Monday, April 16, 2007

   Sakura-Con: Day 3
Nikki: different girl from before.


Before I really get into Day 3, I need to set it up. The day before, during one of my many trips into the dealer's room, "Kisuke" saw a Yoruichi keychain and showed me. "This is who ["Yoruchi"] is cosplaying as," he tells me unnecessarily. Well, right after he put it back, I grabbed it and bought it . . .


A few hours after going to bed for a power-nap, the sun is blasting through the big window again. "Kisuke" is completely exhausted because he was at the rave until 4am; "Icecore" is mostly exhausted because he was watching different shows all over the place all night; "Yoruichi" and I were mostly tired but not exhausted from our late night Downtown Seattle adventure . . . not too bad, though. So anyways, this morning we weren't exactly in a rush, but we weren't exactly without some meetings to make. That sounds really awkward, so I'll explain in this next paragraph:

Today, Day 3, was the day that "Peacemaker Kurogane" was being screened in the "dub theater" at the con' at 11am. Well, the six Shinsengumi cosplayers (all from Vancouver, no less) decided we had to crash the screening somehow . . . specifically, I had the idea that we'd go in chasing someone ("Yoruichi" volunteered) and whatnot. Heh, except when you have four people who all need to use the bathroom and change and get decent, it takes a little longer than you'd like . . . especially when you all only have about an hour to REALLY get ready . . . well, we started to run late, "Icecore" ran ahead to meet up with the other squad to fill them in and to tell them we were coming. Meanwhile, "Yoruichi" was having eye-sensitivity issues with her contacts that morning and badly needed her sunglasses and whatnot . . .

At some point during all this, I scrawled out a quick note for "Yoruichi" while she was out of sight. Just a general thank you type thing for a great weekend, for just being cool in general, y'know . . . heh, despite our looking for different things in each other and all . . . but yeah, I wrapped up the Yoruichi keychain inside it, taped it closed, signed the outside with "To the Best Damn Yoruichi of Sakura-Con 2007:", and tossed it into her suitcase while she wasn't looking.

Oh wait! I remember why we were so back-logged! It was because we were checking out that day and had to get all our stuff out of the room and into the car! Well, eventualy the four of us (myself, "Icecore", "Yoruichi" and "Souji") finally got our bags into the car and eventually arrived outside the screening room before the second Peacemaker episode ended . . .

(The Shinsengumi ready to spring into action . . .)
"Yoruichi" and I quickly threw together a fight-sequence where I'd rush her with a sword, she'd kick the sword out of the way, palm-strike me in the face, then draw my wakizashi from my belt and slash me with it; she'd then run back out of the room with the rest of the Shinsengumi in tow . . . heh, it probably didn't all have the effect we were hoping for, but it was still fun as hell - even after the volunteers warned us about such . . . displays, in the screening rooms. Bwahaha . . . "Icecore" took video, but it's just too dark. We need night-vision cameras . . .

("Yoruichi", "Kenpachi" and two "Yachiru". . .)
It was about noon by this point. From what I heard there was going to be yet another informal Bleach photo shoot outside. Heh . . . alright, it ended up being an informal Bleach shoot that also happened to have a bunch of Shinsengumi in there as well . . . yeah, we were just chillin', takin' pictures and stuff again, trying to think of cool poses and shots and stuff . . . oh yeah, "Byakuya" found us there too, 'cause he was a good guy and cool like that.
("Yoruichi" perched on "Byakuya's" arm . . .)

At some point "Yoruichi" ran back up into a tree to chill, I stood up on "Kenpachi's" shoulders after lamenting about how absorbent straw sandals were, and . . . all of us just ended up with a whole lotta really funny pictures . . .
(Ichigo manhandles the Shinsengumi . . .)

"Yoruichi" and I also recreated a photo-op that a photographer requested last day as well:


And then "Baby Kon" came along with "Daddy Hollow Ichigo" and "Momma Orihime". This was the same "Baby Kon" that was all pissed off and irritated last day He was painfully adorable, especially after he was changed into "Baby Kisuke". Y'know what? I'm gonna forego the 1000 words and just flood you with pictures:
("Baby Kisuke", "Hollow Ichigo" and "Yoruichi" . . .)
("Baby Kisuke" walkin' around . . .)
("Baby Kisuke didn't like the hat much . . .)
("Urahara" (not our "Kisuke") lends "Baby Kisuke" a fan . . .)
("Baby Kisuke" plays with the nekomimi once again . . .)
("Baby Kisuke" and "Yoruichi" . . .)

And finally, to finish off the glory that is "Baby Kisuke":


Well, eventually the other squad of Shinsengumi packed up and were heading back to Vancouver; the rest of us hung out in the courtyard a bit longer until we got hungry or so . . . but FIRST, we had to go back to the dealer's room for one last go before it was all gone . . .
("Yoruichi" and this ridiculously hot Ivy cosplayer . . .)

("Big Chris" in the dealer's room outside theCNL's cage . . . he's awesome . . .)
So going into the dealer's room was myself, "Icecore", "Souji", "Yoruichi", and "Byakuya". And yeah, it didn't take long for us all to get separated from each other. Ah well . . . at some point, "Icecore" and I bought wooden replicas of "Bankai Zangetsu" since they were only $20. Heh, we had a lot of swords on us after that - katana and wakizashi in the belt, and a big friggin' sword slung on the back. Made for some neat pictures, though . . . haven't found 'em online anywhere yet, but I bet they're there . . . heh, and then apparently "Yoruichi" got hit on by the Red vs Blue guys. She got some neat stuff out of it, though, so hey.
("Yoruichi and the Red vs Blue guys . . .)

After all that, the five of us went to . . . no wait . . . I wanna say the five of us, but I feel like "Souji" headed somewhere else at this point with some other people to check something out. Alright, we'll go with that story . . .

(Yes, I took pictures of gummi bears . . .)
So the four of us (myself, "Yoruichi", "Icecore" and "Byakuya") went to the little mini-mart next to the convention center for food and stuff. We stocked up on corn dogs, sandwiches, Full Throttle (for me), milk, Powerade, and . . . gummi bears. It felt good to put into our bellies.
("Yoruichi" drinking milk. It just makes sense.)

(Shaolin Soccer cosplayers. Brilliance . . .)
Heh, what else are we gonna do with time to kill? Head back upstairs to the outdoor courtyard, of course! Honestly, it's really funny. My very first con was three summers ago; I went to a bunch of anime screenings that year. My next con was the summer after that; I soaked in a whole bunch of lecture panels and voice actor panels. Last summer was my first year cosplaying, and aside from a few choice voice actor panels I was mostly just chilling on the grass with everyone else. At Sakura-Con, chilling out with cosplayers was practially all I did! Just some funny food for thought . . .

So what happened after that . . . oh! The "Dark Tournament"! Well, it had rained a little bit at some point during all this, so now the ground outside was damp. Damn . . . but that didn't faze the tournament organizers, so out we all went (well, specifically because they convinced "Yoruichi" to "compete" in it)! As for what this "Dark Tournament" was, the premise was that it'd be freeze-frame battles, as an opportunity to get some more neat pictures . . . heh, some people got into it pretty hard and forgot the "freeze frame" part . . . they had to give a warning halfway through . . . but yeah, it was pretty funny:


At some point after all that excitement we went to the main stage place where they were doing the charity auction . . . and wow, you would never believe how much money people will be willing to spend on certain objects! Goodness . . . lucky charity indeed . . . but yeah, early on "Yoruichi" was bidding now and then on things (which scared me because I wasn't sure if she actually meant to back them up or not [though I'm pretty sure she was]). Eventually "Icecore" won an auction for a doujin about video game characters or something . . . good for him . . .

So the auction went on for a while . . . mostly I was just using it as an excuse to sit down and just kinda veg' a bit. Eventually after that ended they went into closing ceremonies . . . y'know, watch a few winning AMVs, hear some closing statements, clap for the guy who's retiring from his many-year position . . . that kind of stuff.
Oh, and if any of you were there for the closing ceremonies, you might remember a point when they gave the final tally of Sakura-Con attendance of eleven thousand and something-rather . . . if you were there, I was the one who shouted "IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!" after he said that. Yeah, I'm a dick like that.


And then Sakura-Con was over. I called Ed/Faramir in Bellevue to reconfirm what we were doing for dinner and that we were coming, exchanged contact info with "Byakuya" so we could keep in touch . . . and that was that. Off to the parkade, unloaded our gear ("Yoruichi" got changed between the open car doors), I tried to call Gail and John at that point to apologise for not getting to get together on the Sunday after all (parkade reception issues killed that, though) . . . and we headed out to Bellevue.

Oh yeah, parking for 3 days straight cost us about $80, of which we barely had enough cash for. Dang . . . but yeah, it was now raining, we were tired, hungry and kinda feeling bleh . . . "Yoruichi" had gotten sick at some point and was coughing . . . but yeah, after about 40 minutes of driving and getting lost twice we finally made it to Ed/Faramir's house in Bellevue.


Hehe, he wanted to know what took us so long since he was hungry . . . but yeah, we arrived, brought our bags in, changed into normal clothes (again I dipped into my "Monday clothes"), chatted with Ed/Faramir and Heather/Sakura (from myO, who is going out with Ed/Faramir) . . . I called John from there, we had our last words with each other and whatnot. Again, I think I need to stress that Gail and John are two of the most wonderful people you can ever wish to meet in your lifetime. They were just cool like that.

Oh, and while "Yoruichi" went through her luggage, packing up and whatnot while she could, she found the note "To the Best Damn Yoruichi of Sakura-Con 2007". So right then and there she found my little gift, read the note . . . said it was sweet . . . . . so that was pretty cool.

FINALLY, after all that . . . we FINALLY went to Denny's for supper!
It was like, 8pm by this point; but it's my new tradition to eat at Denny's after a con', so we had to do it. Ed was a very gracious guy, and covered a lot of the bill to make sure we were stuffed (y'know, post-con munchies). Heh . . . and then "Yoruichi" had some words with the people there re: bad service and cheesecake. So yeah, we had some extra food for later that night . . . but it was really nice to finally just sit down, eat, relax, have old friends meet new friends . . . yeah, Denny's rules . . .

Heather/Sakura headed home from there, so I quickly grabbed the third and final UBC teddy bear from my car to give it to her before she drove off. After that, we were off to Safeway for groceries . . . groceries, of course in Ed's mindset, meaning wine, coolers, and beer. Oh, and cough medicine/lozenges for "Yoruichi" because we're smart like that.

But yeah, we had a fun night that night drinking, watching "Yoruichi's" Red vs Blue DVD, watching my GTO DVD, watching bits of "Ju-On 2" . . . at some point I muttered "fucking otaku" regarding something "Yoruichi" did or said, so she punched three consecutive holes into my back (they got progressively louder) . . . at some other point she punched Ed which made me smile . . . . .

Ultimately by about 2am or something we all knew we had to sleep; being that I was driving the next morning, I was already lying on my makeshift floorspace and mostly asleep by the time the other three came out to their patches of floor (funny thing about Ed's house: he has a Bowflex in his living room, but no couch . . .). Heh, of course the wine and coolers helped a little too . . . but yeah, aside from "Yoruichi's" occasional coughing it was a pretty quiet night . . . mostly, anyway . . .


I think it was maybe 4am or so when a bunch of us coincidentally stirred a bit at the same time. I was thirsty and went to get some water, guided by my little metal flashlight; after I came back, "Icecore" got up to pee. Since I was conscious, I gave him some flashlight light so he could get back to his patch underneath a table (yeah, don't ask, I didn't). He went back to sleep. I, however, got back up to look for the bag of Halls cough drops that we bought for "Yoruichi" since she was still coughing. With my muzzled flashlight light I walked around the apartment trying to figure out where we put them . . . well, "Yoruichi" was now awake and going through her bags to get them herself, so I guess she had them all along. I went over to her, again with the muzzled light just to see how she was . . . she felt bad that she was keeping everyone awake, I told her she was being silly or something. I refilled her glass of water that was sitting next to her (which I had put there earlier though she didn't notice it until then), told her to try to rest for now . . . she seemed to cough a little less after all that, but yeah . . .

I went back to my flat blanket and rolled up jeans/pillow, clicked off the flashlight . . . and thus ended Day 3.


Do I need to recount the Monday when we come home? It's not too interesting, but I can if you wanna . . .

[TO BE CONTINUED?]
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