Katsucon 2008 Con Report!
I've FINALLY finished my Katsucon Report! =D
WARNING, fairly IMAGE HEAVY. CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK.
(Also, sorry about the page stretch. :<)
Friday morning was... interesting to say the least. Everyone was to meet at my house, to party van down to DC. Clone had spent the night, and we were up until 5 am working on Road and Tifa. And watching Wolfgang Puck, and trying to remember where he's from
Fun times, indeed. 8D
Got up, finished packing, got my hair in a wig cap (it's a bitch to get in. >>; it's all layered and such... so I have to wet it down and wrestle it under the cap), pulled on my OrgXIII cloak and started on my makeup while waiting for Julia, Mrs. Faith, Janna and Mrs. Ruth to all magically appear at my house.
Which they eventually did.
My god, I wish I got a picture of all our luggage... It was hilarious. XD And we SOMEHOW managed to get just about all of it in our SUV.
On the way down we rocked out to our "Katsucon Mix CD" courtesy of Julia, who talked to Janna via PictoChat while Clone and I were sewing in the car... Still surprised that Road's snaps were sewn on straight. XD
Bohemian Rhapsody = Awesome.
Finally after and hour-ish of driving we arrived! Whoooo! Unloaded all the crap into the lobby, and then had to deal with hotel staff which mom and Mrs. Ruth parked the cars (and hitch-hiked part of the way back XD).
Yeah. One of the hotel staff came over and told us we couldn't keep our stuff where it was. And this was a LOT OF STUFF. We gave him the name that the hotel was reserved under, and he said he was going to check on it for us. And then never came back, so we got to stay where we were. :D
The best part was... Someone came up to us and asked for a picture with us and our wigs.
So, myself (just walking around in a wig cap) and Julia in our Org coats and Janna and Clone in plain clothes picked up the four wigs we had at easy access. I'm still looking for that picture. XD
Finally got our room (on the 8th floor! DX) On the way up, we ran into Zippy in the elevator, so I headed off with her to get Roxas's keyblade from her hotel room. Met Aiden and Froggy in brief conversation when I introduced myself as Road, made plans to pick up Road's wig and the Rose Whip later, and then it was running up two more flights of stairs to get back to the room and eat lunch cause I had the shakes... Ehehe. Getting up @ 8 and not eating until 2 = bad idea.
Got badges, and then it was off to get dressed, grab Road's wig and Marluxia's Rose Whip, and finally it was time for the actual CON!
Our room's view. =D
I had actually planned on running around as Larxene for part of Friday, but it just didn't work out, so I stayed in Road (plus, there were two D.Gray-man shoots; afternoon and night), which was the best costume of the weekend. >D
But, the D.Gray-man shoots were AWESOME and EPIC. (The caps lock proves this fact.)
In the afternoon the Noah were waaaay outnumbered (even more so on Sunday) and so the vs shots were quite amusing. :3 Candlestaked Zippy multiple times, in various areas (most of the time I was laughing at her as I did so... But you can't see my face in any pictures. boo.), traded props with another Road, laughed at the Kanda vs Allen fight, ect.
During a shot with "Team Glowing Rangers" (Zippy, Aiden, Froggy, and myself. We all had glowy props >D) Zippy and I were comparing splits... and I lost my balance and fell against the stone building, scraping up my hand badly enough that I was bleeding.
Injury count = 1.
TEAM GLOWING RANGERS!!
[psh, my eyes are closed... XD stupid blinking!]
Ran off to see Last Chance Myu between shoots. X3 We were talking to the Pluto before hand, and she was saying how great it was to see moms interested in coming to the cons too. (Some random people in the elevator said the same thing to Mrs. Faith on a separate occasion.)
Last Chance was pretty awesome. Besides SeraMyu songs they did some classic showtunes (including "Popular" from Wicked and "Worst Pies in London" from Sweeney Todd) and their Sailor Moon was obnoxiously adorable. X3
And now, back to the DGM shoots!
At night, the Noah were much less outnumbered! Especially cause Julia decided to come as Lulubell!
Before we all headed outside, those of us who'd shown up were hanging out in a circle on the lobby floor (there was a Miranda with a spinning Time Disk... OOooh...) We were playing with Daisya's bell... XD Oh! And an Okami cosplayer came up and was loving all over Zippy. XD She was soooo adorable! We were all petting her.
Lavi is amused. :D
See? We play nice! ...sometimes...
We wandered outside once everyone else showed up.
Stole Zippy's coat to candlestake her against a brick wall, and then...
Showtunes. XD
Becca (Tyki) had started to sing Seasons of Love from Rent up on the little terrace. By the time I ran up there, she'd switched to La Vie Boheme --which is, quite possibly, the best song from Rent-- and I ended up jumping up on the ledge with her and singing. Rent quickly turned into The Phantom of the Opera, which turned to Tyki and Road singing "All I Ask of You". (This is what the Noah do in their spare time.)
"EW! Tyki x Road! You're SIBLINGS!!"
I'd like to personally thank whoever shouted that at us. You made me smile. =D
We're totally going to take a CD player/iPod speakers and record us singing showtunes next con. XD
Exorcists sing My Chemical Romance. Noah sing showtunes. <3
Julia makes an awesome Lulubell <3
Noah Family, RAWR.
Noah vs. Exorcists
Finished at the shoot, went inside to meet the mothers at the bar to go to dinner. Grabbed my coat from the hotel room (it has fur around the collar <3) so I wouldn't freeze my ass off, and we all ran over to the pub. YAY PUB! XD
When we came back, Julia and I were spotted and summoned over to the mini-DGM shoot in the lobby.
Seriously. Someone saw us, pointed, and waved us over.
Also, when I was leaving the hotel as Road at some point, vikki was coming in (as Crown Clown Allen), I smirked at her when we passed, and she yelled,
"NO KISSING!"
I laughed as the mothers stared. X3
And then... time for sleep!
Saturday was the day with the most drama. :<
Got up waaaay early to go to judging for Ayane (later I realized I had NO chance at winning XD). The judges complimented me on my hems, saying they looked really nice, especially for using satin. X3
The main guy also noticed my bandaid from when I scratched my hand on the hotel on Friday, and asked if it was a "cosplay-related injury". I laughed and said yes.
Back upstairs to get changed and get ready for a marathon of shoots! First was Kingdom Hearts, and after was Clone's Final Fantasy shoot.
Kingdom Hearts was fun. >D But Larxene's wig decided to be a bitch, and her one antennae kept drooping. RAWR. Julia is such a great Roxas, and Janna as flamboyantly gay Marluxia is hilarious.
There was much running around in the mud. And my coat's hem is really dirty now. XD (I need to take it up) Wearing heels in soft ground is a baaad idea...
Marly ended up assisting Zippy(Saix) in catching Zexion...
Zippy, this is my favorite face. XD
And some Sora brought a plastic heart.
...which was promptly fought over.
And who can forget that LARXENE'S GOT A KEYBLADE! AHHHH!
Roxas got Sora's heart!!
And another Roxas brought cake to the shoot! =D
Afterwards, was the Final Fantasy Shoot.
There was a totally cute Moogle at the FF shoot. I wanted to squeeze her soooo bad. X3 And a Sephiroth with Jenova's head. Which was slightly disturbing, but awesome nonetheless. And Clone was the only Tifa <3
Well, here, I'll let the pics speak for themselves.
Ate lunch in a giant picnic in the room, got changed into Ayane and we headed to meet up with Mrs. Faith, Julia and Janna to get in line for the Masquerade.
Pictochatted with some awesome people in line, saw Rynn!! (it was so great to see her again<3), and the line started moving after.. a while. XD
When we were seated, we ended up getting separated. I was in an end seat by myself (partially because of my big ass bow for Ayane XD), Clone, Janna, Julia and Mrs. Faith were behind me, and Mrs. Ruth and my mom were seated in the row behind that. The only thing that sucked was that I didn't have anyone to talk to during the Masq. :<
All in all, Masquerade was awesome. =D
Best skits:
Bleach - Mamma Mia!
Their Yoruichi had some serious moves. =O I loved their choreo, and my friend was in it... XD
Plus, Urahara's dance moves were hilarious. XD
Death Note
Dood. Shinigami puppets. Nuff said.
Awesome music helped, too. And L's pratfall made me smile.
Various - Good Idea, Bad Idea
The kids are BACK! =D And better than last year!
This was a great comedy skit, so true... XD
Tales of the Abyss
asdkjfiue HOLY SHIT AN ABYSS SKIT! <333
This is the best fighting skit I've seen that uses weapons and not just hand-to-hand combat.
Plus, their costumes were so preeeetty. ^___^ The music was edited so well. (I loved how they used the Grand Fonic Hymn in the end)
I loved it so much, I didn't even care it was full of spoilers. XD
Various - La Resistance
Just watch it. I can't say enough on how hilariously awesome this was. :3
One final thing has to be said about the Masq.
Instead of their normal half-time show, this time they had the finals from the "Anime Name That Tune" competition, which was still thoroughly amusing. Especially when Lucky*Star started playing and a bunch of audience people all got up to dance. (the host said, "Nono, put it back on! I want to see how much of it they know. >D")
And I danced my costume off. XD
It was so big on me that when I was doing the bouncy moves, the hook and eyes on the obi unhooked, and Julia had to fix it for me. <33
Dinner was in-room Chinese and BY THE WAY. CON-GOERS!
YOU EMPTIED THE CHINESE CARRY-OUT'S SUPPLY OF CHOPSTICKS.
Way to go. >3
I was alerted of needing to return the Keyblade and Rose Whip to Zippy on Saturday night, so I volunteered to take it down. It ended up being Julia, Janna and I all going downstairs. XD
On this trip, I did realize why slippers got their name...
I slipped and fell down the grody, concrete hotel stairs.
My hand was bruised for a couple days, my hip for over a week, and I strained my shoulder which bothered me for a while after the con.
(Injury count = 4)
My mom shook her head at me when I told her I fell down the stairs.
I had planned on getting up early and getting my ass out of the hotel room to go to a panel, but that didn't happen. I'd packed up all my stuff the night before so I could leave early, so I didn't have to worry with it, and I still got to go to the DGM Sunday shoot, which ended up being probably the best point of the whole weekend. =D
Sunday shoot was smaller, but epic nonetheless.
We took the classic group shots, and then an "action" shot. And then moved for some smaller solo/duo/trio shots.
I talked to catwithoutagun more, mainly about how freaking cold it was. XD She's such an awesome Lenalee <33
One of the other Lavi's (I think he was the only actual man) suggested that everyone gang up on me, seeing how I was the only Noah.
So they did. And Zippy came running at me with her arm raised and when I blocked her with my candlestake, I lost my balance and fell back. (Injury count = 5, 6 if I hadn't been wearing stockings)
Tired of talking now. Look at pretty pictures. :D
"OH SHI--!!"
See? SEE? I IZ FLEXIBLE. (I can do a backbend, too. 8D)
Remember all that candlestaking I was talking about? Time for a montage!
Afterwards, met up with Mrs. Faith and Julia to go to the Dealer's Room and such. (I hadn't gone shopping all weekend. O_O)
I bought Tyki and Road cell phone straps, a Piplup plushie, a Tear Grants clip poster, and the Scrapped Princess box set <3
Ran into Evenstar on the way out of the Dealer's room, but I couldn't talk long, cause we were in a hurry.
And then, time to go.
Bohemian Rhapsody, anyone? >3
All and all it was a great con! X3 Best con I've cosplayed at yet, probably. Least amount of drama, too.
Met lots of awesome peoples (CloakedSchemer, Becca, catwithoutagun to name a few).
Can't wait to see you all again!!
Also, in case I didn't say so before, many thanks need to be given to Clone for taking so many pictures for me that weekend. I <3 you, Clone!!
And because my attendance to Otakon is currently under discussion, I don't have an official cosplay list yet. BUT. There is a tentative one. Go check out the sidebar. 8D
<3s~!
Achie
WARNING, fairly IMAGE HEAVY. CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK.
(Also, sorry about the page stretch. :<)
Friday morning was... interesting to say the least. Everyone was to meet at my house, to party van down to DC. Clone had spent the night, and we were up until 5 am working on Road and Tifa. And watching Wolfgang Puck, and trying to remember where he's from
Fun times, indeed. 8D
Got up, finished packing, got my hair in a wig cap (it's a bitch to get in. >>; it's all layered and such... so I have to wet it down and wrestle it under the cap), pulled on my OrgXIII cloak and started on my makeup while waiting for Julia, Mrs. Faith, Janna and Mrs. Ruth to all magically appear at my house.
Which they eventually did.
My god, I wish I got a picture of all our luggage... It was hilarious. XD And we SOMEHOW managed to get just about all of it in our SUV.
On the way down we rocked out to our "Katsucon Mix CD" courtesy of Julia, who talked to Janna via PictoChat while Clone and I were sewing in the car... Still surprised that Road's snaps were sewn on straight. XD
Bohemian Rhapsody = Awesome.
Finally after and hour-ish of driving we arrived! Whoooo! Unloaded all the crap into the lobby, and then had to deal with hotel staff which mom and Mrs. Ruth parked the cars (and hitch-hiked part of the way back XD).
Yeah. One of the hotel staff came over and told us we couldn't keep our stuff where it was. And this was a LOT OF STUFF. We gave him the name that the hotel was reserved under, and he said he was going to check on it for us. And then never came back, so we got to stay where we were. :D
The best part was... Someone came up to us and asked for a picture with us and our wigs.
So, myself (just walking around in a wig cap) and Julia in our Org coats and Janna and Clone in plain clothes picked up the four wigs we had at easy access. I'm still looking for that picture. XD
Finally got our room (on the 8th floor! DX) On the way up, we ran into Zippy in the elevator, so I headed off with her to get Roxas's keyblade from her hotel room. Met Aiden and Froggy in brief conversation when I introduced myself as Road, made plans to pick up Road's wig and the Rose Whip later, and then it was running up two more flights of stairs to get back to the room and eat lunch cause I had the shakes... Ehehe. Getting up @ 8 and not eating until 2 = bad idea.
Got badges, and then it was off to get dressed, grab Road's wig and Marluxia's Rose Whip, and finally it was time for the actual CON!
Our room's view. =D
I had actually planned on running around as Larxene for part of Friday, but it just didn't work out, so I stayed in Road (plus, there were two D.Gray-man shoots; afternoon and night), which was the best costume of the weekend. >D
But, the D.Gray-man shoots were AWESOME and EPIC. (The caps lock proves this fact.)
In the afternoon the Noah were waaaay outnumbered (even more so on Sunday) and so the vs shots were quite amusing. :3 Candlestaked Zippy multiple times, in various areas (most of the time I was laughing at her as I did so... But you can't see my face in any pictures. boo.), traded props with another Road, laughed at the Kanda vs Allen fight, ect.
During a shot with "Team Glowing Rangers" (Zippy, Aiden, Froggy, and myself. We all had glowy props >D) Zippy and I were comparing splits... and I lost my balance and fell against the stone building, scraping up my hand badly enough that I was bleeding.
Injury count = 1.
TEAM GLOWING RANGERS!!
[psh, my eyes are closed... XD stupid blinking!]
Ran off to see Last Chance Myu between shoots. X3 We were talking to the Pluto before hand, and she was saying how great it was to see moms interested in coming to the cons too. (Some random people in the elevator said the same thing to Mrs. Faith on a separate occasion.)
Last Chance was pretty awesome. Besides SeraMyu songs they did some classic showtunes (including "Popular" from Wicked and "Worst Pies in London" from Sweeney Todd) and their Sailor Moon was obnoxiously adorable. X3
And now, back to the DGM shoots!
At night, the Noah were much less outnumbered! Especially cause Julia decided to come as Lulubell!
Before we all headed outside, those of us who'd shown up were hanging out in a circle on the lobby floor (there was a Miranda with a spinning Time Disk... OOooh...) We were playing with Daisya's bell... XD Oh! And an Okami cosplayer came up and was loving all over Zippy. XD She was soooo adorable! We were all petting her.
Lavi is amused. :D
See? We play nice! ...sometimes...
We wandered outside once everyone else showed up.
Stole Zippy's coat to candlestake her against a brick wall, and then...
Showtunes. XD
Becca (Tyki) had started to sing Seasons of Love from Rent up on the little terrace. By the time I ran up there, she'd switched to La Vie Boheme --which is, quite possibly, the best song from Rent-- and I ended up jumping up on the ledge with her and singing. Rent quickly turned into The Phantom of the Opera, which turned to Tyki and Road singing "All I Ask of You". (This is what the Noah do in their spare time.)
"EW! Tyki x Road! You're SIBLINGS!!"
I'd like to personally thank whoever shouted that at us. You made me smile. =D
We're totally going to take a CD player/iPod speakers and record us singing showtunes next con. XD
Exorcists sing My Chemical Romance. Noah sing showtunes. <3
Julia makes an awesome Lulubell <3
Noah Family, RAWR.
Noah vs. Exorcists
Finished at the shoot, went inside to meet the mothers at the bar to go to dinner. Grabbed my coat from the hotel room (it has fur around the collar <3) so I wouldn't freeze my ass off, and we all ran over to the pub. YAY PUB! XD
When we came back, Julia and I were spotted and summoned over to the mini-DGM shoot in the lobby.
Seriously. Someone saw us, pointed, and waved us over.
Also, when I was leaving the hotel as Road at some point, vikki was coming in (as Crown Clown Allen), I smirked at her when we passed, and she yelled,
"NO KISSING!"
I laughed as the mothers stared. X3
And then... time for sleep!
Saturday was the day with the most drama. :<
Got up waaaay early to go to judging for Ayane (later I realized I had NO chance at winning XD). The judges complimented me on my hems, saying they looked really nice, especially for using satin. X3
The main guy also noticed my bandaid from when I scratched my hand on the hotel on Friday, and asked if it was a "cosplay-related injury". I laughed and said yes.
Back upstairs to get changed and get ready for a marathon of shoots! First was Kingdom Hearts, and after was Clone's Final Fantasy shoot.
Kingdom Hearts was fun. >D But Larxene's wig decided to be a bitch, and her one antennae kept drooping. RAWR. Julia is such a great Roxas, and Janna as flamboyantly gay Marluxia is hilarious.
There was much running around in the mud. And my coat's hem is really dirty now. XD (I need to take it up) Wearing heels in soft ground is a baaad idea...
Marly ended up assisting Zippy(Saix) in catching Zexion...
Zippy, this is my favorite face. XD
And some Sora brought a plastic heart.
...which was promptly fought over.
And who can forget that LARXENE'S GOT A KEYBLADE! AHHHH!
Roxas got Sora's heart!!
And another Roxas brought cake to the shoot! =D
Afterwards, was the Final Fantasy Shoot.
There was a totally cute Moogle at the FF shoot. I wanted to squeeze her soooo bad. X3 And a Sephiroth with Jenova's head. Which was slightly disturbing, but awesome nonetheless. And Clone was the only Tifa <3
Well, here, I'll let the pics speak for themselves.
Ate lunch in a giant picnic in the room, got changed into Ayane and we headed to meet up with Mrs. Faith, Julia and Janna to get in line for the Masquerade.
Pictochatted with some awesome people in line, saw Rynn!! (it was so great to see her again<3), and the line started moving after.. a while. XD
When we were seated, we ended up getting separated. I was in an end seat by myself (partially because of my big ass bow for Ayane XD), Clone, Janna, Julia and Mrs. Faith were behind me, and Mrs. Ruth and my mom were seated in the row behind that. The only thing that sucked was that I didn't have anyone to talk to during the Masq. :<
All in all, Masquerade was awesome. =D
Best skits:
Bleach - Mamma Mia!
Their Yoruichi had some serious moves. =O I loved their choreo, and my friend was in it... XD
Plus, Urahara's dance moves were hilarious. XD
Death Note
Dood. Shinigami puppets. Nuff said.
Awesome music helped, too. And L's pratfall made me smile.
Various - Good Idea, Bad Idea
The kids are BACK! =D And better than last year!
This was a great comedy skit, so true... XD
Tales of the Abyss
asdkjfiue HOLY SHIT AN ABYSS SKIT! <333
This is the best fighting skit I've seen that uses weapons and not just hand-to-hand combat.
Plus, their costumes were so preeeetty. ^___^ The music was edited so well. (I loved how they used the Grand Fonic Hymn in the end)
I loved it so much, I didn't even care it was full of spoilers. XD
Various - La Resistance
Just watch it. I can't say enough on how hilariously awesome this was. :3
One final thing has to be said about the Masq.
Instead of their normal half-time show, this time they had the finals from the "Anime Name That Tune" competition, which was still thoroughly amusing. Especially when Lucky*Star started playing and a bunch of audience people all got up to dance. (the host said, "Nono, put it back on! I want to see how much of it they know. >D")
And I danced my costume off. XD
It was so big on me that when I was doing the bouncy moves, the hook and eyes on the obi unhooked, and Julia had to fix it for me. <33
Dinner was in-room Chinese and BY THE WAY. CON-GOERS!
YOU EMPTIED THE CHINESE CARRY-OUT'S SUPPLY OF CHOPSTICKS.
Way to go. >3
I was alerted of needing to return the Keyblade and Rose Whip to Zippy on Saturday night, so I volunteered to take it down. It ended up being Julia, Janna and I all going downstairs. XD
On this trip, I did realize why slippers got their name...
I slipped and fell down the grody, concrete hotel stairs.
My hand was bruised for a couple days, my hip for over a week, and I strained my shoulder which bothered me for a while after the con.
(Injury count = 4)
My mom shook her head at me when I told her I fell down the stairs.
I had planned on getting up early and getting my ass out of the hotel room to go to a panel, but that didn't happen. I'd packed up all my stuff the night before so I could leave early, so I didn't have to worry with it, and I still got to go to the DGM Sunday shoot, which ended up being probably the best point of the whole weekend. =D
Sunday shoot was smaller, but epic nonetheless.
We took the classic group shots, and then an "action" shot. And then moved for some smaller solo/duo/trio shots.
I talked to catwithoutagun more, mainly about how freaking cold it was. XD She's such an awesome Lenalee <33
One of the other Lavi's (I think he was the only actual man) suggested that everyone gang up on me, seeing how I was the only Noah.
So they did. And Zippy came running at me with her arm raised and when I blocked her with my candlestake, I lost my balance and fell back. (Injury count = 5, 6 if I hadn't been wearing stockings)
Tired of talking now. Look at pretty pictures. :D
"OH SHI--!!"
See? SEE? I IZ FLEXIBLE. (I can do a backbend, too. 8D)
Remember all that candlestaking I was talking about? Time for a montage!
Afterwards, met up with Mrs. Faith and Julia to go to the Dealer's Room and such. (I hadn't gone shopping all weekend. O_O)
I bought Tyki and Road cell phone straps, a Piplup plushie, a Tear Grants clip poster, and the Scrapped Princess box set <3
Ran into Evenstar on the way out of the Dealer's room, but I couldn't talk long, cause we were in a hurry.
And then, time to go.
Bohemian Rhapsody, anyone? >3
All and all it was a great con! X3 Best con I've cosplayed at yet, probably. Least amount of drama, too.
Met lots of awesome peoples (CloakedSchemer, Becca, catwithoutagun to name a few).
Can't wait to see you all again!!
Also, in case I didn't say so before, many thanks need to be given to Clone for taking so many pictures for me that weekend. I <3 you, Clone!!
And because my attendance to Otakon is currently under discussion, I don't have an official cosplay list yet. BUT. There is a tentative one. Go check out the sidebar. 8D
<3s~!
Achie