aNEXT report! super-namedropping version GO
Name-dropping! Whee!
Thursday I drove rukawagf and myself up to yeu's house to spend the night. We got there at 2:30 AM. Only I totally hit the bed and said fuck it I don't care while everyone else stayed up until 5:30 AM working on their costumes. slightlysalted and others were there who have LJ names I don't know, but they were all doing KHII, Suikoden, Gundam SEED, and Trinity Blood related stuff. And I was dressing as Allen Walker, whee. Go old already finished costumes!
We got up nice and early and got into our costumes, or at least parts of them, before starting for con. yeu and company were getting into their KHII costumes, rukawagf wore Ryoma (PoT), and I dressed as Allen, as per usual. I was following someone's mom there (no idea which of the girls, they were all very nice but I don't remember whose house we were actually at, er ^^;; ), and NEW JERSEY DRIVERS ARE MANIACS. None of you can drive. Sorry. I had to drive like I've never driven before just to keep up with the Mom. Grrr.
We all pretty much split ways at the con since Jackie and I had to meet up with our bosses. I helped set up the Sasuga Books booth, then wandered around looking for people. Luckily it was not as hot as it got on Saturday because Allen Walker is a hot costume.
There were a billion cosplays from KHII, but I walked by a really awesome clone!Riku/Ansem!Riku. Then I came back the other way and went OH DUH, IT'S Lady_Ava. XD;; I also saw a fantastic Esther from TB - Amanda. She is so cute and adorable and petite and PERFECT for the role. She looked exactly right in the costume.
The Dealer's Room opened. People milled around. WE HAD THREE DEATH BOXES AND NO ONE BOUGHT THEM. You teenagers need to save more of your money to waste on stuff like that. I changed into Misa-Misa for the second half of the day, trying out the blond wig that I got back in Seattle but had never taken out. (It was intended for Zidane but hadn't been cut yet.)
Blah blah blah, stuff happened, ate food, then Andrea, my way awesome coworker, let me stay with her and her mom at their hotel room for free. *hugs them both* it was very very sweet of them, especially because ... DUM DUM DUM. I had not even started my Zidane costume.
I stayed up all night sorta-kinda working on it (but more reading DP fanfiction *cough*), and got two hours of sleep. Andrea cut my wig for me, though, and she did a great job. Just think, the wig started out like twice as long as it ended up, and it looks like Zidane's hair. It's perfect.
The next morning, Andrea got into her Oruha costume from Clover, which was amazing and lovely with an absolutely perfect wig.
I spent six hours hot-gluing together Zidane.
I spent SIX HOURS hot-gluing together Zidane.
Yes, that is the bare bones of the costume, MADE ENTIRELY AT CON. I suck.
Anyway. I finally got to the con and yay, people recognized me! I helped out at the dealer's room until it closed, in which I saw c_phoenix2 and twilitesea and blackmarth and others, and I was happy because I made Nicole happy because I'd actually managed to put together the costume for con. Barely. Nicole and Morgan were in Utena outfits, and Tina was dressed as Hollow!Ichigo. (Zomg I love that costume to tiny little pieces. Not literally.) Then I wandered around outside. I discovered I could do the Final Fantasy IX Zidane avatar run (leap leap leap leap leap) and entertained people, which was amusing, then climbed a tree because I could. Brother from FFX joined me in the tree. Pictures were taken. Then I was found by an Ichigo from Tokyo Mew Mew and my fate was sealed! I had a 14-year-old fan that followed me around con for the rest of the day! XD;;
Public Service Announcement: The Zidane costume picked up women all by itself. All I had to do was talk and girls came to me. That is how sexy Zidane is. in case you weren't aware. =D
Ichigo offered me fries and I got to sit between two beautiful women (a girl going by Roxas who was so mature for her age, and Ichigo) while getting glared at by the boy across from me. XD;; The best part of the Zidane costume was getting to shamelessly flirt with every girl at con. I'm not a lesbian, really don't have that much interest in women, but as Zidane ... YES. WHEE.
Played Duck Duck Goose with a bunch of other cosplayers and remembered how much I suck at the game, especially in high heels. I also did a somersault in the costume and it stayed together. I am pleased with the durability of this outfit. It will see many cons.
Someone randomly came up to me in the middle of all this and said "Hey! you were Edward Elric at Otakon in 2004!" And I was like uh yes O__o and she was like "I recognized you!" and then I remembered that Ed sekritly stole Amano!Zidane's hairstyle and added a braid.
Someone told me that I was the only FF9 cosplayer at con, which thus meant I was the only Zidane at con, which caused me to proudly annouce that meant that I could have all the women at con, at which point rukawagf yelled at me that I was cheating on her again, and I realized that she was at the top of the stairs along with the rest of the Trinity Blood group.
This was the first time I saw them all in their costumes, and they were AMAZING. Let me say that again. THEY WERE AMAZING. Sadly, Seth (digikoomi) had been retired for the con because the hat had apparently been broken, but still. *___* I don't know the names of most of their characters but my favorite costume was the pope! THE POPE! EEEE.
Don't listen to what rukawagf says. Her Asran costume is fantastic and I cannot wait to see pictures of it from AX.
I wandered inside and saw a huge crowd taking pictures of a group apparently from the masquerade. It was a fantastic movie!Utena cosplay, and I was in love and wishing I had my camera when I realized the Miki was Lady_Ava. Oh duh says me again and I instantly knew they'd won 'Best In Show'. Later I realized their absolutely positively blow-me-away HOMIGOD Utena (I swear she looks exactly like the movie version of Utena in that outfit) was umister. I have only one thing to say: O___________O.
So I talked to people, wandered off, came back, and then it got late and another TB group was coming so we decided to have a TB photoshoot. I weilded slightlysalted's camera. I think. So if you see any bad pictures of the shoot from her journal, it's my fault. >___>;; We got lots of good pictures, though, I think, and it was an overload of pretty and detailed blingbling costumes. XD; My tail was molested by the Pope. =D There was also a random Ginyu Force pose because what is a photoshoot without the Ginyu Force?
Then rukawagf couldn't breathe so we got her into her Ryoma costume and the TB groups went to their homes or hotels or wherever, and I was so exhausted I wandered back to the hotel. At which point I got my second wind and decided to go to the rave.
I was in there for all of five minutes, and the rave sucked. So I wandered back out and ended up meeting up with Roxas and Ichigo again. We talked ... and talked ... and tifa_lockhart_x joined us ... and we talked some more ... and some more ... and then it was like 3:30 AM and we were still on the convention steps. Which was when the kids with the shopping carts appeared.
We look up at yelling on the street and see a boy standing up in a shopping cart holding two glowsticks as it rolls towards the curb. Says Roxas, "This can't end well." Amazingly, the boy jumps from the cart just in time as the cart falls over.
But this is not the end of the antics. Oh no. He gets up, shouting that it was awesome, and his fellow troublemaker appears. They push the cart towards the zigzagging handicap ramp.
The ramp is a switchback ramp with a relatively slight incline right next to where Roxas, Tifa and I are standing. The boys take the cart to the top of the ramp and say they are going to ride the cart down to the bottom.
I point out that they will not roll continuously to the bottom, the cart will slam into the wall at every switchback.
"We're going to learn how to drift the cart," says one boy.
I think Shopping Cart: Tokyo Drift!
Mercifully he is not attempting to stand up this time. He hands the glowsticks to his friend and sits in the cart, then pushes off. He rolls down the first incline - and slams into the wall. "Aah!" He turns the cart around, and rolls down the next incline, and slams into the wall. "Ow!" Rinse, wash, repeat.
Roxas is doubled over laughing. "Just listen without looking," she suggests.
"aah ... aah ..ah ... oh ... AAH! aah ... oh no ... ah, ah ah ah AAH! Oh god my ASS!"
They repeated this experiment three times, the last time with BOTH of them in the cart, and neither Roxas nor myself could stop laughing the entire time. There is video footage. I am sure it will find its way to youtube.com eventually.
And then I remembered that I had to get up at 7:30 AM and crawled off to my hotel. Slept in my Zidane cuffs because they'd been hot-glued shut around my arms, and kept the bandages binding my chest on because it was just easier.
Woke up at like 8 instead of 7:30 and felt terrible, naturally. We packed up, I ate with Andrea and her mom - and may I state for the record? her mom is COOL. SO COOL. She was all into all these animes and WHEE. I LUFF HER AND ANDREA SO HARD. After breakfast we moved stuff to our cars and went to the convention center again. I worked in the dealer's room until it closed. Yahara-san, being the sweetie he is, told me that I could go without helping break the booth down. I felt bad about it but I did have friends to find.
LIKE cphoenix_2 and her LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE GROUP.
They rocked. I've never seen the show and they rocked. Every pose rocked. These people honestly make me want to move to New Jersey when I'm done with college (screw the bad drivers) and live there so I can cosplay with them as often as possible because seeing them when they're doing group things kills me ded with happiness.
There was a Vivi! She was so cute! She was the only other cosplayer from FF9! EEEEE.
I followed them around for a while until it got too hot, then I went to the little shopping mall thingie behind one of the hotels. The wind was always blowing in there for no good reason, but I got to pick up more girls. =D I got them to wander back to the con with me, at which point I met back up with rukawagf and we packed our things to go.
ANEXT: ???/10 - I hardly experienced it thanks to working in the Dealer's room, being too impatient to wait in lines, and making Zidane. But the people all rocked, Vic was there (and he makes every con better), and it seemed pretty organized even if everything started late. I will definitely be back next year if it's at all possible.
Thanks to everyone I met there and everyone I got to see again for a great experience.
See you at Otakon!
Thursday I drove rukawagf and myself up to yeu's house to spend the night. We got there at 2:30 AM. Only I totally hit the bed and said fuck it I don't care while everyone else stayed up until 5:30 AM working on their costumes. slightlysalted and others were there who have LJ names I don't know, but they were all doing KHII, Suikoden, Gundam SEED, and Trinity Blood related stuff. And I was dressing as Allen Walker, whee. Go old already finished costumes!
We got up nice and early and got into our costumes, or at least parts of them, before starting for con. yeu and company were getting into their KHII costumes, rukawagf wore Ryoma (PoT), and I dressed as Allen, as per usual. I was following someone's mom there (no idea which of the girls, they were all very nice but I don't remember whose house we were actually at, er ^^;; ), and NEW JERSEY DRIVERS ARE MANIACS. None of you can drive. Sorry. I had to drive like I've never driven before just to keep up with the Mom. Grrr.
We all pretty much split ways at the con since Jackie and I had to meet up with our bosses. I helped set up the Sasuga Books booth, then wandered around looking for people. Luckily it was not as hot as it got on Saturday because Allen Walker is a hot costume.
There were a billion cosplays from KHII, but I walked by a really awesome clone!Riku/Ansem!Riku. Then I came back the other way and went OH DUH, IT'S Lady_Ava. XD;; I also saw a fantastic Esther from TB - Amanda. She is so cute and adorable and petite and PERFECT for the role. She looked exactly right in the costume.
The Dealer's Room opened. People milled around. WE HAD THREE DEATH BOXES AND NO ONE BOUGHT THEM. You teenagers need to save more of your money to waste on stuff like that. I changed into Misa-Misa for the second half of the day, trying out the blond wig that I got back in Seattle but had never taken out. (It was intended for Zidane but hadn't been cut yet.)
Blah blah blah, stuff happened, ate food, then Andrea, my way awesome coworker, let me stay with her and her mom at their hotel room for free. *hugs them both* it was very very sweet of them, especially because ... DUM DUM DUM. I had not even started my Zidane costume.
I stayed up all night sorta-kinda working on it (but more reading DP fanfiction *cough*), and got two hours of sleep. Andrea cut my wig for me, though, and she did a great job. Just think, the wig started out like twice as long as it ended up, and it looks like Zidane's hair. It's perfect.
The next morning, Andrea got into her Oruha costume from Clover, which was amazing and lovely with an absolutely perfect wig.
I spent six hours hot-gluing together Zidane.
I spent SIX HOURS hot-gluing together Zidane.
Yes, that is the bare bones of the costume, MADE ENTIRELY AT CON. I suck.
Anyway. I finally got to the con and yay, people recognized me! I helped out at the dealer's room until it closed, in which I saw c_phoenix2 and twilitesea and blackmarth and others, and I was happy because I made Nicole happy because I'd actually managed to put together the costume for con. Barely. Nicole and Morgan were in Utena outfits, and Tina was dressed as Hollow!Ichigo. (Zomg I love that costume to tiny little pieces. Not literally.) Then I wandered around outside. I discovered I could do the Final Fantasy IX Zidane avatar run (leap leap leap leap leap) and entertained people, which was amusing, then climbed a tree because I could. Brother from FFX joined me in the tree. Pictures were taken. Then I was found by an Ichigo from Tokyo Mew Mew and my fate was sealed! I had a 14-year-old fan that followed me around con for the rest of the day! XD;;
Public Service Announcement: The Zidane costume picked up women all by itself. All I had to do was talk and girls came to me. That is how sexy Zidane is. in case you weren't aware. =D
Ichigo offered me fries and I got to sit between two beautiful women (a girl going by Roxas who was so mature for her age, and Ichigo) while getting glared at by the boy across from me. XD;; The best part of the Zidane costume was getting to shamelessly flirt with every girl at con. I'm not a lesbian, really don't have that much interest in women, but as Zidane ... YES. WHEE.
Played Duck Duck Goose with a bunch of other cosplayers and remembered how much I suck at the game, especially in high heels. I also did a somersault in the costume and it stayed together. I am pleased with the durability of this outfit. It will see many cons.
Someone randomly came up to me in the middle of all this and said "Hey! you were Edward Elric at Otakon in 2004!" And I was like uh yes O__o and she was like "I recognized you!" and then I remembered that Ed sekritly stole Amano!Zidane's hairstyle and added a braid.
Someone told me that I was the only FF9 cosplayer at con, which thus meant I was the only Zidane at con, which caused me to proudly annouce that meant that I could have all the women at con, at which point rukawagf yelled at me that I was cheating on her again, and I realized that she was at the top of the stairs along with the rest of the Trinity Blood group.
This was the first time I saw them all in their costumes, and they were AMAZING. Let me say that again. THEY WERE AMAZING. Sadly, Seth (digikoomi) had been retired for the con because the hat had apparently been broken, but still. *___* I don't know the names of most of their characters but my favorite costume was the pope! THE POPE! EEEE.
Don't listen to what rukawagf says. Her Asran costume is fantastic and I cannot wait to see pictures of it from AX.
I wandered inside and saw a huge crowd taking pictures of a group apparently from the masquerade. It was a fantastic movie!Utena cosplay, and I was in love and wishing I had my camera when I realized the Miki was Lady_Ava. Oh duh says me again and I instantly knew they'd won 'Best In Show'. Later I realized their absolutely positively blow-me-away HOMIGOD Utena (I swear she looks exactly like the movie version of Utena in that outfit) was umister. I have only one thing to say: O___________O.
So I talked to people, wandered off, came back, and then it got late and another TB group was coming so we decided to have a TB photoshoot. I weilded slightlysalted's camera. I think. So if you see any bad pictures of the shoot from her journal, it's my fault. >___>;; We got lots of good pictures, though, I think, and it was an overload of pretty and detailed blingbling costumes. XD; My tail was molested by the Pope. =D There was also a random Ginyu Force pose because what is a photoshoot without the Ginyu Force?
Then rukawagf couldn't breathe so we got her into her Ryoma costume and the TB groups went to their homes or hotels or wherever, and I was so exhausted I wandered back to the hotel. At which point I got my second wind and decided to go to the rave.
I was in there for all of five minutes, and the rave sucked. So I wandered back out and ended up meeting up with Roxas and Ichigo again. We talked ... and talked ... and tifa_lockhart_x joined us ... and we talked some more ... and some more ... and then it was like 3:30 AM and we were still on the convention steps. Which was when the kids with the shopping carts appeared.
We look up at yelling on the street and see a boy standing up in a shopping cart holding two glowsticks as it rolls towards the curb. Says Roxas, "This can't end well." Amazingly, the boy jumps from the cart just in time as the cart falls over.
But this is not the end of the antics. Oh no. He gets up, shouting that it was awesome, and his fellow troublemaker appears. They push the cart towards the zigzagging handicap ramp.
The ramp is a switchback ramp with a relatively slight incline right next to where Roxas, Tifa and I are standing. The boys take the cart to the top of the ramp and say they are going to ride the cart down to the bottom.
I point out that they will not roll continuously to the bottom, the cart will slam into the wall at every switchback.
"We're going to learn how to drift the cart," says one boy.
I think Shopping Cart: Tokyo Drift!
Mercifully he is not attempting to stand up this time. He hands the glowsticks to his friend and sits in the cart, then pushes off. He rolls down the first incline - and slams into the wall. "Aah!" He turns the cart around, and rolls down the next incline, and slams into the wall. "Ow!" Rinse, wash, repeat.
Roxas is doubled over laughing. "Just listen without looking," she suggests.
"aah ... aah ..ah ... oh ... AAH! aah ... oh no ... ah, ah ah ah AAH! Oh god my ASS!"
They repeated this experiment three times, the last time with BOTH of them in the cart, and neither Roxas nor myself could stop laughing the entire time. There is video footage. I am sure it will find its way to youtube.com eventually.
And then I remembered that I had to get up at 7:30 AM and crawled off to my hotel. Slept in my Zidane cuffs because they'd been hot-glued shut around my arms, and kept the bandages binding my chest on because it was just easier.
Woke up at like 8 instead of 7:30 and felt terrible, naturally. We packed up, I ate with Andrea and her mom - and may I state for the record? her mom is COOL. SO COOL. She was all into all these animes and WHEE. I LUFF HER AND ANDREA SO HARD. After breakfast we moved stuff to our cars and went to the convention center again. I worked in the dealer's room until it closed. Yahara-san, being the sweetie he is, told me that I could go without helping break the booth down. I felt bad about it but I did have friends to find.
LIKE cphoenix_2 and her LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE GROUP.
They rocked. I've never seen the show and they rocked. Every pose rocked. These people honestly make me want to move to New Jersey when I'm done with college (screw the bad drivers) and live there so I can cosplay with them as often as possible because seeing them when they're doing group things kills me ded with happiness.
There was a Vivi! She was so cute! She was the only other cosplayer from FF9! EEEEE.
I followed them around for a while until it got too hot, then I went to the little shopping mall thingie behind one of the hotels. The wind was always blowing in there for no good reason, but I got to pick up more girls. =D I got them to wander back to the con with me, at which point I met back up with rukawagf and we packed our things to go.
ANEXT: ???/10 - I hardly experienced it thanks to working in the Dealer's room, being too impatient to wait in lines, and making Zidane. But the people all rocked, Vic was there (and he makes every con better), and it seemed pretty organized even if everything started late. I will definitely be back next year if it's at all possible.
Thanks to everyone I met there and everyone I got to see again for a great experience.
See you at Otakon!