/267/ ANIME BOSTON CON REPORT.
This has been sitting on my netbook entirely too long.
04/04/10
Anime Boston Con Report
God, the Midwest is dreary. New Mexico is dry and sunny, Boston was sunny and mild, but the Midwest is dreary as hell. So here I am, trying to recall the events of the weekend.
The point of the trip, IMO, is Nayru's return party. The simultaneously fearsome and adorable Nayru was returning home from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Because she is made of pure condensed awesomeness, she invited Ken and I to meet up with her at Anime Boston, for a weekend of shenanigans with Amatians. Oh dear.
One hour, or less, before we flew out we discovered the most major problem with the whole trip: In my infinite derp, I fucked up and booked the tickets for April 2 to May 2. Severe freakout ensued, when we realized that we couldn't change it online without dropping over $700 dollars on it. Yes. Seven hundred fucking dollars. Fuck EVERYTHING. We decided to try and negotiate with the counter crew at Southwest and beg for them to waive the fee, since we had just, JUST had to beg my mother for rent money (Four hundred forty dollars is nowhere near enough for rent and survival, and I'd somehow gone overdrawn because I am an idiot). Mother sent my birthday money, but we couldn't ask her for help again; the only options we had, if negotiations failed, were to call Ken's dad, or see if Nayru could negotiate with them.
It came down to calling Ken's dad to negotiate, and while he was trying to beg for aid, the Southwest supervisor finally took pity on our poor sick asses and let us through. It was the icing on the cupcake of a day of incredible miracles, and I had to knock back a whole clonazepam to calm down from ranting about how it was all miraculous. We were both wrecked, but because Ken's leg is bad and he's disabled as a result, we were waved past the enormous line in security and given preboard passes. I am now an abled assistant per the ADA, or something like that; meaning, I carry the backpack and hold the door, and get sent along ahead with Ken. Not complaining.
Then began the eight hours of airtime, wherein we left at sunrise to Chicago from Albuquerque, sat around for a little while, then got sent along to Boston Logan. I remember very little of both flights; we were fucking wiped out and dozed often through most of both flights. At some point, one of the stewardesses sang, and all in all it was simply magnificent. I fucking love flying on Southwest, they treat their travelers WONDERFULLY.
We arrived in Boston about 2 something, called our respective parents (in which I rambled to my mother about "OH MY GOD THERE IS SO MUCH WATER no, Mom, it's not flooding, it's a goddamned harbor WAIT ARE WE ON AN ISLAND? WHAT'S GOING ON?". Loitered in a bus shelter until the Magnificent Miss Jen picked us up and guided us through the Boston transit system (in which I moderately freaked out over the train going underneath the river/channel/whateverthefuckitis). I also discovered that for all the insanity of the CABQ transit system, it doesn't even remotely compare to the MBTA. Seriously. Our bus drivers are like little old sedated grannies compared to who or what entities control the trains. I think I almost flew clear the fuck across the train car like five times. Also, great shit, for Tuesday at 4 pm or so, it was PACKED. Ken got a seat (I think) because he had a cane, but even then we had to ask. I discovered that keeping one's knees bent is a good idea, then promptly forgot to do it most times.
Also, Boston accents. My God. It's like bastardized British. But I barely heard it, because we were around people who were a) not originally from Boston or b) not from Boston at all, so I heard about six hundred other accents instead.
We arrived at the hotel finally, tired and overloaded and ready for naps, but WAIT! There's a whole con to go to, and badges to retrieve, and eventually a Nayru to meet up with. I was in a pissy mood, however, at the realization that I'd just put down $300 for a hotel room that didn't even offer morning bagels, newspapers, or microwaves. What the DICKS, man. Whatever. The bed was cushy, the bathroom had soap, and there were no visible roaches, so we went with it.
A seven-block hike ensued, wherein we (or, well, I being the provincial idiot) discovered that a) Boston architecture is bizarre as fuck, b) no one in Boston believes in traffic laws, and c) Goddamn well everything is slightly less old than New Mexico, but still older than dirt. Visited the I-shit-you-not smallest Walgreens I had ever seen (it made my store look expansive, okay?), harassed a Link outside of it, and then pranced across the street to the con... only to be turned away at the door. Seems we had to go through the Prudential Plaza mall, in a completely roundabout fashion, to go get our con badges. I have a feeling this was a ploy to try and get us to buy overpriced Bostonian mall trinkets (including customized belts, crap at Sephora, and miscellaneous other things). Also, this meant we had to fight our way through a crowd of other cosplayers and regular mallgoers. Yes. Shitloads upon shitloads of civilian mallgoers. What.
Badges were eventually acquired, which was a lot less stress than we anticipated; we'd heard horror stories of the Anime Boston lines, and were kicking ourselves for not printing the confirmation barcodes so we could skip right through, but all was well when the lines were practically nonexistent. SO NOT COMPLAINING. SO. NOT. COMPLAINING.
(Why does it smell terrible on this plane? idgi.)
Walking around and picturetaking ensued, followed by a trip to the dealer's room to see what kind of swag there was to see, scoring bone-marrow-donor sweatshirts all around. It was there that Ken discovered a **LEGITIMATE COPY OF ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE PRACTICALLY JUMPING OFF THE TABLE INTO HIS ARMS** for the lowlow price of thirty-five bucks. Uh-oh. Hmm. How much mon- oh well balls, the internet is iffy. Hmm. Hmm. Can Met math? Not at the moment. We decided to sit on that one for now, considering that at last count I had $50 to spare THANK YOU HOTEL FOR THAT $50 HOLD ON MY ACCOUNT, YOU FUCKS. We did, however, find a place selling the other thing Ken wanted: a Gundam figurine of some sort or another gdsob I can't remember the name of it whatever balls. THAT ended up being $25, but the dude's card machine was fresh out of batteries. We requested it held until the next day and kept meandering until I found ye olde clothes boothe, selling shoes upon shoes upon socks upon a table. I had my eye on some wooden sandals with pretty purple straps, but it was not to be, as they were a smidgen too small for my feet. Lo and behold, the cute girl behind the table had some red-strapped sandals that just so happened to fit, for $20. Yippee~ and that was my only major purchase of the con (not counting the hotel). Wandering back through the other side, we found yet another Gundam shop, with the same damned Cheruwhat'sitbutt for sale...... this one for $30. Negotiations ensued, Ken won a price match, and skipped off happy as a clam for Ace corrupting the shit out of him. Gdi.
Munchies needed to be had, so we made our way back out to the mall food court because fuck yourself we are not spending $10 on a phallic hot dog at the con. Food was had and devoured, we discovered that Ushiromiya Battler really likes pizza (I'd say he should hook up with CC, but she'd beat his ass), and.... fucked if I remember what happened next. Hm.
We went over to the Androgyny and Homosexuality in Japanese Culture panel, since it seemed interesting, and.... idk, I was sorta disappointed. On one hand, she did mention Genji no Monogatari, though idk if it was written in 600~ AD or 1000~ AD. She also left out important distinctions, such as the whole Utsusemi incident being purely accidental; Genji ran with it to save face and keep from making a scene, which would've been seen, in that time period as a) extremely not classy considering it was THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IN THE HOME OF THE MARRIED WOMAN HE WAS PURSUING, and b) he was a gd noble, no longer a prince (removed from the line of succession by his father to pacify the other wives), and princes just do not make scenes, end of discussion, but she made it sound like it was on purpose. Also, she left out To no Chujo's monologue on how Genji was so pretty that To would've been all over him if he were a girl. Whaaaaat it's been years since I read that and I still remember it better than this girl did. Rather displeased.
At some point, Ken wandered off to meet with his friends in the video game room, and Jen and I decided that heeeeeeeeeey we haven't seen hide nor hair of Nayru yet. What is this bullshit. Discovered that she had safely made it to Boston and was now in registration, so we camped at the exit until she came out, radiant in her adorable ass-kicking glory. Whooooooo fuck yes. Wandered about until we hit the video game room, where Nayru had wanted to get in on the Guilty Gear tourny, but they were afraid of her and said that registration for such was closed. Instead, Nayru and Jen attempted DDR while I protected the bags from the wandering hordes of stickyfingers, then we meandered over to Rockband, while I went to retrieve Ken from the AMV competition for a few rounds. I'd heard rumor that he loved Rockband, so I figured this might be fun.
EXCEPT MET DISCOVERED THAT PLAYING BASS IS HARD :(:(:(:(:( fuck everything. First I didn't even know how to play, then I didn't know which row I was supposed to watch, so I sucked horribly. Got my turn to sing, but..... none of the downloaded songs worked, and the only song I shit you not that I knew on the game itself was "Today" by the Smashing Pumpkins. Which......... yeah, have you seen the lyrics to that? Have you? I couldn't sing it, hell no, I would've started crying my eyes out. Jen got up there and sang it while I sat on the stage, but I barely managed to sit through it before making my escape to sit in the hallway and fend off grief. Ugh. Ugh. Met, you suck. At some point, someone chucked a thingy of pocky at me, but I didn't even see it, and didn't really realize anyone was around until Ken, then Jen and Nayru, came by and cuddlepiled me. Awwwww ;_;. We called it quits and headed back to the hotel.
BUT WE WERE STILL HUNGRY OH GOD WHAT. Nothing good was open at that hour, and we all changed into sleepgear (except Jen, who just happened to be crashing with us and had no jammies). Soooooo.... we ordered pizza, and sat around talking about.... God, idek. I don't remember. All sorts of sillyness while Ken was dozing off on the bed, then we all just kinda died for a while as soon as food was had and finished. Weeeeeeeeee somehow fit four people onto a queen-sized bed. Nayru says I make a good pillow.
Apparently there was an alarm involved, and wakefulness, and people moving around. Fucked if I know because I woke up and Jen was gone, Nayru was at the computer, and oh crap is it really 9, damn near 10? woops. Up we go, getting dressed and Jen would be back at some indeterminate time later on, and Nay's hair decided it had a mind and agenda of its own, and showers were to be had, clothing to be worn, and we didn't even get our asses out of the hotel until noon. Woopsie. This may be my fault because I was convinced that I could somehow, just maybe, cover up Ken's tattoo with makeup. It was not to be. Boy is GHOSTLY.
Anyway. Con time! Pictures! But first Dunkin Donuts! Mm, croissants. Okay, now con time! People everywhere! Japanese tourists! Total lack of regard for traffic laws! Nations wandering about! It was grand and beautiful. Ken went to go see what the score was with the blood-donation stuff, and Nayru and I went to get tickets to the Starlight Ball. Sadly, it was not to be on both fronts; the blood donation event was full up and required reservations anyway, and the Starlight Ball had sold out. Fuck. We went off to the dealer's room for more loot. Ken wanted to find Yukari-mun over at Kingdom Arts, and I was TOTALLY CONVINCED he was there the whole time, but oh shit, Met's a little dumb at this, and Ken was parked outside the dealer's room taking pictures of people. (I do believe I have my order of events mixed up. Woops). Ken had kittens over AO, which was terribly cute. Nayru went on a hunt for Ishida phonecharms. I floated along with a camera looking for cool things to take pictures of. Went and got him, apologized profusely, wandered about looking for things and stuffs and other Black Lagoon cosplayers. We were successful. Fuck yearrrrr. We also found the elusive Yukari-mun, and purchased a couple of delightful things from her. German ammo bag to wear on a belt, to carry first aid and other stuff in during hikes? YES PLEASE. Mmm. I love vintage/antique military stuff.
The Amat meetup Ken was organizing was at 3. We found Jen, kept going, and loitered in the mall at the entrance to the con until people started coming up and asking if this was the Amat meetup, to which my response was to hug them and say "WELCOME!" because I'm a big moron like that. In total we had Jen, Nayru, Sheriff, Ziva-mun, Tony-mun, Rance-mun, Chidori-mun, Ken, and me. Pretty sure that's everyone. It was a decent crowd, anyway, I was pretty impressed. We got pictures, wandered about for a while, decided to run off to the Artist's alley..
My God, Artist's Alley. But before we could really do anything in the artist's alley, we needed water because my feet were dying and Ken's legs were hurting the fuck out of him. Discovered that we still had Gatorade about the time Jen came back with water, but whichever, liquid is liquid and pills were had, then into the fray we went..... except it sucked because TRAFFIC FLOW, WHAT IS THAT, NO ONE KNOWS. Everyone was going every which way, everyone had huge heavy backpacks, the aisles were narrow as fuck because the room was too small to accomodate that many artist booths comfortably, and yeeeeah it just sorta sucked nuts. Got a bunch of business cards, Ken got a really cute pastry phone charm, and we both got buttons because it was all we had much money for. It was pretty much a mixed bag in terms of quality; I did want one of the sushi plushes sorta, but I would've gone for an onigiri above sushi anyway. Found a lady who was making buttons on the spot, so that was really cool.
Escaped the clutches of the artist's alley and went to sit for a while and rest our feet, before being summoned to lunch/dinner thing, where we sat with the Amat people for an elegant dinner party mostly consisting of Panda Express, Sushi, Clam Chowder, and Pizza. We are classy bitches, I tell you what. Everything was groovy up until about the time I went straight to shit and took half a klonopin from Rance-mun telling me about a log he and Morg were doing, and Ziva-mun was tired and stressed out and didn't feel good. Also, Jen had pretty much completely lost her voice. Augh. Amat meetup adjourned with many hugs and cuddles, and it was back down to us again.
Jen bought us ice cream so we'd all feel better, then we split up, Jen and Nayru going one way and Ken and I going elsewhere to take pictures and mill around until we went to go see the Bad Anime, Bad! panel. Hooooooly shit that's about when the meds kicked in and I alternated between "what in the unholy fuck?" and "hzzzzzzz HUH?". Watched selected clips of the Frankenstein anime (I SHIT YOU NOT, IT EXISTS, I SAW IT WITH MY OWN POOR ABUSED EYES) and a few clips of some Magnos bullshit which was pretty much magical robot porno. I'm not kidding about that. That shit killed two hours, after which we took a picture of a girl and her adorable dollfie, then wandered off yet again to.... hm.
I think at that point, Ken was kinda burned out on being around too many people and I was passing out, so I decided to hike back to the hotel. However, I have the attention span of a six year old with ADHD and there was this cool thing called the Boston Commons, so I went and wandered around there, expecting, y'know, a park, with ducks, and romantic couples, and statues, and signs explaining statues. Y'know. Like the UNM duckpond but big as fuck.
No.
Fuck no.
THE GODDAMNED POND WAS A MUDPIT. It looked like some jackoff had been 4-wheeling in it at some indistinct point in time. The whole park smelled odd. The signs nailed to the trees were about twelve feet up I am totally serious, and the text was tiny as hell. Who the fuck decided that? Who cares, they are probably dead, as Boston Commons is fucking old. Got a picture of a statue of George Washington on a horse looking like one of the 4 Goddamned Horsemen, wandered across a bridge, went in a big loop, ended up back at the hotel without getting lost. Motherfuckerrrrrs I am a rockstar at this shit.
Also, before that I was walking past the Oldest Fucking Library in Boston, where they decided to water the sidewalks to grow new subway entrances or new statues or whatever the fuck they water sidewalks for, and noticed a rather large crowd in front of the library, and an Imperial Buttload of floodlights. Seems they were filming the pilot to a show called "Boston's Finest", and the Library was standing in for the Boston Police Station. No, I don't know why. Maybe the Boston Police Station looks like Brutalist Contemporary Ass. Anyway.
Twenty minutes until we land. Thank you Jesus.
Got back to the hotel to discover that Nayru had passed out. Jen had texted Ken during something or another, probably BA,B, to notify him that she felt sick and was going home, so I decided to take a nap. Ken got back, apparently exhausted because he changed into jammies, but Nayru and I woke up and we sat up for a while having philosophical discussions about why it is stupidly ironic for assfaces on Roleplay!Secrets to post anonymous passive-aggressive secrets about certain players being passive-aggressive. If you think that applies to you, then you're reading way too much into my fucking con reports, need to develop a hobby, and re-examine your life and personality. Also, why the BUTT doesn't Boston have any 24 hour eateries within walking distance of anything? Walking city my aching ass. WHERE'S MY DENNY'S, MOTHERFUCKER. I don't even like Denny's, but gd.
MORNING! Ugh. Why do I feel hungover, I didn't even actually drink, what the fuck is this fuckery? Showers, packing, right, ugh. Scared housekeeping because they like..... tapped on the door, opened it, saw us laying in bed still, and were like "sdjkfnaksdfnAKDFASNDJKFAGBDJFGBJASD SORRY SORRY" and split like they'd walked in on something perverted. Hahahhahahahahahahahhahhhahahhahaha I like scaring people a bit too much. What is wrong with me.
Missed church services, which sucked because gdi I was looking forward to that, but Jen had Con AIDS and Nayru was coming down with it too. We pondered going back for one last hurrah, but Ken developed a migraine while we were walking, so that idea was rapidly shitcanned in favor of getting coffee and energy drinks and heading off to the airport. Unnngh I missed you coffee. So good.
Off to the train station! Thank God Nayru grew up here and knows her way around. Buuuut... the entry to the underground was the most ghetto, survival horror thing ever. It seriously looked like a big wooden shed with granite steps leading down. WHERE DOES BOSTON GET ALL THIS GRANITE? Fucking everything is made of it. It's honestly bizarre. It was very strange, though, and CROWDED. Why is Sunday traffic on the Boston underground so heavy? It was very very weird. Felt heavily like Silent Hill 2, just because there were gated and closed off areas, and it was just kinda ghetto and weirdly lit (that weird effect that ancient fluorescent bulbs give off), and it was just..... idek. So weird.
But! Finally to the airport! Nayru jumped off the bus first to get to her terminal, and we got off at Terminal E and went inside. Loaded up on clonazepam again because Boston-Logan apparently has body scanners, sat around waiting a bit for it to kick in. Ken's good at telling when it kicks in because apparently my pupils get really hugely dilated (I call it moe eyes to try and be cute and make myself feel better). Once it kicked in, we checked bags and headed through the security, which... is miniscule. BLA was fucking half-abandoned on Easter Day. It's STRANGE. Also, no body scanning as far as I can tell. Just the usual metal detector. However, my backpack was searched and I forfeited a dollar bottle of hairspray that I forgot I packed. Fuck yourselves, terrorists, for screwing the rest of us. You fucks.
Anyway, after that embarrassing episode, we went and loitered at the gate for a while. I went upstairs to the international wing, to see about any food cheap enough for us to afford, and found some little muffins and such at Starbucks. Went back down, hung out with Ken until it was time for our flight to Chicago.
The flight was pretty good, pre-boarded and everything, it was rather nice... when we landed, I stood up to retrieve Ken's cane and Ken turned around only to see his friend, the amazing Mello cosplayer. So we went to the gate all together and sat and shot the shit for a while, to a background of three identically dressed little boys in a huge family sitting and watching Scooby-Doo. Okay. While landing, though, we saw lightning outside the plane window, and it was storming the entire time we were there. Planes kept getting shifted around, bullshit ensued, and we ended up delayed waiting for some plane from Detrooooooooit.
Plane from DETROOOOOOOOOIT arrives, and we move to a different gate, and then.... fuck. Everyone lines up at the boarding dude's behest, then he walks off to go talk to someone on the plane and... doesn't come back. Meanwhile he'd asked pre-board to come stand at the front, and... yeah, Ken can't stand that long. I ran off and requisitioned a wheelchair for him, and eventually the dude came back and we all boarded. Whoo.
AND NOW THE WAITING STARTS. After a little while, they come on the thing and say "uhhh.... yeeeeah... see that plane out there? we're waiting for it to take off, then we'll go." okay. After a while we get started, an hour late, and holy shit turbulence like whoa for the first half hour or so. Finally it eases up a bit, but everyone figures they're just gonna sleep.... except Ken who's been drinking coffee and energy drinks and is now cranking out fic prompts for a meme. Weeeeeee.
We finally arrive in familiar turf, after spending time attempting to identify landmarks while coming into Albuquerque. Call Erin, loiter at the baggage claim, get a ride home, and then we crashed.
04/04/10
Anime Boston Con Report
God, the Midwest is dreary. New Mexico is dry and sunny, Boston was sunny and mild, but the Midwest is dreary as hell. So here I am, trying to recall the events of the weekend.
The point of the trip, IMO, is Nayru's return party. The simultaneously fearsome and adorable Nayru was returning home from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Because she is made of pure condensed awesomeness, she invited Ken and I to meet up with her at Anime Boston, for a weekend of shenanigans with Amatians. Oh dear.
One hour, or less, before we flew out we discovered the most major problem with the whole trip: In my infinite derp, I fucked up and booked the tickets for April 2 to May 2. Severe freakout ensued, when we realized that we couldn't change it online without dropping over $700 dollars on it. Yes. Seven hundred fucking dollars. Fuck EVERYTHING. We decided to try and negotiate with the counter crew at Southwest and beg for them to waive the fee, since we had just, JUST had to beg my mother for rent money (Four hundred forty dollars is nowhere near enough for rent and survival, and I'd somehow gone overdrawn because I am an idiot). Mother sent my birthday money, but we couldn't ask her for help again; the only options we had, if negotiations failed, were to call Ken's dad, or see if Nayru could negotiate with them.
It came down to calling Ken's dad to negotiate, and while he was trying to beg for aid, the Southwest supervisor finally took pity on our poor sick asses and let us through. It was the icing on the cupcake of a day of incredible miracles, and I had to knock back a whole clonazepam to calm down from ranting about how it was all miraculous. We were both wrecked, but because Ken's leg is bad and he's disabled as a result, we were waved past the enormous line in security and given preboard passes. I am now an abled assistant per the ADA, or something like that; meaning, I carry the backpack and hold the door, and get sent along ahead with Ken. Not complaining.
Then began the eight hours of airtime, wherein we left at sunrise to Chicago from Albuquerque, sat around for a little while, then got sent along to Boston Logan. I remember very little of both flights; we were fucking wiped out and dozed often through most of both flights. At some point, one of the stewardesses sang, and all in all it was simply magnificent. I fucking love flying on Southwest, they treat their travelers WONDERFULLY.
We arrived in Boston about 2 something, called our respective parents (in which I rambled to my mother about "OH MY GOD THERE IS SO MUCH WATER no, Mom, it's not flooding, it's a goddamned harbor WAIT ARE WE ON AN ISLAND? WHAT'S GOING ON?". Loitered in a bus shelter until the Magnificent Miss Jen picked us up and guided us through the Boston transit system (in which I moderately freaked out over the train going underneath the river/channel/whateverthefuckitis). I also discovered that for all the insanity of the CABQ transit system, it doesn't even remotely compare to the MBTA. Seriously. Our bus drivers are like little old sedated grannies compared to who or what entities control the trains. I think I almost flew clear the fuck across the train car like five times. Also, great shit, for Tuesday at 4 pm or so, it was PACKED. Ken got a seat (I think) because he had a cane, but even then we had to ask. I discovered that keeping one's knees bent is a good idea, then promptly forgot to do it most times.
Also, Boston accents. My God. It's like bastardized British. But I barely heard it, because we were around people who were a) not originally from Boston or b) not from Boston at all, so I heard about six hundred other accents instead.
We arrived at the hotel finally, tired and overloaded and ready for naps, but WAIT! There's a whole con to go to, and badges to retrieve, and eventually a Nayru to meet up with. I was in a pissy mood, however, at the realization that I'd just put down $300 for a hotel room that didn't even offer morning bagels, newspapers, or microwaves. What the DICKS, man. Whatever. The bed was cushy, the bathroom had soap, and there were no visible roaches, so we went with it.
A seven-block hike ensued, wherein we (or, well, I being the provincial idiot) discovered that a) Boston architecture is bizarre as fuck, b) no one in Boston believes in traffic laws, and c) Goddamn well everything is slightly less old than New Mexico, but still older than dirt. Visited the I-shit-you-not smallest Walgreens I had ever seen (it made my store look expansive, okay?), harassed a Link outside of it, and then pranced across the street to the con... only to be turned away at the door. Seems we had to go through the Prudential Plaza mall, in a completely roundabout fashion, to go get our con badges. I have a feeling this was a ploy to try and get us to buy overpriced Bostonian mall trinkets (including customized belts, crap at Sephora, and miscellaneous other things). Also, this meant we had to fight our way through a crowd of other cosplayers and regular mallgoers. Yes. Shitloads upon shitloads of civilian mallgoers. What.
Badges were eventually acquired, which was a lot less stress than we anticipated; we'd heard horror stories of the Anime Boston lines, and were kicking ourselves for not printing the confirmation barcodes so we could skip right through, but all was well when the lines were practically nonexistent. SO NOT COMPLAINING. SO. NOT. COMPLAINING.
(Why does it smell terrible on this plane? idgi.)
Walking around and picturetaking ensued, followed by a trip to the dealer's room to see what kind of swag there was to see, scoring bone-marrow-donor sweatshirts all around. It was there that Ken discovered a **LEGITIMATE COPY OF ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE PRACTICALLY JUMPING OFF THE TABLE INTO HIS ARMS** for the lowlow price of thirty-five bucks. Uh-oh. Hmm. How much mon- oh well balls, the internet is iffy. Hmm. Hmm. Can Met math? Not at the moment. We decided to sit on that one for now, considering that at last count I had $50 to spare THANK YOU HOTEL FOR THAT $50 HOLD ON MY ACCOUNT, YOU FUCKS. We did, however, find a place selling the other thing Ken wanted: a Gundam figurine of some sort or another gdsob I can't remember the name of it whatever balls. THAT ended up being $25, but the dude's card machine was fresh out of batteries. We requested it held until the next day and kept meandering until I found ye olde clothes boothe, selling shoes upon shoes upon socks upon a table. I had my eye on some wooden sandals with pretty purple straps, but it was not to be, as they were a smidgen too small for my feet. Lo and behold, the cute girl behind the table had some red-strapped sandals that just so happened to fit, for $20. Yippee~ and that was my only major purchase of the con (not counting the hotel). Wandering back through the other side, we found yet another Gundam shop, with the same damned Cheruwhat'sitbutt for sale...... this one for $30. Negotiations ensued, Ken won a price match, and skipped off happy as a clam for Ace corrupting the shit out of him. Gdi.
Munchies needed to be had, so we made our way back out to the mall food court because fuck yourself we are not spending $10 on a phallic hot dog at the con. Food was had and devoured, we discovered that Ushiromiya Battler really likes pizza (I'd say he should hook up with CC, but she'd beat his ass), and.... fucked if I remember what happened next. Hm.
We went over to the Androgyny and Homosexuality in Japanese Culture panel, since it seemed interesting, and.... idk, I was sorta disappointed. On one hand, she did mention Genji no Monogatari, though idk if it was written in 600~ AD or 1000~ AD. She also left out important distinctions, such as the whole Utsusemi incident being purely accidental; Genji ran with it to save face and keep from making a scene, which would've been seen, in that time period as a) extremely not classy considering it was THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IN THE HOME OF THE MARRIED WOMAN HE WAS PURSUING, and b) he was a gd noble, no longer a prince (removed from the line of succession by his father to pacify the other wives), and princes just do not make scenes, end of discussion, but she made it sound like it was on purpose. Also, she left out To no Chujo's monologue on how Genji was so pretty that To would've been all over him if he were a girl. Whaaaaat it's been years since I read that and I still remember it better than this girl did. Rather displeased.
At some point, Ken wandered off to meet with his friends in the video game room, and Jen and I decided that heeeeeeeeeey we haven't seen hide nor hair of Nayru yet. What is this bullshit. Discovered that she had safely made it to Boston and was now in registration, so we camped at the exit until she came out, radiant in her adorable ass-kicking glory. Whooooooo fuck yes. Wandered about until we hit the video game room, where Nayru had wanted to get in on the Guilty Gear tourny, but they were afraid of her and said that registration for such was closed. Instead, Nayru and Jen attempted DDR while I protected the bags from the wandering hordes of stickyfingers, then we meandered over to Rockband, while I went to retrieve Ken from the AMV competition for a few rounds. I'd heard rumor that he loved Rockband, so I figured this might be fun.
EXCEPT MET DISCOVERED THAT PLAYING BASS IS HARD :(:(:(:(:( fuck everything. First I didn't even know how to play, then I didn't know which row I was supposed to watch, so I sucked horribly. Got my turn to sing, but..... none of the downloaded songs worked, and the only song I shit you not that I knew on the game itself was "Today" by the Smashing Pumpkins. Which......... yeah, have you seen the lyrics to that? Have you? I couldn't sing it, hell no, I would've started crying my eyes out. Jen got up there and sang it while I sat on the stage, but I barely managed to sit through it before making my escape to sit in the hallway and fend off grief. Ugh. Ugh. Met, you suck. At some point, someone chucked a thingy of pocky at me, but I didn't even see it, and didn't really realize anyone was around until Ken, then Jen and Nayru, came by and cuddlepiled me. Awwwww ;_;. We called it quits and headed back to the hotel.
BUT WE WERE STILL HUNGRY OH GOD WHAT. Nothing good was open at that hour, and we all changed into sleepgear (except Jen, who just happened to be crashing with us and had no jammies). Soooooo.... we ordered pizza, and sat around talking about.... God, idek. I don't remember. All sorts of sillyness while Ken was dozing off on the bed, then we all just kinda died for a while as soon as food was had and finished. Weeeeeeeeee somehow fit four people onto a queen-sized bed. Nayru says I make a good pillow.
Apparently there was an alarm involved, and wakefulness, and people moving around. Fucked if I know because I woke up and Jen was gone, Nayru was at the computer, and oh crap is it really 9, damn near 10? woops. Up we go, getting dressed and Jen would be back at some indeterminate time later on, and Nay's hair decided it had a mind and agenda of its own, and showers were to be had, clothing to be worn, and we didn't even get our asses out of the hotel until noon. Woopsie. This may be my fault because I was convinced that I could somehow, just maybe, cover up Ken's tattoo with makeup. It was not to be. Boy is GHOSTLY.
Anyway. Con time! Pictures! But first Dunkin Donuts! Mm, croissants. Okay, now con time! People everywhere! Japanese tourists! Total lack of regard for traffic laws! Nations wandering about! It was grand and beautiful. Ken went to go see what the score was with the blood-donation stuff, and Nayru and I went to get tickets to the Starlight Ball. Sadly, it was not to be on both fronts; the blood donation event was full up and required reservations anyway, and the Starlight Ball had sold out. Fuck. We went off to the dealer's room for more loot. Ken wanted to find Yukari-mun over at Kingdom Arts, and I was TOTALLY CONVINCED he was there the whole time, but oh shit, Met's a little dumb at this, and Ken was parked outside the dealer's room taking pictures of people. (I do believe I have my order of events mixed up. Woops). Ken had kittens over AO, which was terribly cute. Nayru went on a hunt for Ishida phonecharms. I floated along with a camera looking for cool things to take pictures of. Went and got him, apologized profusely, wandered about looking for things and stuffs and other Black Lagoon cosplayers. We were successful. Fuck yearrrrr. We also found the elusive Yukari-mun, and purchased a couple of delightful things from her. German ammo bag to wear on a belt, to carry first aid and other stuff in during hikes? YES PLEASE. Mmm. I love vintage/antique military stuff.
The Amat meetup Ken was organizing was at 3. We found Jen, kept going, and loitered in the mall at the entrance to the con until people started coming up and asking if this was the Amat meetup, to which my response was to hug them and say "WELCOME!" because I'm a big moron like that. In total we had Jen, Nayru, Sheriff, Ziva-mun, Tony-mun, Rance-mun, Chidori-mun, Ken, and me. Pretty sure that's everyone. It was a decent crowd, anyway, I was pretty impressed. We got pictures, wandered about for a while, decided to run off to the Artist's alley..
My God, Artist's Alley. But before we could really do anything in the artist's alley, we needed water because my feet were dying and Ken's legs were hurting the fuck out of him. Discovered that we still had Gatorade about the time Jen came back with water, but whichever, liquid is liquid and pills were had, then into the fray we went..... except it sucked because TRAFFIC FLOW, WHAT IS THAT, NO ONE KNOWS. Everyone was going every which way, everyone had huge heavy backpacks, the aisles were narrow as fuck because the room was too small to accomodate that many artist booths comfortably, and yeeeeah it just sorta sucked nuts. Got a bunch of business cards, Ken got a really cute pastry phone charm, and we both got buttons because it was all we had much money for. It was pretty much a mixed bag in terms of quality; I did want one of the sushi plushes sorta, but I would've gone for an onigiri above sushi anyway. Found a lady who was making buttons on the spot, so that was really cool.
Escaped the clutches of the artist's alley and went to sit for a while and rest our feet, before being summoned to lunch/dinner thing, where we sat with the Amat people for an elegant dinner party mostly consisting of Panda Express, Sushi, Clam Chowder, and Pizza. We are classy bitches, I tell you what. Everything was groovy up until about the time I went straight to shit and took half a klonopin from Rance-mun telling me about a log he and Morg were doing, and Ziva-mun was tired and stressed out and didn't feel good. Also, Jen had pretty much completely lost her voice. Augh. Amat meetup adjourned with many hugs and cuddles, and it was back down to us again.
Jen bought us ice cream so we'd all feel better, then we split up, Jen and Nayru going one way and Ken and I going elsewhere to take pictures and mill around until we went to go see the Bad Anime, Bad! panel. Hooooooly shit that's about when the meds kicked in and I alternated between "what in the unholy fuck?" and "hzzzzzzz HUH?". Watched selected clips of the Frankenstein anime (I SHIT YOU NOT, IT EXISTS, I SAW IT WITH MY OWN POOR ABUSED EYES) and a few clips of some Magnos bullshit which was pretty much magical robot porno. I'm not kidding about that. That shit killed two hours, after which we took a picture of a girl and her adorable dollfie, then wandered off yet again to.... hm.
I think at that point, Ken was kinda burned out on being around too many people and I was passing out, so I decided to hike back to the hotel. However, I have the attention span of a six year old with ADHD and there was this cool thing called the Boston Commons, so I went and wandered around there, expecting, y'know, a park, with ducks, and romantic couples, and statues, and signs explaining statues. Y'know. Like the UNM duckpond but big as fuck.
No.
Fuck no.
THE GODDAMNED POND WAS A MUDPIT. It looked like some jackoff had been 4-wheeling in it at some indistinct point in time. The whole park smelled odd. The signs nailed to the trees were about twelve feet up I am totally serious, and the text was tiny as hell. Who the fuck decided that? Who cares, they are probably dead, as Boston Commons is fucking old. Got a picture of a statue of George Washington on a horse looking like one of the 4 Goddamned Horsemen, wandered across a bridge, went in a big loop, ended up back at the hotel without getting lost. Motherfuckerrrrrs I am a rockstar at this shit.
Also, before that I was walking past the Oldest Fucking Library in Boston, where they decided to water the sidewalks to grow new subway entrances or new statues or whatever the fuck they water sidewalks for, and noticed a rather large crowd in front of the library, and an Imperial Buttload of floodlights. Seems they were filming the pilot to a show called "Boston's Finest", and the Library was standing in for the Boston Police Station. No, I don't know why. Maybe the Boston Police Station looks like Brutalist Contemporary Ass. Anyway.
Twenty minutes until we land. Thank you Jesus.
Got back to the hotel to discover that Nayru had passed out. Jen had texted Ken during something or another, probably BA,B, to notify him that she felt sick and was going home, so I decided to take a nap. Ken got back, apparently exhausted because he changed into jammies, but Nayru and I woke up and we sat up for a while having philosophical discussions about why it is stupidly ironic for assfaces on Roleplay!Secrets to post anonymous passive-aggressive secrets about certain players being passive-aggressive. If you think that applies to you, then you're reading way too much into my fucking con reports, need to develop a hobby, and re-examine your life and personality. Also, why the BUTT doesn't Boston have any 24 hour eateries within walking distance of anything? Walking city my aching ass. WHERE'S MY DENNY'S, MOTHERFUCKER. I don't even like Denny's, but gd.
MORNING! Ugh. Why do I feel hungover, I didn't even actually drink, what the fuck is this fuckery? Showers, packing, right, ugh. Scared housekeeping because they like..... tapped on the door, opened it, saw us laying in bed still, and were like "sdjkfnaksdfnAKDFASNDJKFAGBDJFGBJASD SORRY SORRY" and split like they'd walked in on something perverted. Hahahhahahahahahahahhahhhahahhahaha I like scaring people a bit too much. What is wrong with me.
Missed church services, which sucked because gdi I was looking forward to that, but Jen had Con AIDS and Nayru was coming down with it too. We pondered going back for one last hurrah, but Ken developed a migraine while we were walking, so that idea was rapidly shitcanned in favor of getting coffee and energy drinks and heading off to the airport. Unnngh I missed you coffee. So good.
Off to the train station! Thank God Nayru grew up here and knows her way around. Buuuut... the entry to the underground was the most ghetto, survival horror thing ever. It seriously looked like a big wooden shed with granite steps leading down. WHERE DOES BOSTON GET ALL THIS GRANITE? Fucking everything is made of it. It's honestly bizarre. It was very strange, though, and CROWDED. Why is Sunday traffic on the Boston underground so heavy? It was very very weird. Felt heavily like Silent Hill 2, just because there were gated and closed off areas, and it was just kinda ghetto and weirdly lit (that weird effect that ancient fluorescent bulbs give off), and it was just..... idek. So weird.
But! Finally to the airport! Nayru jumped off the bus first to get to her terminal, and we got off at Terminal E and went inside. Loaded up on clonazepam again because Boston-Logan apparently has body scanners, sat around waiting a bit for it to kick in. Ken's good at telling when it kicks in because apparently my pupils get really hugely dilated (I call it moe eyes to try and be cute and make myself feel better). Once it kicked in, we checked bags and headed through the security, which... is miniscule. BLA was fucking half-abandoned on Easter Day. It's STRANGE. Also, no body scanning as far as I can tell. Just the usual metal detector. However, my backpack was searched and I forfeited a dollar bottle of hairspray that I forgot I packed. Fuck yourselves, terrorists, for screwing the rest of us. You fucks.
Anyway, after that embarrassing episode, we went and loitered at the gate for a while. I went upstairs to the international wing, to see about any food cheap enough for us to afford, and found some little muffins and such at Starbucks. Went back down, hung out with Ken until it was time for our flight to Chicago.
The flight was pretty good, pre-boarded and everything, it was rather nice... when we landed, I stood up to retrieve Ken's cane and Ken turned around only to see his friend, the amazing Mello cosplayer. So we went to the gate all together and sat and shot the shit for a while, to a background of three identically dressed little boys in a huge family sitting and watching Scooby-Doo. Okay. While landing, though, we saw lightning outside the plane window, and it was storming the entire time we were there. Planes kept getting shifted around, bullshit ensued, and we ended up delayed waiting for some plane from Detrooooooooit.
Plane from DETROOOOOOOOOIT arrives, and we move to a different gate, and then.... fuck. Everyone lines up at the boarding dude's behest, then he walks off to go talk to someone on the plane and... doesn't come back. Meanwhile he'd asked pre-board to come stand at the front, and... yeah, Ken can't stand that long. I ran off and requisitioned a wheelchair for him, and eventually the dude came back and we all boarded. Whoo.
AND NOW THE WAITING STARTS. After a little while, they come on the thing and say "uhhh.... yeeeeah... see that plane out there? we're waiting for it to take off, then we'll go." okay. After a while we get started, an hour late, and holy shit turbulence like whoa for the first half hour or so. Finally it eases up a bit, but everyone figures they're just gonna sleep.... except Ken who's been drinking coffee and energy drinks and is now cranking out fic prompts for a meme. Weeeeeee.
We finally arrive in familiar turf, after spending time attempting to identify landmarks while coming into Albuquerque. Call Erin, loiter at the baggage claim, get a ride home, and then we crashed.