had to be a bit more mindful of my movements than your average person.
My shift lasted from 13-16 and once I was free I informed Firith that I really really needed to leave for the hotel asap, that I needed to get my costume off because I was overheating, in pain and also uncomfortable from the poor air quality and circulation indoors. He was busy with the cosplay competition prep but still managed to call me a ride through the Menevä Taxi app, thank you. ;_;

The elevator was for worker use only. It was a godsend for me because
the impact from walking down stairs was enough to hurt my arm.

Once I got back to the hotel I yeeted myself out of my costume and then I just casually died for a while. Well, not literally but I just idled around trying to reanimate myself back into a solid human shape. Eventually Firith also came back and we might have gone on a ResQ shopping spree because Ravintola Puistola just on the opposite side of the street had some delicious bakeries up on the app just before closing time. I also got a yummy rescue sushi mix takeaway box from Sushi Bowl & More Tea that we went to pick up, along with some boba tea to fuel our boba cravings. Not gonna lie, winter melon flavor was godtier deluxe.

Rescued sushi and bubble tea~

The wind did blow us to the nearby foodstore where we might have bought some alcoholic beverages for the night, just to have a good time and unwind. I bought some cherry cocktail that I had never seen before, it was from Spain and in a glass bottle with a metallic twist cap, it was surprisingly good!

Sunday morning is always Sunday morning, filled with an impending sense of doom because you know you have to check out from the hotel and carry all your shit back to the con's cloakroom for storage over the day. My original plan was to cosplay Leon from Resident Evil 4, I even had the costume with me and everything, but we ended up with some miscalculations with time management and by the time we were done with breakfast, showering etc there simply wasn't enough time to put on a costume before we had to leave the room.

We arrived at the con about one hour before it officially opened its doors. Firith had to almost immediately bolt to his work shift so I stayed behind and tried to get our belongings stored somewhere safely. The cloakroom worker wasn't there yet so I had to go ask one of the organizers to help me out. I really did not want to drag all of that stuff all the way up to the green room on the top floor so yeah, the cloakroom was a lot more attractive choice since it was on the main floor.

Dealer's Hall and artisan's tables main floor view.

More artisan's tables.

Upstairs view of the main area.

My workshift didn't start until 14:00 so I had plenty of time to kill and I used this time to go through the sellers, artisan tables and the Artist's Alley on the second floor. I had planned to go listen to the watercolor panel held by Jasu Wonder World but when the time came I realized I wasn't in an attentive nor focused mood and I passed on it to charge my batteries before my work started. It's hard to control the flows and crashes of a neurospicy brain.

One half of Artist's Alley, second floor.

At some point slightly before my shift started Firith asked me if I wanted a second bubble tea while we still had the chance. You see, Kemi and Tornio has no place to get boba as far as we know so yeah, if we don't satisfy our boba addictions when we can we have to wait a painfully long time until we can get more boba, usually it means withdrawal symptoms until our next trip to either Oulu or Kuopio (because those are boba-certified for now).
So.. uh, I might have been tasked with walking across centrum to grab us our drugs. I might have done so very willingly, even with the looming threat of getting splashed by rain.

Never stop the madness.

It took me roughly 15 minutes to get to the boba shop and about the same to get back. It would be even quicker if the traffic lights in Oulu weren't permanently set to troll mode – I mean, first they stay red for like forever when there's not a single car in sight and the moment they turn green is when the cars show up. And just to mess with pedestrians even more they only stay green for like 15 seconds or such so I guess good luck if your walking speed doesn't rival Aladdin's flying carpet or something.

Proof my daily intake was more than just boba.

I don't really remember much of my Sunday work shift, it lasted from 14-19 so yeah, basically once it started I was in the green room until the con closed it doors along with one hour for the down-rigging. One thing I do remember is that when I had been at work for about one hour one of my coworkers (whom I had talked with quite a bit the day before when I was cosplaying) exclaimed something like "so where's this [my name] dude?" and I just replied that I've been sitting here all this time and it was kinda funny because it turned out that said coworker hadn't even recognized that I'm the same person because I wasn't in cosplay. xD Oh and yeah, my arm was still hurting but I managed.

Once the con closed I helped with emptying the green room as best as I could. Just like with Kummacon there was a bunch of leftover food, so the workers could grab what they wanted to reduce waste, which is a very nice gesture and bonus if you ask me. Once we had taken down most of the decorations and such I went downstairs to grab our belongings from the cloakroom. It was funny because I met the same organizer there, whom I had asked for help in the morning, and I was told that I was the first person to put in items in the cloakroom on the morning and the last one to take items out after the con. xD

The video game room. Here I worked last year. :3

I feel like I'm running out of things to say, lol. This year's Matsucon seemed to have a bit more hiccups than previous years – one of them being that I learned that Pohjankartano's maintenance or whatnot crew (aka not Matsucon itself) had, for some unknown reason, turned off the air circulation for the Matsucon weekend, probably an error or misunderstanding of some sort but yeah, this explains why the air quality was abnormally poor during the con. I remember several times on Saturday when I walked through the Artist's Alley I was almost knocked out by a suffocating wall of moist con funk combined with deteriorating oxygen levels, it was stifling and I felt sorry for all the artists who had to sit there the whole day. :'( But anyways, Matsucon is a worthwhile experience and it was fun this year too. As long as we have these firesouls bringing us annual cons in the northern half of the country I'm more than willing to show up and show my support in some way or another, be it as a visitor or volunteer~

Thanks for reading!
Shiro Samurai out.