The Drink Mixer of the Darkside

This weekend was insane and insanely fun, which is always a bonus! My Otakon started Thursday, when I took off and rented a car so my good friend cosmorific and I could move freely all weekend. I got a lovely Dodge Neon, white, with automatic nothing and a tape deck, which meant I listened to all of my favorite mixed tapes from the eighties all weekend (including selections from both my ex boyfriends!). The morning was spent wrapping things up locally (I worked late Wednesday night, so I'd forgotten to bring home about ten million things) and then off to pick up Smo-chan at the airport! MY LATENEZ WUZ PASTEDE ON YAY! We spent the afternoon running around, getting a cooler from my mom, and working on my costume (I was in Tohru's summer uniform, from Fruits Basket). I spent Thursday night sewing, while Smo-chan made excellent onigiri for the next day. We dropped around 2AM.

The next morning we got up slowly and I finished my costume. Driving to Otakon was the next order of business, and we got there in time to stand in line in the blazing sun. I gave away two of my onigiri in line, to a gentleman from Boston and a girl who had come for the day after her swim meet. Smo-chan and I met up again and wandered. Costumes this year were incredible. I contented myself with oogling while Smo-chan snapped pictures. We went through the gignormous dealers room, where I got mobbed for onigiri, and I bought a lovely hairpiece made of black metal and shiny blue stones, and a present for my mom.

Then we headed to the artists alley, when I got pouted at by pixiepilot and sihaya_chan for not having any more onigiri. They were dressed up in wonderful Prince of Tennis costumes. I should really see that anime some day... There were so many fantastic artists that I didn't know where to look first, and these incredible felt hats and wings of all different sorts. I ended up picking up an origami red dragon for shingan and an origami rose for myself (though that' rather crumpled, now, due to the ill-application of feet).

We met up with people in the late afternoon - animeg was dressed as Reno, from Final Fantasy 7, and kalla was a matching Tseng from that series, and animeg's sister was Miaka in her Priestess dress, from Fushigi Yuugi. cosmorific was dressed as Yohji from Saiyuki Reloaded, though she forgot her swiffer. Dinner was on order, and we went to this weird restaurant where you bus your own food; I was very disturbed. The waiter we had, though, turned out to be an Otaku who had no idea Otakon was going on! We filled him in on the details, chatted a bit about anime, and munched food. Smo-chan and I ended the day with the AMV contest, which was absolutely wonderful. I have a list of AMVs to download! Voting was very difficult, especially in the action and comedy sections.

Saturday was another late morning, with frantic onigiri making in the morning this time. My first stop was the Artist's Alley for this reason, and within an hour of coming to Otakon I was virtually cleaned out once more. I got glommed in the Alley and my picture was taken about ten million times, plus I got free stuff!!! I was given a lovely pin of Tohru, a collectors card for Akito, and two bookmarks - Kyo and Yuki; they're so good to me! I love bringing onigiri - though at Anime USA I'm making them ahead of time! I'm tired of rushing in the mornings.

Later in the day, Smo-chan and I camped out in one of the lecture halls and caught the end of a wonderful piece on Miyazaki's mythological references. Next was an interesting display of Japanese street fashion, which could have done with more preparation though the pictures were wonderful. I would have preferred hearing more about the genesis and history of the fashion types, though, and maybe how things had changed over time and perhaps a bit on influences for the fashion (outside of music, which was covered extensively). The costumes were lovely, though, and I added a Gothic Lolita dress to the list of costumes I want to make. Finally, the manga-ka for Digicarat (which I've never seen) came in and was adorable! She was too shy for pictures; it was really cute. And she couldn't pick a favorite color because they all had qualities she liked. Now I have an intense desire to read the series, so I may camp out at the local Borders sometime soon. A Digi-carat costume also made itself on the list, as a semi-prep for the Gothic Lolita dress.

That afternoon, we intersected rackhamrose via judicious use of a "HED PASTEDE ON YAY" sign. Thank Odin for Smo-chan's quick eyes! We did a quick money-for-cool-stuff trade, then sat and gabbled at each other until I remembered I'd been on my way to meet up with other people (It's the costume, I swear; it takes all my natural distractability and mental fuzziness and magnifies it; if I ever manage to dress up as Kohaku (Wish) or Raenef (Demon Diary), I'm doomed and need a keeper... actually, I could probably use a keeper naturally. *sweatdrop*).

That evening sushied with everyone (YUM!!) - the Fushigi Yuugi crowd of Miaka (animeg's sister), Yui (learan), Suboshi (s1ncer1ty), and Amiboshi (shingan); the Fruits Basket Crowd of Tohru (me), Kisa in her summer uniform (animeg), and Shigure (kalla), plus Guu (cosmorific), Cid from Final Fantasy 7 (r0n1n) and his friend, and Subaru from X (rackhamrose) We got our own room at the sushi place, which was really cool, and ate delicious food. I do adore that restaurant! Afterward, most of us parted ways, though Smo-chan and I hung around the convention center until 1AM with various people.

Sunday was another late day, and today I decided I was too lazy for the onigiri or the wig, so went in my school-girl uniform with my own hair. animeg fed us delicious things, though, and on a last sweep through the dealers room I gave in and bought the third and forth manga of Vampire Princess Miyu, which I've been unable to find for ages. Then we tooled around for a while as a huge clump (tibirius had joined us as a character from One Piece, one of our good friends K. was around, plus an altered Fruits Basket contingent of shingan as Hiro in an artbook outfit, animeg as Kisa in an artbook outfit, and kalla and I as the usual Shigure and Tohru, and the standard Fushigi Yuugi clump of learan - who looked damn sexy - s1ncer1ty and Animeg's sister) and went to lunch in the same restaurant we went to lunch in last year - Pier 4.

Smo-chan and I got a late start from there and I rushed her to the airport; hopefully she got on the plane all right. I dropped of the cooler at my mom's (after one false start when it wasn't in the trunk) and bought some groceries, then went home, cut up veggies, cooked onions and egg for an attempt at okayo don for lunch today, and collapsed into a foot-sore, vague, exhausted, yet happy pile.

The costumes we saw were wonderful. There were many Yunas - one in particular had the costume done perfectly, down to the proper blue bands across the back holding the kimono front on; I was so impressed. I also saw a Rikku with incredibly well done weapons; she said they were made out of wood, foam, and plastic coating (I must investigate further). There were some fantastic Alucards, and one Seras with a lifesize gun that was absolutely perfect. The Sailor Moons were well done this year; one in particular wore a gorgeous embroidered black gown. I can now recognize that a character is from Digi-carat, and some of the ones I saw were fantastic - in particular a kitty one with huge bells. There was a Jewish Wolfwood who let us sign his star of David and kept us laughing from all of his jokes; I just wanted to take him home with me! I saw some gorgeous Gothic Lolita outfits, as well; I adore that sort of thing! And there was one chick wearing platform heels where the bottom of them were clear plastic, and all I could think is that she needed fish in them. There was also an impressive Vampire Hunter D - complete with that thing on his hand! There was even a Belldandy who had rigged up silvery wings to extend out. One of the people at the psycho stalker's table had a fantastic costume she'd made in three days of this kind of creepy guy from Naruto (I so don't know the series) which I thought was fantastic, and oh so creepy. I wish I could have seen her Haruhiko. And pixiepilot had a fantastic Naruto costume - one of the only ones I saw that weekend - where she had used an angry Kyo hat for the orange hat he wears. I about died laughing. There was also a K-sama (from Gravitation) looking for Shuichi, which freaked my inner Shuichi out a bit; at least he wasn't looking for me! *quiver* Scary! There were several Muraki's (Yami no Matsuei) as well.

I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but the three days were absolutely wonderful and I had a blast. I just hope I can get to the masquerade next year; I would have enjoyed that.

(crossposted to my livejournal)