A-kon report!
So we're back, and I think I'm still recovering. Or I might just feel bad from the asthma attack/allergic reaction I had at Karate tonight, when I literally couldn't breathe in the middle of my sparring round D:
But enough of that. Now for A-kon!
Thursday
Nothing really interesting happened on Thursday, except for our ROAD BUDDIES!
We were driving to A-kon, see, and we pulled up alongside a silver PT Cruiser with "A-kon or Bust" written on the back, that was full of KHII cosplayers. They had the names of their characters written on their windows, and it was hysterical. We rolled down the windows and gestured madly at them, basically saying "Us too!" For the rest of the drive we ended up being in very close proximity, and we would do crazy crap out the windows when we passed each other.
Finally we decided that we were going to stop for lunch in some town because Mitch's grampa said there was a really good restaurant. So we made a big sign that we put up against the window saying "Lunch?" and they told us they needed gas, so we followed them to the gas station.
They ended up being completely cool people from Louisiana, and we had an awesome lunch. We ran into them a couple more times at the convention itself, mostly when Mitch and Katie were both smoking at the same time. Katie was I think one of two Larxene cosplayers there, so she was fairly easy to find.
We got to our hotel and discovered that despite Mitch requesting a double, we had ended up with an extremely small single. So he went downstairs and threw a Gay Fit saying that he was very claustrophobic and needed a lot of space to work on costumes. The hotel moved us into, like, a mini-suite. We had a bed AND a couch and a chair, and the couch folded out into a bed, so we had plenty of room for all five of us.
We went and got Matt and made an excursion to Wal*Mart for last minute cosplay supplies, mostly for Matt's Balthier but some for me too, because I realized I was a retard and forgot to make my Hinamori badge. Then we all watched the first episode of Code Geass, which is really cool, and went to sleep.
Friday
First I woke up and got into my Anathema Device costume. I was ready before anyone else because they're all lazy bastards, and styled my Kadaj wig while I was waiting for all of them to wake up. Finally Mitch hauled his lazy hide out of bed and went with me to stand in the registration line.
I am so glad he did, or else I would have been bored to tears. The registration line was SO LONG, longer than Matsuri even. A-kon made up for it by not having the Transformers trailer on a continuous loop, though, so it was okay. We made up a game in line; Anime I Spy. Instead of saying "Something [insert color]", you say "Someone from [insert series]". It's a lot of fun to play at a con, and some of the other people in line stole it. But after a while it got kind of boring because most of it went like this:
"I spy someone from Bleach"
"It's Urahara"
"Dammit!"
or
"I spy someone from Naruto"
"It's Kakashi"
"Dammit!"
or
"I spy someone from Death Note"
"Dammit Emma, you know I don't watch Death Note!"
So we stopped. But one memorable instance was when we were standing next to a couple of guys in line and Mitch said he spied someone from Final Fantasy. "That's half the con," one of the guys laughed. "Yeah, specify," I said, and then Mitch said "Seven." "That's still half the con," the guy said. And it was somewhat true. The Naruto, Bleach and Final Fantasy cosplayers outnumbered everyone else at the convention combined.
We ran into Jessie and Mike in their Rogue and Gambit costumes while we were waiting for Alissa and Daniel to make it through the line. But we kind of ditched them because they can't walk three feet without getting stopped for pictures in their Spike and Faye. It gets a little annoying after a while.
I also decided that I was tired of walking around as someone nobody recognized, so we headed back to the hotel to change. I put on Kadaj and immediately discovered that I hated the way my wig looked, and that I had no range of motion in the costume. But Matt did some thinning out of the wig, because its main problem was that it was just too thick, and I went with the no-range-of-motion thing. Jenny called us in our hotel room and told us that she needed her badge, which Matt was borrowing, to get into the Last Unicorn panel, so I ran down to the convention center and gave it to her.
We ran into Mitch and Matt again after we left the panel and headed over to Iron Artist, because the artist whose table Jenny was staffing was one of the ones drawing in it. Then we bumped into Tahiti on our way out of that panel, and I can't remember what costume she was in because I was honestly dying of the heat. Kadaj is so hot I can't really stand to wear it for long periods of time, which kind of negates its value as a competition costume, because standing around for a long period of time is synonymous with competing in cosplay *g*
So we headed back to the hotel to work on Aizen, Hinamori and Balthier, respectively. I got my Hinamori badge done and Rachael and Courtney, a couple of Matt's friends, showed up and shoved Matt into an improvised Paradise Kiss costume. Mitch decided to just stick with street clothes, as did I, and we all headed back down to wander the Artists' Alley.
Mitch started to feel really sick around that time, so him and Matt went back to the hotel room while I continued to hang out with Rachael and Courtney. They decided to go change out of their costumes and then walked me back to the hotel.
Around that time, Jessie called Matt to see what he was doing - apparently she was wickedly drunk, so we headed over to the Adams Mark to see her. We tilted down to the convention center and hung out with her and a bunch of other wasted people, while I chatted with a random Trinity Blood cosplayer about how amusing they all were when they were drunk. Then we went home and Matt and I worked on Balthier and Aizen until the wee hours of the morning.
Saturday
I woke up at 9 and got into Hinamori just so I a) wouldn't have to change later for the Bleach photoshoot and b) could go see the EGL Bleach shoot, which was awesome. So many people in such adorable and creative costumes!
After the EGL shoot I came back to the hotel room, where I unknowingly interrupted Mitch and Matt in the middle of their shower fun. Oh well. I can't really remember what we did in the room but I believe it involved Matt and I working on Balthier and getting Mitch into Aizen, although I could have my times mixed up.
Mitch and I went down to the Bleach shoot, and then headed back to our room to put our swords up for Bleach on Ice, since the Plaza of the Americas didn't want anyone with prop swords. We left Matt in the room and went down to what was supposed to be Bleach on Ice, but nobody was there except for a bunch of Naruto people. Mitch and I decided to hell with it because it was too cool an idea and Mitch had never ice skated before, so we had fun on the ice, especially with our Yoruichi and Urahara friends, trying to best the Narutards and generally having fun.
Then we found Matt again on the way back up toward the room again. We also found Cody (or Shirtless Ed as everyone calls him) in one of his costumes that's not Shirtless Ed and chatted with him for a little bit about Matsuri and what could be done to make it better, because apparently he was on staff? Or knew the staff? Whatever. About halfway through the conversation I got a dizzy spell and kind of leaned on Mitch's shoulder. Cody told me I was probably dehydrated, but I didn't listen and tried to keep going anyway.
As soon as we turned to walk down the skywalk, I had to sit down because the world kind of tilted. Mitch and Matt didn't notice and kept walking, but Cody noticed and stopped. He told me I probably needed water and pretty much supported me on the way to the water fountain, until someone on med staff noticed us and pointed us to the med room, where they gave me water. Cody gave me a small mini-lecture about how I should eat and drink water at a con, and about how I should also not lock my knees when I'm standing which he noticed I had been doing.
After I ate some crackers, we decided I should probably go back to the room and have a little lie-down, so I did.
Matt and I spent the ENTIRE REST OF THE DAY working on Balthier - I'm not complaining, because Matt and I bonded, but I missed the cosplay contest. Not that I would have gotten to compete, but I did kind of want to see Alissa and Daniel compete. Oh well. Matt painted my wig head, we worked on Balthier, we played Marvel Guess Who, worked on Balthier, Matt's friends came over again, we worked on Balthier, and then about 9 or 10 at night we finally finished Balthier.
We went back to the convention to meet up with everyone and congratulate Alissa and Daniel on their Judge's Award (those bitches, winning again). I was still in Hinamori because I didn't care enough to change. We were supposed to be having a Good Omens shoot later, but apparently Candace and her group had decided to have a House shoot first, so whatever. Jessie went back to her room and changed into Aziraphale, and got stuff so Mike could be Death. I was still in Hinamori, and Matt went back to the room to change into street clothes for Adam.
We waited a long time for Candace to show up for the shoot near the skywalk, but she was taking her sweet time so we headed back to our room and I changed clothes. Then Jessie called us in a drunken state of drunk and informed us that they were in the Adams Mark "Nexsht to the evelaturs." It was funny.
We found them, and also found our awesome Yoruichi and Urahara cosplayer friends, who were kind of lounging in the lobby all over each other in their character PJs, being generally adorable. We waited for a bit for Candace to show up, and when she didn't, we headed back to the room.
Finally Candace showed up and changed into Crowley, and I got drafted to play War since the girl who was going to dropped out and I had given Matt my Anathema shirt for Balthier. We went downstairs at 3 in the morning and got Some Photographer Guy to take pictures because none of us had a camera.
So what's the best time for a photoshoot of a really obscure fandom? Why, 3 in the morning of course.
Sunday
We had planned to wake up early on Sunday so we could pack and get all our stuff out of the hotel by checkout time, but nobody woke up until 11 or so, so Mitch called and got an extension on the checkout time, and I changed into Kadaj and took all my stuff down to the car. While they were all getting dressed, I wandered the con for a bit. I ran into Yoruichi and Urahara again and walked around the dealer's room with them - they were really patient with all the people wanting pictures of Kadaj, and so was I with people wanting pictures of them, so it worked out.
Then I bumped into Cody and went over to thank him for helping me, which ended up turning into a really long conversation about Matsuri and conventions and his need to come to Oni-con. And might I mention that he is really good looking? Especially shirtless. Rowr.
Back downstairs, I found the rest of my group walking through the door, and also SkyPirate and Eurobeat King, who both wanted pictures of me. After that we saw Candace in her Naruto costume and signed someone's gigantic Naruto scroll that had apparently been to three cons. I decided I wanted kitty ears from Yaya, so we bought them, and at the table we ran into Brianne for the first time all weekend in her Roxas costume, which was awesome because I was really hoping to run into her and apologize for dropping out of her FF VIII group when it turned out I could go to A-kon after all. She assured me it was no problem, and we basically spent the rest of Sunday wander the dealer's room and buying swag.
Nothing else interesting to report, except that one of the days we met a guy who is organizing a Houston con in summer of '09, which sounds very interesting, and is having a meeting to throw around ideas on Friday. He apparently has nobody for cosplay, and since I know Candace and Gren only host Oni-con, we might possibly be MCing or running cosplay O.o;;
And to finish up: My Kadaj made SkyPirate's highlights page XD
But enough of that. Now for A-kon!
Thursday
Nothing really interesting happened on Thursday, except for our ROAD BUDDIES!
We were driving to A-kon, see, and we pulled up alongside a silver PT Cruiser with "A-kon or Bust" written on the back, that was full of KHII cosplayers. They had the names of their characters written on their windows, and it was hysterical. We rolled down the windows and gestured madly at them, basically saying "Us too!" For the rest of the drive we ended up being in very close proximity, and we would do crazy crap out the windows when we passed each other.
Finally we decided that we were going to stop for lunch in some town because Mitch's grampa said there was a really good restaurant. So we made a big sign that we put up against the window saying "Lunch?" and they told us they needed gas, so we followed them to the gas station.
They ended up being completely cool people from Louisiana, and we had an awesome lunch. We ran into them a couple more times at the convention itself, mostly when Mitch and Katie were both smoking at the same time. Katie was I think one of two Larxene cosplayers there, so she was fairly easy to find.
We got to our hotel and discovered that despite Mitch requesting a double, we had ended up with an extremely small single. So he went downstairs and threw a Gay Fit saying that he was very claustrophobic and needed a lot of space to work on costumes. The hotel moved us into, like, a mini-suite. We had a bed AND a couch and a chair, and the couch folded out into a bed, so we had plenty of room for all five of us.
We went and got Matt and made an excursion to Wal*Mart for last minute cosplay supplies, mostly for Matt's Balthier but some for me too, because I realized I was a retard and forgot to make my Hinamori badge. Then we all watched the first episode of Code Geass, which is really cool, and went to sleep.
Friday
First I woke up and got into my Anathema Device costume. I was ready before anyone else because they're all lazy bastards, and styled my Kadaj wig while I was waiting for all of them to wake up. Finally Mitch hauled his lazy hide out of bed and went with me to stand in the registration line.
I am so glad he did, or else I would have been bored to tears. The registration line was SO LONG, longer than Matsuri even. A-kon made up for it by not having the Transformers trailer on a continuous loop, though, so it was okay. We made up a game in line; Anime I Spy. Instead of saying "Something [insert color]", you say "Someone from [insert series]". It's a lot of fun to play at a con, and some of the other people in line stole it. But after a while it got kind of boring because most of it went like this:
"I spy someone from Bleach"
"It's Urahara"
"Dammit!"
or
"I spy someone from Naruto"
"It's Kakashi"
"Dammit!"
or
"I spy someone from Death Note"
"Dammit Emma, you know I don't watch Death Note!"
So we stopped. But one memorable instance was when we were standing next to a couple of guys in line and Mitch said he spied someone from Final Fantasy. "That's half the con," one of the guys laughed. "Yeah, specify," I said, and then Mitch said "Seven." "That's still half the con," the guy said. And it was somewhat true. The Naruto, Bleach and Final Fantasy cosplayers outnumbered everyone else at the convention combined.
We ran into Jessie and Mike in their Rogue and Gambit costumes while we were waiting for Alissa and Daniel to make it through the line. But we kind of ditched them because they can't walk three feet without getting stopped for pictures in their Spike and Faye. It gets a little annoying after a while.
I also decided that I was tired of walking around as someone nobody recognized, so we headed back to the hotel to change. I put on Kadaj and immediately discovered that I hated the way my wig looked, and that I had no range of motion in the costume. But Matt did some thinning out of the wig, because its main problem was that it was just too thick, and I went with the no-range-of-motion thing. Jenny called us in our hotel room and told us that she needed her badge, which Matt was borrowing, to get into the Last Unicorn panel, so I ran down to the convention center and gave it to her.
We ran into Mitch and Matt again after we left the panel and headed over to Iron Artist, because the artist whose table Jenny was staffing was one of the ones drawing in it. Then we bumped into Tahiti on our way out of that panel, and I can't remember what costume she was in because I was honestly dying of the heat. Kadaj is so hot I can't really stand to wear it for long periods of time, which kind of negates its value as a competition costume, because standing around for a long period of time is synonymous with competing in cosplay *g*
So we headed back to the hotel to work on Aizen, Hinamori and Balthier, respectively. I got my Hinamori badge done and Rachael and Courtney, a couple of Matt's friends, showed up and shoved Matt into an improvised Paradise Kiss costume. Mitch decided to just stick with street clothes, as did I, and we all headed back down to wander the Artists' Alley.
Mitch started to feel really sick around that time, so him and Matt went back to the hotel room while I continued to hang out with Rachael and Courtney. They decided to go change out of their costumes and then walked me back to the hotel.
Around that time, Jessie called Matt to see what he was doing - apparently she was wickedly drunk, so we headed over to the Adams Mark to see her. We tilted down to the convention center and hung out with her and a bunch of other wasted people, while I chatted with a random Trinity Blood cosplayer about how amusing they all were when they were drunk. Then we went home and Matt and I worked on Balthier and Aizen until the wee hours of the morning.
Saturday
I woke up at 9 and got into Hinamori just so I a) wouldn't have to change later for the Bleach photoshoot and b) could go see the EGL Bleach shoot, which was awesome. So many people in such adorable and creative costumes!
After the EGL shoot I came back to the hotel room, where I unknowingly interrupted Mitch and Matt in the middle of their shower fun. Oh well. I can't really remember what we did in the room but I believe it involved Matt and I working on Balthier and getting Mitch into Aizen, although I could have my times mixed up.
Mitch and I went down to the Bleach shoot, and then headed back to our room to put our swords up for Bleach on Ice, since the Plaza of the Americas didn't want anyone with prop swords. We left Matt in the room and went down to what was supposed to be Bleach on Ice, but nobody was there except for a bunch of Naruto people. Mitch and I decided to hell with it because it was too cool an idea and Mitch had never ice skated before, so we had fun on the ice, especially with our Yoruichi and Urahara friends, trying to best the Narutards and generally having fun.
Then we found Matt again on the way back up toward the room again. We also found Cody (or Shirtless Ed as everyone calls him) in one of his costumes that's not Shirtless Ed and chatted with him for a little bit about Matsuri and what could be done to make it better, because apparently he was on staff? Or knew the staff? Whatever. About halfway through the conversation I got a dizzy spell and kind of leaned on Mitch's shoulder. Cody told me I was probably dehydrated, but I didn't listen and tried to keep going anyway.
As soon as we turned to walk down the skywalk, I had to sit down because the world kind of tilted. Mitch and Matt didn't notice and kept walking, but Cody noticed and stopped. He told me I probably needed water and pretty much supported me on the way to the water fountain, until someone on med staff noticed us and pointed us to the med room, where they gave me water. Cody gave me a small mini-lecture about how I should eat and drink water at a con, and about how I should also not lock my knees when I'm standing which he noticed I had been doing.
After I ate some crackers, we decided I should probably go back to the room and have a little lie-down, so I did.
Matt and I spent the ENTIRE REST OF THE DAY working on Balthier - I'm not complaining, because Matt and I bonded, but I missed the cosplay contest. Not that I would have gotten to compete, but I did kind of want to see Alissa and Daniel compete. Oh well. Matt painted my wig head, we worked on Balthier, we played Marvel Guess Who, worked on Balthier, Matt's friends came over again, we worked on Balthier, and then about 9 or 10 at night we finally finished Balthier.
We went back to the convention to meet up with everyone and congratulate Alissa and Daniel on their Judge's Award (those bitches, winning again). I was still in Hinamori because I didn't care enough to change. We were supposed to be having a Good Omens shoot later, but apparently Candace and her group had decided to have a House shoot first, so whatever. Jessie went back to her room and changed into Aziraphale, and got stuff so Mike could be Death. I was still in Hinamori, and Matt went back to the room to change into street clothes for Adam.
We waited a long time for Candace to show up for the shoot near the skywalk, but she was taking her sweet time so we headed back to our room and I changed clothes. Then Jessie called us in a drunken state of drunk and informed us that they were in the Adams Mark "Nexsht to the evelaturs." It was funny.
We found them, and also found our awesome Yoruichi and Urahara cosplayer friends, who were kind of lounging in the lobby all over each other in their character PJs, being generally adorable. We waited for a bit for Candace to show up, and when she didn't, we headed back to the room.
Finally Candace showed up and changed into Crowley, and I got drafted to play War since the girl who was going to dropped out and I had given Matt my Anathema shirt for Balthier. We went downstairs at 3 in the morning and got Some Photographer Guy to take pictures because none of us had a camera.
So what's the best time for a photoshoot of a really obscure fandom? Why, 3 in the morning of course.
Sunday
We had planned to wake up early on Sunday so we could pack and get all our stuff out of the hotel by checkout time, but nobody woke up until 11 or so, so Mitch called and got an extension on the checkout time, and I changed into Kadaj and took all my stuff down to the car. While they were all getting dressed, I wandered the con for a bit. I ran into Yoruichi and Urahara again and walked around the dealer's room with them - they were really patient with all the people wanting pictures of Kadaj, and so was I with people wanting pictures of them, so it worked out.
Then I bumped into Cody and went over to thank him for helping me, which ended up turning into a really long conversation about Matsuri and conventions and his need to come to Oni-con. And might I mention that he is really good looking? Especially shirtless. Rowr.
Back downstairs, I found the rest of my group walking through the door, and also SkyPirate and Eurobeat King, who both wanted pictures of me. After that we saw Candace in her Naruto costume and signed someone's gigantic Naruto scroll that had apparently been to three cons. I decided I wanted kitty ears from Yaya, so we bought them, and at the table we ran into Brianne for the first time all weekend in her Roxas costume, which was awesome because I was really hoping to run into her and apologize for dropping out of her FF VIII group when it turned out I could go to A-kon after all. She assured me it was no problem, and we basically spent the rest of Sunday wander the dealer's room and buying swag.
Nothing else interesting to report, except that one of the days we met a guy who is organizing a Houston con in summer of '09, which sounds very interesting, and is having a meeting to throw around ideas on Friday. He apparently has nobody for cosplay, and since I know Candace and Gren only host Oni-con, we might possibly be MCing or running cosplay O.o;;
And to finish up: My Kadaj made SkyPirate's highlights page XD