Supercon 2012: Part Two: Recap and pictures! (Friday and Saturday)
Part One, being about my cosplays and pics of me, is over here if you're interested. =3
TO ANYBODY WHO WANTS ANY OF THESE PICTURES: I resized all these photos to make uploading/posting easier. I still have the high-res files for almost every single one of these, so if you see a picture of yourself or a friend and want a copy of it, don’t just right-click-save the dinky little resized version! Let me know which ones you want (comment here or e-mail me at peaceandbooks @ gmail) and I’ll e-mail you the high-res file(s). Much better for printing or editing! =D
This post includes my entirely overly detailed recap of every single thing I did while there, but it's perfectly fine if you're just stopping by to scroll around and check out the pictures. I had my lovely new camera with me this year and I got a lot of pics of a lot of people. =3 Feel free to scroll away to your heart's content~
Any photo you see credited to Rob or K-Cuf Productions means that it was taken by the cool folks here. Check out their page; they have a ton of great pictures from Supercon posted!
Part Three is here!
Thursday
So I left on Thursday this year because arriving the day of the con last year was a pain. >.< The parking was insane, check-in took FOREVER, I missed some panels I would have liked to do, I only got to be at the con for a few hours, and just in general it was not the best first-day-of-a-con as it could have been. Arriving the day before made everything a lot easier, and this year confirms that. Next year I’m going up the day before again!
I really took on a lot more than I could handle this year costume-wise, (and procrastinated too much, and coped with stress by completely avoiding cosplay work for too long) so in the week leading up to leaving, I spent pretty much all my free time trying desperately to finish in time. It was an insane week and I still claim that Burger King frappes are the only reason I didn’t just pass out on my face. X_x
But finally Thursday came! The big day! Packing was done literally an hour before I left, which is not very good for someone like me who needs at least a day to pack so I can quadruple check everything. I planned to leave by noon. I left around 2:00-ish instead, and ended up forgetting several things that I should have taken with me. >.<
After leaving I stopped by Office Depot to print some last cosplay construction pictures and Radio Shack to get a new battery for our Sunpass (The thing in Florida that replaces toll booths. I’m guessing other states have something similar?) The customers at OD were looking at me like “who is this chick who just goes behind the counter and uses the computer without asking!?” xD; And it was funny at Radio Shack because I was all, “um, can you check this battery? I don’t know if it’s still any good.”
Radio Shack guy: “Sure thing! They usually only last about a year. How long has this one been in?”
Me: “Um…seven years.” |D
So yeah, it was good that my mom made me check that. >.>
Then I had to rush back home because I realized I forgot my headphones for Vinyl Scratch. I just wish I had remembered the flip video camera and elastic for my mask and paint/hair gel for my eyebrows too. =|
The drive was surprisingly smooth most of the way other than rain on Card Sound. I was partway up the turnpike when I began to consider that I might actually not get lost or have to panic this year. But it wouldn’t be a road trip to Supercon without at least one panicked detour. u_u I ended up picking the wrong side of a split in the turnpike, of course. Had no idea where I was and rush hour was coming. AND my car was suddenly making a weird noise. D= I thought I saw a sign for 72nd SW Ave, but it was actually for STREET, not AVE and I ended up at the Dadeland Mall, (don’t ask me how) where a nice clerk at JC Penneys gave me directions that I think I still managed to fail following. xD; Because I was supposed to end up on US1 and…I wasn’t on US1.
Then, out of nowhere, as I’m driving around cursing myself for managing to pick the wrong side of a fork despite making this trip TWICE before, I saw a sign! A sign for 826! This was the road I should have been on before. So I followed this to where Flagler Street’s exit was, having a bit of a meltdown because rush hour had totally begun and I was so sure I would die in a fiery crash. Instead I found Flagler street, found the 72nd Ave I needed to be on, found the hotel and managed to get parked without any complications other than recovering from the heart attack I nearly had. ^^; I carried my stuff up in four trips on my own because I’m too shy to let one of the bellhop people help me. The room was still fucking freezing as always. But at least this year the faucet wasn’t leaking.
I ate and chilled till around 7:45ish and then resumed some last minute cosplay work. I finished feathering the tip of my Vinyl Scratch tail and finished painting the duel disk that night. I also painted the thorns for Tamir and decided to let them dry overnight since I didn’t need Tamir until Saturday. Going to bed at midnight actually felt kind of early compared to the week before. xD
Friday
Got up at around 7:30-ish and took a shower and finished Tamir’s tail. My Vinyl cosplay was really easy to get dressed in. Even though the dealer’s room wouldn’t open until 2:00, I went down at bit after ten, figuring I’d beat the crowd. Thank goodness I didn’t wait any longer because the line to sign in was already enormous. It was crazy, I arrived at 10:00 in 2010, and the place was a ghost town. I show up at 10:00 this year and find a mob scene. Wut.
Honestly, Supercon’s organization this year kind of sucked as far as getting into the con. People buying tickets that day could just walk inside and get them, but those of us who pre-ordered had to wait in line. In the sun. For an hour. (And that was when it was still early! After I got my wristband I went back outside and the line was three times as long. It was snaking across the parking lot! I feel so bad for those people.) I got a bit sunburned X_x And the line moved really slow because they were checking each person’s ticket online. I really feel like there has to be a better way to do that. =/
While in line I saw Jamie, Blue and their sister, who were also ponies! (Pinkie, AJ and Apple Bloom.) They were the ones who tried to teach me to dance last year. xD They didn’t recognize me at first (they just came over to say hi because I was a pony too. xD) and I was like, “um…is one of you called Blue?” And then they were all, “OMG CASSSS.” *pounce*
Look how cute!
I also got a pic with just their little sis. She made such an adorable Apple Bloom. x3
They introduced me to one of their friends who was waiting in line. I really like this picture a lot. =D
It's great because I can show it to people who have never seen MLP and can just say, "See the DJ pony on his shirt? I'm her." And nobody asks any questions.
Hanging out in the line also meant being able to snag a few pics of cosplayers who were standing out there waiting too.
The Onceler. I'm not part of the Onceler fandom, but I knew some people on my tumblr dash are, so I took his picture for them. xD (You're welcome guys.)
Ponyo!! She was the cutest cosplayer ever. <33 When she was inside the con she even ran around barefoot just like the real Ponyo. x3
Once I was registered, it was about 11:30. We hung out awhile longer in the lobby getting pictures.
I found a Rainbow Dash!
And...some chick with a scary gun and cool boots. xD
If it isn't obvious yet, that became my standard Vinyl pose. It made a lot of people smile.
This photo is great because it totally sums up a con. xD We have fandoms crossing, a Hetalia cosplayer in the background, and a random photobomber over there on the left. xDD
The Painted Lady from Avatar:TLA! I really admired her for this cosplay, because while there were a ton of LoK cosplayers, and ATLA isn't really an uncommon fandom to see cosplays of, this was the first time I'd seen a Painted Lady cosplay. It was really original and pretty! (Also, look at that line of people still waiting out there. D=)
One of the Sailor Scouts of course! I tried to get pics of any Sailor Moon characters for my Yugi. x3 Unfortunately I'm not sure which one she is.
Look at how crowded it got in the lobby. >.> Everyone was trying to squeeze inside for the AC. This was around noon-ish.
It wasn't until I got home and was looking at the crowd picture full-size that I saw THIS GUY:
He had like armor and a sword made out of Magic: The Gathering cards. xD I feel like I've seen him before at Supercon. Maybe, like Squidninja (who was there this year too), this is his traditional cosplay.
Eventually they let us go upstairs so I went with Jamie and co to listen to some karaoke.
Another Sailor Scout! I wish I remembered which song she did.
This was a picture I found on the Supercon Flickr page, from when we were in the karaoke room:
My head is apparently floating atop Apple Bloom's bow, and I look like I'm giving zero fucks. xD (That big binder was the binder of songs you could pick from.)
There was a MLP panel at 1:45 that I’d planned on going to, but being a paranoid parrot decided I would skip it so I could be like the first person at the Wonderland table.
Some guy told us the dealer’s room was open around 1:45-ish, but it was a LIE. So I just queued up at the escalators with everyone else. Then, awesomely, the whole line suddenly broke into song, singing Don’t Stop Believin’, and then Bohemian Rhapsody. It was around this time that I began to kick myself for not bringing the flip camera. I wish I could have gotten the songs on video! This con was seriously the con of spontaneous songs, and it was awesome, because spontaneous singing is just so full of happiness and fun. ='D
I guess I was a bit too much of a paranoid parrot because once they let us into the dealer’s room, the Wonderland people didn’t even have the sign up sheet made yet. xD They looked kind of stunned that I was already there and said to come back in around 15 minutes. Since I didn’t know where else to go because they didn’t have programs printed up yet, I decided to wander around the dealer’s room, but I’d barely started looking when the lights suddenly went out. Luckily they came back after another 15 minutes or so and I was able to sign up for the panels. I thought it was just a power outage at the time, but it turns out that was actually planned. It was part of a proposal that was taking place. I didn’t find out about this until I got home.
By this time it was getting close to three already. I killed some more time wandering and taking pictures.
This guy was pretty awesome, and I'm not even a Doctor Who fan:
He made the dalek himself. It had a person inside it and was fully pilotable, and the little arm things could move freely. I was super impressed.
Rarity and Fluttershy!! These two were really nice and their cosplays were adorable. =D I found the Fluttershy cosplayer, Vicky, on tumblr and turns out we have a lot of fandoms/ships in common, (NIGHTRUNNER FAN YESSSS) so yay, new tumblr friend!
And Spike! This is Kelly, who I ended up hanging out with a lot later. =3
I squealed so much when I saw this Kiki cosplayer. ^^ Adorable~
NGL I don't know anything about Homestuck, but again, I took their pic for my tumblr followers who are fans. xD
Another Fluttershy. It was so much fun seeing all the pony cosplayers. x3 Vinyl Scratch was a big hit among them! Literally at one point I was standing back from a hallway in the dealer's room and three people in a row walked by and went, "Vinyl Scratch. Nice. Brohoof!"
Lots of people took my picture and several said I was the best VC they’d seen. I was very proud. x3 Even if my head hurt like heck by halfway through the day. (Having four bands of elastic account your head makes it hurt. The moar you know. Wig breaks are no joke!) No real creepers to speak of, luckily. A few compliments that I was all wat about since I can’t take a compliment, (one dude complimented my butt xD; He said, “I like your tail. And the piece of anatomy it’s attached to.”) but no real creepers. Which is good, because I realize being a pony could easily lead to creepers.
I don't actually know when this pic was taken, it's another one that I found on the FSC Flickr:
But it's another great shot of just what a con is like. All these different random fandoms and people of every age, race, gender, expression, clique, etc hanging out together. And while I'm sure there were some asshats at the con, honestly the atmosphere was really friendly and inviting. =)
While in the dealer's room I bought some candy and a cake pop:
It's basically cake on a stick. The people making them had made a whole set of pony-themed ones. This one was Rarity-themed. It was cookies n' cream and really yummy.
Seeing as how they changed the layout of the center…AGAIN…I had to go on a quest to find room 102 for Wonderland workshops. Honestly this is something Supercon has kind of failed at all three years I’ve been there. They cannot keep their panel rooms in any sort of order that makes sense, and more often than not take at least two days before they get signs put up. =| And this year was even more confusing because they didn’t even have programs yet. Not to mention that the convention center had been re-built, and all the formerly glass-walled rooms now had solid walls and solid doors. So you couldn’t even look in to get an idea of what was going on inside, and had to just open doors and interrupt panels to be like, “derp, hey guys, what’s going on in here?” It definitely didn’t ruin the experience for me any of the years, but I feel like they might realize this is a consistent problem that needs attention.
After finding 102 I just stayed there to wait for the sushi party at 4:00. Some other people were hanging out too. The panelist gave us lychee candies and Aloe while we waited. My sushi was pretty good; pickled radish, fish sausage (not as gross as it sounds, actually. It was very reminiscent of hot dogs.) deep-fried garlic flakes and sesame seeds. We were allowed to make as much as we wanted, but after a single roll (which gave me six good-sized slices of sushi) and drinking a bunch of Aloe I was stuffed. xD I really really like Aloe. The first time I ever had it was at Supercon 2010. It’s so funny, because when they brought out the bottle this year I was all YAY ALOE <3 and everyone else was like “Aloe juice. ._. What is this sorcery.” Oh those silly newbies.
I left there a bit after five to go to the MLP photo shoot. I was too late to be in some of the group shots or to get pictures of the whole group, but luckily Rob got some!
I love this picture, it's very sweet. Plus, OTP!
(All three of the above by Rob)
I was able to get some pics of my own too:
Don't ask me what the deal is with the Twilight-like cosplayer with the giant mouse head in the background. I TRULY DON'T KNOW.
I'm not actually sure who took this picture, but I like it a lot:
I know the Rarity guy seems to be creeping but he was actually pretty funny. xD
Luckily, I did show up in time for a few photos, and for the pony dance party!
TIME TO DANCE /o/ Free form!
We also did a line dance 8D
Again, all three of the above photos by Rob. xD
While thereI ran into the girl who played Hiccup last year (her name is Ashley) and her friends, who invited me to hang out with them. That was how I met Kelly, who took quite a liking to snuggling with me for the rest of the con. xD Even though I’m ace I really am a huge cuddleslut. I just don’t know any people who would want to randomly snuggle. So I was quite happy to find a cuddlebuddy. She also decided she wanted to pick me up and throw me over her shoulder. I said, “Only if someone gets a picture of it on my camera too.” And she stopped in her tracks and was like, “Rob, get the camera. Let’s do this.” xD Which resulted in some awesome pics of Spike kidnapping Vinyl:
Rob took both these pics- the top one with my camera and the second one with his.
I followed them around to a couple different photo shoots because Rob, a photographer, wanted to get ALL the pictures. Which was cool with me because I wanted all the pictures too.
I took this pic mostly because I thought the girl was cosplaying Yuna, because I know Talys from Tumblr loves Yuna. xD Turns out I was wrong, it's actually a cosplay of Aqua. (Luckily he likes Aqua too so I only partly failed.)
Sora cosplays always kind of impress me, which is why I always seem to photograph at least one at Supercon. I feel like they'd be really hard to put together.
I just really like their coats. ;~; *makes grabby hands*
Amon! I showed this picture to my mom and she was like, "This is so awesome. Here's this person all dressed up and wearing a freaky mask, and two feet away are those two girls giving zero fucks like it's no big deal." xD
Ed, Edd and Eddy! And Kevin. xD These guys were great, they never broke character once, except for photos. As soon as the picture was over the Kevin cosplayer began chasing them around again.
Adam, Ashley's friend. He was a steampunk version of someone from Homestuck. No idea who, but his costume was pretty awesome.
Look out Korra, Amon's creeping!
I TRIED TO WARN YOU.
They were both laughing by this point because they had to hold that pose forever. xD People kept walking by and fumbling for their cameras and calling, "WAIT, HOLD THE POSE FOR TWO MORE SECONDS! PLEASE!!"
Rob went to meet Alex Kingston while Kelly and I went to the Gijinka panel, which was pretty fun. The panelist had a lot of cool gijinka art she showed us, and brought in Pokemon cards and let us all have a couple. I got an Eevee and an Ekans. =3
After that panel I didn’t have any major plans. I ended up meeting back up with Kelly’s group and going to the Crossplay contest, which ended around 9:00. And was totally awesome. The first contestant up did a song and dance too. I really should have videoed it because it was great, but I only took pics:
I call this one, "air guitar." xD
FLAIL.
Then best of all, after singing a very angry Daddy-issues song, she suddenly burst into a broadway dance. xD
And then there was this guy called Mikuo, and he was SO CUTE. He pranced around and strutted and was adorable.
Look at dat strut.
He even randomly blew me a kiss. =’3
What a cutie. =3=
Then was a guy dressed as Sailor Venus and good lord HIS LEGS. This guy had the greatest legs ever. Look at all these pictures I took of him because I just could not deal with it.
Of course he won one of the prizes. Who would actually deprive him of a crossplaying prize? He deserves all of the prizes!
I actually took this picture because I was trying to get a good shot of Ashley. (in the blue) It had nothing to do with the legs. At all. Really.
Again seriously I was just trying to take a picture of Ashley it's not my fault the legs ended up in the shot. >.>
I titled this picture: "I ship it."
I don't think I need to say anything else.
And here's an actual good non-blurry shot that Rob took. xD THOSE LEGS NO REALLY WHY.
And don’t get me started on the adorable Link cosplayer. She was so tiny and cute, I wanted to like, bring her home and give her cookies. I think my creeperness is coming out. TINY PEOPLE ARE CUTE OKAY.
She accidentally stabbed the ceiling with her sword. Why is that so cute. I DON'T KNOW.
Americaaaaaaa!
I don't remember what show this guy's character was from, but his cosplay was really awesome.
Look at all those layers and ruffles! He also won a prize and definitely deserved it.
Then there was this cute Bilbo Baggins. ^^ I'm not a Tolkien fan, but this was a pretty nice costume.
The Amon cosplayer I photographed earlier was also in the contest. I'm glad I got her pic earlier, because all my pics of her in the contest came out blurry. =(
Here are all the winners from the crossplay contest:
It was a really fun contest. Part of me wants to enter my Chigusa cosplay in it next year, because I thought that was quite a good crossplay, but I'm still kind of insecure about that cosplay after that dick online insulted me about it. =/ We'll see.
Kelly’s group invited me back to their room for pizza and to chill after the contest. At first I was all normal!Chey so I was like, “Nahh, thanks for asking but I don’t want to be gang raped and sold into slavery for going to some strangers’ room.” Because obviously every group of people who invites you to hang out is going to kidnap you and sell you into slavery. But con!Chey quickly pointed out that they didn’t seem like the gang rape type and they assured me they just wanted to chill and not party-party, so after changing clothes and calling Mom I decided to go after all. We ended up watching part of some vampire movie called Fright Night that was so badly done that it wasn’t even really scary, plus everyone kind of talked over it. Kelly decided to snuggle with me more. x3 They were real cool people, who didn’t think it was weird or anything that I didn’t drink, and weren’t pushy at all. It was fun hanging out with them. I was kind of awk at times because social interaction, HOW DO I DO SOCIAL INTERACTION, but that’s my everyday state so it wasn’t really unusual. xD
Her group went to the rave at 11:45 and I went to bed.
Saturday
The plan was to get up really early to prepare and camerawhore in my room like I did last year, but I ended up oversleeping until 8:00-ish and then had to rush to shower and get ready by 10:00. Because pre-judging started at 10:00 and I was determined to be first in line. >|
I’d barely made it in the front doors when a guy asked if he could interview me for like his Youtube video thing. He knew who Aki was and complimented my cosplay (I was blushing so hard from having my cosplay recognized and complimented so quickly!) and asked my thoughts on the 5Ds anime ending. He really liked Tamir so I was like, “do you want a picture with the dragon?” and he literally fangirled and started flailing at his friend: “dude dude take a picture of me with the dragon!” I was proud. xD Tamir ended up being like the star of the day. Everyone aww’d over her and talked about how awesome she was, and seemed to be totally stunned when I said I’d made her. I heard total strangers being like, “whoa, that dragon is awesome” to their friends when I walked by. HOW DO I TAKE COMPLIMENTS.
I also caught this Katniss cosplayer just after getting inside:
She was cool because she could do the whole distainful-pout expression perfectly, but as soon as she broke character she grinned at her friend and was all, "Yay, now I can smile again!" IDK, it just makes me really happy to see happy people at cons. x3
I made it to pre-judging with time to spare this year, so I had time to actually talk about my cosplay and the details of making it, unlike last year where I kind of mumbled “so um I made this okay bye.” (spoiler: I still didn’t win anything.)
This Joker cosplayer was also there for pre-judging:
After that I caught the end of a leather working panel that was kind of interesting. The guy running it was impressed with my duel disk and dragon. ;3
After that ended at like 12:30 I had nothing planned to do until 2:00. I’d lost my program so I went out to the lobby for a new one, which ended up being a pain in the ass because to get back in I had to set down all my stuff and take off my duel disk and glove to show my wristband. >_< Doing so caused my palm strap to break. I went to cosplay medics to fix it, but then it broke again like an hour later, so I gave up at that point.
While at the cosplay medics table, these two walked by:
MERMAID MAN AND BARNACLE BOY. They were so funny and really in-character. xD
I also dropped my mask twice (I had to hold it on with a strip of T-shirt fabric because I forgot to bring elastic) and finally gave up on it too and just stuffed it in my bag. The Aki cosplay was very breakable. =| I’d like to wear it again sometime, but I’m really going to need to remake some things.
I wandered around and took some pics and bought a few little things, (a Vinyl Scratch ID card for me, and a Derpy Hooves card and Mockingjay pin as presents for my mom) but the dealer’s room was so crowded that it actually kind of scared me so I ran back upstairs to people-watch instead. xD
I did get this one Princess Mononoke picture before escaping:
It can be kind of awkward being that lone person who is just kind of lurking around staring at everyone, but I really like people-watching at cons. I can literally just sit there and stare for way too long at everyone. There's always something random going on.
Like these people playing frisbee with Captain America's shield. xD
Why? BECAUSE THEY COULD.
Look at how cute and innocent that little Loki cosplayer is acting in that photo. xD Like, "I would neeeeever steal Captain America's shield and play frisbee with it! Never~~!"
Speaking of Loki, this really pretty Lady Loki was also at the con:
I really should watch Thor / The Avengers so that I actually understand the whole phenomenon rather than just guess at it via Tumblr osmosis.
There were planned meet-ups this year, but by the second day the cosplay meet up area kind of turned into the place everyone went to to chill instead. Every now and then someone would come by and randomly say hi. It was a great place for taking pics of anyone and everyone. =3 Including more completely random things, like this:
Seriously these guys just walked in with the chairs, sat down, and started reading the paper. They didn't say anything to anyone. Then after about five minutes they walked away.
IT WAS SO RANDOM AND AWESOME. xDDDD
This giant Hetalia group all showed up at once.
Russia getting a piggyback ride from America. xD
I really loved this Chesire Cat cosplay. It was cute, instantly recognizable, and her make-up was awesome.
Espeon and a random Hello Kitty girl!
THIS LITTLE RAINBOW DASH WAS SO CUTE AND TINY SDLFDK;HFADGFAJGHFAK
This guy from Hellsing (I think?) came over and sat down next to me for awhile. We commiserated about how it's tough to wear a long coat without people stepping on it, and that the paint from the guns was getting on his gloves. I told him how the ink from my Vinyl tail got on my armbands. Then we took each other's pictures and he wandered off.
The two Avatars! (That vending machine box in the back was actualy someone's costume. The guy inside had a bag full of ramune and water and candy, and if you put a dollar in the machine slot he'd hand you one of the goodies through the larger square. xD)
Here's Makorra. I don't ship it, but they were still cute. xD
Then a Bolin showed up and that made me happy. =3 Bolinnnn <333
I think these three are all from X-men. Their costumes were pretty wicked.
Of course there were ponies too!
I also surprisingly found THREE Bakurae. Yugioh is not well represented at Supercon, so three Bakurae in one day was like...WHAT.
The third was a Yami Bakura cosplayer with the black coat. I saw her in a panel with me later, but unfortunately she left before I ever got her picture. =(
I also managed to catch the Disney goup!
(EVERYONE in this picture had red-eye. So I just gave them all brown eyes because that's what my Paintshop is already set to autocorrect red-eye to. xD;)
Eric and Ariel specifically for Gina~ (Although Alladin's trying to creep. xD) (Also note the random cuddling at appears to be going on in the background. x3)
THEN THIS HAPPENED.
Ponyo came running over to huggle Ariel. Luckily I remembered to take the picture BEFORE flailing and squeeing.
This Belle was also there. She was very sweet, just like an irl Belle!
At 2:00 there was a make-up panel that kind of devolved into one of the panelists talking to the crowd about wigs while the make-up artist was working on her model. I felt a little sorry for them, nobody was paying any attention. ^^;
This Nausicaa cosplayer was at the make-up panel:
Then the costume contest people invaded for pre-judging round 3 and we had to split, so I went back to picture-taking, just in time for the Pokemon meet-up, where Jamie and Blue were!
I could have sworn I took a picture of just them but now I can't find it. D< I'm pretty sure I reblogged one of their pics on my tumblr though!
This cute umbrion was there too. x3
And no con is complete without at least one Roy Mustang. /o/
I headed on over to the 4Kids Effect panel at 4:00. This was a panel I wasn’t 100% sure I’d like. I was afraid it would spend a lot of time making fun of 4Kids and dissing people who liked dubs, and by extension dissing the Yugioh series and fans of it since they’re kind of 4Kids biggest franchise after Pokemon. And as derpy as the dub is, I still love the YGO dubs.
Instead it ended up being SO hilarious. (And super crowded.) The presenter had this great powerpoint full of videos and examples of edits - and not just of Yugioh, though of course the invisible guns made it in. The panel was actually about the editing that all companies do, not just 4Kids. And the presenter had all these great sarcastic jokes. He showed us a great clip too in Pokemon of when Eric Stuart somehow got a soundboard guy to sneak in a clip of him saying backwards that "Leo Burnett and 4Kids are the devil" because of a withheld paycheck for a commercial his voice was in. Clearly the moral here is don’t fuck with Eric Stuart. (You can hear it on Youtube here >D) Then he talked a bit about intro songs and everyone spontaneously began singing the Pokemon theme song. I honestly wish that panel could have just gone on forever, it was so much fun. xD If it had been possible I seriously would have recorded the whole thing, it was that amusing.
I ran into this Assassin's Creed cosplayer in the hall and had to get her picture. Not only was she tiny and adorable, but look at the detail in that cosplay!
That is really amazing, seriously. *_*
These Portal people were also hanging out so I took their picture too:
I went back to the cosplay photoshoot area to get more pictures, (probably a lot of the ones above were taken at this time, but I honestly don't remember the order. ^^;) and ended up in the TCG room, where I was a bit of a hit among the Yugioh TCGers. And once again everyone loved Tamir. xD It made me kind of sad that I didn’t bring my deck, but then my deck has some proxies in it so I wouldn’t have gotten to play anyway.
It was around this time that I realized my duel disk was kind of coming apart. =( The little part that connected the card platform and the arm piece was kind of shaky and on the verge of snapping. Not a big surprise though, considered I’d been banging my bag into it all day and jamming it against the floor, and a thing held together by only hot glue can only take so much pressure. So I just tried to be careful with it since the costume contest was only like an hour away.
I went to queue up there at around 6:45, kind of expecting it to be like it was last year where we’d have time and room to hang out in back, fix our costumes and take some pictures. Nope. Instead they started shuffling us into line by number while still on the ballroom floor. While at the same time people were leaving/entering the room to get seats and they had us taking up an aisle people were using. I was so afraid I was going to get totally crushed because more and more people just kept getting pressed in.
I did have time to get a picture of The Great and Powerful Trixie though. ;3
(Also that Ariel in the background! This picture makes me smile so much because I happen to know what she DIDN'T know at the time. ;3)
Also Parco Folgore. Because you almost never see Zatch Bell cosplayers and he was pretty fabulous.
And another Sailor Moon! (Actually I took this picture after the contest was over, but I'm putting it here so it's not hanging out alone at the bottom. xD)
Then they had us line up backstage for maybe 15 minutes. On one hand at least we weren’t back there sweating for two hours like we were last year, but it kind of sucked not having any time to primp or chat with each other. Part of the fun of being in the contest is getting to see a lot of the con’s best costumes up close, but this year we were all put in line so quickly. =( Plus by the end of the day a lot of us were looking kind of disheveled. (I know I was.) It would have been nice if we had maybe a half hour or so backstage to arrange our clothes/fix make-up/comb wigs/etc. Also, last year they went along and had everyone pronouce their character and series names. They should have done that this year too, considering they pronounced "Yugioh 5Ds" as "Yugioh 5 dee-ess."
I was so nervous and totally awkward-penguined my whole bit. I even had poses planned and everything, but as soon as I walked on stage I just totally blanked and forgot to hold my poses for very long, and they were all so weird with me like swinging the duel disk around like I was dancing or something. At least people clapped/cheered for me though, unlike last year. xD Then after leaving the stage a crew member told me to take the middle aisle of the crowd and go right. Easy yes? OF COURSE I AWK THAT UP TOO by walking all the way to the LEFT and running into a massive crowd of people watching the contest, and then remembering I was supposed to take the middle aisle. :< So I had to get through there and make it to where the other cosplayers were. I found a chair to sit down and had been sitting there awhile when I realized…hey, where’s my camera?
I started digging through my bag. It was totally gone. PANIC. Of course right then a guy asks for my picture and I’m all, “um, sure, but I lost my camera so I’m kind of distracted.” The guy started looking around the floor and found it on the floor under my chair (under my cloak. I think I had it in my lap and it slipped out, because this happened a couple more times the next day. The fabric on my dress was kind of slippery.) THANK GODS. I would have cried so hard if I lost my camera. So I gave the guy a hug and he got his picture.
They announced the costume contest winners. I didn’t win anything. I didn’t really EXPECT to. I mean it would have been awesome and I think I might have definitely been a contender, so it was possible, but with only like ten awards to give out and a hundred contestants? Not great odds. People with way cooler costumes than me didn’t win anything either. That’s why it’s a competition! BUT, something really super cute DID happen.
The judges announced they were going to give out a special secret award, and called up an Ariel and Eric cosplay couple. So they get up there and Eric takes the mic and started talking about how great the staff was to put on this contest and how awesome it is to meet and see all these people getting into their crafting and that we’re sharing all these fun moments in life. And we’re all clapping and nodding in the crowd, applauding the people who put on the contest, thinking that he just felt really honored by the award and okay it’s kind of uncomfortable that he’s babbling when none of the other winners got to babble, but maybe it’s okay if the last winner called does the official thanking? How am I to know? When suddenly he goes, “And I feel like I’ve gotten to you all enough to share a very special moment with you.” And reaches into his shirt.
And literally everyone just shushed for like half a second. We’d all suddenly caught on. Even me, who was kind of spacing out still relieved that I hadn’t lost my camera (and okay maybe moping JUST a little.) and not even bothering to try to see the stage, I suddenly jumped to my feet and like ran forward to get a view of the stage in time to see him pull out a box and drop to one knee and propose. I think every single person in the room began screaming. IT WAS THE MOST ROMANTIC THING EVER. Obviously he’d planned this, that’s what the “super special random award” thing was all about, and that explains why the judges were so ready to let him have the mic when they didn’t let any of the other winners have it. It’s so cool that he put all this planning into it! But not only that, I mean to propose while you’re cosplaying as a Disney couple? Especially when Disney and cosplaying are probably hobbies and interests that you share and that helped build your friendship and relationship? HOW MUCH CUTER AND MORE MEANINGFUL CAN YOU GET.
Of course she said yes. ;3 I think it was a real yes too and not just a stage one, because she was beaming and crying and like completely speechless with smiling. It was just so happy and cute and I was like squealing my head off and simultaneously being like SOMEONE ELSE BETTER HAVE GOTTEN GOOD PICS OF THAT AND POST THEM BECAUSE GINA WILL KILL ME IF I DON’T HAVE PICS TO SHOW HER. So it was kind of impossible to mope much more with all that happiness in the air. xD
And yes, luckily someone DID post a good picture of it online:
Also, video! =D
After that I went back to my room for food and rest. I needed it, Saturday totally burnt me out. Protip: HYDRATE MORE. Next year I’m taking larger bottles of Gatorade with me.