It's always great to go abroad to an international convention. The trip gets better if you happen to get your hands on something the Swedes own. And for it to be the best thing ever, you can make them think it's the Danes who did it.

Main star of the story

As the main organiser of Desucon, I get to visit a lot of conventions. Sure, there are many of them in Finland but to get some perspective you need to go a bit further. In August 2012, on an early Friday morning, our Finnish delegation of Pekka (our official international representative), the girls of Chotto!Chocolate and myself were at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. Our destination was the town of Roskilde in Denmark where the crown jewel of Danish conventions, Genki was held. 

The girls actually had something to do at the convention. We had to pick something else...

The weekend was full of chatting with the other convention organisers and just enjoying the convention (and the amazing Roskilde weather!). We also got to know the organisers of the Swedish convention ConFusion and with them, their adorable pink pony, Glenn. But something terrible happened! Glenn had mysteriously disappeared from the convention during the small hours between Saturday and Sunday. Swedes searched desperately for him, but in the end, he was gone.

Genki ended on Sunday and we returned to Finland, only to be greeted by rain and cold weather. The Swedes went home, thinking they had lost their precious Glenn for good, but a few days after the convention they received an email. From the kidnappers!

Message from the kidnappers, click to enlarge! The Swedish reaction can be read here.

The response from the Swedish to the kidnappers was a bit mixed. After blaming Danes for the kidnapping, Confusion organisers did what was reasonable: they negotiated with terrorists and gave into their demands!

For the explicit nature of the images, we won't publish them, but Glenn did receive a shirt with one picture printed in it. Just to survive the cold Finnish climate, of course!

Pony with a shirt. Only in Finland.

With the ransom delivered, the nightmare was over for Glenn. Being a cheerful pony, he got to spend a traditional Finnish autumn, which included even a trip to Estonia!

It was non-alcoholic, we swear!

..but this was not. :O

With all the partying having gone a bit too far, the kidnappers decided it was time for Glenn to return to Sweden. On last weekend ConFusion was held in Gothenburg and from the gifts of the Finnish delegation, a certain pony emerged. 

A happy reunion! That's Joachim (main organiser of ConFusion) on the left!

All's well that ends well. Thanks Joachim, we had quite a bit of fun!

The End.

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