(no subject)
ALRIGHT, IT'S TIME FOR MY OTAKON REPORT. HELL YEAH.
Alright, so Thursday was pretty uneventful, aside from me being anxious.
...okay I lied Thursday was very eventful, in an unexpected way. I woke up at around 9 AM and confirmed I had everything packed and just... waited. I DIDN'T FORGET TO PACK MY PHONE CHARGER! Kyo 1, Life 0. My mom had an appointment, so we couldn't leave until that was over. Hit the road at about 11 AM.
The trip to Pittsburgh was pretty standard. Not really any traffic, no unexpected stops, nothing. It just took a while to get there. I got to the airport at about 1:30, with my flight being at 2:25. Or so I thought. Nothing quite works that way. As it turns out, there was a storm building over Baltimore that was causing delays in planes, so my flight wasn't taking off for another hour, at 3:15. Kyo 1, Life 1. Whatever, no big deal. I chilled out at the terminal with some fellow Otanerds and played my Pokemanz.
I board the flight. I CONQUER THE SEATBELT! AND I DIDN'T FORGET TO TURN OFF MY ELECTRONICS. Kyo 3, Life 1. Fairly standard flight. Seemed short, though. Landed not long after 4.
Next I meet Vil at the airport, who agreed to pick me up there so we could head to the hotel. Sure beats paying for a shuttle, right? We load up, and set off. I didn't wear my seatbelt. I have a tendency to not do that, and hey, I didn't want to push my luck by conquering the seatbelt twice in one day. On the drive, which took far longer than it should have because of the dreaded Five O'Clock Traffic Rush, we talked a bit, rocked out a bit to some of the songs on her iPod, and eventually got lost in Downtown Baltimore as we drove in circles trying to find the damned hotel. Eventually, we find it completely by accident. Park, unpack, enter hotel, meet Griff.
After some shenanigans with paying, we enter our room. It's not a bad room, really, but there are some... issues. I'll address those as they come up. After settling in, Vil heads off to dinner with a friend of hers, leaving just Griff and I, as Luna was going to be late. (big surprise, huh?) After checking the internet for a bit, I set off on my mission for the weekend; Hook up the Wii so we can play Tales of Graces.
Enter Problem 1 with the room: The TV. It's a nice TV, really. Has six sets of inputs of varying types, flatscreen, pretty large. Problem is, we can't use the input channels, and the front desk is totally useless in that matter. So the Wii was brought for naught. Kyo 3, Life 2. Griff and I go get food at Subway and then chill in the room for a while until Luna shows up and Vil returns. Then we head off to Pre-Reg to pick up our badges. The line was deliciously short since it was 8 PM. Crazy people and their waiting for hours in line to get their badges. Return to the room, and just chill for a couple hours. During that time, the trio of girls discovered something amazing about my computer: It makes noises. Wonderful noises. Namely, whenever I receive an email alert, it goes "SANKYUUUUUU!" They had fun abusing that. Instead of going to bed like sane people, we stayed up for a bit and read thefailwhale. I'm sure our neighbors thought we were insane with how much we were cracking up. Eventually, bedtime came, and morning came.
I also stuffed Luna in a cabinet.
Friday
True to form, I was the first one awake in the room, waking up at least an hour before anyone else. Showered, got on computer and dicked around while everyone else slowly climbed out of bed. Except Luna. She's the sleeping dead. Vil and Griff got ready and put on their costumes, while I donned my ever-beautiful Hatpei, and we set off.
Vil was Nice from Baccano! and Griff was Minako from P3P.
Morning line was long. Once we got there, we just kinda wandered around a bit. Eventually we discovered Stealthy and her posse, and then Luna eventually woke up and joined us too.
More wandering, eating ice cream for breakfast. FUCK YEAH BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS.
Found an Ivan and a Rozy!
There was also this spiffy Yuan and Botta. We tracked them down to get a pic.
At some point we found Stealthy chilling by a wall and kidnapped her.
CHECK OUT THIS FUCKING SWEETASS PASCAL.
After snagging that little number, we went to the Artist's Alley to hang with Noi. ...Once we found her. It was very difficult. True to her nature, she was hidden very well! We eventually found her, but couldn't chill long. We had places to go.
Eventually it was time for the Tales shoot. They were outside, on the skywalk. In 90 degree weather. SHIT WAS HOT.
This Sheena and Zelos were very close.
Stealthy's bitchin' Yggdrasill cosplay. Check out those motherfuckin' wings.
RITA IS SICK OF THIS CRAP.
Okay maybe they're a bit too close.
KURRREEEEEEAAAA
Rest of the Tales shoot here
Following that, I went with Griff to Vic Mignoga's concert, where we learned he is quite possibly the biggest FMA fanboy in existence. But we had another purpose for going there. We were determined to get Vic's autograph on our Hatpeis. Unfortunately, lines are long and fangirls are crazy. I eventually gave up because I had something to accomplish, but Griff got hers. Well, whatever. I'm not really a fan of Vic anyway, so... *shot by his legion of fangirls*
That something was... A Pokemon Meetup. I promised I'd be there, and so I went! I had an epic plan where I was going to stroll on over and act all innocent, like "Hey, so I heard you guys are giving away free Pokemon?" and then as the trade is being done, Holo, who was running it, sees my Gold team. Cue reaction. I awesomeface.
Ahh, sadly, that was not meant to be. Apparently, I had a devilish smirk on my face that gave me away. She recognized me on sight, though at least I got a reaction out of Cam. True to our status as Gold and Silver RPers, Cam and I quickly had our rivalry flare up, resulting in several Pokemon battles. It was one win, one loss. But I still did better.
Fuck yeah Pokemon Special represent!
This Lance ain't takin' your shit, Silver.
I hung with them for a few hours, before I finally departed to reunite with the Derp Squad, as we have named ourselves. At around 11, we headed to the Voice Actors After Dark panel. Which was... special. And very perverted. But also hilarious. At midnight, Griff and I went to the Persona shoot, while Vil and Luna went back to the room.
There are far too many pics and I don't like any of them really, but...
In a hilarious twist of fate, after I took a picture of this Ryoji, my camera died.
Pics are here.
At around 1 AM we returned to the room. We went to sleep. Night came, and morning came...
Saturday
Once again, I was up early, at around 7:30. Shower, dick around on the internet. Everyone slowly rolls out of bed. In a shocking twist, Luna is up before Griff and Vil! I think the world stopped. Griff was Yuzu Tanikawa from Devil Survivor, and Vil was Nephry Osborne from Tales of the Abyss.
We headed off to the Tales Panel at 9 AM. It was pretty boring because it was last minute, but eh. After the panel, we met up with Triad. More wandering!
Dude, it's a Karol!
Megaman cosplay!
Spoilers: Aerith dies.
Then we went to the Dealer's Room.
Luna bought me this amazing shirt.
Seriously, look how amazing this shirt is. Trufax, that shirt was my life this weekend. I trolled people with my Pokewalker.
Thanks a lot, NASA. You ruined Sailor Moon forever!
After that, we went to go hang out with Noi for realz in the Artist's Alley. Noi is... Well, she's one of those people you just have to meet IRL to actually understand. She is loud and crazy and hyperactive and hilarious and just kind of awesome. You'll see soon enough later. Meeting her was the highlight of the con for me. While there, we commissioned a very special picture from her.
Eventually, it was time for the SMT shoot. Or so we thought. Just as it was about to start... Fire alarm goes off! Everyone is forced to evacuate the convention center for about an hour or so, leading the shoot to be a washout. By the time we return, it's time for the Tales photoshoot.
But along the way, I snagged some bitchin' pics from the BlazBlue shoot.
They really wanted that food.
Soooo many Hazamas. Watch out, Ragna.
Check out that prop, man. That thing is bitchin'.
Finally, Tales shoot. At one point, I ended up simultaneously wielding three cameras. It was... interesting. Also difficult.
Check it, it's those guys from yesterday!
Vil's Nephry was pretty sweet.
It's Karol again!
People gettin' punched.
Stealthy's bitchin' Yeager.
Surprise Kratos!
Scandalous photo of Judith and Rita!
More pics here.
Tales shoot ends, I run off to the chaos that is the Pokemon shoot.
Ethan takes Suicune for a ride.
Pikachu died and is dead.
We had this rather amazing crasher who kept trying to interrupt the shots.
Team Rocket eventually beat the living daylights out of her.
More here
After that, we were all collectively exhausted. So we met up and went to Five Guys for dinner. Or... Five Gays, as Luna calls it. After dinner, we got a group picture taken, and then departed for the room to die, Triad in tow. We derped around on the internet for a while, talked about various things, watched Griff slide off the bed so many times, and groaned in agony and pain. Eventually, we saw Triad off, and Griff proceeded to roll over in bed and die. She was out cold. The rest of us proceeded to stay up for a while, though, dicking around and RPing until we got tired. Night came, and morning came.
Sunday
Sunday was boring. We woke up late and eventually trotted off to the con for the last few hours.
Look, I found Waldo!
We headed to the Artist's Alley to meet up with Noi again. This is the part where I tell you what Noi is like. But rather than tell you, I'll just show you.
Behold! The last twelve minutes of Noi finishing our commission, complete with shot of it at the end!
Then I took a picture of her.
The faux dramatic lighting really suited her.
Then we chilled in the main hall for a while, ate more ice cream for breakfast, and then departed for the hotel for final goodbyes. Vil was taking Griff and Luna to the train station, before heading off to Jersey, so it was just me. I said my goodbyes to them, gave them hugs, and just chilled until 2 PM. You see, Stealthy was taking me to the airport. Looking back, I should have gone back to the con and hung out for a while, but... eh, I was lazy.
We had EPIC ADVENTURES on the way to the airport, where Stealthy told me stories of cons past, and we made fun of bad drivers in Baltimore. Eventually we made it, I said goodbye to Stealthy, and got ready to board plane. I make it on alive, and I remember my seatbelt again! Kyo 4 Life 2.
Then I land in Pittsburgh. I find out my dad is caught in a traffic jam because someone wrecked in the tunnel. He should have been at the airport waiting for me for a while, when I landed at 5:45. Because of the delays, though? He didn't arrive until nearly 8 PM. Clearly, Pittsburgh is cursed. But eventually I made it home alive. ...Until I died of exhaustion.
Final score: Kyo 4 Life Over 9000.
All in all, the con was a bit of a disappointment with the panels offered this year, but I still had a blast hanging with everyone.
Alright, so Thursday was pretty uneventful, aside from me being anxious.
...okay I lied Thursday was very eventful, in an unexpected way. I woke up at around 9 AM and confirmed I had everything packed and just... waited. I DIDN'T FORGET TO PACK MY PHONE CHARGER! Kyo 1, Life 0. My mom had an appointment, so we couldn't leave until that was over. Hit the road at about 11 AM.
The trip to Pittsburgh was pretty standard. Not really any traffic, no unexpected stops, nothing. It just took a while to get there. I got to the airport at about 1:30, with my flight being at 2:25. Or so I thought. Nothing quite works that way. As it turns out, there was a storm building over Baltimore that was causing delays in planes, so my flight wasn't taking off for another hour, at 3:15. Kyo 1, Life 1. Whatever, no big deal. I chilled out at the terminal with some fellow Otanerds and played my Pokemanz.
I board the flight. I CONQUER THE SEATBELT! AND I DIDN'T FORGET TO TURN OFF MY ELECTRONICS. Kyo 3, Life 1. Fairly standard flight. Seemed short, though. Landed not long after 4.
Next I meet Vil at the airport, who agreed to pick me up there so we could head to the hotel. Sure beats paying for a shuttle, right? We load up, and set off. I didn't wear my seatbelt. I have a tendency to not do that, and hey, I didn't want to push my luck by conquering the seatbelt twice in one day. On the drive, which took far longer than it should have because of the dreaded Five O'Clock Traffic Rush, we talked a bit, rocked out a bit to some of the songs on her iPod, and eventually got lost in Downtown Baltimore as we drove in circles trying to find the damned hotel. Eventually, we find it completely by accident. Park, unpack, enter hotel, meet Griff.
After some shenanigans with paying, we enter our room. It's not a bad room, really, but there are some... issues. I'll address those as they come up. After settling in, Vil heads off to dinner with a friend of hers, leaving just Griff and I, as Luna was going to be late. (big surprise, huh?) After checking the internet for a bit, I set off on my mission for the weekend; Hook up the Wii so we can play Tales of Graces.
Enter Problem 1 with the room: The TV. It's a nice TV, really. Has six sets of inputs of varying types, flatscreen, pretty large. Problem is, we can't use the input channels, and the front desk is totally useless in that matter. So the Wii was brought for naught. Kyo 3, Life 2. Griff and I go get food at Subway and then chill in the room for a while until Luna shows up and Vil returns. Then we head off to Pre-Reg to pick up our badges. The line was deliciously short since it was 8 PM. Crazy people and their waiting for hours in line to get their badges. Return to the room, and just chill for a couple hours. During that time, the trio of girls discovered something amazing about my computer: It makes noises. Wonderful noises. Namely, whenever I receive an email alert, it goes "SANKYUUUUUU!" They had fun abusing that. Instead of going to bed like sane people, we stayed up for a bit and read thefailwhale. I'm sure our neighbors thought we were insane with how much we were cracking up. Eventually, bedtime came, and morning came.
I also stuffed Luna in a cabinet.
Friday
True to form, I was the first one awake in the room, waking up at least an hour before anyone else. Showered, got on computer and dicked around while everyone else slowly climbed out of bed. Except Luna. She's the sleeping dead. Vil and Griff got ready and put on their costumes, while I donned my ever-beautiful Hatpei, and we set off.
Vil was Nice from Baccano! and Griff was Minako from P3P.
Morning line was long. Once we got there, we just kinda wandered around a bit. Eventually we discovered Stealthy and her posse, and then Luna eventually woke up and joined us too.
More wandering, eating ice cream for breakfast. FUCK YEAH BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS.
Found an Ivan and a Rozy!
There was also this spiffy Yuan and Botta. We tracked them down to get a pic.
At some point we found Stealthy chilling by a wall and kidnapped her.
CHECK OUT THIS FUCKING SWEETASS PASCAL.
After snagging that little number, we went to the Artist's Alley to hang with Noi. ...Once we found her. It was very difficult. True to her nature, she was hidden very well! We eventually found her, but couldn't chill long. We had places to go.
Eventually it was time for the Tales shoot. They were outside, on the skywalk. In 90 degree weather. SHIT WAS HOT.
This Sheena and Zelos were very close.
Stealthy's bitchin' Yggdrasill cosplay. Check out those motherfuckin' wings.
RITA IS SICK OF THIS CRAP.
Okay maybe they're a bit too close.
KURRREEEEEEAAAA
Rest of the Tales shoot here
Following that, I went with Griff to Vic Mignoga's concert, where we learned he is quite possibly the biggest FMA fanboy in existence. But we had another purpose for going there. We were determined to get Vic's autograph on our Hatpeis. Unfortunately, lines are long and fangirls are crazy. I eventually gave up because I had something to accomplish, but Griff got hers. Well, whatever. I'm not really a fan of Vic anyway, so... *shot by his legion of fangirls*
That something was... A Pokemon Meetup. I promised I'd be there, and so I went! I had an epic plan where I was going to stroll on over and act all innocent, like "Hey, so I heard you guys are giving away free Pokemon?" and then as the trade is being done, Holo, who was running it, sees my Gold team. Cue reaction. I awesomeface.
Ahh, sadly, that was not meant to be. Apparently, I had a devilish smirk on my face that gave me away. She recognized me on sight, though at least I got a reaction out of Cam. True to our status as Gold and Silver RPers, Cam and I quickly had our rivalry flare up, resulting in several Pokemon battles. It was one win, one loss. But I still did better.
Fuck yeah Pokemon Special represent!
This Lance ain't takin' your shit, Silver.
I hung with them for a few hours, before I finally departed to reunite with the Derp Squad, as we have named ourselves. At around 11, we headed to the Voice Actors After Dark panel. Which was... special. And very perverted. But also hilarious. At midnight, Griff and I went to the Persona shoot, while Vil and Luna went back to the room.
There are far too many pics and I don't like any of them really, but...
In a hilarious twist of fate, after I took a picture of this Ryoji, my camera died.
Pics are here.
At around 1 AM we returned to the room. We went to sleep. Night came, and morning came...
Saturday
Once again, I was up early, at around 7:30. Shower, dick around on the internet. Everyone slowly rolls out of bed. In a shocking twist, Luna is up before Griff and Vil! I think the world stopped. Griff was Yuzu Tanikawa from Devil Survivor, and Vil was Nephry Osborne from Tales of the Abyss.
We headed off to the Tales Panel at 9 AM. It was pretty boring because it was last minute, but eh. After the panel, we met up with Triad. More wandering!
Dude, it's a Karol!
Megaman cosplay!
Spoilers: Aerith dies.
Then we went to the Dealer's Room.
Luna bought me this amazing shirt.
Seriously, look how amazing this shirt is. Trufax, that shirt was my life this weekend. I trolled people with my Pokewalker.
Thanks a lot, NASA. You ruined Sailor Moon forever!
After that, we went to go hang out with Noi for realz in the Artist's Alley. Noi is... Well, she's one of those people you just have to meet IRL to actually understand. She is loud and crazy and hyperactive and hilarious and just kind of awesome. You'll see soon enough later. Meeting her was the highlight of the con for me. While there, we commissioned a very special picture from her.
Eventually, it was time for the SMT shoot. Or so we thought. Just as it was about to start... Fire alarm goes off! Everyone is forced to evacuate the convention center for about an hour or so, leading the shoot to be a washout. By the time we return, it's time for the Tales photoshoot.
But along the way, I snagged some bitchin' pics from the BlazBlue shoot.
They really wanted that food.
Soooo many Hazamas. Watch out, Ragna.
Check out that prop, man. That thing is bitchin'.
Finally, Tales shoot. At one point, I ended up simultaneously wielding three cameras. It was... interesting. Also difficult.
Check it, it's those guys from yesterday!
Vil's Nephry was pretty sweet.
It's Karol again!
People gettin' punched.
Stealthy's bitchin' Yeager.
Surprise Kratos!
Scandalous photo of Judith and Rita!
More pics here.
Tales shoot ends, I run off to the chaos that is the Pokemon shoot.
Ethan takes Suicune for a ride.
Pikachu died and is dead.
We had this rather amazing crasher who kept trying to interrupt the shots.
Team Rocket eventually beat the living daylights out of her.
More here
After that, we were all collectively exhausted. So we met up and went to Five Guys for dinner. Or... Five Gays, as Luna calls it. After dinner, we got a group picture taken, and then departed for the room to die, Triad in tow. We derped around on the internet for a while, talked about various things, watched Griff slide off the bed so many times, and groaned in agony and pain. Eventually, we saw Triad off, and Griff proceeded to roll over in bed and die. She was out cold. The rest of us proceeded to stay up for a while, though, dicking around and RPing until we got tired. Night came, and morning came.
Sunday
Sunday was boring. We woke up late and eventually trotted off to the con for the last few hours.
Look, I found Waldo!
We headed to the Artist's Alley to meet up with Noi again. This is the part where I tell you what Noi is like. But rather than tell you, I'll just show you.
Click to viewBehold! The last twelve minutes of Noi finishing our commission, complete with shot of it at the end!
Then I took a picture of her.
The faux dramatic lighting really suited her.
Then we chilled in the main hall for a while, ate more ice cream for breakfast, and then departed for the hotel for final goodbyes. Vil was taking Griff and Luna to the train station, before heading off to Jersey, so it was just me. I said my goodbyes to them, gave them hugs, and just chilled until 2 PM. You see, Stealthy was taking me to the airport. Looking back, I should have gone back to the con and hung out for a while, but... eh, I was lazy.
We had EPIC ADVENTURES on the way to the airport, where Stealthy told me stories of cons past, and we made fun of bad drivers in Baltimore. Eventually we made it, I said goodbye to Stealthy, and got ready to board plane. I make it on alive, and I remember my seatbelt again! Kyo 4 Life 2.
Then I land in Pittsburgh. I find out my dad is caught in a traffic jam because someone wrecked in the tunnel. He should have been at the airport waiting for me for a while, when I landed at 5:45. Because of the delays, though? He didn't arrive until nearly 8 PM. Clearly, Pittsburgh is cursed. But eventually I made it home alive. ...Until I died of exhaustion.
Final score: Kyo 4 Life Over 9000.
All in all, the con was a bit of a disappointment with the panels offered this year, but I still had a blast hanging with everyone.