IT'S OTAKON, DUMMY
Soooooo I'm back from Otakon. I've definitely been to worse and I've definitely been to better. I'd say "average" but that just sounds like "meh" which really isn't the case, it's more like "hmm, not bad" kind of good. I was pleased with it. Nothing super amazing happened (save for some hilarious incidents) and nothing terribly bad happened (minus, well... I'll get to that).
I took Thursday off from work, and that day was pretty much a frantic rush to get everything done. I did, actually, but Judith's wig ended up being a last minute disaster. I was like SHIIIiit so I called Alison and she was willing to help. So went ahead and put it in a bag and just brought it in its disaster state.
When I got to the con center I was holding my breath for this massive prereg line that was already cut off because I got there around 10:30 but when I got there... there was nothing. I figured the line must have been short this year or something because this is so unusual for a con this size. After Annie, Alex and Alison came to hold my stuff I ran in and got my badge, which probably took no longer than five minutes. That was shorter than Detour. This is Otakon. I asked the others later and apparently they were just letting people in as they came, instead of forcing them to wait in this massive line. A+ planning, guys.
Friday I was Tank Top Lover Yuri and Alex was Rita. The day was really long and I don't exactly remember what happened. We got up relatively early and got Starbucks and headed to the center... and when we got inside it was strangely incredibly crowded. Alex and I headed to check to see how the LARP was doing (we had signed up earlier as Guy and Luke, are you surprised?) and it wasn't even open yet. Alison went ahead to look for the hall cosplay signup while we just kinda waited off to the side. There were a TON of people, and a surprising amount of Avatar cosplayers. It was kinda strange because maybe I was more observant now that I'm all :B :B :B :B about it again but I definitely thought that the numbers were dwindling in recent years. Anyway, I was just kinda sitting there watching people and Alex was dozing off when two chicks walked by like "Hey, it's Yuri and Rita!" and I lol'd because Alex was there sleeping almost. How embarrassing xD
Umm We also ran into Alex's friends from NDK in Denver while we were waiting, Kevin and Kim. They were dressed as Yuri and Flynn from the movie which was pretty cool too. We also ran into Griff, Vil, Kyo, Luna (there were only four of you, right?) and chatted with a few other people too I guess. Idk, we waited a long time for Alison then finally decided to just seek her out instead. She was still in line when we found her and Alex, Kim, Kevin and I just chilled while we waited.
Oh right, it was kinda funny walking around with Alex because people would be like "HEY RITA CAN I GET YOUR PICTURE" so I'd end up holding her shit and I'm like "lol sure ignore the main character of this game" but I found it super funny. A few people would realize it afterwards and be like "OHHHH YOU'RE YURI!" and I'd just laugh.
Anyway I don't really remember what happened, but Alex and I ended up in the dealer's room and I think the consensus was that it was a good idea if I just got a new wig for the disaster that was Judith. So I got one, which was luckily relatively cheap, but I hated myself for it later because it was definitely the wrong color and the amount of capslock rage I had in me when that thought came to me was indescribable. But at the time I was ok with it--there was one that was indeed the perfect color but it was kinda the wrong style. So eh.
Afterwards we met up with other Tales people at the fountains and headed outside to the patio. It was pretty good, the outside factor was a bit hot (luckily it wasn't very humid this weekend) but I managed for a bit. It was especially hilarious, because Alex was being her obnoxious self and we were doing our bantering thing we always do and some kid in the picture-taking crowd was like "wow, she's even in character!" and it was the most hilarious moment of my life because it proved my point of Alex=Rita forever. Also, Alison was Yggdrasil and it was the most fabulous thing I've seen in my life. There was this one kid though who complimented my Yuri and emphasized the fact that I was flat (???) so I could pull it off well. Uhhh what? I told him I was being Judith tomorrow and he was like, "...but you're flat!" Obviously this kid didn't see the good four inches of binding over the top of my shirt. What.
We left a bit early because Alex did not wear any sun screen and I think both of us mentally agreed that walking around with/as a tomato would be a bad idea. I don't really know what we did next but we did eventually check up on LARP and since we missed the initial meeting, we were lost. So eeeerh.
That night I did some last minute fixups on Judith, like attaching the rope to the butt flap and adding the little purple charm thingies. I was also an idiot and realized I cut out only 6 flower thingies instead of 12 for the boots, so I just didn't do them at all. Whatevs.
In the morning I was the first one up and I was freaking out--I had my spear supported by a pillow overnight but that pillow was removed, and part of the spear was completely cracked because of it and in turn, INCREDIBLY fragile. I was afraid to hold it vertically because it would sag, and I'm sure had I kept it in any position for any amount of time the "blade" part of it would have come clean off. I put some hot glue on the cracks and that seemed to do the trick.
The new wig wasn't really sitting on my head right and I just decided screw that, I'll just use the old one I guess. So it was pulled into a tiny bun and I attached part of antennae to it. I didn't put the feathery part because I was getting antsy and impatient. SIGH.
We didn't end up leaving the hotel until about 12 and headed to the artist alley in hopes of finding Mew. It was incredibly difficult to make any progress by myself because stilettos+lots of pictures, and even with Alex's help it was hard. Lots of people there, it was ridiculous.
After a futile attempt we grabbed Miki and a large group of us went to lunch. Actually Alex dropped one of her Rita thingies so she had to go back and search for it. So us minus Alex and Miki (who went to help her) went to lunch. And apparently while we were out, some jackass pulled the fire alarm and had to evacuate thousands and thousands people. Way to go.
So before the Tales shoot this time around we headed back to the room for a bit and my feet were in PAAAAAAAIN. So I put on the bath and I soaked my feet for a little bit which worked miracles, and rested a bit and arrived fashionably late to the shoot to find that they were in the middle of doing the Vesperia group. AWWWW THERE WAS THE CUTEST KAROL THERE. I was really debating giving the cosplayer a hug. Not only that, she was short. I'm sure her face would have come up to my boobs and that would have been super awkward so I didn't. Lawl. So we did a little bit and we did a Brave Vesperia group which was awesome. There was a Raven there too who called me "JUDY DARLIN'~" which I thought was kinda funny idk. I liked the Vesperia people there. :(
Then me, Alex, Alison, Knifey, Carly and her friend, and Kevin and Kim all headed back to the hotel so Carly and I could do our shoot thingy. Alex had to grab something so we just waited around and I took my boots off and I looked down and-- holy shit. My feet were swollen and red. I wanted to cry. I'm sure had I not noticed I probably would have been able to bear it but since I knew that my feet were dying I just cried the rest of the time.
After our shoot/sitting around, we headed back to our room and I changed out of Judith and helped Alex cut+dye her hair for Kida. It took us about three hours to get completely ready into DRRR!! and we had fun just derping around the room. By the time we were done, we collected Kim and Kevin and headed out to PF Chang's for dinner. Alison joined us later and it was hilarious because we noticed that we were ALL wearing blue. The waiter even asked us why we were wearing blue and we just laughed.
After dinner we grabbed the tripod and managed to get some really awesome shots of Mikado and Kida. Actually most of that was just us fooling around (and to my surprise, an unbiased opinion later said that most of the pictures were pretty IC despite the fact we were just being ourselves, SCORE) so a lot of the time we were blurry because we were moving hahaha. Also there was this one point where Alex was like giving me a noogie or something and I looked up and there was this huge black splotch on her face, so I asked, "Alex, why are you black?" then it moved and I was like "AHHH IT'S A BUG" and Alex freaked out and flailed around and the other three just burst out laughing. Yeah Alex, why ARE you black?
We got some of Kim and Kevin's Yuri and Flynn, and some of Alison's Yeager (who apparently isn't a Tales character, idk). After we decided to walk around the con center, which we did very little of on Saturday surprisingly. And it was like 1:30 when we did that and it was like completely empty. A few idiots here and there but it was kinda cool.
Sunday Alex and I got up at 8 and put our DRRR!! stuff on and checked in our bags at the front desk. We walked into the con center and apparently soon after we did that, someone called out for Mikado but I didn't hear so I kept walking. Alex did, though, and was like DON'T LOOK BACK, KEEP WALKING, MOVE FORWARD. And right after I hear the MIKADO and I turned around :B Hurf durf. We got a lot of attention though, about 1/3 of the attention was asking for hugs which completely baffled Alex. Different fandom environment, I guess. But hey, at least we were recognizeable.
We found the line for the Home Made Kazoku concert and were debating whether we should get in line already (it was about 2 hours early) or just wait until the last minute. And while we were doing so we met this guy who was volunteering, and he was holding the elevator sign that said "Handicap and Staff Only" and we chatted with him. He was pretty cool. Turns out this was his first con and stuff and we talked a little about cosplay. He asked if we were crossdressing and we said yes, and he told me I made a convincing boy. SCORE, that was my objective so I took it as a complimet. xD Then I told him I dressed like a skank yesterday and he was like wow, at least you're taking all options instead of sticking to one end of the spectrum.
And some person started dangling a box of candy from the balcony above, and Alex and I went to investigate. Alex started reaching for the candy and someone yelled, "IT'S A TRAP" and Alex promptly, without heasitation, turned around back at him and said "I'M A TRAP." That certainly shut him up.
Anyway, afterwards we decided to kill some more time by heading to the artist alley to say hi to Miki. We chatted for a bit, which is always fun and as time neared for the concert, we decided we were way too hungry to stand through an hour and a half concert (but it was totally worth it--later we saw the lead singer wandering around our hotel looking lost. You don't have to stand in line for rare moments like that). So we decided to skip and eat lunch instead.
After a delicious meal at Edo (which was practically empty, SURPRISE!) we said bye to Alison and we decided to hit the dealers room one last time. We somehow acquired Kim and Kevin again which was peachy. And we found this really adorable Guy and Luke notepad which Alex and I decided to get, but it was the last one. So we decided to split it. The lady at the counter was like "...Are you two sisters?" And our reaction was something along the lines of HAHAHA WHAT AGAIN??? We just told her no... I think she was confused as to how we were going to split it. Oh well.
We headed to the fourth floor later just to chill and I lay down, and I think I dozed off. Because next thing I knew Alex was whilsting over at me and Brad&friends were there. Then we went to Starbucks. And it was funny because we all got the same drink, pretty much. lawlawllawl.
And as we were exiting, we passed this group of ladies. And the best quote of the weekend occurred then:
Lady 1: Why y'all dressed so--
Lady 2: It's Otakon, dummy!
idk I lol'd hahah
Theeen after that, Alex and I and Kevin and Kim headed back to the hotel, got our stuff, I changed, my dad came and Alex and I went home. After I dropped her off I was like blaaaaaaaaaaargh I'm so tired and went to take a nap at around 7. I woke up a bit confused and noticed it was midnight. HOLY CRAP. I got ready for bed for real and went to sleep.
I slept a total of 10 hours last night and I feel like I could sleep another 5. I'm really exhausted. I never got a chance to catch up on the sleep I lost during the work week (which was a whole lot, since it was crunch week) and I didn't get to sleep in to catch up on the sleep I lost during the con. Thursday was supposed to be my sleep in and get a lot of rest day but I woke up super early for some reason. At least I got everything done then /shrug
So basic sum up: Con was pretty good, nothing really to squeal or complain about. But seriously many lessons were learned: Don't try to style a wig like that the day of the con. Don't try to wear potentially injury-inducing shoes for a long time without backup. Also, take off the week before and the day after the con--YOU NEED YOUR REST.
I'm definitely going to do Judith again. I know I could have done much better but I'm a pro at procrastination and decided to leave her to the last minute. Huge mistake. I'll probably do some touchups before next Otakon (like redoing the wig so it's done properly, and choosing a better color instead of highlighter blue) because I really REALLY want to nail this one.
Also, you may have noticed the lack of pictures in this post. Do not fear, for they will be in a separate post! We took well over 400 pictures (which is double the usual) and it might take a while to hand pick them + resize them all.
Well my next con is... Otakon next year. It's July 29~31, I HOPE SOME OF YOU MN PEOPLE CAN JOIN ME~ :D
I took Thursday off from work, and that day was pretty much a frantic rush to get everything done. I did, actually, but Judith's wig ended up being a last minute disaster. I was like SHIIIiit so I called Alison and she was willing to help. So went ahead and put it in a bag and just brought it in its disaster state.
When I got to the con center I was holding my breath for this massive prereg line that was already cut off because I got there around 10:30 but when I got there... there was nothing. I figured the line must have been short this year or something because this is so unusual for a con this size. After Annie, Alex and Alison came to hold my stuff I ran in and got my badge, which probably took no longer than five minutes. That was shorter than Detour. This is Otakon. I asked the others later and apparently they were just letting people in as they came, instead of forcing them to wait in this massive line. A+ planning, guys.
Friday I was Tank Top Lover Yuri and Alex was Rita. The day was really long and I don't exactly remember what happened. We got up relatively early and got Starbucks and headed to the center... and when we got inside it was strangely incredibly crowded. Alex and I headed to check to see how the LARP was doing (we had signed up earlier as Guy and Luke, are you surprised?) and it wasn't even open yet. Alison went ahead to look for the hall cosplay signup while we just kinda waited off to the side. There were a TON of people, and a surprising amount of Avatar cosplayers. It was kinda strange because maybe I was more observant now that I'm all :B :B :B :B about it again but I definitely thought that the numbers were dwindling in recent years. Anyway, I was just kinda sitting there watching people and Alex was dozing off when two chicks walked by like "Hey, it's Yuri and Rita!" and I lol'd because Alex was there sleeping almost. How embarrassing xD
Umm We also ran into Alex's friends from NDK in Denver while we were waiting, Kevin and Kim. They were dressed as Yuri and Flynn from the movie which was pretty cool too. We also ran into Griff, Vil, Kyo, Luna (there were only four of you, right?) and chatted with a few other people too I guess. Idk, we waited a long time for Alison then finally decided to just seek her out instead. She was still in line when we found her and Alex, Kim, Kevin and I just chilled while we waited.
Oh right, it was kinda funny walking around with Alex because people would be like "HEY RITA CAN I GET YOUR PICTURE" so I'd end up holding her shit and I'm like "lol sure ignore the main character of this game" but I found it super funny. A few people would realize it afterwards and be like "OHHHH YOU'RE YURI!" and I'd just laugh.
Anyway I don't really remember what happened, but Alex and I ended up in the dealer's room and I think the consensus was that it was a good idea if I just got a new wig for the disaster that was Judith. So I got one, which was luckily relatively cheap, but I hated myself for it later because it was definitely the wrong color and the amount of capslock rage I had in me when that thought came to me was indescribable. But at the time I was ok with it--there was one that was indeed the perfect color but it was kinda the wrong style. So eh.
Afterwards we met up with other Tales people at the fountains and headed outside to the patio. It was pretty good, the outside factor was a bit hot (luckily it wasn't very humid this weekend) but I managed for a bit. It was especially hilarious, because Alex was being her obnoxious self and we were doing our bantering thing we always do and some kid in the picture-taking crowd was like "wow, she's even in character!" and it was the most hilarious moment of my life because it proved my point of Alex=Rita forever. Also, Alison was Yggdrasil and it was the most fabulous thing I've seen in my life. There was this one kid though who complimented my Yuri and emphasized the fact that I was flat (???) so I could pull it off well. Uhhh what? I told him I was being Judith tomorrow and he was like, "...but you're flat!" Obviously this kid didn't see the good four inches of binding over the top of my shirt. What.
We left a bit early because Alex did not wear any sun screen and I think both of us mentally agreed that walking around with/as a tomato would be a bad idea. I don't really know what we did next but we did eventually check up on LARP and since we missed the initial meeting, we were lost. So eeeerh.
That night I did some last minute fixups on Judith, like attaching the rope to the butt flap and adding the little purple charm thingies. I was also an idiot and realized I cut out only 6 flower thingies instead of 12 for the boots, so I just didn't do them at all. Whatevs.
In the morning I was the first one up and I was freaking out--I had my spear supported by a pillow overnight but that pillow was removed, and part of the spear was completely cracked because of it and in turn, INCREDIBLY fragile. I was afraid to hold it vertically because it would sag, and I'm sure had I kept it in any position for any amount of time the "blade" part of it would have come clean off. I put some hot glue on the cracks and that seemed to do the trick.
The new wig wasn't really sitting on my head right and I just decided screw that, I'll just use the old one I guess. So it was pulled into a tiny bun and I attached part of antennae to it. I didn't put the feathery part because I was getting antsy and impatient. SIGH.
We didn't end up leaving the hotel until about 12 and headed to the artist alley in hopes of finding Mew. It was incredibly difficult to make any progress by myself because stilettos+lots of pictures, and even with Alex's help it was hard. Lots of people there, it was ridiculous.
After a futile attempt we grabbed Miki and a large group of us went to lunch. Actually Alex dropped one of her Rita thingies so she had to go back and search for it. So us minus Alex and Miki (who went to help her) went to lunch. And apparently while we were out, some jackass pulled the fire alarm and had to evacuate thousands and thousands people. Way to go.
So before the Tales shoot this time around we headed back to the room for a bit and my feet were in PAAAAAAAIN. So I put on the bath and I soaked my feet for a little bit which worked miracles, and rested a bit and arrived fashionably late to the shoot to find that they were in the middle of doing the Vesperia group. AWWWW THERE WAS THE CUTEST KAROL THERE. I was really debating giving the cosplayer a hug. Not only that, she was short. I'm sure her face would have come up to my boobs and that would have been super awkward so I didn't. Lawl. So we did a little bit and we did a Brave Vesperia group which was awesome. There was a Raven there too who called me "JUDY DARLIN'~" which I thought was kinda funny idk. I liked the Vesperia people there. :(
Then me, Alex, Alison, Knifey, Carly and her friend, and Kevin and Kim all headed back to the hotel so Carly and I could do our shoot thingy. Alex had to grab something so we just waited around and I took my boots off and I looked down and-- holy shit. My feet were swollen and red. I wanted to cry. I'm sure had I not noticed I probably would have been able to bear it but since I knew that my feet were dying I just cried the rest of the time.
After our shoot/sitting around, we headed back to our room and I changed out of Judith and helped Alex cut+dye her hair for Kida. It took us about three hours to get completely ready into DRRR!! and we had fun just derping around the room. By the time we were done, we collected Kim and Kevin and headed out to PF Chang's for dinner. Alison joined us later and it was hilarious because we noticed that we were ALL wearing blue. The waiter even asked us why we were wearing blue and we just laughed.
After dinner we grabbed the tripod and managed to get some really awesome shots of Mikado and Kida. Actually most of that was just us fooling around (and to my surprise, an unbiased opinion later said that most of the pictures were pretty IC despite the fact we were just being ourselves, SCORE) so a lot of the time we were blurry because we were moving hahaha. Also there was this one point where Alex was like giving me a noogie or something and I looked up and there was this huge black splotch on her face, so I asked, "Alex, why are you black?" then it moved and I was like "AHHH IT'S A BUG" and Alex freaked out and flailed around and the other three just burst out laughing. Yeah Alex, why ARE you black?
We got some of Kim and Kevin's Yuri and Flynn, and some of Alison's Yeager (who apparently isn't a Tales character, idk). After we decided to walk around the con center, which we did very little of on Saturday surprisingly. And it was like 1:30 when we did that and it was like completely empty. A few idiots here and there but it was kinda cool.
Sunday Alex and I got up at 8 and put our DRRR!! stuff on and checked in our bags at the front desk. We walked into the con center and apparently soon after we did that, someone called out for Mikado but I didn't hear so I kept walking. Alex did, though, and was like DON'T LOOK BACK, KEEP WALKING, MOVE FORWARD. And right after I hear the MIKADO and I turned around :B Hurf durf. We got a lot of attention though, about 1/3 of the attention was asking for hugs which completely baffled Alex. Different fandom environment, I guess. But hey, at least we were recognizeable.
We found the line for the Home Made Kazoku concert and were debating whether we should get in line already (it was about 2 hours early) or just wait until the last minute. And while we were doing so we met this guy who was volunteering, and he was holding the elevator sign that said "Handicap and Staff Only" and we chatted with him. He was pretty cool. Turns out this was his first con and stuff and we talked a little about cosplay. He asked if we were crossdressing and we said yes, and he told me I made a convincing boy. SCORE, that was my objective so I took it as a complimet. xD Then I told him I dressed like a skank yesterday and he was like wow, at least you're taking all options instead of sticking to one end of the spectrum.
And some person started dangling a box of candy from the balcony above, and Alex and I went to investigate. Alex started reaching for the candy and someone yelled, "IT'S A TRAP" and Alex promptly, without heasitation, turned around back at him and said "I'M A TRAP." That certainly shut him up.
Anyway, afterwards we decided to kill some more time by heading to the artist alley to say hi to Miki. We chatted for a bit, which is always fun and as time neared for the concert, we decided we were way too hungry to stand through an hour and a half concert (but it was totally worth it--later we saw the lead singer wandering around our hotel looking lost. You don't have to stand in line for rare moments like that). So we decided to skip and eat lunch instead.
After a delicious meal at Edo (which was practically empty, SURPRISE!) we said bye to Alison and we decided to hit the dealers room one last time. We somehow acquired Kim and Kevin again which was peachy. And we found this really adorable Guy and Luke notepad which Alex and I decided to get, but it was the last one. So we decided to split it. The lady at the counter was like "...Are you two sisters?" And our reaction was something along the lines of HAHAHA WHAT AGAIN??? We just told her no... I think she was confused as to how we were going to split it. Oh well.
We headed to the fourth floor later just to chill and I lay down, and I think I dozed off. Because next thing I knew Alex was whilsting over at me and Brad&friends were there. Then we went to Starbucks. And it was funny because we all got the same drink, pretty much. lawlawllawl.
And as we were exiting, we passed this group of ladies. And the best quote of the weekend occurred then:
Lady 1: Why y'all dressed so--
Lady 2: It's Otakon, dummy!
idk I lol'd hahah
Theeen after that, Alex and I and Kevin and Kim headed back to the hotel, got our stuff, I changed, my dad came and Alex and I went home. After I dropped her off I was like blaaaaaaaaaaargh I'm so tired and went to take a nap at around 7. I woke up a bit confused and noticed it was midnight. HOLY CRAP. I got ready for bed for real and went to sleep.
I slept a total of 10 hours last night and I feel like I could sleep another 5. I'm really exhausted. I never got a chance to catch up on the sleep I lost during the work week (which was a whole lot, since it was crunch week) and I didn't get to sleep in to catch up on the sleep I lost during the con. Thursday was supposed to be my sleep in and get a lot of rest day but I woke up super early for some reason. At least I got everything done then /shrug
So basic sum up: Con was pretty good, nothing really to squeal or complain about. But seriously many lessons were learned: Don't try to style a wig like that the day of the con. Don't try to wear potentially injury-inducing shoes for a long time without backup. Also, take off the week before and the day after the con--YOU NEED YOUR REST.
I'm definitely going to do Judith again. I know I could have done much better but I'm a pro at procrastination and decided to leave her to the last minute. Huge mistake. I'll probably do some touchups before next Otakon (like redoing the wig so it's done properly, and choosing a better color instead of highlighter blue) because I really REALLY want to nail this one.
Also, you may have noticed the lack of pictures in this post. Do not fear, for they will be in a separate post! We took well over 400 pictures (which is double the usual) and it might take a while to hand pick them + resize them all.
Well my next con is... Otakon next year. It's July 29~31, I HOPE SOME OF YOU MN PEOPLE CAN JOIN ME~ :D