AmeCon
Since I'm now armed with a reasonable amount of photos, it's con report time!
Friday
Edinburgh flight was about on time, while Glasgow’s (set to leave at the same time) was delayed an hour. Amusing text messaging ensued. The result was effectively that they took off around the time we landed…
On arriving, got a spiffy 7-seater taxi to the university! So convenient. After getting out rooms, tigertigeruk, Olivia and I headed off to Morrisons for essential supplies (they have Irn-Bru!). By that time, the Glasgow lot had made it to Leicester, and so I got into Pearl and met an ashechan. We were stuck in the queue of doom for registrations for aaaages (made better with the company of a nickel_dust and visits from others) and then nert gave us our badges. That has to be a tradition by now.
Didn’t really get up to much that day - lurked about waiting for friends to turn up, sat around in the café, found our odangochan Mia and had silly photos in and around the lettuce. I'm glad I got a lot of fun pictures, since these costumes need a looong break - we've managed to wear them so much this year!
Eli didn't forget her necklace, she's cosplaying as Maya after she's given her magatama to Phoenix, of course.
I’m not a pretzel…
…or binoculars
We played hide and seek
I totally won.
There were some beautiful photos in this set. This was definitely one of them.
.
It was established that my Pearl wig continues to confuse - I got at least two people asking if it was my real hair. Yet again. This continued with the Cinderella wig on Sunday. Are all my silly updo wigs far too realistic?
It was colder in costume later on, and flipflops can really start to hurt after a while, so I got out of costume, then came back to the campus to order pizza. I’m sure every pizza place in the vicinity hated us all, but it was wonderful! There were great lolz sitting around on the grass looking through Jon's photos on the magic tablet.
Saturday
I was awake and made it to the con before 10...but hardly anyone else seemed to have! I found a rossmills which was a good start, and eventually others emerged. This was my first day trying out Anemone. I think this is a costume I really want to work on. The paint on the shoes chipped a little, in spite of being utterly unproblematic for the tests I did, so I’ll have to try a few ideas to get it to stay better. The wig was a pain, as all long wigs are, but I was better at keeping it neat on the Sunday. If I have the enthusiasm, the skirt section of the dress could do with help, since I didn’t really pattern it out as well as I could have, and the stripes had started to go downhill by then since I was sick of sewing them all on! Overall, I think it was ok though. Apparently spending a couple of minutes with craft foam, scissors, a biro and double-sided tape was worthwhile, because the neck whatsit got the most comments all day.
Eli and I took a wander along to the cosplay competition to see all the amazing costumes there. It was cooooold and raining by then though (con very much living up to its name), and since it was fine when I left earlier, I didn’t bring a jacket or anything, so the plan was to head off and change into Lilie.
Before I left, I ran into both a nert and a redkun_arc, so got a few photos inside. I also bumped into Kari Wahlgren, who has voiced several of the characters I’ve cosplayed, but most notably at that moment in time, Anemone. And apparently I was the first Anemone cosplayer she’d ever met (or she says that to every cosplayer XP). She was really fun to chat to, very bubbly.
That’s the closest to psychotic you get
I had a cold, soggy walk off to get changed. Getting changed was a great idea though, since Lilie is very comfy and much warmer to wear! Especially with two pairs of tights on.
I went to Jon's magical panel of how to kill yourself through cosplay, which was very entertaining, and informative. Eventually acquired my matching Ahiru, now known as the Eilidhfish due to her beautiful facial expressions, and the swordfish impression. The wig tuft was one of the highlights of my weekend (easily amused…)
I learnt elegant ballet poses
Turns out I can get into character for Lilie after all
Then it was off to masqueradeness! We were nearly at the end of the masquerade, which gave me extra time to fail at learning pretty, elegant ballet poses. I managed them, but forget about elegant… The masq was excellent this year - almost on time, a much cooler, spacious and comfortable wait, even complete with a vidlink. It didn’t feel like much of a wait at all for me, and I enjoyed chatting to the other cosplayers backstage. And sitting on ailsa_chan’s feet.
On stage
In the evening, I started out at the J-pop party, then ended up sitting about chatting for a while. We wandered off to different seating, catching the end of the pub quiz (which seemed ludicrously difficult). There was much drawing of cats and Perrins with our eyes closed.
Sunday
Started out in Anemone again, but with the wig organised a bit better, and slightly less paint on the shoes by then. I stayed in this most of the day quite comfortably, so long as I had shorts on underneath!
Windy day + long wig = nice photos; bad tangles
I spent most of the day with tom_kun and Olivia, and acquired an Andrew for omake watchingness. The wait for the omake wasn’t too bad for me, since I chose to queue up for the balcony, like last year. Hardly anyone appeared to think of that, so there was enough space for everyone in our little queue to have a seat on the stairs during the wait, and we were all guaranteed tiered seats with a great view! So I wasn’t too bothered by the delay. The omake itself was impressive once it finally started! I approved of almost all the skits, which is unusual. Eli’s stuntwork was very convincing :P
I headed off after the omake for a shower after roasting to death in that hall, and a bit of a break out of costume to relax. I then got into Cinderella for the ball. We met up with Andrew for photos at the pretty archway thing. That made for some amusing encounters with the general public, but lovely scenery.
LOOK, a glass slipper! It was very difficult to get a shot to show it, so I propped by foot up on a handy plaque thing.
The best part was being very un-princesslike though. I can do that
More of that shoe. I carried them about in my classy Disney Princess handbag from the £1 shop.
Note my ironing work for the pleats, which mostly hid themselves…
The ball was lovely - it’s amazing seeing everyone dressed up so nicely, and such pretty decorations everywhere. I think it has got better every year. I left a while after the formal ball part ended, since my feet hurt and I wasn’t staying in that dress for too long. I spent a while back at my room packing, and wandered back for the last hour or so. I wasn’t there too long, so I know a missed a few of you and your helium balloons!
As an aside, I was not impressed with how the shortcut to Nixon Court was closed on the Saturday and Sunday. I'm sure they never did that before 0_o
Monday
Up too early to finish packing and get out of my room. Caught tellezara on her way off to the train station, so was able to chat for a bit. I was headed to the uni café though, and had a lot of time to kill until my flight at 4.25. I like having time on Mondays though, it’s a better way to say goodbye to everyone.
Snail pictochat somehow ensued. For around 3 hours. I think it started with me drawing *one* snail, then almost every post became a variety of lolsnail. I think it can safely be said that you had to be there…and even I’m not so sure why it was funny now, but the legacy of the lolsnail will live on.
We got two taxis over to the airport, had lunch there, walked most of the way back to Edinburgh to get to our gate in the new extension, then got a plane the rest of the way.
As ever, much fun spending time with everyone, which is the most important part of cons. As for the con itself, I did enjoy myself at Ame this year, but I think it has started to get a little stale, being in the same venue, the same events every time. I’ll be looking forward to Aya for a change!
Friday
Edinburgh flight was about on time, while Glasgow’s (set to leave at the same time) was delayed an hour. Amusing text messaging ensued. The result was effectively that they took off around the time we landed…
On arriving, got a spiffy 7-seater taxi to the university! So convenient. After getting out rooms, tigertigeruk, Olivia and I headed off to Morrisons for essential supplies (they have Irn-Bru!). By that time, the Glasgow lot had made it to Leicester, and so I got into Pearl and met an ashechan. We were stuck in the queue of doom for registrations for aaaages (made better with the company of a nickel_dust and visits from others) and then nert gave us our badges. That has to be a tradition by now.
Didn’t really get up to much that day - lurked about waiting for friends to turn up, sat around in the café, found our odangochan Mia and had silly photos in and around the lettuce. I'm glad I got a lot of fun pictures, since these costumes need a looong break - we've managed to wear them so much this year!
Eli didn't forget her necklace, she's cosplaying as Maya after she's given her magatama to Phoenix, of course.
I’m not a pretzel…
…or binoculars
We played hide and seek
I totally won.
There were some beautiful photos in this set. This was definitely one of them.
.
It was established that my Pearl wig continues to confuse - I got at least two people asking if it was my real hair. Yet again. This continued with the Cinderella wig on Sunday. Are all my silly updo wigs far too realistic?
It was colder in costume later on, and flipflops can really start to hurt after a while, so I got out of costume, then came back to the campus to order pizza. I’m sure every pizza place in the vicinity hated us all, but it was wonderful! There were great lolz sitting around on the grass looking through Jon's photos on the magic tablet.
Saturday
I was awake and made it to the con before 10...but hardly anyone else seemed to have! I found a rossmills which was a good start, and eventually others emerged. This was my first day trying out Anemone. I think this is a costume I really want to work on. The paint on the shoes chipped a little, in spite of being utterly unproblematic for the tests I did, so I’ll have to try a few ideas to get it to stay better. The wig was a pain, as all long wigs are, but I was better at keeping it neat on the Sunday. If I have the enthusiasm, the skirt section of the dress could do with help, since I didn’t really pattern it out as well as I could have, and the stripes had started to go downhill by then since I was sick of sewing them all on! Overall, I think it was ok though. Apparently spending a couple of minutes with craft foam, scissors, a biro and double-sided tape was worthwhile, because the neck whatsit got the most comments all day.
Eli and I took a wander along to the cosplay competition to see all the amazing costumes there. It was cooooold and raining by then though (con very much living up to its name), and since it was fine when I left earlier, I didn’t bring a jacket or anything, so the plan was to head off and change into Lilie.
Before I left, I ran into both a nert and a redkun_arc, so got a few photos inside. I also bumped into Kari Wahlgren, who has voiced several of the characters I’ve cosplayed, but most notably at that moment in time, Anemone. And apparently I was the first Anemone cosplayer she’d ever met (or she says that to every cosplayer XP). She was really fun to chat to, very bubbly.
That’s the closest to psychotic you get
I had a cold, soggy walk off to get changed. Getting changed was a great idea though, since Lilie is very comfy and much warmer to wear! Especially with two pairs of tights on.
I went to Jon's magical panel of how to kill yourself through cosplay, which was very entertaining, and informative. Eventually acquired my matching Ahiru, now known as the Eilidhfish due to her beautiful facial expressions, and the swordfish impression. The wig tuft was one of the highlights of my weekend (easily amused…)
I learnt elegant ballet poses
Turns out I can get into character for Lilie after all
Then it was off to masqueradeness! We were nearly at the end of the masquerade, which gave me extra time to fail at learning pretty, elegant ballet poses. I managed them, but forget about elegant… The masq was excellent this year - almost on time, a much cooler, spacious and comfortable wait, even complete with a vidlink. It didn’t feel like much of a wait at all for me, and I enjoyed chatting to the other cosplayers backstage. And sitting on ailsa_chan’s feet.
On stage
In the evening, I started out at the J-pop party, then ended up sitting about chatting for a while. We wandered off to different seating, catching the end of the pub quiz (which seemed ludicrously difficult). There was much drawing of cats and Perrins with our eyes closed.
Sunday
Started out in Anemone again, but with the wig organised a bit better, and slightly less paint on the shoes by then. I stayed in this most of the day quite comfortably, so long as I had shorts on underneath!
Windy day + long wig = nice photos; bad tangles
I spent most of the day with tom_kun and Olivia, and acquired an Andrew for omake watchingness. The wait for the omake wasn’t too bad for me, since I chose to queue up for the balcony, like last year. Hardly anyone appeared to think of that, so there was enough space for everyone in our little queue to have a seat on the stairs during the wait, and we were all guaranteed tiered seats with a great view! So I wasn’t too bothered by the delay. The omake itself was impressive once it finally started! I approved of almost all the skits, which is unusual. Eli’s stuntwork was very convincing :P
I headed off after the omake for a shower after roasting to death in that hall, and a bit of a break out of costume to relax. I then got into Cinderella for the ball. We met up with Andrew for photos at the pretty archway thing. That made for some amusing encounters with the general public, but lovely scenery.
LOOK, a glass slipper! It was very difficult to get a shot to show it, so I propped by foot up on a handy plaque thing.
The best part was being very un-princesslike though. I can do that
More of that shoe. I carried them about in my classy Disney Princess handbag from the £1 shop.
Note my ironing work for the pleats, which mostly hid themselves…
The ball was lovely - it’s amazing seeing everyone dressed up so nicely, and such pretty decorations everywhere. I think it has got better every year. I left a while after the formal ball part ended, since my feet hurt and I wasn’t staying in that dress for too long. I spent a while back at my room packing, and wandered back for the last hour or so. I wasn’t there too long, so I know a missed a few of you and your helium balloons!
As an aside, I was not impressed with how the shortcut to Nixon Court was closed on the Saturday and Sunday. I'm sure they never did that before 0_o
Monday
Up too early to finish packing and get out of my room. Caught tellezara on her way off to the train station, so was able to chat for a bit. I was headed to the uni café though, and had a lot of time to kill until my flight at 4.25. I like having time on Mondays though, it’s a better way to say goodbye to everyone.
Snail pictochat somehow ensued. For around 3 hours. I think it started with me drawing *one* snail, then almost every post became a variety of lolsnail. I think it can safely be said that you had to be there…and even I’m not so sure why it was funny now, but the legacy of the lolsnail will live on.
We got two taxis over to the airport, had lunch there, walked most of the way back to Edinburgh to get to our gate in the new extension, then got a plane the rest of the way.
As ever, much fun spending time with everyone, which is the most important part of cons. As for the con itself, I did enjoy myself at Ame this year, but I think it has started to get a little stale, being in the same venue, the same events every time. I’ll be looking forward to Aya for a change!