Dragon*Con 2011 Part 1
This report has taken me longer than usual to write up just because I've been really busy ever since I got back from the con. @_@; Also doesn't help that this report is going to be pretty long due to all the stuff I did. However, I will do less of the annoying details of every little thing I did and more details on the actual panels and such so its a little more interesting than normal. ^^;;
And this thing ended up too long for one post, of course. XD So here's just part 1.
Onwards!
Thursday:
After a long car ride (split up into two days, left shortly after work Wed afternoon), arrived in Atlanta late in the afternoon. Got dropped off at sunnyrea's hotel which was the Marriot. Not the con-Marriot but the smaller one, not part of the con block, but still decently close to everything. I wasn't exactly staying there. Just my stuff. XD Basically we agreed that Corey, Jon, and I could leave some of our stuff in their room if we split the cost of one person while we actually stayed at Carolina's house, about 20-30 minutes away. Corey and Jon were seeing a play that night so instead I hung out with Becca and Co. Finally got to actually really meet Ben and Sabrina. As in more than just seeing them as the people Becca does cosplay with. XD And also met their other roomie, also named Becca. And so not to make this really confusing and 'cause I hate writing out LJ name codes all the time, going to just refer to as Becca#1 and the other as Becca#2, going on which one I met first. XD Anywho! As I was unloading stuff, the hotel staff were all asking me what costumes I had brought, etc and i was just kinda surprised by how nice and into the whole con atmosphere they seemed to be. And they were like that all weekend long. I'm used to cons where the hotel staff doesn't really talk to you. So was a rather pleasant change.
Everyone in the room was getting into cosplay, a mix of Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Firefly. While watching them all get dressed, started thinking I really need to do more TV-cosplay because damn they all looked comfortable in their outfits and it'd be nice to have outfits that are actual comfortable and easy to get into for a change. XD But we all know that's unlikely to happen with me as I tend to prefer picking the crazy shit. Then we all headed over to the Sheraton for pre-reg badge pick-up. I had been told about the horrors of getting your badge at this con in the past but this year they started a new barcode system (like what Otakon recently started doing) and as a result, we kinda speeded through the line. But it was kinda funny as they had the room set up for a huuuuge line so the dividers went back and forth through the whole big room yet there wasn't a very big line at all so it was just everyone going round and round and round and round very fast...made you kinda dizzy after a while. XD And of course we kept seeing the same people after each turn, which turned into various amounts of exchanging of geekery and insults. But yeah, went pretty fast. The only waiting we had to do was for Ben who didn't have his postcard and thus was in the slow-line (though it wasn't too long at least) and while waiting to the side for him, we had a very...awkward conversation with this one girl in a Sailor Moon shirt. While we said something about Doctor Who, she remarked in a rather snide tone "I don't like that show." and it was just kinda like "...o...k...awkward." Since we were a very obvious group of Who-fans. Also find it interesting that she had no idea who Spike Spiegel was, despite the fact she was wearing a Sailor Moon shirt. Though I love Becca's response "He's an anime." XD I think she meant to say "He's from an anime" but we all decided we liked this response better.
I wish I had known the badges didn't come on lanyards at this con, so I could have made sure to bring one because I was terrified of losing my badge all weekend. Luckily it never budged from my bag but by the end of the con, it did have quite some wear and tear to it so I'm glad it never actually broke off. Also was annoying that they decided to print everyone's full names on the front in bigger letters than the nickname section, along with your city. I know it was probably so its easier to identify lost badges but seriously, not exactly comfortable with the idea of any stranger that walks up to you being able to see that info. So it was amusing to see how many people at the con had blacked out various parts of this. I myself blacked out parts of it (so no one could see my full first name mainly).
After we all had our badges, we had a little tour of all the hotels for Ben and I as it was the first DragonCon for both of us. Though I was pretty much like "...yeeeaaah, just going to follow someone all weekend long or I'm going to get soooo lost" as it was hard to keep track of them. By the end of the con I had managed to get the Hyatt and Marriot figured out ok and how to get there from our hotel but that was about it. XD I don't think I even took a step into the Hilton other than that first tour. And was only in the Sheraton twice. Didn't attend anything in the Westin but did go in there several times to help Tohma out. But oh my god were these hotels FREAKING HUGE! To be honest, I'm not sure I'd ever want to stay at one though. Because they all have a ridiculous amount of floors and I think that would really freak me out after a while. Especially as most of them had clear elevators and I have a bit of a fear of heights, and my fear of plumenting to my death an in elevator recently increased due to a serious of bizarre dreams I've had over the last several months of that happening and in very vivid detail. X_X Thus to say I was a little bit freaked out every time we went up or down a really high amount of floors throughout the weekend. Though at least with the Marriot, we pretty much stopped at every floor every time we rode the elevators so it wasn't quite as bad.
After our little tour, we went to the food court for dinner. Gotta say, I really love the sky walks that connect some of the hotels and the food court. Made things a lot easier. The food I got ended up being not all that great but it was enough to fill my stomach. I was also more focused on scheduling my events for the con because this was seriously the first time ever where I had to actually circle things on the schedule and read it through and figure this out. I NEVER do that at cons, lol 'cause I'm usually only going to like 1-2 events and I know where they are ahead of time. But this schedule was ridiculous! So many pages and I was like "oh god, so many options!" @_@ But man, what a geeky dinner we had. Every where in the court were Dragon*Con folks. Saw a REALLY spooky dead-on Master from "The End of Time" episode of Doctor Who. Granted I wasn't sure if he was actually cosplaying or just happened to look a lot like him since the outfit is so super casual but considering where we were, most likely was meant to be him. But he was so dead-on, was a little intimidated to even ask for a photo. XD; We also ran into more of Becca and Co's friends who were also doing Doctor Who cosplay and this resulted in a bunch of silly photos. Made me sad I didn't manage to do any Doctor Who cosplay myself but definitely plan to if I go next year or even just in general since I know they all always cosplay from it at cons.
"Curse you, Moffat!" group. With poor dead Rory. 'Cause we all know Moffat enjoys seeing how many different ways he can kill him. Pffft.
Also saw this at the cake store in the food court...
Thought it was pretty cool. XD Was nice to see how many of the local venues catered to the con too.
And ran into as we were attempting to leave the food court (and kept stopping to talk to people instead). Which was pretty nifty as I was like "man, its only Thursday and I've already seen the majority of the people I actually know at this con" (granted that number wasn't very high, for a change, lol Was interesting being at a con where I knew like less than 10 people total attending beforehand). Then back to the room and they all changed costumes already. XD Kinda crazy how many costume changes all my friends did. And you guys think I do a lot of costume changes? Pfft, I had the least amount of everyone I knew there. Granted I brought less than I normally do on purpose but still, I don't think I could ever do that many as they did. Then we went to the uhhh...Marriot? Or the Hyatt? Not even sure. XD Which was FULL of people. Crazy for a Thursday night, man! Went to the bar area as a few wanted to get drinks and someone compliment me on my "costume". lmao Drunk guy was very drunk. Though no, I don't think he was really hitting on me as he was trying to hit on Sabrina and I think just said that 'cause I was next to her. lol She was dressed as Idris/"Sexy" at the time so its understandable. Eventually Corey called saying her and Jon were done with their show so Becca took me back to the room and we left some of our stuff in the room so it could be there for the weekend and headed off to Carolina's for the night. Rest of the night was pretty uneventful. We just chatted and Carolina baked cookies and we passed out somewhere around 2am, which was probably a bad idea considering we had to get up early. Oh well. ^^; But seriously, Thursday felt like a whole day of con already even if it was only a few hours! o_o;
Friday:
Woke up early to head over to the con so we could help Tohma out with her Ravage costume from Transformers. Got there a bit later than we intended and then had some difficulty trying to figure out where exactly Tohma was as she was already in Ravage at this point and Corey seemed a bit confused as to where stuff was (oddly enough I seemed to figure out the layout of the hotels locations better than her at times even though she's been going for years and this was my first time, lol XD). Eventually we did find her and took over so her friend could go off and pass on the duties to us. Basically Tohma can't see or hear very well when in Ravage so she had figured out a walkie talkie system where one walkie talkie is veclroed to the inside, near her ear and we have the other one so we can give her directions on where to move. One of us did that while the other two helped guide her around and hold her feet/tail when she wanted to walk upright (as Ravage is made so she walks like a cat after all). Then we had to go meet up with her photographer friend, which was a bit confusing as we weren't quite sure where she wanted us to meet. I think we ended up in the Hilton for this? Found her photo-person and took photos on an outside terrace away from the crowds. Though also amusing how many photographers saw us doing this and came out to take photos too. XD I mean the costume was really impressive, so I don't blame them.
Ravage inside one of the hotels, shortly after we met up with her.
Front view, on the outside terrace. With the All-Spark Jon made the night before. XD He went a little crazy with the designs on it and there's a bunch of hidden geek symbols thrown in. lol
And the real reason why everyone is after that All-Spark?
Its got cookies!
Friday was a pretty good day for doing this costume as it wasn't like insanely crowded yet so it was easier to maneuver her around. I wasn't in costume during any of this so I got to get an idea what its like on the non-costume side of things for a change and it was kinda nice. I liked just helping out, taking photos, etc. It was also really amusing how many people thought Tohma was an actual robot that operated by voice command. XDXD If only we were that amazing that we could make our own robot like that. lol The best though was when we had a Stormtrooper come over to her and was all "This is not the droid you're looking for." XD And then he just kept going and it was hilarious and I really wish we had remembered to take the video cam out that Tohma gave us (oops). He bent forward towards the light on the front of Ravage and did the whole "Help me, Obi-Wan! You're my only hope." bit. Lifted up Ravage's tail and was all "Is it a boy or girl?" "Remember kids, to always spay or neuter your pets." etc. XD It was pretty entertaining and we developed quite the crowd over it.
And then we met up with a Dalek. Now the question is...which is the greater evil? My vote is on the Dalek. XD
Corey and Jon still had to actually get their badges so they went off and I was left to help Tohma to wander around a little more and then make our way back to her hotel. I was a bit nervous at first 'cause I wasn't sure if I could handle all of it on my own. Since I had to carry Tohma's bag, carry her legs when she stood up, and handle the walkie talkie while trying to guide her and stop her from running into things. XD; But we managed. And it was kinda fun being in control of the walkie talkie and make people think I was voice-commanding "the robot". Eventually we agreed it was time to get Tohma out of the costume, which meant getting her outside and across the street. lol Which sounds simple at first but not when you're getting stopped for photos every five steps. XD The worst was once we got outside the Hyatt and we got bombarded with people wanting photos and videos and I kept having to be like "um, everyone please watch out for cars ^^;;" as they kept standing where cars were coming in to get to the hotel. And then we got interviewed by the local news station. lmao They took videos of Tohma moving and of how our walkie talkie system worked and then tried to interview Tohma though it was amusing trying to show them where to aim the microphone to where her mouth actually was. XD We were told by one of Tohma's friends that we were in fact included in their news report on TV but we have yet to be able to see it as it seems nobody got footage of the report. Oh well. Still pretty cool though.
Eventually we made it to Westin, which was where Tohma was staying. And I didn't quite realize how many floors the place had until we started going up and I saw the floor numbers. We were on an express elevator too so was kinda creepy how it suddenly zoomed from the bottom to floor 20-something and since the elevator wasn't stopping til her floor at floor 48, it was like "zooooom". My ears totally popped every time I went up to her room throughout the weekend. XD Helped Tohma get out of the costume and then went back down...which was kinda scary because omfg it went down so fast! T_T Just glad we weren't a higher floor (the thing goes up to like floor 80-something). Unfortunately it took us a lot longer than I expected to get back so I was on very short time until the panel I wanted to go to. But I wanted to finally get into an actual costume so I put on Chopin 'cause I felt it would be a good time for it as I wasn't doing many panels that day so I could spend more time in the costume as it was the only big one I brought with me to the con. So rushed to get into it, got a call from Becca who told me where the panel was and that I should still be able to get in but they'd save me a seat just in case. Corey and Jon were in the room too and were going to go to the doll panel which was the same time and I let Corey take Raphael with her since I wouldn't be able to go. Then on our way out, I thought I felt something break. I assumed it was my backpiece falling off so kinda freaked but felt back with my hands and it was still there and checked all other heavy pieces that it could have been, found nothing, and continued on since I was in a hurry.
*sighs* If only I had looked down. You have no idea how much I regret that moment. Even typing this up right now is kinda hard to do. The funny thing is Corey and Jon didn't see it either since they had to walk right back past me since they had forgotten something in the room and had to go back. While I rushed off and was in such a hurry to get to the panel, I had no idea that I had lost a part of my costume. But yeah, I managed to get to the room just in time for Gareth David Lloyd's panel, aka Ianto from Torchwoood. Which was kinda amazing actually because I had quite the distance to go and there was a major hold-up in the skywalk from the Hyatt to the Marriot (as I had only learned to memorize the route to the Hyatt and how to get to the Marriot from there XD I would have gotten lost trying to go there directly) that took forever to get through. So I thought for sure I'd get there late. But nah, there was still room and I got there just a few minutes before it started so yay!
Gareth was very cute in person. And he cussed a lot. XD A lot of "fucking"s. Which I learned is the favorite word of pretty much everyone I went to see over the weekend, lmao. But god he was adorable! He was all "I was so worried nobody would come to my panel". Pffft. Most of the questions he got were of course were Jack-related. Including one girl that was all (and I think she was even cosplaying Jack but I don't remember for sure) "So just how good of a kisser is John Barrowman?" and lol Gareth was all "Pffft! He's bloody awful! Worst kisser I've ever had." hahahaha XD And he talked about the death scene of course and how the first take, the mood was totally ruined because John's knot dripped down into Gareth's mouth and he was gagging and it was awful. lmao Poor guy. One Ianto cosplayer who had a pair of very nice wings on (at least I'm assuming they were trying to be Ianto, I could be wrong and it could have been something completely unrelated) and Gareth was all "Oh nice wings btw, where'd you get them?" Girl: "MotherPlucker" (which I knew of thanks to Drag U lol) Him: "Motherwhat? ...can I have them? If you were a real fan, you'd give them to me." XD She didn't though. lol And don't blame her as I know how much wings like that cost. There was also a lot of talk about his band, which I must admit I am very curious about now since I didn't even know he was in a band. Overall it was a very amusing panel...however...part of it I was unable to focus on because at one point I looked down, I forget why, and had the HUGE shock of realizing my skirt piece was missing. And that started a pretty big panic state. I texted Corey to see if she had by any chance seen it back in the room but nope. And of course I then realized that's THAT was what I felt fell off when we left the room. So I had a major dilemma as to whether to get up then and try to look for it (when I knew the chances were VERY low that I'd find it) or stay and try to enjoy the rest of the panel. I voted for the latter but I must admit, it was pretty hard. After the panel, the dread of the loss finally kicked in and I kinda went in circles, debating if I should try looking for it or just go join Corey at the doll room, since Corey had my room key but I decided I couldn't wait and went to look. Of course, there was no sign of it anywhere. It must have been blown away by the wind. Though I keep trying to convince myself that maybe a con-goer saw it and picked it up, thinking "oh what a pretty piece of fabric" but I know its doubtful. Its probably in a gutter somewhere. All that hard work. Gone.
The worst bit about it is that as I expected, the costume did get the most attention (and the only attention really I got all con) of all the costumes I brought. But I felt so embarrassed when people asked for photos, asking to only take it from torso up since I was missing such a huge piece. Even though I know they don't know the series and just think of it as an impressive costume. Got a few "oh but it looks wonderful anyways!" compliments which normally would cheer me up, but I just was too depressed really. Even had one girl who recognized the character and spazzed, though I was like "ahhhh, but I'm incomplete T_T" And after the rushing back and forth, I was just done. I kinda broke down a bit over the phone to Corey, who told me to just come to the doll area and calm down. I did that but it was once again really hard to focus on anything else so I mostly just sat there, feeling sad and took off most of my costume 'cause I didn't want to wear it anymore and I was really overheated from rushing back and forth outside. Corey's doll friend (who I can't remember the name of x_x) was all excited to see me though. She was all "ah! The owner appears!" when I picked up Raph. XD Turns out that Raph's outfit got a lot of attention, lol. Not surprised as it IS a gorgeous outfit (still can't believe I got it for only $60 XD). But the doll meet was pretty much coming to an end so we agreed we should get food and Corey's friend and her daughter (who was wearing Ciel's ballgown outfit) decided to join us. Though I asked to go to the room first so we could drop off the dolls and I could change into regular clothes 'cause my desire to cosplay had been totally shot after that. They tried to talk me into wearing Chopin's pants at least but it looked stupid with my shoes (didn't want to wear my boots) and didn't want to take the risk of getting them dirty. Then we went to Hard Rock as it was the only place we could think of that was nearby since the place we were going to go to wasn't opened yet. Since it was kinda too early for dinner but too late for lunch. But most of us hadn't eaten at all that day so didn't care. Luckily dinner did manage to cheer me up as we had a really amusing waiter (who was so very gay lol) and had a pretty good chat during it. Even if the food was mediocre (not a huge fan of Hard Rock especially as expensive as it is). But I do admit it was pretty cool that they catered to the con. They even had dragon pins in their gift store just for the con and the waiter was saying that on Saturday all the waiters get dressed up for the con. XD; Was kinda curious to see that but I knew it'd be way too crowded on Sat and I didn't really have the money to eat there twice.
After we ate, we got the dolls again to carry around ('cause without a costume, I wanted at least something and my dolls do give me comfort...even if my arm was really aching afterwards as a result XD). And we finally wandered into one of the artist alleys. Really impressive work in there, I gotta admit. But I really was more interested in going to the dealer's rooms finally, since it was getting close to closing. So we finally got over to one. Only made it through one though 'cause they were closing and we had to leave. XD But did get through the whole room and saw many pretty things. But nothing I had to have. Was on a search for some more t-shirts 'cause I realized I had no Star Wars nor Doctor Who shirts and needed to fix this. lol Saw some good ones but nothing that called to me. And then at the end we ended up at an Anime and Kung-Fu DVD booth. And ok, so here I am at my first non-anime con and what do I buy? Anime. x_x But it was the new Utena boxset and it was there and I've been wanting it all year. T_T;; So I think its justified. XD I would have gotten the 2nd one too but I was trying really hard not to spend much money. Which sucked as they also had the limited edition Pandora Hearts boxsets too. >> Which I think I'll have to get online when I can afford to now because they were really pretty. lol Even though I'm sure the mini artbooks they come with are probably stuff I already in the original artbook.
And after that we decided to be lame and go back to Carolina's early as we were all various degrees of exhausted and I just wasn't feeling very into the con at the time. And there wasn't really any other events going on that we wanted to see. And Corey had to sew stuff. Though she ended up not sewing anything as she was just exhausted from lack of sleep and all. We did manage to get her to watch the previous Doctor Who episode at least since she hadn't seen it yet and we planned to go watch the new one Saturday night. But I think she passed out at the end, even if she claimed she didn't. XD 'Cause I looked over and she looked pretty much asleep to me. lol But at least she saw most of it. And I don't remember much else past that. I think I decided to go to bed soon after too.
Saturday:
We ended up getting a later start than planned which made me sad as I really wanted to see the parade since this was my first time and I was worried we'd miss it. Luckily it was still going when we got there, but we did miss the fist half of it. But at least I didn't miss the Doctor Who part and the Star Wars part so it was ok as that was the two I wanted to see the most in it. XD; The parade in general was really cool. There were people EVERYWHERE watching it. Even hanging out over the balconies in the restaurants and upstairs parking lots. But this is a situation where it sucks to be short. x_x; As I had a hard time seeing and couldn't get any decent photos. While Corey was like able to just easily aim her camera over the crowds. Pffft. Curse you tall people! *raise fist* So all my photos from the parade...are actually cropped like woah from my originals so they're a little more interesting and so you can actually see what I was TRYING to take photos of, instead of the mass of arms that are in the originals from the crowd. lol But man there was A LOT of impressive costumes and cars and such. I gave up taking photos of most of them though 'cause it was too hard. Though I later was able to get closer after some people left. Gradually worked my way closer. lol
But here are some of the highlights that I did get:
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic group. Normally fursuits creep me out but these were just too awesome. XD
Some Doctor Who folks. Took a bunch of the Who folks but I'm posting this one in particular because I didn't realize it until after the con and was looking at this photo, that there is a Jenny (from "A Good Man Goes to War, not to be confused with "The Doctor's Daughter" who is a totally different Jenny). agahdgiadhpi! How did I not notice that?! Since I was lamenting on the fact that I hadn't seen a single one the whole con. Sadly no Vastras though.
Then at one point there was a Dolorian in the Who group and we were like "...back to the future? Huh? Wrong series?" But then we saw who was driving it...
XD Brilliant.
There was also a VERY good Harriet Jones running around, with her ID out, going "Harriet Jones, Prime Minister" etc. and the whole crowd where I was standing all yelled out "Yes, we know who you are!" XD I wish I had gotten a photo of her but she went by too fast for me to get her. But I loved all the crowd interaction in general that went on in the parade.
The Star Trek group had A LOT of Klingons. I don't know how they wear those costumes in that heat without dying. o_o; Though lol was pretty amusing. There was a klingon biker gang even. XD But I was of course much more interested in the Star Wars section, which came up last in the parade (appropriate to save the best for last right? Certainly the biggest due to the 501st). When the Mandalorians went by, the girls in front of me were all "Oh look at all the Boba Fetts" (and mind you, one of them was even dressed up as a Twi'lek so you'd think she'd know better...) and I was all "Actually, none of those are Boba Fett. They are all Mandalorians, which are actually a group of mercenaries and Boba Fett is just one of annnnd....oh god my geek is spewing, sorry. ^^;;" lol Its pretty bad when you out-geek a group of geeks at a very geeky con. x_x;; Oh my Star Wars roots were showing pretty bad then. lol They come out every so often despite how many years its been since I was really big into it.
But look, its a Mara Jade~ ^^ Sadly there was very few EU characters in the parade but at least there were some. (None of the Solo kids though, sadly)
Stormtroopers in kilts. Why? Well why not!
And then the 501st Legion came in. Which I gotta admit...was really cool seeing them all in person since I've only ever seen photos of them or the few individuals that belong to it that will show up at the anime cons.
And then the parade ended with these guys cleaning up the streets. XD I later learned that they are called the Sci-Fi Janitors and they have kinda become the mascots of Dragon*Con. I did see them all over the place. They were started by some guys online, I believe. But they were all over Dragon*TV during the con.
After the parade we went back to the room and got into Hakuouki. Went to the Hyatt to get judged for the anime cosplay contest. Which to be honest, I kinda wish I hadn't bothered with it. Corey had given me the impression that it was a smaller contest and that it was anime-only but got there and immediately felt kinda stupid compared to some of the other entries there. 'Cause its not an outfit I would normally enter at a bigger con. And despite being called an "anime cosplay contest" there was a lot of non-anime entries. x_x;; So I didn't really understand that. But hey it did let us get to see some really nice costumes so that was cool at least. I just wish we had used the time to get photos or something since we have no photos of the two of us together in those costumes and we ended up not having ANY time at all to get some so I have absolute no photos of us in them. And I barely have photos of that costume in general. Oh well.
But omg Momoko and Ichigo from Kamikaze Girls! My photo does them no justice though! The Ichigo's embroidery on her jacket was perfect! And they were all excited that I knew who they were. XD
And just to prove the full level of my Kaori Yuki addiction...at one point we see this girl in a maid outfit walking further away and I immdieately go "Is that a Doll cosplayer?" and run after her. And sure enough, it was Doll from Angel Sanctuary. XD She was pretty excited that I knew who she was. And yeah, kinda sad that I knew what it was considering to anyone else it probably would have just been written off as a generic maid cosplay. lol And the fact I recognized it from the back of the costume and from quite a bit of distance. XD Kinda like how I can always tell the difference between a generic EGA costume and a Cain csoplayer. lol
Was kinda interesting how the lower levels of the Hyatt was like a mini anime con. XD I noticed how all the anime cosplayers seemed to hang out down there and it was a bit more like the cons I'm used to. But at the same time...I really didn't want to be down there much. I'm in that atmosphere most of the year. I wanted to be more upstairs with the sci-fi/fantasy people for a change. lol But at least we ran into some cool people. Like saw a really good Alice and Cheshire and talked them into meeting up with us later after the contest so we could change into Leo and Elliot and have a mini PH meet. And we ran into Tohma and decided to go get lunch in the very short time we had (as once again I was getting close to the time for another panel I wanted to go to). We went to the food court and I thought I picked a line that seemed short and I figured it'd be quick. Turns out the food took a while to make so pfft not as quick as I thought but it was greek and quite tasty (even though all I got was chicken salad on pita bread). Everyone else had already gotten their food and I saw them pass by and assumed they were going ahead to find a place to sit (as the place was PACKED! I mean you think the food court at Otakon is crazy...it was nothing compared to this. Nerds EVERYWHERE. Even the floor was hard to find space on.) But then after getting my food...I couldn't find them. Kept looking and looking and tried to call but my phone had absolutely no service. So started panicking a little as I really didn't know my way back and didn't want to miss the Supernatural panel as it was the one I was looking forward to the most. Well decided to go back the way I came and pffft, there they were, hidden by a pillar. x_x;; So ate rather quickly then Corey and I headed to the Marriott while Jon went with Tohma 'cause they decided Jon should wear Ravage for a bit so Tohma could see what its like on the other side. XD
So, at first I thought we had gotten there way too late 'cause there was a line of people who were waiting to get into the actual line for the panel. o_o; So I was like "shit. I knew we should have gotten there an hour before." But somehow we managed to just uh...slide right in to the line. ^^;; Felt REALLY BAD doing that but it looked like the end of the line and nobody from the group waiting got into it, so figured it was ok...or at least Corey kept telling me that. I was still all "but they were waiting longer and this feels wrong...;_;" but yeah, at the same time, glad we did manage to get in as it looks like the cut the line off not too long after that. Room was pretty huge and lol they actually had people walking around selling popcorn and such to the audience. I was like "...are we at a sports game, wtf?" XD And this was the first panel I was in that actually had DragonTV playing on the screen before the panel so I finally got to see some of it and it was pretty hilarious. I liked the whole Adult Swim parody thing they had going on with the message board thingy. And the fact that they were taking actual tweets people had written and posting them up and replying. The little fake commercials were really amusing too.
So. Yeah. Saturday's Supernatural Panel (though gah I wish I had attended Friday's and Sunday's too! Saw video of them and they were like equally amazing!). Fucking awesome! The one I went to had Misha Collins (Castiel), Samantha Ferris (Ellen), and Julie McNiven (Anna). Julie barely talked at all though but thats ok, her character wasn't one of my favorites. But oh man Misha and Samantha were both brilliant! They stated out by asking the audience questions instead of letting us ask them. XD And then Misha pulls out a Castiel puppet a fan had given him (I think at the con the day before) and then proceeded to play with it and have a staffer play with it as the panel went on and it was just...hilarious. But you really have to see it for yourself...
The person has the whole panel so if you're interested, click on the links to the rest after you watch it. At least if you're into Supernatural. 'Cause everything they said was hilarious. XD Samantha talked about freaking out everyone when she didn't know how to hold a shotgun right and kept pointing it at everyone without realizing what she was doing. XD And about the day Twilight was shooting next to them and put all these barriers and security up and was all "hush hush" at them, thinking they would try to sneak video or something. And how the cast of Supernatural really couldn't give a fuck (especially funny as they make fun of Twilight a few times in the series). And Misha talked about sucking souls and his uhh very unfortunate food poisoning incident which was...kinda gross but as he said "hey you all said you wanted to know!" But yaeh, any descriptions I give won't be as good as seeing the panel for yourself so just watch the footage if you're interested. XD
After that we had to head right back to the Hyatt though for the actual cosplay contest thingy. But on our way...we see all these guys in military fatigues run by us and we're like "...um...k..." and then we go downstairs and there's this huge crowd and we look over and we see all the military dudes, being all in character and positioned and then we look over...and there's a guy dead on the ground with an alien partially out of his stomach. And there's another full Alien running around. aggadhgaipghdiga XD I swear the things that go on at this con! So awesome. haha! And then when we were going down the rest of the way to the "anime floor", we saw another Alien run by, who was kinda hissing at people as they went by them and ohmygod, so glad it didn't do that to me (I was purposely trying to lean away as is) 'cause the whole Alien series REALLY scares me. I never got past like the first 30 minutes of the first one. XD They scare the shit out of me! But lol as we're going down, there's even MORE military guys, all posed, ready if the Aliens came down their way. And their commander was all "ok, CLEAR!" and they all got up and marched back upstairs. XD Pfffft. This con, man.
Though of course we get down there only to find out the place we need to be is back up two levels. ^^;; But hey we wouldn't have seen that mini Alien invasion otherwise. lol So then we get to the thing and they line us up back in a kitchen. x_x; Which was really hot and ugh. Was kinda wishing we had just skipped out on it as I knew we'd get nothing. And man nobody knew who we were, which I expected but normally wearing that costume I at least get people being all "oooh nice costume!" but we didn't get like any cheers on stage and it was super awkward. -_- The MC had to be all "come on guys!" to get a response out of them. Ugh, super embarrassing. Not doing that again. But at least all the costumes I thought deserved awards did in fact get them. And then we rushed out afterwards instead of sticking around for the photos they wanted all entries for ('cause not like it mattered) so we could get changed into Leo and Elliot.
Though on the way out, saw this amazing group...
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade! Seriously probably some of my favorite cosplays I saw all weekend just 'cause of how dead-on they were and they were ALL in character! XD When I asked for a photo, they had just finished taking photos and were about to walk off and I felt bad asking but the Sallah was all "Oh for you, young lady, of course I'll pose!" Pffft. XD
Still wish we could have taken some time to get Hakuouki photos but Corey had already taken off her wig and seemed pretty hell bent on getting out of costume as fast as possible as I think she was overheating in it. And I must admit, Leo did feel a lot better than Okita. I mean I took Okita off and the layers were like drenched in sweat. Ew. x_x Though Leo ended up kinda the same by the time I got out of it. But anywho, we went to our meeting spot and met up with Alice and Cheshire and had a little mini meet. We also had Jon in Jack. Took photos, chatted, though had to be careful as they were behind in the manga and didn't want to spoil it for them. They gave me their card but sadly I seem to have lost it so I don't have their contact info which makes me sad as they were really cool. And while we chatted, some of Corey's friends joined us and we had various geeky conversations as we sat. Mostly about PH. XD
Mini Pandora Hearts group
I decided to do normal Leo this time instead of Baskerville Leo like I originally was doing. 'Cause I happen to get my old Abel glasses to work for it. XD Though I enjoy being the more crazy version of Leo but nobody at the cons has read that far so I guess maybe I should just do regular for a bit. Meh. XD Though at least one girl was up to date so spazzed with her for a bit over all the crazy stuff that's been going on in it.
We got this great idea to get this shot of Alice as the area was too pretty and we used the reflections to our advantage, purposely positioning Jack in it. Didn't intend to have Cheshire in it originally but figured he still worked in the idea so didn't bother to tell him to move. XD
Then it was getting close to Doctor Who time so we headed over to the Sheraton. Sadly didn't have time to change out which sucked because the line was huuuuge and outside and it was hot. x_x;; Joined Becca and crew in line for it and eventually, after what seemed like forever, line started moving...but kinda slowly. Pffft. And we kept getting concerned that the line would get cut off before us but we managed to make it in. Though I have a feeling they did have to cut the line at some point since it got pretty long behind us too. o_o;; It was in the Sheraton ball room which was almost like its own theater in the way they had the whole thing set up. In fact when we got inside, the staff was actually telling us to run. XD That's the first time ever staff has actually told me to run at a con, and not yelled at us not to run. But they were trying to get everyone in as fast as possible 'cause they were already behind schedule. And well, running for Doctor Who seems kinda appropriate considering how much running is done in that show. lol The premiere for the new episode was being shown two hours before the air time so they made a HUGE deal about no cameras out and no video and had a ton of staffers there to go up and down the aisles. Which was kinda silly because the episode had been out for a few hours already at this point in the UK which meant it was already online and by the time the showing actually ended, it wasn't that long before the official US air time anyways. But oh man, the room was PACKED. XD And I believe they said there was at least 14,000 people in the room 'cause that's how many chairs they had and that's how many raffle tickets they had given out. Damn, man! Was pretty cool. And they asked who had a sonic screwdriver in the audience and there was just this loud BUZZ in the air as everyone turned theirs on. XDXDXD Then the actual viewing started and before the episode, there was a little video of Matt Smith saying "Hello Dragon*Con!" which everyone freaked out over. So loud though that we didn't hear what else he said. XD Oh well. lol I imagine it was just "Enjoy the episode" or something like that. The episode itself, I must admit, wasn't one of the better episodes. I was kinda disappointed by it but it did have its moments. Mainly Rory's whole "We're dead, aren't we? Again!" XD Though the whole bit with the dropping elevator was like "...yeah, just add to my whole dream problem thing again, why don't you? x_x"
After the episode, there were lots of Who folks hanging around outside the viewing room. They also had the Tardis up for display. I know Corey and others have shown me photos in the past of it at the con and how you can even go inside it and stuff. I believe its actually one of the real props they used at some point too that was donated to the con. But I could be wrong and it could just be a replica. Either way, it was awesome but sadly too many people were crowded around it already and the rest of my group had seen it years before, so they had no interest in going over to see it. But I did kinda want a photo of it. T_T Oh well. Then as we were getting closer to the stairwell, I look down and kinda just go "O_O!" and everyone else was too busy talking and I was like "Guys! Guys! Look! Look! *point*" And Becca's reaction was the best. "Huh? What? ...oh. Ooooh. ooooooOOOOOOOODD!!!" And we all proceeded to run down the stairs.
Because it was an Ood. XD I also note that after we took photos and were done spazzing and went off to our own corner, I turned back and while they were still stuck there 'cause everyone was taking photos, I noticed from behind, it looked like 10 there had his hand on the Ood's butt, or at least certainly very close to it. XD I was like "...now that's an odd pairing."
Then we parted ways again and Corey, Jon, and I headed to the food court for much needed food. We all agreed that we needed sushi finally (had been talking about it various times at the con). Sadly the sushi place was almost entirely spicy sushi. WTF! x_x Argh. Seriously the only things that weren't spicy were this one shrimp and crab roll (which was delicious at least and I mostly just got that) and the boring rolls like california which I didn't really want at the time. I should have gotten some of the Philly rolls but I didn't know there wasn't going to be anything else non-spicy and I would have had to go back in line and mess everyone up. ^^;; Even the one shrimp roll I got turned out to be spicy (and I nearly keeled over from it too. Gaaaah! Glad I only got one of it.) But at least there was other food besides the sushi there so I had other stuff to eat too. ...though I really wanted more sushi. T_T Normally at cons my stomach is too wobbly for me to get sushi down but I was totally fine with food at this con. I think because I wasn't doing a lot of cosplay and not stressing out like normal.
In the food court, totally hunted this girl down for a photo:
I saw her and immediately thought of the Doctor Who Madame Pomadour but I wasn't sure if she was or just general Versailles wear. So I asked her if she was meant to be anyone in partiuclar and she did admit that her outfit was inspired by that version. (though to me it looks pretty much like it XD) Either way, gorgeous dress!
After we ate, we decided we were pretty much done for the day. So got our stuff from the room and headed back, this time a little less dead even though we left later than the day before. At Carolina's, finally got the chance to show Corey Susano-O which I had brought with me just so she could see it since she had interest in it. Even though she fell asleep for part of it. XD Oh well. We all discussed the costumes and how long they would take to do. Jon started joking about the fact that every year I'll be like "...I have one sleeve done! ...a year later... I got the other sleeve down! ...2 years later... I got part of the back done." And the sad thing is he might be right. T_T Since I insist on doing all that bead and sequin work by hand so I get every detail right. ...yeah I don't know why I do this to myself.
Continued in the next post...
~Lyn
And this thing ended up too long for one post, of course. XD So here's just part 1.
Onwards!
Thursday:
After a long car ride (split up into two days, left shortly after work Wed afternoon), arrived in Atlanta late in the afternoon. Got dropped off at sunnyrea's hotel which was the Marriot. Not the con-Marriot but the smaller one, not part of the con block, but still decently close to everything. I wasn't exactly staying there. Just my stuff. XD Basically we agreed that Corey, Jon, and I could leave some of our stuff in their room if we split the cost of one person while we actually stayed at Carolina's house, about 20-30 minutes away. Corey and Jon were seeing a play that night so instead I hung out with Becca and Co. Finally got to actually really meet Ben and Sabrina. As in more than just seeing them as the people Becca does cosplay with. XD And also met their other roomie, also named Becca. And so not to make this really confusing and 'cause I hate writing out LJ name codes all the time, going to just refer to as Becca#1 and the other as Becca#2, going on which one I met first. XD Anywho! As I was unloading stuff, the hotel staff were all asking me what costumes I had brought, etc and i was just kinda surprised by how nice and into the whole con atmosphere they seemed to be. And they were like that all weekend long. I'm used to cons where the hotel staff doesn't really talk to you. So was a rather pleasant change.
Everyone in the room was getting into cosplay, a mix of Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Firefly. While watching them all get dressed, started thinking I really need to do more TV-cosplay because damn they all looked comfortable in their outfits and it'd be nice to have outfits that are actual comfortable and easy to get into for a change. XD But we all know that's unlikely to happen with me as I tend to prefer picking the crazy shit. Then we all headed over to the Sheraton for pre-reg badge pick-up. I had been told about the horrors of getting your badge at this con in the past but this year they started a new barcode system (like what Otakon recently started doing) and as a result, we kinda speeded through the line. But it was kinda funny as they had the room set up for a huuuuge line so the dividers went back and forth through the whole big room yet there wasn't a very big line at all so it was just everyone going round and round and round and round very fast...made you kinda dizzy after a while. XD And of course we kept seeing the same people after each turn, which turned into various amounts of exchanging of geekery and insults. But yeah, went pretty fast. The only waiting we had to do was for Ben who didn't have his postcard and thus was in the slow-line (though it wasn't too long at least) and while waiting to the side for him, we had a very...awkward conversation with this one girl in a Sailor Moon shirt. While we said something about Doctor Who, she remarked in a rather snide tone "I don't like that show." and it was just kinda like "...o...k...awkward." Since we were a very obvious group of Who-fans. Also find it interesting that she had no idea who Spike Spiegel was, despite the fact she was wearing a Sailor Moon shirt. Though I love Becca's response "He's an anime." XD I think she meant to say "He's from an anime" but we all decided we liked this response better.
I wish I had known the badges didn't come on lanyards at this con, so I could have made sure to bring one because I was terrified of losing my badge all weekend. Luckily it never budged from my bag but by the end of the con, it did have quite some wear and tear to it so I'm glad it never actually broke off. Also was annoying that they decided to print everyone's full names on the front in bigger letters than the nickname section, along with your city. I know it was probably so its easier to identify lost badges but seriously, not exactly comfortable with the idea of any stranger that walks up to you being able to see that info. So it was amusing to see how many people at the con had blacked out various parts of this. I myself blacked out parts of it (so no one could see my full first name mainly).
After we all had our badges, we had a little tour of all the hotels for Ben and I as it was the first DragonCon for both of us. Though I was pretty much like "...yeeeaaah, just going to follow someone all weekend long or I'm going to get soooo lost" as it was hard to keep track of them. By the end of the con I had managed to get the Hyatt and Marriot figured out ok and how to get there from our hotel but that was about it. XD I don't think I even took a step into the Hilton other than that first tour. And was only in the Sheraton twice. Didn't attend anything in the Westin but did go in there several times to help Tohma out. But oh my god were these hotels FREAKING HUGE! To be honest, I'm not sure I'd ever want to stay at one though. Because they all have a ridiculous amount of floors and I think that would really freak me out after a while. Especially as most of them had clear elevators and I have a bit of a fear of heights, and my fear of plumenting to my death an in elevator recently increased due to a serious of bizarre dreams I've had over the last several months of that happening and in very vivid detail. X_X Thus to say I was a little bit freaked out every time we went up or down a really high amount of floors throughout the weekend. Though at least with the Marriot, we pretty much stopped at every floor every time we rode the elevators so it wasn't quite as bad.
After our little tour, we went to the food court for dinner. Gotta say, I really love the sky walks that connect some of the hotels and the food court. Made things a lot easier. The food I got ended up being not all that great but it was enough to fill my stomach. I was also more focused on scheduling my events for the con because this was seriously the first time ever where I had to actually circle things on the schedule and read it through and figure this out. I NEVER do that at cons, lol 'cause I'm usually only going to like 1-2 events and I know where they are ahead of time. But this schedule was ridiculous! So many pages and I was like "oh god, so many options!" @_@ But man, what a geeky dinner we had. Every where in the court were Dragon*Con folks. Saw a REALLY spooky dead-on Master from "The End of Time" episode of Doctor Who. Granted I wasn't sure if he was actually cosplaying or just happened to look a lot like him since the outfit is so super casual but considering where we were, most likely was meant to be him. But he was so dead-on, was a little intimidated to even ask for a photo. XD; We also ran into more of Becca and Co's friends who were also doing Doctor Who cosplay and this resulted in a bunch of silly photos. Made me sad I didn't manage to do any Doctor Who cosplay myself but definitely plan to if I go next year or even just in general since I know they all always cosplay from it at cons.
"Curse you, Moffat!" group. With poor dead Rory. 'Cause we all know Moffat enjoys seeing how many different ways he can kill him. Pffft.
Also saw this at the cake store in the food court...
Thought it was pretty cool. XD Was nice to see how many of the local venues catered to the con too.
And ran into as we were attempting to leave the food court (and kept stopping to talk to people instead). Which was pretty nifty as I was like "man, its only Thursday and I've already seen the majority of the people I actually know at this con" (granted that number wasn't very high, for a change, lol Was interesting being at a con where I knew like less than 10 people total attending beforehand). Then back to the room and they all changed costumes already. XD Kinda crazy how many costume changes all my friends did. And you guys think I do a lot of costume changes? Pfft, I had the least amount of everyone I knew there. Granted I brought less than I normally do on purpose but still, I don't think I could ever do that many as they did. Then we went to the uhhh...Marriot? Or the Hyatt? Not even sure. XD Which was FULL of people. Crazy for a Thursday night, man! Went to the bar area as a few wanted to get drinks and someone compliment me on my "costume". lmao Drunk guy was very drunk. Though no, I don't think he was really hitting on me as he was trying to hit on Sabrina and I think just said that 'cause I was next to her. lol She was dressed as Idris/"Sexy" at the time so its understandable. Eventually Corey called saying her and Jon were done with their show so Becca took me back to the room and we left some of our stuff in the room so it could be there for the weekend and headed off to Carolina's for the night. Rest of the night was pretty uneventful. We just chatted and Carolina baked cookies and we passed out somewhere around 2am, which was probably a bad idea considering we had to get up early. Oh well. ^^; But seriously, Thursday felt like a whole day of con already even if it was only a few hours! o_o;
Friday:
Woke up early to head over to the con so we could help Tohma out with her Ravage costume from Transformers. Got there a bit later than we intended and then had some difficulty trying to figure out where exactly Tohma was as she was already in Ravage at this point and Corey seemed a bit confused as to where stuff was (oddly enough I seemed to figure out the layout of the hotels locations better than her at times even though she's been going for years and this was my first time, lol XD). Eventually we did find her and took over so her friend could go off and pass on the duties to us. Basically Tohma can't see or hear very well when in Ravage so she had figured out a walkie talkie system where one walkie talkie is veclroed to the inside, near her ear and we have the other one so we can give her directions on where to move. One of us did that while the other two helped guide her around and hold her feet/tail when she wanted to walk upright (as Ravage is made so she walks like a cat after all). Then we had to go meet up with her photographer friend, which was a bit confusing as we weren't quite sure where she wanted us to meet. I think we ended up in the Hilton for this? Found her photo-person and took photos on an outside terrace away from the crowds. Though also amusing how many photographers saw us doing this and came out to take photos too. XD I mean the costume was really impressive, so I don't blame them.
Ravage inside one of the hotels, shortly after we met up with her.
Front view, on the outside terrace. With the All-Spark Jon made the night before. XD He went a little crazy with the designs on it and there's a bunch of hidden geek symbols thrown in. lol
And the real reason why everyone is after that All-Spark?
Its got cookies!
Friday was a pretty good day for doing this costume as it wasn't like insanely crowded yet so it was easier to maneuver her around. I wasn't in costume during any of this so I got to get an idea what its like on the non-costume side of things for a change and it was kinda nice. I liked just helping out, taking photos, etc. It was also really amusing how many people thought Tohma was an actual robot that operated by voice command. XDXD If only we were that amazing that we could make our own robot like that. lol The best though was when we had a Stormtrooper come over to her and was all "This is not the droid you're looking for." XD And then he just kept going and it was hilarious and I really wish we had remembered to take the video cam out that Tohma gave us (oops). He bent forward towards the light on the front of Ravage and did the whole "Help me, Obi-Wan! You're my only hope." bit. Lifted up Ravage's tail and was all "Is it a boy or girl?" "Remember kids, to always spay or neuter your pets." etc. XD It was pretty entertaining and we developed quite the crowd over it.
And then we met up with a Dalek. Now the question is...which is the greater evil? My vote is on the Dalek. XD
Corey and Jon still had to actually get their badges so they went off and I was left to help Tohma to wander around a little more and then make our way back to her hotel. I was a bit nervous at first 'cause I wasn't sure if I could handle all of it on my own. Since I had to carry Tohma's bag, carry her legs when she stood up, and handle the walkie talkie while trying to guide her and stop her from running into things. XD; But we managed. And it was kinda fun being in control of the walkie talkie and make people think I was voice-commanding "the robot". Eventually we agreed it was time to get Tohma out of the costume, which meant getting her outside and across the street. lol Which sounds simple at first but not when you're getting stopped for photos every five steps. XD The worst was once we got outside the Hyatt and we got bombarded with people wanting photos and videos and I kept having to be like "um, everyone please watch out for cars ^^;;" as they kept standing where cars were coming in to get to the hotel. And then we got interviewed by the local news station. lmao They took videos of Tohma moving and of how our walkie talkie system worked and then tried to interview Tohma though it was amusing trying to show them where to aim the microphone to where her mouth actually was. XD We were told by one of Tohma's friends that we were in fact included in their news report on TV but we have yet to be able to see it as it seems nobody got footage of the report. Oh well. Still pretty cool though.
Eventually we made it to Westin, which was where Tohma was staying. And I didn't quite realize how many floors the place had until we started going up and I saw the floor numbers. We were on an express elevator too so was kinda creepy how it suddenly zoomed from the bottom to floor 20-something and since the elevator wasn't stopping til her floor at floor 48, it was like "zooooom". My ears totally popped every time I went up to her room throughout the weekend. XD Helped Tohma get out of the costume and then went back down...which was kinda scary because omfg it went down so fast! T_T Just glad we weren't a higher floor (the thing goes up to like floor 80-something). Unfortunately it took us a lot longer than I expected to get back so I was on very short time until the panel I wanted to go to. But I wanted to finally get into an actual costume so I put on Chopin 'cause I felt it would be a good time for it as I wasn't doing many panels that day so I could spend more time in the costume as it was the only big one I brought with me to the con. So rushed to get into it, got a call from Becca who told me where the panel was and that I should still be able to get in but they'd save me a seat just in case. Corey and Jon were in the room too and were going to go to the doll panel which was the same time and I let Corey take Raphael with her since I wouldn't be able to go. Then on our way out, I thought I felt something break. I assumed it was my backpiece falling off so kinda freaked but felt back with my hands and it was still there and checked all other heavy pieces that it could have been, found nothing, and continued on since I was in a hurry.
*sighs* If only I had looked down. You have no idea how much I regret that moment. Even typing this up right now is kinda hard to do. The funny thing is Corey and Jon didn't see it either since they had to walk right back past me since they had forgotten something in the room and had to go back. While I rushed off and was in such a hurry to get to the panel, I had no idea that I had lost a part of my costume. But yeah, I managed to get to the room just in time for Gareth David Lloyd's panel, aka Ianto from Torchwoood. Which was kinda amazing actually because I had quite the distance to go and there was a major hold-up in the skywalk from the Hyatt to the Marriot (as I had only learned to memorize the route to the Hyatt and how to get to the Marriot from there XD I would have gotten lost trying to go there directly) that took forever to get through. So I thought for sure I'd get there late. But nah, there was still room and I got there just a few minutes before it started so yay!
Gareth was very cute in person. And he cussed a lot. XD A lot of "fucking"s. Which I learned is the favorite word of pretty much everyone I went to see over the weekend, lmao. But god he was adorable! He was all "I was so worried nobody would come to my panel". Pffft. Most of the questions he got were of course were Jack-related. Including one girl that was all (and I think she was even cosplaying Jack but I don't remember for sure) "So just how good of a kisser is John Barrowman?" and lol Gareth was all "Pffft! He's bloody awful! Worst kisser I've ever had." hahahaha XD And he talked about the death scene of course and how the first take, the mood was totally ruined because John's knot dripped down into Gareth's mouth and he was gagging and it was awful. lmao Poor guy. One Ianto cosplayer who had a pair of very nice wings on (at least I'm assuming they were trying to be Ianto, I could be wrong and it could have been something completely unrelated) and Gareth was all "Oh nice wings btw, where'd you get them?" Girl: "MotherPlucker" (which I knew of thanks to Drag U lol) Him: "Motherwhat? ...can I have them? If you were a real fan, you'd give them to me." XD She didn't though. lol And don't blame her as I know how much wings like that cost. There was also a lot of talk about his band, which I must admit I am very curious about now since I didn't even know he was in a band. Overall it was a very amusing panel...however...part of it I was unable to focus on because at one point I looked down, I forget why, and had the HUGE shock of realizing my skirt piece was missing. And that started a pretty big panic state. I texted Corey to see if she had by any chance seen it back in the room but nope. And of course I then realized that's THAT was what I felt fell off when we left the room. So I had a major dilemma as to whether to get up then and try to look for it (when I knew the chances were VERY low that I'd find it) or stay and try to enjoy the rest of the panel. I voted for the latter but I must admit, it was pretty hard. After the panel, the dread of the loss finally kicked in and I kinda went in circles, debating if I should try looking for it or just go join Corey at the doll room, since Corey had my room key but I decided I couldn't wait and went to look. Of course, there was no sign of it anywhere. It must have been blown away by the wind. Though I keep trying to convince myself that maybe a con-goer saw it and picked it up, thinking "oh what a pretty piece of fabric" but I know its doubtful. Its probably in a gutter somewhere. All that hard work. Gone.
The worst bit about it is that as I expected, the costume did get the most attention (and the only attention really I got all con) of all the costumes I brought. But I felt so embarrassed when people asked for photos, asking to only take it from torso up since I was missing such a huge piece. Even though I know they don't know the series and just think of it as an impressive costume. Got a few "oh but it looks wonderful anyways!" compliments which normally would cheer me up, but I just was too depressed really. Even had one girl who recognized the character and spazzed, though I was like "ahhhh, but I'm incomplete T_T" And after the rushing back and forth, I was just done. I kinda broke down a bit over the phone to Corey, who told me to just come to the doll area and calm down. I did that but it was once again really hard to focus on anything else so I mostly just sat there, feeling sad and took off most of my costume 'cause I didn't want to wear it anymore and I was really overheated from rushing back and forth outside. Corey's doll friend (who I can't remember the name of x_x) was all excited to see me though. She was all "ah! The owner appears!" when I picked up Raph. XD Turns out that Raph's outfit got a lot of attention, lol. Not surprised as it IS a gorgeous outfit (still can't believe I got it for only $60 XD). But the doll meet was pretty much coming to an end so we agreed we should get food and Corey's friend and her daughter (who was wearing Ciel's ballgown outfit) decided to join us. Though I asked to go to the room first so we could drop off the dolls and I could change into regular clothes 'cause my desire to cosplay had been totally shot after that. They tried to talk me into wearing Chopin's pants at least but it looked stupid with my shoes (didn't want to wear my boots) and didn't want to take the risk of getting them dirty. Then we went to Hard Rock as it was the only place we could think of that was nearby since the place we were going to go to wasn't opened yet. Since it was kinda too early for dinner but too late for lunch. But most of us hadn't eaten at all that day so didn't care. Luckily dinner did manage to cheer me up as we had a really amusing waiter (who was so very gay lol) and had a pretty good chat during it. Even if the food was mediocre (not a huge fan of Hard Rock especially as expensive as it is). But I do admit it was pretty cool that they catered to the con. They even had dragon pins in their gift store just for the con and the waiter was saying that on Saturday all the waiters get dressed up for the con. XD; Was kinda curious to see that but I knew it'd be way too crowded on Sat and I didn't really have the money to eat there twice.
After we ate, we got the dolls again to carry around ('cause without a costume, I wanted at least something and my dolls do give me comfort...even if my arm was really aching afterwards as a result XD). And we finally wandered into one of the artist alleys. Really impressive work in there, I gotta admit. But I really was more interested in going to the dealer's rooms finally, since it was getting close to closing. So we finally got over to one. Only made it through one though 'cause they were closing and we had to leave. XD But did get through the whole room and saw many pretty things. But nothing I had to have. Was on a search for some more t-shirts 'cause I realized I had no Star Wars nor Doctor Who shirts and needed to fix this. lol Saw some good ones but nothing that called to me. And then at the end we ended up at an Anime and Kung-Fu DVD booth. And ok, so here I am at my first non-anime con and what do I buy? Anime. x_x But it was the new Utena boxset and it was there and I've been wanting it all year. T_T;; So I think its justified. XD I would have gotten the 2nd one too but I was trying really hard not to spend much money. Which sucked as they also had the limited edition Pandora Hearts boxsets too. >> Which I think I'll have to get online when I can afford to now because they were really pretty. lol Even though I'm sure the mini artbooks they come with are probably stuff I already in the original artbook.
And after that we decided to be lame and go back to Carolina's early as we were all various degrees of exhausted and I just wasn't feeling very into the con at the time. And there wasn't really any other events going on that we wanted to see. And Corey had to sew stuff. Though she ended up not sewing anything as she was just exhausted from lack of sleep and all. We did manage to get her to watch the previous Doctor Who episode at least since she hadn't seen it yet and we planned to go watch the new one Saturday night. But I think she passed out at the end, even if she claimed she didn't. XD 'Cause I looked over and she looked pretty much asleep to me. lol But at least she saw most of it. And I don't remember much else past that. I think I decided to go to bed soon after too.
Saturday:
We ended up getting a later start than planned which made me sad as I really wanted to see the parade since this was my first time and I was worried we'd miss it. Luckily it was still going when we got there, but we did miss the fist half of it. But at least I didn't miss the Doctor Who part and the Star Wars part so it was ok as that was the two I wanted to see the most in it. XD; The parade in general was really cool. There were people EVERYWHERE watching it. Even hanging out over the balconies in the restaurants and upstairs parking lots. But this is a situation where it sucks to be short. x_x; As I had a hard time seeing and couldn't get any decent photos. While Corey was like able to just easily aim her camera over the crowds. Pffft. Curse you tall people! *raise fist* So all my photos from the parade...are actually cropped like woah from my originals so they're a little more interesting and so you can actually see what I was TRYING to take photos of, instead of the mass of arms that are in the originals from the crowd. lol But man there was A LOT of impressive costumes and cars and such. I gave up taking photos of most of them though 'cause it was too hard. Though I later was able to get closer after some people left. Gradually worked my way closer. lol
But here are some of the highlights that I did get:
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic group. Normally fursuits creep me out but these were just too awesome. XD
Some Doctor Who folks. Took a bunch of the Who folks but I'm posting this one in particular because I didn't realize it until after the con and was looking at this photo, that there is a Jenny (from "A Good Man Goes to War, not to be confused with "The Doctor's Daughter" who is a totally different Jenny). agahdgiadhpi! How did I not notice that?! Since I was lamenting on the fact that I hadn't seen a single one the whole con. Sadly no Vastras though.
Then at one point there was a Dolorian in the Who group and we were like "...back to the future? Huh? Wrong series?" But then we saw who was driving it...
XD Brilliant.
There was also a VERY good Harriet Jones running around, with her ID out, going "Harriet Jones, Prime Minister" etc. and the whole crowd where I was standing all yelled out "Yes, we know who you are!" XD I wish I had gotten a photo of her but she went by too fast for me to get her. But I loved all the crowd interaction in general that went on in the parade.
The Star Trek group had A LOT of Klingons. I don't know how they wear those costumes in that heat without dying. o_o; Though lol was pretty amusing. There was a klingon biker gang even. XD But I was of course much more interested in the Star Wars section, which came up last in the parade (appropriate to save the best for last right? Certainly the biggest due to the 501st). When the Mandalorians went by, the girls in front of me were all "Oh look at all the Boba Fetts" (and mind you, one of them was even dressed up as a Twi'lek so you'd think she'd know better...) and I was all "Actually, none of those are Boba Fett. They are all Mandalorians, which are actually a group of mercenaries and Boba Fett is just one of annnnd....oh god my geek is spewing, sorry. ^^;;" lol Its pretty bad when you out-geek a group of geeks at a very geeky con. x_x;; Oh my Star Wars roots were showing pretty bad then. lol They come out every so often despite how many years its been since I was really big into it.
But look, its a Mara Jade~ ^^ Sadly there was very few EU characters in the parade but at least there were some. (None of the Solo kids though, sadly)
Stormtroopers in kilts. Why? Well why not!
And then the 501st Legion came in. Which I gotta admit...was really cool seeing them all in person since I've only ever seen photos of them or the few individuals that belong to it that will show up at the anime cons.
And then the parade ended with these guys cleaning up the streets. XD I later learned that they are called the Sci-Fi Janitors and they have kinda become the mascots of Dragon*Con. I did see them all over the place. They were started by some guys online, I believe. But they were all over Dragon*TV during the con.
After the parade we went back to the room and got into Hakuouki. Went to the Hyatt to get judged for the anime cosplay contest. Which to be honest, I kinda wish I hadn't bothered with it. Corey had given me the impression that it was a smaller contest and that it was anime-only but got there and immediately felt kinda stupid compared to some of the other entries there. 'Cause its not an outfit I would normally enter at a bigger con. And despite being called an "anime cosplay contest" there was a lot of non-anime entries. x_x;; So I didn't really understand that. But hey it did let us get to see some really nice costumes so that was cool at least. I just wish we had used the time to get photos or something since we have no photos of the two of us together in those costumes and we ended up not having ANY time at all to get some so I have absolute no photos of us in them. And I barely have photos of that costume in general. Oh well.
But omg Momoko and Ichigo from Kamikaze Girls! My photo does them no justice though! The Ichigo's embroidery on her jacket was perfect! And they were all excited that I knew who they were. XD
And just to prove the full level of my Kaori Yuki addiction...at one point we see this girl in a maid outfit walking further away and I immdieately go "Is that a Doll cosplayer?" and run after her. And sure enough, it was Doll from Angel Sanctuary. XD She was pretty excited that I knew who she was. And yeah, kinda sad that I knew what it was considering to anyone else it probably would have just been written off as a generic maid cosplay. lol And the fact I recognized it from the back of the costume and from quite a bit of distance. XD Kinda like how I can always tell the difference between a generic EGA costume and a Cain csoplayer. lol
Was kinda interesting how the lower levels of the Hyatt was like a mini anime con. XD I noticed how all the anime cosplayers seemed to hang out down there and it was a bit more like the cons I'm used to. But at the same time...I really didn't want to be down there much. I'm in that atmosphere most of the year. I wanted to be more upstairs with the sci-fi/fantasy people for a change. lol But at least we ran into some cool people. Like saw a really good Alice and Cheshire and talked them into meeting up with us later after the contest so we could change into Leo and Elliot and have a mini PH meet. And we ran into Tohma and decided to go get lunch in the very short time we had (as once again I was getting close to the time for another panel I wanted to go to). We went to the food court and I thought I picked a line that seemed short and I figured it'd be quick. Turns out the food took a while to make so pfft not as quick as I thought but it was greek and quite tasty (even though all I got was chicken salad on pita bread). Everyone else had already gotten their food and I saw them pass by and assumed they were going ahead to find a place to sit (as the place was PACKED! I mean you think the food court at Otakon is crazy...it was nothing compared to this. Nerds EVERYWHERE. Even the floor was hard to find space on.) But then after getting my food...I couldn't find them. Kept looking and looking and tried to call but my phone had absolutely no service. So started panicking a little as I really didn't know my way back and didn't want to miss the Supernatural panel as it was the one I was looking forward to the most. Well decided to go back the way I came and pffft, there they were, hidden by a pillar. x_x;; So ate rather quickly then Corey and I headed to the Marriott while Jon went with Tohma 'cause they decided Jon should wear Ravage for a bit so Tohma could see what its like on the other side. XD
So, at first I thought we had gotten there way too late 'cause there was a line of people who were waiting to get into the actual line for the panel. o_o; So I was like "shit. I knew we should have gotten there an hour before." But somehow we managed to just uh...slide right in to the line. ^^;; Felt REALLY BAD doing that but it looked like the end of the line and nobody from the group waiting got into it, so figured it was ok...or at least Corey kept telling me that. I was still all "but they were waiting longer and this feels wrong...;_;" but yeah, at the same time, glad we did manage to get in as it looks like the cut the line off not too long after that. Room was pretty huge and lol they actually had people walking around selling popcorn and such to the audience. I was like "...are we at a sports game, wtf?" XD And this was the first panel I was in that actually had DragonTV playing on the screen before the panel so I finally got to see some of it and it was pretty hilarious. I liked the whole Adult Swim parody thing they had going on with the message board thingy. And the fact that they were taking actual tweets people had written and posting them up and replying. The little fake commercials were really amusing too.
So. Yeah. Saturday's Supernatural Panel (though gah I wish I had attended Friday's and Sunday's too! Saw video of them and they were like equally amazing!). Fucking awesome! The one I went to had Misha Collins (Castiel), Samantha Ferris (Ellen), and Julie McNiven (Anna). Julie barely talked at all though but thats ok, her character wasn't one of my favorites. But oh man Misha and Samantha were both brilliant! They stated out by asking the audience questions instead of letting us ask them. XD And then Misha pulls out a Castiel puppet a fan had given him (I think at the con the day before) and then proceeded to play with it and have a staffer play with it as the panel went on and it was just...hilarious. But you really have to see it for yourself...
Click to viewThe person has the whole panel so if you're interested, click on the links to the rest after you watch it. At least if you're into Supernatural. 'Cause everything they said was hilarious. XD Samantha talked about freaking out everyone when she didn't know how to hold a shotgun right and kept pointing it at everyone without realizing what she was doing. XD And about the day Twilight was shooting next to them and put all these barriers and security up and was all "hush hush" at them, thinking they would try to sneak video or something. And how the cast of Supernatural really couldn't give a fuck (especially funny as they make fun of Twilight a few times in the series). And Misha talked about sucking souls and his uhh very unfortunate food poisoning incident which was...kinda gross but as he said "hey you all said you wanted to know!" But yaeh, any descriptions I give won't be as good as seeing the panel for yourself so just watch the footage if you're interested. XD
After that we had to head right back to the Hyatt though for the actual cosplay contest thingy. But on our way...we see all these guys in military fatigues run by us and we're like "...um...k..." and then we go downstairs and there's this huge crowd and we look over and we see all the military dudes, being all in character and positioned and then we look over...and there's a guy dead on the ground with an alien partially out of his stomach. And there's another full Alien running around. aggadhgaipghdiga XD I swear the things that go on at this con! So awesome. haha! And then when we were going down the rest of the way to the "anime floor", we saw another Alien run by, who was kinda hissing at people as they went by them and ohmygod, so glad it didn't do that to me (I was purposely trying to lean away as is) 'cause the whole Alien series REALLY scares me. I never got past like the first 30 minutes of the first one. XD They scare the shit out of me! But lol as we're going down, there's even MORE military guys, all posed, ready if the Aliens came down their way. And their commander was all "ok, CLEAR!" and they all got up and marched back upstairs. XD Pfffft. This con, man.
Though of course we get down there only to find out the place we need to be is back up two levels. ^^;; But hey we wouldn't have seen that mini Alien invasion otherwise. lol So then we get to the thing and they line us up back in a kitchen. x_x; Which was really hot and ugh. Was kinda wishing we had just skipped out on it as I knew we'd get nothing. And man nobody knew who we were, which I expected but normally wearing that costume I at least get people being all "oooh nice costume!" but we didn't get like any cheers on stage and it was super awkward. -_- The MC had to be all "come on guys!" to get a response out of them. Ugh, super embarrassing. Not doing that again. But at least all the costumes I thought deserved awards did in fact get them. And then we rushed out afterwards instead of sticking around for the photos they wanted all entries for ('cause not like it mattered) so we could get changed into Leo and Elliot.
Though on the way out, saw this amazing group...
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade! Seriously probably some of my favorite cosplays I saw all weekend just 'cause of how dead-on they were and they were ALL in character! XD When I asked for a photo, they had just finished taking photos and were about to walk off and I felt bad asking but the Sallah was all "Oh for you, young lady, of course I'll pose!" Pffft. XD
Still wish we could have taken some time to get Hakuouki photos but Corey had already taken off her wig and seemed pretty hell bent on getting out of costume as fast as possible as I think she was overheating in it. And I must admit, Leo did feel a lot better than Okita. I mean I took Okita off and the layers were like drenched in sweat. Ew. x_x Though Leo ended up kinda the same by the time I got out of it. But anywho, we went to our meeting spot and met up with Alice and Cheshire and had a little mini meet. We also had Jon in Jack. Took photos, chatted, though had to be careful as they were behind in the manga and didn't want to spoil it for them. They gave me their card but sadly I seem to have lost it so I don't have their contact info which makes me sad as they were really cool. And while we chatted, some of Corey's friends joined us and we had various geeky conversations as we sat. Mostly about PH. XD
Mini Pandora Hearts group
I decided to do normal Leo this time instead of Baskerville Leo like I originally was doing. 'Cause I happen to get my old Abel glasses to work for it. XD Though I enjoy being the more crazy version of Leo but nobody at the cons has read that far so I guess maybe I should just do regular for a bit. Meh. XD Though at least one girl was up to date so spazzed with her for a bit over all the crazy stuff that's been going on in it.
We got this great idea to get this shot of Alice as the area was too pretty and we used the reflections to our advantage, purposely positioning Jack in it. Didn't intend to have Cheshire in it originally but figured he still worked in the idea so didn't bother to tell him to move. XD
Then it was getting close to Doctor Who time so we headed over to the Sheraton. Sadly didn't have time to change out which sucked because the line was huuuuge and outside and it was hot. x_x;; Joined Becca and crew in line for it and eventually, after what seemed like forever, line started moving...but kinda slowly. Pffft. And we kept getting concerned that the line would get cut off before us but we managed to make it in. Though I have a feeling they did have to cut the line at some point since it got pretty long behind us too. o_o;; It was in the Sheraton ball room which was almost like its own theater in the way they had the whole thing set up. In fact when we got inside, the staff was actually telling us to run. XD That's the first time ever staff has actually told me to run at a con, and not yelled at us not to run. But they were trying to get everyone in as fast as possible 'cause they were already behind schedule. And well, running for Doctor Who seems kinda appropriate considering how much running is done in that show. lol The premiere for the new episode was being shown two hours before the air time so they made a HUGE deal about no cameras out and no video and had a ton of staffers there to go up and down the aisles. Which was kinda silly because the episode had been out for a few hours already at this point in the UK which meant it was already online and by the time the showing actually ended, it wasn't that long before the official US air time anyways. But oh man, the room was PACKED. XD And I believe they said there was at least 14,000 people in the room 'cause that's how many chairs they had and that's how many raffle tickets they had given out. Damn, man! Was pretty cool. And they asked who had a sonic screwdriver in the audience and there was just this loud BUZZ in the air as everyone turned theirs on. XDXDXD Then the actual viewing started and before the episode, there was a little video of Matt Smith saying "Hello Dragon*Con!" which everyone freaked out over. So loud though that we didn't hear what else he said. XD Oh well. lol I imagine it was just "Enjoy the episode" or something like that. The episode itself, I must admit, wasn't one of the better episodes. I was kinda disappointed by it but it did have its moments. Mainly Rory's whole "We're dead, aren't we? Again!" XD Though the whole bit with the dropping elevator was like "...yeah, just add to my whole dream problem thing again, why don't you? x_x"
After the episode, there were lots of Who folks hanging around outside the viewing room. They also had the Tardis up for display. I know Corey and others have shown me photos in the past of it at the con and how you can even go inside it and stuff. I believe its actually one of the real props they used at some point too that was donated to the con. But I could be wrong and it could just be a replica. Either way, it was awesome but sadly too many people were crowded around it already and the rest of my group had seen it years before, so they had no interest in going over to see it. But I did kinda want a photo of it. T_T Oh well. Then as we were getting closer to the stairwell, I look down and kinda just go "O_O!" and everyone else was too busy talking and I was like "Guys! Guys! Look! Look! *point*" And Becca's reaction was the best. "Huh? What? ...oh. Ooooh. ooooooOOOOOOOODD!!!" And we all proceeded to run down the stairs.
Because it was an Ood. XD I also note that after we took photos and were done spazzing and went off to our own corner, I turned back and while they were still stuck there 'cause everyone was taking photos, I noticed from behind, it looked like 10 there had his hand on the Ood's butt, or at least certainly very close to it. XD I was like "...now that's an odd pairing."
Then we parted ways again and Corey, Jon, and I headed to the food court for much needed food. We all agreed that we needed sushi finally (had been talking about it various times at the con). Sadly the sushi place was almost entirely spicy sushi. WTF! x_x Argh. Seriously the only things that weren't spicy were this one shrimp and crab roll (which was delicious at least and I mostly just got that) and the boring rolls like california which I didn't really want at the time. I should have gotten some of the Philly rolls but I didn't know there wasn't going to be anything else non-spicy and I would have had to go back in line and mess everyone up. ^^;; Even the one shrimp roll I got turned out to be spicy (and I nearly keeled over from it too. Gaaaah! Glad I only got one of it.) But at least there was other food besides the sushi there so I had other stuff to eat too. ...though I really wanted more sushi. T_T Normally at cons my stomach is too wobbly for me to get sushi down but I was totally fine with food at this con. I think because I wasn't doing a lot of cosplay and not stressing out like normal.
In the food court, totally hunted this girl down for a photo:
I saw her and immediately thought of the Doctor Who Madame Pomadour but I wasn't sure if she was or just general Versailles wear. So I asked her if she was meant to be anyone in partiuclar and she did admit that her outfit was inspired by that version. (though to me it looks pretty much like it XD) Either way, gorgeous dress!
After we ate, we decided we were pretty much done for the day. So got our stuff from the room and headed back, this time a little less dead even though we left later than the day before. At Carolina's, finally got the chance to show Corey Susano-O which I had brought with me just so she could see it since she had interest in it. Even though she fell asleep for part of it. XD Oh well. We all discussed the costumes and how long they would take to do. Jon started joking about the fact that every year I'll be like "...I have one sleeve done! ...a year later... I got the other sleeve down! ...2 years later... I got part of the back done." And the sad thing is he might be right. T_T Since I insist on doing all that bead and sequin work by hand so I get every detail right. ...yeah I don't know why I do this to myself.
Continued in the next post...
~Lyn