AnimeNEXT 2013
Jul. 4th, 2013 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rose_of_painLast AnimeNEXT I had attended was back in 2008, before the location change. Honestly I hadn't really had a big desire to go to the con anymore due to hearing that the new location wasn't as great and noticing a decrease in the amount of people I know who attend that con. That and the people I went to that con to see, I see at most of the cons closer to me anyways. But during the DC Sakura Matsuri this year, Sarah asked if I'd be willing to work for her at the con this year since she'd be too busy with con work to be able to sell her stuff. And then Chrissy and Chris decided out of the blue that they were going to go to the con and considering they live in the next neighborhood over, I was able to get a ride with them pretty easily. XD But yeah, this con wasn't originally planned so I didn't really have any plans for it and it was quite different for me from my normal con experience as I was in the Dealer's Room for about 75% of it.
Thursday:
We had four people in the car (Chrissy, Chris, Dana, and I). I was feeling guilty about all the stuff I was bringing...until I saw Chrissy and Chris' load. XD I'm not used to being the one with the least amount (well I think Dana had less but still, lol Usually I'm the one with the most.) Took us a bit to figure out how to tetris everything but we managed. And really it was still nowhere as much as the amount of stuff I've seen fit into one vehicle in the past. Just been a while since I went to a con where it was more than 2-3 people in the car. I also did not realize Chrissy and Chris had never been up to New Jersey before so didn't think to warn them about the large amount of tolls. Well they found out pretty quickly. ^^;; I made a note to make sure to get a lot of ones at con to help them out with that on the way back as I didn't have any on me (in fact I had no cash at all, which is unusual for me as I always make sure to go to the ATM BEFORE the con but I totally forgot and ran out of time). Driving up to NJ is always a bit of an experience in my opinion.
Got to the con somewhere around 5 or 6 and...realized everyone wasn't kidding when they said this con was in the middle of nowhere. When we pulled off the turnpike, immediately we were kinda like "...where the hell is this?" lol I also love the fact that Chrissy's GPS made her drive PAST the hotel and do a U-Turn...for no reason. XD We all thought "oh maybe that's not the hotel...it looks more like a business center..." Nooope. It was indeed the hotel. But I swear it really didn't look like one from the outside. lol And was a bit disappointed when I realized that there really wasn't ANYTHING around the area one could walk to for food and such. I've gotten so used to going out for food at previous cons that I've stopped bringing the cups of ramen and whatnot since usually they never get eaten and just waste space (and then go stale in my house). So figures the one time I don't bring any...I actually could have benefited from them. Oh well.
When we first arrived, the lobby of the hotel was pretty empty and we all were like "oh this place is pretty and would be great for photos". We unload, go back out to the car and drive out to the liquor store (I had nothing better to do since my room wasn't here yet). Come back and...suddenly con goers everywhere. XD And it only got worse from that point on. Turns out the hotel lobby is one of the biggest gathering spots for cosplayers and con goers, more so than the actual con center, which kinda like with the old location, didn't have much actually in it. Even similar layout really. And then the rain started. Which pretty much continued until late Friday unfortunately. Saw Sarah briefly in the lobby but she was busy already. Got a text from Eric about the room which was a surprise as I didn't even know I was in the same room as him. XD So I was pretty glad about that as I was afraid Sarah would be the only one in the room I knew. Turns out the room was to consist of Sarah, Steve, Eric, "Canadian" Kevin, and me. So huzzah! I actually knew everyone in the room after all. XD And we were on the second floor, so never had to use the elevator. Then I helped Eric unload his stuff and wandered over to the con center with him and Kevin. Went over to the Dealer's to help Carrie and Sarah set up. Got my shiny Dealer's badge~ We were originally supposed to be in the Artist Alley but they overbooked so moved us and a few other artists to the Dealer's. I had unfortunately not eaten an actual meal the entire day. I had a soft pretzel at one of the rest stops on the way up but I really should have thought to eat actual food. I had just assumed someone I know would go out to eat at some point and I'd tag along. ...a lesson I sadly never learned from the whole con as this ended up being the same situation for me every day. I haven't eaten this badly at a con since my college days. It was pretty bad. XD All I had Thurs night was some Doritos and some Onigiri Carrie and Sarah let me nom on. Went back to the room and proceeded to cut out the patches I had made to sell. Though I totally ran out of fray check. I thought I had just enough for them but I was wrong. ^^;; Oops. So several patches had to go without it but they seemed to hold up well enough. Got some fruity Japanese alcoholic drink from one of the other rooms, which I pretty much nursed all weekend. XD Annnnnd think I then went to bed somewhere around then
Friday:
Woke up and helped Sarah sew shut the cat plushies she had made that were to become the mascot for the band, Moonstream (which is basically echostream + Satsuki). Kevin stuck his hand up their rears in order to turn them inside out, Sarah stuffed them, and I sewed their butts up. ...which made for some interesting conversations, which Eric made note of as he got ready (must admit its quite the event watching Eric get into full drag. Last time I roomed with him, he didn't have any of his big ensembles with him). Finished the plushies just in time for the Dealer's to open so Sarah went over to the con center with them while I got dressed as I didn't really want to go over there in my PJs. Got into my new Fix It Felix costume and grabbed Sarah's cash box...which was kinda amusing 'cause her cash box almost looks like a small tool box so it kinda went along with what I was wearing. Got stopped for photos quite a few times on my way over there. It was quite different doing a character that pretty much everyone at the con knows for a change. XD Since I'm usually in a costume most people don't know. lol Was pretty nice and the costume was the most comfortable thing I've ever done. lol It was VERY nice getting to wear jeans for a cosplay. And was the smartest idea I ever had in terms of something to wear while working the booth. And I didn't have to worry about the weather 'cause I could get wet and it wouldn't matter. Even my boots were much better than my normal sneakers in that sense. So for once I was prepared? XD
Totally got semi lost though trying to make my way to our booth. First I went into Artist Alley by mistake. lol The layout was a lot harder to maneuver around when there were people in it. XD And then I got completely confused when I did get to the Dealer's as to where we were. Damn people in the way! See, I don't lie when I say I have NOOOO sense of direction. lmao Eventually I did get to the booth though and took over from Sarah and there I stayed for the rest of the day.
Me at the booth. Photo by Carrie.
Like I said before, it's a very different experience being behind a table a whole con. But not a bad one. Definitely a tiring one though. I thought since I was sitting down almost the entire time, it wouldn't be that bad considering I'm used to cons where I'm running around all the time and changing costumes and wearing uncomfortable shoes, wigs, etc. And here I am with no wig on, very comfy shoes, jeans, etc. And yet I was more exhausted. XD I guess its 'cause in this situation you are forced to interact with people a lot more. As versus the Artist Alley, it does feel like you have a lot more people coming to the booth in the Dealer's. I've worked a little bit at Sarah's booth in the past in the AA and it was never as busy as it was at this con in the Dealer's. Carrie did most of the advertising and luring people in by being up on her feet and being her normal cute self to attract customers while I handled most of the money and manned the button maker. We only would get a few minutes of down time here and there, which we spent mainly collecting Miis on our 3DSes. XD Which holy crap, I got more Miis being in the Dealer Room at this con in one day than an entire weekend at some of the bigger cons I've been at. Granted I had to learn a way of keeping my finger on the button while I helped people so I wouldn't miss them. lol I still only have one game for my 3DS but I've gotten quite addicted to collecting Miis at cons. XD
It was pretty amazing seeing just how much money Carrie and Sarah make at these cons. Especially Carrie since her and Carolann have a program now that lets them keep track of their inventory and total sales. I'm not really sure how much Sarah made as I never got a moment to count the money in her cash box. But I did make a shitload of buttons and sold quite a number of plushies for her. I sadly did not sell any patches on this first day though a lot of people did take my card who seemed more interested in custom made patches. Have yet to see any inquiries but I'm also a tad busy right now anyways.
Even just sitting at the booth, Felix got quite a bit of attention. Its a really fun costume! Did have one guy place his Gundam kit on the table in front of me, asking me to fix it and I told him to stop being lazy and build it himself. XD I think I threw people off with the fact that I didn't respond with a cute "I can fix it!" to when people asked if I could fix things, and instead tended to be like "Fix it yourself", "Beats me", "Nooooope". I'm the antisocial Felix, I guess. lol
I did make sure to get up and get food at some point. Got a sandwich from the little con food stand but was kinda dismayed that it literally was only roast beef and lettuce and nothing else. I thought there would at least be cheese in it. And got Carrie some french fries. That ended up being my only meal of the day though. And when things got slower closer to closing time, I did get a chance to actually look around the rest of the Dealer's and see if there was anything I wanted to buy. Mainly I was trying to see if anyone might have the Takuto figure I keep having no luck finding. But there wasn't anything that really said "buy me". The Devil May Cry Play Arts and the Berserk figures did look tempting but I really have no space for stuff, especially big ones right now and I was trying to be good with my money. All and all the Dealer's Room didn't interest me much. There was one guy that came to our table earlier that day who I then had a rather lengthy conversation about Saint Seiya with (seems to be my thing lately, to somehow run into another SS fan and geek out...though its always a male. I never really meet female fans of it at cons, sadly enough). He had just gotten into it through Omega and I educated him a little on where he should go from there and how to best get a hold of the original, etc. He said he was on a mission to find SS stuff in the Dealer's and I warned him that you never really find much, even at the bigger cons. He was particularly trying to find the Myth Cloth figures which I find ironic 'cause he later came back and reported he couldn't find any and the only items he found were the Omega chibis. And yet I spotted a Death Mask Myth Cloth right off. Guess he wasn't looking that hard then. But then again I do have eyes trained to spot these things. I kinda hate it though 'cause every time I do find SS stuff, I have the urge to buy it and then have to tell myself no because usually its a character I don't even really like that much. XD
Anywho, while wandering around I did notice a booth that had a sign that said "Free 3D photos here" and thought that sounded kinda cool but also knew there must be some catch because nothing is ever "free". But didn't really take any closer look at the booth so thought no more of it, just figured he was selling prints of his photos or something. Most of you probably heard the drama over this booth already via facebook but I'll come back to it later on here. Near closing, Rose came by our booth and this was one of those funny con moments where I'm like "See, I don't think you know me but I know you just by association of mutual friends and the fact I've talked to you on LJ in the past before but I don't think we ever actually officially met. Hi." XDXD And I could have sworn I had her on my LJ before now but guess I just ran into her a lot on communities. Added her as soon as I got home though 'cause spent a pretty good chunk of the con with her and had some pretty awesome conversations. Dealer's closed and we did the whole "just look like you're with us" to Rose so she wouldn't get booted out as we closed up shop.
It was still raining and this made the walk from con center to hotel a bit annoying as everyone was using the same walkway since there was only one that is covered. But at least there was one! It prevented us from getting that wet. And boy was I glad I stuck with just Felix as I didn't have to worry about any of my costume getting damaged as it was still pretty icky out. Though I did find it amusing that there was a Thor cosplayer out in the rain posing as if he was summoning the storm. XD ...even if this did result in a major traffic jam in the path since people kept stopping to take photos. I tried to grab a quick one but he wouldn't stay still long enough for any shot to come out not blurred so I gave up. Got back to the room with a warning (forget if it was Katie or Kevin that warned us) that there were a lot of eyeless penguins in the room. I didn't really think much of this until we walked in...
There was indeed a lot of eyeless Gunters (from Adventure Time). Though they were actually all over the room when we walked in. This photo was taken after we piled them up on Kevin's air mattress when he was out. XD Sarah had started stuffing them but hadn't gotten their eyes on yet. Must admit it was pretty freaky. lol Changed into regular clothes and chatted with Rose for a bit before we headed back over to the con center to watch the concert. And I was amazed at how the concert started right on time. I'm used to concerts at cons being super delayed so kudos to AnimeNEXT for that. Rose and I just took a seat in one of the side chairs. I was very amused to see that the band had one of the cat plushies on stage with them and that quite a few people in the audience were waving them around. I had a tiny part in the design for them and it was good to see that a lot of them sold. The concert itself was good. Satsuki still sounds as good as always and I liked the music better than the Renter en Soi concert from AnimeNEXT years ago. I liked Renter en Soi but I liked their older stuff and really was not a fan of their later stuff at all so this was a nice change from that. Despite that, most of the songs didn't really stand out to me though. They were nice but nothing that made me want to immediately get their CD or anything. But I would still consider it since it was pleasant to listen to and I've heard a lot of good things about Tomo from Sarah so wouldn't mind supporting his band some. Afterwards we met everyone back at the room and Kevin showed us the epic saga of the "Super Fan" in the photos he got from the concert. Let's just say there was one individual who was very into the show and made for some rather amusing shots. Rose went back to her room and I think I was a lame-o and went to bed earlier than everyone else. Granted by "early" I'm talking like 1-2am here. lol Not sure when everyone else came back but it was pretty late.
Saturday:
Luckily the rain had stopped and the sun was shining! And we proceeded to have nice weather the rest of the con, though a tad bit muggy. But I certainly was happy to take that over the rain for a change. Got into Ludwig and met up with Stephanie. Rose agreed to help Carrie with the table for a bit while I did some photos as this was pretty much the only time that would work for Stephanie and I really wanted to get photos together since we agreed Otakon wouldn't be a hassle and since I didn't go to Zenkai, we weren't able to do it there either. I once again decided to not wear the nails since they really make life difficult and this was just for a few quick photos anyways. I swear I'll put them on and do the accurate costume once we do a real shoot though. At least this time I did manage to fix the costume up some so it was a little nicer than my rush job the day before Katsu. XD; Stephanie didn't have time to make an actual Dorothea costume so she wore a maid outfit she had that worked well for Dorothea's maid outfit. I mean I really doubt anyone will be able to tell its not the exact same. I also totally forgot the correct shirt for this costume so I took one of my t-shirts that had the highest neckline (its supposed to be a turtleneck) and turned it around so the design would be on my back, lol. Super ghetto but it worked.
Me as Ludwig
Stephanie as Dorothea
My favorite of the bunch we took
And rather like this one that Stephanie's Mom took on her camera
Also ran into Eric in his AMAZING French couture!
Went back to the room and changed out of Lui and into Luze. I originally wasn't sure if I should wear this costume while working since I was worried I'd be uncomfortable and overheated but I wasn't able to wear it on Friday like I had originally planned mainly due to the weather and I've only worn the costume once so really wanted to get more wear out of it. It ended up not being that bad at all. I was a lot more comfortable than I thought I'd be and I guess the fact that I was sitting down made the boots not bad at all (last time I wore them for a long period of time was with Lucifer and my calves were super sore from the weight of the boots). Sarah was sleeping when I came into the room (she had a rough night and was up early to finish the Gunter plushies, which all sold pretty damn fast so at least it was worth the work!) so I had to change without much light and be quiet about it so took me a little longer than normal and had Rose check if the wig was ok since I wasn't sure if it wasn't a mess or anything. Relieved Rose of her duty and thanked her for taking over and resumed my position of button master. XD Got a lot better at them and didn't mess up nearly as much as on Friday though every so often when people got me talking, I'd once again forget to put the plastic in and end up with a paper button. Oops. I also finally managed to sell some of my patches which made me much happier as I was going to be pretty upset if none of them sold at all with all the work I did to get them done in time. The guys at the Otakon booth brought a pizza over for us about halfway through the shift, which ended up being an entire pizza which we didn't expect but were both VERY grateful for. I learned how to make buttons one handed because I was not putting that slice of pizza down. At least this seemed to amuse a number of people as I did get a bit of laughs out of it as I stuffed it down my throat. But oh man pizza never tasted so good! XD
I'm not sure why people had trouble finding our booth though. I kept telling everyone I knew where we were and the Dealer's wasn't a very big one. We were in the center area but they couldn't find us for some reason. I guess maybe there were too many people at our booth whenever any of them came by or something. Or they came by during the few times I escaped to use the bathroom. 'Cause I know Stephanie and her Mom never found us. Nor Lauren. And never saw Chrissy, Chris, or Dana even though I know they must have gone in at least once. I did run into Becca and Ben a few times but every time I was in the process of trying to get somewhere or doing something. Usually when I was coming back from the bathroom to the booth. Kept telling them to come by the booth and they said they would but...never saw them. Oh well. XD Guess there was a black hole right before our booth or something. Plenty of customers found us at least.
Carrie went to go explore the Dealer's for a bit when things slowed down some. She comes back and tells me she saw her friend's cosplay picture on a pillow at the booth that guy with the 3D photos was at. I was a bit surprised to realize the merchandise he was selling was actually pillows when I had assumed it was prints or something. Carrie was concerned because she wasn't sure if her friend knew about this, especially considering some of the pillows were clearly designed like the infamous body pillows. Except instead of fanart or anime characters, these were real people on them. So Carrie texted her about it to ask if she knew and we both hoped that maybe she had agreed to it. Couldn't see why anyone would agree to something like that but hey, some people are cool with those things and I have no problem with it. But it really didn't seem cool to me at all. But for the moment we had to wait for her friend to respond to see what was up. Then it was soon time to close up shop again. The Dealer's closed a bit earlier this time around so I met up with Rose and wandered into the Artist Alley since they were still opened (they closed the same time as us on Friday). Found a really cool artist who had the perfect birthday present for Ren. And I know the chances of Ren reading this LJ entry are very slim but just in case I will refrain from saying what it is. XD Just that it deals with Madoka and I had to come back later for when the artist would be done. Still pretty excited to give it to Ren this month. Then helped Rose get her stuff out of her car for her Tales panel. And then went back outside the hotel in order to get a few shots of me in Luze since I have very few photos of the costume.
I know I'm way too short for this character and not intimidating enough but I don't care. XD
Ran into Stef who also took a few shots of me. Though at first she kinda surprised me with her camera and so there's some rather goofy shots of me being like "hey what?" XD
I like this one though
Then went back to the room and changed costume once again. Rose went ahead to get set up for her panel and I agreed to help out since she never heard back from her original helper. Though I wanted to get into Takuto first, thinking it wouldn't take very long. Pffft clearly I forget how difficult it is to get into that costume and this was one of the first times attempting to do so without any help. XD I nearly fell over a few times getting the boots on and had to think hard on what order everything goes on in. Ended up having to take a few things off and doing it over. ^^;;; Its a much more complicated costume to get on than it looks. But I do feel so fabulous in it. Left the swords behind since really no reason to have them at the panel. I just wanted to look good and I figured it might be amusing since Tales of Xillia has a DLC for some of the Star Driver costumes...which I'm really hoping we may be able to get with the US version but I doubt it. T_T
Rose was worried no one would come to her panel due to it being at the same time as the Masquerade and being unsure how many Tales fans were at this con but there was quite the decent sized line for it though sadly the con staff cut it off. For some reason the con decided to keep the business chairs in these rooms instead of replacing them with more simple chairs like I'm used to at panels. So instead of having nice rows of chairs for everyone to sit in, we had everyone in spinny chairs all over the place and were limited with how many people we could have in the room. I mean really could have fit a lot more people if they had used folding chairs instead or something. Yeah these chairs were super nice but it didn't really feel like a panel. Felt more like...well a business meeting except a lot less organized. lol I dunno, I find it hard to get people's attention if they're too busy playing with their chairs. XD I know I certainly was having fun playing with mine. But anyways, the panel consisted of Rose going through basic info for Tales and current news and whatnot, most of which I didn't know so that was cool. I had no idea they were making a Zelos statue! DO WANT! And then the majority of the panel was the trivia game. I basically just took off the point cards off the board and handed them to people. XD And probably a good thing I helped instead of participating like I originally was going to do 'cause I probably wouldn't have gotten any questions right. ...though I did get excited whenever one popped up that I did know. "Oh, even I know this one!" XD She had some pretty good prizes too! It was a little chaotic though since we just had everyone line up and those that didn't want to play or had already gotten a prize, or given up, were just sitting around chatting. Though they did seem to at least be chatting about Tales for the most part. But I think I would have found that a bit awkward if I was in the audience myself. But that's just me and most of the people there seemed to at least know a decent amount. I actually felt better that most of the people there had played the same amount of games I have so I didn't feel so bad about my lack of knowledge. XD Seems that at least I've played the ones everyone else has. Haha!
After the panel, Rose met two guys who couldn't get into the panel but had stuck around outside the whole time and prove to actually be about as passionate about the games as she is and knew way more than the rest of the panel (ironic that they couldn't get in of course) so Rose geeked out with them while I went back to the room to collect my swords. Started wandering for a bit but then noticed my swords didn't seem that bright so went back and changed batteries and it made a huge difference. Walked through the covered walkway which was nifty since it was nice and dark at this point and so I could show the swords off. Was hoping to eventually run into someone I knew as I couldn't even seem to find Rose and the fanboys where I had left them (turns out they moved to the other side of the hall due to a new panel coming in, so they were just beyond my gaze XD). But alas, no one in sight. Poked my head in the Masquerade but all I saw were a bunch of maids dancing on stage and that didn't interest me so went back to wandering...alone. ^^;; At least I got stopped for photos quite a bit and did amuse a lot of people with the swords. There were a few guys that were calling out at me but I totally didn't hear/notice that they meant me until I hear "Ginga Bishonen!" and I turned immediately and they were all "...you respond to THAT one of all things?" I guess they had already tried yelling Takuto, etc. XD And then there was some guy who was like "Oh man your Ginga Bishonen is great...but there was this Japanese cosplayer at AX who came all the way from Japan who was PERFECT." and I'm like "...gee...thanks...x_x;" I mean, seriously, why do people do that? Its not really a compliment when you phrase it that way.
I did find this nice photo of me though
Anywho, finally did run into people I knew. In fact as I was walking back to the hotel, about to give up, from the other direction comes Sarah, Carrie, Steve, Kevin, annd I forget who else. Sarah grabs me and Carrie is all "We're going to make Justice!" which was way too cute. XD So I follow along and realize its about the pillows at that one booth. Carrie got a reply from her friend, who did not know about the pillows and was pretty upset about it. So we were going to go tell Carlo and the rest of the security gang. At first we thought we totally had this guy 'cause Carrie's friend claimed she didn't sign or agree to anything. And everyone agreed this was super skeezy. Though Carlo said we had to wait til the next morning before the Dealer's opened for anything to happen. So yes, those of you who have read this only via the internet, no, he was never actually kicked out of the con nor told to take his stuff down that night. The situation wasn't even handled until Sunday morning...which I'll get to soon. But back to Saturday!
Dar and Ethan made it down just for the day. I saw them briefly earlier in the Dealer's but this time we got to actually talk to them and hang for a bit. Also saw Lauren finally who I hadn't seen all day. She was very excited because she won a Judge's award for her Ouka costume. She'd never won anything before and I think this was her first time entering anything so was super proud and excited for her too. Rose found us again. And she told me she actually had JUST finally finished talking to the geek boys at this point, which mean they were geeking for over an hour. XD Chatted with Dar and Ethan until they had to leave and then continued to chill with everyone else until our group got gradually smaller. Then it was pretty much just Rose and I. XD Chatted about pretty much everything from Tales to GodChild and then some. Went back to the room and came right into an AnimeNEXT staff meeting. Oops. So was just kinda like "ah, don't mind me...while I change while you discuss important plans. La la la." XD Had some delicious plum wine. I was quite surprised that I liked it so much since I don't normally like wine and that it didn't give me an immediate headache. Though did realize I should probably get some food in me. Though once again I planned poorly and had no means to get food. So ended up going down to the lobby, in a MLP shirt nonetheless, and bought...a cup of fucking ramen from the convenience store. Felt like such a weeb. Even tried to hide the evidence but I totally dropped it down the stairs in the process and almost ran into a girl in the process. x_x Go me. But yeah, felt pretty lame eating the thing in the room. I haven't had one of those in like over 6 years. But I was so hungry it actually tasted...decent. Not good but I was able to actually eat the whole thing. Last time I tried one I couldn't stomach the noodles and just drank the brooth. XD; But I used to eat them all the time in highschool. lol
Some around this point we made the realization that since Eric and I were sharing a bed, that made us the "gay bed", Sarah and Steve the "straight bed" and then... Eric: "well I suppose that makes Kevin on his lonely air mattress the masturbation bed?" ^^;; But I dunno even know why but I found the "gay bed" fact to be hilarious for some reason. XDXD Or maybe it was the wine getting to me. 'Cause everyone else went out to party with other people and I freaking passed out like a lame loser. lol And I mean I was OUT. Normally when people come into the room, I wake up instantly. I'm a light sleeper so any noise/light wakes me up. But when I did wake up next, it was to see that the lights were off and everyone sound asleep. I mean even Eric getting into the bed next to me didn't wake me up! I was a bit confused by this. That and the fact that everyone was in the room...except Sarah but didn't think much of it. Until I woke up again a few hours later and still no Sarah. In fact Sarah didn't come into the room until...
Sunday:
Woke up before anyone else and started to get into Felix as it was getting close to time for Dealer's to open. And then Sarah comes back into the room and crawls into bed with Steve. XD I don't know how she managed to stay awake that long. lol Went over to the Dealer's and this was the first time I actually got there before opening. While we were getting ready, Carlo comes over and says he talked to the guy at the booth but the guy says he has a release form from the girl. Carrie calls her friend and hands the phone over to Carlo to take care of it. And turns out that yes, she did in fact sign a release form so there wasn't much more AnimeNEXT could do about the situation. Carrie then tried to see if she could buy the pillow of her friend to use as evidence later but the guy said he had to remove that particular one from his stock. So at least the guy did take hers down when she expressed she didn't want to be used that way. But this turned into a huge deal online after the con. Several other people found that there were pillows of them and none of them had agreed to anything about pillows but since they did sign a form and let him take the 3D photos, not much they could do. Still didn't sit well with me personally as I don't think its right to exploit anyone in that way, even if you do technically have the rights to it. In the end, the guy got so much complaints from it that he did in fact agree to remove the stock. So at least he did that and the issue is over and the lesson learned is not to sign anything unless you're 100% sure what it is. And does pull into question what photographers are allowed to do with the photos they take at cons.
Anyways, had quite a bit of business considering most people spend most of their time on Sundays in the Dealer's. Sold a few more patches. I sold out of my Avengers "A" which made me happy as that was the favorite of the new batch I made. We had another batch of Gunters out and they once again sold pretty fast. Got a text from the girl in the AA saying that Ren's present was finished so went and picked that up. The bag it's in is super cute too. Stayed to help at the table as long as I could until Chrissy and the gang texted saying they were packing up the car and going over to eat. So I eventually escaped to pack my stuff up. But at least there weren't too many hours left to the Dealer's even though I did feel bad leaving Carrie on her own but I also didn't want to make my ride wait much. Ran into Eric who was also packing his stuff up so got to say goodbye to him and Katie. Asked them if they wouldn't mind taking a few quick shots of me in Felix before I got out of the costume since despite wearing it most of the weekend, I hadn't managed to get any photos in it. Katie had issues taking photos that didn't blur. Eric was better at it but only took one shot and my hammer is facing the wrong way. XD Ah well. Will hopefully get more photos at the next cons.
Photo is dark and blurry but at least you get the idea.
Didn't get to say bye to Sarah as she was running everywhere but did make sure to text her. And then off we went back down to Maryland. This time with plenty of ones for the tolls. XD And luckily we did stop at a rest stop not too far into the ride so I managed to get a frap and a salad so I'd at least have eaten something. Got home, showed off the kitties to everyone. Alexiel was very happy to have four people petting her at once. XD And that concludes my AnimeNEXT. I did notice that it did still have some of the feel of the old AN, with the majority of cosplayers hanging outside and taking photos out there but never really got to be part of that due to being stuck in the Dealer's. Still unsure of the con itself but I did enjoy myself and made some money from it, so definitely can't complain! If Sarah asks me to work her booth again, I wouldn't mind as long as its at a con like this one where I don't have anything else planned.
~Lyn
Thursday:
We had four people in the car (Chrissy, Chris, Dana, and I). I was feeling guilty about all the stuff I was bringing...until I saw Chrissy and Chris' load. XD I'm not used to being the one with the least amount (well I think Dana had less but still, lol Usually I'm the one with the most.) Took us a bit to figure out how to tetris everything but we managed. And really it was still nowhere as much as the amount of stuff I've seen fit into one vehicle in the past. Just been a while since I went to a con where it was more than 2-3 people in the car. I also did not realize Chrissy and Chris had never been up to New Jersey before so didn't think to warn them about the large amount of tolls. Well they found out pretty quickly. ^^;; I made a note to make sure to get a lot of ones at con to help them out with that on the way back as I didn't have any on me (in fact I had no cash at all, which is unusual for me as I always make sure to go to the ATM BEFORE the con but I totally forgot and ran out of time). Driving up to NJ is always a bit of an experience in my opinion.
Got to the con somewhere around 5 or 6 and...realized everyone wasn't kidding when they said this con was in the middle of nowhere. When we pulled off the turnpike, immediately we were kinda like "...where the hell is this?" lol I also love the fact that Chrissy's GPS made her drive PAST the hotel and do a U-Turn...for no reason. XD We all thought "oh maybe that's not the hotel...it looks more like a business center..." Nooope. It was indeed the hotel. But I swear it really didn't look like one from the outside. lol And was a bit disappointed when I realized that there really wasn't ANYTHING around the area one could walk to for food and such. I've gotten so used to going out for food at previous cons that I've stopped bringing the cups of ramen and whatnot since usually they never get eaten and just waste space (and then go stale in my house). So figures the one time I don't bring any...I actually could have benefited from them. Oh well.
When we first arrived, the lobby of the hotel was pretty empty and we all were like "oh this place is pretty and would be great for photos". We unload, go back out to the car and drive out to the liquor store (I had nothing better to do since my room wasn't here yet). Come back and...suddenly con goers everywhere. XD And it only got worse from that point on. Turns out the hotel lobby is one of the biggest gathering spots for cosplayers and con goers, more so than the actual con center, which kinda like with the old location, didn't have much actually in it. Even similar layout really. And then the rain started. Which pretty much continued until late Friday unfortunately. Saw Sarah briefly in the lobby but she was busy already. Got a text from Eric about the room which was a surprise as I didn't even know I was in the same room as him. XD So I was pretty glad about that as I was afraid Sarah would be the only one in the room I knew. Turns out the room was to consist of Sarah, Steve, Eric, "Canadian" Kevin, and me. So huzzah! I actually knew everyone in the room after all. XD And we were on the second floor, so never had to use the elevator. Then I helped Eric unload his stuff and wandered over to the con center with him and Kevin. Went over to the Dealer's to help Carrie and Sarah set up. Got my shiny Dealer's badge~ We were originally supposed to be in the Artist Alley but they overbooked so moved us and a few other artists to the Dealer's. I had unfortunately not eaten an actual meal the entire day. I had a soft pretzel at one of the rest stops on the way up but I really should have thought to eat actual food. I had just assumed someone I know would go out to eat at some point and I'd tag along. ...a lesson I sadly never learned from the whole con as this ended up being the same situation for me every day. I haven't eaten this badly at a con since my college days. It was pretty bad. XD All I had Thurs night was some Doritos and some Onigiri Carrie and Sarah let me nom on. Went back to the room and proceeded to cut out the patches I had made to sell. Though I totally ran out of fray check. I thought I had just enough for them but I was wrong. ^^;; Oops. So several patches had to go without it but they seemed to hold up well enough. Got some fruity Japanese alcoholic drink from one of the other rooms, which I pretty much nursed all weekend. XD Annnnnd think I then went to bed somewhere around then
Friday:
Woke up and helped Sarah sew shut the cat plushies she had made that were to become the mascot for the band, Moonstream (which is basically echostream + Satsuki). Kevin stuck his hand up their rears in order to turn them inside out, Sarah stuffed them, and I sewed their butts up. ...which made for some interesting conversations, which Eric made note of as he got ready (must admit its quite the event watching Eric get into full drag. Last time I roomed with him, he didn't have any of his big ensembles with him). Finished the plushies just in time for the Dealer's to open so Sarah went over to the con center with them while I got dressed as I didn't really want to go over there in my PJs. Got into my new Fix It Felix costume and grabbed Sarah's cash box...which was kinda amusing 'cause her cash box almost looks like a small tool box so it kinda went along with what I was wearing. Got stopped for photos quite a few times on my way over there. It was quite different doing a character that pretty much everyone at the con knows for a change. XD Since I'm usually in a costume most people don't know. lol Was pretty nice and the costume was the most comfortable thing I've ever done. lol It was VERY nice getting to wear jeans for a cosplay. And was the smartest idea I ever had in terms of something to wear while working the booth. And I didn't have to worry about the weather 'cause I could get wet and it wouldn't matter. Even my boots were much better than my normal sneakers in that sense. So for once I was prepared? XD
Totally got semi lost though trying to make my way to our booth. First I went into Artist Alley by mistake. lol The layout was a lot harder to maneuver around when there were people in it. XD And then I got completely confused when I did get to the Dealer's as to where we were. Damn people in the way! See, I don't lie when I say I have NOOOO sense of direction. lmao Eventually I did get to the booth though and took over from Sarah and there I stayed for the rest of the day.
Me at the booth. Photo by Carrie.
Like I said before, it's a very different experience being behind a table a whole con. But not a bad one. Definitely a tiring one though. I thought since I was sitting down almost the entire time, it wouldn't be that bad considering I'm used to cons where I'm running around all the time and changing costumes and wearing uncomfortable shoes, wigs, etc. And here I am with no wig on, very comfy shoes, jeans, etc. And yet I was more exhausted. XD I guess its 'cause in this situation you are forced to interact with people a lot more. As versus the Artist Alley, it does feel like you have a lot more people coming to the booth in the Dealer's. I've worked a little bit at Sarah's booth in the past in the AA and it was never as busy as it was at this con in the Dealer's. Carrie did most of the advertising and luring people in by being up on her feet and being her normal cute self to attract customers while I handled most of the money and manned the button maker. We only would get a few minutes of down time here and there, which we spent mainly collecting Miis on our 3DSes. XD Which holy crap, I got more Miis being in the Dealer Room at this con in one day than an entire weekend at some of the bigger cons I've been at. Granted I had to learn a way of keeping my finger on the button while I helped people so I wouldn't miss them. lol I still only have one game for my 3DS but I've gotten quite addicted to collecting Miis at cons. XD
It was pretty amazing seeing just how much money Carrie and Sarah make at these cons. Especially Carrie since her and Carolann have a program now that lets them keep track of their inventory and total sales. I'm not really sure how much Sarah made as I never got a moment to count the money in her cash box. But I did make a shitload of buttons and sold quite a number of plushies for her. I sadly did not sell any patches on this first day though a lot of people did take my card who seemed more interested in custom made patches. Have yet to see any inquiries but I'm also a tad busy right now anyways.
Even just sitting at the booth, Felix got quite a bit of attention. Its a really fun costume! Did have one guy place his Gundam kit on the table in front of me, asking me to fix it and I told him to stop being lazy and build it himself. XD I think I threw people off with the fact that I didn't respond with a cute "I can fix it!" to when people asked if I could fix things, and instead tended to be like "Fix it yourself", "Beats me", "Nooooope". I'm the antisocial Felix, I guess. lol
I did make sure to get up and get food at some point. Got a sandwich from the little con food stand but was kinda dismayed that it literally was only roast beef and lettuce and nothing else. I thought there would at least be cheese in it. And got Carrie some french fries. That ended up being my only meal of the day though. And when things got slower closer to closing time, I did get a chance to actually look around the rest of the Dealer's and see if there was anything I wanted to buy. Mainly I was trying to see if anyone might have the Takuto figure I keep having no luck finding. But there wasn't anything that really said "buy me". The Devil May Cry Play Arts and the Berserk figures did look tempting but I really have no space for stuff, especially big ones right now and I was trying to be good with my money. All and all the Dealer's Room didn't interest me much. There was one guy that came to our table earlier that day who I then had a rather lengthy conversation about Saint Seiya with (seems to be my thing lately, to somehow run into another SS fan and geek out...though its always a male. I never really meet female fans of it at cons, sadly enough). He had just gotten into it through Omega and I educated him a little on where he should go from there and how to best get a hold of the original, etc. He said he was on a mission to find SS stuff in the Dealer's and I warned him that you never really find much, even at the bigger cons. He was particularly trying to find the Myth Cloth figures which I find ironic 'cause he later came back and reported he couldn't find any and the only items he found were the Omega chibis. And yet I spotted a Death Mask Myth Cloth right off. Guess he wasn't looking that hard then. But then again I do have eyes trained to spot these things. I kinda hate it though 'cause every time I do find SS stuff, I have the urge to buy it and then have to tell myself no because usually its a character I don't even really like that much. XD
Anywho, while wandering around I did notice a booth that had a sign that said "Free 3D photos here" and thought that sounded kinda cool but also knew there must be some catch because nothing is ever "free". But didn't really take any closer look at the booth so thought no more of it, just figured he was selling prints of his photos or something. Most of you probably heard the drama over this booth already via facebook but I'll come back to it later on here. Near closing, Rose came by our booth and this was one of those funny con moments where I'm like "See, I don't think you know me but I know you just by association of mutual friends and the fact I've talked to you on LJ in the past before but I don't think we ever actually officially met. Hi." XDXD And I could have sworn I had her on my LJ before now but guess I just ran into her a lot on communities. Added her as soon as I got home though 'cause spent a pretty good chunk of the con with her and had some pretty awesome conversations. Dealer's closed and we did the whole "just look like you're with us" to Rose so she wouldn't get booted out as we closed up shop.
It was still raining and this made the walk from con center to hotel a bit annoying as everyone was using the same walkway since there was only one that is covered. But at least there was one! It prevented us from getting that wet. And boy was I glad I stuck with just Felix as I didn't have to worry about any of my costume getting damaged as it was still pretty icky out. Though I did find it amusing that there was a Thor cosplayer out in the rain posing as if he was summoning the storm. XD ...even if this did result in a major traffic jam in the path since people kept stopping to take photos. I tried to grab a quick one but he wouldn't stay still long enough for any shot to come out not blurred so I gave up. Got back to the room with a warning (forget if it was Katie or Kevin that warned us) that there were a lot of eyeless penguins in the room. I didn't really think much of this until we walked in...
There was indeed a lot of eyeless Gunters (from Adventure Time). Though they were actually all over the room when we walked in. This photo was taken after we piled them up on Kevin's air mattress when he was out. XD Sarah had started stuffing them but hadn't gotten their eyes on yet. Must admit it was pretty freaky. lol Changed into regular clothes and chatted with Rose for a bit before we headed back over to the con center to watch the concert. And I was amazed at how the concert started right on time. I'm used to concerts at cons being super delayed so kudos to AnimeNEXT for that. Rose and I just took a seat in one of the side chairs. I was very amused to see that the band had one of the cat plushies on stage with them and that quite a few people in the audience were waving them around. I had a tiny part in the design for them and it was good to see that a lot of them sold. The concert itself was good. Satsuki still sounds as good as always and I liked the music better than the Renter en Soi concert from AnimeNEXT years ago. I liked Renter en Soi but I liked their older stuff and really was not a fan of their later stuff at all so this was a nice change from that. Despite that, most of the songs didn't really stand out to me though. They were nice but nothing that made me want to immediately get their CD or anything. But I would still consider it since it was pleasant to listen to and I've heard a lot of good things about Tomo from Sarah so wouldn't mind supporting his band some. Afterwards we met everyone back at the room and Kevin showed us the epic saga of the "Super Fan" in the photos he got from the concert. Let's just say there was one individual who was very into the show and made for some rather amusing shots. Rose went back to her room and I think I was a lame-o and went to bed earlier than everyone else. Granted by "early" I'm talking like 1-2am here. lol Not sure when everyone else came back but it was pretty late.
Saturday:
Luckily the rain had stopped and the sun was shining! And we proceeded to have nice weather the rest of the con, though a tad bit muggy. But I certainly was happy to take that over the rain for a change. Got into Ludwig and met up with Stephanie. Rose agreed to help Carrie with the table for a bit while I did some photos as this was pretty much the only time that would work for Stephanie and I really wanted to get photos together since we agreed Otakon wouldn't be a hassle and since I didn't go to Zenkai, we weren't able to do it there either. I once again decided to not wear the nails since they really make life difficult and this was just for a few quick photos anyways. I swear I'll put them on and do the accurate costume once we do a real shoot though. At least this time I did manage to fix the costume up some so it was a little nicer than my rush job the day before Katsu. XD; Stephanie didn't have time to make an actual Dorothea costume so she wore a maid outfit she had that worked well for Dorothea's maid outfit. I mean I really doubt anyone will be able to tell its not the exact same. I also totally forgot the correct shirt for this costume so I took one of my t-shirts that had the highest neckline (its supposed to be a turtleneck) and turned it around so the design would be on my back, lol. Super ghetto but it worked.
Me as Ludwig
Stephanie as Dorothea
My favorite of the bunch we took
And rather like this one that Stephanie's Mom took on her camera
Also ran into Eric in his AMAZING French couture!
Went back to the room and changed out of Lui and into Luze. I originally wasn't sure if I should wear this costume while working since I was worried I'd be uncomfortable and overheated but I wasn't able to wear it on Friday like I had originally planned mainly due to the weather and I've only worn the costume once so really wanted to get more wear out of it. It ended up not being that bad at all. I was a lot more comfortable than I thought I'd be and I guess the fact that I was sitting down made the boots not bad at all (last time I wore them for a long period of time was with Lucifer and my calves were super sore from the weight of the boots). Sarah was sleeping when I came into the room (she had a rough night and was up early to finish the Gunter plushies, which all sold pretty damn fast so at least it was worth the work!) so I had to change without much light and be quiet about it so took me a little longer than normal and had Rose check if the wig was ok since I wasn't sure if it wasn't a mess or anything. Relieved Rose of her duty and thanked her for taking over and resumed my position of button master. XD Got a lot better at them and didn't mess up nearly as much as on Friday though every so often when people got me talking, I'd once again forget to put the plastic in and end up with a paper button. Oops. I also finally managed to sell some of my patches which made me much happier as I was going to be pretty upset if none of them sold at all with all the work I did to get them done in time. The guys at the Otakon booth brought a pizza over for us about halfway through the shift, which ended up being an entire pizza which we didn't expect but were both VERY grateful for. I learned how to make buttons one handed because I was not putting that slice of pizza down. At least this seemed to amuse a number of people as I did get a bit of laughs out of it as I stuffed it down my throat. But oh man pizza never tasted so good! XD
I'm not sure why people had trouble finding our booth though. I kept telling everyone I knew where we were and the Dealer's wasn't a very big one. We were in the center area but they couldn't find us for some reason. I guess maybe there were too many people at our booth whenever any of them came by or something. Or they came by during the few times I escaped to use the bathroom. 'Cause I know Stephanie and her Mom never found us. Nor Lauren. And never saw Chrissy, Chris, or Dana even though I know they must have gone in at least once. I did run into Becca and Ben a few times but every time I was in the process of trying to get somewhere or doing something. Usually when I was coming back from the bathroom to the booth. Kept telling them to come by the booth and they said they would but...never saw them. Oh well. XD Guess there was a black hole right before our booth or something. Plenty of customers found us at least.
Carrie went to go explore the Dealer's for a bit when things slowed down some. She comes back and tells me she saw her friend's cosplay picture on a pillow at the booth that guy with the 3D photos was at. I was a bit surprised to realize the merchandise he was selling was actually pillows when I had assumed it was prints or something. Carrie was concerned because she wasn't sure if her friend knew about this, especially considering some of the pillows were clearly designed like the infamous body pillows. Except instead of fanart or anime characters, these were real people on them. So Carrie texted her about it to ask if she knew and we both hoped that maybe she had agreed to it. Couldn't see why anyone would agree to something like that but hey, some people are cool with those things and I have no problem with it. But it really didn't seem cool to me at all. But for the moment we had to wait for her friend to respond to see what was up. Then it was soon time to close up shop again. The Dealer's closed a bit earlier this time around so I met up with Rose and wandered into the Artist Alley since they were still opened (they closed the same time as us on Friday). Found a really cool artist who had the perfect birthday present for Ren. And I know the chances of Ren reading this LJ entry are very slim but just in case I will refrain from saying what it is. XD Just that it deals with Madoka and I had to come back later for when the artist would be done. Still pretty excited to give it to Ren this month. Then helped Rose get her stuff out of her car for her Tales panel. And then went back outside the hotel in order to get a few shots of me in Luze since I have very few photos of the costume.
I know I'm way too short for this character and not intimidating enough but I don't care. XD
Ran into Stef who also took a few shots of me. Though at first she kinda surprised me with her camera and so there's some rather goofy shots of me being like "hey what?" XD
I like this one though
Then went back to the room and changed costume once again. Rose went ahead to get set up for her panel and I agreed to help out since she never heard back from her original helper. Though I wanted to get into Takuto first, thinking it wouldn't take very long. Pffft clearly I forget how difficult it is to get into that costume and this was one of the first times attempting to do so without any help. XD I nearly fell over a few times getting the boots on and had to think hard on what order everything goes on in. Ended up having to take a few things off and doing it over. ^^;;; Its a much more complicated costume to get on than it looks. But I do feel so fabulous in it. Left the swords behind since really no reason to have them at the panel. I just wanted to look good and I figured it might be amusing since Tales of Xillia has a DLC for some of the Star Driver costumes...which I'm really hoping we may be able to get with the US version but I doubt it. T_T
Rose was worried no one would come to her panel due to it being at the same time as the Masquerade and being unsure how many Tales fans were at this con but there was quite the decent sized line for it though sadly the con staff cut it off. For some reason the con decided to keep the business chairs in these rooms instead of replacing them with more simple chairs like I'm used to at panels. So instead of having nice rows of chairs for everyone to sit in, we had everyone in spinny chairs all over the place and were limited with how many people we could have in the room. I mean really could have fit a lot more people if they had used folding chairs instead or something. Yeah these chairs were super nice but it didn't really feel like a panel. Felt more like...well a business meeting except a lot less organized. lol I dunno, I find it hard to get people's attention if they're too busy playing with their chairs. XD I know I certainly was having fun playing with mine. But anyways, the panel consisted of Rose going through basic info for Tales and current news and whatnot, most of which I didn't know so that was cool. I had no idea they were making a Zelos statue! DO WANT! And then the majority of the panel was the trivia game. I basically just took off the point cards off the board and handed them to people. XD And probably a good thing I helped instead of participating like I originally was going to do 'cause I probably wouldn't have gotten any questions right. ...though I did get excited whenever one popped up that I did know. "Oh, even I know this one!" XD She had some pretty good prizes too! It was a little chaotic though since we just had everyone line up and those that didn't want to play or had already gotten a prize, or given up, were just sitting around chatting. Though they did seem to at least be chatting about Tales for the most part. But I think I would have found that a bit awkward if I was in the audience myself. But that's just me and most of the people there seemed to at least know a decent amount. I actually felt better that most of the people there had played the same amount of games I have so I didn't feel so bad about my lack of knowledge. XD Seems that at least I've played the ones everyone else has. Haha!
After the panel, Rose met two guys who couldn't get into the panel but had stuck around outside the whole time and prove to actually be about as passionate about the games as she is and knew way more than the rest of the panel (ironic that they couldn't get in of course) so Rose geeked out with them while I went back to the room to collect my swords. Started wandering for a bit but then noticed my swords didn't seem that bright so went back and changed batteries and it made a huge difference. Walked through the covered walkway which was nifty since it was nice and dark at this point and so I could show the swords off. Was hoping to eventually run into someone I knew as I couldn't even seem to find Rose and the fanboys where I had left them (turns out they moved to the other side of the hall due to a new panel coming in, so they were just beyond my gaze XD). But alas, no one in sight. Poked my head in the Masquerade but all I saw were a bunch of maids dancing on stage and that didn't interest me so went back to wandering...alone. ^^;; At least I got stopped for photos quite a bit and did amuse a lot of people with the swords. There were a few guys that were calling out at me but I totally didn't hear/notice that they meant me until I hear "Ginga Bishonen!" and I turned immediately and they were all "...you respond to THAT one of all things?" I guess they had already tried yelling Takuto, etc. XD And then there was some guy who was like "Oh man your Ginga Bishonen is great...but there was this Japanese cosplayer at AX who came all the way from Japan who was PERFECT." and I'm like "...gee...thanks...x_x;" I mean, seriously, why do people do that? Its not really a compliment when you phrase it that way.
I did find this nice photo of me though
Anywho, finally did run into people I knew. In fact as I was walking back to the hotel, about to give up, from the other direction comes Sarah, Carrie, Steve, Kevin, annd I forget who else. Sarah grabs me and Carrie is all "We're going to make Justice!" which was way too cute. XD So I follow along and realize its about the pillows at that one booth. Carrie got a reply from her friend, who did not know about the pillows and was pretty upset about it. So we were going to go tell Carlo and the rest of the security gang. At first we thought we totally had this guy 'cause Carrie's friend claimed she didn't sign or agree to anything. And everyone agreed this was super skeezy. Though Carlo said we had to wait til the next morning before the Dealer's opened for anything to happen. So yes, those of you who have read this only via the internet, no, he was never actually kicked out of the con nor told to take his stuff down that night. The situation wasn't even handled until Sunday morning...which I'll get to soon. But back to Saturday!
Dar and Ethan made it down just for the day. I saw them briefly earlier in the Dealer's but this time we got to actually talk to them and hang for a bit. Also saw Lauren finally who I hadn't seen all day. She was very excited because she won a Judge's award for her Ouka costume. She'd never won anything before and I think this was her first time entering anything so was super proud and excited for her too. Rose found us again. And she told me she actually had JUST finally finished talking to the geek boys at this point, which mean they were geeking for over an hour. XD Chatted with Dar and Ethan until they had to leave and then continued to chill with everyone else until our group got gradually smaller. Then it was pretty much just Rose and I. XD Chatted about pretty much everything from Tales to GodChild and then some. Went back to the room and came right into an AnimeNEXT staff meeting. Oops. So was just kinda like "ah, don't mind me...while I change while you discuss important plans. La la la." XD Had some delicious plum wine. I was quite surprised that I liked it so much since I don't normally like wine and that it didn't give me an immediate headache. Though did realize I should probably get some food in me. Though once again I planned poorly and had no means to get food. So ended up going down to the lobby, in a MLP shirt nonetheless, and bought...a cup of fucking ramen from the convenience store. Felt like such a weeb. Even tried to hide the evidence but I totally dropped it down the stairs in the process and almost ran into a girl in the process. x_x Go me. But yeah, felt pretty lame eating the thing in the room. I haven't had one of those in like over 6 years. But I was so hungry it actually tasted...decent. Not good but I was able to actually eat the whole thing. Last time I tried one I couldn't stomach the noodles and just drank the brooth. XD; But I used to eat them all the time in highschool. lol
Some around this point we made the realization that since Eric and I were sharing a bed, that made us the "gay bed", Sarah and Steve the "straight bed" and then... Eric: "well I suppose that makes Kevin on his lonely air mattress the masturbation bed?" ^^;; But I dunno even know why but I found the "gay bed" fact to be hilarious for some reason. XDXD Or maybe it was the wine getting to me. 'Cause everyone else went out to party with other people and I freaking passed out like a lame loser. lol And I mean I was OUT. Normally when people come into the room, I wake up instantly. I'm a light sleeper so any noise/light wakes me up. But when I did wake up next, it was to see that the lights were off and everyone sound asleep. I mean even Eric getting into the bed next to me didn't wake me up! I was a bit confused by this. That and the fact that everyone was in the room...except Sarah but didn't think much of it. Until I woke up again a few hours later and still no Sarah. In fact Sarah didn't come into the room until...
Sunday:
Woke up before anyone else and started to get into Felix as it was getting close to time for Dealer's to open. And then Sarah comes back into the room and crawls into bed with Steve. XD I don't know how she managed to stay awake that long. lol Went over to the Dealer's and this was the first time I actually got there before opening. While we were getting ready, Carlo comes over and says he talked to the guy at the booth but the guy says he has a release form from the girl. Carrie calls her friend and hands the phone over to Carlo to take care of it. And turns out that yes, she did in fact sign a release form so there wasn't much more AnimeNEXT could do about the situation. Carrie then tried to see if she could buy the pillow of her friend to use as evidence later but the guy said he had to remove that particular one from his stock. So at least the guy did take hers down when she expressed she didn't want to be used that way. But this turned into a huge deal online after the con. Several other people found that there were pillows of them and none of them had agreed to anything about pillows but since they did sign a form and let him take the 3D photos, not much they could do. Still didn't sit well with me personally as I don't think its right to exploit anyone in that way, even if you do technically have the rights to it. In the end, the guy got so much complaints from it that he did in fact agree to remove the stock. So at least he did that and the issue is over and the lesson learned is not to sign anything unless you're 100% sure what it is. And does pull into question what photographers are allowed to do with the photos they take at cons.
Anyways, had quite a bit of business considering most people spend most of their time on Sundays in the Dealer's. Sold a few more patches. I sold out of my Avengers "A" which made me happy as that was the favorite of the new batch I made. We had another batch of Gunters out and they once again sold pretty fast. Got a text from the girl in the AA saying that Ren's present was finished so went and picked that up. The bag it's in is super cute too. Stayed to help at the table as long as I could until Chrissy and the gang texted saying they were packing up the car and going over to eat. So I eventually escaped to pack my stuff up. But at least there weren't too many hours left to the Dealer's even though I did feel bad leaving Carrie on her own but I also didn't want to make my ride wait much. Ran into Eric who was also packing his stuff up so got to say goodbye to him and Katie. Asked them if they wouldn't mind taking a few quick shots of me in Felix before I got out of the costume since despite wearing it most of the weekend, I hadn't managed to get any photos in it. Katie had issues taking photos that didn't blur. Eric was better at it but only took one shot and my hammer is facing the wrong way. XD Ah well. Will hopefully get more photos at the next cons.
Photo is dark and blurry but at least you get the idea.
Didn't get to say bye to Sarah as she was running everywhere but did make sure to text her. And then off we went back down to Maryland. This time with plenty of ones for the tolls. XD And luckily we did stop at a rest stop not too far into the ride so I managed to get a frap and a salad so I'd at least have eaten something. Got home, showed off the kitties to everyone. Alexiel was very happy to have four people petting her at once. XD And that concludes my AnimeNEXT. I did notice that it did still have some of the feel of the old AN, with the majority of cosplayers hanging outside and taking photos out there but never really got to be part of that due to being stuck in the Dealer's. Still unsure of the con itself but I did enjoy myself and made some money from it, so definitely can't complain! If Sarah asks me to work her booth again, I wouldn't mind as long as its at a con like this one where I don't have anything else planned.
~Lyn
