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Otakon - An Epic Journey (Pics & Vids) |
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Thursday: Surprisingly the lines were very short for pre-reg. In fact, there really weren't any. Once we got inside, which was around 6:30ish pm, we were the first ones in line. I didn't think to bring my camera on Thursday but there were several cosplayers. I saw an Isaak from Trinity Blood and I ran into a Movie!Al from Fullmetal Alchemist.
Friday: Woke up at 3:47am. Got downtown around 7:50. On Otakon's site they said that pre-regers could go in at 8:30 and people who still needed to register could go in at 8. Well, they were an hour late for both. I waited with Anna, a friend's friend, while she registered and then went with Alicia to the Photoshop workshop for 10. We sit in line for twenty minutes before we enter and when we do, we wait another ten or so minutes before they tell us that the the dude is having trouble with the projector. The guy upfront yells out, "Anyone know how to fix this thing?" My dad, being a computer geek, raises his had and... fixes it.
My dad, Alicia, and myself sit there, listening to stuff we already know, for about twenty minutes when we just leave. Don't remember exactly what we did after that but a little before 12 we all go get lunch. The next thing on my list to go to is Aaron Dismuke's Q&A at 1pm. I'm about three minutes late for that and about ten minutes later, some guy announces that Aaron's panel has been canceled. Well, the "Vic & Steve Show" is at 2 in the same room so we just sit and wait.
It's just about to become 2 o'clock when I'm sitting sideways in my chair about to say something to Sarah, behind me, when I see Vic walking down the middle isle. What I had meant to do was whisper to Sarah that Vic was right there but instead I shout, "It's Vic!" Sarah turns, sees, and yells, "Vic!" Vic looks at us and is all "Hi! Hey!" and waves when everyone then turns around, sees Vic, and starts screaming. Oh, and of course Steve Blum also comes down the isle but in all honesty, I've never heard any of his work so I really have no idea who he is.
I wish I had gotten pictures of the Vic & Steve Show but I was too focused on the panel, I completely forgot I even had a camera. Luckily I did manage to get a video of something but sadly I missed the first two lines they said. If you would like to view the video, it's here.
Next thing on my list was the Fan Fiction 101 panel at 3pm but Sarah gets a call from a friend saying that the line for Vic and Aaron's autograph session at 4 has already started. So Sarah and I run and meet with her friends somewhere in the line. We sit there for about ten minutes before we move up but in the meantime we shoot this video.
So we wait in line for two hours. During that time I buy two of Vic's CDs and get a picture of a Sesshomaru and Inuyasha cosplay. It’s about 4:45 when I remember that there was a panel at 5 I had wanted to go to, FUNimation Indusrty Q&A, but being so close, I wasn’t getting out of that line for anything! We are literally four spots behind the cut off section when they say that Aaron and Vic has stopped signing autographs but will be at the FUNimation booth down in the dealer's room. Know what we did next? We ran down to the dealer's room and got smooshed in a crowed in front of the booth. They tell us to make a line and then move us to a different location. We wait in line for twenty minutes when we are finally there, at the front!
I go up first and hand Vic a FMA poster and the covers of the CDs I bought. He signs them. I move over to Aaron and hand him the poster, he signs that. Then came the tricky, yet all too hilarious, part. Remember the cards I made for the Armor Army? Well, Brittany and I were planning to wait until Saturday at the lunch to show them to Aaron. But I needed these cards signed. I mean, what if Aaron couldn't make it to the lunch? So I hand Aaron two of the cards, one for me and one for a friend who couldn't come, and I say "Just sign the back." Well, Aaron goes to turn to the front so I say "Don't turn them over!" Yet he does anyway. He's just barely looking at them when he looks at me funny. I didn't see his face personally because I was looking either down at the table or over his shoulder, but Sarah saw everything. She said he had a look of fear on his face. Vic then leans over and goes all "Aww," which just made it all the worse. Aaron did put the cards down quickly and said "I didn't really see them." Oh but I knew, I knew. Aaron finally signed the cards but at the end asked "Why can't I see them" My reply was "Because Brittany would kill me." Ok, so I don't think Brittany would've killed me if she found out but that was the only thing I could say. But anyway, I step aside and wait for Sarah to finish up and out of the corner of my eye I see Aaron staring at me like he's confused or something. All freaky like.
Since we were already in the dealer's room, and they closed at 6:30 we met up with the rest of our group and... shopped! I spent over $90 on a few buttons, three wallscrolls, and two necklaces. I really wanted to get some plushies but either the ones I saw sucked or they didn't have the character I was looking for.
After our shopping spree we really had nothing to do until 8pm for a Naruto Fan panel that Sarah and Adam "needed" to go to. So they all sit upfront while my dad and I sit on the side and fall asleep. Actually, I payed attention to the stuff while my dad slept, I just didn't have a clue what the hell they were talking about.
So it's 9:30 when that ends and we need to gather up everyone so we can go home and get sleep. We run around for half an hour or so looking for someone and then finally leave. I get home around 11 and go to bed sometime after 12.
Saturday: Woke up at 4, left around 8, got there 8:30. Adam went straight to the game room, Anna and Alicia went to the dealer's room, and Sarah and I got in line for Colleen Clikenbeard's autograph session for 10. When we walk up to the line, there's only about fifteen people there, so we know that we'll get in. About twenty minutes before we're allowed to go in, a news crew comes by and takes out a Mase Hughes cosplayer from the line and interviews him. And now it's 10. We go into the room, wait in another line for three minutes, then it's our turn.
After Sarah is finished I hand Colleen my FMA Anime Profiles book, which I didn't think to take the day before and have her sign on Riza's page. Following that I hand her the poster from Friday but she stops a second and says "You know, I've been signing with hearts, and hearts aren't really Riza's thing. I think I'll try and draw a gun." So she draws a gun... pointing at Roy's head. (If you're an FMA fan, you'll understand why this is funny.) So I got the first official gun.
So it's just about 11:30 and Sarah heads off to the dealer's room and I go to a viewing of the first four episodes of Tsubasa at 12pm. Well, just so happens that I was having a Crohn's flare this past weekend, so I'm starting to feel really nauseous. My dad and I go out front and call my mom to bring me some medicine. At about 12:55, five minutes before I'm supposed to meet for my Armor Army lunch with Aaron, my mom still hasn't shown yet, Brittany calls and asks "Does Aaron know where the meet up place is?" Oh great. He should know. Brittany was the one who told him everything. My mom finally comes, I get the medicine, and I go straight to the meet up area, time now being 1:10. Aaron still hasn't shown. Someone calls Brittany and tells her that they heard that Aaron went to some sushi place. We're about to leave to go check this one sushi place when Aaron's mom, Beth, calls Brittany and says he's booked solid all afternoon, meaning he can't make it to the lunch.
Seeing as how I was the only one from Baltimore in the group, I had to lead everyone to the restaurant. We sit down for five minutes when Vic's mom calls Brittany, yes, Vic's mom, and then Brittany leaves. Me, being bored, also leaves. The next thing I go to is the Dub Actor Calvalcade, which Aaron is going to be at. Oh, it's now 3:30. I see Brittany sitting up front with Aaron and Vic's mom waiting for the current thing to end. I go sit with her, the thing ends, she walks away and leaves me to rot. Fine then. I'll go sit with my friends.
An hour and a half filled with pure awesomeness later, Sarah, Adam, Alicia, and I go somewhere in the halls of the convention center and sit... for I don't know how long. While we were just sitting there, I see a few cosplayers go by. I see a really bad Ion Fortuna go by-- Wait, Ion Fortuna? I wanted to cosplay as him!! I would have taken a picture but, like I said, it was really bad. I also saw an amazing Seth and Cain Nightroad pass by. I asked them if I could take their picture but they were late for the costume judging.
Some more time passes and I think it's around 5:30 now, when Brittany calls me saying, "We're meeting with Aaron in the dealer's room once he's done doing autographs." And that's where I end up next. It's 6:30 when the dealer's room closes and we're booted out, but we're staying by the exit and waiting for when Aaron comes out. Another half hour passes and Aaron finally comes out. Everyones chatting with him, taking pictures with/of him and I'm just sitting on the sidelines. Fun. I sit on the floor and relax, wait for everyone to be finished, when Aaron grabs a chair and pulls up next to me. "Why are you sitting on the floor," he asks. "Because I can be," I reply. He then reaches up to John, who is sitting in front of me, grabs his hat, puts it on himself, then places it on my head. The hell? I take the hat off and hand it back to John. "What? I thought you asked for the hat," says Aaron. Uh, right. I really want to be wearing a cowboy hat. Aaron, I guess giving up, leans back in his chair and talks to the others. I'm just sitting there talking with John, Adam, and Sarah when every now and then Aaron stretches his legs out and practically hits me knee with his feet. My reaction being, "Why the hell is Aaron's foot by my knee?"
At some point or another, Beth is all, "Come on Aaron, we need to go." So they go. Me and my, now groupies, head off to get dinner. After dinner, Adam and Alicia go back to the convention while Sarah and I walk around the harbor. After the walking around the harbor part, Sarah and I go to Panel 3 and wait for the Dub Actors After Dark to start at 11:30. We sit there for an hour and a half, through a Silent Hill Fan panel and a Shin-chan panel. Once the DAAD panel starts, they make an announcement that the panel is 18+. Which really pissed us off because on the schedule there wasn't a thing that said it was 18+. So now it's around 12, because they started late, and we're at a loss of where to go next. But then we remembered that Otakon has a rave. Can you guess where we headed next?
We start walking towards the rave, not telling my dad anything 'cause, you know dads... We turn the corner and there's the entrance. My dad finally catches on and, at first, is all "No, you can't go in there," but then loosens up. Now, I would have taken a bunch of videos and pictures of the rave but guess what, they didn't allow them. So that just totally failed. Eventually we came out, Adam found us, then went in himself. In the meantime, Sarah, Alicia, and I are sitting out in the hall completely bored. Though we weren't so bored when Sarah and I started making dust angels on the carpet. After the dust angels, we made a random video about the truth of Vic Mignogna. The video is here.
Adam never came out of the rave so Sarah and Alicia went in looking for him while I searched for Miko. Eventually, we were all found and we left around 1:30, got home about 2ish, went to bed 2:30ish.
Sunday: I woke up at 4, fell back asleep, then woke up again at 6. Oh no. I should've been done with everything by six. But then it struck me, the nausea. Oh god how I hate Crohn's. This was going to be a good day. I had an Elric Brothers panel I had to go to, one more time in the dealer's room, and I had a Risembool Ranger lunch to go to with Vic. Well, screw all that, 'cause I didn't go. And I'm still beating myself up about that. Good thing though is that the panel is all on youtube and Vic himself didn't go to the lunch. But I would've liked to see Vic and Aaron one more time at the panel and hopefully get a few plushies. Oh well...
Other random yet important stuff: After Otakon, Sarah and I have been talking about maybe going to other cons and if we did, who to cosplay as. We came up with all the pacman characters, stick figures, myself as Akito Sohma from Fruits Basket, and my personal favorite, myself as Aaron Dismuke. All I'd need would be a big metal bowl on my head and maybe tape a picture of Aaron of the bowl. So I'm stuck between Ion Fortuna, Akito Sohma, or Aaron Dismuke.
As far as more cons go, we are seriously thinking about going to Anime Vegas Sept. 1-3 and Tandokucon Nov. 9-11. Now, if we went to AV, we'd actually stay a full week. There's Siegfried and Roy's Magic Garden to see and maybe even meeting Criss Angel. He starts shooting season four of MINDFREAK in September so it'd be a perfect time to go.
The only thing I have left to share are a few random pictures and a video.
Video is here. Beautiful cosplay of Abel and Fai. Fun cosplay of Ed and Roy. The cutest cosplay ever. A mini Alphonse. An amazing cosplay of Fai and Kurogane. Totally awesome statue of Ed and Al.
I do have some more pics to share but I haven’t uploaded them yet. When I do I’ll edit this post.
An Undead Sin · Thu Jul 26, 2007 @ 03:04am · 1 Comments |
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