Down Time For a Bit

Kozumi's Quote of the Week:
Like I'm fucking Winnie the Pooh or somethin o.O "Fucking Winnie the Pooh" as in I AM him, not the action. Cause yeah...THAT would be extremely awkward o.O
--Choco, when describing how relaxing karate was for him

Dio: Welcome back, worms. How was the con?
Dea: Lovely. I think Lex's still recovering.
Lex: O_O GOD MY LEGS HURT.
Diz: Wimp. -_-
Dio: Anything of import?
Diz: There's some seriously good Brawl players out there.
Lex: Hot chick population fucking boomed. I mean, shit, every three steps was like "shwing!"
Dea: We missed the cosplay contest. Ah well. ^^
Dio: Dynamite. Today we're posting from Random Lunacy HQ today. This place is a mess and I'm Dio "This Shit is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" Maxwelle.
Dea: I'm Dea "Cosplay Retiree since 2004" Maxwelle.
Diz: I'm Diz "Your Ike is a Cheating Whore" Maxwelle.
(all three) TOTAL relation.
Lex: And I'm Lex "I'd Climb Her for a Dollar" McCloud.
Dio: We need to clean this place up. There are costumes everywhere. Its like a freakin' orgy happened last night.
Dea: .......Is that a Lucas costume over there?
Dio: ........Ok, an orgy in one room and Lucas just happened to sleep over WELL AWAY FROM THE NOISE.
Lex: And you call me the pedo.
Diz: Says the guy who laments not getting that Ness cosplayer's contact info.
Lex: She was cute!!

Con fallout isn't pretty. Right after the con, I slunk my way back out to Manteca, and watched my precious little sister KP graduate middle school. *SNIFF* I'M SO PROUD. Therefore, my room looks like a closet exploded on my floor and my desk. I'd show pictures but there's clean laundry i haven't put away since Friday.
Lex: Dio, is this your thong?
Dio: ?? Nope. That's Raz's.
Lex: I just threw up a little in my mouth. ><
Overall: of the $55 I paid as entrance fee for the whole weekend, I'd say it was worth $40.

The Pros
-Costumes. They were pretty good this year. Some bad, but a lot of real gems.

-Hot chicks. God-dayum. O_O They were out in full force. And I mean, you couldn't go 3 yards before you saw another hottie dressed as Electra go by.

-Artists' Alley. It was amazing this year. So many artists, so much talent, and even cool things like those adorable Earthbound plushies I'd been eyeing for about a month. ^^ Yes. I have a Lucas and Ness plushie. I am so happy I could die, but I at least wanna get married before that so the dying in happiness will hafta wait.

-Relaxed atmosphere. Very little drama, thank god. Only a few snafus, but nothing on the huge range as previous cons.

-Dante, Vergil, and Wesker were there. Yeah, I mean the voices, but it was fucking awesome. ^^

-PA Music. The overhead music gave my ears something pretty to hear, like the Brawl soundtrack, various Final Fantasies that included even Crystal Chronicles, and even RickRoll Friday morning. Hell, anything's better than Nami Tamaki's ONE ALBUM on rotation for 4 FUCKING DAYS. ahem.

-Quiet Maid Cafe. It was in the back, they had more real estate, and the maid were cute (mostly Skuld, cuz she's fucking adorable). No clamoring fanboys.

The Cons
-Asshat con ops. On the whole, w/ the exception of very few volunteers (1st years of course), and the video room guys, the con staff were buncha assholes.
---EXAMPLE: Peacebonding and Con Safety.
The rovers for peacebonding were ridiculous. I completely understand banning arisofts and actual blades for weapons. That's fine. I was down w/ getting my league baseball bat peacebonded for Ness (even had Lucas' stick and the plastic bat peacebonded). I understand getting most large sticks and waterguns peacebonded. I understand common sense.

But when you make someone peacebond a fucking paper sword but let a titanium golf driver go, that's just RETARDED. Seriously. I took my friend's "sword" (might I remind you its made of cardstock, shiny cardstock) to get it bonded after the rover told him to, and even the girl who did it agreed it was stupid. But we had to anyway.
I had no less that 4 people tell me to peacebond my bat as I walked literally 50 feet to walk my sisters to the at-con reg line, and another one tell me on my way up TO the peacebonding station. That's just ridiculous.
----Example: How NOT to handle an incident
There were a few Team Fortress scouts running about. It was a neat and simple costume. They, like Ness (and to an extent Lucas) carry bats as part of the costume. Cool. Then i hear from my friend that an incident occurred where a scout hurt someone w/ their bat. Suddenly, the con ops panic and start confiscating EVERY bat from any cosplayer, Ness' included (just so you all know, Ness was pretty popular; there were roughly 5 of us this year). Straight up started taking them from random scouts.
Ok, I understand that something happened, and that they were trying (in the dumbest way possible) to ensure not only safety, but to try to identify the weapon that was the culprit (and the owner). But to basically take them from peoples' hands w/ little explanation, that's not cool. The person injured gave a description, and its not the best, since this is based on someone in costume, but I doubt that the victim could pick out the weapon when they were all assembled.
A scout I knew personally was understandably upset; he was not at fault but he, along w/ others like him, were being punished for someone else's mistake. I felt that the panicked confiscation and sudden ban on bats was a bad way of going about the problem. No, i didn't get mine confiscated, since I simply carried it discreetly, but if I was confronted, I would have asked them to escort me out, since I would leave the con. They were unfairly taking other people's property w/o properly explaining the situation, and instead leaving the grapevine network to explain the situation.
If Fanime had, on their signs and in their programs, left a line about how they reserve the right to change their rules as they see fit, then I would have to give in and accept their decision, even if I saw it as unfair. After all, I understand the liability. Only they didn't. No where in any form did I see this right posted. Therefore, since bats were not a banned item going into the con, to others who had nothing to do with the incident, a sudden ban (that really only lasted through Sunday night) was a violation of our right to have it as a prop. I may be muddling my laws here and the such, but I stand by my opinion.
I had a yo-yo ball for Ness, and I spent the whole weekend swinging it around for pics and generally swinging it because my hands don't like to be idle. I never hit anyone but myself w/ it (I got good fast, simply cuz Ness looks like a n00b if he ends up hitting himself 50% of the time XD). I would play w/ it while I walked, even next to people. Did they make me peacebond the yo-yo, even after the Scout Bat Scare? No.
But they could have. They should have. But, like a titanium golf driver, the yo-yo slipped under the radar.
You guys know that yo-yos used to be a weapon right?

-Registration
I don't pre-reg anymore. I should but I generally forget. That's the way the ball bounces. I'm ok w/ waiting in line, a longer line, of course, than the pre-and early reg'ers. Its nice down time, and I rarely have plans that first friday that early (reg usually starts at 8).
Now I see that this year I should.
Why? If you've never been to a convention, usually the line for at-con registration is about an hour to 2 hours long, where in you wait til you get to the booths, and a kind volunteer will take your info and money and print your badge right there. Then you go along your merry way. One line, one-two hours wait, one paper badge and a program bag. Simple right?
This year? You spend an hour or so in line til an available computer opens up. You enter your info into the computer, which will send your info to the booths. Right? Well, after you hit send on the comp, you write down an authorization code, and stand in another line (shorter, usually 15-20 minute wait), where you wait for one of maybe 2-3 booths (down from 6-8 in previous years), hand over your code, and money (they're supposed to check IDs...which they didn't), then they send you over to a table.
This table is the print area, where volunteers rapidly and frantically shove your name into its holder and lanyard, and have people w/ bad vocal projection shout your name like a lottery over an already impatient crowd. This is by far the worst part, since not only do at-cons have to wait, but early-reg does too, and there is no alphabetical, numerical, or indeed an sort of order to help organize. I was told this has "more flow". I saw it as a complete collapse of organization. By Saturday, it was metered out so there wasn't an angry mob by the time you had to go to collect your badge, but this was unacceptable. I'm sorry, but as long as the line was in the past, it was much more straight-forward and logical than it was this year.
In short: registration was a mess.

-Unhappy staff
It happens every year, but this year, the volunteers and staff were understaffed severely. It seems the mistreatment from previous years had caught up with the con. Long hours, bad management, little compensation (i had a friend who paid admission earlier this year, then was roped into staff, and wasn't yet reimbursed for the admission). This is what staffing volunteering at Fanime has become.
And if the staff was unhappy, esp. the rovers, you can bet they took it out on the attendees.

-The Internet
I don't mean the connection speeds (though they sucked). I mean the dumbshits in the Guy Fawkes mask playing Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" on a boombox the whole con, in an unending rickroll. Its only funny the first day, asshats.

-I lost the game
SHUT THE FUCK UP, I DON'T CARE.

-Dealer's room
Eh. Kinda sucked this year. i spent more at Artists' Alley than the Dealer's Room. It was small this year, and I heard cuz to get your foot in the door, it took a grand per table. O_O As such, the prices were a lil (sometimes insanely) higher. Good thing I found the Lucas wig at Swap Meet cuz the wig ppl didn't come this year. *shrug* Wizzywig was there tho. ^^

-Protesters and a special appearance w/ Jesus
I have nothing against the guy who dressed up as Jesus for the con. Call me sacriligious, but it was pretty awesome. He was cool. What wasn't cool was the protestors telling us we're all going to hell outside the con. I don't know if it was anime, the con, the cosplayers, the crossplayers, or yaoi, or what he was protesting, I only know that he was telling us we were all going to hell.
Until our pal JC showed up and stole his thunder. That was cool. ^^ I was down w/ that.
Its just that the incident totally took precedence over the Brawl gathering that I missed by mere minutes. T_T Damn protesters.

-Yeah, I still regret not getting the cute Ness' contact info. She was cute. ^^

That was my weekend in a nutshell. All things considered, it was pretty nice. ^^ My cosplay docket was:
Thursday (swap meet): Wii-tan
Friday: Mio Amakura (Fatal Frame 2)
Saturday: Lucas (Mother 3/Super Smash Bros. Brawl)
Sunday: Ness (Mother 2/Earthbound/Super Smash Bros. Brawl)
Monday: Ninten (YES, technically it was Ness, but I wore the red neckerchief and spent my last hours messing w/ ppl)

Highlights:
(Sunday nite)
Random guy: Hey, um, Ness, ca I ask you something?
Me as Ness: Shoot.
RG: How did it feel....when some bug came through time from the future to tell you you had the save the world from aliens?
Me: .....I honestly though i was stripping BALLS. Seriously. I was all "DUDE, Porky, that bug is talking to us....WE ARE SO TRIPPING BALLS RIGHT NOW. We should not have eaten those mushrooms in the forest". ....But in all honesty, it wasn't so bad in the end, cuz I got to hook up w/ a hottie [Paula] in the end. *Thumbs up*
RG: You just seriously made my night.
Me: Just kidding, I'm Ninten. You got the wrong Mother character.
RG: Really?? O_O
Me: No, I'm messing w/ you. I really am Ness. ^_^

I'm a horrible Ness, i know. XD That's why being Ninten on Monday was fun.

(Saturday afternoon)
*Me (as Lucas) and Choco (as pallette swap Mr. Saturn Ness) walk by a artist's booth*
Artist Guy (to Choco Ness): Hey, you know you wanna buy this bookmark. (bookmark in question is a Pokemon Trainer bookmark)
Me: SOLD.
AG: Huh? *looks at me* Really? You wanna see the others? (other bookmarks were Marth and Pit)
Me: Nope. Just PT. *gets wallet* Of all the characters in Brawl, he's the only one I'd bang. PT's sexy.
AG: O_O
Me (Still as Lucas, mind you): Seriously. I mean....Marth's a fag, I don't like Pit, Ness is a little bastard, and Lucas is too cute to think about like that. So, *points to PT* I'd hit that.
Artist Chick next to AG: Yeah. And Pit's Greek, so we know what his preferences are.
Me: oooh. Exactly. How much?
AC: $6.
Me: Sold.
AG: You made my day. I had no idea we'd turn Pokemon Trainer, or any of this, into something sexual.
Me: Yay. ^^ Look, Choco. PT!
Choco: O_O Lucas....
Me: Oh yeah....I'm Lucas today. -_-

I'm an even worse Lucas. T_T

(And just so I can clear this up, I am really serious. If I had to pick which Brawl character [girls excluded cuz I'd pretty much bang them all; only Samus would bang me ^^] to bang, it boils down to PT/Red. I think Marth and Ike are fags [and, as I've mentioned, I hate Fire Emblem charas], Pit's Greek, so we know he's already gay, Snake would never be home, Captain Falcon...just....no, Mario/Luigi/Link are taken [technically], Lucas is too sweet to think of in sexual terms, Toon Link is far too weird, I don't do furries [which counts out Fox, Wolf, and Falco], FUCK Ganondorf I hate him so much, Wario...GOD FUCK NO, and Ness.....well, Ness is a different story. But PT? Hell, I'd hit that and it'd be super-effective. ^__^
Ok....Ness is a close second, but only cuz he's a little punk. He'd Nancy Kerrigan me when I wasn't looking. Yes, I have a shota complex. You should know that by now)

ANYWAY. All in all, good con. I enjoyed myself. If any of you guys are in town/are local to San Jose next May, I heartily recommend coming down. ^^ The only place where you'd see Electra hanging out with Shredder next to the King of the Cosmos.

*Next con--Yaoi Con W00t*

Wanna Die?

Clio's Word of the Week:
Yurei (n): (dim/hazy/faint spirit) The spirits/souls of dead people who linger on earth because they have unfinished business. In most stories, yurei are female and usually are seeking revenge. Yurei are said to appear between 2am and 3am, usually appear in white, and usually do not possess legs.
--From Beyond the Camera's Lens, Ghost Section

I have eyeball cancer! I love March birthdays!

To my wonderful persocom/AICA Clio, congrats to you and the staff at Psychic Cafe on the A+. But then...you all prolly saw THAT coming, didn't you?

Chester. ^^ Of course.

Nothing much to report, lunies, as things are a mite slow. Oh, for those who've noticed my inadvertant Mayu gimp impression, I'm fine. The bruise is healing fine, and I don't think the toe is broken, like my dear FATHER (><) suggested. Moogle-man, Sano: XP. ^^ j/k

Fanime's coming, so all you cosplaying otaku better get ready!! Its gonna be a hoot! XD XD XD Tho it seems like hell trying to keep a group together, not to mention finishing costumes. I have a total of 2, read it, 2 costumes finished, and its for the same chara! >< If school wasn't in my way, I'd be finishing....bleh. When I learn to sew decently, this should all go smoother. Hopefully.

Whelp, that's about it....gotta get back to the sweat shop of homework...tho that won't be stopping me from chatting at the same time....^^;; Sate! Ikimasho! Or whatever!

*Abenobashi will pwnx0r j00.....ph34r teh 3v!l*

Kozumi's Quote of the week:
"Dude! I though you were the smart one here! You're screwing up our group mechanics!"
--Darek, to Ryori whom (like most humans) makes a slight miscalucation.....eh, it happens ^^;;

Stupidity strikes again in my mailbox, as another stupid e-mail scam trick yet another sucker. Since I am not speaking to this particular person anyway, there will be no sympathy from me. Which scam, do you ask? Why, none other than the Bonsai Kitten scam, which, in short, tells of a purported website that claims to sell kittens in glass jars that will "mold" to the shape of the jar. The e-mail has a petition that pleads with you to sign and "save" the kittens. I'm sorry but this is all a SCAM people. The methods of this would kill the kittens before they are molded and face it, there is no way the whole "growing a kitten in a bottle to make them tiny" idea is a crock in itself. I've been to the website, its crock, I see no "finished product". Anyway, check out snopes.com for the story thingy. Here's the addy for the specific story:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/bonsai.htm#add
and check out the rest of the site for the other urban legends revealed. its a pretty cool site.

Aro: She was reading the stories there instead of doing homework one night.

I was researching stuff for YOUR side story Aro.

Aro: A likely story.....
Lex: And there, folks, was Dez's rant for the day.

Righto. Well, I know ya'll have been asking for it so here, in its jumbled entirety, is Saturday night at Fanime.
Well, leave it to me to forget the important stuff. With most of my props for the skit back at home, Ryo and I tried to get TenTen to drive us to pick them up. Problem is, someone took TenTen's backpack so we spent more than enough time trying to locate it, as I cursed whomever took it for making us late. By 5:15, we ditched it, cuz we still needed to reherse with Poe, so we sent Wonder Boy to find her (damn that name sounds dumb ^^; ). Couldn't find my round clock or a table small enough to haul about, so we used Penny's Sailor Moon clock. Plus TenTen's niece's lil chair that we were gonna use broke a leg (-_-) so we had to take a broken chair! Gwar.

Dea: Shoulda taken it when you had the chance the week before.

Shaddup. Lonely Tylenol is a palindrome.
So around 5:30-ish, we get back to the con, sans table, and I find Poe in tears cuz she thought we ditched her. Man I felt bad, she tried to get in contact with us but my phone was either not on me or dead. After talking and assuring her that we really didn't have a way to contact her, we zipped backstage and started construction of our box for the 'com.
So here's the outline for the skit: I play a scientist that has a girlfriend (poe) who thinks she's too good for him. So in dispair, I make myself a persocom (Ryo) and marry her. Simple concept, all done to Louis Armstrong's "The Dummy", lyrics at end of post. Pissed off, my now ex-grilfriend kicks the box off stage. Wonder Boy is our set-up stage ninja. Since I'm putting this together in a box, we need to construct one that is sturdy enought for Poe to kick and big enough so Ryo can't be seen. Tall order but do-able. As I reinforce Ryo's persocom ears, I fill Poe in on what she does (she's a drama student so she's a real ace at this stuff, she's cool ^^). After scrambling with construction and at last finding a small table (we borrowed it from a skit that needed a stage ninja.....so we swaped to borrow, it all workks out ^^), we settled down to take in other sights, like a great Millenia (sp) costume from Grandia. Unfortunately, my camera refused to work for the rest of the night T_T so I missed some truely cool costumes, like the Sephiroth and Aerith entourage, Chris Tang's fully functionable Epyon costume and these cute lil girls as the Amazon Quartet from Sailor Moon.

Dea: There was a kawaii-ness level that could only be topped by "Snow Sugar Fairy", of which there was an awsome costume for.

Yup yup yup. With some anxiety, we waited for our turn, as we watched some truely interesting skits.....some involving strap-on Initial D cars, a stip show by Escaflowne's Dilandau, and a pair of purportedly underaged Sailor Scouts kissing. Needless to say, Ryo and I were kinda upset, as we always tone down our skits to family level and we get blasted out by a pair of rookie cosplayers.....-_- But I put the anger aside as there were some pretty hysterical skits on as well, especially the Sephiroth-Southpark Movie skit with the aforementioned Aeriths (4), a Fushigi Yuugi one that was kinda hard to understand but was funny nevertheless, and a chunk load of Final Fantasy X-2 skits, most of which were pretty cool.
On schedule, unlike *some* cons we know, there was an intermission, then the second half, our half, was ready to go. (We were number 35) Another cosplayer, one who shall remain nameless, showed up again in yet another revealing outfit. Honestly she does it every year just for attention, cuz, again, her performance involved her "popping" out again (of course on accident but...). She was also the one who sent my own sister into tears last con, so you can imagine my disgust with her.

Dea: Breathe.

(deep breath) Anyway, we soon went up and I, like the idiot I am, screwed up the order of the items, as I grabbed the chair before the table....eh, I was nervous, so sue me! We still got through the skit okay, especially when the audience all went "awwww" when Poe refused my wedding proposal. I kinda hoped that people would laugh or something when I brought out my 'com, but c'est la vie, at least they applauded. They did boo us coming on but we think its cuz they thought our cosplay group, G-Rated, was actually the rating. ^^;; hoo hoo hoo.
At the awards ceremony, the skits were awarded, the Seph-Aerith entourage getting two awards I believe, and Chris as Epyon recieveing an unprecedented 3 awards, but he deserved it. anyone who can make an Epyon costume that not only lights up, but has extendable wings gets more than major props from us.

Dea: He gets unceasing bowing and groveling from us. We're not worthy, we're not worthy!

XD Yeah, we didn't win anything, but we never expect to. Some girls from the skit with the dancing group of girls in black skimpy outfits complained about Chris but its not like they had anything better....I mean, come on! A light up Epyon!!! With moving wings!!! There was a Fraulin Yuna (if I'm wrong, please tell me so I can correct it) pair who got a pair of awards I believe; they had some damn cool costumes, BTW, the wing thingys were made of some sort of plastic or something, and they were pretty hard, as I found out when I neglected to move and hit my head on them as they passed (sorry guys!!).
All in all, the masq was a blast and next time, we hope to have something better....maybe that making fun of RPG thing we've had in the wings?? Perhaps, but for now, we can just relax and plan for Yaoi-con, where handcuffs, bishonens, and NY cops have fun....

Dea: Cuz we love Fake. Unless we're swinging Clamp's way with Wish....?

Depends. Ah, well, stay tuned for Sunday, and perhaps other fun rants on the stupidity of the world.

*Till next time Lunies!*

Kawaii-chan's Word of the Week:

Benign (adj): 1) having a kind and gentle disposition or appearance; 2) not a threat to life or ling-term health, especially by being noncancerous; 3) neutral or harmless in its effect or influence; 4) mild or favorable in effect

Words are fun. Ever said a word a whole bunch of times until saying it sounds funny? Its works that way with punch, mark, and grass. I dunno why but it amuses me so.

Ever had a day when it was better to stay in bed? Yesterday was one of those days, a day of much dropping stuff-ness and things not going quite right. Gwar -_- I dropped the phone every time I picked it up, I got egg everywhere when I was cooking some Ramen (yes, I eat ramen with egg, its actually quite good. recipe may be forthcoming soon). I ran into the damn laundry room door. For those who have been at my house will know what I mean but for those who don't.... We have the washer and dryer in the house (apartment, rather), next to the bathroom. The doors open out into the hall. Sometimes, the doors are left a little ajar so the room doesn't overheat, so you can hear the dryer go off, and we only leave it open a couple of inches. Well, it was open a little more than that and when I tried to go through the hall, the doors caught my foot and I ran face first into doorage. -_- Not a good day.... At least I got to talk to my koi and the phone only died at the 9:00 mark, so I was happy enough. Recently the damn thing's been dying at the halfway 8:00 mark but at least this time it reached 9. Plus I left my cell phone in my mom's car, so anyone who's been trying to contact me via that may bet my rather unusual answering service. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Lex: No we don't.

Sate! Saturday night at Fanime was pretty fun. Gakufest ran a lil late so when we all crashed in the room (which contained myself, Ryo-chan, TenTen, Aise and Ryo's friend Wonder Boy [for lack of a better alias ^^;;;] ), it was somewhere areound the 1:00 neighborhood. So we all slept in til.....7-ish. MY plans were to sleep until 9-ish, get my Kurama costume done (no it wasn't done yet, shaddup), then hit the con in time for the masquerade rehersal, which was at 11. Simple right? No, my stupid stressing lobe in my brain decided to stress about the skit TWO FRICKIN' HOURS before I was ready. Talk about heart attacks....I think I was having an anxiety attack or something. You'd think I was used to doing skits, you know? Well, add that to the fact that Ryo and I came up with our skit in ten minutes a WEEK before the con (or a week and 1/2, something like that), plus we hadn't choreographed, given that we didn't see Poe (another alias =P) almost at all on Fri..... I guess you can see where the stress comes in.

Dea: You know, you do this every time. You procrastinate, then you stress cuz you never have enough time. Its your own fault you know.

You know what?! Anyway, while the others went out to the con at something like 9-10, I was finishing up my costume, and we were waiting for our Yu Yu Hakusho group to call us when they got to the con, as they as well didn't have their costumes completed either. I think Ryo was the only one....'cept she didn't have her cape for Hiei but it wasn't really any skin off our back. After completion of the costume (which ellicited "Dexter's Laboratory"-like celebration and dancing), we decided to head doen as Yoshiki and Pata. I can't remember why...but there was a good reason for it. Huh, anyway, we ran into various peoples, got to the orientation rehersal and managed to get Poe and give her the run down. Now we had Wonder Boy in our skit, as a stage ninja, whose only job was to put our box onto the stage. Fun fun fun.
Once that was over, Ryo and I went up for another costume change--

Dea: Costume change count--3

--Which was, strangely, Kannuki Wakaba and Hisoka Kurosaki of Yami no Matsuei fame. Okay...not too much of a problem, right? No? Look at who we're doing....Wakaba, Hisoka. Normally, I do Terazuma as Ryo does Wakaba, and conversely (or not...) I do Tsuzuki while she handles Hisoka. Okay, mental note: I usually do uke characters, of which both Terazuma and Tsuzuki are, though I'm fairily sure they'd like to debate that.

Terazuma & Tsuzuki: That's right.

Well, who cares what you think, boys? Okay, no problem, right? Wakaba's this bouncy, hyper lil firball of a girl, while we have Hisoka as this uptight, easy to irritate young boy. Which do you think I'd do?? Surprise surprise, here I am dressed as Hisoka Kurosaki, anal-retentive seme of the YamiMatsu continuity....well, maybe I'm being a little harsh, but....really!! This is a major step away from characters I usually cosplay as.... I'm not used to being not hyper and bouncy and dumb-like (cough cough Tsuzuki cough cough). Well, I'm not complaining...it was kinda fun...especially when we ran into a Muraki, Terazuma and Tsuzuki group....subsequently we were also joined by a Yutaka Watari a bit later into the photo session. Fun fun fun.... I'm just glad the Muraki wasn't the overly-molestive type we usually encounter. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, as I had seen an additional Tsuzuki and Watari in the line for the AMV contest. Funny how all these charas pop up but there wasn't a single Tatsumi or Hisoka, besides Ryo and myself (and we were sharing the costume). Wahhh!!! I wanted to see a Tatsumi!
Oh, and about the proposed Yu Yu photoshoot? Well, as dummy me, left my cell phone in the room on our YamiMatsu costume change, they called us to tell us that they were there. We missed the shoot and missed out on using our Yu Yu costumes....funny how fate works out, ne? I felt really bad...but there wasn't anything I could do....well, except get a new brain....-_-
Well, around 5-ish, I said I needed to pick up the last few things for the skit (a clock, a chair, and a table). Leave it to fate to totally screw us over on that.... Next post I'll fill you in on the magical night of Der Cosplay and what really went on behind the scenes.....

*Till next time Lunies!*

Kozumi's Quote of the Week:

"I see you've met Diablo."
--Aro, to Holden as he reenters the room after being torched by Aro's summon monster.

Damn, this shirt makes me look unimaginably flat.

Lex: Its cuz you are.

(Beans Lex with rubber chicken) Shaddup. Well, I hope we're gonna get back to posting at a normal pace....Ha, like that's ever gonna happen. Well, lemme get Dea back out here and we'll finish up Friday night at Fanime, and possibly finish this ridiculous inner office war over love. And chickens. I have no idea what this chicken thing is.....

So after the swap, Ryo-chan and I went for the second cotume change for the night (3 costumes in one night, how prolific I am).

Dea: Or just indecisive.

She handed me a vest, and told me to put on my white-button down shirt and black pants and boots. I though we were aiming for a Yami no Matsuei costume, as that was 90% of my Tsuzuki costume, but she said it was more than that and headed off to the bathroom with something red. Okay, I was worried, but not worried enough to run. Eh, call it curiousity, calll it holding true to my word--

Dea: Or call it was it was--being an Uke and being too scared to defy the Seme..

(bonks Dea w/ piko piko hammer) --Call it what you will. Several minutes went by and finally out she comes in a long red coat, lacy gloves with no fingers, fishnet stockings and her hair down. Damn, like I didn't know who she was..... And here was me, without a guitar to hold.... So the secret costumes for Gakufest and the dance were Yoshiki (Ryo) and Pata from the J-rock band X-Japan. Hmmm, maybe I should have guessed that sooner, but eh, c'est la vie. Admittedly, I wasn't sure anyone would recognize us, given that not many people were into J-rock....mostly J-pop and K-pop.... But I decided that this was going to be fun anyway (as her coat was only held open by a single safety pin (mwa ha) so I set the doubts aside, took down my hair and we took to the con. She had a whole mess of roses, which I had a feeling would dwindle in number as the con progressed. They were the fake kind so no skin off our back if this became so.
After wandering the con, getting a few pics here and there, we stopped over at Gakufest, where there was a bunch of J-rock/gothic bands playing for the day. You had to pay to get in, but by the time we went, we got in for free cuz it was so late. So Ryo and I got to partake in a lil Blood, a fun little J-rock goth band with the penchant for pop-ish sounding music and spitting water at the crowed, inaddition to getting the other band members wet. Wow, it was just like all those X-Japan DVDs Ryo has, only this was live and toneed down a bit.

Dea: Toned down?? I couldn't tell if those guys were chicks or guys....damned dresses. And what about that guitarist running about and tumbling like the summer gymnastics olympics?

You haven't seen any X-Japan have you? Believe me, X-Japan makes Blood look like a Christian band.

Dea: HELL-o. O_o

Damn right. I really liked the music, kinda goth rock with a techno bass beat. It was kinda cool. We saw the last part of their run, had a break and then sat down with a band that Ryo and I knew all too well....

Lex: Secret Secret!

Right. The last band of the night was none other than the same live band from Yaoi-con '02--Secret Secret. I remember the lead singer taking off a piece of clothing every song they did back at Y-con. Well, maybe just 5 songs into thieir set, but damn was he hot.... Goth rocks. Ryo got to give the lead one of her roses during the concert, it was pretty sweet. Damn, he had nice eyes, ne?

Aro, Dio, and Kozu (dreamy-like): Ne......so desu....

Admittedly, after Blood was done, only, like, 20 people stayed, but that was okay, cuz Rob (lead singer as we learned later) wandered the thater, messing about with the audiance. It was so personal. I thought I'd died and gone to a t.a.t.u. concert.

Aro: -_-6

Anyway, after the show we hung about and Rob came out to talk to us few stagglers who were congregating outside the theater doors (inside, unless you've been to the Santa Clara convention hall, you'll have no idea of what this looks like). We all got to talk and, get this, he let us buy some of the compilation CDs for the SF goth rock community (or something like that--its Denki Tiger if you're interested) AND signed them! Wow, a cooler night could not have been better. Plus he recgnized Ryo's costume as Yoshiki from X. Damn, if this wasn't Heaven, then I don't want to go. Rob was so cute. His keyboardist came out to retrieve him for clean up so Ryo and I adjourned for the room, after checking out karaoke and joking about wanting to sing X-Japan'a "Art of Life" (which is, for those who don't know, 29 minutes long).
And that was mostly Friday night. Next post I'll give you a peak into Saturday, and learn why next time I should pack 9 packs of batteries for the camera.

*Till next time Lunies!*

In light of Blogger's shifting to a new server, yesterday's post will be posted today and normal (ha!) posting will resume today. We apologize for the inconvinience.

Well, the week's on a roll and many of my readers--

Syndelin: You mean *one*.

(Glare) Ahem, a reader, or *two*, has asked about Fanime from a cosplayer's eyes.....So I suppose Dea, my Cosplay Persona, and I can fill you in on at the very least Friday.


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Dea: Boosting ego, I see.

Shaddup. Thursday night, Ryo-chan (my Koi--for the rest of the report she will be refered to as Ryo-chan) and I decided that we should meet at the con around 10-ish, as I had some last minute costume elements to pick up (and Irony will turn its head to show how I really didn't need those gloves) in the lobby. The agreed costume was Hajime Terazuma of Yami no Matsuei/ Descendants of Darkness fame.

Dea: Well, more specifically, in the manga cuz he showed up in the anime for a cumulative amount of....lessee....2 seconds, maybe?
Terazuma: Bite me.
Dea (nibbles on his kneecaps): Kay.
Terazuma: Ow!!! Damn you! (turns into beats form and wreaks havoc)

Son of a---well, anyway, the problem was, Ryo-chan, my Kannuki Wakaba--or Terazuma's analog "love interest", was late by....about three hours due to, what else, last minute costume fixing. Hey, I really didn't care, as my Kurama costume was still, as of yet, unfinished. So it was all good.....took me an hour to get my damned badge tho..... Anyway, I managed to meet up with her around....2-ish, got her badge and then headed out to paint the con red....

Dio (snorts): Bwa ha ha!!!

Oh shut up. TenTen, Penny, Aise, GrandMel (all aliases...of course), and I had checked in around 11-ish, so we all trouped up to the room, unloaded some stuff, then went for Ryo-chan's stuff, then unloaded that. It was good, moving fun.... After which, wedecided to have a costume change. The first in a long line of costume changes. Mind you, I brought something like 8 costumes and 2 sets of regular clothes. 2 costumes were for Ryo but the rest were mine.... Plus there was the "Surprise" costume that she brought....so you could say we were ready for anything.

Dea: Costume change count--1.

Ryo and I emerged from the room as Sally Po and Chang Wufei of Gundam Wing, for the Gundam Wing photo shoot that was sorta announced at the Gundam panel. The Gundam panel was fun because the host was really on the ball and had a great sense of humor. He was giving out promotional boxes for Char's Counterattack, which included the DVD, some promo materials, and I think a model. It was pretty sweet. The ways of "winning" a prize (other prizes included DVDs or tapes of G Gundam) went from answering trivia, to reinacting scenes from Gundam Wing. Prizes even went to the oldest and the youngest fans present at the panel (50 and 9, respectively). So all in all, especially with the guy who was Domon Kasshu from G Gundam, the panel was kinda cool. The Domon was the one who told us about the Gundam photo shoot so we had to change from YamiMatsu to Wing in ten minutes.

The photo shoot was okay, we got some cool pix and saw some neat costumes, including a Chibodee Crockett costume (G Gundam).

Dea: Takes guts to wear a Chibodee costume, espcially when there are some pot shots at G Gundam for its cheesyness.

Right. We got some good photos in. Then we headed off to the swap meet, and dealer's room. Or something like that...friday was kinda a blur....

Dea: Like the rest of the weekend?

Nyahh......:P Anyway, at the swap, my sis Penny had camped out with GrandMel, TenTen and Aise to do some hardcore selling. A coupla members of my school's anime club were there trying to scrape up funds (>:D), an d we shopped around for a bit, as the dealer's room was closed. I scored a few cool things, like a disturbingly tasty Yu-Gi-Oh doujinshi, some other doujins, Hikaru and Toya plushies from Hikaru no Go (I gave the Hikaru to TenTen, he was soooo plased ^_^. I'm a good Ate/big sister.), and the comlpete set of the Japanese Chobits manga for $20. YATTA!

Dea: And there was dancing such that the world's never seen before.

Damn right. As the night drew on, and the dance drew nearer, Ryo-chan decided it was time to change into the secret costumes.... And mayhaps try to catch Gakufest, the J-rock concert at the theater..... It was then I was officially inducted into J-rock fandom.....the likes of which I shall hafta go into next post.... Mwa ha..., yes, I am evil.


We'd rate you #1 at the convention above all the
others! Congratulations on being the most
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Well, stay tuned for the "catch-up" post, as this thing won't let me publish long posts like before it seems..... Accursed server moving.....

*Till next time Lunies!*