I meant to write again from the event, but I was sleeping really poorly and so when I did have energy I wanted to make the most of it. As I am on the train right now though, I’ve got plenty of time, even if I do feel a little under the weather. [Note: but I’m publishing this from home, because accessing my image server from my laptop was being weird while on the VPN through my hotspot.] Hoping, as always, that this is just exhaustion and fatigue, from the aforementioned lack of sleep and exertion of the week. When you’re both wearing masks, are in the super loud stream room, and both have ear plugs in, you’re basically yelling to each other whenever you want to comment on anything. I’m not surprised I have a sore throat and feel weak (shouts to ME/CFS).

SGDQ is not over, but we did five nights and four whole days, just like last year, but this time we did the opening instead of closing. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure which energy I prefer more. Early in the week is calmer but later in the week gets almost delirious come the final day and closing. [Note: We’re actually watching Silly Block now in bed on the Youtube channel because we missed it today.]

Excerpt from unpublished SGDQ 2025 post
The moment we walked into the hotel we were surrounded by people with GDQ attendee badges. Lots and lots of trans people, especially trans women. And of course lots of cis people too, you know, they’re everywhere after all. All just hanging out in the lobby and having a real good time.

Arriving this year actually almost felt like coming home. I didn’t feel all the awe of being among so many trans people, or the star-struckedness of being amongst and interacting with people who I’d only ever seen on stream as big runners or GDQ staff and volunteers. It was a lot more comfortable, and as such, also went by quicker this time too.

I am happy to say that we did more than just watch games in the stream room and chill in our hotel room! Though there was plenty of both, we also got to a trivia show, an improv show (which was the third time they’ve ever done it, we did see the very first show last year!), and both the Frame Fatales meetup as well as the 3DS meetup!

I ended up talking to a few people, including one person in particular at the 3DS meetup about quite a few games and 3DS hacks/softmods, and in particular the Japan-only 3DS game Pictologica Final Fantasy, aka Final Fantasy Picross. It was really cool to just gush like that! I did not get their name or contact info or anything, so that’s a bummer. I also talked to quite a few folks at the Fatales meet, including someone I was super star struck by last year! This year I felt a lot more normal about them. There was a cute origami task to do too while we got to know each other, but I really got stuck on one of the later steps :(

There’s actually a good chunk of last year’s unpublished post that veers pretty hard into parasociality and that’s largely why I did not put it up. I didn’t know how to strip those parts out but still convey my experience and feelings. Well, problem solved I guess? It was so nice to just feel normal this year, but I do want to talk a bit about what it was like last year. All these people I’ve been watching “on TV” for years, who I’ve lowkey admired for the work they do — both skill as runners as well as volunteer work for GDQ and PCF/MSF — were suddenly very much in my vicinity and I’d never encountered anything like it before. Perhaps if as a little girl I ever got to be near Steve Yzerman or Chris Osgood I might have had a frame of reference.

A personal highlight of the event both years was the arcade room! This year they also featured a bunch of pinball games that I don’t think were around last year, and we spent some good time playing those. Last year my wife and I spent a lot of time on the Puyo Puyo machines as well, since we were super into Puyo Puyo Tetris on the Switch.

Image from unpublished SGDQ 2025 post

(They took another, close-up photo of me specifically playing Puyo and the self-absorbed side of me (let me have such a side, I’m a trans woman who started transition at 30 years old!) wants to put that up, but I like the larger view of the row of machines, people, and evidence that I was completely stomping my wife at Puyo .)

I had also dabbled with the F-Zero AX machines they had too, played a vs race against my wife, but otherwise did not spend much time. This year though I made a point to, as when else would I really be near a working F-Zero AX cabinet?? Galloping Ghost in Illinois has one, but it’s always in some need of repair everytime we go. It’s sad. So this time I broke off from my wife and sat at the machine and just played every AX-only course and tried a few of the AX-specific pilots and machines too. It was really fun! Of course I didn’t think to bring my Gamecube memory card with GX data on it, so I couldn’t unlock anything for my game at home. My new mission in life is to get one of these cabinets for the house.

I took a lot of photos with my Nintendo 3DS, and my wife did too with her Handspring Visor (PalmOS). If, after reviewing them, I feel like I have a solid collection of pictures worth sharing from both my phone and my 3DS I’ll put up a photos post. Perhaps one for 2025 as well?

I feel like the 3DS meetup really helped me rediscover my 3DS. My blue original XL model broke well over a decade ago and I never got it repaired or replaced. But two years ago when our ex and I were driving around looking for GBAs for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, I found a red New 3DS XL and immediately scooped it up. I played a ton of stuff on it that year and then put it down when my carpal tunnel acted up and when the Switch 2 came out. I did bring my Switch 2 with me this year but definitely spent more time with my 3DS. Through the 3DS meetup I discovered an amazing Pokémon rom hack of Fire Red called Super Mariomon. Most ROM hacks don’t hold me, and honestly generation 3 is by far my least favorite (gen 2 is my personal favorite, though the Legends series is aces too), but this one is top notch. The team behind it put a TON of work into the world and art, so much that it feels more like a game in one of the Mario RPG lines of games.

I also discovered that emulating the SNES version of Final Fantasy 6 is a much better experience than playing the GBA version in any way on the 3DS (using the 3DS’ GBA hardware loses sleep mode, and emulating GBA kinda sucks on the 3DS), so I’m just going to play it this way now (I was going to run the GBA version on my Anbernic, but that device is not super comfy).

As always, I’m constantly living in two worlds at the same time. There was an indie vendor onsite that did the art for the Final Fantasy 9 shirt we had bought our ex last year (the shirt was purchased through the official merch vendor of the event). The same art was available as a print, along with many others including a Chrono Trigger one I got for AGDQ in January. I ended up getting prints of resident evil 4, Resident Evil Requiem (9), and a cute one of a cat studying a spellbook. Besides the familiar art, there were plenty of things I wanted to buy as gifts for her, things I thought she would really like, things that would have meaning to either her, me, or both of us. It was just deeply sad to me, in the middle of this super exciting and happy event.

As an aside, actually feeling like I know what to gift someone is super weird to me. I have never known how or what to get anyone for gifts before. My wife and I don’t get each other anything typically because we’re both so bad at gifts. This ex upended that for me. Not only do I see things I know she’d love, I also handmade a gift for her a couple years ago?? It was not intricate by any means, but I put my whole heart into it. I failed to find the courage to say the words that were in my heart when I gave that gift though.

I will always regret never saying those words with the gift.

Leave it to sugar to drag the mood down :)

Anyway, this ending from last year is still one thousand percent relevant:

Excerpt:
I did not want to come home at the end of the week. I did not want to leave this super fun and uplifting experience and return to stress at home. We’ve made a promise to each other that we’ll be back.