Animazement 2010
Jun. 2nd, 2010 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rose_of_painIn my opinion AZ this year wasn't as good as last year's. Mostly due to some bad decisions on the con's part. They attempted a new system in order to make things better...but honestly I think it came out more disorganized and chaotic. I really hope they fix a lot of things by next year. Other than that and some rather stressful moments, con was good.
Thursday:
Went down to Ren's place Wednesday evening. Earned the name "Cat Whisperer". Ren: "Just to warn you, my cat hates pretty much everyone but me so you probably won't..." Cat: "Meow. *comes right up to me*" Ren: "...well that's new." And I proceeded to play and pet said kitty who is a very very pretty girl. Looks to me like she's got some calico in her but with the poofiest tail I've ever seen on a cat. It was more like a lemur's tail than a cat's. Ehh, I'm just good with cats. XD And they can usually tell if a person likes them or not and I think its just that Ren's sister and others who have come by before don't like cats. I'm sure if any other cat lover came by, she'd be just as loving.
Anyways, helped Ren work on her Kaito costume and had an interesting experience with her machine since she got the wrong needles by accident and so I had to creatively and carefully adjust the needle to make it work. Seriously not sure how the hell I got it to work but I did. ^^;;; We worked on the thing til like 2am, passed out, got up the next morning and headed out to NC. Trip was pretty uneventful. Learned that Ren gets eerily quiet when she's hungry. Kinda...scary. lol I was like "....um....k...are you ok?" as I'm used to her being hyperactive like she was last trip to con. Of course as soon as we got food in her, she was like a completely different person. O_o; Welp we got close to Raleigh around 1:30 only to find out Kenya was not even packed yet so we decided we might as well go to her place since we wouldn't be able to get into the room without her. So made a side trip to Greensboro and sat around while Kenya finished the touching bits to her amazing Paper Mario shadow box. I'm now realizing I should have gotten a photo of it myself as it was really cool. Kenya was kinda going around like a chicken with her head cut off due to lack of sleep and being really behind on stuff. She had Sherlock Holmes playing on in the background and we made it through the movie almost twice before she was finally ready to go. ^^;; But then we were finally ready and headed out, managing barely to avoid what looked like some rather potential heavy storms. Hell, we had amazing luck with that all weekend. Despite the fact it did storm here and there, we managed to never get caught in them. XD
We stopped to eat at Moe's and god I haven't gotten to eat there since last AZ as they just don't exist up here. T_T Got to the hotel room hmmm I want to say around 9? Delivered the Death the Kid coat to Jason and then proceeded to work more on Kaito. Well...mostly me working on Kaito as I seemed to be the only one able to work the satin stitch on Ren's machine. Ran out of thread though but luckily I managed to finish off both shoulder pieces. We asked Kenya's Mom to bring more thread to do the side pieces with but never actually ended up doing them in the end.
Friday:
Slept in for a little bit and read White Road while Kenya and Ren got breakfast. Got into Gil after Ren helped me style the wig (finally had it styled correctly! Huzzah! After how many times of wearing it? Pffft) and we headed out to the con while Kenya stayed to work more on her shadow box. Poor girl spent barely any time at the actual con but then again I don't think she really had much desire to as her main focus was her art show stuff. Got in "line" for pre-reg. There was only one girl waiting when I got there and she turns around and just stares at me and says "Wow. You're really pale." ...whut. I was just kinda like "Um, yes I am? Please stop starring. I'm not a vampire nor will I sparkle. -_-;" Ren got a pretty good laugh out of it though. >>; Then we just wandered for a bit, waiting for the Dealer's Room to open. Went up to the artist alley and upon getting on the escalator, spotted an Oz and Break further down on it, coming the same direction. This prompted a "Gil~" "Ozu~" session complete with outstretched hands. XD Pfft I love cosplay dork moments like that. So of course I waited at the top for them and they asked to take a photo with me. So I took this as my chance to be all "...do you mind if I do the seal pose with you?" because dammit I keep trying to get a photo of that every time I wear the costume and have an Oz around and we never do!
So I finally got it. XD ...though I look a little angry there for some odd reason O_o; Maybe its due to the rather large circles around my eyes there. Oops. You can so tell I'm sleep deprived in this.
Oddly enough myself and Heather (who wore Gil on Sat) were the only two Gils the whole con. Which is just odd 'cause Katsucon there was like a whole army of us and the last few cons my friends have been to have had a bunch, even at the really small ones. But hey I was quite content with this. Though I was surprised how much attention the costume got. I had quite a few squeeling fangirls come up. Luckily only a few glomped me and most of them at least asked first. Though this one tiny girl didn't seem to want to let go of me and kept running into me. I even told her flat out "Its a good thing you're cute or otherwise I'd be rather annoyed right now." XD I'm horrible, I know. (Or did that happen when I was in Len? Not sure...I got glomped/hugged a lot more this con than I'm used to...gah this is what I get for doing more popular chars for a change n_n;) The artist alley was nice but I didn't see anything that really popped out at me this year except for the two plushie tables. One girl had some really nice ones with several magnetized couples so that they could kiss. I was quite impressed with the Chrno and Rosette pair but really couldn't afford to spend as much as she was asking for them. Though I don't disagree with the price! They looked like they were worth it. And the other was a table of these two girls who had...surprise! a whole bunch of Pandora Hearts plushies and so all us PH folks ended up going to their table a lot throughout the weekend. Corey ended up buying Cheshire, Ren bought Gil, and I forget who bought Break. I'm not sure if they finished Alice there or not but I think the one Oz bought her if they did. XD
Then ran into Marika and her friends (who I can never remember the names of! I'm so sorry! I've talked to you guys how many times now and don't know your names? Derp x_x)
Sad Envy is sad. XD Marika as #23
Went downstairs to the tables and sat for a bit with them as we watched the mad rush of weaboos run to the opening of the Dealer's Room and decided we'd wait a bit before trying to go in. ^^;; Seriously, this system was so crazy. What they'd do is they had this PA system and they would announce on it when things opened and where lines would be for things and basically everyone mad dashes to the location. So for the Dealer's Room, they'd say on the PA "Dealer's Room Opens in...5...4..." and you'd just see all these people running to get there. ^^;;; Mad house I tell you.
Eventually found Corey and Jensen and wandered with them for a while. People recognized me as Gil instantly but tended to not realize Corey was Break due to her wearing his Pandora uniform instead of his main outfit. lulz After Corey bought Cheshire, she of course had to start chasing me around with it and thus the flailing began all over again. Though I did manage quite the spectacular roll at one point. XD Ren was like "OMG!" and the rest of us are "...you should have seen Lyn at AUSA". Seriously. That costume. I put it on and I'm falling all over the place and totally not intentionally. Usually just trying to get away from some damn cat plushie because everyone in my PH group is a sadist.
Time went by fast though and we all realized we had to go get changed into Kuro soon. So didn't even get a chance to go into the Dealer's Room. I mad rushed to change into Ciel as I realized it was cutting it close to Kazuhiko Inoue's panel. And of course I ended up getting there late but didn't realize they gave out the autograph tickets at the beginning. I for some reason thought they'd be given out at the end 'cause I remember that's how the one Otakon panel did it. But oh well. At least I got to see the panel though there weren't really any interesting questions asked. Most people just asked him things about Kakashi and asked him to say lines. Though it was really cute when he did a line as Natsume-sensei. I haven't seen that anime but it was pretty amusing to hear him do the cat voice. I wish I could have thought of something to ask about one of his other lesser known roles but meh really couldn't come up with anything. I had hoped that maybe I could get into the autograph line after the ticket people but they were doing it kinda oddly. Like they just told everyone without a ticket to get out and had those with tickets come up to the front of the room, row at a time. So I was like "...um....ok" because I thought they said on the site that if you didn't have a ticket you could try to get it after the rest but since they did it the same room, it was confusing and I didn't want to stick around only to be told I couldn't get one so I gave up. *shrug* He wasn't exactly my priority and really I didn't have anything good for him to sign as it was. At least I got to see him?
So after that Ren and I went to the Dealer's Room finally. Went to Anime Seikai and bought the Shiki military chibi figurine that I had planned to get. They didn't have regular Shiki or military Akira there so didn't buy any others. And well since I'm kinda low on money, didn't buy anything else at all. ^^; Ren bought several things and I had to take her out of there before she bought too much, lol. And oddly enough I never did go back in now that I write this. Had meant to on Sunday like I usually do at cons but had no chance to. Probably for the best so I wasn't tempted to buy anything else as I really did have like no money by the end of the con. All of it went towards food. A little sad as I would have liked the NOIZ photoset they were selling and people were getting signed. Wish they had stuff like that last year as its easier to display photos than it is a CD book.
Went to the Kuroshitsuji gathering after that and surprisingly enough there wasn't that many as there normally is for a Kuro gathering. Knew most of the people there too. But at least as a result it was a lot friendlier than past Kuro shoots have been. Def better than last AZ where I got ignored by almost all the Kuro cosplayers. Man Kuro cosplay is a silly silly world. Ciel cosplayers especially. Those of us who cosplay Ciel and actually like to talk to others and don't mind sharing Sebastians are a rarity I guess. But at this gathering there was no "MY SEBASTIAN MINE" going on which was nice as that really gets on my nerves. I mean really now. I have no intention of stealing your Sebastian just 'cause I'm dressed as Ciel. I don't care. lol And well at least this time I did have Sebastians to pose with so that was fun too. Though we did eventually get kicked out of our spot after we had Finnie hold the potted plant. ^^;; Oddly enough the lady didn't tell us to move because of the plant (even though we're all sure that's the real reason) but because we were a "fire hazard" which is kinda like "...what?" as we were out of the way, in a little alcove. It wasn't blocking anything and we weren't as big of a group as you'd expect. But we just moved like...5 feet over and it was fine. Pfft.
Then it was time for guest panel #2 which Corey wanted to attend as well so Ciel and Sebastian escaped from the shoot in order to go see Yamaguchi Kappei (yes, you may notice that I sometimes use the Japanese way of saying the names, sometimes not when it comes to guests, it all depends on how I'm used to saying it and what sounds better to me, I'm odd like that) and this time we both managed to get tickets. And barely! They only had like 4 left after I got mine. Though gotta say that it seemed not as organized as Kazuhiko's was. At Kazuhiko's they had staffers there to run up to people with a microphone. At Kappei's they didn't have that and there was less staffers helping in general so took them a bit to figure out how to do the question session by having people line up to ask at one microphone. Didn't stay too long for the actual panel since I had already seen his panel when he went to Otakon and it was mostly the same type of questions. Though someone did get him to sing which was cute (not sure of the song though) and we did decide to have Corey go up and ask him if he enjoyed being Cheshire in Pandora Hearts. He gave us a longer response than we expected. He said that the ironic thing about that role was that he had performed in a stage show version of Alice in Wonderland as the Cheshire Cat and then months later was asked to do Cheshire in PH. He enjoyed the role but felt it was a shame that Cheshire's fate ended the way it did. D'aw. A few questions after that I decided I should prolly go and then Corey decided to join me. We went back downstairs where Jensen and Utai still were and I was pretty much ready to go get out of costume since once of my shoe bows got torn off and the costume wasn't cooperating anymore. Which I took as a sign that its about time to stop wearing it. But then Jezeroth showed up and we ended up talking. lol Of course he runs into me when the costume is falling apart. Pfft. But he still complimented me on it and I was sad to hear he didn't finish his after all as I was looking forward to it.
At some point either when I was talking to Jez or just hanging with the Kuro folks, Yamato and Angel-Taka walked by. And at first when I saw them at a distance, my first thought was all "Oh wow, those are really good NOIZ cosplayers" until they got closer and I was like "...duuuurrr." XD In my defense I hadn't actually seen good photos of their new costumes yet before then and Angel-Taka's kinda reminded me of one of his earlier costumes so that's what threw me off. XD But yeah, of course I was totally distracted and watched them instead of talk to whoever it was talking to me. And when they got to the badge check, the lady stopped them and they were so confused. XD She kept asking for their badges and Angel-Taka was like "???" as she kept pointing to his chest where a lanyard normally would be for a con-goer and he was like pointing to his chest like "huh?? what do you want from me?" til the staffers with them finally noticed that they had been stopped and ran back and were all "oh no no, they're the band!" ...lulz. It was amusing. After that, I finally went back to my room to change.
Got into jeans and my NOIZ shirt in preparation for the concert. Went out with Corey and Kenya to have a sub at Jimmy John's (or whatever it was called) first since I hadn't eaten yet and figured going to the concert on an empty stomach would be a bad idea. Then went straight over to the main events room, hoping the line wouldn't be too long since it was about an hour before the start and last year I stayed in line for several hours to get the spot I had. Got there and it was total confusion as there wasn't really a line. Just a small crowd of people and I was a bit sad that I didn't see any of the folks I hung out with in the lines last year. Still confused as I swore some of them said they'd be there this year but maybe I just was being a dumbass and not recognizing faces. Either way, kinda just stood around unsure of what to do when they suddenly announce on the PA system "NOIZ concert line up is at room 305" and everyone there is like "O_O! where is 305?" and they all mad run downstairs. Which was...insanely chaotic. But being slightly more aware of my surroundings, I managed to just calmly walk down there and get to the start of the line with about only 10 or less people ahead of me. Pfft. So see, running madly doesn't always get you places. As those girls were just running and being all "whereisit?!". And I bet you only a few of those girls knew the band before last year anyways. So yeah, the line system was just...crazy. And they didn't have actual barriers so they had the poor poor con staff people stand there with their arms outstretched as the barriers of the line. I felt so sorry for them. I talked to a few of them during the hour wait and was just like "...your arms must be so tired. I'm sorry." lol But at least it did keep anyone from butting in line as they were very strict about that.
...except it really did no good anyways! Because what they did once the line got to a certain length, was start up a 2nd line right next to the first one, and then a third. So I'm like "ok, well I guess they'll just have each line move individually when its time to go in." NOPE. They let all three lines go at once so people who got there way later still got a chance to get near the front. Pfft whut? And then they actually let us in about 30 minutes before the start which was nice as we didn't have to wait the full hour but man they need to figure out something better since the line was down a floor, that meant we had to go back up and so they tried to keep their people-barrier going to stop anyone from cutting and to go in order but dude once we got to a certain area, they were only on one side and so people who were just walking by were able to just walk right in. So yeah. That failed.
Despite all of that I still managed to get to the front row. Hahaha. XD And I didn't even run or anything. Pays to be small sometimes. Didn't get center this time but instead a little to the left so I was more on Masato and Kyo's side this time. But still had a pretty good clear view of Angel-Taka from where I was. Saw the Japanese girls from last year so stood next to them. Not sure if they remembered me or not but I was just happy to see some familiar faces and be next to people who I knew would know all the dance moves and lyrics. Too bad they don't speak like a word of English and I speak very little Japanese. lol Last year I at least had Talia to talk to them. But as always, facial expressions and hand gestures seemed to work fine. XD While waiting for the concert to start, I once again saw Sang, coming to the front to do his usual photography business. I call him over and he's all "You again?!" and I'm all "...are you really that surprised?" "No, not really. Should have known you'd be front row again." So talked with him until the concert started. He didn't stay that long though due to having forgotten his earplugs and of course the sound...was like twice as loud as last year. n_n; I had been warned beforehand when Tohma mentioned that when they were rehearsing, everything in the artist alley started moving on the tables. ^^;;; And boy was it loud. Last year was loud but the normal loudness I expect for a concert but this was beyond that. I had a hard time telling what some of the songs were at first due to it.
Photo Sang must have snagged with me in it at the very beginning. I was purposely avoiding his camera before the concert started so I wouldn't be in a shot so thus why I assume this was when I was a little more focused on the stage than him. XD But at least I don't look like a retard here. The girl next to me with the Luffy boyfriend was also really nice. A new fan to them as a result of last year but not a retard like some of the other new fans. She was actually decent and a joy to talk to and dance with.
Concert was still amazing though! Loved the new costumes and so glad to see Angel-Taka back to being blonde again. They did a few new songs at the beginning which I hope will be available in the not so long future especially as there was a little bit of a dance to the one as demonstrated by the Japanese girls. They didn't do Chromosome Six which surprised me but they did do Battle Capsule and Ignition. I think I managed to keep up with the headbanging a little better this year than last year. XD My stamina must have gone up, lol. The whole band seemed a bit more crazy this time. Talked to Marika about it later and we suspect at least a few of them may have been drunk. Mainly Masato as he was definitely the craziest. Did a complete crowd surf jump and took off into the crowd. The poor security guy had a real hard time going after him. ^^;; He also threw the jacket of his outfit off the stage but luckily it managed to fall in the front and the fangirls were decent enough not to try to go after it as I've seen them try shit like that before at other concerts. Though what surprised me the most was the fact he kept licking girl's hands whenever they got close to him and I even caught him sucking on one girl's finger at one point. Luckily he only did this whenever he went to the other side of the stage as dude for a bit I was wondering if maybe I shouldn't have stood in front of him. ^^;; I love them dearly but licking/sucking is a little gross for me. And sweat. At least this time I only got dripped on once from Kyo's dreads as they weren't quite as crazy over the place this time.
I was sad they didn't do Everything for my Love as that was perhaps my highlight of all the songs they did last year but they did do one of their other "ballad"like songs and I'm totally blanking on which one it was now. ^^;;; lol I wanted to say A'I but now I'm not sure. Gaaah I can't remember which ones they did now. T_T; I know they did BBB and they did Thank you for the Music and another song that I forget for the encore. But yeah, duuur my memory is horrid on these things and I'm getting confused with what they did the year before. I spent a lot of the concert jumping and headbanging so it was mostly their more energetic songs. Like man I think I was even more active than last year as I certainly was sweating a lot. But it was fun and got to dance along side the Japanese girls and the other girl next to me who caught on pretty fast whenever we did stuff. Angel-Taka did come to my side a few times and it was kinda sad as I'm like trying to reach my hand out but my arm is so short and I wasn't willing to get up on the bar like some of the girls were doing >> (glad when the security finally told them to get down as that was making me nervous) but like he noticed me trying to reach out and he purposely reached down further in order to get this semi high-five with me which was awesome. XD And of course Angel-Taka did the Sexy Beam and I think my side won as we were much enthusiastic about it than the other. lol Though it did take a little of explaining to the girls around me to get them to get what was going on even after Angel-Taka had the rest of the band show them what they were supposed to do (which was hilarious btw XD Watching the rest of the band all mock faint.)
Once again didn't catch anything as the only problem with being front row is that everything goes over your head. ^^; But I did get a pin that was on the ground and I'm unsure of where it came from. 'Cause like at the end when they were throwing stuff out, Masato had what I thought was a guitar pick that he licked like crazy and all the girls were of course crazy to try to catch but it didn't go that far and landed in the front area and so of course they're all trying to reach for it but couldn't find it. And I thought one of the Japanese girls had gotten it as they were the only ones close enough to and I did see the one pick something up. So later I noticed they had this pin with their stuff so I thought maybe that was it but then after the concert I saw it on the floor and picked it up, went over to them to give it back to them, but they were like "oh no no" and through our limited means of communication I was able to understand that they left it on purpose for someone else and wanted me to keep it. So I have no idea if that was what Masato was licking or something else the band dropped or if the girls had it as a little promotion thing since I know they're friends with the band. Either way, I have a cool pin now. XD; (And kinda hoping its not what Masato had in his mouth T_T;;)
Though man, my hearing was totally shot at the end. Kinda sucked. Everything was muffled and it was really hard to hear people speaking unless they were right next to me. Also was insanely thirsty and went straight to a water station. Had like 4 cups of water and even had to throw the first cup out and take a new one as it started falling apart from all the water I kept putting in it. XD Then I made it back to the room and was just kinda like "....I can't hear anything T_T;" Last year my hearing was shot too but it only took like an hour or so to come back. This lasted the entire night. Which kinda made my decision for me that I wouldn't go to the 2nd concert because I just couldn't take dealing with that loss of hearing all over again.
Kenya's Mom and Grandmother arrived soon after I took a shower and had some time to recover which is good as I was worried they would show up when I was all sweaty and nasty and hey what a great impression that would have been. ^^;; Helped them into the room and originally I had planned to go back out to the con but everyone was tired and so all plans were canceled and we agreed to just relax. Corey and Jensen and Co. went back to the friend's house they were staying at and we stayed in the room. Which is good because then it started POURING down rain. Like crazy. Though amusing to hear all the screaming outside of con goers getting wet. XD The cable went out in the hotel several times and the lights flickered. But we were all nice and cozy in the room. lol Mostly just talked and got Ren to finish up the work she had left to do on Kaito while I ate ramen and decided not to do the rest of the satin stitching due to it being late, me being tired, and not wanting to hog the table space since Kenya's Mom had some work to do and needed the table. Then we all eventually passed out.
Saturday:
Had a really hard time sleeping due to it being kinda hot in the room so was already awake by the time the alarm went off. Hell I had considered a few times sleeping on the floor instead but didn't want Kenya thinking I was trying to get away from her. It was just really uncomfortable in the bed and probably would have been better and cooler on the floor. Oh well. At least I was up and pretty wide awake so didn't really matter much. Got into Glen and headed out right to the con due to having to attend the 9am cosplay meeting.
...which was pretty pointless. Got there and Jez showed up with coffee in hand, being all "...why are we even here? This is so pointless. This should be for the Masquerade folks only and they shouldn't need two meetings." 'Cause they already had one meeting on Friday as was. And they didn't even know what to do with us at first because the guy there was only in charge of the Masquerade and the Craftsmanship people weren't there yet so told us to just stand in the back. Eventually a staff woman did come with the forms for us to fill out and that was it. But really we could have done that on Sunday and it wouldn't have made much difference since they didn't even stick to the numbers they put on our forms or anything. But at least it didn't take too long and we could go on our merry way.
Then totally realized that even though I had grabbed my artbook for the Kappei autograph and had left my bag in the room to make it easier...I had totally forgotten my autograph ticket. ...oops. So had to go back to the room anyways to get that. But I still had plenty of time so it worked out alright. Got to the line and while waiting, saw an Alice cosplayer who I called out to in the creepiest Glen voice I could manage, "Hello Alice." and she turns and just stares at me with slight confusion. "...you don't know who I am do you?" "Um...hold on...I feel like I do..." "Oh, hold on, maybe this will help *drops cape off the one shoulder*" (I kept it up over both when I wasn't posing to make it easier to move in) "OHHHHH!!!!" pffft. XD Funny how little details like that can make a difference. Eventually Corey showed up and got in line with me and with her in Jack, people started recognizing me a bit more. lol Anyways, once the time came, the line moved pretty quickly and we both had Kappei sign the Cheshire pages of our artbooks (Corey had the anime and I had the manga one) and he was all "Ah, Cheshire! ^.^" which was really cute. I didn't have my camera on me to get a photo sadly though.
After that I went back to my room to drop off the artbook so I didn't have to carry it around and went back to the con for epic PH fun.
So here's Glen in all his full glory XD Pretty happy how it came out actually
We still had some time before the PH shoot so we sat around for a while. I can't really sit that well in the coat due to the paint and not wanting to mess up the back fold thingies so I had to take it off while I sat. Though this at least prevented me from melting as the thing is rather hot with all its layers. Took a few photos of cosplayers with just the vest and shirt on and when I took a photo of a rather nice Hope from FFXIII, she later comes over to me and is all "Excuse me, sorry to ask but are you by any chance supposed to be Larsa from Final Fantasy XII?" ...to which Corey exploded in laughter and I was just like "...T_T Well...ok without the jacket on I can sorta see where you're coming from and ironically I almost cosplayed him but no, sorry ^^;;;" But yeah, we both got some interesting mistaken identities throughout the con. Corey was asked if she was from Hetalia, Le Chevalier D'Eon, and then mistaken for Schnizel from Geass. ^^;;
Then we went to eat at the deli right by our hotel as we were all getting kinda hungry at this point. They had some really good pizza but me being me, totally managed to knock my pizza right off the plate and onto the floor. ...T_T lol The entire place, normal non-con-goers included, were like "AWWWWW" and I was like "screw it, I'm too hungry to care" and picked it up, wiped off the bottom (at least it didn't land upside down) and proceeded to eat it, trying my best not to think about it. ^^;;;; Though all the people around me agreed "Five second rule!" ^^; Lunch in general was fun. Everyone (except me and yet I still got blamed for it anyways and I wasn't even in Gil this time!) kept trying to steal Sharon's cheesecake which resulted in many hits by her fan. Especially bad when you have two Jacks. Corey went to the bathroom in our hotel and came back and reported that we had to go over there to take photos...so we went over there and discovered...
lol "Thrones" XD ...yeah I know, they're shoe shine stations but we can pretend >>; Ren got some more of this on her camera but not sure when she'll have her photos up. *waiting impatiently* This one and the next one are from Kazu
...and this is why having two Jacks suck. n_n; And even though the photo was my idea, it was kinda painful. lol
After we were done fooling around there, we headed back to the con as it was getting close to the time of the PH shoot. And on our way back to the con, it had gotten a bit windy and thus I had MAJOR cape action going on which resulted in everyone going "nanananana...Bat-Glen!" which we of course had to repeat and there's video but its on Ren's camera. Got to the PH shoot and sadly there weren't as many of us as I had hoped. Considering how many PH people there have been at other cons recently. But we still had a decent little turn out and it was a lot of fun. We had two Ozs, our two Jacks, me as Glen, two Sharons (Bitter and Jensen), Will of the Abyss, one Alice, Gil (Heather), and an Echo. Sadly no Break despite having two Sharons which was sad as Corey has two Break cosplays. If we had planned it out better we could have thrown Ren in Break but didn't have the time to do so at that point.
But I had fun playing creeper towards Gil XD
After the PH shoot, decided I really should change into Len or else I'd never get a chance to wear him. So we split off ways and I think everyone else went to do Reborn then anyways. Went back to the room and got into Len. Sadly we had some major mishap with the wig. I was being cheap and so Ren offered to just use one of her wigs to style for me into Len. Unfortunately when she was styling it on the wighead, forgot about how much smaller wig heads tend to be and so ended up cutting it too short. I was a little put off by how it looked but I didn't want her to feel worse than she already did so tried to make the best of it. As this was a cosplay I did mostly to hang with her and all and I'd feel sad after all that work and not wearing it as it did end up being more work than I thought it'd be.
So we went out with me in Len and her in Kaito. Despite my fail wig and ghetto headphones (which kept falling off pfft Oh well, I tried) still seemed to get quite a bit of attention. Vocaloid fans...are scary. lol Like they would just come up to me and be all "Hi. *stare*" and I'm like "...um...do I know you?" "No, but you're Len. ^.^" and I'm like "...um...k...*moves away*" And once again with the lack of personal space with these people. n_n; We walked past the NOIZ 2nd concert room and I kinda just stood there peeking in, trying hard to resist the urge to go in but knowing I better not since I was in costume and didn't want to kill my hearing again (which had FINALLY come back fully not that long ago at this point). They were doing Everything for My Love at the time which made me all "Aw man!" since they didn't do it Fri night and made me realize they did in fact have a different set list. Oh well.
While wandering, we saw these two:
Seriously perhaps my favorite cosplay the whole con XD The Doug was amazing. If you went up and hugged him, he'd respond with "I just met you but I already love you"
Ran into Link who also happened to be cosplaying Len. lulz XD And he told us about the 7pm Vocaloid shoot which we decided why not and went to. ...I'm not sure if that was a good idea or not. lol Vocaloid people are scary. o_o I mean it was still fun and some of them were really nice but some of them were a bit crazy. This one Rin decided that I was her Len and wouldn't let go of me the whole shoot and was so hyperactive. She kept wanting to outdo Link and the other Rin with their poses, being all "we have to do something better!" and I'm like "...can we just pose normally? ^^;" And at one point Link lifted up his Rin and she wanted me to do the same and I'm like "eheh...no. I'm not strong enough O_o;"
Vocaloid shoot. Not as many as you'd expect but most likely 'cause the Masquerade was going on at this time.
Ren was the only Kaito there so she got a lot of love at least. Even though half the time it was us all posing to kill her. XD Though during one shot the Rin pulled me a bit too hard and I fell backwards against one of the steps and the edge went right into my lower back which HURT a lot. I still have a bruise from it. And here I am going "owowowowowowow" and she won't let go being all "Oh I'm sorry" and yet is making it worse and then my stupid mouthpiece breaks yet again so after that I was like "ok, I've had it, I have to get out of here" and it was getting late and Ren wanted to do evening shots with her camera so we figured we needed to leave anyways. Went back to the hotel and relaxed while Kenya got into Engineer 'cause Ren wanted to do a shoot of that costume. But then one of Kenya's contacts got stuck in her eye so we had a mini fiasco with that. Sucked too since I mean there was nothing Ren or I could do to help with that so kinda just sat there feeling useless as Kenya is hissing in pain trying to find it. She never did manage to get it out and had already thrown away the other one since she had trouble getting them in the first place but gave up eventually and ended up going out with just the one wonky contact in and so couldn't put her glasses on so was half blind and then of course her costume has goggles so we had to kinda lead her around. ^^;
Of course as soon as we finally get out and I get to finally snap the glowsticks in my armbands, Corey is calling me saying they're ready for me to get into Gil again. n_n But I wanted at least a few photos even though it was sadly too dark to get anything good and Ren's hands kept shaking so she couldn't get any non-blurred photos so this is all I have really...
Its still a cool shot. Just wish it didn't blur so much.
Sadly didn't get much chance to do shots since we were having issues with Ren's camera and mine was starting to run low on batteries. So I went back to the room to change.
Though I did take this photo in the room so I could at least show the glow-ness of the armbands which I am rather proud of how they came out. Just gotta fix up the rest of the costume...not sure if I'll have the money to get a new wig and headphones by Otakon but I'll try.
Changed into Gil and headed out to meet up with Corey. Corey and Bitter were in Break and Sharon...but had switched costumes so Break was in a dress and Sharon in the uniform. lulz Forgot to get a photo of them doing that though. Oh well I'm sure they have some. Hung around with them and Ria for a bit til Jensen and Utai showed up and we headed to the bar though as soon as I got there realized I had missed a call from Ren and I was trying to be so good about keeping the phone out so I could hear it 'cause neither Ren or Kenya had a key card on them and were going to call me when they were done eating so I could give them one as I had grabbed a 2nd key card for them when I went back to the room but they had already gone over to a restaurant by the time I had come out and we figured it'd be easier for me to find them later. So I went over to find them and we took some photos in the lobby which I'm grateful for as I really wanted a few shots of Gil with the seal mirror I made. And originally I was going to go back to the bar with Corey and them but thought about it and decided I'd probably have more fun hanging with Kenya and Ren, especially since I hadn't had too much time with them and I prefer quiet fun times over crazy ness which was more likely with the others considering there were all planning to get drunk and I don't really do stuff like that.
So we had some rather silly photo time as Ren was just playing around with her camera and me and Kenya kept doing derping poses. XD Can't wait for Ren to get those up as they were pretty damn amusing. Then we decided to go to the bar in our hotel which was practically deserted 'cause most people were drinking at the outside area but we were like "fuck that its hot out" and stayed in. And guess what guys? I actually ordered a drink. And finished it. lol I've ordered a drink before at a restaurant in college but wasn't able to finish it. So this was a first. ^^;; Got a mudslide and it was tasty though I was a little bit dizzy afterwards. Not tipsy dizzy but more I think a combination of lack of sleep and food combined with drinking as it was just a tired dizzy. Which made the decision that I should get back to the room and eat something before I pass out. But before that we got a few funny photos since after all I was in Gil...drinking. lulz Though we forgot to do the passed out at the table shot that I suggested. Oh well. XD The bartender lady that served us was really nice. She was asking us if we were going to this dance she heard about (we assumed she meant the rave) and we told her how we're too old for that and don't really want to be in a room with a bunch of smelly teenagers who don't bathe which started a whole conversation (mostly between her and Kenya lol) about the con and the difference between the younger folks and us older folk. Kinda explaining that not all of us are stupid kids. She was actually pretty interested in what we had to say and even called over one of the other bartenders who is making an independent film and so Kenya gave her his business card in case he ever needed help with artistic stuff for it. I sadly was like "...I'm not in the area so I can't really help T_T" as it was all Raleigh based which kinda sucks as she mostly called him over after hearing I do costume commissions and work in theater. Oh well. Though it has made me think maybe I should try making some sort of business card. I just have no idea what to even call my commission service. Pfft.
Anyways, we eventually headed out. Ren took off with my hat and as soon as she turned the corner, completely nose dived into the floor. The bartenders saw it before we did and went running over to her and we were like "oh dear...hope they don't think she was trying to run out without paying or anything" though turns out they were just concerned if she was ok and worried she may be drunk. Which was kinda funny as we kept being all "No, we swear she's not drunk! She only had one drink...she's just normally this way ^^;;" especially since Ren is just sitting there laughing. Then we went back to the room, I had ramen to stop myself from falling over and Ren passed out insanely fast. lol Kenya was trying to ask her a question at the time even. Then I packed up and meant to go to bed right after but then Kenya and I started talking and sharing old con stories, ex friends/gf stories, etc. and somehow got to talking about dolls (since we both brought ours but never took them out) and discovered we actually have a lot in common with storylines and whatnot. I wanted to talk more but we would have never gotten to sleep if we did. XD
Sunday:
We woke up really early at like 7am or so in order to drag ourselves up, finish packing, and take everything down to the cars so we'd get it done before the mad rush. Then relaxed in the room for a bit til it was time to head to the con. Got in Glen once again and on the way to the con, had a girl yell out to me "Come on Lelouch, the rebellion awaits!" ... So there's another one to add to the list of mistaken identities with this costume. Anyways, I went to the NOIZ panel which was sadly kinda empty due to it being so early on Sun when most people were probably packing up. But it was still a good time regardless. I missed the introductions but got there as soon as the questions started. And gotta say, I really liked the translator they had. Hadn't seen him before (as cons tend to use the same translators and all) but he was real professional about it and obviously Japanese himself. They had no mic to pass around but since it was a small room people were able to just shout out their questions and be heard well. And the translator was very good at making his own comments to help explain answers they gave that may have been confusing for Americans. So overall, very good job whoever you were.
The first question was actually from the band towards us, asking if the girls in the room were single or not. Pfft. One girl asked if she could touch Masato's stomach (since his costume had his midriff showing) and he got up and kneeled in front of her with his stomach thrust forward for her to do it. XD She was pretty nervous after he did that. And of course another girl asked to do the same and the translator was like "ok, no more" after that. One guy asked them what Sentai shows inspired them which I thought was a cool question even though I don't know any Sentai so had no idea what the ones they listed were. Another person asked where they got the ideas from their costumes and they said from hentai referring mostly to Yamato's tentacles on his outfit. XD And Kyo said they had some Final Fantasy going on pointing to his sleeves and saying "Yuna" and then Masato pointed to his top and said "Rikku". lol When asked for their ages, they all lied and made up young ages, claiming to be anywhere from 14 to 8 months. Pfft. Someone asked what space traveling is like and they said its very hard because their rocket is fueled by man power and they all started doing rowing gestures which was really cute.
They were asked what their first thoughts of America were:
Kotaro: I was surprised how sweet the chocolate was.
Yamato: I was surprised how hot it was.
Masato: I was surprised how blue the sky was.
Kyo: I was surprised how big the dog's bone was.
Angel-Taka: I was not surprised how sexy the people were.
One girl asked if they knew any foreign dances and if not if they would like to learn one. They said they didn't but said to please teach them and they all stood up and she taught them how to do the "washing machine" from the Selena movie. XD Which was very amusing to watch them do. Angel-Taka especially got really into it. And then another girl asked if they'd do the Sexy Beam and so Angel-Taka had the audience do it. XD So gotta say this was a more interactive panel even if the room wasn't packed like it was last year. Sadly I had to leave a little bit early so I could make it over to the craftsmanship contest before it started.
Got over there and Corey and Tohma were already in line and I found Ren and pulled her over. The whole event was kinda disorganized though. There were way too many entries this year. I think they should have cut them off at a certain point because as a result they were REALLY rushed as the con was being kinda strict on how much time they had so it was probably the most rushed judging I've ever gone through. So everyone was a little disgruntled over that but ehhh what can you do. After that we wanted food but realized we had like no time to go out to get any due to the winners being announced soon (and really the judges weren't given much time to make their decisions there), the art auction featuring Kenya's shadow box was starting right after that, and I also had my Chiho Saito autograph session. So we ended up giving in and buying the REALLY OVERPRICED food at the con center. Seriously. $8 for chicken tenders in a tiny little thing? I decided on the mini pizza 'cause that at least almost seemed like it could be worth it...though it got cold fast. I was a bit :/ about it just 'cause I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it and thus waste my money there but one of the Ozs from the PH shoot was over there, pondering on food so I offered that she could have part of my pizza so it wouldn't go to waste, which made her quite happy. lol So yeah Glen lured Oz away with pizza. XD The girl was cute though and eyes kinda lit up when I mentioned I also cosplay Cain so we had a nice little geek session over Count Cain which Corey kinda lulzed at us when she realized what we were going on about. Though time was short so we had to say bye to her. Ren and Corey went to see the winners and I went to the autograph line.
It was quite nice to be surrounded by other Utena fans in line. Had a few nice discussions and this one guy and I somehow ended up having a "we love Cloud" discussion. No idea how we got on that topic but once we discovered we both have a huge obsession with the character, we went on about it for quite a while. Ok this may sound really sad and dorky but most of my friends hate Cloud so I rarely get to talk to someone who actually likes him and doesn't roll their eyes at me for my obsession. ^^;; Then the doors opened and it wasn't a long wait at all since I had gotten in line early and it wasn't that long anyways being a Sunday and all. I had her sign my Japanese volume 1 of Utena. Squee. ^.^
She was very cute and small. ^^ Though I'm still sad I couldn't make it to any of her panels due to my schedule.
After that I went upstairs and caught Ren after the contest winners were announced. Ren only told me a few of the winners but I mostly agree with the ones she told me as they were the ones I guessed would most likely win. I wish I knew the whole list though as she couldn't remember the rest and they like never post hall winners after a con anymore. Then went to the art auction and watched Kenya's shadow box go up. Someone did bid a little over $100 on it, which was good and Kenya was happy about it but we were kinda hoping it'd go up higher. But none of the art really went that high this year and there didn't seem that much of it. I guess probably due to everyone being poor and whatnot. It's still a shame as that thing could have gone pretty high otherwise I think and it did at least get a lot of attention and she did win 1st place in the art contest they had going on that we didn't realize they were doing.
Once that was over, we found Jensen and everyone and kinda lounged for a bit. Ren wanted to see the AMVs revisited but Jensen's Dad was being a douche and demanding she get home by a certain hour and then Ren realized she'd gotten the time wrong for the AMVs anyways and they had already started so we might as well leave at that point anyways. Which was for the best as we barely managed to get Jensen home in time. Changed into regular clothes in the car, which I haven't done in a long time. lol Not since Ruthberg at that one AUSA I think and that I was able to mostly slide pants on under the skirt piece and all so was a lot easier than this. Granted no one was around and I did give Kenya and Ren some leg out the door. XDXD Ren wasn't paying attention though. Then we picked up Jensen's stuff, played a little car tetris and were off on the road. Ren really wanted Taco Bell because we had failed at finding one on the way down and had been craving it ever since. I kept my eyes peeled for it but was unable to find one and everyone was getting pretty damn hungry so we decided to pull over for the Arby's on the one sign as it was another one we were all ok on (finding a place we all agreed on was harder than you'd think lol) but then as we were getting on the road for it, we see over the one bridge a sign for Taco Bell...at the next exit and we're all "nooooo~!" so we figured out a way to turn around and get back on the road and were all determined to find that freaking Taco Bell. And we did! At first we couldn't find it but we did and much rejoicing was had. Especially since they gave me a 2nd taco I didn't order without making me pay for it. XD Hey I wasn't going to say anything. I was hungry and wasn't going to say no to free taco.
Dropped Jensen off at her house, said hello to her puppies and then headed off before I got eaten alive by the bugs in her driveway. Got to Ren's and pretty much died on the couch. Then went home Monday morning.
All my photos from con are located here: http://rosebride.com/lyn/az10.html
~Lyn
Thursday:
Went down to Ren's place Wednesday evening. Earned the name "Cat Whisperer". Ren: "Just to warn you, my cat hates pretty much everyone but me so you probably won't..." Cat: "Meow. *comes right up to me*" Ren: "...well that's new." And I proceeded to play and pet said kitty who is a very very pretty girl. Looks to me like she's got some calico in her but with the poofiest tail I've ever seen on a cat. It was more like a lemur's tail than a cat's. Ehh, I'm just good with cats. XD And they can usually tell if a person likes them or not and I think its just that Ren's sister and others who have come by before don't like cats. I'm sure if any other cat lover came by, she'd be just as loving.
Anyways, helped Ren work on her Kaito costume and had an interesting experience with her machine since she got the wrong needles by accident and so I had to creatively and carefully adjust the needle to make it work. Seriously not sure how the hell I got it to work but I did. ^^;;; We worked on the thing til like 2am, passed out, got up the next morning and headed out to NC. Trip was pretty uneventful. Learned that Ren gets eerily quiet when she's hungry. Kinda...scary. lol I was like "....um....k...are you ok?" as I'm used to her being hyperactive like she was last trip to con. Of course as soon as we got food in her, she was like a completely different person. O_o; Welp we got close to Raleigh around 1:30 only to find out Kenya was not even packed yet so we decided we might as well go to her place since we wouldn't be able to get into the room without her. So made a side trip to Greensboro and sat around while Kenya finished the touching bits to her amazing Paper Mario shadow box. I'm now realizing I should have gotten a photo of it myself as it was really cool. Kenya was kinda going around like a chicken with her head cut off due to lack of sleep and being really behind on stuff. She had Sherlock Holmes playing on in the background and we made it through the movie almost twice before she was finally ready to go. ^^;; But then we were finally ready and headed out, managing barely to avoid what looked like some rather potential heavy storms. Hell, we had amazing luck with that all weekend. Despite the fact it did storm here and there, we managed to never get caught in them. XD
We stopped to eat at Moe's and god I haven't gotten to eat there since last AZ as they just don't exist up here. T_T Got to the hotel room hmmm I want to say around 9? Delivered the Death the Kid coat to Jason and then proceeded to work more on Kaito. Well...mostly me working on Kaito as I seemed to be the only one able to work the satin stitch on Ren's machine. Ran out of thread though but luckily I managed to finish off both shoulder pieces. We asked Kenya's Mom to bring more thread to do the side pieces with but never actually ended up doing them in the end.
Friday:
Slept in for a little bit and read White Road while Kenya and Ren got breakfast. Got into Gil after Ren helped me style the wig (finally had it styled correctly! Huzzah! After how many times of wearing it? Pffft) and we headed out to the con while Kenya stayed to work more on her shadow box. Poor girl spent barely any time at the actual con but then again I don't think she really had much desire to as her main focus was her art show stuff. Got in "line" for pre-reg. There was only one girl waiting when I got there and she turns around and just stares at me and says "Wow. You're really pale." ...whut. I was just kinda like "Um, yes I am? Please stop starring. I'm not a vampire nor will I sparkle. -_-;" Ren got a pretty good laugh out of it though. >>; Then we just wandered for a bit, waiting for the Dealer's Room to open. Went up to the artist alley and upon getting on the escalator, spotted an Oz and Break further down on it, coming the same direction. This prompted a "Gil~" "Ozu~" session complete with outstretched hands. XD Pfft I love cosplay dork moments like that. So of course I waited at the top for them and they asked to take a photo with me. So I took this as my chance to be all "...do you mind if I do the seal pose with you?" because dammit I keep trying to get a photo of that every time I wear the costume and have an Oz around and we never do!
So I finally got it. XD ...though I look a little angry there for some odd reason O_o; Maybe its due to the rather large circles around my eyes there. Oops. You can so tell I'm sleep deprived in this.
Oddly enough myself and Heather (who wore Gil on Sat) were the only two Gils the whole con. Which is just odd 'cause Katsucon there was like a whole army of us and the last few cons my friends have been to have had a bunch, even at the really small ones. But hey I was quite content with this. Though I was surprised how much attention the costume got. I had quite a few squeeling fangirls come up. Luckily only a few glomped me and most of them at least asked first. Though this one tiny girl didn't seem to want to let go of me and kept running into me. I even told her flat out "Its a good thing you're cute or otherwise I'd be rather annoyed right now." XD I'm horrible, I know. (Or did that happen when I was in Len? Not sure...I got glomped/hugged a lot more this con than I'm used to...gah this is what I get for doing more popular chars for a change n_n;) The artist alley was nice but I didn't see anything that really popped out at me this year except for the two plushie tables. One girl had some really nice ones with several magnetized couples so that they could kiss. I was quite impressed with the Chrno and Rosette pair but really couldn't afford to spend as much as she was asking for them. Though I don't disagree with the price! They looked like they were worth it. And the other was a table of these two girls who had...surprise! a whole bunch of Pandora Hearts plushies and so all us PH folks ended up going to their table a lot throughout the weekend. Corey ended up buying Cheshire, Ren bought Gil, and I forget who bought Break. I'm not sure if they finished Alice there or not but I think the one Oz bought her if they did. XD
Then ran into Marika and her friends (who I can never remember the names of! I'm so sorry! I've talked to you guys how many times now and don't know your names? Derp x_x)
Sad Envy is sad. XD Marika as #23
Went downstairs to the tables and sat for a bit with them as we watched the mad rush of weaboos run to the opening of the Dealer's Room and decided we'd wait a bit before trying to go in. ^^;; Seriously, this system was so crazy. What they'd do is they had this PA system and they would announce on it when things opened and where lines would be for things and basically everyone mad dashes to the location. So for the Dealer's Room, they'd say on the PA "Dealer's Room Opens in...5...4..." and you'd just see all these people running to get there. ^^;;; Mad house I tell you.
Eventually found Corey and Jensen and wandered with them for a while. People recognized me as Gil instantly but tended to not realize Corey was Break due to her wearing his Pandora uniform instead of his main outfit. lulz After Corey bought Cheshire, she of course had to start chasing me around with it and thus the flailing began all over again. Though I did manage quite the spectacular roll at one point. XD Ren was like "OMG!" and the rest of us are "...you should have seen Lyn at AUSA". Seriously. That costume. I put it on and I'm falling all over the place and totally not intentionally. Usually just trying to get away from some damn cat plushie because everyone in my PH group is a sadist.
Time went by fast though and we all realized we had to go get changed into Kuro soon. So didn't even get a chance to go into the Dealer's Room. I mad rushed to change into Ciel as I realized it was cutting it close to Kazuhiko Inoue's panel. And of course I ended up getting there late but didn't realize they gave out the autograph tickets at the beginning. I for some reason thought they'd be given out at the end 'cause I remember that's how the one Otakon panel did it. But oh well. At least I got to see the panel though there weren't really any interesting questions asked. Most people just asked him things about Kakashi and asked him to say lines. Though it was really cute when he did a line as Natsume-sensei. I haven't seen that anime but it was pretty amusing to hear him do the cat voice. I wish I could have thought of something to ask about one of his other lesser known roles but meh really couldn't come up with anything. I had hoped that maybe I could get into the autograph line after the ticket people but they were doing it kinda oddly. Like they just told everyone without a ticket to get out and had those with tickets come up to the front of the room, row at a time. So I was like "...um....ok" because I thought they said on the site that if you didn't have a ticket you could try to get it after the rest but since they did it the same room, it was confusing and I didn't want to stick around only to be told I couldn't get one so I gave up. *shrug* He wasn't exactly my priority and really I didn't have anything good for him to sign as it was. At least I got to see him?
So after that Ren and I went to the Dealer's Room finally. Went to Anime Seikai and bought the Shiki military chibi figurine that I had planned to get. They didn't have regular Shiki or military Akira there so didn't buy any others. And well since I'm kinda low on money, didn't buy anything else at all. ^^; Ren bought several things and I had to take her out of there before she bought too much, lol. And oddly enough I never did go back in now that I write this. Had meant to on Sunday like I usually do at cons but had no chance to. Probably for the best so I wasn't tempted to buy anything else as I really did have like no money by the end of the con. All of it went towards food. A little sad as I would have liked the NOIZ photoset they were selling and people were getting signed. Wish they had stuff like that last year as its easier to display photos than it is a CD book.
Went to the Kuroshitsuji gathering after that and surprisingly enough there wasn't that many as there normally is for a Kuro gathering. Knew most of the people there too. But at least as a result it was a lot friendlier than past Kuro shoots have been. Def better than last AZ where I got ignored by almost all the Kuro cosplayers. Man Kuro cosplay is a silly silly world. Ciel cosplayers especially. Those of us who cosplay Ciel and actually like to talk to others and don't mind sharing Sebastians are a rarity I guess. But at this gathering there was no "MY SEBASTIAN MINE" going on which was nice as that really gets on my nerves. I mean really now. I have no intention of stealing your Sebastian just 'cause I'm dressed as Ciel. I don't care. lol And well at least this time I did have Sebastians to pose with so that was fun too. Though we did eventually get kicked out of our spot after we had Finnie hold the potted plant. ^^;; Oddly enough the lady didn't tell us to move because of the plant (even though we're all sure that's the real reason) but because we were a "fire hazard" which is kinda like "...what?" as we were out of the way, in a little alcove. It wasn't blocking anything and we weren't as big of a group as you'd expect. But we just moved like...5 feet over and it was fine. Pfft.
Then it was time for guest panel #2 which Corey wanted to attend as well so Ciel and Sebastian escaped from the shoot in order to go see Yamaguchi Kappei (yes, you may notice that I sometimes use the Japanese way of saying the names, sometimes not when it comes to guests, it all depends on how I'm used to saying it and what sounds better to me, I'm odd like that) and this time we both managed to get tickets. And barely! They only had like 4 left after I got mine. Though gotta say that it seemed not as organized as Kazuhiko's was. At Kazuhiko's they had staffers there to run up to people with a microphone. At Kappei's they didn't have that and there was less staffers helping in general so took them a bit to figure out how to do the question session by having people line up to ask at one microphone. Didn't stay too long for the actual panel since I had already seen his panel when he went to Otakon and it was mostly the same type of questions. Though someone did get him to sing which was cute (not sure of the song though) and we did decide to have Corey go up and ask him if he enjoyed being Cheshire in Pandora Hearts. He gave us a longer response than we expected. He said that the ironic thing about that role was that he had performed in a stage show version of Alice in Wonderland as the Cheshire Cat and then months later was asked to do Cheshire in PH. He enjoyed the role but felt it was a shame that Cheshire's fate ended the way it did. D'aw. A few questions after that I decided I should prolly go and then Corey decided to join me. We went back downstairs where Jensen and Utai still were and I was pretty much ready to go get out of costume since once of my shoe bows got torn off and the costume wasn't cooperating anymore. Which I took as a sign that its about time to stop wearing it. But then Jezeroth showed up and we ended up talking. lol Of course he runs into me when the costume is falling apart. Pfft. But he still complimented me on it and I was sad to hear he didn't finish his after all as I was looking forward to it.
At some point either when I was talking to Jez or just hanging with the Kuro folks, Yamato and Angel-Taka walked by. And at first when I saw them at a distance, my first thought was all "Oh wow, those are really good NOIZ cosplayers" until they got closer and I was like "...duuuurrr." XD In my defense I hadn't actually seen good photos of their new costumes yet before then and Angel-Taka's kinda reminded me of one of his earlier costumes so that's what threw me off. XD But yeah, of course I was totally distracted and watched them instead of talk to whoever it was talking to me. And when they got to the badge check, the lady stopped them and they were so confused. XD She kept asking for their badges and Angel-Taka was like "???" as she kept pointing to his chest where a lanyard normally would be for a con-goer and he was like pointing to his chest like "huh?? what do you want from me?" til the staffers with them finally noticed that they had been stopped and ran back and were all "oh no no, they're the band!" ...lulz. It was amusing. After that, I finally went back to my room to change.
Got into jeans and my NOIZ shirt in preparation for the concert. Went out with Corey and Kenya to have a sub at Jimmy John's (or whatever it was called) first since I hadn't eaten yet and figured going to the concert on an empty stomach would be a bad idea. Then went straight over to the main events room, hoping the line wouldn't be too long since it was about an hour before the start and last year I stayed in line for several hours to get the spot I had. Got there and it was total confusion as there wasn't really a line. Just a small crowd of people and I was a bit sad that I didn't see any of the folks I hung out with in the lines last year. Still confused as I swore some of them said they'd be there this year but maybe I just was being a dumbass and not recognizing faces. Either way, kinda just stood around unsure of what to do when they suddenly announce on the PA system "NOIZ concert line up is at room 305" and everyone there is like "O_O! where is 305?" and they all mad run downstairs. Which was...insanely chaotic. But being slightly more aware of my surroundings, I managed to just calmly walk down there and get to the start of the line with about only 10 or less people ahead of me. Pfft. So see, running madly doesn't always get you places. As those girls were just running and being all "whereisit?!". And I bet you only a few of those girls knew the band before last year anyways. So yeah, the line system was just...crazy. And they didn't have actual barriers so they had the poor poor con staff people stand there with their arms outstretched as the barriers of the line. I felt so sorry for them. I talked to a few of them during the hour wait and was just like "...your arms must be so tired. I'm sorry." lol But at least it did keep anyone from butting in line as they were very strict about that.
...except it really did no good anyways! Because what they did once the line got to a certain length, was start up a 2nd line right next to the first one, and then a third. So I'm like "ok, well I guess they'll just have each line move individually when its time to go in." NOPE. They let all three lines go at once so people who got there way later still got a chance to get near the front. Pfft whut? And then they actually let us in about 30 minutes before the start which was nice as we didn't have to wait the full hour but man they need to figure out something better since the line was down a floor, that meant we had to go back up and so they tried to keep their people-barrier going to stop anyone from cutting and to go in order but dude once we got to a certain area, they were only on one side and so people who were just walking by were able to just walk right in. So yeah. That failed.
Despite all of that I still managed to get to the front row. Hahaha. XD And I didn't even run or anything. Pays to be small sometimes. Didn't get center this time but instead a little to the left so I was more on Masato and Kyo's side this time. But still had a pretty good clear view of Angel-Taka from where I was. Saw the Japanese girls from last year so stood next to them. Not sure if they remembered me or not but I was just happy to see some familiar faces and be next to people who I knew would know all the dance moves and lyrics. Too bad they don't speak like a word of English and I speak very little Japanese. lol Last year I at least had Talia to talk to them. But as always, facial expressions and hand gestures seemed to work fine. XD While waiting for the concert to start, I once again saw Sang, coming to the front to do his usual photography business. I call him over and he's all "You again?!" and I'm all "...are you really that surprised?" "No, not really. Should have known you'd be front row again." So talked with him until the concert started. He didn't stay that long though due to having forgotten his earplugs and of course the sound...was like twice as loud as last year. n_n; I had been warned beforehand when Tohma mentioned that when they were rehearsing, everything in the artist alley started moving on the tables. ^^;;; And boy was it loud. Last year was loud but the normal loudness I expect for a concert but this was beyond that. I had a hard time telling what some of the songs were at first due to it.
Photo Sang must have snagged with me in it at the very beginning. I was purposely avoiding his camera before the concert started so I wouldn't be in a shot so thus why I assume this was when I was a little more focused on the stage than him. XD But at least I don't look like a retard here. The girl next to me with the Luffy boyfriend was also really nice. A new fan to them as a result of last year but not a retard like some of the other new fans. She was actually decent and a joy to talk to and dance with.
Concert was still amazing though! Loved the new costumes and so glad to see Angel-Taka back to being blonde again. They did a few new songs at the beginning which I hope will be available in the not so long future especially as there was a little bit of a dance to the one as demonstrated by the Japanese girls. They didn't do Chromosome Six which surprised me but they did do Battle Capsule and Ignition. I think I managed to keep up with the headbanging a little better this year than last year. XD My stamina must have gone up, lol. The whole band seemed a bit more crazy this time. Talked to Marika about it later and we suspect at least a few of them may have been drunk. Mainly Masato as he was definitely the craziest. Did a complete crowd surf jump and took off into the crowd. The poor security guy had a real hard time going after him. ^^;; He also threw the jacket of his outfit off the stage but luckily it managed to fall in the front and the fangirls were decent enough not to try to go after it as I've seen them try shit like that before at other concerts. Though what surprised me the most was the fact he kept licking girl's hands whenever they got close to him and I even caught him sucking on one girl's finger at one point. Luckily he only did this whenever he went to the other side of the stage as dude for a bit I was wondering if maybe I shouldn't have stood in front of him. ^^;; I love them dearly but licking/sucking is a little gross for me. And sweat. At least this time I only got dripped on once from Kyo's dreads as they weren't quite as crazy over the place this time.
I was sad they didn't do Everything for my Love as that was perhaps my highlight of all the songs they did last year but they did do one of their other "ballad"like songs and I'm totally blanking on which one it was now. ^^;;; lol I wanted to say A'I but now I'm not sure. Gaaah I can't remember which ones they did now. T_T; I know they did BBB and they did Thank you for the Music and another song that I forget for the encore. But yeah, duuur my memory is horrid on these things and I'm getting confused with what they did the year before. I spent a lot of the concert jumping and headbanging so it was mostly their more energetic songs. Like man I think I was even more active than last year as I certainly was sweating a lot. But it was fun and got to dance along side the Japanese girls and the other girl next to me who caught on pretty fast whenever we did stuff. Angel-Taka did come to my side a few times and it was kinda sad as I'm like trying to reach my hand out but my arm is so short and I wasn't willing to get up on the bar like some of the girls were doing >> (glad when the security finally told them to get down as that was making me nervous) but like he noticed me trying to reach out and he purposely reached down further in order to get this semi high-five with me which was awesome. XD And of course Angel-Taka did the Sexy Beam and I think my side won as we were much enthusiastic about it than the other. lol Though it did take a little of explaining to the girls around me to get them to get what was going on even after Angel-Taka had the rest of the band show them what they were supposed to do (which was hilarious btw XD Watching the rest of the band all mock faint.)
Once again didn't catch anything as the only problem with being front row is that everything goes over your head. ^^; But I did get a pin that was on the ground and I'm unsure of where it came from. 'Cause like at the end when they were throwing stuff out, Masato had what I thought was a guitar pick that he licked like crazy and all the girls were of course crazy to try to catch but it didn't go that far and landed in the front area and so of course they're all trying to reach for it but couldn't find it. And I thought one of the Japanese girls had gotten it as they were the only ones close enough to and I did see the one pick something up. So later I noticed they had this pin with their stuff so I thought maybe that was it but then after the concert I saw it on the floor and picked it up, went over to them to give it back to them, but they were like "oh no no" and through our limited means of communication I was able to understand that they left it on purpose for someone else and wanted me to keep it. So I have no idea if that was what Masato was licking or something else the band dropped or if the girls had it as a little promotion thing since I know they're friends with the band. Either way, I have a cool pin now. XD; (And kinda hoping its not what Masato had in his mouth T_T;;)
Though man, my hearing was totally shot at the end. Kinda sucked. Everything was muffled and it was really hard to hear people speaking unless they were right next to me. Also was insanely thirsty and went straight to a water station. Had like 4 cups of water and even had to throw the first cup out and take a new one as it started falling apart from all the water I kept putting in it. XD Then I made it back to the room and was just kinda like "....I can't hear anything T_T;" Last year my hearing was shot too but it only took like an hour or so to come back. This lasted the entire night. Which kinda made my decision for me that I wouldn't go to the 2nd concert because I just couldn't take dealing with that loss of hearing all over again.
Kenya's Mom and Grandmother arrived soon after I took a shower and had some time to recover which is good as I was worried they would show up when I was all sweaty and nasty and hey what a great impression that would have been. ^^;; Helped them into the room and originally I had planned to go back out to the con but everyone was tired and so all plans were canceled and we agreed to just relax. Corey and Jensen and Co. went back to the friend's house they were staying at and we stayed in the room. Which is good because then it started POURING down rain. Like crazy. Though amusing to hear all the screaming outside of con goers getting wet. XD The cable went out in the hotel several times and the lights flickered. But we were all nice and cozy in the room. lol Mostly just talked and got Ren to finish up the work she had left to do on Kaito while I ate ramen and decided not to do the rest of the satin stitching due to it being late, me being tired, and not wanting to hog the table space since Kenya's Mom had some work to do and needed the table. Then we all eventually passed out.
Saturday:
Had a really hard time sleeping due to it being kinda hot in the room so was already awake by the time the alarm went off. Hell I had considered a few times sleeping on the floor instead but didn't want Kenya thinking I was trying to get away from her. It was just really uncomfortable in the bed and probably would have been better and cooler on the floor. Oh well. At least I was up and pretty wide awake so didn't really matter much. Got into Glen and headed out right to the con due to having to attend the 9am cosplay meeting.
...which was pretty pointless. Got there and Jez showed up with coffee in hand, being all "...why are we even here? This is so pointless. This should be for the Masquerade folks only and they shouldn't need two meetings." 'Cause they already had one meeting on Friday as was. And they didn't even know what to do with us at first because the guy there was only in charge of the Masquerade and the Craftsmanship people weren't there yet so told us to just stand in the back. Eventually a staff woman did come with the forms for us to fill out and that was it. But really we could have done that on Sunday and it wouldn't have made much difference since they didn't even stick to the numbers they put on our forms or anything. But at least it didn't take too long and we could go on our merry way.
Then totally realized that even though I had grabbed my artbook for the Kappei autograph and had left my bag in the room to make it easier...I had totally forgotten my autograph ticket. ...oops. So had to go back to the room anyways to get that. But I still had plenty of time so it worked out alright. Got to the line and while waiting, saw an Alice cosplayer who I called out to in the creepiest Glen voice I could manage, "Hello Alice." and she turns and just stares at me with slight confusion. "...you don't know who I am do you?" "Um...hold on...I feel like I do..." "Oh, hold on, maybe this will help *drops cape off the one shoulder*" (I kept it up over both when I wasn't posing to make it easier to move in) "OHHHHH!!!!" pffft. XD Funny how little details like that can make a difference. Eventually Corey showed up and got in line with me and with her in Jack, people started recognizing me a bit more. lol Anyways, once the time came, the line moved pretty quickly and we both had Kappei sign the Cheshire pages of our artbooks (Corey had the anime and I had the manga one) and he was all "Ah, Cheshire! ^.^" which was really cute. I didn't have my camera on me to get a photo sadly though.
After that I went back to my room to drop off the artbook so I didn't have to carry it around and went back to the con for epic PH fun.
So here's Glen in all his full glory XD Pretty happy how it came out actually
We still had some time before the PH shoot so we sat around for a while. I can't really sit that well in the coat due to the paint and not wanting to mess up the back fold thingies so I had to take it off while I sat. Though this at least prevented me from melting as the thing is rather hot with all its layers. Took a few photos of cosplayers with just the vest and shirt on and when I took a photo of a rather nice Hope from FFXIII, she later comes over to me and is all "Excuse me, sorry to ask but are you by any chance supposed to be Larsa from Final Fantasy XII?" ...to which Corey exploded in laughter and I was just like "...T_T Well...ok without the jacket on I can sorta see where you're coming from and ironically I almost cosplayed him but no, sorry ^^;;;" But yeah, we both got some interesting mistaken identities throughout the con. Corey was asked if she was from Hetalia, Le Chevalier D'Eon, and then mistaken for Schnizel from Geass. ^^;;
Then we went to eat at the deli right by our hotel as we were all getting kinda hungry at this point. They had some really good pizza but me being me, totally managed to knock my pizza right off the plate and onto the floor. ...T_T lol The entire place, normal non-con-goers included, were like "AWWWWW" and I was like "screw it, I'm too hungry to care" and picked it up, wiped off the bottom (at least it didn't land upside down) and proceeded to eat it, trying my best not to think about it. ^^;;;; Though all the people around me agreed "Five second rule!" ^^; Lunch in general was fun. Everyone (except me and yet I still got blamed for it anyways and I wasn't even in Gil this time!) kept trying to steal Sharon's cheesecake which resulted in many hits by her fan. Especially bad when you have two Jacks. Corey went to the bathroom in our hotel and came back and reported that we had to go over there to take photos...so we went over there and discovered...
lol "Thrones" XD ...yeah I know, they're shoe shine stations but we can pretend >>; Ren got some more of this on her camera but not sure when she'll have her photos up. *waiting impatiently* This one and the next one are from Kazu
...and this is why having two Jacks suck. n_n; And even though the photo was my idea, it was kinda painful. lol
After we were done fooling around there, we headed back to the con as it was getting close to the time of the PH shoot. And on our way back to the con, it had gotten a bit windy and thus I had MAJOR cape action going on which resulted in everyone going "nanananana...Bat-Glen!" which we of course had to repeat and there's video but its on Ren's camera. Got to the PH shoot and sadly there weren't as many of us as I had hoped. Considering how many PH people there have been at other cons recently. But we still had a decent little turn out and it was a lot of fun. We had two Ozs, our two Jacks, me as Glen, two Sharons (Bitter and Jensen), Will of the Abyss, one Alice, Gil (Heather), and an Echo. Sadly no Break despite having two Sharons which was sad as Corey has two Break cosplays. If we had planned it out better we could have thrown Ren in Break but didn't have the time to do so at that point.
But I had fun playing creeper towards Gil XD
After the PH shoot, decided I really should change into Len or else I'd never get a chance to wear him. So we split off ways and I think everyone else went to do Reborn then anyways. Went back to the room and got into Len. Sadly we had some major mishap with the wig. I was being cheap and so Ren offered to just use one of her wigs to style for me into Len. Unfortunately when she was styling it on the wighead, forgot about how much smaller wig heads tend to be and so ended up cutting it too short. I was a little put off by how it looked but I didn't want her to feel worse than she already did so tried to make the best of it. As this was a cosplay I did mostly to hang with her and all and I'd feel sad after all that work and not wearing it as it did end up being more work than I thought it'd be.
So we went out with me in Len and her in Kaito. Despite my fail wig and ghetto headphones (which kept falling off pfft Oh well, I tried) still seemed to get quite a bit of attention. Vocaloid fans...are scary. lol Like they would just come up to me and be all "Hi. *stare*" and I'm like "...um...do I know you?" "No, but you're Len. ^.^" and I'm like "...um...k...*moves away*" And once again with the lack of personal space with these people. n_n; We walked past the NOIZ 2nd concert room and I kinda just stood there peeking in, trying hard to resist the urge to go in but knowing I better not since I was in costume and didn't want to kill my hearing again (which had FINALLY come back fully not that long ago at this point). They were doing Everything for My Love at the time which made me all "Aw man!" since they didn't do it Fri night and made me realize they did in fact have a different set list. Oh well.
While wandering, we saw these two:
Seriously perhaps my favorite cosplay the whole con XD The Doug was amazing. If you went up and hugged him, he'd respond with "I just met you but I already love you"
Ran into Link who also happened to be cosplaying Len. lulz XD And he told us about the 7pm Vocaloid shoot which we decided why not and went to. ...I'm not sure if that was a good idea or not. lol Vocaloid people are scary. o_o I mean it was still fun and some of them were really nice but some of them were a bit crazy. This one Rin decided that I was her Len and wouldn't let go of me the whole shoot and was so hyperactive. She kept wanting to outdo Link and the other Rin with their poses, being all "we have to do something better!" and I'm like "...can we just pose normally? ^^;" And at one point Link lifted up his Rin and she wanted me to do the same and I'm like "eheh...no. I'm not strong enough O_o;"
Vocaloid shoot. Not as many as you'd expect but most likely 'cause the Masquerade was going on at this time.
Ren was the only Kaito there so she got a lot of love at least. Even though half the time it was us all posing to kill her. XD Though during one shot the Rin pulled me a bit too hard and I fell backwards against one of the steps and the edge went right into my lower back which HURT a lot. I still have a bruise from it. And here I am going "owowowowowowow" and she won't let go being all "Oh I'm sorry" and yet is making it worse and then my stupid mouthpiece breaks yet again so after that I was like "ok, I've had it, I have to get out of here" and it was getting late and Ren wanted to do evening shots with her camera so we figured we needed to leave anyways. Went back to the hotel and relaxed while Kenya got into Engineer 'cause Ren wanted to do a shoot of that costume. But then one of Kenya's contacts got stuck in her eye so we had a mini fiasco with that. Sucked too since I mean there was nothing Ren or I could do to help with that so kinda just sat there feeling useless as Kenya is hissing in pain trying to find it. She never did manage to get it out and had already thrown away the other one since she had trouble getting them in the first place but gave up eventually and ended up going out with just the one wonky contact in and so couldn't put her glasses on so was half blind and then of course her costume has goggles so we had to kinda lead her around. ^^;
Of course as soon as we finally get out and I get to finally snap the glowsticks in my armbands, Corey is calling me saying they're ready for me to get into Gil again. n_n But I wanted at least a few photos even though it was sadly too dark to get anything good and Ren's hands kept shaking so she couldn't get any non-blurred photos so this is all I have really...
Its still a cool shot. Just wish it didn't blur so much.
Sadly didn't get much chance to do shots since we were having issues with Ren's camera and mine was starting to run low on batteries. So I went back to the room to change.
Though I did take this photo in the room so I could at least show the glow-ness of the armbands which I am rather proud of how they came out. Just gotta fix up the rest of the costume...not sure if I'll have the money to get a new wig and headphones by Otakon but I'll try.
Changed into Gil and headed out to meet up with Corey. Corey and Bitter were in Break and Sharon...but had switched costumes so Break was in a dress and Sharon in the uniform. lulz Forgot to get a photo of them doing that though. Oh well I'm sure they have some. Hung around with them and Ria for a bit til Jensen and Utai showed up and we headed to the bar though as soon as I got there realized I had missed a call from Ren and I was trying to be so good about keeping the phone out so I could hear it 'cause neither Ren or Kenya had a key card on them and were going to call me when they were done eating so I could give them one as I had grabbed a 2nd key card for them when I went back to the room but they had already gone over to a restaurant by the time I had come out and we figured it'd be easier for me to find them later. So I went over to find them and we took some photos in the lobby which I'm grateful for as I really wanted a few shots of Gil with the seal mirror I made. And originally I was going to go back to the bar with Corey and them but thought about it and decided I'd probably have more fun hanging with Kenya and Ren, especially since I hadn't had too much time with them and I prefer quiet fun times over crazy ness which was more likely with the others considering there were all planning to get drunk and I don't really do stuff like that.
So we had some rather silly photo time as Ren was just playing around with her camera and me and Kenya kept doing derping poses. XD Can't wait for Ren to get those up as they were pretty damn amusing. Then we decided to go to the bar in our hotel which was practically deserted 'cause most people were drinking at the outside area but we were like "fuck that its hot out" and stayed in. And guess what guys? I actually ordered a drink. And finished it. lol I've ordered a drink before at a restaurant in college but wasn't able to finish it. So this was a first. ^^;; Got a mudslide and it was tasty though I was a little bit dizzy afterwards. Not tipsy dizzy but more I think a combination of lack of sleep and food combined with drinking as it was just a tired dizzy. Which made the decision that I should get back to the room and eat something before I pass out. But before that we got a few funny photos since after all I was in Gil...drinking. lulz Though we forgot to do the passed out at the table shot that I suggested. Oh well. XD The bartender lady that served us was really nice. She was asking us if we were going to this dance she heard about (we assumed she meant the rave) and we told her how we're too old for that and don't really want to be in a room with a bunch of smelly teenagers who don't bathe which started a whole conversation (mostly between her and Kenya lol) about the con and the difference between the younger folks and us older folk. Kinda explaining that not all of us are stupid kids. She was actually pretty interested in what we had to say and even called over one of the other bartenders who is making an independent film and so Kenya gave her his business card in case he ever needed help with artistic stuff for it. I sadly was like "...I'm not in the area so I can't really help T_T" as it was all Raleigh based which kinda sucks as she mostly called him over after hearing I do costume commissions and work in theater. Oh well. Though it has made me think maybe I should try making some sort of business card. I just have no idea what to even call my commission service. Pfft.
Anyways, we eventually headed out. Ren took off with my hat and as soon as she turned the corner, completely nose dived into the floor. The bartenders saw it before we did and went running over to her and we were like "oh dear...hope they don't think she was trying to run out without paying or anything" though turns out they were just concerned if she was ok and worried she may be drunk. Which was kinda funny as we kept being all "No, we swear she's not drunk! She only had one drink...she's just normally this way ^^;;" especially since Ren is just sitting there laughing. Then we went back to the room, I had ramen to stop myself from falling over and Ren passed out insanely fast. lol Kenya was trying to ask her a question at the time even. Then I packed up and meant to go to bed right after but then Kenya and I started talking and sharing old con stories, ex friends/gf stories, etc. and somehow got to talking about dolls (since we both brought ours but never took them out) and discovered we actually have a lot in common with storylines and whatnot. I wanted to talk more but we would have never gotten to sleep if we did. XD
Sunday:
We woke up really early at like 7am or so in order to drag ourselves up, finish packing, and take everything down to the cars so we'd get it done before the mad rush. Then relaxed in the room for a bit til it was time to head to the con. Got in Glen once again and on the way to the con, had a girl yell out to me "Come on Lelouch, the rebellion awaits!" ... So there's another one to add to the list of mistaken identities with this costume. Anyways, I went to the NOIZ panel which was sadly kinda empty due to it being so early on Sun when most people were probably packing up. But it was still a good time regardless. I missed the introductions but got there as soon as the questions started. And gotta say, I really liked the translator they had. Hadn't seen him before (as cons tend to use the same translators and all) but he was real professional about it and obviously Japanese himself. They had no mic to pass around but since it was a small room people were able to just shout out their questions and be heard well. And the translator was very good at making his own comments to help explain answers they gave that may have been confusing for Americans. So overall, very good job whoever you were.
The first question was actually from the band towards us, asking if the girls in the room were single or not. Pfft. One girl asked if she could touch Masato's stomach (since his costume had his midriff showing) and he got up and kneeled in front of her with his stomach thrust forward for her to do it. XD She was pretty nervous after he did that. And of course another girl asked to do the same and the translator was like "ok, no more" after that. One guy asked them what Sentai shows inspired them which I thought was a cool question even though I don't know any Sentai so had no idea what the ones they listed were. Another person asked where they got the ideas from their costumes and they said from hentai referring mostly to Yamato's tentacles on his outfit. XD And Kyo said they had some Final Fantasy going on pointing to his sleeves and saying "Yuna" and then Masato pointed to his top and said "Rikku". lol When asked for their ages, they all lied and made up young ages, claiming to be anywhere from 14 to 8 months. Pfft. Someone asked what space traveling is like and they said its very hard because their rocket is fueled by man power and they all started doing rowing gestures which was really cute.
They were asked what their first thoughts of America were:
Kotaro: I was surprised how sweet the chocolate was.
Yamato: I was surprised how hot it was.
Masato: I was surprised how blue the sky was.
Kyo: I was surprised how big the dog's bone was.
Angel-Taka: I was not surprised how sexy the people were.
One girl asked if they knew any foreign dances and if not if they would like to learn one. They said they didn't but said to please teach them and they all stood up and she taught them how to do the "washing machine" from the Selena movie. XD Which was very amusing to watch them do. Angel-Taka especially got really into it. And then another girl asked if they'd do the Sexy Beam and so Angel-Taka had the audience do it. XD So gotta say this was a more interactive panel even if the room wasn't packed like it was last year. Sadly I had to leave a little bit early so I could make it over to the craftsmanship contest before it started.
Got over there and Corey and Tohma were already in line and I found Ren and pulled her over. The whole event was kinda disorganized though. There were way too many entries this year. I think they should have cut them off at a certain point because as a result they were REALLY rushed as the con was being kinda strict on how much time they had so it was probably the most rushed judging I've ever gone through. So everyone was a little disgruntled over that but ehhh what can you do. After that we wanted food but realized we had like no time to go out to get any due to the winners being announced soon (and really the judges weren't given much time to make their decisions there), the art auction featuring Kenya's shadow box was starting right after that, and I also had my Chiho Saito autograph session. So we ended up giving in and buying the REALLY OVERPRICED food at the con center. Seriously. $8 for chicken tenders in a tiny little thing? I decided on the mini pizza 'cause that at least almost seemed like it could be worth it...though it got cold fast. I was a bit :/ about it just 'cause I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it and thus waste my money there but one of the Ozs from the PH shoot was over there, pondering on food so I offered that she could have part of my pizza so it wouldn't go to waste, which made her quite happy. lol So yeah Glen lured Oz away with pizza. XD The girl was cute though and eyes kinda lit up when I mentioned I also cosplay Cain so we had a nice little geek session over Count Cain which Corey kinda lulzed at us when she realized what we were going on about. Though time was short so we had to say bye to her. Ren and Corey went to see the winners and I went to the autograph line.
It was quite nice to be surrounded by other Utena fans in line. Had a few nice discussions and this one guy and I somehow ended up having a "we love Cloud" discussion. No idea how we got on that topic but once we discovered we both have a huge obsession with the character, we went on about it for quite a while. Ok this may sound really sad and dorky but most of my friends hate Cloud so I rarely get to talk to someone who actually likes him and doesn't roll their eyes at me for my obsession. ^^;; Then the doors opened and it wasn't a long wait at all since I had gotten in line early and it wasn't that long anyways being a Sunday and all. I had her sign my Japanese volume 1 of Utena. Squee. ^.^
She was very cute and small. ^^ Though I'm still sad I couldn't make it to any of her panels due to my schedule.
After that I went upstairs and caught Ren after the contest winners were announced. Ren only told me a few of the winners but I mostly agree with the ones she told me as they were the ones I guessed would most likely win. I wish I knew the whole list though as she couldn't remember the rest and they like never post hall winners after a con anymore. Then went to the art auction and watched Kenya's shadow box go up. Someone did bid a little over $100 on it, which was good and Kenya was happy about it but we were kinda hoping it'd go up higher. But none of the art really went that high this year and there didn't seem that much of it. I guess probably due to everyone being poor and whatnot. It's still a shame as that thing could have gone pretty high otherwise I think and it did at least get a lot of attention and she did win 1st place in the art contest they had going on that we didn't realize they were doing.
Once that was over, we found Jensen and everyone and kinda lounged for a bit. Ren wanted to see the AMVs revisited but Jensen's Dad was being a douche and demanding she get home by a certain hour and then Ren realized she'd gotten the time wrong for the AMVs anyways and they had already started so we might as well leave at that point anyways. Which was for the best as we barely managed to get Jensen home in time. Changed into regular clothes in the car, which I haven't done in a long time. lol Not since Ruthberg at that one AUSA I think and that I was able to mostly slide pants on under the skirt piece and all so was a lot easier than this. Granted no one was around and I did give Kenya and Ren some leg out the door. XDXD Ren wasn't paying attention though. Then we picked up Jensen's stuff, played a little car tetris and were off on the road. Ren really wanted Taco Bell because we had failed at finding one on the way down and had been craving it ever since. I kept my eyes peeled for it but was unable to find one and everyone was getting pretty damn hungry so we decided to pull over for the Arby's on the one sign as it was another one we were all ok on (finding a place we all agreed on was harder than you'd think lol) but then as we were getting on the road for it, we see over the one bridge a sign for Taco Bell...at the next exit and we're all "nooooo~!" so we figured out a way to turn around and get back on the road and were all determined to find that freaking Taco Bell. And we did! At first we couldn't find it but we did and much rejoicing was had. Especially since they gave me a 2nd taco I didn't order without making me pay for it. XD Hey I wasn't going to say anything. I was hungry and wasn't going to say no to free taco.
Dropped Jensen off at her house, said hello to her puppies and then headed off before I got eaten alive by the bugs in her driveway. Got to Ren's and pretty much died on the couch. Then went home Monday morning.
All my photos from con are located here: http://rosebride.com/lyn/az10.html
~Lyn
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Date: 2010-06-03 05:15 am (UTC)Oh man, those two Japanese girls who follow NOIZ to the states are bat shit insane, man. Don't get me wrong, they're nice, but the last time at PMX, every time I saw the band, in costume, or just trying to take a smoke break outside, those girls were on their heels. I think the only time I actually didn't see them was when I went to the stinky sock room to aisatsu with Angel. :P
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Date: 2010-06-03 05:46 pm (UTC)Oh man really? lol Yeah I could see that as they do seem to follow them everywhere. Was surprised both last year and this year that they even came to the states and all.
...sock room? Do I want to know?
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Date: 2010-06-03 11:57 pm (UTC)It was sooooooo rank. D: I guess it was from the sweaty costumes hanging up.... I don't imagine those get cleaned too often because of what they're made from. D:;;;;
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Date: 2010-06-04 12:10 am (UTC)Edit: ...do they even have that in Japan? I have no idea XD
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Date: 2010-06-04 12:29 am (UTC)And there's also the 100 yen shop knock offs which I prefer 8D
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Date: 2010-06-03 08:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-03 05:51 pm (UTC)But yeah, once again thank you so much for being there to critique it and help them fix it as it desperately needs that.
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Date: 2010-06-03 06:40 pm (UTC)So HOPEFULLY that will be the start of easing this. I want strong costumers to come back next year and show us what they've got. We had some great entries this year and I'd like to see this continue.
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Date: 2010-06-16 05:11 am (UTC)The pin was actually mine \@A@/. I'm glad it's safe! I was besides the two japanese fans too but on the right side /o/.
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Date: 2010-06-16 05:13 am (UTC)And I remember you. XD 'Cause I kept looking over and being all "huzzah someone else who knows the correct responses!" ^^;
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Date: 2010-06-16 05:19 am (UTC)I remember you too and I told myself the same thing actually LOL. Hopefully, we made NOIZ happy \@U@/ ♥.