PMX Con Report~
Woo, con time! XD So PMX was amazing! I haven't had such a fun and actually relaxing and de-stressifying con in a while. The week or so before it was pretty awful, but the con itself was so great and it pretty much made everything better! It was sooooo much fun! Anywho, if anyone is interested in the excessively detailed details~ CON REPORT TIME!
Pre-con: So last week was pretty much in the heat of midterms for me and on top of this, because I'm a procrastinating idiot I hadn't quite finished my Pandora Hearts cosplay, I also had to sew quite a lot. And Fabri-Tac excessively. ...I never want to see another bottle of Fabri-Tac ever again. Ugh. Anywho, I'm pretty sure I did well on my midterms despite the acute lack of sleep and for the latter half of the week I pretty much spent most of my time with Reinna sewing like a crazy person. XD The last two nights before PMX (Wed and Thurs) we stayed up until about 8am and slept maybe two or three hours each....
Friday: I was ridiculously exhausted, so I ended up skipping my Friday class... yeah, I know. I'm an awful student but... sob. I honestly don't think I could have stayed awake during class or even made it there. I could barely walk. In any case, I took a nap for about three hours that morning and then packed really quickly while I waited for Scott to pick me and Reinna up. This was actually the first time we'd met in person (he's a friend of Aya's) but we'd spoken before online and he seemed like a nice guy. When he got to my school, he was really nice and gentlemanly and helped me and Reinna with our luggage, waiting for us since we needed to make two trips. Overall, he was a pretty sweet guy and I'm really grateful that he took the time to come get us.
As soon as we got to the con, I checked us in and kikyouluver, sani_caranza, adulbae and I all headed to our room together. For the first time ever (for me) we were at a con with the legal amount of people for a hotel room. We all got to sleep in a bed, the room remained relatively clean manageable, and it was just really nice and relaxing. We had so much fun just hanging out! I love my friends. XD After putting our stuff down and everything, Sani, Stef and I changed into our casual Soul Eater cosplays and went to wander around the con while Reinna worked a bit on her Break cosplay and napped. I was pleasantly surprised to find how many people I knew at PMX. It seemed that I was running into acquaintances every other step and it was kind of nice to realize just how much cosplay has become a community for me of familiar people I look forward to seeing every con. I also got to see Aya for the first time in a while (AX, I think >< ) and that was really awesome! ^^ We had a bit of a photoshoot in our Soul Eater, and then went back to our room with the intent to finish our PH cosplay...
However, when Sani started putting together a fun random outfit to wear around the con, the rest of us couldn't help but join in, ending up with a lovely variety of sexy, punky outfits. Well, except for Stef, who wore a gorgeous kimono, but of course she was sexy too. ;D After that, we couldn't let all of our efforts to waste so we went back out to wander and do another little photoshoot. We also went to the karaoke room with maguma-sama and I sang Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas. It was in a lower key than I expected but meh. Maguma is so funny though. He apparently knows the entire Pokerap by heart! XD It was fun hanging out with him. Okay, so AFTER that we finally worked on cosplay for a while. Again, I restate: I never want to see Fabri-tac again ever. >| And theeeen I proceeded to get the most sleep I'd gotten for most of the week, which is a strange concept for a con. I usually don't sleep at those. .__.
Saturday: Pandora Hearts day! Although the first half of the day was spent in Soul Eater again because I found that I really like the way my Kid wig turned out! 8D It only took a few hours, a bunch of acrylic paint, and about half a ton of hairspray... lol There was a Soul Eater gathering, and even though it was relatively small, it was a lot of fun. A bit after the gathering, we managed to find a Soul and dragged her with us for some pictures (though hopefully she didn't mind ^^). We pretty much had all the main Shibusen students then... except Liz and Patti. Kid was sad. : ( I did take some pretty epic symmetry-obsessed pictures though. Thank you PMX hotel for having so many lined up paintings and vases and such. They were perfect! (And very symmetrical actually~)
After our Soul Eater shenanigans, Stef and I went back to the room to put the finishing touches on our PH costumes, which we then changed into and decided that all the sleepless nights poring over our sewing machines had been worth it. We looked pretty awesome. 8D There are still little details I need to fix for Oz, but overall I'm actually really happy with the costume. I also found the perfect boots for him a few days before the con from a vendor at school, and they're really comfy--which never happens with cosplay shoes! XD We grabbed our various props--guns, plushies, etc, though I didn't have my pocketwatch yet which was kind of sad--and headed out to wander the con center. I was a little surprised at how many people recognized us and came over to squee and take pictures. Stef's Gilbert was incredibly squee-worthy though. (Stef, you make a sexy man. ;D). Also, a bunch of people took pictures of us without knowing what we were even from, which was actually pretty flattering since we got lots of compliments and stuff. >///< After a while of wandering (and buying a really cute teacup for Reinna's Break at the dealer hall) we ran into the ever-amazing and wonderful Sojian (clicky clicky for his awesome website!) who was kind enough to do an extensive photoshoot for us. It was sooo much fun! At one point, I was off with Stef for a specific Oz and Gil picture, and we ran into a few other photographers... who started just randomly taking pictures of us! With professional equipment and lighting and everything! And they didn't even know what we were cosplaying; they just said they really liked our costumes. I was all 'sdjdgklndf t-thanks >///< ' and it was amazing!
After all this and since we hadn't eaten all day, we went out to Denny's--after a long while of Stef people forgetting something or other and having to run back to the room several times. It was pretty fun. I actually think it's very amusing to go to restaurants in cosplay during a con. Obviously, we weren't the only dressed up people there but it always makes me laugh a little when we walk into normie territory and get stared at. After some delicious noms and quite a bit of fun chatting and hanging out, we went back and found out that Aya (who hadn't been feeling well earlier) felt a lot better and was willing to change into her Alice cosplay and take pictures with us... so back to photoshooting we went~ We ran into Sojian again, actually, and he stuck around and took more pics of us. XD It seems we've convinced Sani to join our group of awesome eventually too (as Sharon). :3
Speaking of other people in the group, we ran into Kaze, April, and some others including Tawny and it turns out some of them are planning a PH group for ALA so now I'm super excited for that! (And for the fact Reinna's going to be Mai to my Zuko, but we'll leave that bit of squee-ing for another day, I suppose.) Eventually, after a gazillion amazing PH photos, we finally went back to the room. Stef, Sani and I had a small bathroom party--i.e. we soaked our sore feet in a bathtub of cold water and tortured pestered Stef. At least it wasn't as terrible as the Fanime bathroom party... We finally went to bed sometime after 4am, yet I still managed to get more sleep at the con than I had gotten pretty much the whole week before it.
Sunday: Because I'm sort of done being a cosplay masochist for a while (I hope) I decided not to bother torturing myself with cosplay on the last day and just wore some cute everyday clothing to walk around in. After checking out and saying goodbye to Sani and Stef, Reinna and I raided the dealer's hall... and I spent way too much money... sob. And then we went with Jimmy to Little Tokyo, where I spent more money! >< I suck at reigning myself in at cons... or just after them, apparently. We had delicious curry and I got some takoyaki and different breads from the bakery and then we went to Kinokuniya... which had Pandora Hearts merchandise! You can imagine the amount of fangirling and squealing involved when we discovered this amazing fact. Thankfully, Reinna talked me out of buying some keychains but I did end up with an incredible and super-shiny framed poster-thing and the Pandora Hearts anime artbook.
Said artbook, by the way, is AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL!!!! Again, there was much squealing involved when Reinna and I looked through it, and it's definitely coming with me to ALA for pose ideas for photoshoots. It's been a while since I've been this excited about a fandom, and I'm really happy with Pandora Hearts. The character designs are gorgeous, there are many different version from artbooks as well as canon to provide cosplay variation if we end up wanting to do more groups, the music is really great, the art is beautiful, the plot is really good and it's just... squeeeeee. I like it. I really, really like it... and I'm also kind of glad that it's not mainstream and being taken over by the crazy otaku like Naruto.
So overall, I had a wonderful time at PMX. I loved my cosplays, my roommates, and the fact that it was so laid-back and relaxing. It was a great con and I had an incredible weekend. Thanks so much to everyone who made it such! You know who you are and I love you all~ ♥
...and to anyone who bothered to read all of that, internet cookies for you. :3
Pre-con: So last week was pretty much in the heat of midterms for me and on top of this, because I'm a procrastinating idiot I hadn't quite finished my Pandora Hearts cosplay, I also had to sew quite a lot. And Fabri-Tac excessively. ...I never want to see another bottle of Fabri-Tac ever again. Ugh. Anywho, I'm pretty sure I did well on my midterms despite the acute lack of sleep and for the latter half of the week I pretty much spent most of my time with Reinna sewing like a crazy person. XD The last two nights before PMX (Wed and Thurs) we stayed up until about 8am and slept maybe two or three hours each....
Friday: I was ridiculously exhausted, so I ended up skipping my Friday class... yeah, I know. I'm an awful student but... sob. I honestly don't think I could have stayed awake during class or even made it there. I could barely walk. In any case, I took a nap for about three hours that morning and then packed really quickly while I waited for Scott to pick me and Reinna up. This was actually the first time we'd met in person (he's a friend of Aya's) but we'd spoken before online and he seemed like a nice guy. When he got to my school, he was really nice and gentlemanly and helped me and Reinna with our luggage, waiting for us since we needed to make two trips. Overall, he was a pretty sweet guy and I'm really grateful that he took the time to come get us.
As soon as we got to the con, I checked us in and kikyouluver, sani_caranza, adulbae and I all headed to our room together. For the first time ever (for me) we were at a con with the legal amount of people for a hotel room. We all got to sleep in a bed, the room remained relatively clean manageable, and it was just really nice and relaxing. We had so much fun just hanging out! I love my friends. XD After putting our stuff down and everything, Sani, Stef and I changed into our casual Soul Eater cosplays and went to wander around the con while Reinna worked a bit on her Break cosplay and napped. I was pleasantly surprised to find how many people I knew at PMX. It seemed that I was running into acquaintances every other step and it was kind of nice to realize just how much cosplay has become a community for me of familiar people I look forward to seeing every con. I also got to see Aya for the first time in a while (AX, I think >< ) and that was really awesome! ^^ We had a bit of a photoshoot in our Soul Eater, and then went back to our room with the intent to finish our PH cosplay...
However, when Sani started putting together a fun random outfit to wear around the con, the rest of us couldn't help but join in, ending up with a lovely variety of sexy, punky outfits. Well, except for Stef, who wore a gorgeous kimono, but of course she was sexy too. ;D After that, we couldn't let all of our efforts to waste so we went back out to wander and do another little photoshoot. We also went to the karaoke room with maguma-sama and I sang Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas. It was in a lower key than I expected but meh. Maguma is so funny though. He apparently knows the entire Pokerap by heart! XD It was fun hanging out with him. Okay, so AFTER that we finally worked on cosplay for a while. Again, I restate: I never want to see Fabri-tac again ever. >| And theeeen I proceeded to get the most sleep I'd gotten for most of the week, which is a strange concept for a con. I usually don't sleep at those. .__.
Saturday: Pandora Hearts day! Although the first half of the day was spent in Soul Eater again because I found that I really like the way my Kid wig turned out! 8D It only took a few hours, a bunch of acrylic paint, and about half a ton of hairspray... lol There was a Soul Eater gathering, and even though it was relatively small, it was a lot of fun. A bit after the gathering, we managed to find a Soul and dragged her with us for some pictures (though hopefully she didn't mind ^^). We pretty much had all the main Shibusen students then... except Liz and Patti. Kid was sad. : ( I did take some pretty epic symmetry-obsessed pictures though. Thank you PMX hotel for having so many lined up paintings and vases and such. They were perfect! (And very symmetrical actually~)
After our Soul Eater shenanigans, Stef and I went back to the room to put the finishing touches on our PH costumes, which we then changed into and decided that all the sleepless nights poring over our sewing machines had been worth it. We looked pretty awesome. 8D There are still little details I need to fix for Oz, but overall I'm actually really happy with the costume. I also found the perfect boots for him a few days before the con from a vendor at school, and they're really comfy--which never happens with cosplay shoes! XD We grabbed our various props--guns, plushies, etc, though I didn't have my pocketwatch yet which was kind of sad--and headed out to wander the con center. I was a little surprised at how many people recognized us and came over to squee and take pictures. Stef's Gilbert was incredibly squee-worthy though. (Stef, you make a sexy man. ;D). Also, a bunch of people took pictures of us without knowing what we were even from, which was actually pretty flattering since we got lots of compliments and stuff. >///< After a while of wandering (and buying a really cute teacup for Reinna's Break at the dealer hall) we ran into the ever-amazing and wonderful Sojian (clicky clicky for his awesome website!) who was kind enough to do an extensive photoshoot for us. It was sooo much fun! At one point, I was off with Stef for a specific Oz and Gil picture, and we ran into a few other photographers... who started just randomly taking pictures of us! With professional equipment and lighting and everything! And they didn't even know what we were cosplaying; they just said they really liked our costumes. I was all 'sdjdgklndf t-thanks >///< ' and it was amazing!
After all this and since we hadn't eaten all day, we went out to Denny's--after a long while of Stef people forgetting something or other and having to run back to the room several times. It was pretty fun. I actually think it's very amusing to go to restaurants in cosplay during a con. Obviously, we weren't the only dressed up people there but it always makes me laugh a little when we walk into normie territory and get stared at. After some delicious noms and quite a bit of fun chatting and hanging out, we went back and found out that Aya (who hadn't been feeling well earlier) felt a lot better and was willing to change into her Alice cosplay and take pictures with us... so back to photoshooting we went~ We ran into Sojian again, actually, and he stuck around and took more pics of us. XD It seems we've convinced Sani to join our group of awesome eventually too (as Sharon). :3
Speaking of other people in the group, we ran into Kaze, April, and some others including Tawny and it turns out some of them are planning a PH group for ALA so now I'm super excited for that! (And for the fact Reinna's going to be Mai to my Zuko, but we'll leave that bit of squee-ing for another day, I suppose.) Eventually, after a gazillion amazing PH photos, we finally went back to the room. Stef, Sani and I had a small bathroom party--i.e. we soaked our sore feet in a bathtub of cold water and tortured pestered Stef. At least it wasn't as terrible as the Fanime bathroom party... We finally went to bed sometime after 4am, yet I still managed to get more sleep at the con than I had gotten pretty much the whole week before it.
Sunday: Because I'm sort of done being a cosplay masochist for a while (I hope) I decided not to bother torturing myself with cosplay on the last day and just wore some cute everyday clothing to walk around in. After checking out and saying goodbye to Sani and Stef, Reinna and I raided the dealer's hall... and I spent way too much money... sob. And then we went with Jimmy to Little Tokyo, where I spent more money! >< I suck at reigning myself in at cons... or just after them, apparently. We had delicious curry and I got some takoyaki and different breads from the bakery and then we went to Kinokuniya... which had Pandora Hearts merchandise! You can imagine the amount of fangirling and squealing involved when we discovered this amazing fact. Thankfully, Reinna talked me out of buying some keychains but I did end up with an incredible and super-shiny framed poster-thing and the Pandora Hearts anime artbook.
Said artbook, by the way, is AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL!!!! Again, there was much squealing involved when Reinna and I looked through it, and it's definitely coming with me to ALA for pose ideas for photoshoots. It's been a while since I've been this excited about a fandom, and I'm really happy with Pandora Hearts. The character designs are gorgeous, there are many different version from artbooks as well as canon to provide cosplay variation if we end up wanting to do more groups, the music is really great, the art is beautiful, the plot is really good and it's just... squeeeeee. I like it. I really, really like it... and I'm also kind of glad that it's not mainstream and being taken over by the crazy otaku like Naruto.
So overall, I had a wonderful time at PMX. I loved my cosplays, my roommates, and the fact that it was so laid-back and relaxing. It was a great con and I had an incredible weekend. Thanks so much to everyone who made it such! You know who you are and I love you all~ ♥
...and to anyone who bothered to read all of that, internet cookies for you. :3