my first furcon...horrible
My experiences of my first furcon. Leaving my truly shocked and not knowing if I want to remain in the fandom or not.
Comments/critism highly apriciated. But please remain mature.
This is a story about my first furcon. Feel free to post reactions on it.
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This is a story about my first furcon. It will contain quite some mature content so be aware!
Secondly, I do not want to discriminate/offend anyone in this story. That includes the persons who read this, as well as the persons (under false names) mentioned in the story. I'm am/was a furry, and Am well aware of the negative media approach on furries. Which in turn quite saddens me. However This article will contain some constructive criticism on the fandom, so be aware.
Read all the disclaimers and warnings? Then we continue with the story.
Hello! I'm/was a Dutch furry that attended a furcon not a long while ago. I still live with my parents, And you could call me a secretfur for the matter. Yes, nobody actually knows that I'm a fur, nor do I intend to show my furry-ness to my parents after my last furcon.
I remember during May I googled for Dutch furcons. I always wanted to visit one, and with luck I quickly found one! Even more interesting: it started very soon at the end of July. Now I had the financial means to afford to go, so registered and paid. As this was my first con I only wanted the full experience. I had the choice of 1 day, or the full con itself: 4 days. I choose the four full days...
Now I only had to come up with a good excuse to be away for a couple of days without telling my family where I really was. I figured I could come up with a fake LARP (*1) event, and instead go to the con. Now you must know, I'm a very shy person of nature and not very willing to tell anybody about My interests of furries. I was however intending to tell my parents AFTER the con about the furry fandom.
The date is July 31, my mother brings me to the train station of Zevenaar, a Dutch town located near the border of Germany. There I grab my luggage out of the car, say goodbye to my mother and older brother, and head for the convention building rented for this weekend. Outside I meet 2 girls waiting. I look to their bags, full with fursuits. I'm at the right place. We talk for a while until the others show up, and soon enough more arrive. All are very excited and welcome me and ask questions if I have a fursona and perhaps my own fursuit. As I'm very new to the fandom, I tell them I do have some sort of a fursona developing and don't have a fursuit yet. They all understand and welcome me to the furcon. This weekend will be epic, I thought.
Soon after some introducing games (to learn some names) dinner is served. My time to get in touch with the people. I notice very different people all with different backgrounds. Quite a few have autism (including myself and one of my roommates), others are bisexual or gay (as I found out very soon), others transsexual and some have mental disorders. A very diverse group, yet all with 1 thing in common: furry fandom. I must admit I stay clear of some people, but for now I finally feel no shame of being furry. In some sorts, I finally feel at home...
After some fun games we finally decide to go to bed. I share the room with 3 other persons. (Not to fail to mention the last one actually barely shows up at night and sleeps during the day mostly. Later I understand why.) We decide to talk for a bit before we go to bed. All questions like: how did you on this furcon etc. Rather to my disliking, soon the conversation turns to more sexual oriented themes: what is your sexuality? Do you like bottom or top? I try to answer with vague answers or try to get along with it. I go to bed with a rather uncomfortable feeling, but oh well. Next day, new people right?
I indeed meet some new people, and we starting talking about the furry fandom in general. I walk around a bit before some other events begin. A quite large group is sitting in a circle. (Around 10 persons, considering the con consists of around 40 people.) They talk as I hear about yiff. I ask one of them if my ears aren't playing tricks on me. He replies: "Of course people talk about porn on a con." I'm truly shocked. These people aren't talking about this in a closed private room, no, they are doing it right there and then in a public area. In front of their rooms, but still any person who would walk on the gravel path near the building would hear it! My "feeling home" feeling has quite faded away at this very point.
The next day is a fun one with lots of activities including the furwalk (which felt awkward but fun) we decide to have dinner: barbecue. While eating a bit I, again, can't help myself to overhear a conversation. Or rather speaking: see one. Two gay men hug and cuddle each other. Soon however I notice hands going underneath the pants and touching the crotch, while simultaneously unzipping grabbing the zipper. I hear one saying: "Tonight my chamber?" You might have guessed I left that table to search for another. Now I have nothing against gay people, but I can't imagine myself doing that with a girl on a conference with people walking by under the age of 18. I still remember I couldn't withhold my eyes from looking at the "lucky guy": my missing roommate...
Now I can mention dozens of other conversations that went like this on this con. And I must admit, there were many activities which were fun! And yes, not everybody talked about sex constantly. But many went "with the flow" and engaged just like anybody else with these things.
That leads me to the point where I am now. I would love to participate in this subculture and be open about this, but this experience quite shocked me. How in hell am I supposed to explain my parents that I'm furry, while every stereotype about the fandom is confirmed at a con like this? And I know there will be persons mature enough, not in the fandom for all the "bad stuff", but if this is a good representation about the fandom I'm out. I was looking for new friends on this con, without having to hide my interest for anthro's. But I met the most strange, oversexualized people I ever met.
Now my question to you, reader who survived my bad writing skills. Are there any furcons/ events that involve furries in the vicinity of the Netherlands that are not like this and are a good way to meet people of the fandom? Or am I far too exaggerating? Please let me know in the comments.
For now, Here speaks The_Dutch_Fur_Rookie Ex-furry