rose_of_pain (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rose_of_pain) wrote2009-05-26 06:13 pm
rose_of_pain) wrote2009-05-26 06:13 pm
Entry tags:
Animazement 2009
Con report time! As usual, its going to be pretty long but that's because a lot of things happened this con. Warning: I might go into a bit of detail with all the NOIZ events. Was considering making a separate entry for that but am too lazy. XP
Thursday:
Went to Ren's house Wednesday afternoon and spent most of the night helping her on her Link costume. Then we started out for our epic drive around noon Thurs morning. Stopped at Ren's sister's house around Richmond on the way. Her sister lives like seriously in the middle of nowhere but her house is really really nice. She treated us to lunch which was so nice. ^^ Got back on the road and managed to successfully avoid traffic for the most part. Only ran into a little bit at one point and it wasn't even for very long. So we made really good time. I had put all my NOIZ mp3s on Ren's ITouch so rocked out to that in preparation for the con. We got to Raleigh sometime between 7 and 8, I don't remember exactly. And the GPS took us right through the ghettos on the way to the hotel. ^^; We were like "...um...is that a prostitute? O_O;" But we managed to get to the hotel safe and sound...and then Ren promptly died on the floor.
Luckily she managed to revive so I no longer had to question how I was going to get home on Sunday.
Then we waited for Talia and Courtney...who ended up somehow on the other side of the city. ^^;; So we had to direct them to the hotel and the poor hotel attendant who was helping us was just like "uh...they are coming right?" But eventually they got there and we went up to the room. It was nice having only 4 people. Very spacious though we somehow managed to take up most of that space with all our crap. Ren and Talia passed out pretty early while Courtney and I worked to finish her Mamiya and Farf. Why is it that every time I room with that girl I end up sewing her buttons on? XP But at least it was only 6 this time instead of...40. And we were only up til like 1:30am instead of...3am or whatever it was that one Otakon. lol
Friday:
So some time during the night Courtney totally almost shoved me right off the bed. LOL Woke up to her all sprawled up and me hanging on to the edge. Had to literally push her back a bit and she didn't even feel it. XP Anyways...took our time getting up and getting ready considering none of us had anything really to do until 1pm (when the Dealer's Room opened). I wore my Nihon Fai which I don't think a single person in the con center recognized. But hey it was comfy. We got our badges and were bawfled by how messed up the schedule booklet was. Like really. They stapled it together wrong so you had the days all on the wrong pages. x_x; And while I loved the new location for the con...boy was it confusing. We attempted to figure out the layout and we'd go up one flight of stairs and be all "...where the hell are we?" I mean there were stairs that just led to other stairs or hallways that contained nothing. And of course none of the escalators were turned on so we have thus named the con "Stair Con". So having nothing better to do, we went outside to take some photos and then went to eat at Chick-Fil-A...which for some reason was only open Mon-Fri until like 4pm each day. Yeaaah. So we were like "this is the only time we can eat there, might as well take advantage of it."
I thought this photo was cute ^^
This time I remembered to wear my fangs. Though I nearly forgot to put them on.
Lockon Piercing the Heavens XP
Wandered back into the con, Talia decided to go ahead and just sit outside the concert room even though it wasn't going to start til 7pm 'cause she's crazy like that. XP Ren and I wandered into the Artist Alley where she went ahead and started her crazy bidding on the Art Show and I had to resist the temptation to buy doll furniture (though if anyone has some at my next few cons I'm so getting some as I really need stuff). Went into the Dealer's Room once it finally opened. Much bigger than it was in the past and the only disappointments for me was the fact there weren't any Japanese manga dealers and that they didn't have any of the Dissidia or Kuroshitsuji figure boxes. Just a few out of the box that were really overpriced. Though we did luck out with our favorite dealer as they managed to have ALL the Lamento coin figures this time. Ren bought all the ones she wanted that she didn't already have. I only bought Rai as of course they're all expensive so I really couldn't afford more. Just hope they'll still have some at Otakon so I can get Leaks and Konoe. I also got my Crisis Core Cloud that was my main goal though I then found it for $5 less at another booth. -_-; *fails* I wanted to get Zack too but wasn't sure if I could afford it. Ended up not getting him, saving him for next time. Then blew the rest of my remaining cash on the NOIZ t-shirt and new single so I could get the autograph and photo tickets. It was so worth it though.
At some point I ran into a Yohji, Aya, and Omi from Weiss and was all "qphpppipephi! Are you wearing these tomorrow?" and they were all "oh yeah, tomorrow night" "Perfect!" 'cause Courtney and I planned to do Schwarz then. XP I swear every time I bring Schu I somehow find other Weiss people. Then Ren and I went back to the room to drop off our goodies and we all changed costumes. Ren into her Link and Courtney and I finally got to wear our Utena costumes together.
Pedo and Michael Jackson. *cough* I mean Mikage and Mamiya. >>;
Sadly I don't have any of the good photos on my camera but Ren got a lot on her camera and Courtney's. Our hotel was REALLY pretty so we had a lot of things to work with. After the photos we went back to the con and a few people actually recognized us! It made me very happy. ^^ Ran into Bur Loire and Rosabella in their Gurren Lagann costumes who promptly spazzed over our costumes. We were supposed to do Utena with them some point during the con but I don't think they ever managed to get into theirs. Oh well it was still fun hanging with them for a bit. Ren saw a Ganondorf up above us and stole Bur's Viral hatchet and went off to kill him since she was wearing Link and all. He saw her so remained up there while she waited for the elevator. Took her a while to get up there but it was pretty amusing to see her come around the corner, stab him, and then go back down. XP Then we went downstairs to the little food court area thing where we proceeded to be very mature *cough* individuals. Had some nachoes with Ren and they were both a bit weirded out by me when I proceeded to lick out the container of sour cream ("Deeper. Go Deeper." XP). Then while Courtney and Ren went back to the Artist Alley, I decided to check out how Talia was doing. A little bit of a line was finally starting to form behind her so I figured I should go change. Though on the way I first had someone stop me and go "Oh you never seen old school Gundam cosplay anymore these days!" "...I'm not Gundam. Utena." "...oh. Oh! Right, hahaha" -_-; This is not the first time that's happened. At AUSA I kept getting mistaken for Kira...I don't know why. But then that was made up by the fact that another guy came up to me and asked if I was Mikage and got uber excited 'cause he actually runs a seminar at a college called...you guessed it. Mikage Seminar. I was like "omg that is so dorky but awesome!" so we discussed the finer points of Utena and I probably would've talked more if I wasn't on my way to change.
So I put on my brand new NOIZ shirt and got in line with Talia and met some pretty awesome people in the line. Now AZ has never had a concert before and it showed. They had no idea how to properly do this as they didn't have tape or a sign or anything to organize the line so we kept having people trying to line up on the opposite side of where we were and we kept having to go over there and tell them that the line started HERE not there. And argued with several kids who debated that "there are no lines at AZ, you just walk in" >>. Um no. That's not how you do it for a concert when you have several obsessed fans who have been waiting here for hours. We actually had to pull over some staff and tell them to please help out on this. They did finally but it was still kinda messy as I think some people still did sneak in once the doors opened instead of getting in the line. Though either way our little group still managed to get center front against the barricade. The Japanese girls that were there actually didn't even want center front. They wanted the left side to be in front of Kyo and Masato which was fine by us as that gave us full reign of the center. And oh man I've never been that close to a band before as I got the center-center spot right in front of the little stage extension so every time a band member came on it to get closer they were directly in front of me. *_* Like in touching range.
To get an idea of how close I was, check out Sang's concert photos here: http://quadrain.com/Gallery2/v/events/animazement2009/?g2_page=4 As he was right in front of me when taking the photos. Talked to him a bit before the concert to him, explaining the band to him and whatnot.
http://quadrain.com/Gallery2/v/events/animazement2009/DSC_0108.jpg.html - And you can see me and Talia here. LOL I'm the one with my mouth open like the uber happy dork I was.
So the concert started on time which was kinda amazing as every concert I've been to at a con has always started late. lol And omg it was amazing! Seriously the best concert ever. They had such an amazing stage presense. And I can say that I approve of the two new members. I was a bit wary of them and I still miss the older ones. But Yamato and Kotaro were actually pretty cool. Though I tended to focus on Angel-Taka the majority of the time as he's always been my favorite. He even bought some angel wings from the Dealer's Room that he added to his costume which was a cute little addition even though most of the feathers had fallen off by the end of the concert. I also think this was the first concert ever where I actually managed to do quite a lot of headbanging. Usually I don't like doing that but it was hard not to with NOIZ as some of their songs just required it. XP Especially Ignition. Angel-Taka's english was pretty good when he spoke though of course he had cheat notes to help him. He of course was very perverted, telling us that he was "oh so horny!" and at one point was all "Do you like...Pokemon? This is my Pokemon! *points to crotch*" Kyo: "His favorite is Pikachu! XP" And another time he was all "Do you want to have my babies?!" And I was like "...uh, no...>>;;" lol. And of course the various girls screaming things out only encouraged him. XP "Sexy beam!" I expected that out of him though. What I didn't expect was how sexual Masato was being. He actually was rubbing his crotch in front of us at one point. ^^;;
But oh man they were all sooooo energetic! It was crazy! ^_^ And of course the highlight of the concert for me was Chromosome Six which we all rocked out to and danced to and most of the audience seemed to catch on to the moves rather quickly so it was A LOT of fun. Being in the front made it easier to do the moves too. And Angel-Taka reached his hand out to touch us several times though the first few times I wasn't able to reach him because of being short. -_- But eventually he moved his hand a bit lower and I was able to get it. And during I think it was Everything for My Love (my memory isn't always that great on what happens during what song) he kissed our hands. I was like *_*. Though at first when he opened his mouth we were like "...is he going to lick us? Uhh...do I really want to reach my hand out?" ^^; Oh man I didn't want the concert to ever end, it was that great. I was dead tired afterwards but oh so very very happy. Poor Talia managed to bruise her knee rather badly against the barrier though. Originally I had wanted to get back into costume after the costume but I was way too tired to do that. XP Ren and Courtney had ended up coming in for part of the concert and both liked what they were there for it so yay! I think overall the con introduced a lot of people to the band and I talked to a lot of newborn fans, educating them about the band.
After that we went back to the room and were goofballs. I ate ramen and took a shower and gave up on going back to the con. I was going to carry my dolls around but discovered I could barely walk at that point. So instead I just played Dissidia for a while everyone else started passing out.
Saturday:
This time the covers all managed on my side but I swear I didn't pull them as they seemed to have just have fallen right off of me as well. ^^;; But it did seem like Courtney and I kept having this secret battle in our sleep or something. So anyways got up pretty early this time so I could change into Ciel and go to the NOIZ panel. Ren was my designated train holder while I wore that outfit and I definitely needed it. She helped me over to the panel area where the Japanese girls were sitting outside and they totally spazzed over my costume, being all "Ciel~! Kawaii!" ^_^ That made me really happy. So then snuck into the room as the previous panel was just ending. Once it did end, Talia, myself, and the girls we met at the concert promptly took over the front row. The nice thing about them coming to a small con is that there wasn't really that much of a battle to get front spots at this point. So the panel was, as expected, hilarious. The girl next to me asked them "What's up with all the nude photos on your blogs?" which they all laughed and Masato told us "Well when you're born, you're naked so your naked state is your natural state. Wearing clothes isn't natural." And during another question about their costumes, one of them (I forgot who, I think Masato again) remarked that they're wearing the costumes because Angel-Taka would yell at them if they showed up naked.
Someone asked what was the first thing they did when they arrived in the US. Kotaro: "Breathed Air." Masato: "Had a Cigarette." Angel-Taka: "Masturbated." And of course those that knew the Japanese word for that died upon hearing that before the Midori got to it. One guy in the front even keeled over in laughter and the band found that pretty funny and were all "oh oh he got it!" XP Poor poor Midori. She blushed so many times and just had this look of "...do I have to translate that?" so many times. Kyo: "*making rubbing motions with his hands* My DragonBalls!" XPXP Yamato: "You. Me. ...Ignition." ^^;;; God they're all so perverted. So of course after that the audience started getting a bit more courage in asking questions, one girl behind me asked what was their favorite type of hentai. Yamato likes the maid type and Kyo likes Night Shift Nurses and was amused when we all went "Ohhhh! *grins*" and he was all "Oh oh they like that one huh?"
My personal favorite part was when they were asked when they first started playing their instruments. Masato and Kotaro gave serious answers but Angel-Taka...well... "I was riding my bike one day when I saw a shooting star. I looked up and crashed my bike and fell into a lake. Then the god of the lake rose up and in one hand held a gold guitar, the other a silver guitar and asked me which one I wanted. I said I wanted the gold guitar but when he gave it to me, it disappeared. And so I was left with just my voice." XPXP So Kyo decided to play along with that and his answer was "I was riding my bike one night...smashing all the windows of the school with a baseball bat. Until the cops came and stopped me. One cop put a bass in my hand and told me I should play it instead of breaking windows." I was all "Oh how Takumi (from Nana) of you", lol.
They also agreed to add Battle Capsule and Double Kick to their playlist for the 2nd concert for us after people asked them about each of the songs. And I was a bit surprised to find out that their Battle Capsule costumes were actually made by them though they pretty much no longer exist as a result but I was all "aww that's so cool!" ^_^
After that I got Ren and Courtney to take photos of my Ciel costume in the hotel as there were a lot of spots that worked really well for the costume. Can't wait to get their photos. I only have one on my camera and its a little bit blurred but at least gives you an idea...
The costume got quite a bit of attention which made me pretty happy. ^_^ Wandered around the con in it for a bit and found Rosabella and co. though Bur was still getting into her Lucifer costume. Sat with them for a little bit and got this great photo here...
Because Raziel and Michael are total BFFs. Totally. XP
Didn't make it to any of the Kuroshitsuji shoots due to being too busy and sadly didn't really get to interact with any of the other Kuro cosplayers even though there quite a few. But there's always Otakon. There wasn't really much to do at this point so we just wandered back and forth a little. Then went to change again in preparation for the 2nd NOIZ concert but after taking off my gloves in the room, realized I had lost my blue ring. And being the silly person I am, got a bit upset over it. I don't know why. It's such a small item and didn't cost that much but I don't know for some reason I was really proud of having it and really liked the one I ended up with. Of course we totally couldn't find it (though later on Ren found part of it...but just the jewel part so still need to get a new one) so I had to force myself to change and rush over to the NOIZ line and try not to think about the damn ring. This time the security made sure to be a bit better at keeping the line in check and it actually made me feel really guilty about jumping in line with Talia and all of them and kept asking them if they'd rather I go to the back but they were all "you're one of us, don't worry about it" T_T. Thanks guys. Though this time people were a bit more determined to get closer I guess since they discovered they liked the band as a result of Friday or whatever. So I didn't get front row, ended up in 2nd and I figured that was probably for the best in case I wanted to head towards the back later on since I was already tired before I even got to the concert. But I soon discovered my spot wasn't that great as the girls around and behind me kept pushing me and my space got smaller and smaller throughout and it was really hot and sweaty and kinda...blah.
So in general the 2nd concert wasn't as good as the first. I mean there were some really nice girls to my right but the girls on my left were kinda violent and eventually managed to push me right out of my spot so I ended up 3rd or 4th by the end. Kept trying to push my way back up. I even got knocked over at one point in which Lynn (yes, lol one of the girls from Friday had the same name) pulled me up against the barricade for a little bit so I could get away from the pushing but of course I couldn't keep that spot for very long. Man, and I bet half of those girls didn't even know the band before Friday either. And the concert seemed shorter some how and I'm not sure why as it was about the same length of time but it seemed like they did less songs and they didn't do as many antics as they did the night before. I mean Angel-Taka still did his english speaking part and still did the "so horny" bit but no Pokemon this time. Though they did of course add in Battle Capsule and changed some other songs around which was cool. But the girls pushing me made me consider going towards the back...only for me to hear "Last Song!" and I was like, well might as well stay here. Even though I was kinda "..." as this one guy who was obviously some girl's bf was next to me and he kept just standing there awkwardly and I really don't like being that close to a guy in a concert so it kinda bothered me. Since he obviously wasn't really caring about the concert. And then this REALLY bad Yuna cosplayer forced her way up and like kept pushing up against the girls I had been talking to. The one girl was even smaller than me so I kept trying to push the Yuna girl back off of her. But dear lord she would not move! I even resorted to jamming my elbows against her back and kicked her shins a few times. Nothing! Didn't even react as if she felt it. And she kept leaning her arm on Lynn's shoulder and ugh she smelled bad. We were all really annoyed at her. We tried everything to get her to go away and didn't work. T_T
Though one nice thing about the 2nd concert was that during the encore, several girls yelled jokingly "Take it off" which started a chant and Angel-Taka was all "??" and looked over for a translation and the one guy makes a "taking-shirt-off" motion and Angel-Taka is all "Ohhh! *turns to audience* Really?!" Audience: *screams* Him: "Okie!" And then the band started doing this silly little music thing as Masato and Angel-Taka took of their shirts. XP Made a lot of girls happy I'm sure. And then at the end Talia and I decided to stick around a little bit longer and so were there for when the staff picked up things that had fallen around and hand them out. Stupid Yuna girl kept trying to get in our way for it though. >>; I was handed two feathers that fell off of Angel-Taka's wings which I thought was a cool thing to have though I gave one to this other girl who had wanted them too. I put it in my CD case so I wouldn't forget what it is. XP
So headed off, changed into Schuldig while Courtney got into Farf and Ren had already gone to the Cosplay line. Now AZ had an interesting way of doing it. In order to prevent people from spending hours in line, you go and get a sticker on your badge that has a number and the later in the day, the higher the number and then when you get in line an hour before the Cosplay, they put you under sections by that number. Ren really wanted to go so she got us all in the 7 group which was actually pretty high up in the line considering how long the line ended up being in the end. And we Picto-chatted a bit while in line and had several fangirls spazz over the fact we were doing Weiss cosplay. (Ren made fun of my expression when the one fangirl glomped me without warning. Guess I looked pretty disgusted. lol) Though of course the epic moment was when Ren was all "Oh hey there's a Kuja cosplayer!" and Courtney and I both turn, getting all excited, only to see that outside through the window was a not-so-great-Kuja who just at that moment opened his mouth to reveal REALLY bad teeth. Ren claims Courtney and I both had equal looks of horror on our face and all 3 of us went "AHHHHH!!!!" and turned our heads away in like perfect sync. ...And then we died laughing and hoped that the guy didn't notice us do that. XP I'm not even sure why we found it so hilarious but we were laughing so hard...it hurt. But anyways...the Cosplay itself...sucked. Courtney and I spent most of playing Mario Kart and going "...why are we here?" and I passed my gun around for everyone to "shoot themselves" with. And the people behind us asked for us to please shoot them as it appeared they felt the same. We were pretty mean with our comments but everyone around us seemed to be pretty amused by it. But yeah...it was just that bad.
I mean there were a few good skits but the problem with AZ is that they have a 2 minute time limit and its pretty hard to make something good in that time range. So most of the good ones got cut off. But it was sad as like you could tell they all only had a few seconds left. I think they could've given a little leadway there. The Weiss girls I saw on Friday did a cute little skit that involved Yohji sneaking around the stage to the Mission Impossible music. And then there was a Zelda bachelor skit where Zelda had to chose between 3 different versions of Link. One being 8-bit Link represented by a box with the 8-bit figure on it. XP And then at the end (though they got cut off so they had to do it without sound) the box opened up to reveal Snake who then picked Zelda up and ran off. XP Which was pretty great.
So after sitting through that painful experience, we ran out and took some photos while we waited tostalk find the Weiss peeps after they got out. Though Courtney and I were unable to pose seriously for very long, unable to take oursevles seriously. Thus resulted in A LOT of really cracky shots though they are all on the other cameras of course. And at one point Farf did the Hare+Guu dance which I wish we had gotten video of as it was pretty amazing. XP
Why do we always end up posing on stairs/against a wall? XP And oh god we were so bright. Ren was able to spot us from quite a distance when we met her up in the Cosplay line.
But yeah, good times. I always enjoy cosplaying Schu and Courtney and I are a pretty dorky combination. We couldn't remember the poses of the white image we were cosplaying from so instead we started imitating Weiss' various poses. ("Hey look, I'm Aya!") I think when the Weiss girls finally did come out...I think we scared them a bit as we were both being such retards by then. We did a fighting pose with them and I'm all "...this isn't familiar. Not at all." As it was pretty much exactly like the one we did at AUSA just with a lot less members. lol And the Yohji kept having a hard time not cracking up 'cause I kept giving her this really cocky look I guess as she was all "Very cocky there, nice XP". We didn't get many photos with them as they were off to eat but they were still pretty nice. Then we took some more night photos outside that I can't wait to see as some of them are pretty epic. (Schwarz supports Marriot XP).
There wasn't much to do at this point though and we were all pretty tired so back to the room we went for showering and packing. And oh man the soda machine on our floor was so lame! It was credit card only! O_o; And it wouldn't even let you combine them like I hoped when I went to get some for everyone so now I have all these individual $1.25 charges x_x;. Though on my way back I like freaked as I totally realized the hallway carpet had a houndstooth design. XP I of course reported this to Ren and Courtney who were like "...you are such a dork." It's a sign I tell you. A sign I need to do P4 soon as I keep seeing houndstooth wherever I go now. XP
Sunday:
This time the covers did not fall off the bed but they still somehow managed to fall down on Courtney so I kept trying to pull them back on her so she wouldn't accuse me of stealing them again. XP I knew I needed to get up early and all but really didn't want to. So reluctantly forced myself up, got into part of Ciel, packed up the car, got into the rest, and headed to Craftsmanship judging. Yeah I don't know why the hell they had it on Sunday. I didn't really want to wear Ciel on Sunday but whatever. And sadly instead of getting there an hour early so I could get an early number, I ended up there at the start and ended up being one of the last numbers. So was there for a good two hours approx. And it was weird 'cause instead of being in a room with just the judges...the judges were on a stage and each person went up on there turn and spoke in the microphone while everyone watched. O_O;; Good thing I'm not as nervous doing it as I used to be. Though by the time they go to me, they were running out of time so I had to rush what I was saying about the costume so I didn't get to quite say everything I wanted to and I'm not sure if they noticed everything. *sighs* And no I have no idea if I won anything or not. Probably won't know for a while though after hearing some things I have a feeling I didn't win anything. Which usually I don't care about but I'm a bit annoyed because the guy who won first Advanced won it for a costume he's been entering at like every single con I've been at and I think that's a bit rude to keep entering the same costume when you've won an award pretty much every single time for it. It's like you already know you're guaranteed to win and thus are preventing other people from having even a chance. I also was a bit surprised that they only had two categories. Novice and Advanced. No Masters. And Advanced just meant "has won an award".
So as soon as I was done I rushed down (well as fast as I could with someone holding my ruffle butt, lol, thank you so much Ren and Courtney!) and got in line for the photos and autographs for NOIZ. Except there was some confusion and ended up in the autograph line instead of the photo but Talia finally figured that out for me, called me and I rushed up to the smaller line before it ended. ^^;; The staffer at the door saw my riding crop and added "Don't whip the band members..." to the list of rules when I came up. ^^;; Dude I didn't even want to wear that outfit for it as I felt it was a bit too gothic for the band...but in the end it turned out to be a good thing and this is why...
I walk into the room and Midori and the Japanese girl also helping out were both all "O_O Wow Ciel! So good!" and when I told them I made the costume myself they were all impressed and then I go up to get my photo with the band, the band sees me and all at once go "KAWAII!!!" I was like "...woah, did not expect that..." ^^ So I was all shy after that and got my photo, turned to bow to them and then got in line for the autographs. Talked to the girls in line in front and behind me. There were these young FFX-2 cosplayers that were pretty cute and I explained stuff about the band to them and they were nice enough to tie my shoe when it came undone as I was all "...crap, can't bend down...x_x;" And one of the girls behind me knew my LJ name which kinda creeped me out a little considering she only asked me 'cause I mentioned knowing Ren (NOIZ-crazy Ren, not Renny-Ren) and she knew Ren too. But I've never been on Ren's LJ so I'm like "so how do you know it? o_o;;" and I mean I've been out of the J-Rock scene for years and so had that girl. But meh it is a small world in geekdom so I'm not going to think too hard on it.
So went into the room after a very long wait (once it started it went fast but it took them forever to get set up). Go in and this time I get greeted by Kyo with a "Ciel-kun~! ^_^" so I guess he at least knew Kuroshitsuji which I didn't expect at all. lol And Midori told him I made it and he lifted up his cape and was all "This too! Handmade! ^_^" And Yamato was listening in and was all "Oooh" XP And I kept getting equal nods from the band except for Kotaro as he was too busy trying to catch up on the autographs so he barely even looked up. He was pretty spazzy the whole con, always sleepy and well kinda just reminded me of the generic cutesy J-Rock member. I mean he had like an almost identical persona to Teru from Versailles, it was kinda weird. Same spazzed out sleepy cute look. Made me miss Takeswiy. >>; But then got to Angel-Taka and Midori once again explained to him (since he didn't hear before) that I made the costume myself and he's all "SUGOI~~!!" ^____^ And he actually was shaking everyone's hands unlike the other members, taking a lot more time to sign things (thus the hold up of items in front of him, lol). But oh that made me so happy. ^_^
And even though I already posted it on my LJ, I'm going to post my NOIZ photo again because I'm just that happy over it. XP
Left the area with Talia and went with her to meet up with Courtney since they both had to go. Said my goodbyes to them and then went with Ren to get her art show items which she won like dear lord half the show it looked like. Went back into the Dealer's Room, intending to go get the Ciel figure if there were any left (even if I wasn't quite happy about the price on it) but of course he was all sold out. So instead ended up buying the overpriced CLAMP 3D Fai figure as I figure I'll probably never find it for anything lower at this point as its getting harder to find. And to my surprise then found an Asch phone strap! They finally had something with Asch on it! (Though I'd still like it if they would make a figurine of him >>;) Feeling very very poor, escaped from the depths of the Dealer's Room before I was tempted to buy more. Kenya joined us for a while and took on the position of ruffle-butt holder. ^^; Though finally I decided to just take off the bustle and make it easier for everyone so I could hold my own train after that. And Ren wanted to leave soon so we went to the car and I changed out of that monstrosity and we went with Kenya and her mother and grandmother to eat at this Mexican chain place called Moe's which was really good and I wish they had them around here but they don't. Then after that we got back on the road and went back to Ren's and Ren's playlist decided to be weird and would play like 5 or 6 of her songs in a row (when before it was like one of my songs every other song) and then play like 4 NOIZ songs in a row. XP Silly thing.
So to sum up AZ: NOIZ, stairs, and ruffle-butt.
The rest of my photos are here: http://www.rosebride.com/lyn/az09.html And I swear I meant to take more this time...and I was off to a good start on Friday but then Saturday I just kinda forgot and got lazy with it. ^^;;
~Lyn
Thursday:
Went to Ren's house Wednesday afternoon and spent most of the night helping her on her Link costume. Then we started out for our epic drive around noon Thurs morning. Stopped at Ren's sister's house around Richmond on the way. Her sister lives like seriously in the middle of nowhere but her house is really really nice. She treated us to lunch which was so nice. ^^ Got back on the road and managed to successfully avoid traffic for the most part. Only ran into a little bit at one point and it wasn't even for very long. So we made really good time. I had put all my NOIZ mp3s on Ren's ITouch so rocked out to that in preparation for the con. We got to Raleigh sometime between 7 and 8, I don't remember exactly. And the GPS took us right through the ghettos on the way to the hotel. ^^; We were like "...um...is that a prostitute? O_O;" But we managed to get to the hotel safe and sound...and then Ren promptly died on the floor.
Luckily she managed to revive so I no longer had to question how I was going to get home on Sunday.
Then we waited for Talia and Courtney...who ended up somehow on the other side of the city. ^^;; So we had to direct them to the hotel and the poor hotel attendant who was helping us was just like "uh...they are coming right?" But eventually they got there and we went up to the room. It was nice having only 4 people. Very spacious though we somehow managed to take up most of that space with all our crap. Ren and Talia passed out pretty early while Courtney and I worked to finish her Mamiya and Farf. Why is it that every time I room with that girl I end up sewing her buttons on? XP But at least it was only 6 this time instead of...40. And we were only up til like 1:30am instead of...3am or whatever it was that one Otakon. lol
Friday:
So some time during the night Courtney totally almost shoved me right off the bed. LOL Woke up to her all sprawled up and me hanging on to the edge. Had to literally push her back a bit and she didn't even feel it. XP Anyways...took our time getting up and getting ready considering none of us had anything really to do until 1pm (when the Dealer's Room opened). I wore my Nihon Fai which I don't think a single person in the con center recognized. But hey it was comfy. We got our badges and were bawfled by how messed up the schedule booklet was. Like really. They stapled it together wrong so you had the days all on the wrong pages. x_x; And while I loved the new location for the con...boy was it confusing. We attempted to figure out the layout and we'd go up one flight of stairs and be all "...where the hell are we?" I mean there were stairs that just led to other stairs or hallways that contained nothing. And of course none of the escalators were turned on so we have thus named the con "Stair Con". So having nothing better to do, we went outside to take some photos and then went to eat at Chick-Fil-A...which for some reason was only open Mon-Fri until like 4pm each day. Yeaaah. So we were like "this is the only time we can eat there, might as well take advantage of it."
I thought this photo was cute ^^
This time I remembered to wear my fangs. Though I nearly forgot to put them on.
Lockon Piercing the Heavens XP
Wandered back into the con, Talia decided to go ahead and just sit outside the concert room even though it wasn't going to start til 7pm 'cause she's crazy like that. XP Ren and I wandered into the Artist Alley where she went ahead and started her crazy bidding on the Art Show and I had to resist the temptation to buy doll furniture (though if anyone has some at my next few cons I'm so getting some as I really need stuff). Went into the Dealer's Room once it finally opened. Much bigger than it was in the past and the only disappointments for me was the fact there weren't any Japanese manga dealers and that they didn't have any of the Dissidia or Kuroshitsuji figure boxes. Just a few out of the box that were really overpriced. Though we did luck out with our favorite dealer as they managed to have ALL the Lamento coin figures this time. Ren bought all the ones she wanted that she didn't already have. I only bought Rai as of course they're all expensive so I really couldn't afford more. Just hope they'll still have some at Otakon so I can get Leaks and Konoe. I also got my Crisis Core Cloud that was my main goal though I then found it for $5 less at another booth. -_-; *fails* I wanted to get Zack too but wasn't sure if I could afford it. Ended up not getting him, saving him for next time. Then blew the rest of my remaining cash on the NOIZ t-shirt and new single so I could get the autograph and photo tickets. It was so worth it though.
At some point I ran into a Yohji, Aya, and Omi from Weiss and was all "qphpppipephi! Are you wearing these tomorrow?" and they were all "oh yeah, tomorrow night" "Perfect!" 'cause Courtney and I planned to do Schwarz then. XP I swear every time I bring Schu I somehow find other Weiss people. Then Ren and I went back to the room to drop off our goodies and we all changed costumes. Ren into her Link and Courtney and I finally got to wear our Utena costumes together.
Pedo and Michael Jackson. *cough* I mean Mikage and Mamiya. >>;
Sadly I don't have any of the good photos on my camera but Ren got a lot on her camera and Courtney's. Our hotel was REALLY pretty so we had a lot of things to work with. After the photos we went back to the con and a few people actually recognized us! It made me very happy. ^^ Ran into Bur Loire and Rosabella in their Gurren Lagann costumes who promptly spazzed over our costumes. We were supposed to do Utena with them some point during the con but I don't think they ever managed to get into theirs. Oh well it was still fun hanging with them for a bit. Ren saw a Ganondorf up above us and stole Bur's Viral hatchet and went off to kill him since she was wearing Link and all. He saw her so remained up there while she waited for the elevator. Took her a while to get up there but it was pretty amusing to see her come around the corner, stab him, and then go back down. XP Then we went downstairs to the little food court area thing where we proceeded to be very mature *cough* individuals. Had some nachoes with Ren and they were both a bit weirded out by me when I proceeded to lick out the container of sour cream ("Deeper. Go Deeper." XP). Then while Courtney and Ren went back to the Artist Alley, I decided to check out how Talia was doing. A little bit of a line was finally starting to form behind her so I figured I should go change. Though on the way I first had someone stop me and go "Oh you never seen old school Gundam cosplay anymore these days!" "...I'm not Gundam. Utena." "...oh. Oh! Right, hahaha" -_-; This is not the first time that's happened. At AUSA I kept getting mistaken for Kira...I don't know why. But then that was made up by the fact that another guy came up to me and asked if I was Mikage and got uber excited 'cause he actually runs a seminar at a college called...you guessed it. Mikage Seminar. I was like "omg that is so dorky but awesome!" so we discussed the finer points of Utena and I probably would've talked more if I wasn't on my way to change.
So I put on my brand new NOIZ shirt and got in line with Talia and met some pretty awesome people in the line. Now AZ has never had a concert before and it showed. They had no idea how to properly do this as they didn't have tape or a sign or anything to organize the line so we kept having people trying to line up on the opposite side of where we were and we kept having to go over there and tell them that the line started HERE not there. And argued with several kids who debated that "there are no lines at AZ, you just walk in" >>. Um no. That's not how you do it for a concert when you have several obsessed fans who have been waiting here for hours. We actually had to pull over some staff and tell them to please help out on this. They did finally but it was still kinda messy as I think some people still did sneak in once the doors opened instead of getting in the line. Though either way our little group still managed to get center front against the barricade. The Japanese girls that were there actually didn't even want center front. They wanted the left side to be in front of Kyo and Masato which was fine by us as that gave us full reign of the center. And oh man I've never been that close to a band before as I got the center-center spot right in front of the little stage extension so every time a band member came on it to get closer they were directly in front of me. *_* Like in touching range.
To get an idea of how close I was, check out Sang's concert photos here: http://quadrain.com/Gallery2/v/events/animazement2009/?g2_page=4 As he was right in front of me when taking the photos. Talked to him a bit before the concert to him, explaining the band to him and whatnot.
http://quadrain.com/Gallery2/v/events/animazement2009/DSC_0108.jpg.html - And you can see me and Talia here. LOL I'm the one with my mouth open like the uber happy dork I was.
So the concert started on time which was kinda amazing as every concert I've been to at a con has always started late. lol And omg it was amazing! Seriously the best concert ever. They had such an amazing stage presense. And I can say that I approve of the two new members. I was a bit wary of them and I still miss the older ones. But Yamato and Kotaro were actually pretty cool. Though I tended to focus on Angel-Taka the majority of the time as he's always been my favorite. He even bought some angel wings from the Dealer's Room that he added to his costume which was a cute little addition even though most of the feathers had fallen off by the end of the concert. I also think this was the first concert ever where I actually managed to do quite a lot of headbanging. Usually I don't like doing that but it was hard not to with NOIZ as some of their songs just required it. XP Especially Ignition. Angel-Taka's english was pretty good when he spoke though of course he had cheat notes to help him. He of course was very perverted, telling us that he was "oh so horny!" and at one point was all "Do you like...Pokemon? This is my Pokemon! *points to crotch*" Kyo: "His favorite is Pikachu! XP" And another time he was all "Do you want to have my babies?!" And I was like "...uh, no...>>;;" lol. And of course the various girls screaming things out only encouraged him. XP "Sexy beam!" I expected that out of him though. What I didn't expect was how sexual Masato was being. He actually was rubbing his crotch in front of us at one point. ^^;;
But oh man they were all sooooo energetic! It was crazy! ^_^ And of course the highlight of the concert for me was Chromosome Six which we all rocked out to and danced to and most of the audience seemed to catch on to the moves rather quickly so it was A LOT of fun. Being in the front made it easier to do the moves too. And Angel-Taka reached his hand out to touch us several times though the first few times I wasn't able to reach him because of being short. -_- But eventually he moved his hand a bit lower and I was able to get it. And during I think it was Everything for My Love (my memory isn't always that great on what happens during what song) he kissed our hands. I was like *_*. Though at first when he opened his mouth we were like "...is he going to lick us? Uhh...do I really want to reach my hand out?" ^^; Oh man I didn't want the concert to ever end, it was that great. I was dead tired afterwards but oh so very very happy. Poor Talia managed to bruise her knee rather badly against the barrier though. Originally I had wanted to get back into costume after the costume but I was way too tired to do that. XP Ren and Courtney had ended up coming in for part of the concert and both liked what they were there for it so yay! I think overall the con introduced a lot of people to the band and I talked to a lot of newborn fans, educating them about the band.
After that we went back to the room and were goofballs. I ate ramen and took a shower and gave up on going back to the con. I was going to carry my dolls around but discovered I could barely walk at that point. So instead I just played Dissidia for a while everyone else started passing out.
Saturday:
This time the covers all managed on my side but I swear I didn't pull them as they seemed to have just have fallen right off of me as well. ^^;; But it did seem like Courtney and I kept having this secret battle in our sleep or something. So anyways got up pretty early this time so I could change into Ciel and go to the NOIZ panel. Ren was my designated train holder while I wore that outfit and I definitely needed it. She helped me over to the panel area where the Japanese girls were sitting outside and they totally spazzed over my costume, being all "Ciel~! Kawaii!" ^_^ That made me really happy. So then snuck into the room as the previous panel was just ending. Once it did end, Talia, myself, and the girls we met at the concert promptly took over the front row. The nice thing about them coming to a small con is that there wasn't really that much of a battle to get front spots at this point. So the panel was, as expected, hilarious. The girl next to me asked them "What's up with all the nude photos on your blogs?" which they all laughed and Masato told us "Well when you're born, you're naked so your naked state is your natural state. Wearing clothes isn't natural." And during another question about their costumes, one of them (I forgot who, I think Masato again) remarked that they're wearing the costumes because Angel-Taka would yell at them if they showed up naked.
Someone asked what was the first thing they did when they arrived in the US. Kotaro: "Breathed Air." Masato: "Had a Cigarette." Angel-Taka: "Masturbated." And of course those that knew the Japanese word for that died upon hearing that before the Midori got to it. One guy in the front even keeled over in laughter and the band found that pretty funny and were all "oh oh he got it!" XP Poor poor Midori. She blushed so many times and just had this look of "...do I have to translate that?" so many times. Kyo: "*making rubbing motions with his hands* My DragonBalls!" XPXP Yamato: "You. Me. ...Ignition." ^^;;; God they're all so perverted. So of course after that the audience started getting a bit more courage in asking questions, one girl behind me asked what was their favorite type of hentai. Yamato likes the maid type and Kyo likes Night Shift Nurses and was amused when we all went "Ohhhh! *grins*" and he was all "Oh oh they like that one huh?"
My personal favorite part was when they were asked when they first started playing their instruments. Masato and Kotaro gave serious answers but Angel-Taka...well... "I was riding my bike one day when I saw a shooting star. I looked up and crashed my bike and fell into a lake. Then the god of the lake rose up and in one hand held a gold guitar, the other a silver guitar and asked me which one I wanted. I said I wanted the gold guitar but when he gave it to me, it disappeared. And so I was left with just my voice." XPXP So Kyo decided to play along with that and his answer was "I was riding my bike one night...smashing all the windows of the school with a baseball bat. Until the cops came and stopped me. One cop put a bass in my hand and told me I should play it instead of breaking windows." I was all "Oh how Takumi (from Nana) of you", lol.
They also agreed to add Battle Capsule and Double Kick to their playlist for the 2nd concert for us after people asked them about each of the songs. And I was a bit surprised to find out that their Battle Capsule costumes were actually made by them though they pretty much no longer exist as a result but I was all "aww that's so cool!" ^_^
After that I got Ren and Courtney to take photos of my Ciel costume in the hotel as there were a lot of spots that worked really well for the costume. Can't wait to get their photos. I only have one on my camera and its a little bit blurred but at least gives you an idea...
The costume got quite a bit of attention which made me pretty happy. ^_^ Wandered around the con in it for a bit and found Rosabella and co. though Bur was still getting into her Lucifer costume. Sat with them for a little bit and got this great photo here...
Because Raziel and Michael are total BFFs. Totally. XP
Didn't make it to any of the Kuroshitsuji shoots due to being too busy and sadly didn't really get to interact with any of the other Kuro cosplayers even though there quite a few. But there's always Otakon. There wasn't really much to do at this point so we just wandered back and forth a little. Then went to change again in preparation for the 2nd NOIZ concert but after taking off my gloves in the room, realized I had lost my blue ring. And being the silly person I am, got a bit upset over it. I don't know why. It's such a small item and didn't cost that much but I don't know for some reason I was really proud of having it and really liked the one I ended up with. Of course we totally couldn't find it (though later on Ren found part of it...but just the jewel part so still need to get a new one) so I had to force myself to change and rush over to the NOIZ line and try not to think about the damn ring. This time the security made sure to be a bit better at keeping the line in check and it actually made me feel really guilty about jumping in line with Talia and all of them and kept asking them if they'd rather I go to the back but they were all "you're one of us, don't worry about it" T_T. Thanks guys. Though this time people were a bit more determined to get closer I guess since they discovered they liked the band as a result of Friday or whatever. So I didn't get front row, ended up in 2nd and I figured that was probably for the best in case I wanted to head towards the back later on since I was already tired before I even got to the concert. But I soon discovered my spot wasn't that great as the girls around and behind me kept pushing me and my space got smaller and smaller throughout and it was really hot and sweaty and kinda...blah.
So in general the 2nd concert wasn't as good as the first. I mean there were some really nice girls to my right but the girls on my left were kinda violent and eventually managed to push me right out of my spot so I ended up 3rd or 4th by the end. Kept trying to push my way back up. I even got knocked over at one point in which Lynn (yes, lol one of the girls from Friday had the same name) pulled me up against the barricade for a little bit so I could get away from the pushing but of course I couldn't keep that spot for very long. Man, and I bet half of those girls didn't even know the band before Friday either. And the concert seemed shorter some how and I'm not sure why as it was about the same length of time but it seemed like they did less songs and they didn't do as many antics as they did the night before. I mean Angel-Taka still did his english speaking part and still did the "so horny" bit but no Pokemon this time. Though they did of course add in Battle Capsule and changed some other songs around which was cool. But the girls pushing me made me consider going towards the back...only for me to hear "Last Song!" and I was like, well might as well stay here. Even though I was kinda "..." as this one guy who was obviously some girl's bf was next to me and he kept just standing there awkwardly and I really don't like being that close to a guy in a concert so it kinda bothered me. Since he obviously wasn't really caring about the concert. And then this REALLY bad Yuna cosplayer forced her way up and like kept pushing up against the girls I had been talking to. The one girl was even smaller than me so I kept trying to push the Yuna girl back off of her. But dear lord she would not move! I even resorted to jamming my elbows against her back and kicked her shins a few times. Nothing! Didn't even react as if she felt it. And she kept leaning her arm on Lynn's shoulder and ugh she smelled bad. We were all really annoyed at her. We tried everything to get her to go away and didn't work. T_T
Though one nice thing about the 2nd concert was that during the encore, several girls yelled jokingly "Take it off" which started a chant and Angel-Taka was all "??" and looked over for a translation and the one guy makes a "taking-shirt-off" motion and Angel-Taka is all "Ohhh! *turns to audience* Really?!" Audience: *screams* Him: "Okie!" And then the band started doing this silly little music thing as Masato and Angel-Taka took of their shirts. XP Made a lot of girls happy I'm sure. And then at the end Talia and I decided to stick around a little bit longer and so were there for when the staff picked up things that had fallen around and hand them out. Stupid Yuna girl kept trying to get in our way for it though. >>; I was handed two feathers that fell off of Angel-Taka's wings which I thought was a cool thing to have though I gave one to this other girl who had wanted them too. I put it in my CD case so I wouldn't forget what it is. XP
So headed off, changed into Schuldig while Courtney got into Farf and Ren had already gone to the Cosplay line. Now AZ had an interesting way of doing it. In order to prevent people from spending hours in line, you go and get a sticker on your badge that has a number and the later in the day, the higher the number and then when you get in line an hour before the Cosplay, they put you under sections by that number. Ren really wanted to go so she got us all in the 7 group which was actually pretty high up in the line considering how long the line ended up being in the end. And we Picto-chatted a bit while in line and had several fangirls spazz over the fact we were doing Weiss cosplay. (Ren made fun of my expression when the one fangirl glomped me without warning. Guess I looked pretty disgusted. lol) Though of course the epic moment was when Ren was all "Oh hey there's a Kuja cosplayer!" and Courtney and I both turn, getting all excited, only to see that outside through the window was a not-so-great-Kuja who just at that moment opened his mouth to reveal REALLY bad teeth. Ren claims Courtney and I both had equal looks of horror on our face and all 3 of us went "AHHHHH!!!!" and turned our heads away in like perfect sync. ...And then we died laughing and hoped that the guy didn't notice us do that. XP I'm not even sure why we found it so hilarious but we were laughing so hard...it hurt. But anyways...the Cosplay itself...sucked. Courtney and I spent most of playing Mario Kart and going "...why are we here?" and I passed my gun around for everyone to "shoot themselves" with. And the people behind us asked for us to please shoot them as it appeared they felt the same. We were pretty mean with our comments but everyone around us seemed to be pretty amused by it. But yeah...it was just that bad.
I mean there were a few good skits but the problem with AZ is that they have a 2 minute time limit and its pretty hard to make something good in that time range. So most of the good ones got cut off. But it was sad as like you could tell they all only had a few seconds left. I think they could've given a little leadway there. The Weiss girls I saw on Friday did a cute little skit that involved Yohji sneaking around the stage to the Mission Impossible music. And then there was a Zelda bachelor skit where Zelda had to chose between 3 different versions of Link. One being 8-bit Link represented by a box with the 8-bit figure on it. XP And then at the end (though they got cut off so they had to do it without sound) the box opened up to reveal Snake who then picked Zelda up and ran off. XP Which was pretty great.
So after sitting through that painful experience, we ran out and took some photos while we waited to
Why do we always end up posing on stairs/against a wall? XP And oh god we were so bright. Ren was able to spot us from quite a distance when we met her up in the Cosplay line.
But yeah, good times. I always enjoy cosplaying Schu and Courtney and I are a pretty dorky combination. We couldn't remember the poses of the white image we were cosplaying from so instead we started imitating Weiss' various poses. ("Hey look, I'm Aya!") I think when the Weiss girls finally did come out...I think we scared them a bit as we were both being such retards by then. We did a fighting pose with them and I'm all "...this isn't familiar. Not at all." As it was pretty much exactly like the one we did at AUSA just with a lot less members. lol And the Yohji kept having a hard time not cracking up 'cause I kept giving her this really cocky look I guess as she was all "Very cocky there, nice XP". We didn't get many photos with them as they were off to eat but they were still pretty nice. Then we took some more night photos outside that I can't wait to see as some of them are pretty epic. (Schwarz supports Marriot XP).
There wasn't much to do at this point though and we were all pretty tired so back to the room we went for showering and packing. And oh man the soda machine on our floor was so lame! It was credit card only! O_o; And it wouldn't even let you combine them like I hoped when I went to get some for everyone so now I have all these individual $1.25 charges x_x;. Though on my way back I like freaked as I totally realized the hallway carpet had a houndstooth design. XP I of course reported this to Ren and Courtney who were like "...you are such a dork." It's a sign I tell you. A sign I need to do P4 soon as I keep seeing houndstooth wherever I go now. XP
Sunday:
This time the covers did not fall off the bed but they still somehow managed to fall down on Courtney so I kept trying to pull them back on her so she wouldn't accuse me of stealing them again. XP I knew I needed to get up early and all but really didn't want to. So reluctantly forced myself up, got into part of Ciel, packed up the car, got into the rest, and headed to Craftsmanship judging. Yeah I don't know why the hell they had it on Sunday. I didn't really want to wear Ciel on Sunday but whatever. And sadly instead of getting there an hour early so I could get an early number, I ended up there at the start and ended up being one of the last numbers. So was there for a good two hours approx. And it was weird 'cause instead of being in a room with just the judges...the judges were on a stage and each person went up on there turn and spoke in the microphone while everyone watched. O_O;; Good thing I'm not as nervous doing it as I used to be. Though by the time they go to me, they were running out of time so I had to rush what I was saying about the costume so I didn't get to quite say everything I wanted to and I'm not sure if they noticed everything. *sighs* And no I have no idea if I won anything or not. Probably won't know for a while though after hearing some things I have a feeling I didn't win anything. Which usually I don't care about but I'm a bit annoyed because the guy who won first Advanced won it for a costume he's been entering at like every single con I've been at and I think that's a bit rude to keep entering the same costume when you've won an award pretty much every single time for it. It's like you already know you're guaranteed to win and thus are preventing other people from having even a chance. I also was a bit surprised that they only had two categories. Novice and Advanced. No Masters. And Advanced just meant "has won an award".
So as soon as I was done I rushed down (well as fast as I could with someone holding my ruffle butt, lol, thank you so much Ren and Courtney!) and got in line for the photos and autographs for NOIZ. Except there was some confusion and ended up in the autograph line instead of the photo but Talia finally figured that out for me, called me and I rushed up to the smaller line before it ended. ^^;; The staffer at the door saw my riding crop and added "Don't whip the band members..." to the list of rules when I came up. ^^;; Dude I didn't even want to wear that outfit for it as I felt it was a bit too gothic for the band...but in the end it turned out to be a good thing and this is why...
I walk into the room and Midori and the Japanese girl also helping out were both all "O_O Wow Ciel! So good!" and when I told them I made the costume myself they were all impressed and then I go up to get my photo with the band, the band sees me and all at once go "KAWAII!!!" I was like "...woah, did not expect that..." ^^ So I was all shy after that and got my photo, turned to bow to them and then got in line for the autographs. Talked to the girls in line in front and behind me. There were these young FFX-2 cosplayers that were pretty cute and I explained stuff about the band to them and they were nice enough to tie my shoe when it came undone as I was all "...crap, can't bend down...x_x;" And one of the girls behind me knew my LJ name which kinda creeped me out a little considering she only asked me 'cause I mentioned knowing Ren (NOIZ-crazy Ren, not Renny-Ren) and she knew Ren too. But I've never been on Ren's LJ so I'm like "so how do you know it? o_o;;" and I mean I've been out of the J-Rock scene for years and so had that girl. But meh it is a small world in geekdom so I'm not going to think too hard on it.
So went into the room after a very long wait (once it started it went fast but it took them forever to get set up). Go in and this time I get greeted by Kyo with a "Ciel-kun~! ^_^" so I guess he at least knew Kuroshitsuji which I didn't expect at all. lol And Midori told him I made it and he lifted up his cape and was all "This too! Handmade! ^_^" And Yamato was listening in and was all "Oooh" XP And I kept getting equal nods from the band except for Kotaro as he was too busy trying to catch up on the autographs so he barely even looked up. He was pretty spazzy the whole con, always sleepy and well kinda just reminded me of the generic cutesy J-Rock member. I mean he had like an almost identical persona to Teru from Versailles, it was kinda weird. Same spazzed out sleepy cute look. Made me miss Takeswiy. >>; But then got to Angel-Taka and Midori once again explained to him (since he didn't hear before) that I made the costume myself and he's all "SUGOI~~!!" ^____^ And he actually was shaking everyone's hands unlike the other members, taking a lot more time to sign things (thus the hold up of items in front of him, lol). But oh that made me so happy. ^_^
And even though I already posted it on my LJ, I'm going to post my NOIZ photo again because I'm just that happy over it. XP
Left the area with Talia and went with her to meet up with Courtney since they both had to go. Said my goodbyes to them and then went with Ren to get her art show items which she won like dear lord half the show it looked like. Went back into the Dealer's Room, intending to go get the Ciel figure if there were any left (even if I wasn't quite happy about the price on it) but of course he was all sold out. So instead ended up buying the overpriced CLAMP 3D Fai figure as I figure I'll probably never find it for anything lower at this point as its getting harder to find. And to my surprise then found an Asch phone strap! They finally had something with Asch on it! (Though I'd still like it if they would make a figurine of him >>;) Feeling very very poor, escaped from the depths of the Dealer's Room before I was tempted to buy more. Kenya joined us for a while and took on the position of ruffle-butt holder. ^^; Though finally I decided to just take off the bustle and make it easier for everyone so I could hold my own train after that. And Ren wanted to leave soon so we went to the car and I changed out of that monstrosity and we went with Kenya and her mother and grandmother to eat at this Mexican chain place called Moe's which was really good and I wish they had them around here but they don't. Then after that we got back on the road and went back to Ren's and Ren's playlist decided to be weird and would play like 5 or 6 of her songs in a row (when before it was like one of my songs every other song) and then play like 4 NOIZ songs in a row. XP Silly thing.
So to sum up AZ: NOIZ, stairs, and ruffle-butt.
The rest of my photos are here: http://www.rosebride.com/lyn/az09.html And I swear I meant to take more this time...and I was off to a good start on Friday but then Saturday I just kinda forgot and got lazy with it. ^^;;
~Lyn