AWA REPORT-THING
DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'RE REALLY, REALLY BORED. KTHX
AWA was, over-all, a wonderful experience. I LOST MY CONVENTION VIRGINITY, w00t!
Some of the actual con-stuff might be out of order, cos... well. I'm tired. Deal with it. DX
WARNING: Quotations may be slightly off, cos I don't remember everything word-for-word...
And this is really, really long. About 8 1/2 pages in MS Word.
THURSDAY
Moohaha. I got to leave school early for a "doctors appointment." 8D; We waited at the airport a gazillion hours, but all was good. I got to rock out to Suneohair while I was waiting, and I got to watch a little kid try to eat Sarah's hair. Right before Alexa got there, I saw a little nerd gathering of guys in black shirts, jeans and glasses. "Ah," I said to Sarah, "They're totally here for AWA." Then I saw a girl run by with a Gravitation bag, and all was amusing and good.
Thursday was fun~ Alexa got to go on a golf cart ride. XD My mom, Sarah, Alexa and I all ate at the WK Cafe. I saw a woman dancing, and a really creepy dude who put his sunglasses on the back of his head for some reason. Yaaayy.
FRIDAY
Kay, so... we didn't go to school. Sarah and I were "sick." Cough, cough. Alexa is a disease now!
Izzy's mom took Izzy, Sarah, Alexa and I to the con that morning. We got there fairly early, so it was really nice. It took us a long time to find the place to get our badges, though... buuut we made it eventually. Most of our day was spent in the Artist Alley and, when it opened, the Dealers Room.
There were so many nice artists there!! The first artist we went to had really kickass hair (we later discovered it was a wig, as her hair was completely different the next day)... and she was doing commissions! I asked her if it was possible for her to draw Bridget from Guilty Gear for me, and she happily agreed. :D We got into a nice conversation with her too~. I forget what we were talking about, but I used a Jedi mind trick on someone while we were there and the guy next to the artist stood up. "YOU!! You are the coolest person ever!" xD
We visited Coey at her table and fangirl’d muchly over her art. Hopefully I didn't scare her. ^ ^; We got to talk to her quite a bit to, and found out she's a big Guilty Gear fan too! (Lots of AWA Artist Alley people seemed to love GG!) She had chibi badges of everyone.. and I, of course, got the Bridget. Har har. I also bought a small poster-sized print of this pretty picture (minus close-up on the side) to hang somewhere in my room! :D
We gravitated next to Coey, where Shy's table was! Shy, like everyone else so far, was very nice. ^o^ I bought this pretty picture, and so did Alexa~.
I THINK we went to eat after this, but I could be remembering incorrectly. Yay food!
The line for the Dealers Room was SO INSANELY LONG. OH MY GOD. ;A; We got in it about 40 minutes before it opened, and we ended up being at the beginning of the third line after much shifting and curving rows. "KEEP CURVING GUYS, KEEP CURVING!"
A guy who worked at AWA thanked us all for being there, saying it's the biggest southeast con. He asked how many of us were pirates, and then ninjas... of course ninjas won. Bastards. DX
The people waiting in line next to us were awesome. The guy talking said he was sure we were all eager to buy stuff, and one of the guys behind us yelled out, "I'M A CONSUMER WHORE!"
My sister and I burst out, "AND HOW!!" (For those of you who don't get it-- it's a Rejected Cartoons reference.) We talked for a little, but I forget what we were talking about. *Shrugs* It's a little blurry, stfu.
Even though the wait was a bit much, as they opened LATER than they were supposed to, (we went thinking it was open already, but we were wrong), it was quite awesome. CDs are insanely overpriced, by the way. Insanely. Like, I could buy a house with all that money. (Okay, maybe not, but $40 is way too much for me kthx.) I pondered getting a Gloomy Bear, as I've thought they were adorable for quite a while, but didn't.. they're too expensive. Instead, I got a Maromi doll from Paranoia Agent. XD OMFG. IT SMELLS LIKE PLASTIC, BUT I LOVE IT SO MUCH. IT'S SQUISHY. But the minute it starts moving on its own and talks, I'm stabbing it in the face.
There were little vending machines that sold Winnie the Pooh keychain/phonestrap things.. of the characters in animal suits, or food, or dressed like other characters.. I totally have dragonfly and bush baby Pooh now. >D The dragonfly one is winking though, and it disturbs me.
After a bit of walking, looking, and staring at fat Orochimarus (I kid you not), I dipped into the Sasuga Books booth to look for Honey & Clover manga. I found it... but alas, they didn't have ALL of the volumes, so I didn't get it. I did peak at the extra story in the back of the last volume, though. I hope someone scans it so I can get a better look at it without being nudged by other people's knees and bumped into with bags full of stuff. I pondered a Saiyuki artbook, but went for a Hoshino Lily one instead, because the Saiyuki ones are easier for me to find.
Alexa got the most kickass Death Note bag EVAR. I would have gotten it too, but then Kate got it and I was like, "Well.. pooh. I don't want the same thing someone else here has. ; ;" Izzy got a Nana bag, and I didn't get it for the same reason.
I do believe that after this, we ran downstairs with Izzy to find an ATM, so she could get some more money. I ended up posing for a picture against my will, with Gavin sitting on my shoulders and clinging to my head. I'm told it was cute, but I can only wonder since I haven't seen the picture.
While we were walking back, I paused. Oh em gee, cosplayer? As we passed a group of people, I tapped one on the shoulder. SAIGA!? X0 "Excuse me?" They turned. "... Speed Grapher??"
And he said yeah! He didn't expect anyone to recognize him! :D He looked really happy. So I said, "Well, now someone has!" And we went on our merry little ways. My sister tells me he was in the Masquerade Saturday.
We went back to the Artist Alley to see more stuff, as most of the artists had finally popped up by then and set up their stuff. One person made a very nice Halloween Town!Sora. 8D ♥♥ And I found a very nice artist after a bit more wandering! I picked up her comic, and she said, "Ah, thanks! Someone finally picked up the comic!"
"Is no one else picking it up? It's really cute!"
"It's not that, but people tend to look at fanart more than original art."
"I like looking at the original art too though.." She laughed and said something like how I was an exception then, but I don't remember exactly. Like I said... blurry. Stfu.
I bought a poster from her, as well as a pin of Tohma from Gravitation. I may dislike the series now, but I can't resist a cute little Tohma pin! Sarah bought her Lain pin, which was also incredibly adorable... Alexa, I think, got the Sesshoumaru pin for someone else.
While sitting to the side of the Dealers Room entrance and taking pictures of Izzy's BJD Gavin being silly, we saw the most awesome Pyramid Head + Bubblehead Nurse cosplayers EVER. They were SO GOOD. I think the PH was standing on buckets or something, as he was really, really tall. XD OMFG, they got the walks down PERFECTLY, and PH was carrying around a skinless body.. AHHH IT WAS SO COOL. */fangirl.*
It took my dad 5327 hours to figure out how to find us to pick us up. >__>; Eh heh.
AND WE FELL ASLEEP THE END.
SATURDAY
Oh, Saturday. Saturday. You see, Laura and the rest of them planned on leaving at 11:10, but Izzy and I had stuff we wanted to go to that happened before that.. so we got my dad to drive us, Sarah, Alexa and Sam to the con at about 9:00. 4 people in the back seat = not fun. I had a shoulder digging into my boob. D':
BUT YOU SEE... because Laura and them weren't there yet, we had to carry around our clothes and crap with us. Blehhhhhh.
The booth to get badges had moved to upstairs. We didn't realize this until a little later, and were thoroughly confused. While going upstairs, we ran into the freshman Voices-goers. :0
Izzy and Alexa ran off to the doll meet, and Sarah, Sam and I went to see the Ed & Roy Show. I hope someone took a video of it and can stick it up on YouTube, cos it was extremely funny. I loved the panel~. My two favorite bits were probably these:
1. A girl asked for a hug. Vic happily got up and hugged her. Travis was still sitting there, and he got a wibbly face, "What about me? I want one too." So he got up and hugged her, out-doing Vic's hug by picking the girl up. The Vic hugged her, trying to out-do Travis by twirling her in a hug. XD Everyone cheered. Then they went back to their chairs. Before sitting down, they stared at one another. Shrugged. And hugged each other. XD T'was amusing.
2. Someone asked if they had a day in their character's shoes, what would they do. Travis answered really fast, saying he'd want to blow stuff up. "Hey. *SNAP!* How you doin'? *SNAP!*" and mentioned how he loved playing a sexy badass. (SNAP!)
Vic was all, "Wow, I don't know... umm.."
"Oh, come on, I know what you'd do! *Clap!alchemy all across his table area.* You could make PONIES out of DIRT."
The last thing that happened was Vic singing his song, which was fun stuff~. Yay~.
I went to see the girl who I'd talked to the day before about the Bridget picture. She forgot all about him. ^o^; Rofl. And she forgot her reference for him, but I said it was all good and I'd come back later.
The Dealers Room again! LOVELESS vol.6 (FINALLY) and Bus Gamer, the pilot edition! With Engrish on the cover and a typo!! (Battel = battle.) Sam got a purple contact lens to make her eyes different colors~. She only got one, because she isn't allowed to wear contacts in the other one for some reason unbeknownst to me. She wore it to school today, and it looked really neato.
An ADORABLE metal pencil case with piggies on it also found its way into my possession. It's sooooo cute, omfg. ♥ I got it while I was waiting for Sarah and Izzy to buy panda snack-things and ramune. When we went outside the Dealers Room to eat/drink stuff, we sat against the wall and let a Mokona cosplayer hide out next to us. She was trying really hard to eat her food, but people kept bothering her for pictures. She said she didn't mind getting stopped for pics, but she was really hungry! Some random dude took a picture of us all eating though. o_o It was weird.
Shortly after, Laura and the rest of the people FINALLY called us saying they'd be there in a minute.
But they checked into the hotel without us.
WHAT THE FUCK, PEOPLE. WHAT THE FUCK. It's like they FORGOT WE HAD OUR STUFF! D: By this time, our shoulders were dying from how heavy everything was! We even tried getting rid of some things, like the gummy snacks Izzy brought with her. I gave them out to some artists in the Alley, cos I knew they'd be hungry and stuff... (I got two free pins from doing that. ♥)
MAN, I was pissed off. They showed up late, and checked in without us. Perfect. =__= Kate's and Laura's mothers were making it so damn difficult to start anything because they were trying to make sure we'd check in at 3:00, and if we didn't by 4:00 they'd call us and/or our parents or something. The only good thing about them showing up that made me less mad was seeing Jay. e_e
Then we had to walk to the fucking hotel to put our stuff away. Well, not really the hotel, but the parking lot to put crap in Kate's mom's car. UGGGH I HATE THAT WOMAN. She butts into conversations she isn't a part of, and she walks unnecessarily fast. I tried keeping up at first, I did, but then I was like, "... You know what? Fuck this." And I slowed down. My feet really hurt. I'd been walking for two days straight. There was no way in hell I'd speed up for her.
When we made it back, Alexa and I went to the Dealers Room again to track down someone. I found Jay and Andrew, Jay's new boyfriend! I was insanely happy to find them.. you have no idea. I showed Jay the Blue Sun & other Firefly shirts there, but there were none in his size...
We stopped by the yaoi doujinshi booth, and were entertained by the dude selling stuff there. He was singing songs about yaoi really loudly that he was making up on the spot. I wish I could remember some, but I sadly do not remember one bit of them. *Dead.* Laura popped out of nowhere and gave me an Ichimaru Gin (Bleach) badge she got somewhere in the Alley. :> Yay. And Jay bought lots and lots of Gundam Seed smut. Yay again.
I went over to the Sasuga Books part again to locate Yamane Ayano stuff, but I discovered that because BIBLOS went bankrupt, they have none of her stuff anymore.. it's all out of print. ;A;
Alexa, Andrew, Jay and I decided we were hungry. We also decided to get the hell away from the con for a while, and to have a nice late lunch/early dinner at CAFÉ TU TU TANGO, which was in some other random part of Atlanta. Our drive there was full of perverted comments, blasting music, and wind blowing so hard in my face that I ended up eating my own hair. Bleh.
It was such a cool place to eat, though!! It's really artsy, and all of the art on the walls is buyable. It had good music playing, and we had delicious food. Everything they serve is an appetizer, so it comes in small portions, and generally, an actual meal is 3-4 items, while more of a snack is 2-3. We got the steak skewers and the white pizza. Mmmm.
While we were there, Sarah called Alexa... we pretended we were in the food court. Ah ha ha ha. >>; Then someone called for me, and I claimed we'd moved onto the Dealers Room. *Coughs* We're so sneaky.
We got back just as the Dealers Room was closing. Anna had just gotten to AWA too, cos she had to go to the Japanese school Saturday! D': She was only in there for 15 minutes before she had to leave. But Alexa and I found her and Michael as they were coming out. We went to the bathroom, and Anna (or was it Alexa?) commented on a girl's outfit. We started talking, and found out that she'd been walking around for three hours looking for her friends. She isn't from around here, and she didn't know anyone else. ;3; Her friends said they were in the Masquerade, but she didn't know where it was. Michael looked it up and we figured it out. We said she could hang out with us until she found her friends again! (Oh.. and she told us to call her Livvie!)
I showed Anna adorable Ed and Al pins, and the girl who was doing the $1 yaoi commissions on Friday... (she drew a wonderful chibi pic of Armor!AlxEd. The sound effects were "CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK!")
We went into the main ballroom to ready for the Masquerade. I found out Livvie was cosplaying as her own version of Ritsuka, only punked out and female. It was really cool. x3 And she's into j-rock, and yaoi! She was really nice, and apparently she liked to RP and draw. :3 We exchanged information and stuff so we could keep in touch, cos I was glad I made a friend and she was happy she'd met some nice people (hehe!) to hang out with. Anna and I drew her a collab picture, and Alexa drew other things to fill up space on the page. She was really happy about that~. She also drew a picture for me in my sketchbook! :D
Anna and I talked a little to the dude next to us about traveling + Japan, etc, and then I talked to the guy in front of me about Germany. I mentioned wanting to go because it looked pretty, and I wanted to use some of my German knowledge eventually. He started asking me things in German, and I understood him, but I couldn't come up with the words to answer. He asked me what level I was, and I told him 2... and if I was taking it in high school or college... then he said how his family was German, and he was taking classes in college for it. (Then again, I could be wrong and he was actually talking about rubber ducks and twine.)
After a while, the Masquerade started. Laura's and Kate's moms showed up to watch, cos all of us were there. (I didn't even notice everyone else was in the row in front of us!!) Not too long after, I started getting really, really dizzy. Too many camera flashes, too many people, and it was far too LOUD. I thought I was going to fall over and pass out then and there. Alexa and Livvie came to the bathroom with me, and I thought I'd just need some fresh air. I was wrong.. I couldn't do it. I waited outside of the ballroom while Alexa ran in to get our stuff, and talked a little with an L sitting on the floor. Laura's mom said if I wanted to go to the hotel, to call her.. but I told her I'd be fine after I got some water or something and sat down. I was wrong. While we walked through the Artist Alley again to get to the.. er, way out, some creep ran into Alexa really hard on purpose. If it weren't for me there, Alexa says she probably would have fallen over... (she ran into me). I was miserable walking all the way to the food court, (Alexa says that creep was following us at this time, but we dunno where he went after this), and water wasn't doing much. I had to hold Alexa's hand while we were walking, 'cause I was still afraid I'd just fall over. I got water, and we sat down on a bench, but I still felt sick. I really just wanted to go to the hotel.
Alexa was nice enough to call Laura's mom and tell her I changed my mind, and I did want to leave. We said we'd wait by the escalator for her, and that was right next to the coffee/tea place, and Alexa offered to buy me tea. I got some Chai tea, which was deliciously burning my mouth and helping me settle down. Laura's mom found us eventually, and we walked outside to find Kate's mom, who went to get her car to drive us to the hotel. Laura's mom told me on the way about how Jonathan (Laura's brother) was feeling sick in the exact same way I was, and he'd been at the hotel all day. Motion sickness from anxiety crud. Yep.
Jay called Alexa, and apparently, him and Andrew were in the hotel too! XD A few doors down. W00t. We shuffled over there and hung out for a while... but I ended up going back to our room to get Advil, and got caught up talking with Laura’s mom about my hair. (It’s really thin, for those of you who don’t know... there isn’t much I can do with it.) By the time I went back, Anna and Michael were there too, chowin’ down on ramen noodles. Slowly, everyone else showed up and we watched Adult Swim together for a while, talking about silly things and watching Michael scream, “IT BURNS! IT BURNS!” while running to the bathroom to wash make-up remover out of his eye. All in all, it was an amusing night. We all crashed a little past midnight in our rooms, though. I really wanted to sleep on my stomach, like I normally do, but the pillow was so fluffy and big, it hurt to lie like that. TAT; So I had to lie on my side.
SUNDAY
Ahhh, the last day of the con.
I don’t remember when I woke up... but I think I was the last one in the room, cos I was one of the last people to take a shower. DX OMFG THAT HOTEL SHAMPOO IS EVIL. The conditioner wouldn’t come out of the bottle, and when it did, it went SPLOOT! on my hand. ;A; And then the hotel blow dryer was very, very evil and tried to kill me with it’s supreme SLOWNESS. And the cord you had to pull to get it out was a little terrifying.
BREAKFAST WAS NICE, THOUGH. Mmm, ham and eggs, and French toast that isn’t very French at all, and sausage, and horrible packets of syrup that explode when you open them. I got some on my hands without realizing it, and Anna and Alexa got it all over them and in Alexa’s purse. So... after we ate, we ran back upstairs to wash our hands and the like.
We got all of our stuff from the hotel and brought it out to the car. (There was an InuYasha surfing the intarnets in the lobby, and it made me giggle.) We took some final pictures together, cos EVERYONE (save Sam and Sarah, who actually were already at the con) was there.
At 9:45, my dad came to pick Alexa and I up to go to the airport. It was a nice drive, but I was a little sad... and when Alexa had to leave, I wanted to cry, because I really don’t want to wait another two years to see her again. My dad and I got tea/coffee from the place in the airport. I, yet again, went for the Chai because it’s delicious and wanted to try it with cinnamon in it. Yummy.
The drive back was fun. My dad’s such a geek. We were talking about random anime shows and stuff, and he told me to find him either a Berserk or a Vampire Hunter D shirt. I knew exactly where to get the Berserk ones, but.. no D ones. I called Laura to meet me in front of the Dealers Room, blah de blah de pants...
I found her, ran inside and she soon ran off looking for her mom, while her brother and I ran off to get a Berserk shirt for my dad. They ran out of my dad’s size for the Guts ones, so I got him the slightly girly Femto + Godhand one. It’s really quite spiffy, though... and he seemed happy about it. So whatever.
Jonathan showed me the cutest FF and Naruto keychains ever. D: Awwww.
Then we randomly found Kate and her mother, ditched her mom, and ran off looking for something for Kate. She decided against getting whatever it was she was looking for, and then Laura’s mom popped up! TOO MANY PEOPLE POPPING UP RANDOMLY ahhh. ;3;
But then I spotted Michael and Anna, so I ran off to join them. XD
I remembered to tell Anna about the doujinshi booth thing, where two days before I spotted OMEGA-2D stuff, so we dragged Michael over there with us. A Kimblee and Greed started looking through stuff with us, and one said, “If you find any Greed/Kimblee, let us know.”
“Greed/Kimblee? YES!”
“YES! >D”
After what seemed like forever, I struck OMEGA-2D gold!… AND THEN EIKI EIKI AND ZAOU TAISHI GOLD! Holy crap, I fangirled hard. ;3; It was pretty expensive. When Anna and I decided on what we wanted, I found the dude wearing a dress, who owned the booth. “Um... is it possible that because it’s Sunday, there’s a discount on things?”
“No, no... but you know what, since you were nice enough to ask, I could give you a small discount.” He rounded down our prices to nice, even numbers, which made me a happy little Caseybunny. I couldn’t resist owning something by them.
Soooo...! I bought LIGHT-NOTE and DEAD or ALIVE. 8D SOAWESOME.
Then because we felt bad for making Michael wait around by yaoi doujinshi for so long, we said we’d do something he wanted to do next. We wound up at the VAT room, and caught the end of something with awesome AMVs. Hard Gay made a cameo in one random anime an AMV was made for!! O__O Anna and I stopped in our tracks, and were like, “OMG WTF HG!?” Yeah. We’re awesome. Stfu.
The last one they showed was the funniest thing ever. I wish I knew what anime it was from, or what the AMV title was.
Artist Alley again! I do believe at this time, we went to see if that one person did my picture yet. She didn’t. ^o^;; She almost forgot about it, and left her reference somewhere else. She said she was almost done with her current picture, and she’d start right away on mine. Anna was wondering if she was still doing commissions, so I asked and she said yes. ‘Course, Anna asked for Ed. XD She let the girl borrow her FMA book to use as a reference. She told us to be back in like, an hour and a half. And we happily ran off to the Honey & Clover videoroom.
I wish more people showed up to that. DX SPREAD THE LOVE, DUDES. I was afraid Michael would be mad about us dragging him to that too, but he enjoyed the two episodes we watched. He said it was funny.
After H&C, we were starving, so I said I’d buy some food for us. But while we were walking, Michael stops to point out Vic in the main ballroom.. and.. other VAs?! THE VOICE ACTOR PANEL!
So, instead of eating, we went into that panel instead. It ROCKED. I love everyone who was there. (VOICE OF GOD HOVERING FROM ABOVE oh snap!) A Hughes cosplayer had a question for Travis at one point. He stood up, and we all cheered, for no one ever cosplays him in his pink pajamas... “I have a question for Roy.”
And Travis was all, “:0?”
“When will you ever settle down and get married?”
And we all laughed, and Travis was all, “Hughes..! >0”
Vic ran by at one point, and Michael ran over to stop him and got him to sign Anna’s FMA poster. Yaaay. But then Vic left to eat with his wife... I think. Something like that.
Later, someone had a question for Vic and Travis! But Vic wasn’t there! So Michael Sinterniklaas (The Venture Brothers, Kappa Mikey, GOD VOICE IN BERSERK OMFG) was the replacement-Ed. HE IMMITATES VIC SO FUCKING WELL OH MY GOD. I couldn’t stop laughing!! XD He got all of his mannerisms and speech patterns down so well.
Artist Alley again to pick up pictures! I came just as mine was being finished. :3 She apologized again for taking so long with it, and gave me a hug and stuff. ^o^ I hope she’s there again next year! It was fun talking to her. (PS: I think I forgot to pay her. Oops.)
Michael got Jennifer Sekiguchi (Mamimi in FLCL) to sign his FLCL bag, which made him very happy. He also went to the signing after the panel, and got everyone to sign his PSP.
BUT, Sam, Sarah, Anna and I were all bored and tired and stuff, so we went home early via my dad again. I think I died on the way home. I was so, so, so tired.
Hell, I’m STILL tired. That’s why it took me a week to type this all up and post it.
AWA was, over-all, a wonderful experience. I LOST MY CONVENTION VIRGINITY, w00t!
Some of the actual con-stuff might be out of order, cos... well. I'm tired. Deal with it. DX
WARNING: Quotations may be slightly off, cos I don't remember everything word-for-word...
And this is really, really long. About 8 1/2 pages in MS Word.
THURSDAY
Moohaha. I got to leave school early for a "doctors appointment." 8D; We waited at the airport a gazillion hours, but all was good. I got to rock out to Suneohair while I was waiting, and I got to watch a little kid try to eat Sarah's hair. Right before Alexa got there, I saw a little nerd gathering of guys in black shirts, jeans and glasses. "Ah," I said to Sarah, "They're totally here for AWA." Then I saw a girl run by with a Gravitation bag, and all was amusing and good.
Thursday was fun~ Alexa got to go on a golf cart ride. XD My mom, Sarah, Alexa and I all ate at the WK Cafe. I saw a woman dancing, and a really creepy dude who put his sunglasses on the back of his head for some reason. Yaaayy.
FRIDAY
Kay, so... we didn't go to school. Sarah and I were "sick." Cough, cough. Alexa is a disease now!
Izzy's mom took Izzy, Sarah, Alexa and I to the con that morning. We got there fairly early, so it was really nice. It took us a long time to find the place to get our badges, though... buuut we made it eventually. Most of our day was spent in the Artist Alley and, when it opened, the Dealers Room.
There were so many nice artists there!! The first artist we went to had really kickass hair (we later discovered it was a wig, as her hair was completely different the next day)... and she was doing commissions! I asked her if it was possible for her to draw Bridget from Guilty Gear for me, and she happily agreed. :D We got into a nice conversation with her too~. I forget what we were talking about, but I used a Jedi mind trick on someone while we were there and the guy next to the artist stood up. "YOU!! You are the coolest person ever!" xD
We visited Coey at her table and fangirl’d muchly over her art. Hopefully I didn't scare her. ^ ^; We got to talk to her quite a bit to, and found out she's a big Guilty Gear fan too! (Lots of AWA Artist Alley people seemed to love GG!) She had chibi badges of everyone.. and I, of course, got the Bridget. Har har. I also bought a small poster-sized print of this pretty picture (minus close-up on the side) to hang somewhere in my room! :D
We gravitated next to Coey, where Shy's table was! Shy, like everyone else so far, was very nice. ^o^ I bought this pretty picture, and so did Alexa~.
I THINK we went to eat after this, but I could be remembering incorrectly. Yay food!
The line for the Dealers Room was SO INSANELY LONG. OH MY GOD. ;A; We got in it about 40 minutes before it opened, and we ended up being at the beginning of the third line after much shifting and curving rows. "KEEP CURVING GUYS, KEEP CURVING!"
A guy who worked at AWA thanked us all for being there, saying it's the biggest southeast con. He asked how many of us were pirates, and then ninjas... of course ninjas won. Bastards. DX
The people waiting in line next to us were awesome. The guy talking said he was sure we were all eager to buy stuff, and one of the guys behind us yelled out, "I'M A CONSUMER WHORE!"
My sister and I burst out, "AND HOW!!" (For those of you who don't get it-- it's a Rejected Cartoons reference.) We talked for a little, but I forget what we were talking about. *Shrugs* It's a little blurry, stfu.
Even though the wait was a bit much, as they opened LATER than they were supposed to, (we went thinking it was open already, but we were wrong), it was quite awesome. CDs are insanely overpriced, by the way. Insanely. Like, I could buy a house with all that money. (Okay, maybe not, but $40 is way too much for me kthx.) I pondered getting a Gloomy Bear, as I've thought they were adorable for quite a while, but didn't.. they're too expensive. Instead, I got a Maromi doll from Paranoia Agent. XD OMFG. IT SMELLS LIKE PLASTIC, BUT I LOVE IT SO MUCH. IT'S SQUISHY. But the minute it starts moving on its own and talks, I'm stabbing it in the face.
There were little vending machines that sold Winnie the Pooh keychain/phonestrap things.. of the characters in animal suits, or food, or dressed like other characters.. I totally have dragonfly and bush baby Pooh now. >D The dragonfly one is winking though, and it disturbs me.
After a bit of walking, looking, and staring at fat Orochimarus (I kid you not), I dipped into the Sasuga Books booth to look for Honey & Clover manga. I found it... but alas, they didn't have ALL of the volumes, so I didn't get it. I did peak at the extra story in the back of the last volume, though. I hope someone scans it so I can get a better look at it without being nudged by other people's knees and bumped into with bags full of stuff. I pondered a Saiyuki artbook, but went for a Hoshino Lily one instead, because the Saiyuki ones are easier for me to find.
Alexa got the most kickass Death Note bag EVAR. I would have gotten it too, but then Kate got it and I was like, "Well.. pooh. I don't want the same thing someone else here has. ; ;" Izzy got a Nana bag, and I didn't get it for the same reason.
I do believe that after this, we ran downstairs with Izzy to find an ATM, so she could get some more money. I ended up posing for a picture against my will, with Gavin sitting on my shoulders and clinging to my head. I'm told it was cute, but I can only wonder since I haven't seen the picture.
While we were walking back, I paused. Oh em gee, cosplayer? As we passed a group of people, I tapped one on the shoulder. SAIGA!? X0 "Excuse me?" They turned. "... Speed Grapher??"
And he said yeah! He didn't expect anyone to recognize him! :D He looked really happy. So I said, "Well, now someone has!" And we went on our merry little ways. My sister tells me he was in the Masquerade Saturday.
We went back to the Artist Alley to see more stuff, as most of the artists had finally popped up by then and set up their stuff. One person made a very nice Halloween Town!Sora. 8D ♥♥ And I found a very nice artist after a bit more wandering! I picked up her comic, and she said, "Ah, thanks! Someone finally picked up the comic!"
"Is no one else picking it up? It's really cute!"
"It's not that, but people tend to look at fanart more than original art."
"I like looking at the original art too though.." She laughed and said something like how I was an exception then, but I don't remember exactly. Like I said... blurry. Stfu.
I bought a poster from her, as well as a pin of Tohma from Gravitation. I may dislike the series now, but I can't resist a cute little Tohma pin! Sarah bought her Lain pin, which was also incredibly adorable... Alexa, I think, got the Sesshoumaru pin for someone else.
While sitting to the side of the Dealers Room entrance and taking pictures of Izzy's BJD Gavin being silly, we saw the most awesome Pyramid Head + Bubblehead Nurse cosplayers EVER. They were SO GOOD. I think the PH was standing on buckets or something, as he was really, really tall. XD OMFG, they got the walks down PERFECTLY, and PH was carrying around a skinless body.. AHHH IT WAS SO COOL. */fangirl.*
It took my dad 5327 hours to figure out how to find us to pick us up. >__>; Eh heh.
AND WE FELL ASLEEP THE END.
SATURDAY
Oh, Saturday. Saturday. You see, Laura and the rest of them planned on leaving at 11:10, but Izzy and I had stuff we wanted to go to that happened before that.. so we got my dad to drive us, Sarah, Alexa and Sam to the con at about 9:00. 4 people in the back seat = not fun. I had a shoulder digging into my boob. D':
BUT YOU SEE... because Laura and them weren't there yet, we had to carry around our clothes and crap with us. Blehhhhhh.
The booth to get badges had moved to upstairs. We didn't realize this until a little later, and were thoroughly confused. While going upstairs, we ran into the freshman Voices-goers. :0
Izzy and Alexa ran off to the doll meet, and Sarah, Sam and I went to see the Ed & Roy Show. I hope someone took a video of it and can stick it up on YouTube, cos it was extremely funny. I loved the panel~. My two favorite bits were probably these:
1. A girl asked for a hug. Vic happily got up and hugged her. Travis was still sitting there, and he got a wibbly face, "What about me? I want one too." So he got up and hugged her, out-doing Vic's hug by picking the girl up. The Vic hugged her, trying to out-do Travis by twirling her in a hug. XD Everyone cheered. Then they went back to their chairs. Before sitting down, they stared at one another. Shrugged. And hugged each other. XD T'was amusing.
2. Someone asked if they had a day in their character's shoes, what would they do. Travis answered really fast, saying he'd want to blow stuff up. "Hey. *SNAP!* How you doin'? *SNAP!*" and mentioned how he loved playing a sexy badass. (SNAP!)
Vic was all, "Wow, I don't know... umm.."
"Oh, come on, I know what you'd do! *Clap!alchemy all across his table area.* You could make PONIES out of DIRT."
The last thing that happened was Vic singing his song, which was fun stuff~. Yay~.
I went to see the girl who I'd talked to the day before about the Bridget picture. She forgot all about him. ^o^; Rofl. And she forgot her reference for him, but I said it was all good and I'd come back later.
The Dealers Room again! LOVELESS vol.6 (FINALLY) and Bus Gamer, the pilot edition! With Engrish on the cover and a typo!! (Battel = battle.) Sam got a purple contact lens to make her eyes different colors~. She only got one, because she isn't allowed to wear contacts in the other one for some reason unbeknownst to me. She wore it to school today, and it looked really neato.
An ADORABLE metal pencil case with piggies on it also found its way into my possession. It's sooooo cute, omfg. ♥ I got it while I was waiting for Sarah and Izzy to buy panda snack-things and ramune. When we went outside the Dealers Room to eat/drink stuff, we sat against the wall and let a Mokona cosplayer hide out next to us. She was trying really hard to eat her food, but people kept bothering her for pictures. She said she didn't mind getting stopped for pics, but she was really hungry! Some random dude took a picture of us all eating though. o_o It was weird.
Shortly after, Laura and the rest of the people FINALLY called us saying they'd be there in a minute.
But they checked into the hotel without us.
WHAT THE FUCK, PEOPLE. WHAT THE FUCK. It's like they FORGOT WE HAD OUR STUFF! D: By this time, our shoulders were dying from how heavy everything was! We even tried getting rid of some things, like the gummy snacks Izzy brought with her. I gave them out to some artists in the Alley, cos I knew they'd be hungry and stuff... (I got two free pins from doing that. ♥)
MAN, I was pissed off. They showed up late, and checked in without us. Perfect. =__= Kate's and Laura's mothers were making it so damn difficult to start anything because they were trying to make sure we'd check in at 3:00, and if we didn't by 4:00 they'd call us and/or our parents or something. The only good thing about them showing up that made me less mad was seeing Jay. e_e
Then we had to walk to the fucking hotel to put our stuff away. Well, not really the hotel, but the parking lot to put crap in Kate's mom's car. UGGGH I HATE THAT WOMAN. She butts into conversations she isn't a part of, and she walks unnecessarily fast. I tried keeping up at first, I did, but then I was like, "... You know what? Fuck this." And I slowed down. My feet really hurt. I'd been walking for two days straight. There was no way in hell I'd speed up for her.
When we made it back, Alexa and I went to the Dealers Room again to track down someone. I found Jay and Andrew, Jay's new boyfriend! I was insanely happy to find them.. you have no idea. I showed Jay the Blue Sun & other Firefly shirts there, but there were none in his size...
We stopped by the yaoi doujinshi booth, and were entertained by the dude selling stuff there. He was singing songs about yaoi really loudly that he was making up on the spot. I wish I could remember some, but I sadly do not remember one bit of them. *Dead.* Laura popped out of nowhere and gave me an Ichimaru Gin (Bleach) badge she got somewhere in the Alley. :> Yay. And Jay bought lots and lots of Gundam Seed smut. Yay again.
I went over to the Sasuga Books part again to locate Yamane Ayano stuff, but I discovered that because BIBLOS went bankrupt, they have none of her stuff anymore.. it's all out of print. ;A;
Alexa, Andrew, Jay and I decided we were hungry. We also decided to get the hell away from the con for a while, and to have a nice late lunch/early dinner at CAFÉ TU TU TANGO, which was in some other random part of Atlanta. Our drive there was full of perverted comments, blasting music, and wind blowing so hard in my face that I ended up eating my own hair. Bleh.
It was such a cool place to eat, though!! It's really artsy, and all of the art on the walls is buyable. It had good music playing, and we had delicious food. Everything they serve is an appetizer, so it comes in small portions, and generally, an actual meal is 3-4 items, while more of a snack is 2-3. We got the steak skewers and the white pizza. Mmmm.
While we were there, Sarah called Alexa... we pretended we were in the food court. Ah ha ha ha. >>; Then someone called for me, and I claimed we'd moved onto the Dealers Room. *Coughs* We're so sneaky.
We got back just as the Dealers Room was closing. Anna had just gotten to AWA too, cos she had to go to the Japanese school Saturday! D': She was only in there for 15 minutes before she had to leave. But Alexa and I found her and Michael as they were coming out. We went to the bathroom, and Anna (or was it Alexa?) commented on a girl's outfit. We started talking, and found out that she'd been walking around for three hours looking for her friends. She isn't from around here, and she didn't know anyone else. ;3; Her friends said they were in the Masquerade, but she didn't know where it was. Michael looked it up and we figured it out. We said she could hang out with us until she found her friends again! (Oh.. and she told us to call her Livvie!)
I showed Anna adorable Ed and Al pins, and the girl who was doing the $1 yaoi commissions on Friday... (she drew a wonderful chibi pic of Armor!AlxEd. The sound effects were "CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK!")
We went into the main ballroom to ready for the Masquerade. I found out Livvie was cosplaying as her own version of Ritsuka, only punked out and female. It was really cool. x3 And she's into j-rock, and yaoi! She was really nice, and apparently she liked to RP and draw. :3 We exchanged information and stuff so we could keep in touch, cos I was glad I made a friend and she was happy she'd met some nice people (hehe!) to hang out with. Anna and I drew her a collab picture, and Alexa drew other things to fill up space on the page. She was really happy about that~. She also drew a picture for me in my sketchbook! :D
Anna and I talked a little to the dude next to us about traveling + Japan, etc, and then I talked to the guy in front of me about Germany. I mentioned wanting to go because it looked pretty, and I wanted to use some of my German knowledge eventually. He started asking me things in German, and I understood him, but I couldn't come up with the words to answer. He asked me what level I was, and I told him 2... and if I was taking it in high school or college... then he said how his family was German, and he was taking classes in college for it. (Then again, I could be wrong and he was actually talking about rubber ducks and twine.)
After a while, the Masquerade started. Laura's and Kate's moms showed up to watch, cos all of us were there. (I didn't even notice everyone else was in the row in front of us!!) Not too long after, I started getting really, really dizzy. Too many camera flashes, too many people, and it was far too LOUD. I thought I was going to fall over and pass out then and there. Alexa and Livvie came to the bathroom with me, and I thought I'd just need some fresh air. I was wrong.. I couldn't do it. I waited outside of the ballroom while Alexa ran in to get our stuff, and talked a little with an L sitting on the floor. Laura's mom said if I wanted to go to the hotel, to call her.. but I told her I'd be fine after I got some water or something and sat down. I was wrong. While we walked through the Artist Alley again to get to the.. er, way out, some creep ran into Alexa really hard on purpose. If it weren't for me there, Alexa says she probably would have fallen over... (she ran into me). I was miserable walking all the way to the food court, (Alexa says that creep was following us at this time, but we dunno where he went after this), and water wasn't doing much. I had to hold Alexa's hand while we were walking, 'cause I was still afraid I'd just fall over. I got water, and we sat down on a bench, but I still felt sick. I really just wanted to go to the hotel.
Alexa was nice enough to call Laura's mom and tell her I changed my mind, and I did want to leave. We said we'd wait by the escalator for her, and that was right next to the coffee/tea place, and Alexa offered to buy me tea. I got some Chai tea, which was deliciously burning my mouth and helping me settle down. Laura's mom found us eventually, and we walked outside to find Kate's mom, who went to get her car to drive us to the hotel. Laura's mom told me on the way about how Jonathan (Laura's brother) was feeling sick in the exact same way I was, and he'd been at the hotel all day. Motion sickness from anxiety crud. Yep.
Jay called Alexa, and apparently, him and Andrew were in the hotel too! XD A few doors down. W00t. We shuffled over there and hung out for a while... but I ended up going back to our room to get Advil, and got caught up talking with Laura’s mom about my hair. (It’s really thin, for those of you who don’t know... there isn’t much I can do with it.) By the time I went back, Anna and Michael were there too, chowin’ down on ramen noodles. Slowly, everyone else showed up and we watched Adult Swim together for a while, talking about silly things and watching Michael scream, “IT BURNS! IT BURNS!” while running to the bathroom to wash make-up remover out of his eye. All in all, it was an amusing night. We all crashed a little past midnight in our rooms, though. I really wanted to sleep on my stomach, like I normally do, but the pillow was so fluffy and big, it hurt to lie like that. TAT; So I had to lie on my side.
SUNDAY
Ahhh, the last day of the con.
I don’t remember when I woke up... but I think I was the last one in the room, cos I was one of the last people to take a shower. DX OMFG THAT HOTEL SHAMPOO IS EVIL. The conditioner wouldn’t come out of the bottle, and when it did, it went SPLOOT! on my hand. ;A; And then the hotel blow dryer was very, very evil and tried to kill me with it’s supreme SLOWNESS. And the cord you had to pull to get it out was a little terrifying.
BREAKFAST WAS NICE, THOUGH. Mmm, ham and eggs, and French toast that isn’t very French at all, and sausage, and horrible packets of syrup that explode when you open them. I got some on my hands without realizing it, and Anna and Alexa got it all over them and in Alexa’s purse. So... after we ate, we ran back upstairs to wash our hands and the like.
We got all of our stuff from the hotel and brought it out to the car. (There was an InuYasha surfing the intarnets in the lobby, and it made me giggle.) We took some final pictures together, cos EVERYONE (save Sam and Sarah, who actually were already at the con) was there.
At 9:45, my dad came to pick Alexa and I up to go to the airport. It was a nice drive, but I was a little sad... and when Alexa had to leave, I wanted to cry, because I really don’t want to wait another two years to see her again. My dad and I got tea/coffee from the place in the airport. I, yet again, went for the Chai because it’s delicious and wanted to try it with cinnamon in it. Yummy.
The drive back was fun. My dad’s such a geek. We were talking about random anime shows and stuff, and he told me to find him either a Berserk or a Vampire Hunter D shirt. I knew exactly where to get the Berserk ones, but.. no D ones. I called Laura to meet me in front of the Dealers Room, blah de blah de pants...
I found her, ran inside and she soon ran off looking for her mom, while her brother and I ran off to get a Berserk shirt for my dad. They ran out of my dad’s size for the Guts ones, so I got him the slightly girly Femto + Godhand one. It’s really quite spiffy, though... and he seemed happy about it. So whatever.
Jonathan showed me the cutest FF and Naruto keychains ever. D: Awwww.
Then we randomly found Kate and her mother, ditched her mom, and ran off looking for something for Kate. She decided against getting whatever it was she was looking for, and then Laura’s mom popped up! TOO MANY PEOPLE POPPING UP RANDOMLY ahhh. ;3;
But then I spotted Michael and Anna, so I ran off to join them. XD
I remembered to tell Anna about the doujinshi booth thing, where two days before I spotted OMEGA-2D stuff, so we dragged Michael over there with us. A Kimblee and Greed started looking through stuff with us, and one said, “If you find any Greed/Kimblee, let us know.”
“Greed/Kimblee? YES!”
“YES! >D”
After what seemed like forever, I struck OMEGA-2D gold!… AND THEN EIKI EIKI AND ZAOU TAISHI GOLD! Holy crap, I fangirled hard. ;3; It was pretty expensive. When Anna and I decided on what we wanted, I found the dude wearing a dress, who owned the booth. “Um... is it possible that because it’s Sunday, there’s a discount on things?”
“No, no... but you know what, since you were nice enough to ask, I could give you a small discount.” He rounded down our prices to nice, even numbers, which made me a happy little Caseybunny. I couldn’t resist owning something by them.
Soooo...! I bought LIGHT-NOTE and DEAD or ALIVE. 8D SOAWESOME.
Then because we felt bad for making Michael wait around by yaoi doujinshi for so long, we said we’d do something he wanted to do next. We wound up at the VAT room, and caught the end of something with awesome AMVs. Hard Gay made a cameo in one random anime an AMV was made for!! O__O Anna and I stopped in our tracks, and were like, “OMG WTF HG!?” Yeah. We’re awesome. Stfu.
The last one they showed was the funniest thing ever. I wish I knew what anime it was from, or what the AMV title was.
Artist Alley again! I do believe at this time, we went to see if that one person did my picture yet. She didn’t. ^o^;; She almost forgot about it, and left her reference somewhere else. She said she was almost done with her current picture, and she’d start right away on mine. Anna was wondering if she was still doing commissions, so I asked and she said yes. ‘Course, Anna asked for Ed. XD She let the girl borrow her FMA book to use as a reference. She told us to be back in like, an hour and a half. And we happily ran off to the Honey & Clover videoroom.
I wish more people showed up to that. DX SPREAD THE LOVE, DUDES. I was afraid Michael would be mad about us dragging him to that too, but he enjoyed the two episodes we watched. He said it was funny.
After H&C, we were starving, so I said I’d buy some food for us. But while we were walking, Michael stops to point out Vic in the main ballroom.. and.. other VAs?! THE VOICE ACTOR PANEL!
So, instead of eating, we went into that panel instead. It ROCKED. I love everyone who was there. (VOICE OF GOD HOVERING FROM ABOVE oh snap!) A Hughes cosplayer had a question for Travis at one point. He stood up, and we all cheered, for no one ever cosplays him in his pink pajamas... “I have a question for Roy.”
And Travis was all, “:0?”
“When will you ever settle down and get married?”
And we all laughed, and Travis was all, “Hughes..! >0”
Vic ran by at one point, and Michael ran over to stop him and got him to sign Anna’s FMA poster. Yaaay. But then Vic left to eat with his wife... I think. Something like that.
Later, someone had a question for Vic and Travis! But Vic wasn’t there! So Michael Sinterniklaas (The Venture Brothers, Kappa Mikey, GOD VOICE IN BERSERK OMFG) was the replacement-Ed. HE IMMITATES VIC SO FUCKING WELL OH MY GOD. I couldn’t stop laughing!! XD He got all of his mannerisms and speech patterns down so well.
Artist Alley again to pick up pictures! I came just as mine was being finished. :3 She apologized again for taking so long with it, and gave me a hug and stuff. ^o^ I hope she’s there again next year! It was fun talking to her. (PS: I think I forgot to pay her. Oops.)
Michael got Jennifer Sekiguchi (Mamimi in FLCL) to sign his FLCL bag, which made him very happy. He also went to the signing after the panel, and got everyone to sign his PSP.
BUT, Sam, Sarah, Anna and I were all bored and tired and stuff, so we went home early via my dad again. I think I died on the way home. I was so, so, so tired.
Hell, I’m STILL tired. That’s why it took me a week to type this all up and post it.