Here it is! Only took me a whole month. XDDD
2006 ANIME EXPO CONVENTION REPORT STATUS: 100%
Be prepared for the longest con report EVAR. I think I managed to shout out every person on my friend's list that I ran into, so if you're not bored enough to read the whole thing, feel free to skip to your name. If I saw you and forgot to mention you here, I apologize. I have the memory of a 70-year-old woman, I swear.
'Tis a miracle! Where to begin? I guess Day Zero seems like a good plan. :D
After a rather... *cough* UNEVENTFUL *STARESTARESTARE@VELVY* week in Escondido, Velv and I headed to Anaheim with Gordo her friend from school, who graciously offered us a ride up there even though he wasn't attending AX. XD Because Velv DIDN'T pay him, his only reward was some good quality time with his little bro who was riding shotgun amd watching Napoleon Dynamite with us in our hotel room. Oh, yeah, by "US," I mean bloody_mary and violet_lane! Mary and Diana, 2 of our 3 lovely roommates (aside from velv and myself)!
Anyway, after Napoleon, we got a hold of Lionel, and planned a time for our photoshoot. However, in TRUE Velvy and
Katie style, we were an hour and a half late for it due to some delays in getting ready (of course we called Lionel and warned him that this would be the case). After having the amazing Mary do our make-up, we finally managed to get out of the room in time for a few shots. Here are the ones from inside the Hilton. All are by EBK except the first.
This shot was taken by Mary. I wish she could come to every con I attend... Her make-up skillz BLOW ME AWAY. TEACH ME YOUR WAYS, MARYYYY!
Ok, enough of that. After the Hilton shots, Lionel took us outside where we were SWARMED. Wtf, mate, the con hadn't even STARTED yet. I remember telling Diana that it was nothing compared to how it's gonna be on the actual con days. ^^
DRAMATIQUE, no?
I likes how wer all lookin' at different stuffs. :D
Why am I the only one who looks ready to fight? XD
Anyway, so yeah. Thanks for the photoshoot, Lionel. :D You know how awesome you are. Especially for putting up with our extreme tardiness. However, we have learned our lesson. Next time we have somewhere to be during a convention, we shall not keep saying "Only _:00? We have pleeeenty of time to get ready. We only need like, an hour. :D" After leaving the Mariott (our final photo location), we went back to the Hilton to find my purse because I'd left it there when we went outside. Oops. Luckily, some nice person had turned it into security, and when I went to pick it up, the dude working in the Lost and Found area was like "wait, this can't be your purse. The ID doesn't say 'Rikku' anywhere." For some reason, it didn't hit me how awesome/funny it was that security recognized the character. But he was a young guy, anyway, so why wouldn't he? XD I think the reason I overlooked it is because the guy preceeded to hit on me in an odd and creepy way. "Wait, before you go- how old are you?" "...umm... why?" "We just want to know. *motions to 30+-year-old coworker*" "...18..." "Oh, darn. If you were NINETEEN we would have asked you to hang out with us tonight." Oh, well, that's too bad for him because I DEFINITELY would have said yes. *rolls eyes* After obtaining my purse, I ran into strongest_shld and audioventchick as Greed and Hitsugaya. Ironically, Tim was not nowhere to be found, so I introduced myself to Eric and Shana. I quickly had to run off, though, because Velvy had some sort of hairtail emergency or... something. o_O
Later that night, azu79 arrived! We had roommie #5! <3 ya, Aimi! I tell ya folks, there is NOTHING better than a room of just girls. (Even if they do have a combined costume count of over 20) Panties everywhere and no one to worry about seeing em! Ok, so that was mostly just MY panties. Sorry, girls. ...And Trevor.
On to Saturday! ...What the heck did I wear Saturday? ....Oh yeah! Momo! Wow, how sad. Of course, I could barely remember the day AFTER what I had worn the day before, so a month later is no big. XD Anyway, immediately after getting into costume, we decided to get our con badges to go to a stupid Mana panel that was at 2. Problem? The at-con registration line on Monday around noon was HUGE. And SLOW. I was ticked bc I didn't particularly care to attend the Mana panel and I would have been fine with getting my badge later in the day when the line would be nonexistent. After maybe 2 hours of waiting (and a feminine emergency!), we decided to give up. We had about another hour of waiting in line and the panel started in less than 30 minutes. Screw eet. Lucky Diana had already gotten her badge, and lucky Mary had a boyfriend willing to wait in line FOR her. I don't remember much else about day one. The only thing I really remember about wearing Momo is that I was constantly asked "Oh! Are you so-and-so from such-and-such??" and everytime I'd say no, they'd look so disappointed. XD I would explain "I'm Momo from Peach Girl! I'd be more worried if you DID actually recognize me! ;D" I must have said that 50 times. rofl
Here are some of my favorite pictures in Momo with Velvy as Sae. ^^
A close-up by agentsakur9.
A full-body shot by PRINCE ALBERT.
What ghetto schoolgirls we are. XD
OH DO YOU DIDN'T
Attempting the "manga Momo" face. Failure!
Sailor Peach Girl??
I look so tan! Hip, hip, HOORAAAAY!
A really unattractive Momo pout-face by me. Photo by Lionel. ^^
My freaking favorite picture of us from all of AX. Doesn't Velvy make a sexy bitch? Too bad the pleats on the side of my skirt suxxor.
If I'm not mistaken, sometime during the day, we ran into a few certain Gankutsuou cosplayers halfway into costume. Of course, we ended up running into rurouni_jedi, jinyo, g_mal, and solaria735 multiple times throughout the con. However, the gorgeous barachanrei probably wins the award for "Most Visible Person at AX", though, since I think we ran into and talked to her more than any other cosplayer acquaintance. XD
After Momo, I changed into Yoruichi. Again, Mary darkened my already phony tan, and for some odd reason, it took me quite a while to get into this costume. Dunno. I think something was missing and I was wondering around trying to find it. I felt bad being late because Misty (who I shall call "MY Soi Fong") and Tim (MY Urahara lawls) were waiting for me. Sorry, guys. But I did make it out there. And many pictures were taken. And many stomachs were rumbling. Here are the pictures:
A shot by Kevin Lilliard. Probably my favorite.
Yoruichi and Soi Fong CLASH! Well, maybe not CLASH. Just clash.
YoruSoi shippers everywhere REJOICE. Haha, it looks like we're holding hands, but we were actually both doing some sort of shunkou... hand... thing. Whatev. *shrug*
Yoruichi and Soi Fong in some sort of low, martial arts-like pose? I look so weird. What the hell am I doing with my hands? I should cosplay SPIDER-MAN.
I kick you.
Now for some pictures with Tim
I cut Velvy out because she wasn't paying attention. That re-re.
A really cool shot! :D
Obligatory shot of Tim HAVING THE STRENGTH OF 3 URAHARAS! He lifted me so damn high my head is above his. Ouch. It hurts my back just looking at this picture.
Sometime during this little impromptu Bleach gathering, we saw an Auron just kinda chilling away from the crowd, leaning on a wall of the ACC. I was like "Hey, an Auron. ...Wow, he's not moving. OMG, is he being in character? Haha, he IS! He's being in character!" So I HAD to get a photo with him.
Tohru, Yoruichi, Rena, Auron, and Yuffie all thuggin'. Ready to battle at any moment. Yeah, we're badass. The dude didn't even say anything when we went and stood next to him for photos. He just kept on leaning against that wall. That dude rocked. :D
Ok, so by this time, we were all STARVED. Originally, it was just gonna be me, Diana, and Alli going to Denny's, but I invited Tim and Eric, and they invited their roommate "Chouji", so we had 3 huge male bodyguards with us for the journey. And yet the pathetic wolf whistles and shouts still came. Poor, pathetic Anaheim bastards. Hitting on passing cosplayers. What losers. Speaking of losers, Velvy mysteriously disappeared before we left for Denny's. Turns out she wanted to hit up the bike party or something. Apparently, this "bike party" was some kind of big deal. Who knew? ;D Now heading back to the subject of losers, check out this fine example of one attempting a "BOHAHA!" for a photo.
What a pitiful excuse for a Don Kanonji fan. She was probably tired and hungry or something.
Day two was Ulala day. Literally. EVERYONE in our room wore an Ulala costume. Except Diana. She wore Joan, which was just as good since she had pigtails + memoriez!! Megacon 2006, baby. It was all about Joan and the Ulalas. Now THAT is a band name, my friends. We took quite a while to get into Ulala. I was missing the white gloves that go underneath my glove covers and Velvy was missing an orange boot. Velvy searched and searched, and when the search appeared to be in vain, Diana, Mary, and I realized we couldn't wait any longer, and we headed down. I was still kinda bummed about not having my gloves (not to mention without them, the vinyl glove covers were a lot less comfortable), but I was determined to find a decent pair for sale in the dealer's room. However, I didn't. But here are a few pictures in which I attempted to hide the fact that my fingers were visible.
Ulala x 3! Too bad I never got a photo of all 4 of us. ;_; I <333 this one by Lionel, though! Aimi, I think that if I hadn't been wearing my Ulala heels, I would have only been a few inches taller than you! Your Ulala stilettos were HAWT.
Luckily for me, my good friend Alli (whom I mentioned above but am just now shout-outin- yogiri) lent me her Uranus gloves to wear underneath. By the time we got back down, Velvy was ready to join us as Yulala! Or maybe. Uluna? No, I prefer Yulala. That is to say, Ulala in Yuna boots. Teehee! They matched her jetpack/headset! So more pictures were made.
A gem from fansview! Yaaay! Why is Yulala wearing your purse? YOU REMOVE YOUR PURSE FOR PHOTOS FROM KEVIN, VELV. XD
Ben captures THE REAL KATIE. Why am I the only one doing the velociraptor???
And that's it. All my favorite Ulala pictures. Wow. Usually when I wear a costume the second time, the pictures from that con PWN the last one. Apparently, for Ulala, the 3rd time was one time too many, because I didn't get very many good shots at all. Then again, at Megacon I cheated. I had Mab. One more pose. One more. One more. ...50 more... Ok done. Sadness. ;_; Also, at AX, this costume really started to fall apart. First Gavin attempted to take the life of one of my jet packs (some sort of freak hugging accident), then I decided to finish it off later. The end result was me having to carry it around. Oh yeah, sometime during the wearage of Ulala I got to flip Kevin (not Lilliard, lol) off. Yaaaay! That douche.
Anyway, Diana and I were tired, so we went inside the con and sat and chilled and had girl talk. We did that a lot, actually. Then we were joined by Alli again as the rather genki Haruhi (not the Ouran Haruhi! The other one.) and I decided to go change into Sakura (since I was ready to wear a costume where no one wanted my picture like... at all. :D) and them into Mai Himeness and have dinner, since Mary, Aimi, and Velvy were off to the Hyde contest with Lloyd (whom I didn't know yet! :OOO I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS MISSING, YO). We ate pizza. Mmm, pizza. At one point when I was going to the bathroom in the Mariott, a girl asked for my picture and was like "You're the best Sakura I've ever seen!" which made me happy because I soooooo am not. Hahaha, my costume suxx0rz. Anyway, after pizza, it was RUM PARTY time! ...Rum party, wtf, mate? It wasn't really as much fun this year... probably because even though I was having fun chatting with peeps and taking pictures with Tim and not exactly participating, Diana and Alli were pretty damn bored. Especially since Miko, Amanda, and Allison had gotten disappointed early (after I told them it would be really fun) and already left. Poopy. My memory's a little fuzzy, but I think this was the first time I got to see all 3 girls together at AX, so I'm glad that the Rum Party gave me that much. ^^ animiko, faeriedust27, and Allison (whose LJ I do not know), you ladies rock hard. Your Xenosaga group especially made me want to bow and worship the ground you walked on. Except I was no longer wearing Ulala so a picture of worship just wouldn't be as enjoyable. ;D So, time for Sakura photos, I guess.
Behold! I used those free Naruto pins to hold up my butt pouch! Yaaaay!
Heehee... I drove Al crazy with this one. Everytime, he'd be like "Now face this way at this angle" I'd face the opposite direction right as he went to take the picture. I wanted a shot of me facing the wrong way to throw the kunai soooo bad. Hahaha!
Obligatory "look what I can do!" shot. I wasn't stretched out enough to do a good split, so you'll have to settle for this crappy one.
Now for the photos of me with KaKAshi-sensei!
Obligatory "kick Tim in the face" picture. This year too, I am obviously a ballerina faking being a martial artist. I mean, who kicks with their foot at a vertical angle? Honestly!
Obligatory picture of Tim lifting me. Only this time it makes more sense! ...Kinda. If you're some sort of weird KakaSaku shipper. >_> I don't like this angle, though, because it makes Tim look small and me HUGE. XD
I was pretty pooped by the time I wore Sakura, so most of the pictures for it turned out pretty dreadful. o_O
After that, we headed back to the hotel room to help Trevor work on Auron. Or at least I helped him. And we took this picture.
SAKURON! Or maybe... SAURON! :D Look how much bigger that glove is than my hand. I'm so cosplaying Auron one day. ;D
Later that night, Trevor worked a miracle and finished his Auron costume. I'm not sure how much sleep he lost because of it, but whatever. He needed to look nice and groggy for Auron anyway. ;D
Before I knew it, it was Monday. The day of the masquerade had finally arrived! Aside from craftmanship judging, I had ONE plan for this day: the Fullmetal Alchemist movie premiere. Both Diana and I hadn't seen it yet, and I wanted to. BAD. But of course, when it comes to time, does anything EVER work out for us? Of course not. The movie started at 11. At that point in time, we were still getting into costume, and Velvy was having trouble in the masquerade contest meeting when they started trying to bleep the hell out of our skit. Oh, hellz nah. At 11:45, when we had lost all hope to catch the premiere, Diana and I walked down to the Masquerade meeting room to have a chat with the dudes bleeping our skit. Understandably, they wanted to bleep the "ass"es that were in there. No big, we expected that. But then they tried to bleep "photograph," because apparently it sounded like "fuck." OH YEAH. That makes SO much sense. "So you think you can FUCK me, then feel up my thigh?" As Diana said, "Oh, you can have sex with me, but afterwards, you better not touch me!" We explained that it was stupid to bleep it because they're taking a word that was innocent but might possibly SOUND dirty and putting a bleep over it turns it into something REALLY dirty. Even if a member of the audience goes "Woooah, did they just say 'fuck'?!" Obviously, they're going to shake their head and say "Naah, they'd never get away with that in a skit." However, if the word is bleeped, the whole audience automatically assumes Leblanc just said "So you think you can fuck me." Wtf, mate. I'm rambling. I'll shut up. Three people sat around and listened to our skit through headphones, and 5 minutes later came over and said "You're right. It IS 'photograph'." YA THINK? I think there might have been some other stupid word they bleeped and we reverted, or maybe Velvy only thought they bleeped it, I dunno. Can't remember. But I missed the FMA movie premiere. Boo.
Immediately after handling this issue, we went to go film Mean Girls with the lovely tiki_banana as Rinoa and barachanrei as our Ashe. It was an absolute BLAST. Everyone was so fantastic! Even Bara with her main character one-liner. Haha! Good times! Too bad that dumb ho Velvy recorded over everyone's close-up takes but her own. >_> Oh well. You learned your lesson, didn't you, Velvy? And now you'll neeeever do it again. *Pat* Good girl. Sit. Roll over! Roll over! :D Hahaha, I keed. XD
After that, it was time for Craftmanship judging... OR SO WE THOUGHT... Turns out, it was only available to the people who brought in progress photos the day before. It would have been GREAT if they had TOLD US. Thanks a lot, AX. We weren't the only people to make this mistake, either. I mean, I knew every judge but one by name (even if not all of them knew me...... I'm kinda creepy, ok??), and we still couldn't get some time for craftmanship after waiting an hour and a half just to be let into the room (though if not for that, I wouldn't have gotten to see Matt's AC Sephiroth up close at all.. or sing/butcher the latin part in One Winged Angel with Velvy whenever he was nearby XD). We'd even told many disappointed people outside that we were late for craftmanship and in a hurry, so we couldn't stop for photos. I felt terrible. ;_; I know the reason why I'm so horrible at asking for photos is because I always fear the REJECTION. So harsh! So cold! So disheartening! Gosh, I'm overdramatic. So we went outside. Disappointed and saaad. We found the Paine we saw earlier, and EBK snapped a few photos of us with her. ^^
Picture by .yuna. of Coconut Bubble Sex Cosplay
Same place, different angle. Velvy wins the look-a-like award for this photo.
AuronxRikku- The pedophile and the graverobber. ;D
With the Paine we found!
In the close-up you can see my not-so-inconspicuous holding up of Diana's collar with my thief blade. Sometimes it would be at an angle or level that made my arm tired and so it would shake from the weight of my blade and Diana said she could feel it. XD And I think I might be poking Paine, too. XD
After that, Diana, myself and Alli (who had been our unofficial, pre-masquerade stage ninja of AWESOMENESS) were STARVING. So much so that we passed on any solo shots from Al and ran inside the Hilton for dinner. I really love that restaurant in the Hilton. Great food and service. Everything on the menu looked SO damn good, so we each got a plate and we all split everything. That is the way to go, y'all, I'm tellin ya. By the time we got finished for supper, well... we were already supposed to be backstage. We headed to the ACC, and when we were on our way, going over and under ropes that cut everyone off, this staffer stopped us. Had I been by myself, I probably would've been like "Bye!" and kept walking, but Diana and I felt like being nice and explaining to the dude. Who wouldn't listen. "Our group is waiting for us backstage, they've informed the staff over there that we're late, they're EXPECTING us." "Sorry, I can't let you through." "What's the point of making us wait now if we're just going to be cleared by some other person LATER?" "Sorry. Nice costumes by the way." "Hmm, thanks. Can we go through?" Then some person came down there and was like "I'll escort you to the area." We didn't need escorts! We just need people to freaking TRUST us. In Alabama, there would have been no questions asked. ":O You're late? No backstage pass? No prob! Go right ahead!" Hmph.
So we arrived and a frantic Velvy and very calm Trevor were waiting for us. We decided that now would be a good time to practice the skit for the first time ever. :DDD We ran through it a few times, came up with "choreography" for Can't Touch This, I coached Velvy on being ghetto, helped Trevor with his GANG SIGNS!!1! (saw pikacello backstage with her group! ^^ I've never seen Yakitate!! Japan but theit skit was cute as hell!) and we were ready. Ready enough, anyway. Oh yeah, and Trevor's costume kept falling apart and Velvy's hairtail kept falling off so we had some trouble there. However, some brilliant soul had all sorts of awesome cosplay emergency stuff backstage (assorted tapes and super glues) and it turned out alright. :D We went backstage and waited to begin... I met Kyle Hebert, who I've talked to online a few times but never met. He recognized me, and I didn't have to intro myself. That was pretty neato. I have no idea HOW because aside from my LJ, no one had seen my Rikku costume before, especially not a voice actor. XD We were ecstatic because the MC got to introduce us as "Coconut Bubble Sex Cosplay" and not the kiddy-safe "Coconut Bubble Cosplay" we feared. Then came our performance. Here are some pictures.
*INSERT PSYCHO THEME MUSIC* EEEE EEE EEE EEE!! Hahaha. I look CRAZY and huge, ftw. *sings Dragostea Din Tei*
Rikku rocks out to Bohemian Rhapsody's Guitar Solo. I love my orange nail polish. ...So what if Rikku's nails aren't orange? XD
Yuna's face and Auron's strut for TEH WIN. Still by Lionel.
Then offstage we went and group shots were taken.
Trevor looks pretty badass in this shot. Rock on!
Then came the waiting. I was waiting for disappointment. We had once again missed craftmanship, and I assumed that with so many amazing skits this year, we pretty much had no chance for a performance award. When the announcements started, I attempted to relax and joke around with the girls. I had on Trevor's sunglasses for kicks and we'd switched weapons. I don't remember why. Mostly because I wanted a picture of Auron being GENKI with thief blades. lawlz Anyway, when they announced our group number for Presentation runner-up, needless to say we FLIPPED OUT and Trevor, who wasn't listening, heard us flip out and was like "Oh, guess we won something." Haha. We ran to stand with the others winners announced so far. It was such a great feeling. I'm glad to know that all the hard work paid off. Velv, do you remember how many HUNDREDS of different ideas we came up with for this skit? It was really quite insane. XD Hooray for our musical extravaganza! Here's a picture from i360 of us onstage accepting the award.
Coconut Bubble Sex Cosplay 4 LYFE. (Dear GOD, Yukari-Dia looks ready to KILL.)
Dayum it's feels good to be a gangsta. And wtf, Velvy, stop pointing your guns at your face to be cute! Suicidal =/= cute. ...Well, maybe in Japan... wait, NO. NO WHERE.
I love this picture so much I made it into an icon. Trevor totally looks like Auron, too! Check out how we gouged out his eye so he'd be accurate! Haha, j/k. We wish.
The official shot from AX after we got our award.
After that, a very pooped Rikku and Leblanc went back to our room and got out of costume while Velvy and Trevor hopped off to the dance. When we came downstairs we saw other out-of-costume cosplayers we recognized. You know who you are, Gankutsuou peeps. We were wondering around the Hilton to see if anything good was playing in the video rooms when we were interviewed by these dudes for some web radio thing or something. It was funny because we told them we had just gotten done with a full day of cosplaying as Rikku and Leblanc, and they were like "Where's Yuna?" and we were like "At the dance." And then they were like "Where's Auron?" And I was like "O_O How'd you know we had an Auron???" And then they were like "We recognized you guys!" Then later on the 5th floor, another person yelled "Rikku!" and I was like AGAIN, how in the WORLD does anyone recognize me? I go from a scantily-clad, oddly-accessorized blonde to a braided, pigtailed brunette in a t-shirt and shorts. XD Man, was that comfy...
After having a good time sneaking around in STEALTH MODE with Diana and Aimi like little kids (loooong story), we... uhh... went to our room? I think Velvy got back late and tired as poop. And I took a shower. On to.... THE FINAL DAY!
The final day was soooo relaxing. Nowhere to be, no big plans or anything. Our only goal was to get to the dealer's room for pocky for me and get some karaoke time in. Diana put on Eternal Sailor Mars, Velvy put on Misa, and I got into Lacus, DETERMINED to get better photos than last year in my new wig (which still needs work as the bangs are too long). We headed to the dealer's room where I found almost NO pocky (because apparently AX's dealer's room has some rule restricting the sale of food), let alone the only flavor of pocky that I really enjoy (milk chocolate... *drool*). Though this random dude did give me a free package of almond pocky since they weren't selling any, which was really, really nice. :D We never found any of the pocky I wanted, but Diana and I did make a purchase of 2 GSD figurines- Commander Lacus for me and Meer for her. :3 All I can say is, I'm so excited about AWA. Anyway, since the pocky hunt was in vain, and Mary had to go, we said goodbye to the AX '06 dealer's room for good. We accompanied Mary back to the room for her stuff and then down to the pick-up area of the Hilton. We got this photo of the 3 of us before she left (Velvy was still in the dealer's room XD). Too bad my Lacus pretty much swallows Mary. XD;; And too bad I look evil. >_>
After that, we met someone named Gilbert. :D You can read about THAT little encounter here if you haven't already. Oh yeah, and if you're ever at a Cali con, and have the GREAT FORTUNE of meeting him, RUN. DON'T WALK. HE'LL FOLLOW. After that, we decided to have a little photoshoot in the Hilton so I could finally get a shot of me sitting in my Lacus dress. And I did! I also ran into diadiadia when I was taking pics of Diana (on my knees) and we talked about the masquerade. Hahaha, she said that at the beginning, when Dragostea Din Tei started to play, she and Matt were like "No, Katie, no, no!" which was totally my biggest fear about the WHOLE skit (I loved the Numa Numa parody idea at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought "The audience is gonna boo! ;____;" And Velv had to reassure me to think otherwise). But I was glad to know that we redeemed ourselves enough in the judges' eyes for an award. Phew! Anyway, on the Lacus photos. The first two are from Sleepy. *_*
I was going for the Disney princess pose I stole picked up from _princessgarnet. I think I failed.
;_; Finally, a pretty photo of Lacus close-up! ;_;
Ok, on to the photos taken by Diana and Trevor-
My torso looks tiny! That is INCREDIBLY rare.
Trevor took this AZN-STYLE (that is to say, he crouched on the floor in an odd position). It's so dramatic. XD
Wtf, Katie's purse and bag. XD
Then off the 4 of us (myself, Velvy, Diana and Trevor, our sole male companion) ran to the hotel where the karaoke was! ...Only to discover that we'd missed it. The room was all packed up, but the mics were still there, so we grabbed them and then Trevor videotaped us acting like buffoons. Misa sang Lonely in Gorgeous and Lacus provided BACK-UP DANCING... and what little singing I could manage, as I had lost my voice. XD It got worse the next day, too. I NEVER lose my voice, so I was quite upset that I couldn't belt songs obnoxiously. ;___; So after that, Diana had to get back up to the room to pack. ;_; Velvy changed into shinigami Orihime, and I took off my hair clip and arm things, thus making myself CASUAL default pop star Lacus. ;DDD Which actually = Lazy Lacus. And I took a picture of my new Lacus figure.
:333
And a picture of me smooching it. This picture's really supposed to be a joke because I was making a funny face... however, due to the angle, you can't see my face, so it just looks like I'm REALLY lovin that figurine. XDDD
I suppose now would be a good time to post the pictures that show the progression of the mess that was our hotel room. XD
Right after arriving, view 1.
View 2- Diana collapses on her bed whilst Mary works on make-up... things...
After arrival, view 3. (HAR HAR HAR, VELVY CROTCH CENSORED TO MAKE IT SEEM WORSE THAN IT REALLY IS. ;D)
Taken after masquerade, the room at its height in dirtiness. Houston, I do believe we have lost contact with the carpet.
I don't think this shot really captures how messy it looked. Leblanc booty!
The room as it was slowly being cleaned. At this point we had already lost Mary, and Diana had her stuff packed and ready to go. Y hallo thar, Katie's yellow and pink flip flops!
Taken right as Velvy and I were leaving as a farewell photo. *sigh* Everyone's gone. :( Goodbye, room! Sorry about all the knee-socks, maids. XD
Ok, going back to the 4th of July. After waving Diana off, Velv and I just kinda lounged around the hotel room... visited the almost deserted cosplay courtyard... went back to the Hilton... missed Disney's fireworks... Blaah. It was so depressing. Then Aimi came back, and we decided we were HUNGRY. And what do hungry congoers do? They go to Denny's, of course! We ran into inushawna, Crystal, and a few other people I didn't know and invited them join us, but we pretty much expected them to forget about our invitation. We got to Denny's and were seated when they showed up! I was thrilled at having a big party. We had to move to a bigger booth! The larger group made the whole "final dinner at AX" a little less melancholy, I think. We had a good time eating and chatting about Family Guy and Silent Hill and what not. And we sang "You've Got AIDS!" I was so excited to finally find other people who knew the words! I wish I'd gotten a recording of it- they even provided the bass and alto while I provided the tenor. Hahahaha! Good times. After that, it was back to the hotel room to pack since we'd be leaving early the next morning for DisneyLand. Aimi had to leave even earlier. In fact, she was gone when we woke up, and I don't remember if we ever really got to say goodbye. This saddens me. :( So it's a little late, buuut... *INSERT GOODBYE HUG FOR AIMI* :D I feel better. One thing's for sure about the last night of AX, though. You definitely get one helluva good night's sleep with the con finally being over.
Writing this whole report has made me a little wavery in my resolution to go to Otakon next year instead of AX (well, that and the fact that I was disappointed that Otakon is only 3 days long when I thought it was 4 >_>). AX 2006 definitely ranks in Katie's top 3 greatest cons, mostly due to great friends (especially my 4 beautiful roommates- I love you guys!!), an awesome masquerade experience, and more laughs and good times than you can shake a stick at. Thanks to everyone who made AX so memorable. :)
Be prepared for the longest con report EVAR. I think I managed to shout out every person on my friend's list that I ran into, so if you're not bored enough to read the whole thing, feel free to skip to your name. If I saw you and forgot to mention you here, I apologize. I have the memory of a 70-year-old woman, I swear.
'Tis a miracle! Where to begin? I guess Day Zero seems like a good plan. :D
After a rather... *cough* UNEVENTFUL *STARESTARESTARE@VELVY* week in Escondido, Velv and I headed to Anaheim with Gordo her friend from school, who graciously offered us a ride up there even though he wasn't attending AX. XD Because Velv DIDN'T pay him, his only reward was some good quality time with his little bro who was riding shotgun amd watching Napoleon Dynamite with us in our hotel room. Oh, yeah, by "US," I mean bloody_mary and violet_lane! Mary and Diana, 2 of our 3 lovely roommates (aside from velv and myself)!
Anyway, after Napoleon, we got a hold of Lionel, and planned a time for our photoshoot. However, in TRUE Velvy and
Katie style, we were an hour and a half late for it due to some delays in getting ready (of course we called Lionel and warned him that this would be the case). After having the amazing Mary do our make-up, we finally managed to get out of the room in time for a few shots. Here are the ones from inside the Hilton. All are by EBK except the first.
This shot was taken by Mary. I wish she could come to every con I attend... Her make-up skillz BLOW ME AWAY. TEACH ME YOUR WAYS, MARYYYY!
Ok, enough of that. After the Hilton shots, Lionel took us outside where we were SWARMED. Wtf, mate, the con hadn't even STARTED yet. I remember telling Diana that it was nothing compared to how it's gonna be on the actual con days. ^^
DRAMATIQUE, no?
I likes how wer all lookin' at different stuffs. :D
Why am I the only one who looks ready to fight? XD
Anyway, so yeah. Thanks for the photoshoot, Lionel. :D You know how awesome you are. Especially for putting up with our extreme tardiness. However, we have learned our lesson. Next time we have somewhere to be during a convention, we shall not keep saying "Only _:00? We have pleeeenty of time to get ready. We only need like, an hour. :D" After leaving the Mariott (our final photo location), we went back to the Hilton to find my purse because I'd left it there when we went outside. Oops. Luckily, some nice person had turned it into security, and when I went to pick it up, the dude working in the Lost and Found area was like "wait, this can't be your purse. The ID doesn't say 'Rikku' anywhere." For some reason, it didn't hit me how awesome/funny it was that security recognized the character. But he was a young guy, anyway, so why wouldn't he? XD I think the reason I overlooked it is because the guy preceeded to hit on me in an odd and creepy way. "Wait, before you go- how old are you?" "...umm... why?" "We just want to know. *motions to 30+-year-old coworker*" "...18..." "Oh, darn. If you were NINETEEN we would have asked you to hang out with us tonight." Oh, well, that's too bad for him because I DEFINITELY would have said yes. *rolls eyes* After obtaining my purse, I ran into strongest_shld and audioventchick as Greed and Hitsugaya. Ironically, Tim was not nowhere to be found, so I introduced myself to Eric and Shana. I quickly had to run off, though, because Velvy had some sort of hairtail emergency or... something. o_O
Later that night, azu79 arrived! We had roommie #5! <3 ya, Aimi! I tell ya folks, there is NOTHING better than a room of just girls. (Even if they do have a combined costume count of over 20) Panties everywhere and no one to worry about seeing em! Ok, so that was mostly just MY panties. Sorry, girls. ...And Trevor.
On to Saturday! ...What the heck did I wear Saturday? ....Oh yeah! Momo! Wow, how sad. Of course, I could barely remember the day AFTER what I had worn the day before, so a month later is no big. XD Anyway, immediately after getting into costume, we decided to get our con badges to go to a stupid Mana panel that was at 2. Problem? The at-con registration line on Monday around noon was HUGE. And SLOW. I was ticked bc I didn't particularly care to attend the Mana panel and I would have been fine with getting my badge later in the day when the line would be nonexistent. After maybe 2 hours of waiting (and a feminine emergency!), we decided to give up. We had about another hour of waiting in line and the panel started in less than 30 minutes. Screw eet. Lucky Diana had already gotten her badge, and lucky Mary had a boyfriend willing to wait in line FOR her. I don't remember much else about day one. The only thing I really remember about wearing Momo is that I was constantly asked "Oh! Are you so-and-so from such-and-such??" and everytime I'd say no, they'd look so disappointed. XD I would explain "I'm Momo from Peach Girl! I'd be more worried if you DID actually recognize me! ;D" I must have said that 50 times. rofl
Here are some of my favorite pictures in Momo with Velvy as Sae. ^^
A close-up by agentsakur9.
A full-body shot by PRINCE ALBERT.
What ghetto schoolgirls we are. XD
OH DO YOU DIDN'T
Attempting the "manga Momo" face. Failure!
Sailor Peach Girl??
I look so tan! Hip, hip, HOORAAAAY!
A really unattractive Momo pout-face by me. Photo by Lionel. ^^
My freaking favorite picture of us from all of AX. Doesn't Velvy make a sexy bitch? Too bad the pleats on the side of my skirt suxxor.
If I'm not mistaken, sometime during the day, we ran into a few certain Gankutsuou cosplayers halfway into costume. Of course, we ended up running into rurouni_jedi, jinyo, g_mal, and solaria735 multiple times throughout the con. However, the gorgeous barachanrei probably wins the award for "Most Visible Person at AX", though, since I think we ran into and talked to her more than any other cosplayer acquaintance. XD
After Momo, I changed into Yoruichi. Again, Mary darkened my already phony tan, and for some odd reason, it took me quite a while to get into this costume. Dunno. I think something was missing and I was wondering around trying to find it. I felt bad being late because Misty (who I shall call "MY Soi Fong") and Tim (MY Urahara lawls) were waiting for me. Sorry, guys. But I did make it out there. And many pictures were taken. And many stomachs were rumbling. Here are the pictures:
A shot by Kevin Lilliard. Probably my favorite.
Yoruichi and Soi Fong CLASH! Well, maybe not CLASH. Just clash.
YoruSoi shippers everywhere REJOICE. Haha, it looks like we're holding hands, but we were actually both doing some sort of shunkou... hand... thing. Whatev. *shrug*
Yoruichi and Soi Fong in some sort of low, martial arts-like pose? I look so weird. What the hell am I doing with my hands? I should cosplay SPIDER-MAN.
I kick you.
Now for some pictures with Tim
I cut Velvy out because she wasn't paying attention. That re-re.
A really cool shot! :D
Obligatory shot of Tim HAVING THE STRENGTH OF 3 URAHARAS! He lifted me so damn high my head is above his. Ouch. It hurts my back just looking at this picture.
Sometime during this little impromptu Bleach gathering, we saw an Auron just kinda chilling away from the crowd, leaning on a wall of the ACC. I was like "Hey, an Auron. ...Wow, he's not moving. OMG, is he being in character? Haha, he IS! He's being in character!" So I HAD to get a photo with him.
Tohru, Yoruichi, Rena, Auron, and Yuffie all thuggin'. Ready to battle at any moment. Yeah, we're badass. The dude didn't even say anything when we went and stood next to him for photos. He just kept on leaning against that wall. That dude rocked. :D
Ok, so by this time, we were all STARVED. Originally, it was just gonna be me, Diana, and Alli going to Denny's, but I invited Tim and Eric, and they invited their roommate "Chouji", so we had 3 huge male bodyguards with us for the journey. And yet the pathetic wolf whistles and shouts still came. Poor, pathetic Anaheim bastards. Hitting on passing cosplayers. What losers. Speaking of losers, Velvy mysteriously disappeared before we left for Denny's. Turns out she wanted to hit up the bike party or something. Apparently, this "bike party" was some kind of big deal. Who knew? ;D Now heading back to the subject of losers, check out this fine example of one attempting a "BOHAHA!" for a photo.
What a pitiful excuse for a Don Kanonji fan. She was probably tired and hungry or something.
Day two was Ulala day. Literally. EVERYONE in our room wore an Ulala costume. Except Diana. She wore Joan, which was just as good since she had pigtails + memoriez!! Megacon 2006, baby. It was all about Joan and the Ulalas. Now THAT is a band name, my friends. We took quite a while to get into Ulala. I was missing the white gloves that go underneath my glove covers and Velvy was missing an orange boot. Velvy searched and searched, and when the search appeared to be in vain, Diana, Mary, and I realized we couldn't wait any longer, and we headed down. I was still kinda bummed about not having my gloves (not to mention without them, the vinyl glove covers were a lot less comfortable), but I was determined to find a decent pair for sale in the dealer's room. However, I didn't. But here are a few pictures in which I attempted to hide the fact that my fingers were visible.
Ulala x 3! Too bad I never got a photo of all 4 of us. ;_; I <333 this one by Lionel, though! Aimi, I think that if I hadn't been wearing my Ulala heels, I would have only been a few inches taller than you! Your Ulala stilettos were HAWT.
Luckily for me, my good friend Alli (whom I mentioned above but am just now shout-outin- yogiri) lent me her Uranus gloves to wear underneath. By the time we got back down, Velvy was ready to join us as Yulala! Or maybe. Uluna? No, I prefer Yulala. That is to say, Ulala in Yuna boots. Teehee! They matched her jetpack/headset! So more pictures were made.
A gem from fansview! Yaaay! Why is Yulala wearing your purse? YOU REMOVE YOUR PURSE FOR PHOTOS FROM KEVIN, VELV. XD
Ben captures THE REAL KATIE. Why am I the only one doing the velociraptor???
And that's it. All my favorite Ulala pictures. Wow. Usually when I wear a costume the second time, the pictures from that con PWN the last one. Apparently, for Ulala, the 3rd time was one time too many, because I didn't get very many good shots at all. Then again, at Megacon I cheated. I had Mab. One more pose. One more. One more. ...50 more... Ok done. Sadness. ;_; Also, at AX, this costume really started to fall apart. First Gavin attempted to take the life of one of my jet packs (some sort of freak hugging accident), then I decided to finish it off later. The end result was me having to carry it around. Oh yeah, sometime during the wearage of Ulala I got to flip Kevin (not Lilliard, lol) off. Yaaaay! That douche.
Anyway, Diana and I were tired, so we went inside the con and sat and chilled and had girl talk. We did that a lot, actually. Then we were joined by Alli again as the rather genki Haruhi (not the Ouran Haruhi! The other one.) and I decided to go change into Sakura (since I was ready to wear a costume where no one wanted my picture like... at all. :D) and them into Mai Himeness and have dinner, since Mary, Aimi, and Velvy were off to the Hyde contest with Lloyd (whom I didn't know yet! :OOO I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS MISSING, YO). We ate pizza. Mmm, pizza. At one point when I was going to the bathroom in the Mariott, a girl asked for my picture and was like "You're the best Sakura I've ever seen!" which made me happy because I soooooo am not. Hahaha, my costume suxx0rz. Anyway, after pizza, it was RUM PARTY time! ...Rum party, wtf, mate? It wasn't really as much fun this year... probably because even though I was having fun chatting with peeps and taking pictures with Tim and not exactly participating, Diana and Alli were pretty damn bored. Especially since Miko, Amanda, and Allison had gotten disappointed early (after I told them it would be really fun) and already left. Poopy. My memory's a little fuzzy, but I think this was the first time I got to see all 3 girls together at AX, so I'm glad that the Rum Party gave me that much. ^^ animiko, faeriedust27, and Allison (whose LJ I do not know), you ladies rock hard. Your Xenosaga group especially made me want to bow and worship the ground you walked on. Except I was no longer wearing Ulala so a picture of worship just wouldn't be as enjoyable. ;D So, time for Sakura photos, I guess.
Behold! I used those free Naruto pins to hold up my butt pouch! Yaaaay!
Heehee... I drove Al crazy with this one. Everytime, he'd be like "Now face this way at this angle" I'd face the opposite direction right as he went to take the picture. I wanted a shot of me facing the wrong way to throw the kunai soooo bad. Hahaha!
Obligatory "look what I can do!" shot. I wasn't stretched out enough to do a good split, so you'll have to settle for this crappy one.
Now for the photos of me with KaKAshi-sensei!
Obligatory "kick Tim in the face" picture. This year too, I am obviously a ballerina faking being a martial artist. I mean, who kicks with their foot at a vertical angle? Honestly!
Obligatory picture of Tim lifting me. Only this time it makes more sense! ...Kinda. If you're some sort of weird KakaSaku shipper. >_> I don't like this angle, though, because it makes Tim look small and me HUGE. XD
I was pretty pooped by the time I wore Sakura, so most of the pictures for it turned out pretty dreadful. o_O
After that, we headed back to the hotel room to help Trevor work on Auron. Or at least I helped him. And we took this picture.
SAKURON! Or maybe... SAURON! :D Look how much bigger that glove is than my hand. I'm so cosplaying Auron one day. ;D
Later that night, Trevor worked a miracle and finished his Auron costume. I'm not sure how much sleep he lost because of it, but whatever. He needed to look nice and groggy for Auron anyway. ;D
Before I knew it, it was Monday. The day of the masquerade had finally arrived! Aside from craftmanship judging, I had ONE plan for this day: the Fullmetal Alchemist movie premiere. Both Diana and I hadn't seen it yet, and I wanted to. BAD. But of course, when it comes to time, does anything EVER work out for us? Of course not. The movie started at 11. At that point in time, we were still getting into costume, and Velvy was having trouble in the masquerade contest meeting when they started trying to bleep the hell out of our skit. Oh, hellz nah. At 11:45, when we had lost all hope to catch the premiere, Diana and I walked down to the Masquerade meeting room to have a chat with the dudes bleeping our skit. Understandably, they wanted to bleep the "ass"es that were in there. No big, we expected that. But then they tried to bleep "photograph," because apparently it sounded like "fuck." OH YEAH. That makes SO much sense. "So you think you can FUCK me, then feel up my thigh?" As Diana said, "Oh, you can have sex with me, but afterwards, you better not touch me!" We explained that it was stupid to bleep it because they're taking a word that was innocent but might possibly SOUND dirty and putting a bleep over it turns it into something REALLY dirty. Even if a member of the audience goes "Woooah, did they just say 'fuck'?!" Obviously, they're going to shake their head and say "Naah, they'd never get away with that in a skit." However, if the word is bleeped, the whole audience automatically assumes Leblanc just said "So you think you can fuck me." Wtf, mate. I'm rambling. I'll shut up. Three people sat around and listened to our skit through headphones, and 5 minutes later came over and said "You're right. It IS 'photograph'." YA THINK? I think there might have been some other stupid word they bleeped and we reverted, or maybe Velvy only thought they bleeped it, I dunno. Can't remember. But I missed the FMA movie premiere. Boo.
Immediately after handling this issue, we went to go film Mean Girls with the lovely tiki_banana as Rinoa and barachanrei as our Ashe. It was an absolute BLAST. Everyone was so fantastic! Even Bara with her main character one-liner. Haha! Good times! Too bad that dumb ho Velvy recorded over everyone's close-up takes but her own. >_> Oh well. You learned your lesson, didn't you, Velvy? And now you'll neeeever do it again. *Pat* Good girl. Sit. Roll over! Roll over! :D Hahaha, I keed. XD
After that, it was time for Craftmanship judging... OR SO WE THOUGHT... Turns out, it was only available to the people who brought in progress photos the day before. It would have been GREAT if they had TOLD US. Thanks a lot, AX. We weren't the only people to make this mistake, either. I mean, I knew every judge but one by name (even if not all of them knew me...... I'm kinda creepy, ok??), and we still couldn't get some time for craftmanship after waiting an hour and a half just to be let into the room (though if not for that, I wouldn't have gotten to see Matt's AC Sephiroth up close at all.. or sing/butcher the latin part in One Winged Angel with Velvy whenever he was nearby XD). We'd even told many disappointed people outside that we were late for craftmanship and in a hurry, so we couldn't stop for photos. I felt terrible. ;_; I know the reason why I'm so horrible at asking for photos is because I always fear the REJECTION. So harsh! So cold! So disheartening! Gosh, I'm overdramatic. So we went outside. Disappointed and saaad. We found the Paine we saw earlier, and EBK snapped a few photos of us with her. ^^
Picture by .yuna. of Coconut Bubble Sex Cosplay
Same place, different angle. Velvy wins the look-a-like award for this photo.
AuronxRikku- The pedophile and the graverobber. ;D
With the Paine we found!
In the close-up you can see my not-so-inconspicuous holding up of Diana's collar with my thief blade. Sometimes it would be at an angle or level that made my arm tired and so it would shake from the weight of my blade and Diana said she could feel it. XD And I think I might be poking Paine, too. XD
After that, Diana, myself and Alli (who had been our unofficial, pre-masquerade stage ninja of AWESOMENESS) were STARVING. So much so that we passed on any solo shots from Al and ran inside the Hilton for dinner. I really love that restaurant in the Hilton. Great food and service. Everything on the menu looked SO damn good, so we each got a plate and we all split everything. That is the way to go, y'all, I'm tellin ya. By the time we got finished for supper, well... we were already supposed to be backstage. We headed to the ACC, and when we were on our way, going over and under ropes that cut everyone off, this staffer stopped us. Had I been by myself, I probably would've been like "Bye!" and kept walking, but Diana and I felt like being nice and explaining to the dude. Who wouldn't listen. "Our group is waiting for us backstage, they've informed the staff over there that we're late, they're EXPECTING us." "Sorry, I can't let you through." "What's the point of making us wait now if we're just going to be cleared by some other person LATER?" "Sorry. Nice costumes by the way." "Hmm, thanks. Can we go through?" Then some person came down there and was like "I'll escort you to the area." We didn't need escorts! We just need people to freaking TRUST us. In Alabama, there would have been no questions asked. ":O You're late? No backstage pass? No prob! Go right ahead!" Hmph.
So we arrived and a frantic Velvy and very calm Trevor were waiting for us. We decided that now would be a good time to practice the skit for the first time ever. :DDD We ran through it a few times, came up with "choreography" for Can't Touch This, I coached Velvy on being ghetto, helped Trevor with his GANG SIGNS!!1! (saw pikacello backstage with her group! ^^ I've never seen Yakitate!! Japan but theit skit was cute as hell!) and we were ready. Ready enough, anyway. Oh yeah, and Trevor's costume kept falling apart and Velvy's hairtail kept falling off so we had some trouble there. However, some brilliant soul had all sorts of awesome cosplay emergency stuff backstage (assorted tapes and super glues) and it turned out alright. :D We went backstage and waited to begin... I met Kyle Hebert, who I've talked to online a few times but never met. He recognized me, and I didn't have to intro myself. That was pretty neato. I have no idea HOW because aside from my LJ, no one had seen my Rikku costume before, especially not a voice actor. XD We were ecstatic because the MC got to introduce us as "Coconut Bubble Sex Cosplay" and not the kiddy-safe "Coconut Bubble Cosplay" we feared. Then came our performance. Here are some pictures.
*INSERT PSYCHO THEME MUSIC* EEEE EEE EEE EEE!! Hahaha. I look CRAZY and huge, ftw. *sings Dragostea Din Tei*
Rikku rocks out to Bohemian Rhapsody's Guitar Solo. I love my orange nail polish. ...So what if Rikku's nails aren't orange? XD
Yuna's face and Auron's strut for TEH WIN. Still by Lionel.
Then offstage we went and group shots were taken.
Trevor looks pretty badass in this shot. Rock on!
Then came the waiting. I was waiting for disappointment. We had once again missed craftmanship, and I assumed that with so many amazing skits this year, we pretty much had no chance for a performance award. When the announcements started, I attempted to relax and joke around with the girls. I had on Trevor's sunglasses for kicks and we'd switched weapons. I don't remember why. Mostly because I wanted a picture of Auron being GENKI with thief blades. lawlz Anyway, when they announced our group number for Presentation runner-up, needless to say we FLIPPED OUT and Trevor, who wasn't listening, heard us flip out and was like "Oh, guess we won something." Haha. We ran to stand with the others winners announced so far. It was such a great feeling. I'm glad to know that all the hard work paid off. Velv, do you remember how many HUNDREDS of different ideas we came up with for this skit? It was really quite insane. XD Hooray for our musical extravaganza! Here's a picture from i360 of us onstage accepting the award.
Coconut Bubble Sex Cosplay 4 LYFE. (Dear GOD, Yukari-Dia looks ready to KILL.)
Dayum it's feels good to be a gangsta. And wtf, Velvy, stop pointing your guns at your face to be cute! Suicidal =/= cute. ...Well, maybe in Japan... wait, NO. NO WHERE.
I love this picture so much I made it into an icon. Trevor totally looks like Auron, too! Check out how we gouged out his eye so he'd be accurate! Haha, j/k. We wish.
The official shot from AX after we got our award.
After that, a very pooped Rikku and Leblanc went back to our room and got out of costume while Velvy and Trevor hopped off to the dance. When we came downstairs we saw other out-of-costume cosplayers we recognized. You know who you are, Gankutsuou peeps. We were wondering around the Hilton to see if anything good was playing in the video rooms when we were interviewed by these dudes for some web radio thing or something. It was funny because we told them we had just gotten done with a full day of cosplaying as Rikku and Leblanc, and they were like "Where's Yuna?" and we were like "At the dance." And then they were like "Where's Auron?" And I was like "O_O How'd you know we had an Auron???" And then they were like "We recognized you guys!" Then later on the 5th floor, another person yelled "Rikku!" and I was like AGAIN, how in the WORLD does anyone recognize me? I go from a scantily-clad, oddly-accessorized blonde to a braided, pigtailed brunette in a t-shirt and shorts. XD Man, was that comfy...
After having a good time sneaking around in STEALTH MODE with Diana and Aimi like little kids (loooong story), we... uhh... went to our room? I think Velvy got back late and tired as poop. And I took a shower. On to.... THE FINAL DAY!
The final day was soooo relaxing. Nowhere to be, no big plans or anything. Our only goal was to get to the dealer's room for pocky for me and get some karaoke time in. Diana put on Eternal Sailor Mars, Velvy put on Misa, and I got into Lacus, DETERMINED to get better photos than last year in my new wig (which still needs work as the bangs are too long). We headed to the dealer's room where I found almost NO pocky (because apparently AX's dealer's room has some rule restricting the sale of food), let alone the only flavor of pocky that I really enjoy (milk chocolate... *drool*). Though this random dude did give me a free package of almond pocky since they weren't selling any, which was really, really nice. :D We never found any of the pocky I wanted, but Diana and I did make a purchase of 2 GSD figurines- Commander Lacus for me and Meer for her. :3 All I can say is, I'm so excited about AWA. Anyway, since the pocky hunt was in vain, and Mary had to go, we said goodbye to the AX '06 dealer's room for good. We accompanied Mary back to the room for her stuff and then down to the pick-up area of the Hilton. We got this photo of the 3 of us before she left (Velvy was still in the dealer's room XD). Too bad my Lacus pretty much swallows Mary. XD;; And too bad I look evil. >_>
After that, we met someone named Gilbert. :D You can read about THAT little encounter here if you haven't already. Oh yeah, and if you're ever at a Cali con, and have the GREAT FORTUNE of meeting him, RUN. DON'T WALK. HE'LL FOLLOW. After that, we decided to have a little photoshoot in the Hilton so I could finally get a shot of me sitting in my Lacus dress. And I did! I also ran into diadiadia when I was taking pics of Diana (on my knees) and we talked about the masquerade. Hahaha, she said that at the beginning, when Dragostea Din Tei started to play, she and Matt were like "No, Katie, no, no!" which was totally my biggest fear about the WHOLE skit (I loved the Numa Numa parody idea at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought "The audience is gonna boo! ;____;" And Velv had to reassure me to think otherwise). But I was glad to know that we redeemed ourselves enough in the judges' eyes for an award. Phew! Anyway, on the Lacus photos. The first two are from Sleepy. *_*
I was going for the Disney princess pose I stole picked up from _princessgarnet. I think I failed.
;_; Finally, a pretty photo of Lacus close-up! ;_;
Ok, on to the photos taken by Diana and Trevor-
My torso looks tiny! That is INCREDIBLY rare.
Trevor took this AZN-STYLE (that is to say, he crouched on the floor in an odd position). It's so dramatic. XD
Wtf, Katie's purse and bag. XD
Then off the 4 of us (myself, Velvy, Diana and Trevor, our sole male companion) ran to the hotel where the karaoke was! ...Only to discover that we'd missed it. The room was all packed up, but the mics were still there, so we grabbed them and then Trevor videotaped us acting like buffoons. Misa sang Lonely in Gorgeous and Lacus provided BACK-UP DANCING... and what little singing I could manage, as I had lost my voice. XD It got worse the next day, too. I NEVER lose my voice, so I was quite upset that I couldn't belt songs obnoxiously. ;___; So after that, Diana had to get back up to the room to pack. ;_; Velvy changed into shinigami Orihime, and I took off my hair clip and arm things, thus making myself CASUAL default pop star Lacus. ;DDD Which actually = Lazy Lacus. And I took a picture of my new Lacus figure.
:333
And a picture of me smooching it. This picture's really supposed to be a joke because I was making a funny face... however, due to the angle, you can't see my face, so it just looks like I'm REALLY lovin that figurine. XDDD
I suppose now would be a good time to post the pictures that show the progression of the mess that was our hotel room. XD
Right after arriving, view 1.
View 2- Diana collapses on her bed whilst Mary works on make-up... things...
After arrival, view 3. (HAR HAR HAR, VELVY CROTCH CENSORED TO MAKE IT SEEM WORSE THAN IT REALLY IS. ;D)
Taken after masquerade, the room at its height in dirtiness. Houston, I do believe we have lost contact with the carpet.
I don't think this shot really captures how messy it looked. Leblanc booty!
The room as it was slowly being cleaned. At this point we had already lost Mary, and Diana had her stuff packed and ready to go. Y hallo thar, Katie's yellow and pink flip flops!
Taken right as Velvy and I were leaving as a farewell photo. *sigh* Everyone's gone. :( Goodbye, room! Sorry about all the knee-socks, maids. XD
Ok, going back to the 4th of July. After waving Diana off, Velv and I just kinda lounged around the hotel room... visited the almost deserted cosplay courtyard... went back to the Hilton... missed Disney's fireworks... Blaah. It was so depressing. Then Aimi came back, and we decided we were HUNGRY. And what do hungry congoers do? They go to Denny's, of course! We ran into inushawna, Crystal, and a few other people I didn't know and invited them join us, but we pretty much expected them to forget about our invitation. We got to Denny's and were seated when they showed up! I was thrilled at having a big party. We had to move to a bigger booth! The larger group made the whole "final dinner at AX" a little less melancholy, I think. We had a good time eating and chatting about Family Guy and Silent Hill and what not. And we sang "You've Got AIDS!" I was so excited to finally find other people who knew the words! I wish I'd gotten a recording of it- they even provided the bass and alto while I provided the tenor. Hahahaha! Good times. After that, it was back to the hotel room to pack since we'd be leaving early the next morning for DisneyLand. Aimi had to leave even earlier. In fact, she was gone when we woke up, and I don't remember if we ever really got to say goodbye. This saddens me. :( So it's a little late, buuut... *INSERT GOODBYE HUG FOR AIMI* :D I feel better. One thing's for sure about the last night of AX, though. You definitely get one helluva good night's sleep with the con finally being over.
Writing this whole report has made me a little wavery in my resolution to go to Otakon next year instead of AX (well, that and the fact that I was disappointed that Otakon is only 3 days long when I thought it was 4 >_>). AX 2006 definitely ranks in Katie's top 3 greatest cons, mostly due to great friends (especially my 4 beautiful roommates- I love you guys!!), an awesome masquerade experience, and more laughs and good times than you can shake a stick at. Thanks to everyone who made AX so memorable. :)