Fanime~!
DAY ZEE-RO
We dragged our lazy asses out of bed at 4 in the AM to catch our flight. Early flights = cheap flights. I honestly have no idea how I did it. I'm pretty sure I looked like a zombie...
I am MELON LORD!
Yes, those are my panties.
Soooo....soon as we got to San Jose, CA (where Fanime is located), we went to the Winchester Mystery House.
From left to right: Zoro (aka Green Greeny), Ladelle (aka...Ladelle), me (aka Reyn), and LB (aka Tall One)
The 'bump hats' (as they were officially called...cuz hard hats are too good for us) were for exploring the basement.
For anyone who doesn't know, the Winchester Mansion is the house that has inspired countless horror stories like Stephen King's Rose Red or The House on Haunted Hill (if I'm thinking of the right movie). This house has staircases that lead to nowhere, random doors that open into walls, etc, etc.
The woman who built the place was gullible and creepy. She didn't understand why her husband died 12 years after her baby, leaving her all alone in the world. So she visited a gypsy and asked, "Am I cursed? D8"
The gypsy snorted and said, "Pfft. You sure are! And its because of all the GUNS your husband's company sells!! The spirits of those killed by the Winchester guns are after you! So to appease them you must..." *insert moment of thought* "...move to the other side of the country and...build a house! BUT! You must never stop building it or you will DIE!"
Bum bum bummmmm!
Now, rather than thinking, "Yes! Death! I can rejoin my husband and baby!" like any sensible widow would do, she went, "Death?! Gasp! Nooo! Surely not! I'm going to live forever!"
...I'm the queeeen~! I'll live forever~!
Anyways, she took the gypsy's advice and promptly packed up and moved out west. Although I guess you can't really blame her for believing in that tripe. It was all the rage during her era.
Backstory aside, the only real creeper thing about Mrs. Winchester was that all the bathrooms in her house had windows and glass doors so she could spy on her servants as they bathed. And her servants put up with it because A) she paid double what the going salary was and B) they would probably be fired within the week anyways because like all ridiculously rich people, Mrs. Winchester could be a real bee-otch.
Once we were done with our tours (they didn't allow us to take pictures), we went to the hotel, checked in, found a place to eat, went back to the hotel, changed into cosplay for the One Piece dinner later on...
*has a small fangirl moment*
...and went to the con to get in live for pre-reg. But then we saw the time and went "Oh shit! Time for the meet up!" and left the line.
I know I'm not the only out there who uses her camera to do a quick hair check..!
Yeah~! We're pirates and we like to randomly pose before dinner!
Hey look! Buggy's got talent 8D
After about an hour (during which we took way more pictures than just these two), everyone was all, "We're starving! Feed us! Feeeeeed us! Arrr!" So we went to Johnny Rockets.
Zoro's swords are hard to remove...
Robin to the heterosexual rescue...!
OM NOM NOM~!
The only really pirate-y thing we did while at Johnny Rockets was clear them out of their change for 20s. Because pirates are all about the chump change.
...Arrr.
Once dinner was done, numbers and gossip were exchanged, and we went back to pre-reg and ran into the infamous Black!Gai.
He can tear bend!!
Contrary to what the picture shows, he wasn't in cosplay at the time. BUT! He's still ten types of awesome. We chatted about how he would make the best President ever and his future plans on cosplaying man!Toph
I can see with sonic waves from my mouth. BAAAAAHHHH!!!!!
Never let it be said that we don't know how to entertain ourselves while waiting in line.
After picking up our badges, hitting up the swap meet (where LB bought the entire FMA series for $65), we headed back to the hotel to catch some Z's.
DAY ONE
No joke, it took us 5 hours to get ready that morning. Five. As in one, two, three, four, five. HOURS. Ugh! Cosplay, I hate you.
Despite that, we made it to the convention center with half an hour to spare before the gathering - or so we thought.
For anyone who is unfamiliar with Fanime's cosplay M.O., they keep track of all gatherings so they can post a list at the con. Not only do they do that, but they require whomever organized the gathering to sign in 30 minutes early with promises of cake and then send out photographer lackeys 10 minutes prior to the designated meet-up time to demand if all attendees are present so they can take group shots and announce the gathering is over.
If you've ever been to a gathering, you know that's not how things work.
Personal feelings aside (the cake was a lie), Fanime go the start time wrong and the gathering was sort of force-started at noon instead of 12.30.
I have no idea what happened with this shot. It makes me genuinely curious as to whose hands my camera was in at the time.
I'm never getting over man!Toph.
Zuko wishes he had a pitchfork to hold. Mai wishes she had a farmhouse in the background.
WET WATER IS WET!
Epic Earth Kingdom is Epic.
OH! It was here (just before the gathering) that we met up with Master of Rebels and pringlebunny. We ended up hanging out with them the entire con because they're so awesome and amazing and wonderful and fun and not creepy. Not creepy was their biggest plus.
Shortly after the gathering died down, we realized we were starving and logically spent a good 20 minutes staring at a map, trying to find someplace decent to eat before figuring out it would be a better idea to just walk in a general direction where the map said food would be and just seeing what looked good.
We hit up a bar (cuz bars always look good!) that required us to go to the back, down this creepy hall, and around a hidden corner to pick up our food. Since we each got paged individually, I was positive I would end up in a back alley and would be kidnapped by the mafia. My only hope was they were Avatar fans and would let me go.
And it all would have been a devious scheme of Azula's.
Through a rather prominent language barrier, we asked the cooks to re-page us so Azula could pretend she was playing with lightning.
After our bellies were full, Master of Rebels and pringlebunny led us to a grocery market so we could stock up on breakfast supplies. While there we ran into this...guy that we all apparently knew but had no clue as to who he actually was. It left me terribly confused. But that was okay, because he wasn't creepy and as I've said before, not creepy is a definitely plus.
As we were leaving the store, we came across a park with a water fountain play display thing and decided "Yay! Photoshoot!" and Master and pringlebunny were awesome enough to be photographers for us :D
*whines* WET WATER IS STILL WET!
These pictures really aren't doing me much justice, are they?
There. I feel slightly redeemed.
Zutara secretly lols at Kataang ships.
It was at about this time this random 6'8" guy showed up and started gushing about how he had just gotten into Avatar while doing these random crazy flips and stuff.
I was impressed simply because he was 6' 8".
Turned out he was proficient in partcour-ing (I have no idea how to verb-alize that) and we asked him to jump over a bench to show us. My excitement died down when he went to stand next to the bench and I realized that for him it wouldn't be jumping so much as...stepping over it.
But after we expressed such fangirl interest in his amazing talents, he told us about a panel he was running...with this guy who I guess is a little famous over at Yaoi Con. So naturally we had to go.
6'8" people get amazing airtime.
Unfortunately all our pictures at the panel came out blurry, but we did get decent video of them at the end when they choreographed a fight scene!
The shirtlessness was at our group's request.
After the panel things get a little hazy. I think I was in hyped-up fangirl mode at that time because I remember we discussed plans to go to the Yaoi Bingo panel (which fell on Day 2) and there was a hotel pizza party....OH! And to finish my day of photos, on my way back to the hotel room I saw THIS:
Iva-sama...the greatest character since Hard Gay.
Yeah, I practically creamed my pants.
And that concludes my first Fanime post :D Tales of Days 2 and 3 shall be told over the weekend!
Part Two
We dragged our lazy asses out of bed at 4 in the AM to catch our flight. Early flights = cheap flights. I honestly have no idea how I did it. I'm pretty sure I looked like a zombie...
I am MELON LORD!
Yes, those are my panties.
Soooo....soon as we got to San Jose, CA (where Fanime is located), we went to the Winchester Mystery House.
From left to right: Zoro (aka Green Greeny), Ladelle (aka...Ladelle), me (aka Reyn), and LB (aka Tall One)
The 'bump hats' (as they were officially called...cuz hard hats are too good for us) were for exploring the basement.
For anyone who doesn't know, the Winchester Mansion is the house that has inspired countless horror stories like Stephen King's Rose Red or The House on Haunted Hill (if I'm thinking of the right movie). This house has staircases that lead to nowhere, random doors that open into walls, etc, etc.
The woman who built the place was gullible and creepy. She didn't understand why her husband died 12 years after her baby, leaving her all alone in the world. So she visited a gypsy and asked, "Am I cursed? D8"
The gypsy snorted and said, "Pfft. You sure are! And its because of all the GUNS your husband's company sells!! The spirits of those killed by the Winchester guns are after you! So to appease them you must..." *insert moment of thought* "...move to the other side of the country and...build a house! BUT! You must never stop building it or you will DIE!"
Bum bum bummmmm!
Now, rather than thinking, "Yes! Death! I can rejoin my husband and baby!" like any sensible widow would do, she went, "Death?! Gasp! Nooo! Surely not! I'm going to live forever!"
...I'm the queeeen~! I'll live forever~!
Anyways, she took the gypsy's advice and promptly packed up and moved out west. Although I guess you can't really blame her for believing in that tripe. It was all the rage during her era.
Backstory aside, the only real creeper thing about Mrs. Winchester was that all the bathrooms in her house had windows and glass doors so she could spy on her servants as they bathed. And her servants put up with it because A) she paid double what the going salary was and B) they would probably be fired within the week anyways because like all ridiculously rich people, Mrs. Winchester could be a real bee-otch.
Once we were done with our tours (they didn't allow us to take pictures), we went to the hotel, checked in, found a place to eat, went back to the hotel, changed into cosplay for the One Piece dinner later on...
*has a small fangirl moment*
...and went to the con to get in live for pre-reg. But then we saw the time and went "Oh shit! Time for the meet up!" and left the line.
I know I'm not the only out there who uses her camera to do a quick hair check..!
Yeah~! We're pirates and we like to randomly pose before dinner!
Hey look! Buggy's got talent 8D
After about an hour (during which we took way more pictures than just these two), everyone was all, "We're starving! Feed us! Feeeeeed us! Arrr!" So we went to Johnny Rockets.
Zoro's swords are hard to remove...
Robin to the heterosexual rescue...!
OM NOM NOM~!
The only really pirate-y thing we did while at Johnny Rockets was clear them out of their change for 20s. Because pirates are all about the chump change.
...Arrr.
Once dinner was done, numbers and gossip were exchanged, and we went back to pre-reg and ran into the infamous Black!Gai.
He can tear bend!!
Contrary to what the picture shows, he wasn't in cosplay at the time. BUT! He's still ten types of awesome. We chatted about how he would make the best President ever and his future plans on cosplaying man!Toph
I can see with sonic waves from my mouth. BAAAAAHHHH!!!!!
Never let it be said that we don't know how to entertain ourselves while waiting in line.
After picking up our badges, hitting up the swap meet (where LB bought the entire FMA series for $65), we headed back to the hotel to catch some Z's.
DAY ONE
No joke, it took us 5 hours to get ready that morning. Five. As in one, two, three, four, five. HOURS. Ugh! Cosplay, I hate you.
Despite that, we made it to the convention center with half an hour to spare before the gathering - or so we thought.
For anyone who is unfamiliar with Fanime's cosplay M.O., they keep track of all gatherings so they can post a list at the con. Not only do they do that, but they require whomever organized the gathering to sign in 30 minutes early with promises of cake and then send out photographer lackeys 10 minutes prior to the designated meet-up time to demand if all attendees are present so they can take group shots and announce the gathering is over.
If you've ever been to a gathering, you know that's not how things work.
Personal feelings aside (the cake was a lie), Fanime go the start time wrong and the gathering was sort of force-started at noon instead of 12.30.
I have no idea what happened with this shot. It makes me genuinely curious as to whose hands my camera was in at the time.
I'm never getting over man!Toph.
Zuko wishes he had a pitchfork to hold. Mai wishes she had a farmhouse in the background.
WET WATER IS WET!
Epic Earth Kingdom is Epic.
OH! It was here (just before the gathering) that we met up with Master of Rebels and pringlebunny. We ended up hanging out with them the entire con because they're so awesome and amazing and wonderful and fun and not creepy. Not creepy was their biggest plus.
Shortly after the gathering died down, we realized we were starving and logically spent a good 20 minutes staring at a map, trying to find someplace decent to eat before figuring out it would be a better idea to just walk in a general direction where the map said food would be and just seeing what looked good.
We hit up a bar (cuz bars always look good!) that required us to go to the back, down this creepy hall, and around a hidden corner to pick up our food. Since we each got paged individually, I was positive I would end up in a back alley and would be kidnapped by the mafia. My only hope was they were Avatar fans and would let me go.
And it all would have been a devious scheme of Azula's.
Through a rather prominent language barrier, we asked the cooks to re-page us so Azula could pretend she was playing with lightning.
After our bellies were full, Master of Rebels and pringlebunny led us to a grocery market so we could stock up on breakfast supplies. While there we ran into this...guy that we all apparently knew but had no clue as to who he actually was. It left me terribly confused. But that was okay, because he wasn't creepy and as I've said before, not creepy is a definitely plus.
As we were leaving the store, we came across a park with a water fountain play display thing and decided "Yay! Photoshoot!" and Master and pringlebunny were awesome enough to be photographers for us :D
*whines* WET WATER IS STILL WET!
These pictures really aren't doing me much justice, are they?
There. I feel slightly redeemed.
Zutara secretly lols at Kataang ships.
It was at about this time this random 6'8" guy showed up and started gushing about how he had just gotten into Avatar while doing these random crazy flips and stuff.
I was impressed simply because he was 6' 8".
Turned out he was proficient in partcour-ing (I have no idea how to verb-alize that) and we asked him to jump over a bench to show us. My excitement died down when he went to stand next to the bench and I realized that for him it wouldn't be jumping so much as...stepping over it.
But after we expressed such fangirl interest in his amazing talents, he told us about a panel he was running...with this guy who I guess is a little famous over at Yaoi Con. So naturally we had to go.
6'8" people get amazing airtime.
Unfortunately all our pictures at the panel came out blurry, but we did get decent video of them at the end when they choreographed a fight scene!
Click to viewThe shirtlessness was at our group's request.
After the panel things get a little hazy. I think I was in hyped-up fangirl mode at that time because I remember we discussed plans to go to the Yaoi Bingo panel (which fell on Day 2) and there was a hotel pizza party....OH! And to finish my day of photos, on my way back to the hotel room I saw THIS:
Iva-sama...the greatest character since Hard Gay.
Yeah, I practically creamed my pants.
And that concludes my first Fanime post :D Tales of Days 2 and 3 shall be told over the weekend!
Part Two