AnimeUSA 2010
Oh man, two cons in a row = a very dead Lyn. XD;
Friday:
Had Dad drop me off on his way to work. Luckily he was running late so that gave me a little extra time to sleep and as a result didn't end up being there as crazy early as I feared. Got my stuff out of the car and just hung out in a corner of the lobby for a bit as I waited to hear from the PA crew. Saw Luna right off as she was also sitting in the lobby, in her Kendappa cosplay. Of course because I keep failing at taking photos lately, completely forgot to take her photo. Pfft. Especially lame considering how rare it is to see RG Veda cosplays at all. Talked with her for a bit and people watched as I waited. Had quite a few people come up to me to comment on my Buster sword. lol That thing gets like more attention than anything I've ever made, I swear. Eventually Alyce, Brittany, Tom, and Beth found me and we decided to take the chance of the lines being super small and get our badges then before taking my stuff up to the room. Seriously, never seen the AUSA line that short. It was weird. XD;
Went up to the room, unpacked, relaxed a little, called up Corey and ended up in her room to show her the last two Ningyou manga volumes while I helped pick off paint bits that had gotten all over her Sephiroth costume. Got in contact with Sarah to find out that her schedule was being kinda crazy so decided to wait to do FFVII later in the day so she wouldn't have to rush my wig as much. So instead got into Lucille. Had Corey cut the bangs on my wig which resulted in it looking like I had been attacked by a Chihuahua or Pomeranian which led to jokes about Eles (but no one would get that unless you've read the manga lol). Corey was taking ages to get into her Ciel cosplay so I decided to just go ahead and go down to the con so I could at least drop my few items off at the Artist Alley table. Of course as soon as I get there, Carrie is like "oh good, can you watch the table? *runs off*" lol Which was fine...except there were new items at the table that I had no idea how much they were. ^^;; And Sarah and Carrie were too busy at their photoshoot to be able to answer the phone and tell me. Luckily only got a few inquiries on said items. And Dar came to the table so I wasn't on my own as it was a bit more intimidating than Neko was. Also a lot more cramped. Also totally failed to get a photo of Dar at this time which sucks because she was Zoot from Holy Grail at the time and her costume was epic. Pfft. Junior spotted me pretty early on and asked to get photos but I was stuck at the booth for a bit. Finally managed to escape, just as Corey and John had finally gotten out so we did some photos in a crevice all together.
Granted...I'm not happy with how I look in Lucille. :/ I'm going to have to like work on posing better and possibly take the coat in a little more at the waist. And figure out a way to get the wig show better. 'Cause baaah. Frustrates me. Guess that's what I get for making this costume in like...less than a week. >>;; Going to probably fix it up pretty soon so its ready for Katsu. Possibly see if I can do a shoot with it outside of a con somewhere though as I'd prefer that. Even pondering making the white top hat even though he doesn't wear it with this outfit. Just 'cause I think it might make the outfit look better overall.
But yeah here's me as Lucille from Ningyou Kyuutei Gakudan. Meh. lol I'm a perfectionist so might be a while before I'm happy with it. Doesn't help that Lucille is like really pretty and I'm totally not. XD
I kinda like this close up though. Definitely think it looks better with the hair thrown over the shoulder there. Curse him for having his hair tied back for this outfit. XD; As the wig looks better without it.
And this one's just funny 'cause I was in fact primming myself in the mirror 'cause I was a little self conscious about how this outfit looked and lol it was so in character. I didn't even notice Junior aiming the camera at me. XD;
We were all pretty hungry by then so we decided to go get food at the Japanese restaurant. Didn't realize they didn't really do the full menu at lunch though. Which is odd as I thought I remembered having the full menu when we ate there on Sunday last year and I remember it being pretty early. Aw well. But decided to get a full meal after all (I usually just do an appetizer there because I need to eat light at cons) and got the lunch box special...which was pretty damn good. Corey and Avery got the same and lol we were all terrified of getting stuff on our costumes so all ate pretty carefully. It was yummy though I was sad how much I had to leave 'cause we didn't have fridges in our rooms and the stuff in the meal wouldn't have lasted very long I think.
After that we went back to the con and into the Dealer's Room and I was a bit disappointed that WizzyWig wasn't there so I couldn't use my gift cards I won at Neko. Guess I'll just have to wait til Katsu now. Helped Corey select a wig for Berthie and mostly just looked at stuff I can't afford. lol Saw Ling at her booth and talked with her for a bit. Though sadly realized it was getting kinda late so we went to change. Was a little miffed 'cause I really didn't get much time in Lucille and Junior was the only one that managed to get photos of it. Which is another reason why I want to do a shoot at some time and try planning ahead for Katsu, especially when I have my actual group. I know no one knows the manga but I love it and really want some actual photos for it. But anyways, went back up to the room, took a few minutes to relax, and then gradually got into Cloud. I thought I was taking too long but by the time I got the wig from Sarah and got to Corey's room, lol, Corey still hadn't gotten that far in costume. Pffft. Ended up having to help her get into it too which was pretty damn funny. Cloud helping Sephiroth. XD; But we eventually got out of the room and went down with John in his Tonberry King costume. The costumes got quite a lot of attention even despite the fact that my wig still needs a little more work on it. But Sarah had very little time to work on it so I don't blame her for that and its still better than what I've had in the past. But yeah, felt pretty good getting a lot of comments as people passed by. Such as "Thank you soooo much for doing the original Cloud! So tired of seeing Advent Children." Made me go "^.^ Hee~ Damn right!" 'Cause even though I do love AC...the original game design will always be the best in my opinion. And I refused to even upgrade the sword to the design they use now. Pfft.
Granted wandering around with Sephiroth and a Tonberry meant I got stabbed a lot. n_n; Oh well. Considering how many times I accidentally knocked one of them with my sword whenever I turned slightly...I suppose I deserved that. XD;
XD
After a bit, Corey was getting a bit uncomfortable in her costume so she and John decided to go change while I wandered on my own for a bit. Eventually ran out of people to chat with as it seemed everyone was like...missing. So I got bored. XD Believe it or not, with 6 costumes I somehow managed to get bored at the con. So just ended up back in the room and kinda loitered around the room for a bit. Didn't even bother to take Cloud off for a while as that costume is actually really comfortable. XD; But did eventually get out so I could start getting into Glen for our photoshoot with Lionel. Despite the fact that I started getting dressed with plenty of time...we somehow ended up running late. Pfft. No idea how. I guess 'cause I went to Corey's room first and maybe that took longer than I thought. Didn't matter though 'cause we got down there and Al told us Lionel was still doing his shoot before us. Which was good as I hate making photographers wait. We went over to the Hyatt for our PH shoot which consisted of me as Glen, Corey as Jack, and John as Liam. Which was an odd mix but oh well. lol I wish I had thought to invite more of our PH folks to it if I knew Corey was going to throw John in Liam. Just to make it not as awkward 'cause Liam never really interacts with those 2 characters. But I'm sure the photos will be nice anyways. Even though I fear how stupid I look in our joke photo. XD I don't know why I decided to stick my tongue out like that as I never look good that way but the point was to look stupid and I made everyone crack up so....XD; And as Lionel always says, his shoots are for fun and we did have fun doing it so that's all that matters.
Though omg I hate that I totally got great ideas for photos AFTER the con. n_n I totally totally regret not asking John or Corey to get a shot of me on the top of the stairs with the camera at the bottom 'cause that would have been really epic considering the character and the backdrop of the hotel. It so would have had a Tragedy of Sabrie look to it. n_n Maybe I'll have to bring Glen NEXT AUSA to try to get that. Pffft.
So instead of me looking menacing on the stairs...you got me sitting on the stairs XD;
I dunno, this came out a little more prissy looking than evil looking. Ah well. XD
Went back to the con hotel and went to the bar area where we had originally planned to meet up with our PH gang but everyone else was doing other stuff or too tired or thought we were only doing it on Sat. Though we did meet up with Bitter in Sharon so the 4 of us went to the bar/restaurant area. Corey and Bitter ordered drinks and Corey and I ordered this cheese platter thing...which took like FOREVER to get to us even though the drinks arrived right away. And it so wasn't worth it either as it only had like...4 crackers total for all the cheese and Corey said the menu claimed it had fruit but instead it was just some weird spicy jelly thing neither of us really liked. Though I kinda expected it to not be very good 'cause in the past stuff I've ordered with other people at this place has always been a bit odd. Like the year we ordered nachos and it arrived cold and every time they went to re-heat it for us, they took a million years and it still wasn't very hot. Pfft. But good times were had at the bar despite that. And at least they couldn't kick us out of the area since we actually ordered stuff. That's the main problem about AUSA now. There is no place to just sit and hang out. Because the restaurant took away a lot of the space this year so we had even LESS space than we did before. And registration has to be on the other side of the lobby now. Sad to say but I think this hotel may not be very good for cons anymore despite how long we've used it for either AUSA or Katsu. I'll be sad to see us leave it just 'cause I have so many memories with it but I think its about time. 'Cause there's no place to sit and hang out and the downstairs area has no phone reception. That and it kept eating my texts. I'd get people's texts like...the day after. Which isn't very good when its your main way of communicating people during a con. So to anyone who was wondering why the hell I wasn't responding...it was 'cause I didn't even get the message til it was too late! n_n
But lol Glen and Jack gradually started stripping as the night went on as those costumes just got too hot to wear and it was kinda like "...why the hell are we still wearing all these layers?" XD Al came by a few times to talk and take photos and we then ordered him to go eat. lol At least him and Lionel actually had gotten a table at the restaurant to eat which was good as both of them are soooo bad at that. And Al took a sip of Corey's drink...and then afterwards told us that he's allergic to alcohol! agahipgahpidip! We were like "why did you drink it?!" "'Cause I wanted to know how it tasted and I didn't want to be rude since you offered...it's ok I had my pills ready just in case." Pfffft. Though despite him being seated after us, he somehow got his food before us. >>; He kept coming by and being all "you're still waiting? O_o" and at one point when we were stripped down to the lower layers of our costumes and all 3 of us are leaning against one another, he came over and snapped a quick shot. XD; It's actually kinda a cute photo...except for the fact that Corey is going "rawr! XD" Annnd I got tired so decided to go back to the room. Was a bit surprised that I got up there before the rest of my roommates but they all came back shortly after that and were all a bit "Wait...you're here. And you're...not going back out? And it's not 3am in the morning?!" XD Oh it was nice to not being doing any skits and getting to actually sleep this con.
Saturday:
Felt really nice to just sleep and not worry about having to get up by a certain time. Oh man, soooo nice. I hadn't been able to do that at any of the cons I'd gone to like all this year. lol Got up with everyone else and we all gradually got into our Eternal Sonata gear. It took us a lot less time to get down to the lobby than we thought so we ended up being 30 minutes early before the arranged meeting time with Marissa, our newest addition to the group. So we waited in the lobby for a bit and then decided to go outside with Al for a few photos while we waited for her. While out there, we got like bombarded with photographers though. XD; Ran into Lionel shortly after we got off the elevator. And outside we had like all these cameras going, wasn't sure where to look. It was pretty nice getting so much attention for a group we all worked pretty hard on. And during Al's photos, Marissa came outside and found us so that was exciting. Her Viola was soooo badass! And then the dude that takes the really cool cosplay videos at cons found us and positioned us for his crazy camera. I didn't realize it was him until I saw him spinning it around us and was all "oh snap! its him!" XD; So kinda excited to see that even though it was obvious he was paying most of his attention on Marissa and Brittany due to them being tall, sexy, and showing more skin than the rest of us. lol
Our spiffy group of spiffy-ness XD
And I just love this shot Lionel got of me. ^^
So glad Chopin survived this con without ANY damage for once. Huzzah! Was getting kinda tired of having to make repairs each time. I think I've finally made him sturdy enough. lol And I'm pretty happy with how it looks so don't see any need for anymore changes. ^^ And I'm loving all the photos I have of it. This time I made sure my top hat was on right too. XD; So no more backwards top hat shots.
After we went back inside, we all agreed that we had plenty of photos to be satisfied over and no real need to wear the costumes any longer. lol I mean I'd worn my costume to freaking 4 cons this year so I definitely felt I had gotten the wear out of it already. And Brittany couldn't really stay in her armor for too long. So we changed out, took our time to chill out and relax for a bit. Beth got into her Amy Pond kissogram outfit and we took photos of her in the hallway. Then we went into the Dealer's while still in normal clothes. I once again pondered whether I should get the Kratos figure 'cause dammit AnimeSekiai has been sold out of him all year long and of course decided to restock when I had no money. n_n At least they were low on Nitro+Chiral figures so that couldn't tempt me as well (though worries me that I may have missed my chance to get the last few I wanted). Did get another Cloud Coke figure. Though this one wasn't as nice as the one I got before. Got it more for the collection's sake and the fact it was cheap rather than an actual liking of it. XD; There was a really cute Len plushie for only $9 that really tempted me too but I decided to wait on it.
We all went back to the room and then changed into Geass. Well more like Alyce and Brittany changed and I sat there for a bit. XD 'Cause I knew it'd take me like...less than 5 minutes to get ready and they'd take a bit longer. lol Oh hoop skirts. I felt pretty lame and boring compared to their outfits. lol As I was just wearing my old Suzaku cosplay from Katsu '09. We went over to the Hyatt for Tom to take some photos of us over there as we all agreed the lighting is better there and less people. Did some fun photos on the stairs.
My favorite is one is this though...
XD; I was just chilling with Cheese-kun during a few duo shots of Alyce and Brittany and I guess it amused everyone enough to want to take this photo, lol
Went back to the con and took some photos with the mirrors in the con hotel...which I don't ever remember being there before. Must have been a new addition this year. Either way was pretty fun to work with for photos.
Like so...
I don't know why but this one amuses me. XD I feel like the pose and the way my hair is makes me think more of like a Zuka version of Suzaku (lol Suzuka?) I dunno, maybe its just me ^^;;
After that we were going outside to find Al but got stopped by Lionel, who told us he happened to have a free slot due to one of his shoots canceling and asked us if we wanted to take it and of course we agreed to it! So he took us to this secret little grass area behind this building where we had to duck under a gate thingy to get to. XD And after that, we found Al as he was taking a shoot of Ling over in the other grass area so we ended up going over there and doing a mini shoot with him too. So I think we definitely got plenty of photos this con.
Amy Pond was spying on during Lionel's shoot. XD With Cheese-kun as her assitant.
Satisfied with that, we once again changed out. Hung out in the room for a bit and then went to eat dinner at Chili's. Isn't an AUSA unless I've eaten there at least once. XD; There was a very...interesting conversation between Dorian, Mike, and Tom on the way there that I will spare you the details on. ^^;; Then dinner was had and it was good. And on the way out they were playing Bohemian Rhapsody so Brittany started bursting out into song as we walked down the street, with occasional back up from the rest of us. It was pretty dorky and epic. Got back to the room and changed into Gil (god I did so many changes this con, it was ridiculous lol) and met up with Corey, John, and Becca who were in Break, Jack, and Vincent respectfully. I was feeling a little down though 'cause I had just realized right before I came down that I had lost my PLC Daishi pin and I feared I'd never find another one (luckily I recently found a girl selling one and bought it from her so should have it in a few days! Yay!) but still managed to have fun with the gang. As normal, Corey was throwing whatever cat related items she could find at me. This time it was a Choco Cat keychain. And this resulted in me scooting across the floor of the 3rd floor which we were at, trying to get away. At one point Corey/Break got a hold of my jacket so I couldn't escape...so what do I do? Shimy out of my jacket and flail away. XD It was pretty great and had the whole group dying. I don't know why but I seem to have pretty epic moments whenever I have that costume on. Its pretty easy to be in character when I do Gil. ...not sure what that says about me though.
During our silliness, my room came by on their way to take stuff down to their cars and as the Doctor Who people were starting to gather in that area, Becca and them all called out to Beth who was still partially in Amy as they had been spazzing out earlier that day when they saw her. I didn't realize Becca had been Rory earlier at the con but sadly they were never able to meet up in costume at the same time. But as there was other Doctor Who people around, Beth ended up getting back into the rest of the costume and hanging with them for a bit.
The Dalek Girl was perhaps my favorite costume all weekend, gotta say. She was pretty awesome. Especially since she went around saying "Exterminate!" a lot and the fact her plunger stuck to pretty much...everything. XD;
I wasn't feeling too good though. I think a combination of having gotten into costume just after eating and my body being tired of being in binding. So I went into the bathroom to take my binding off and felt a lot better...though it felt WEIRD to have Gil on without any binding. Like just didn't feel right at all. lol I've NEVER worn it without binding before. XD; Felt...exposed. Even though I was fully dressed. Though it did provide some good laughs of Gil having boobs...much to Vincent's surprise. Pfft. But then we all agreed we were getting tired and such so went back to our rooms. Corey and I agreed we should do some casual Ningyou for the heck of it so she could test out her Berthie wig. So I relaxed for a bit, gave Draco the rest of Jin which I had fixed up a little, and threw on the Lucille wig, Chopin's shirt, Glen's vest...lol Which actually went pretty well together. Didn't even have to bind. Went to Corey's room where we chilled for a bit before heading out over to the Hyatt for some crack photos. ...which were really cracky. Still haven't seen the ones on Corey's camera yet though.
Casual ghetto Lucille XD; Alyce said I looked kinda like Lestat though...pfft.
We wandered a tiny bit around the con but there really wasn't anything going on anymore so we ended up back in the room to chill til we got tired and I went back to my room. Was kinda surprised that everyone was already passed out in my room as I thought they were going to go watch something at that time but I guess they gave up on it. lol Though trying to find a phone charger in the dark was harder than I thought. ^^;; As my only concern was that I needed to charge my phone and I was a bit worried about not getting in contact with people in time as I was still waiting to hear back from folks. 'Cause Sarah was borrowing my Cloud wig for the burlesque show and that hadn't even finished yet and I was going to get my stuff from AA when Dar was done but I never got her text in time and ended up passing out. n_n Go me.
Sunday:
Got up and packed. Didn't take me as long as I thought really. Then we all went to the Dealer's one last time since we still had plenty of time before check-out. We were all shocked how empty the elevators were at the time. I guess if you just go down even an hour before the rush, it really makes a difference. Decided to just buy Kratos already and really glad I did 'cause I've been all "^.^" every time I look at him on my shelf. lol Have wanted that figure for a long time now. Though I'm now beginning to wonder what is it with me and redheaded Tales characters....'cause seriously all my figures are redheads from those games and yet they don't even have figures for Asch and Ricther...who are both ALSO redheads. Pffft. I was going to buy the Len plushie too but the Dealer that had the Vocaloid plushies...wasn't there. O_o; Guess they decided to pack up and leave Sat night or something. As their space was just empty. Weird.
Went back up to the room and took all my crap down to the lobby. And then I was kinda just stuck there as I didn't trust putting my stuff in the luggage holding due to Chopin and my buster sword. So just told my parents to get me early as I really couldn't do anything else and everyone else was pretty much leaving as it was. So gradually said my goodbyes. Talked to Courtney and Jane who I hadn't seen at all the entire con. lol Same with Jackie though I did at least see her a few times, just didn't get a chance to talk. Both parties I tend to only see at the end of the con for some reason lately. What is up with that? XD; And so yeah, left the con pretty early. Was kinda odd because I usually leave that one pretty late but ehhh not like there was anything going on.
Rest of my photos are up over here: http://lyn.houjun.com/ausa10.html
~Lyn
Friday:
Had Dad drop me off on his way to work. Luckily he was running late so that gave me a little extra time to sleep and as a result didn't end up being there as crazy early as I feared. Got my stuff out of the car and just hung out in a corner of the lobby for a bit as I waited to hear from the PA crew. Saw Luna right off as she was also sitting in the lobby, in her Kendappa cosplay. Of course because I keep failing at taking photos lately, completely forgot to take her photo. Pfft. Especially lame considering how rare it is to see RG Veda cosplays at all. Talked with her for a bit and people watched as I waited. Had quite a few people come up to me to comment on my Buster sword. lol That thing gets like more attention than anything I've ever made, I swear. Eventually Alyce, Brittany, Tom, and Beth found me and we decided to take the chance of the lines being super small and get our badges then before taking my stuff up to the room. Seriously, never seen the AUSA line that short. It was weird. XD;
Went up to the room, unpacked, relaxed a little, called up Corey and ended up in her room to show her the last two Ningyou manga volumes while I helped pick off paint bits that had gotten all over her Sephiroth costume. Got in contact with Sarah to find out that her schedule was being kinda crazy so decided to wait to do FFVII later in the day so she wouldn't have to rush my wig as much. So instead got into Lucille. Had Corey cut the bangs on my wig which resulted in it looking like I had been attacked by a Chihuahua or Pomeranian which led to jokes about Eles (but no one would get that unless you've read the manga lol). Corey was taking ages to get into her Ciel cosplay so I decided to just go ahead and go down to the con so I could at least drop my few items off at the Artist Alley table. Of course as soon as I get there, Carrie is like "oh good, can you watch the table? *runs off*" lol Which was fine...except there were new items at the table that I had no idea how much they were. ^^;; And Sarah and Carrie were too busy at their photoshoot to be able to answer the phone and tell me. Luckily only got a few inquiries on said items. And Dar came to the table so I wasn't on my own as it was a bit more intimidating than Neko was. Also a lot more cramped. Also totally failed to get a photo of Dar at this time which sucks because she was Zoot from Holy Grail at the time and her costume was epic. Pfft. Junior spotted me pretty early on and asked to get photos but I was stuck at the booth for a bit. Finally managed to escape, just as Corey and John had finally gotten out so we did some photos in a crevice all together.
Granted...I'm not happy with how I look in Lucille. :/ I'm going to have to like work on posing better and possibly take the coat in a little more at the waist. And figure out a way to get the wig show better. 'Cause baaah. Frustrates me. Guess that's what I get for making this costume in like...less than a week. >>;; Going to probably fix it up pretty soon so its ready for Katsu. Possibly see if I can do a shoot with it outside of a con somewhere though as I'd prefer that. Even pondering making the white top hat even though he doesn't wear it with this outfit. Just 'cause I think it might make the outfit look better overall.
But yeah here's me as Lucille from Ningyou Kyuutei Gakudan. Meh. lol I'm a perfectionist so might be a while before I'm happy with it. Doesn't help that Lucille is like really pretty and I'm totally not. XD
I kinda like this close up though. Definitely think it looks better with the hair thrown over the shoulder there. Curse him for having his hair tied back for this outfit. XD; As the wig looks better without it.
And this one's just funny 'cause I was in fact primming myself in the mirror 'cause I was a little self conscious about how this outfit looked and lol it was so in character. I didn't even notice Junior aiming the camera at me. XD;
We were all pretty hungry by then so we decided to go get food at the Japanese restaurant. Didn't realize they didn't really do the full menu at lunch though. Which is odd as I thought I remembered having the full menu when we ate there on Sunday last year and I remember it being pretty early. Aw well. But decided to get a full meal after all (I usually just do an appetizer there because I need to eat light at cons) and got the lunch box special...which was pretty damn good. Corey and Avery got the same and lol we were all terrified of getting stuff on our costumes so all ate pretty carefully. It was yummy though I was sad how much I had to leave 'cause we didn't have fridges in our rooms and the stuff in the meal wouldn't have lasted very long I think.
After that we went back to the con and into the Dealer's Room and I was a bit disappointed that WizzyWig wasn't there so I couldn't use my gift cards I won at Neko. Guess I'll just have to wait til Katsu now. Helped Corey select a wig for Berthie and mostly just looked at stuff I can't afford. lol Saw Ling at her booth and talked with her for a bit. Though sadly realized it was getting kinda late so we went to change. Was a little miffed 'cause I really didn't get much time in Lucille and Junior was the only one that managed to get photos of it. Which is another reason why I want to do a shoot at some time and try planning ahead for Katsu, especially when I have my actual group. I know no one knows the manga but I love it and really want some actual photos for it. But anyways, went back up to the room, took a few minutes to relax, and then gradually got into Cloud. I thought I was taking too long but by the time I got the wig from Sarah and got to Corey's room, lol, Corey still hadn't gotten that far in costume. Pffft. Ended up having to help her get into it too which was pretty damn funny. Cloud helping Sephiroth. XD; But we eventually got out of the room and went down with John in his Tonberry King costume. The costumes got quite a lot of attention even despite the fact that my wig still needs a little more work on it. But Sarah had very little time to work on it so I don't blame her for that and its still better than what I've had in the past. But yeah, felt pretty good getting a lot of comments as people passed by. Such as "Thank you soooo much for doing the original Cloud! So tired of seeing Advent Children." Made me go "^.^ Hee~ Damn right!" 'Cause even though I do love AC...the original game design will always be the best in my opinion. And I refused to even upgrade the sword to the design they use now. Pfft.
Granted wandering around with Sephiroth and a Tonberry meant I got stabbed a lot. n_n; Oh well. Considering how many times I accidentally knocked one of them with my sword whenever I turned slightly...I suppose I deserved that. XD;
XD
After a bit, Corey was getting a bit uncomfortable in her costume so she and John decided to go change while I wandered on my own for a bit. Eventually ran out of people to chat with as it seemed everyone was like...missing. So I got bored. XD Believe it or not, with 6 costumes I somehow managed to get bored at the con. So just ended up back in the room and kinda loitered around the room for a bit. Didn't even bother to take Cloud off for a while as that costume is actually really comfortable. XD; But did eventually get out so I could start getting into Glen for our photoshoot with Lionel. Despite the fact that I started getting dressed with plenty of time...we somehow ended up running late. Pfft. No idea how. I guess 'cause I went to Corey's room first and maybe that took longer than I thought. Didn't matter though 'cause we got down there and Al told us Lionel was still doing his shoot before us. Which was good as I hate making photographers wait. We went over to the Hyatt for our PH shoot which consisted of me as Glen, Corey as Jack, and John as Liam. Which was an odd mix but oh well. lol I wish I had thought to invite more of our PH folks to it if I knew Corey was going to throw John in Liam. Just to make it not as awkward 'cause Liam never really interacts with those 2 characters. But I'm sure the photos will be nice anyways. Even though I fear how stupid I look in our joke photo. XD I don't know why I decided to stick my tongue out like that as I never look good that way but the point was to look stupid and I made everyone crack up so....XD; And as Lionel always says, his shoots are for fun and we did have fun doing it so that's all that matters.
Though omg I hate that I totally got great ideas for photos AFTER the con. n_n I totally totally regret not asking John or Corey to get a shot of me on the top of the stairs with the camera at the bottom 'cause that would have been really epic considering the character and the backdrop of the hotel. It so would have had a Tragedy of Sabrie look to it. n_n Maybe I'll have to bring Glen NEXT AUSA to try to get that. Pffft.
So instead of me looking menacing on the stairs...you got me sitting on the stairs XD;
I dunno, this came out a little more prissy looking than evil looking. Ah well. XD
Went back to the con hotel and went to the bar area where we had originally planned to meet up with our PH gang but everyone else was doing other stuff or too tired or thought we were only doing it on Sat. Though we did meet up with Bitter in Sharon so the 4 of us went to the bar/restaurant area. Corey and Bitter ordered drinks and Corey and I ordered this cheese platter thing...which took like FOREVER to get to us even though the drinks arrived right away. And it so wasn't worth it either as it only had like...4 crackers total for all the cheese and Corey said the menu claimed it had fruit but instead it was just some weird spicy jelly thing neither of us really liked. Though I kinda expected it to not be very good 'cause in the past stuff I've ordered with other people at this place has always been a bit odd. Like the year we ordered nachos and it arrived cold and every time they went to re-heat it for us, they took a million years and it still wasn't very hot. Pfft. But good times were had at the bar despite that. And at least they couldn't kick us out of the area since we actually ordered stuff. That's the main problem about AUSA now. There is no place to just sit and hang out. Because the restaurant took away a lot of the space this year so we had even LESS space than we did before. And registration has to be on the other side of the lobby now. Sad to say but I think this hotel may not be very good for cons anymore despite how long we've used it for either AUSA or Katsu. I'll be sad to see us leave it just 'cause I have so many memories with it but I think its about time. 'Cause there's no place to sit and hang out and the downstairs area has no phone reception. That and it kept eating my texts. I'd get people's texts like...the day after. Which isn't very good when its your main way of communicating people during a con. So to anyone who was wondering why the hell I wasn't responding...it was 'cause I didn't even get the message til it was too late! n_n
But lol Glen and Jack gradually started stripping as the night went on as those costumes just got too hot to wear and it was kinda like "...why the hell are we still wearing all these layers?" XD Al came by a few times to talk and take photos and we then ordered him to go eat. lol At least him and Lionel actually had gotten a table at the restaurant to eat which was good as both of them are soooo bad at that. And Al took a sip of Corey's drink...and then afterwards told us that he's allergic to alcohol! agahipgahpidip! We were like "why did you drink it?!" "'Cause I wanted to know how it tasted and I didn't want to be rude since you offered...it's ok I had my pills ready just in case." Pfffft. Though despite him being seated after us, he somehow got his food before us. >>; He kept coming by and being all "you're still waiting? O_o" and at one point when we were stripped down to the lower layers of our costumes and all 3 of us are leaning against one another, he came over and snapped a quick shot. XD; It's actually kinda a cute photo...except for the fact that Corey is going "rawr! XD" Annnd I got tired so decided to go back to the room. Was a bit surprised that I got up there before the rest of my roommates but they all came back shortly after that and were all a bit "Wait...you're here. And you're...not going back out? And it's not 3am in the morning?!" XD Oh it was nice to not being doing any skits and getting to actually sleep this con.
Saturday:
Felt really nice to just sleep and not worry about having to get up by a certain time. Oh man, soooo nice. I hadn't been able to do that at any of the cons I'd gone to like all this year. lol Got up with everyone else and we all gradually got into our Eternal Sonata gear. It took us a lot less time to get down to the lobby than we thought so we ended up being 30 minutes early before the arranged meeting time with Marissa, our newest addition to the group. So we waited in the lobby for a bit and then decided to go outside with Al for a few photos while we waited for her. While out there, we got like bombarded with photographers though. XD; Ran into Lionel shortly after we got off the elevator. And outside we had like all these cameras going, wasn't sure where to look. It was pretty nice getting so much attention for a group we all worked pretty hard on. And during Al's photos, Marissa came outside and found us so that was exciting. Her Viola was soooo badass! And then the dude that takes the really cool cosplay videos at cons found us and positioned us for his crazy camera. I didn't realize it was him until I saw him spinning it around us and was all "oh snap! its him!" XD; So kinda excited to see that even though it was obvious he was paying most of his attention on Marissa and Brittany due to them being tall, sexy, and showing more skin than the rest of us. lol
Our spiffy group of spiffy-ness XD
And I just love this shot Lionel got of me. ^^
So glad Chopin survived this con without ANY damage for once. Huzzah! Was getting kinda tired of having to make repairs each time. I think I've finally made him sturdy enough. lol And I'm pretty happy with how it looks so don't see any need for anymore changes. ^^ And I'm loving all the photos I have of it. This time I made sure my top hat was on right too. XD; So no more backwards top hat shots.
After we went back inside, we all agreed that we had plenty of photos to be satisfied over and no real need to wear the costumes any longer. lol I mean I'd worn my costume to freaking 4 cons this year so I definitely felt I had gotten the wear out of it already. And Brittany couldn't really stay in her armor for too long. So we changed out, took our time to chill out and relax for a bit. Beth got into her Amy Pond kissogram outfit and we took photos of her in the hallway. Then we went into the Dealer's while still in normal clothes. I once again pondered whether I should get the Kratos figure 'cause dammit AnimeSekiai has been sold out of him all year long and of course decided to restock when I had no money. n_n At least they were low on Nitro+Chiral figures so that couldn't tempt me as well (though worries me that I may have missed my chance to get the last few I wanted). Did get another Cloud Coke figure. Though this one wasn't as nice as the one I got before. Got it more for the collection's sake and the fact it was cheap rather than an actual liking of it. XD; There was a really cute Len plushie for only $9 that really tempted me too but I decided to wait on it.
We all went back to the room and then changed into Geass. Well more like Alyce and Brittany changed and I sat there for a bit. XD 'Cause I knew it'd take me like...less than 5 minutes to get ready and they'd take a bit longer. lol Oh hoop skirts. I felt pretty lame and boring compared to their outfits. lol As I was just wearing my old Suzaku cosplay from Katsu '09. We went over to the Hyatt for Tom to take some photos of us over there as we all agreed the lighting is better there and less people. Did some fun photos on the stairs.
My favorite is one is this though...
XD; I was just chilling with Cheese-kun during a few duo shots of Alyce and Brittany and I guess it amused everyone enough to want to take this photo, lol
Went back to the con and took some photos with the mirrors in the con hotel...which I don't ever remember being there before. Must have been a new addition this year. Either way was pretty fun to work with for photos.
Like so...
I don't know why but this one amuses me. XD I feel like the pose and the way my hair is makes me think more of like a Zuka version of Suzaku (lol Suzuka?) I dunno, maybe its just me ^^;;
After that we were going outside to find Al but got stopped by Lionel, who told us he happened to have a free slot due to one of his shoots canceling and asked us if we wanted to take it and of course we agreed to it! So he took us to this secret little grass area behind this building where we had to duck under a gate thingy to get to. XD And after that, we found Al as he was taking a shoot of Ling over in the other grass area so we ended up going over there and doing a mini shoot with him too. So I think we definitely got plenty of photos this con.
Amy Pond was spying on during Lionel's shoot. XD With Cheese-kun as her assitant.
Satisfied with that, we once again changed out. Hung out in the room for a bit and then went to eat dinner at Chili's. Isn't an AUSA unless I've eaten there at least once. XD; There was a very...interesting conversation between Dorian, Mike, and Tom on the way there that I will spare you the details on. ^^;; Then dinner was had and it was good. And on the way out they were playing Bohemian Rhapsody so Brittany started bursting out into song as we walked down the street, with occasional back up from the rest of us. It was pretty dorky and epic. Got back to the room and changed into Gil (god I did so many changes this con, it was ridiculous lol) and met up with Corey, John, and Becca who were in Break, Jack, and Vincent respectfully. I was feeling a little down though 'cause I had just realized right before I came down that I had lost my PLC Daishi pin and I feared I'd never find another one (luckily I recently found a girl selling one and bought it from her so should have it in a few days! Yay!) but still managed to have fun with the gang. As normal, Corey was throwing whatever cat related items she could find at me. This time it was a Choco Cat keychain. And this resulted in me scooting across the floor of the 3rd floor which we were at, trying to get away. At one point Corey/Break got a hold of my jacket so I couldn't escape...so what do I do? Shimy out of my jacket and flail away. XD It was pretty great and had the whole group dying. I don't know why but I seem to have pretty epic moments whenever I have that costume on. Its pretty easy to be in character when I do Gil. ...not sure what that says about me though.
During our silliness, my room came by on their way to take stuff down to their cars and as the Doctor Who people were starting to gather in that area, Becca and them all called out to Beth who was still partially in Amy as they had been spazzing out earlier that day when they saw her. I didn't realize Becca had been Rory earlier at the con but sadly they were never able to meet up in costume at the same time. But as there was other Doctor Who people around, Beth ended up getting back into the rest of the costume and hanging with them for a bit.
The Dalek Girl was perhaps my favorite costume all weekend, gotta say. She was pretty awesome. Especially since she went around saying "Exterminate!" a lot and the fact her plunger stuck to pretty much...everything. XD;
I wasn't feeling too good though. I think a combination of having gotten into costume just after eating and my body being tired of being in binding. So I went into the bathroom to take my binding off and felt a lot better...though it felt WEIRD to have Gil on without any binding. Like just didn't feel right at all. lol I've NEVER worn it without binding before. XD; Felt...exposed. Even though I was fully dressed. Though it did provide some good laughs of Gil having boobs...much to Vincent's surprise. Pfft. But then we all agreed we were getting tired and such so went back to our rooms. Corey and I agreed we should do some casual Ningyou for the heck of it so she could test out her Berthie wig. So I relaxed for a bit, gave Draco the rest of Jin which I had fixed up a little, and threw on the Lucille wig, Chopin's shirt, Glen's vest...lol Which actually went pretty well together. Didn't even have to bind. Went to Corey's room where we chilled for a bit before heading out over to the Hyatt for some crack photos. ...which were really cracky. Still haven't seen the ones on Corey's camera yet though.
Casual ghetto Lucille XD; Alyce said I looked kinda like Lestat though...pfft.
We wandered a tiny bit around the con but there really wasn't anything going on anymore so we ended up back in the room to chill til we got tired and I went back to my room. Was kinda surprised that everyone was already passed out in my room as I thought they were going to go watch something at that time but I guess they gave up on it. lol Though trying to find a phone charger in the dark was harder than I thought. ^^;; As my only concern was that I needed to charge my phone and I was a bit worried about not getting in contact with people in time as I was still waiting to hear back from folks. 'Cause Sarah was borrowing my Cloud wig for the burlesque show and that hadn't even finished yet and I was going to get my stuff from AA when Dar was done but I never got her text in time and ended up passing out. n_n Go me.
Sunday:
Got up and packed. Didn't take me as long as I thought really. Then we all went to the Dealer's one last time since we still had plenty of time before check-out. We were all shocked how empty the elevators were at the time. I guess if you just go down even an hour before the rush, it really makes a difference. Decided to just buy Kratos already and really glad I did 'cause I've been all "^.^" every time I look at him on my shelf. lol Have wanted that figure for a long time now. Though I'm now beginning to wonder what is it with me and redheaded Tales characters....'cause seriously all my figures are redheads from those games and yet they don't even have figures for Asch and Ricther...who are both ALSO redheads. Pffft. I was going to buy the Len plushie too but the Dealer that had the Vocaloid plushies...wasn't there. O_o; Guess they decided to pack up and leave Sat night or something. As their space was just empty. Weird.
Went back up to the room and took all my crap down to the lobby. And then I was kinda just stuck there as I didn't trust putting my stuff in the luggage holding due to Chopin and my buster sword. So just told my parents to get me early as I really couldn't do anything else and everyone else was pretty much leaving as it was. So gradually said my goodbyes. Talked to Courtney and Jane who I hadn't seen at all the entire con. lol Same with Jackie though I did at least see her a few times, just didn't get a chance to talk. Both parties I tend to only see at the end of the con for some reason lately. What is up with that? XD; And so yeah, left the con pretty early. Was kinda odd because I usually leave that one pretty late but ehhh not like there was anything going on.
Rest of my photos are up over here: http://lyn.houjun.com/ausa10.html
~Lyn