Sidestory: Northern Lightning ~ Malmö & NFC Day 1

 19-Feb-2025

So here I am, in Sweden, land of the Hero. Today, I awaken to a cold and misty day. And here I had hoped that I had left the coldness behind in Odense, but it looks like today won't see  above-zero temperatures again. Even my host agrees that it  is uncharacteristically cold.

This time, I just have my own room in this shared apartment. Shared spaces include the bathroom and the (strictly vegetarian) kitchen.

Since I'm gonna be here for a total of six nights, I have procured some bread and cream cheese for my breakfasts  here, along with some innocent orange juice that I'm gonna brutally ingest.

After breakfast, I head out to explore the town a bit on my way to the NFC. It's still pretty cold and icy outside. It's 9:00 now by the way.

Also, vegetarian though my host might be, I notice there's a steak restaurant literally four stories below her apartment. I wonder if things go more vegetarian the further up you go. That would make the third floor pescetarian I guess.

Here's my stray map for the segments to and from the NFC for today. I should be walking a lot more that that though.

 I walk along the Östra Hamnkanalen, which is still frozen over.

  

A heron rests on a pier, and a couple of gulls sit on the ice.

I also come across a pile of bikes and scooters overgrown with barnacles. I wonder if those were pulled out of the canal.

Then, there's the Cykelgar ("Cycle Garage").

And then, I'm at the central station again.

Beyond that, things start getting significantly more fuzzy.

Today, I am in search of Valhalla, which is the second con venue. This is located in a place called the Slagthuset. It's not "open open" yet, but I can at least take a picture, and mark down the place on my map.

So I have a stray around the port town and make for the Clarion instead.

The last expanse of water I walk by has an interesting ice pattern, which I assume might be because the ice is just breaking up in the morning sun right now.

 

I also note that some of the garbage bins  here have separate holders for Pant bottles and cans. That's actually really pragmatic, because I know that there are poor people digging through the trash cans in search of those so they can return them to the supermarkets and get a bit of money for each one. This way they can just pick them up from the extra slots, and bam! You've got freelance garbage collectors!

 Shortly thereafter, I reach the Clarion, where a bunch of furries are already hanging out at 10:30.

I set out to explore the Clarion a bit.

 

 

There are a number of games and arcade machines that you can just have some casual fun at with other furries. 

 

There's also a bunch of hidden eastereggs, like those fursuit heads watching from above...

 ...or the Yokai on the floor.

There's also convenient power bank rental stations around, in case you need to charge your phone.

And someone shows me this super-neat fox backpack that you can just carry around, and now I want one too!

And then, I  have my shock-and-panic of the day as I noticed that I've lost one of my three tails! And I have no idea where! I  still hat it at the port town, but did I lose it on my way to the Clarion? Or is it inside the hotel? I go full panic at this point, write messages around, check in con ops, check the places  where I last went (which is "everywhere", since I've been exploring the whole site), ask people I've met how many tails I had when they last saw me, and eventually just shout loudly in the main lobby if anyone has seen my missing tail. That last thing is amazingly what finally gets me my tail back, since I reach a lot of ears, and one of many pairs of eyes spots my tail hanging in a nearby potted plant. Apparently someone found it lying around and hung it up there, but me in my panic was just to blind to see it until it was pointed out to me. Anyway, I'm just so happy to have my tail back. However, that last act cost me so much mental endurance that as soon as the adrenaline drops off, I have a  breakdown right there and then, crying  and sobbing. Fortunately, I am in literally the best place for that, with a loving community who's there to comfort and cosset me. And for the rest of my  trip, I'm gonna check my tails every 5 minutes.

After that mentally taxing event, I go out for lunch with one of the furries who helped me recover, heading for the nearby Pink Head Noodle Bar, which is one of several places hosting a furry week special. In fact, it's the one that I marked down yesterday.

There, I have some vegetarian Kitsune Ramen, with yummy chunks of tofu inside.

And now for something completely different: SOUP. That stands for Some Other Useful Personnel, and is effectively the volunteer system at NFC. Naturally, I signed up for that, always happy to support the STEW (STaff & crEW). So I'm officially SOUP now.

It's effectively a real-life quest system. Jobs get posted, you take one on, do it, report in, and get rewards. My first quest takes me to Valhalla, which by now is fully open.

There, I help out at the Arcade for a couple of hours, doing stuff like connecting consoles, picking up trash, and answering questions.

  

It's not all fun and games, though. For example, I also help assemble a shelf, which is kinda fun, and then load it up with old portable games for PSP, NDS, 3DS, GBA, and some other systems that I don't recognize. Wait... I guess it's all fun and games after all.

 Oh, and there's a Yokai hidden in here too.

I also get access to the staff lounge, from where I get myself some Loka Päron. That is effectively a pear-flavored soft drink.

After my shift, I explore Valhalla some more. There's a Japanese garden prop here, and a Super Smash Bros. tournament going on.

I then return to the Clarion, where I pass signs warning about "Snubbelrisk". I can conject that this probably means "risk of slipping", but from how it sounds and in the context of the convention being right there, I can't help but mentally map it to "risk of being snuggled".

There's also some charity voting going on (the charity this year is an animal welfare organization from Icealand) as well as some fun bingo cards that you can use as an ice breaker to meet new people.

 

I also turn in my quest, which earns me enough points to get me to SOUP Lv8, and earns me a bunch of little rewards.

After that, I meet up with the furry with whom I also went for lunch earlier. I put my sewing skills to use as I help him sew on the belt loop on his tail, which did come loose during the con. He's a blue fox-dragon by the way.

We then head out for dinner together, towards the relatively nearby Lion Bar. 

There, I have a piece of stack on... uhhh... "fried potato mash"? Whatever it is, it is definitely delicious.

They also have a cell phone charging BRICK. Those things seem to be conveniently located anywhere here in Sweden. Maybe that's the work of the hero?

Afterwards, we head back to the Clarion, where we get in line for the opening ceremony. Or rather, I get in line while he walks past, since he's got a special pass that allows him to do so. I came in an hour early, which is really good timing because it gets me a place early in the queue, while behind me it just starts growing exponentially. Finally, a real queue!

The main stage, where the opening ceremony is held, gets pretty full pretty fast.

And then, we have the two-hour-long opening ceremony, which is pretty much a humorous performance featuring among others Traxx the cat - chairman of NFC - and Mausie and Iris - the mascots of NFC.

There's also a bunch of performances, such as a singing performance by a stork.

.

A wolf playing a Japanese-style  song on  an electric guitar.

A dancing performance by these tails:

An opera song with life music played by fursuiters.

An advertisement for the furry maid cafe.

And a life performance by WannaBeast, a furry dancer group from Japan.

Next, the gold-antlered stag from WannaBeast also plays a song on the Koto, a traditional Japanese  string instrument.

And after all that, this years NordicFuzzCon is officially declared open!

It is now 22:45, and I am just about ready to drop. So I say goodbye to the Clarion for today...

...and start heading back to my Airbnb along the other side of the Östra Hamnkanalen.

Along the line, I take note of where the FlixBus stop is, because that is how Robert and I are gonna get to Oslo a few days hence. It's actually quite some way from the station, on the other side of the canal.

Once back at the Airbnb, I can do little more than just drop. Today was a very intense day, but also a very good one. I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for me. So until then, be of great cheer everyone! =^,^=