My Creative JournalDigimon: Nexus UPDATED. 22/02/08 - under construction.
Evil-Hippo.comMy CosplayIsland accountKosaka Haven RP BoardLong entry will be long. You have been warned. :B
So, AmeCon report.
Thursday:We drove up on the Thursday evening. Wasn't a bad drive, the motorways were easy enough to navigate, we just got a little lost once we actually got to Leicester. However, we found our way to Nixon Court, and proceeded to unload the car.
Which as really, really fun(!)
After promptly arriving, eating and unpacking, we trundled to our rooms and slept.
Friday:Woke up, showered, dressed. Myself as Rogue from Ragnarok Online, Mary as Red Mage Refia from Final Fantasy III and Lou as Beatrix from Final Fantasy IX. Walked the short distance to the University and proceeded to queue for registration. The registration line was actually quite fun. It went on for a while, and I was freezing for most of it (Rogue's don't wear much). But Mary gave me her Red Mage cloak for a bit, and we got to chatting with some other people in the queue. An Ailsa-chan appeared and we spoke to her a whole lot. And also to Leena(Lunar_Kitten). We saw some people in the queue which was fun, like Carrie(seraphim_cry) and her boyfriend Liam as Ruby and Blank from FFIX.
After getting inside (was lovely to be warm!) we sat for a while, had coffee and chatted and decided what to do. we were promptly joined by Jake (aka White-Leviathan) as Gensis from Crisis Core who sat and chatted for a while, which was fun! ^^
Descended on the games room, where Lou and Mary rocked on Guitar Hero, and I managed to somehow beat Mary and Jake on Soul Calibur (Soul Calibur 4 makes me want to by a 360 NOW! And this has also made me want to cosplay Xianghua.) As we waited for FFIX group to congregate, a Kyuu appeared and i got to speak to her for a little while. :3
Then we disappeared off with Carrie for the FFIX shoot.
Mary and I weren't taking part. We just watched. but it was a lot of fun just watching! It was an epic group, and some of the shots were really fun! And having two Zidane's in the party was just an added bonus!
There was also two lovely Garnets, one in her ceremonial wear and one in her travelling outfit. Group was awesome. Lots and lots of fun shots were taken, and I can't wait to see the finished results.
After the shoot we generally wandered and pratted around for a bit. I had a lovely and really fun shoot with Carrie in the afternoon, and then the opening ceremony was set to begin. We were going to go to the opening ceremony, but as we were approaching we saw it was packed, and I didn't fancy going in. I disappeared off to the artists room to try a bit of doodling as I waited for Emily (CowgirlEm) to arrive. She arrived, a little frazzled after the drive and a mix up at Opal Court, but she arrived, safe and sound and in her sexah Blacksmith gear. With epic hammer of doom.
We disappeared with Mary and Lou and Rob to the green with the lettuce statue. Silly photos were taken of Rogue and Blacksmith fighting. The Emily and Rob stayed at the Uni, while Lou, Mary and I shuffled back to our accomodation.
We all ate, and changed into something more comfortable, though we kept on parts of our cosplay. I kept my Rogue coat, Louise kept her Beatrix coat and Mary had on some of her Yuna accessories, we disappeared to the campus again to attend the 80s AMV disco. Which was much fun, if slightly boiling. Pratted around dancing like lunatics for a few hours, then disappeared back to our accomodation to sleep. (Sleep is good).
Saturday:Woke up veeeery early on Saturday morning to a deceptively nice morning. We all showered, and started getting ready. There was a minor accident involved my ankle and a razor and more blood than there actually was, but generally we were able to leave incident free. I was Rydia today, second remake of Rydia, complete with train of evil and dress of equal evil. Louise was LeBlanc, and recieved plenty of attention for it. And Mary was Yuna, so many, many Yuna vs. LeBlanc and Yuna massaging LeBlanc photos were taken.
First stop was the competition registration room were we had to go and be judged. It was fun. Leena was there as was Ailsa, so we had people to talk to, and proceeded to strike up random conversations with other cosplayers, including a lovely girl cosplaying Ashe in her wedding dress - which just happened to be her first cosplay! (She won a prize. I am so glad she did. She deserved it. It was astounding.)
There was lots of sitting around and waiting. Standing in front of the judges actually getting judged was a little nerve wracking to begin with, but kind of fun too. I got to talk about all the things of my Rydia that I love, so that was fun. Professional photos were also fun as they made my costume look awesome. Kimpey was also shuffling around with his camera, when he was waiting to be judged and took some lovely photos. One of which is one of my favourite Rydia photos ever, just because of the lighting, and I'm actually smiling in a non-sarcastic or spastic way. So yay for me!
We had a photoshoot booked for Saturday of LeBlanc and Rydia, but the weather was so shitty outside we weren't sure if it was going to happen. Texted Carrie, and she was kind enough to fit us in and get some photos of us in the bar and in the Mirage hall - which I'm sure are going to be awesome. :B
After this, we had the masquerade briefing. This didn't take long, and it explained where to go and where to pose etc. Myself suitably freaked out due to the length of the masquerade walkway, discovered we were hungry. So, like good people, we braved the rain and managed to get some food inside of us before the masquerade. Also before this, we met up with Jake and his friends who were doing a mini-Final Fantasy X shoot. Which was as much epic win as the Final Fantasy IX shoot the day before, because it was fun, and I got to talk to some people who are like, my favourite UK cosplayers and I've always been too intimidated to talk to them. *is lame. knows it*
After this it was time to queue for the masquerade. Mary went to sit in the audience, and I think managed to find a plce right at the front of the loooong big ot the walkway that went through Oasis. Louise and I went back with other entrants and waited to be put into order. And waited... and continued to wait. Lou was dragged off with other Final Fantasy X people, who were on early. I went and talked to Carrie, Leena and the two other people in their Soul Calibur group (Odangochan who was Tira, and an amazing Ivy who's name I don't know, but she looked amazing!!) for a bit, until they were also taken away to be organised. Now alone and a wee bit disconcerted, I was sheparded into the girl's changing room, where I proceeded to get a little ratty and grumpy as the room was small, full and not air conditioned! I felt really sorry for the girl in the room who was cosplaying Mew. I think everyone in there was getting a little annoyed as we waited.
Apparently the masquerade got off relatively on time, only delayed by about fifteen minutes or so. Felt like longer backstage, as we were waiting.
AmeCon Masquerade beats MCM Expo masquerade out of the water on the levels of reception and scariness. I'm amazed I didn't actually fall over while I was walking as I had a whip, long sleeves and cape of doom to contend with. And for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to try (note TRY) and mimic the summoning move Rydia does in the opening to FFIV on DS. This resulted in cape of doom winding itself around my legs a bit, and slapping myself in the face with my sleeve. Miraculously, I remembered how long cape of doom was, so was smart enough to step my wound up foot out of the cape before I actually moved.
Was still shit scary though.
After the masquerade I think we just went back to our accomodation, ate and then proceeded to crash. There were murmurs of going to the JPop and JRock disco, but we were all too dopey to be bothered. Which is a shame, because it seemed really fun from what we heard the next day from Ailsa. Next year!
Sunday:Lou left before Mary and I, even though we got up at the same time. Lou had to go to Omake rehersals, so Mary and I munched cookies for a little while longer before we decided to go. She was Gunner Yuna again, due to now feeling comfortable wearing Summoner Yuna, and I was dressed as Feena for the morning, and took Amano Aeris with him to change into later.
Sunday was a surprising day. Feena got an amazing reception. I had thought maybe one or two people who know who I was. No. Lots of people knew who I was, and once Mary and I had put Amano Aeris in storage for later, and we'd met up with Ailsa, I was kind of bombarded for photos.
It was... amazing. Possibly the most incredible cosplaying experience I've had so far. So much Grandia love it made me so happy! And made me really, really determined to remake most of Feena and rewear her, with a new wig and everything for AyaCon next year... and try and poke people into doing a Grandia group with me! Ailsa-chan was sweet enough to get some awesome photos of myself as Feena and Mary as Yuna on the rocks just outside the main AmeCon building.
We met up with Leena for a while and shuffled into the dealers room where we hugged the second biggest Totoro in the World, and I proceeded to go nuts on keychains and bought far too many. (I now have Squall on my keys, and Aeris. And I have Cloud and Aeris phone charms on my DS).
Mary and I made a quick trip to Ailsa's hotel with her to look at the photos she'd taken so far, which was an amusing experience (the walk there and back, and the random chat to the guy at her hotel who was asking what we were doing). Once we arrived back I had to quickly change out of Feena and into Amano Aeris. Which I did in, I think, record time. I didn't need to rush though, as the Omake rehersal was over-running by a ludicris amount of time, and Gophers and security were giving random times to how long it would be until we'd be allowed in.
During this time I was having a small panic attack as I had a shoot with Carrie at 3, as did Lou in her Polka outfit. I didn't want to miss the Omake or the shoot, so I freaking out a little. Through various messages and a random meeting, we were able to rearrange the shoot for later. So this made life much easier.
By this time the queue for the Omake was rediculous, going around the building and back. Thank god the weather was nice, thats all I can say. The Omake finally got started about two hours after it was originally said to start...
So what can I say about it. I have a lot of respect for the people who got up there and sang or did skits. So much respect. But I was so, seriously disappointed. Every other skit was yaoi-this or yaoi-that. The punchline was yaoi. Or it as making fun off yaoi-fangirls. Its BORING. The only skit I like that had referance to yaoi in it was the Yu-Gi-Oh! skit, because it was genuinely funny, and the girl who was Malik was fantastic with her epicly dry sense of humour.
Other skits I liked included and were limited: TopGurren. Despite never seeing the anime, it was amusing, and the guy playing... the guy with blue hair who was meant to be Jeremey Clarkson was amazing. It was funny, and easy to follow for people who hadn't see the anime or hadn't seen topgear. I really liked it.
And I loved the Smut song. ... Just because it was funny. But really, aside from that, I wasn't especially impressed - and it felt like a bit of a let down, really.
Left the Omake, and went to the graveyard opposite the University where we thought we'd be meeting Carrie. There was a mix up (my fault), so we arranged to meet a bit later, and Alisa did an impromptu photoshoot of myself as Amano Aeris and of Lou as Polka. We retreated back to campus for the closing ceremony. Which was again epicly late starting (I was beginning to get annoyed now. Anyone who knows me knows I am really, really anal about promptness. And I know its not anyone's fault when things don't go according to plan. But I was just getting annoyed).
Closing ceremony wasn't especially epic. Found out who won what, and I have to say, all the prizes were well deserved! And there were murmurings about AyaCon for next year, and Ame maybe returning in the Winter? (as there was a picture of AmeChan in Winter gear saying 'look out for us in 2009'
.
Once this was over, Lou had to go collect her prize, and I shuffled out (cause I was HOT) to meet Carrie and Liam out side the main building. They were waiting for nert, and for the rest of the D.Greyman group (who were insanely epic). We trundled off to the cemetery for our shoot, and decided we'd wait for Lou and co. to come to the graveyard.
Shoot was fun. Cemetery gives a lot more environment, and dynamic for things, I found. And I love graveyards anyway, so it was a lovely change of scenery. We got a few photos before Louise and Mary arrived, and continued one when they did. Including finding a random stick of bamboo which acted as Masurame in a 'death of Aeris' shot, which was amusing, and I can't wait to see. XD
After our shoot, we went back to Nixon Court and changed quickly, ate equally and quickly and changed back quickly for the Ball.
The Ball was... lovely. Very nicely decorated, and everyone looked amazing, but I just felt really awkward and uncomfortable. I'm not very good in formal situations, so found myself being a total wallflower, and making extremely awkward conversation anytime I was asked to dance, which may have come off as standoffishness. I also found my feet decidedly interesting whenever I was dancing with someone.
I got a little emotional due to personal reasons which I will not divulge, but I managed to get myself under control and had a generally good time. Got to see lots of people in their pretty dresses. Including gorgeous Princesses Aurora (Ashe) and Cinderella (Angelphie) which made me squee with happiness. And preeeetty Anya (Carrie) who I tried to take ninja photos of and failed epicly! Ailsa also had a gorgeous dress one, which was awesome when she spun around! And Leena looked lovely in her ball gown, with James dressed to match (ohmygod you two are so damn cute!! <3)
Music was lovely too, as sung by ... someone who's name I've forgotten. But she did a duet with...Kelly? I think, of Melodies of Life and that made me extremely happy. <3
The ball finished, and it became an AMV disco. Lou, mary and I changed into more comfortable clothes and went to dance. I didn't. The shoes I had worn for Aeris had NO SUPPORT so my feet were burning like I was walking on coal. It was so painful I couldn't actually put any weight on my feet, walking was fucking agony, let alone dancing and bouncing around like a loon. So they went off an danced, while I sat in Oasis and watched other people bounding around like lunatics, and promptly felt a little weird for doing so.
Hid away for a bit, until Lou and Mary were ready to which was about ten to one. Left, went back to Nixon. I did a bit of pre-emptive packing and then flopped in bed.
Monday:Manic packing was manic. Dividing up food, and throwing all our stuff back into the lift to take it down, and thus being a fire hazard. YAY US! Played car tetris for a while as we packed everything back in, and set off at just after ten or so. Managed to get back to Brighton in two and a half hours with minimal speeding. Unpacked, flopped in bed, and then went about uploaded photos.
Overall:
Overall I enjoyed AmeCon. It was a much nicer and more chilled out environment than Expo, and that was a nice change. I also liked that I was able to talk to people properly, rather than a quick 'hello' and then dash off!
Most of the weekend was great. I was disappointed by the Omake, but that was it. I liked that there were evening activies for people to do, and I was pleasantly surprised by the accomodation.
I'm looking forward to AyaCon next year, but have October Expo and Minami to get ready for yet. (Yes. I am GOING to Minami. I want to know what its liiiike cause it looks fun!)
Trades
Open
In ProgressWaiting OnLeonxAyren Commish - *
Priss-BloodEmpress BookerxHoshiko trade - ~
rynn-samaThis is just for my referance, so I know what I'm waiting for. Cause I tends to forget.
PlanningNothing right now. D:
Stupid vertical limitation... >__>
Distracted
