Sunday, April 15, 2007

   Sakura-Con: Day 2 . . .
(My arm after sleeping on it all night . . .)
I'm sure I woke up at some point in the early morning; sun was coming through the window, everyone else was still sound asleep (seemed like, at least). I probably got up at some point to stretch out, take care of bodily functions (again, six people in the room) . . . went back to bed eventually . . . . . in any case, when we really started to wake up finally, my arms were numb, my face felt funny . . . and my hair was still orangey-red. Nevertheless, I decided that that night was enough, and tonight the damn messy gel was washing out. 'Cause sleeping normally is just too important. In any case, we all slept pretty well that night and all woke up really well.
("Kisuke" posing with his Kon . . .)

I'm guessing probably about half of us got out of the hotel at a time again, being that some of us took longer to get presentable than others (again, hair products and flat-irons and whatnot). Putting together the picture in my head, I think the most likely adventuring party would have been myself, "Icecore", "Souji" and "Yoruichi". So mid-morning we were out, back at the convention and just hanging around. We went to the Dealer's room eventually since I hadn't gone in there yet (same with a few others, I'm sure), so we went there. I eventually bought some stretchy tabi socks (FINALLY have real-ish ones!) and some really cheap straw zori sandals (FINALLY have real-ish ones!); as it turned out I bought sandals way too big for me, so I eventually bought smaller ones . . . not yet, though . . . oh, I also may or may not have bought the live-action GTO drama on DVD here . . . sure, they're the same subs as I already have, but I can watch them on the TV now! Probably!
(My tabi and "large" zori . . .)

We headed back to the hotel quickly to check on the others and to drop off the stuff we had just picked up (otherwise I'd have a bag of flip-flops resting at the base of my spine for the rest of the day). Actually, I think "Yoruichi" might have dashed off to mingle while we did this . . . heh, yeah, Day 2's a bit of a blur to me right now . . . in any case, we were back at the hotel, we picked up "Kisuke" who wanted to buy some sort of bag that he could carry his stuff around while still being "in character" . . . so back to the con', back to the dealer's room . . .

(The Dealer's Room . . . infinitely bigger than AE's . . .)
So it was myself, "Icecore", "Souji", and "Kisuke" in his Tamaki-clothes. Again we just kinda walked up and down, chilling, looking at all the stuff we may or may not want to buy . . . oh, I think "Icecore" was actually looking for tabi socks now that I had some . . . or something like that. In any case, our group got separated, and "Souji" and "Kisuke" were lost somewhere inside the dealer's room while "Icecore" and I slowly moved around. Oh, and at some point "Yoruichi" found us in there, and she was wearing nekomimi including tail AND bell around her neck which was cute as all hell . . . she wore that for the rest of the con'. Ahem . . . but yeah, I still felt kinda bad about how "Souji" got separated from us the night before and was stuck outside the hotel without a key and stuff . . . so "Icecore" and I waited around the entrace to the dealer's room hoping to find them again. We did get some good photo ops' going both ways, though . . .
(Catbus at the entrance to the dealer's room!)

We eventually finally found "Souji" and "Kisuke" probably some time a bit after noon. Now, we had gone long enough without food by this point and I seriously needed to take the theOtaku.com meet-up into account as 2pm was getting closer and closer. So "Souji", "Kisuke" and myself lined up for the Subway in the convention center while "Icecore" headed back to the hotel to drop stuff off. It was a half-hour queue which sucked, but totally worth it at the end when I got my footlong Italian BMT on honey-oat (it was either that or roasted parmesean since their bread supply was tapped). In any case it was past 1pm by this point so I hauled ass back to the hotel (and subsequently to the parking lot) so I could grab stuff for the meet-up . . . figured I'd eat in the hotel and all . . .

And lo and behold! "Icecore" (who met me at the Subway though he was satiated on Ensure suppliments all weekend) and I are flying down the escalators, heading to the exit . . . it was about 1:20pm or something . . .
"James?" Dead stop. Who's sitting at the table there, trench coat folded up in her arms?

Aurus. Booyah. Considering our general distance from each other, you'd think we'd have been some of the first myOers to meet up face to face! But no, we got beat out by a couple years . . . ah well, all good . . . so she came with us back to the hotel so I could inhale six inches of sandwich and grab my car keys . . . parking lot, grabbed two teddy bears from the University of British Columbia book store . . . a golden one for Aurus, and a black one for Gail once we got to the meet-up (it would have been a panda for obvious reasons, but well, the UBC bookstore failed me).


We got back to the meeting area pretty much RIGHT at 2pm. We saw four people sitting on one side (made me wonder), and Gail and John on the other side. I quickly jogged over to Gail, gave her a hug and a teddy bear . . . at that point a voice at the other seats go, "are we all people from theOtaku.com?"

So the meet-up officially started. So we all get acquainted with each other finally, share some hugs, meet the "awkward turtle" for the first time . . . wished I got a picture of that, damn . . . . . but alas, instead one of Aurus' friends came by dressed up like a Kiyoshi Warrior . . . so I took her picture.
(It's Suki!!!)

And then my batteries died. Right before the real meat of the meet-up. Son of a bitch . . .

I WANTED to take like, a million pictures of us. I WANTED to take some video, have some silly interviews and the like . . . I WANTED to do so much with that damn camera . . . and then it died. So damnit. Damnit damnit damnit. Well, nevertheless, Gail had a ton of schwag to give out . . . I evidently was privileged to pick from the selection without need of a draw or anything, so I grabbed some Trinity Blood DVDs . . . but now we needed to make sure we were all here and not elsewhere on the floor.

So, being the comfortably assertive guy I am (at least at conventions), I turned towards the rest of the seating areas and bellowed,
"If anyone here is a member of theOtaku.com, you need to be down here right now! You will get free stuff if you are!"
Yeah, nothin'. Ah well, more free stuff for us, then!

Heh, so we took some group photos which are in everyone else's photo galleries except mine, I traded my Trinity Bloods for Gatchamans (Jazie really didn't want Gatchaman; all good!). Some last-minute hugs, Miss Anonymous picked me up . . . and we were done. Oh, and "Icecore" officially stated his intention to join theOtaku.com upon arriving back home. He's not using myO yet, but he has a cosplay thing submitted thus far (here's a hint: every single Peacemaker cosplay at this site is from Greater Vancouver).


After the meet-up, Aurus, "Icecore", Gail and John and I all went back up to the fifth floor; I had just called a head guy from Anime Evolution and we were going to meet him and talk for a bit (he wanted to trade scam-stories, his "con before AE" story for our "AnimeFF" story). Well, Aurus went into the registration line since she had to do that still (poor girl . . . the line-up got worse that day) while the rest of us hunted down the Anime Evolution booth in the dealer's room.

We found it, we all talked a bit . . . oh, except the guy I was looking for wasn't there. He had to run off quickly for a meeting with some other people; AE-type business, totally understandable, he's got his own con' to worry about after all. So yeah, with a little luck, we might have a Panda in Vancouver this summer . . . heh, and I pre-registered while we were there . . .

While still in the dealer's room I ended up buying "medium" sized zori which fit much better. I gave the larger ones to "Icecore".

Rest of the afternoon and early evening is a bit of a blur to me. We ran back into "Yoruichi" after having lost her all afternoon . . . and were pleasantly surprised by how she was decked out: yellow contact lenses! Seriously, nekomimi and coloured contacts rocked ass . . . mostly we were back outside in the courtyard, getting our pictures taken and stuff . . . "Byakuya" was also out there and we hung out with him as well . . . yeah, all sorts of fun posing, hanging off of trees and stuff . . . a really pissed off baby dressed in a Kon-hoodie was thrashing around unhappy about something . . . "Yoruichi" immediately calmed him by offering her cat ears for him to touch and play with . . . once pulled away, though, he got cranky again. Poor kid.


There was also a really cool picture that I'm still dying to find in someone's online galleries! So you see, at some point "Byakuya" and "Icecore" were inside, sitting against the big window/walls on the convention 5th floor. "Yoruichi" and I saw this, and snuck up behind them from the outside of the glass, tapped it and whatnot . . . hilarity ensued . . . but then brilliance came from it right after . . .

At some point we started mirroring each other's stances, especially with one hand up against the glass on either side. I eventually even took out my swords and slid them into the opposite side of my belt so I would better mirror "Byakuya" inside . . . so we held this pose, "Icecore" and "Yoruichi" doing the same on their end of the pane of glass, and people started taking pictures.
And more people started taking pictures. And it was a cool picture, because not only did you get the funny mirroring of characters, but the glass also gave a slight reflection depending on which side you were on - mirroring AND meshing!
And more people came by to take pictures on both sides of the glass. This is why I know there HAVE to be pictures of it out there, 'cause we posed for like, five minutes straight like that! Ah man . . .

One of the professional photographers also took some really good shots of "Yoruichi". I hope I can find his gallery sooner than later . . . I bet he has a picture of the mirror-thing too!


Ummm, so let's see . . . after that, we met up with "Souji", went back to the hotel to rest up and change if we had to for the rave later that night . . . heh, "Byakuya" ate the other half of my Subway and thanked me graciously for it before heading back to his room to power down . . . seems his friend/relative was basically forcing him to go to the rave and chill like normal people . . . hehe . . .
("Souji" modified to "Rave Souji", "Yoruichi" out of orange . . .)

("Yoruichi" with hair, ears, eyes, and bell . . .)
Here's where we go into side-stories: "Yoruichi" listens to hip-hop. Rave music? Not her thing. She really, really didn't want to go to this thing. Buuuut, we tried all we could to convince her to go with us 'cause we're jerks . . . eventually she said she needed contact lens fluid so she could wash her coloured lenses and all that . . . well, we couldn't argue with that, so I asked a cleaner at the center where we could get that. He told us there was a little mini-mart next to the center.
We only learned about this place just now. We could have done some serious grocery shopping there all weekend. Damnit. Damnit damnit damnit. Ah well . . .

Inside the rave, the floor was bouncing because it was really just a ballroom not designed for raving. Well, we were all in there but with different people: "Kisuke" and Axel with some people, myself, "Yoruichi", "Souji" and "Icecore" with some others (those "Canadian" girls from the other day, in fact). Well, "Yoruichi" didn't want to dance and sat at the back, all the while urging us to go and "have fun!" Heh . . . I spent a great deal of time trying to convince her to come with us, being that "I didn't come to this dance just for the sake of dancing . . ." Nevertheless, she told me to "go!" and "have fun!"

I eventually came back to her and she said she had to get out; so she eventually headed out and hung out with some Japanese dude with a guitar who had gathered a crowd. "Icecore" also eventually headed out to clear his head while "Souji" and I stayed inside and bounced to deep bass and stuff . . . . . heh, yeah, I don't really like raving either . . .


When we were all sufficiently tired, we came out, found each other on the outside, and headed back to the hotel for the night. Oh, except "Icecore" who decided he'd go around, watch some anime, pull and all-nighter like a pro. "Kisuke" and Axel were still inside dancing. Heh . . . rest of us went back to the hotel.

So I finally showered, got that red crap out of my hair, tried my best to not get it all over the place . . . felt good. By now it was past 1am because Axel came back to the hotel (rule regarding minors at the con). So he was on the phone with some female-friend of his (not his girlfriend, though, he alleges), "Souji" was more or less asleep on the floor, and "Yoruichi" decided we needed to order pizza. Smart girl, that one.

One large pepperoni, one large mushroom, and pesto cheese bread. Honestly, best thing to have possibly gotten at that point in time . . . very nice. So we chomped on that while watching The Boondocks on CN (most of us are Canadian so it's important to watch this channel when we have the chance) . . . so it seemed like a nice end to the day/night . . . . .

. . . except "Yoruichi" wanted to go for a walk. Remember, it's like 2am by this point, and she wanted to go back out into downtown Seattle . . . well, I wasn't about to decline (though the rest did for sleep-reasons). So I threw on my jacket, put on my "Monday clothes" (as opposed to cosplay clothes planned for the actual con') . . . I pocketed my metal flashlight for just in case . . . "Yoruichi" pocketed my pocket-knife for just in case . . . . . yeaaaaah . . .


I'll give the short version of this: we walked around Seattle for about three hours, talking about whatever. She FINALLY mentioned that along with disliking the music and feeling generally uncomfortable, her ankle still kinda hurt from those tall boots at the beginning of Day 1 (to which I replied, "why didn't you say that in the first place?!") Of course I was no better and not fully expressing my intentions and my reasons for not going off to "have fun" back at the rave (to which she replied, "why didn't you say that in the first place?!"). Along with that we were getting lost, finding ourselves outside the Crocodile Cafe (which was infinitely cool to run into because they went there in the "Beck" manga!), under the Space Needle (which is powerfully phallic), and to the waterfront, outside the aquarium, and back finally. We also discussed all our current romantic aspirations (or lack thereof in the case of some parties involved) and whatnot. And then at some point she plucked a tulip and gave it to me, which I brought all the way back to the hotel eventually. Ahem . . . so yeah, her heart's hardened and her mind's made up; I still insist on chipping at it, though, so we'll see . . .

Birds were waking up, it was past 5am, I wanted my knife back . . . so we got back to the hotel, slept for maybe a few hours (woke up everyone in the hotel room as we came in, no less . . .) . . . I slept sitting against the bottom of Axel's bed . . . wasn't too bad . . .

So that was Day 2.
(The tulip in water the next morning . . .)

[TO BE CONTINUED . . . . .]
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