Sometimes you just gotta vanish for a few months because you fall deep, deep into hell, aka con crunch and playing way too damn much enstars. Hi, I'm not dead, just busy and full of ADHD~~~

I've got a whole backlog of things I wanted to post about and that's maybe why I have been putting off writing anything here, because anxiety???? Maybe???????????? I dunno, man, I'm stupid sometimes. Anyway. I may or may not get to it, but at the very least I wanna share the awesome accomplishment of the summer: finishing enstars cosplays for Otakon!!!!!!


Liz & I made a very cute Kohaku & Madara :D I'm particularly proud of the work I did for the gold vinyl + sewing so much god damn pleather.


Double Face, reporting for duty...in the underground parking lot we used all weekend~
I'd have more to say, but I've gotta get back to doing what I swore I'd never do again: getting two copies of a 5* from a jp event. HiMERU and his absolutely insane brother are irresistible to me XD

THE FINAL DAAAAAAY sobs I miss it already. That's how I'm prefacing this; I already wish I were back at the con ;w; It was so fucking good!!!!!!

We once again made it to the con at a reasonable time (somehow????), despite being very tired. I couldn't find my Vashwood shirt so I said fuck it and wore cute goth shit and called it a day. I was all decked out in Knives merch, so that's all I really need, right?

Liz dropped me and Pat at the con and went to go park, so we did a quick run of artist alley while we waited...and bought another print even though we were soooooo overspent on money. Oops??? OUR BAD. We then had to zip out and meet back up with Liz.

And then....we finally went to the dealers room for basically the first time XD It was, as always, fucking massive. And we'd already spent all our money a bunch of times over, so we were just browsing. We did get to see the bullet train booth and get free swag, so that was cool!! :D

After that, we ended up hanging out with the Livio cosplayer from yesterday for a bit, which was really nice!!! I always worry I'll miss saying goodbye to people on Sundays, so it was good to find them ;w; Then we ended up back in artist alley to meet up with different friends, get the gossip on some con drama, and accidentally befriend the guy who bought the Knives Thirst Standee XD

okay so straight up I have never really gone to cons for programming. But I really loved tristamp and wanted to support it and do more!!! So we went to the autograph session for Studio Orange and I got them to sign my Knives pillow *w*


HE LOOKS SO GOOD AHHHHH!!! I got to show him to the artist and she was super excited to see him autographed :D

We then had another lunch of champions - aka lunchables - before rushing over to artist alley a-fucking-gain to see more friends before the end of the con. I'm so sad to see everyone go, but since some of them are local and others hit up the same con circuit as us, I'm really looking forward to seeing them all again ;w;

I FEEL LIKE I'M FORGETTING THINGS BUT I AM JUST SO FUCKING TIRED SOBS

The drive home was so long and so sad, but it was improved by me forcing Liz and Pat to listen to my theme music (aka MILLIONS KNIVES -Vocal Ver-) until we got to the worst rest stop on I-95. It was even worse than usual because the vending machines were entirely fucking empty????? We were so thirsty and so denied any liquid.

And then, finally, we returned home to a fresh pot of coffee courtesy of Chi ;w; It was so thoughtful to come back to ;w;

( just a few pics from today )

I MISS OTAKON ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it went by so quickly and also that so much happened!!!! AND ALSO I can't believe that I wrote up a recap for every fucking day; this is a first for me :D

Oh my god its fucking 2 am I was at the con for neay 16 hours today and it was somehow even better than yesterday!!!! I'm exhausted and I wanna pass out instead of write this, but we're currently in a huge line at McDonald's, sooooo I have time to work on this while we wait.

First of all: 10 am Trigun photoshoot, so that was hell to get to. We left Baltimore at around 8:30 and I made it on time (while Liz and Pat parked the car). The room it was in didn't even open until 10, so I ended up waiting around for a little bit just watching people go by. And then we fiiiiinally got let in :D Everyone looked so good again today and it was really exciting to see how many people made it to the shoot despite it being early on fucking Saturday.

INCLUDING A TRIMAX KNIVES!!!! I was too nervous to talk to them at first, but I ended up complimenting their costume and watching their bag for a bit, since I was too sore to take pics today. Eventually my emotional support wife showed up and I was able to properly strike up conversation. And we ended up chatting with them and one of the Legato cosplayers from yesterday for awhile, as well as some of the other people at the shoot. IT WAS SO NICE SOBS EVERYONE IS SO KIND AND LOVELY TO TALK TO!!! People have continued to be amazed by the fanfic booklets I made ;w; I'm blown away by people's reactions tbh, it's made my weekend so nice.

We ended up chatting for AWHILE, during which time we saw a Midvalley cosplayer with an actual fucking saxophone, which was awesome. After the many hours of standing and talking, I had to go sit and recover, because.....apparently I went too hard yesterday ;w; I did run around a ton, but I'm still sad I was so wiped today. Eventually I realized that I really couldn't keep walking, so Liz went and got me a wheelchair so I could actually keep doing stuff.

And then the return to artist alley so I could get a Knives button I'd seen yesterday :D I needed him for my lanyard~~~ I was gonna look around more, but we wanted to check in at the featured events room to see when we could line up for the Studio Orange panel. They ended up letting us go in at around 2 (despite the panel being at 4) because we needed accessibility accommodations.

This ended up working out really well, because we got a little section of wall to hang out at while we waited. And then, various people we'd met yesterday and today recognized us and came to chill with us. AND THEN DURING THIS CONVO WE REALIZED THAT THE LEGATO COSPLAYER WE HUNG OUT WITH THIS MORNING ALSO LIVES IN Baltimore!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was just a ton of good conversation in general with people, including the trimax Knives that I am apparently eternally enamored with *w* They also had told an artist about the fics I gave them and wanted to introduce me to said artist... but after the panel, obviously.

THE PANEL!!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got to sit in the very front row, thanks to cripple powers accessibility, and I just sorta charisma'd our entire group with me uwu Liz recorded the entire thing and I took a bunch of pictures, but there's so fucking much that I think it needs its own post tbh. Just know that they were playing my song in the room (MILLIONS KNIVES -Vocal Ver-) and I was so happy for it. Also, Studio Orange was just so nice and excited so see how many people love Trigun here in America ;w;

ANYWAY!!! We then went off to the artist alley with our Knives friend and met up with the artist....who I'd gotten some charms from yesterday!!! They were super fucking impressed with our fics and very grateful, and it's just been so fun to see everyone's reactions ;w; I GOTTA BRING MORE TO THE NEXT CON BUT THE PRINTER BROKE SO I'M FUCKING DYING OVER IT.

uhhhhh

There was a lot of wandering around artist alley before finally being like fuck we should eat because it's after 6 and we still haven't eaten, like, all day. Dinner of champions: Lunchables and pudding/jello cups! :D

Okay, so after eating, we went on a wandering adventure through the con center, looking for something to do. We tried to see the Ota Museum, but it was already closed. And then we hiked back across the con center to try to go to the manga librar...which had closed early. fucking. We ALSO found out that we had to return the wheelchair by 9, because I guess disabled people don't exist after sunset????? Whatever.

OH RIGHT OKAY we'd been preaching the good word of Knives/Legato all weekend, and even gotten some people to join our discord server :D Which worked out because one of them ended up mentioning that they were just chilling outside of artist alley and since we didn't have any other plans, we went to hang with our new friend the Livio cosplayer~ For like, hours, just chatting with them and a Wolfwood cosplayer they'd met. It was very much like the best kind of con energy tbh!!!!

Once it was around 11? 11:15? We were all like fuck shit it's getting late - the Livio had to pack up for check out tomorrow and we had an hour drive home - so we parted ways. We went up the escalators towards the exit and...ran into the Knives and Legato cosplayers we hung out with a ton earlier XD So it's Saturday after dark and we're literally about to leave to go home, but I'm just like JUST KIDDING, TIME TO HANG OUT WITH FRIENDS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!! We ended up wandering with them and their friends for a bit before finally going to see the AMVs after dark...because nothing says the beginning of a beautiful friendship like watching hentai together ;D

And those went until 1:30 am, which is when the con closed for the day. They were basically like "okay you saw your Frosty the Snowman hentai, now get the fuck out of here" and we did!! The end- for now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

god I'm so fucking tired. This was written over the course of our drive home and finished up from the comfort of my own couch. I'm gonna go pass out so I can experience more con tomorrow~~~~~

Day one, success!!!!!!!!! I had such an amazing day and I'm so exhausted now, but it was so worth it :D

Somehow made it to DC by about 10:30 am, which is a new record for us getting out of the house at a reasonable time. I'm gonna try to pull it off again tomorrow....hopefully... We started by getting a lay of the land, as if we haven't been to the past few Otakons or anything XD I was playing "spot the Wolfwood cosplayers by looking for the punisher" as we wandered around, which was fairly successful.

We ended up lining up for artist alley at around 11:30, even tho it didn't open until 1, because I wanted to participate in a bunch of stamp rallies and also get a kuroneko plush that the artist only had 15 of. We talked to a lot of cool people while waiting, including some other Trigun fans who gave us LOVE & PEACE ribbons to put on our badges :D They also were running the Trigun shoot later, so we got to see them again... though more on that eventually XD


THE ARTIST ALLEY IS SO FULL THIS YEAR AND IT WAS LIKE A FUCKING FEVER DREAM AHHHHHHHH I LOVE ART AND BEING IN SUCH A POPULAR FANDOM IS DANGEROUS TO OUR FINANCES BUT IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! We ran all over the place collecting stamps for three (3) different Trigun stamp rallies, and got some pleasant surprises along the way. One of the participants was a friend of ours from MDZS and another lives only about 10 mins from us!! Small world!!!!! I was also on a quest to collect every Knives there, but our $$$ ran out before I got them all. OH WELL. We also got the very minimal amount of Legato merch we could find, and Liz got a Livio charm, surprisingly.

Anyway, we ran around for about an hour and a half before heading to dealers room...mostly so that we could sit at the tables there and eat our lunch. We packed Lunchables, fruit snacks, and pudding cups, and it was actually super helpful! It saved us from having the buy a meal while in DC :D It was also just super nice to sit comfortably and vibe while eating.......until the karaoke started up. Why the fuck is the karaoke being hosted in the middle of the fucking dealers room??? I have no idea, but it was....not great, to say the least.

And then....TRIGUN MEETUP TIME!!! We got to meet back up with the cosplayers we met yesterday beforehand, and then I took a billion pics with my nice camera. The auto-focus on my lens decided to crap out right at the beginning, but whatever, I know how to focus on the fly at least. I have so many pictures to go through after this weekend is over *w*

STUDIO ORANGE CAME TO THE MEETUP AND TOOK PICTURES OF THE WHOLE THING AND AHHHHHHHH IT FEELS SO COOL TO HAVE THE FUCKING ANIME STUDIO COME TO THE PHOTOSHOOT ACTUALLY????? AHHHHHHHHH!!!! I of course missed getting a picture with them because I was too busy taking pictures myself, but oh well!! Still fun!!!!!

After the shoot, we sat at a table in the main area and watched cosplayers go by while I rested up. We also chatted some more with the people who ran the meetup....mostly about how much we love plantcest and how we can't understand antis who stan Knives.

Eventually, we walked over to the Sbarro that's practically attached to the con center and had a quick, cheap dinner. The heat was fucking terrible though, straight up, it's so fucking bad. Just the brief walk nearly ended me ;w;

And then we returned to the artist alley, since we'd kinda speed run it doing the stamp rallies. We went through the WHOLE DAMN THING and I'm so proud of myself for all the stretching I've been doing, because I powered through the whole thing without a break. We talked to so many people and they were all so nice and I just am full of so much love for being at cons again ;w; I want to just keeping doing this forever, which is good because I think we will.

I ALSO GOT FUCKING THIEF KING BAKURA STICKERS!!!! There's never Thief King stuff, ever, so I was very excited. The artist is also taking preorders on a BAKURA BAG, so as soon as I have money again, I'm getting one. It's so important to me. I love him so much ♥

uhhhhhhh god I'm fucking tired

I had to go sit in the accessibility rest area and recover after doing the entirety of artist alley in one go, though, especially since I kept stopping to talk to people. We had more snackies (cheez-its and pepperoni) and chatted about the bullet train XD I also made the maybe stupid decision to redo my lanyard to be entirely Knives tomorrow, in honor of the Studio Orange panel. But I had switched to P5 lanyard, and that just won't do........so Pat's currently making me a new lanyard to use tomorrow XD What's a con without last minute sewing????

Anyway!!! That was most of the day, we were there for over 12 hours and while I'm in pain, it's not nearly as bad as it's been recently. Here's hoping to an even better day tomorrow!!!!!

( god I'm so tired but I wanna share some pix )

DAY 0 WAS SO FUN!!!!!

We made the very smart plan to go down today and get our badges, instead of wasting a chunk of Friday in the pickup line. And it was a very good idea; it went sooooo smoothly and quickly. I got all my accessibility stuff taken care of, too, so waiting in line for the Studio Orange panel on Saturday should go smoothly :D

So after picking up badges, we sat sorta near the entrance and watched people go by. I love watching cosplayers go by and seeing everyone's stuff, and I'm always impressed by people who get fully in cosplay for Thursday of all days. I ended up wearing my Millennium Ring because I wanted something fun, and I also wore Thief King's coat until I was too hot.

We eventually got hungry and went to dinner, which ended up being an exercise in pain because it was so fucking hot sobs. Maybe I shouldn't have been wearing a long sleeve coat in 97 degree weather, but maybe I'm just not smart XD Pat found the place and it was only about 10 minutes away, but I was cursing him out at about 2/3 of the way there because I was so overheated ;w; It ended up being really good, so all was forgiven. Pat had a particularly good mango margarita!!

On the way back to the con center, we stopped at CVS so I could get a 5 hour energy - because I left all of mine in Baltimore - and I got fucked carded at the self checkout. Apparently you have to be 21 to buy them??? So that was funny to me XD

ANYWAY. We finally get back to the con center and see the Legato cosplayer I was trying to meet up with...having a photoshoot outside the building, as you do. It was really nice to meet up with them!!!! I got to share my millionsummers fic booklets and Liz's Legato zine :D And then one of their friends recognized my XiYao ita bag and mentioned that they liked SangCheng, and Liz was able to produce a SangCheng fic from my bag of mysteries uwu We're gonna see them again tomorrow (hopefully!) at the Trigun shoot *w*

It looked kinda overcast, so I made the decision to head home. Which was good! It started raining as we are trying to get into the parking garage XD

Tonight, I'm gonna try to tone my hair and maybe fix the printer? And rest up for even more excitement tomorrow!!!!!!

I'll try to add pictures when I get home; it's such a pain to do on mobile ><

( click for pix!!!!!! )

I FOUND A SHIT TON OF MY OLD MUSIC!!!! APPARENTLY I WAS SMART ENOUGH TO BACK UP MY ITUNES LIBRARY IN 2008, SO I HAVE MOST OF MY OLD MUSIC AND PLAYLISTS FROM HIGH SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! IT'S SO GOOD!!!!!

Other good news: we're going to fucking Otakon!!!!!!! It's not really fiscally responsible, but we wanna go to the Studio Orange panel and see other Trigun fans and experience anime for a weekend. And then Liz's new job starts next Monday, so we'll be okay.

Other other good news: I'm using Otakon as an excuse to start stretching every day, so that I can be in better shape for a weekend of running around an anime convention. I know that I can't fix a decade of fucking it up in ~2 weeks, but I'm gonna do what I can!! I'm already feeling better :D I'm also feeling better mentally, and not just because I'm on my meds again. I think exercise is legit helping, which I fucking haaaaaaaate because it always works this way but still!!! How dare doing the right thing work?? XD

ALSO!!!!!!! We've been on top of updating our 2000s/LJ Trigun AU, as in we updated it twice this month. However, in finding old playlists, I had to discover that a huge chunk of one of the ones we made for the fic is basically the same as a playlist I made Pat in high school XD How could I have fucking known that the fanfic I'm writing to revisit only the best parts of my youth could possibly accidentally recreate things I made then? XD

Someone please shoot me though; why was I Hate Everything About You on nearly every fucking playlist I made back then? And why did I have Knives listening to it in the most recent chapter???? BECAUSE IT WAS POSTED BEFORE I FOUND ALL THIS MUSIC AND SOMETIMES BLORBO IS TOO REAL, OKAY, MY LIFE IS HARD!!!!!!

Life is going a lot better than it was even a month ago, though. So that's good!!!!! :D

I got the job at the bakery!!!!!! I start on Monday!!! EPIC HAPPINESS MANEUVER GO!!!!!!! :D :D :D

Anyway :D That's my news for today~! *dance dance dance*

Tonight, Patti, Kelly, and I are doing cosplay prep for Otakon. I remade thief king's kilt last night and finished up ironing it today. It looks PERFECT! I finally got around to hemming the plain off white jacket & I just need to hem the hood now. But I'm taking a break to style Kelly's Jounouchi wig.

Before Otakon, I have to iron thief king's red coat, redye and style his wig (since I washed it out to clean it), and style Kelly's Ryou wig when it comes in the mail. I think I'm also helping Patti paint some shirts and the millennium rod. And maybe Kelly's ring. Ughhhh I feel like I'm forgetting some things but whatever~

Less than two weeks!!!! :D :D :D

Otakon = amazing. Just fyi.

Day one started with over three hours in line waiting to get in and register. We met some awesome people in line, so that was good. But still. THREE HOURS. That really contributed to our being exhausted thing. Plus we both had our chests bound so we were like...unable to breathe. Oh Baltimore in the summer.

Once we got in, we spent a good hour hunting for the fountains so we could get to the Yugioh photoshoot. WAY TO GO US. We followed an Ishizu and a Kaiba thinking they knew where they were going, but apparently they didn't either because they asked us for help. EVENTUALLY we found it :D And it was AWESOME. The Malik cosplayer was super awesome~

Then the wandering around began! We found the dealers room and made it about, oh, 1/4 of the way through. Seriously. IT'S HUGE. Tekkoshocon is nothing compared to this. I was kind of in overwhelmed excitement all day. But yeah, I hit up the yaoi doujin table pretty early on and drooled over that for awhile...then hunted around for stuff to hang off my DS.

We left the con to get lunch after that & then went back to the hotel just to rebind ourselves and rest for a second. One three hour nap later...we made it back to the con in time to look at the artists alley and buy ygo abridged t-shirts :D Then we went to the cosplay pajama party and watched them play duck duck goose. Until security stopped them XD We also sat down and played the yugioh card game for awhile, that was fun.

And then dinner...at about 11:30. Oh man. Good times. Then I uploaded pictures and passed out.

My pictures so far! :D

I'm in Baltimore, in a hotel room in the inner harbor, with just dreams of Otakon in the morning. AHHHHH :D I am so excited!!!

Oh wait, I still have to finish styling two wigs and sleep. Um. OKAY BACK TO COSPLAY WORK!!!!

OH MY GOD. FREAK OUT TIME.

The YuGiOh card game nationals are in PITTSBURGH this year! HOLY SHIT!!! PLUS I think there might still be time for me to qualify! There regionals are next Sunday so if I magically get really good at ygo in the next week I can go and try to qualify~! Even if I don't I'm totally going to go to watch the nationals.

AHHH I AM RUNNING AROUND THE HOUSE IN GLEE. THIS IS EPIC!!! The nationals are the weekend of the video game music concert and the one before Otakon so July is basically going to be the best month ever. AHHHHHH!!!

Okay, so this week is going to be spent hunting around for YGO cards...god, I will be so broke but so excited...