tohma2004 | Nekocon 2010 con Report

Okay so better late then never. Hush.

Thursday
Really I should start on Wednesday because that is when it really started. I didn’t finish sewing the Fai coat until about 3 AM and then I spent the next hour and a half trying to get things packed up. I not only had to pack cosplay stuff but also artist alley stuff..so it was double the packing. Managed to get everything together and collapsed into bed for a few hours before getting up, getting ready, and cleaning stalls.

Cat arrived with the van around 11 and we loaded up that and Utai’s car. Basically Utai had K-9 in her car because he took up the entire backseat.

We headed to the con and the trip was fairly uneventful except for the fact that it rained basically the entire way. Kakyou once again beat us to the con. And Pam was in the van with Cat which was a couple hours behind us because they had to stop in Winston to make prints and things.

We got a room on the 2nd floor. SCORE! Because the front desk people are cool like that..unlike the rest of the hotel staff members..but we will get to that later.

Once we unloaded Utai’s car and I lead the side-walking K-9 to the hotel room we decided to check out the Managers Reception. Utai was getting into Break so me and Kakyou went down and got..well..I don’t know what it was called but it was full of vodka..like really full of vodka. To the point where I was feeling it before I finished it. While we were drinking Pam called to say they had arrived so I gulped the rest of my drink and went out to unload the van. We got the rest of the stuff up in the hotel room and then headed over to the convention to get our badges and set up the artist alley tables.

We unloaded the artist alley stuff and we set to work putting together the tables. I had D-12 and D11. Yeahhh. D-12 man. Eminem table FTW.

Once we finished setting up, Kakyou and Utai and I went to Hors for dinner. (Hors=Hooters. Don’t know the story behind that? Look for a previous Nekocon report). Found out Laura and everyone was already at the con so we went up to their room to say hello and figure out skit rehearsing plans. Once plans were made it was off to the restaurant.

We ate and then headed back to the room where I got into my Fai costume and got all the materials to rehearse. We went to the same spot we were in last year, the Exercise room. We figured, okay the security guard put us here last year so it must be okay to do it again this year. Well as soon as we got situated and I started to explain the skit and walk out the steps..a security guard showed up. He told us we weren’t allowed to be in there. We told him that security told us last year we could be and actually kicked us out of the lobby where we had tried to rehearse. This guy said that no one would say something like that and we had to get out.

Frustrated we collected our stuff and trudged out to the lobby. It was near impossible to hear the music but we did our best to work out the steps by the elevator. Finally me and Ange went over to a little hallway to rehearse our part in what we hoped would be a quieter section. Once we were fairly comfortable with what we were doing we waved everyone over to try and work out their parts. We hade about a 4 foot wide section to actually rehearse which was not good since the skit took up about a ten foot wide space, plus it was hard to work on the curtains in that area. We did what we could before giving up and heading to bed.

FRIDAY
Woke up and put on Frau. Headed to the artist alley to finish setting up, price everything and get ready for it to open and hopefully make some money. Got some pictures taken with Cyrstal as Matsumoto. (RP pairing)

After a few hours of sitting at the table I went off and got into Sakura (prince version). Spent more time at the table..blah blah blah..table.

Took some pictures of Laura in her Left 4 Dead costume

Fast forward to the end of the night when it was time to rehearse the skit. Ange and I were both in full costume since we really needed to make sure we could move and do everything in the outfits. We didn’t have all the props either during practice the night before so this was a full blown run.

Now..a few hours before we rehearsed I went to the front desk and asked the person working it about using the exercise room. I told her about the situation and that we had used it last year and asked if there was any problem, if we could send them to her? Knowing full well that the security guard would give us a problem again. She said yes and that using the room was fine.

So that night, around midnight, we went into the exercise room to start rehearsing. And just as expected, Security-asshole walks in. Well I told him to go talk to the lady at the front desk because she said we could be in here. He said that she didn’t have the authority and that we had to get out. So at this point I walked up and said..pretty much the following..

Me: Let me speak with a manager
Him: You need to all just get out of here.
Me: We will leave, if the manager asks us to leave. We got permission from the front desk.
Him: This is an exercise room, you can’t use it like this.
Me: Then I will get on a damn exercise bike and pedal while they rehearse. Then I am using the room.
Him: It doesn’t work that way.
Me: Let me out so I can speak to a manager.

He is completely blocking the only exit and standing in the doorway, basically not letting us out even though I continue to ask to see a manager.

Him: You need to back up. Do you want to be kicked out of the hotel?
Me: *throws up hands and takes a step back* Just let me speak to a manager.

Finally after a few more minutes of arguing he gets out of the doorway. By this time I am downright angry. We have been threatened, we have been unable to leave the room because of his big ass in the way, and we still haven’t been able to practice. Laura and I go to talk to the manager and finally he shows up.

Manager: You can’t use the room to practice. That is for exercising.
Laura: We got permission from the front desk.
Manager: She shouldn’t have done that.
Laura: Well you need to get your staff all on the same page.
Manager: If you want to rent out a conference room you can.
Me: We can’t afford to rent a room for the one hour we will be needing it.
Manager: You can rehearse out in the lobby.
Laura: Last year we got kicked out of the lobby.
Me: And we can’t hear our music over your music and the hundred people in here.
Manager: There is the patio.
Laura: We got kicked out of there last year too.
Manager: We won’t kick you out this year.

Keep in mind the patio is outside and it was about 40 degrees outside. Yeah. Splendid. Lets all get pneumonia shall we? After arguing for a few minutes we agree to go out on the patio and so we head back to the exercise room to collect our things. As we are doing that the manager comes in and tries to appologize for the inconvenience. We tell him that it isn’t right that we can get threatened and moved around and are really unhappy with everything. So a very angry crew headed out into the cold to practice. We managed to get everything worked out while we shivered and froze to death. And after about an hour we headed back inside to thaw out and go to bed.

SATURDAY

Got up, got dressed and hurried over to Rehearsal. Got there and found out we were skit #3..oh lordy. Got through the line and got all the lighting and sound cues figured out. Chatted with Lyn and Baron and Siev and like..everyone in the cosplay line. Then it was our turn to rehearse and as we were waiting I realized that the bank equipment posed a potential problem. I tried to rework the staging but when we did our run through..it didn’t go well. So we decided to stick around and do it again. The stage people were nice enough to let us work out the issues we had with the curtain before we did our second run through and then we did it again and it ran a bit smoother. We then rushed off to get our costumes judged.

Everyone kept saying, “So we heard you are a master now. We couldn’t believe that skit last year was just journeyman level.” ….oh god. Please stop reminding me that I am a master. It is terrifying. But thank you for liking the skit last year. We hope we can impress you again.

After judging we went to relax at our artist tables for a couple hours. Line up was really early this year so we didn’t get to enjoy it too long. Luckily Kakyou is super awesome and sat at my table all day and I love her always and forever for her awesomeness in doing so. Did I mention she is awesome? Yeah.

Katie as Syaoran, Laura as Kurogane, Jenny as Sakura in the cosutme I made, me, and then Ange in my Yuui outfit

Went off and got into the holding room. We rehearsed a couple more times before settling down to relax. My coat became a blanket for Baron and Siev who were very cold in their Gurren Lagaan outfits. As we were getting lined up I suddenly felt very sick though. I had been having trouble all day in that I couldn’t close my collar and anything around my neck made me feel very nauseous. I frantically motioned for Laura to loosen my Infinity collar. She told me to put my head between my legs and I got on the floor and basically curled up into a little ball. I felt so sick..I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to stand up. Just as we were next to go backstage I managed to will myself back to my feet. I took a few deep breaths and then refastened the collar before heading backstage.

While we were waiting at the door one of the staffers said something..that might have been the coolest thing I’ve ever had anyone say to me at a con.

“I’ve been waiting all year to see your guys skit.”

Wow..thanks *blush*
Utai wondered why that was and we told her that it was because we won Best in Show last year so now we were defending our title. No pressure..none..nope.

So then it was our turn. The skit started and the first mishap was that the point of the staff got stuck in my coat but we managed to get it free and it was basically error free for the rest of the skit. With much relief we headed to our seats to relax and enjoy the rest of the skits. There was actually several very enjoyable ones and I think everyone did a great job this year.

During the halftime show they were playing a game that was based off of the “Lets make a deal” gameshow. It was actually fairly entertaining. At the end he still had prizes to give away so he started asking the audience if they had certain things.

He asked if anyone had a non-cosplay related Naruto item. I jumped to my feet and started flailing spastically because I had my phone which had my little Sasuke charm on it. Luckily he was near my aisle so he came over and I showed him my phone. He gave me a DVD of Karin. I was like COOL. I never win at these halftime show thingys XD So that was cool.

Then the judges came back and it was panic time. After all the stresses of putting this skit together I really hoped that we would get something. I had never hoped for an award so much in my life..I would have been content with a judges award at this point. No lie. The first award called was for Laura! The judge gave her an honorable mention for all her leather work for her belts and the collars. Yay ^__^

So then the awards continued. Baron and Siev got a judges award for performance and I believe Best Journeyman Craftsmanship. Lyn took home Best Master Craftsmanship and then I started to panic. Because we were left and the Pokemon Rap skit was left and I was like..oh god..nothing..we’re gonna get nothing.

And then we won best in show. And I could have cried but I was just so excited. I managed to not cry this year which is very good. But how the hell are we going to defend our title AGAIN!?

But yes, cute trophy is cute. A bit different then the five foot one we got last year..thank god.

Lots of people came up and congratulated us and asked for pictures and we tried to head out with all our stuff so that they could. And I promised Elke a photoshoot since she was nice enough to tape the skit for us. Have I mentioned that Elke is awesome too? Cause she is.

So once we checked in at the tables we went out to get the pictures. I already showed you the ones she took of my coat but you can find all of them at: http://www.onigiristills.com

After hanging out with Elke for awhile we headed back to the tables to spend the rest of the night. Sales were really rather pitiful. But my Kuro-puppy shirts very popular which amused me XD

We be Pimps

Stayed there until it closed and then headed back to the hotel room where we all just hung out, watched the skit and basically did nothing before going to bed.

SUNDAY
Got into Flame kimono and sat at the table after packing up the car. Actually forgot that it was daylight savings time so I didn’t get to enjoy my extra hour of sleep..which worked out because we still barely made it to artist alley before it opened.

As we were sitting there we made a startling discovery. K-9 had ticks! He somehow got ticks from all those crazy fur suits running around the con. Poor K-9. (In actuality those were in my happy meals that Jensen was nice enough to supply me with all weekend. Apparently they are from the movie Mastermind. I just thought they looked like giant metal ticks and so I put them on the giant metal dog)

Packed up Utai’s car with Elke’s stuff, who needed a ride to her car, and headed out after a slight detour to Joanns. The trip back against was uneventful and I snapped this picture as we crossed over some form of body of water.

Got home around 11 and decided not to unpack the car because it was freaking freezing. Stayed up and caught up with things before collapsing into bed.

Okay so the con report was a little short..and I probably missed a lot but I can’t exactly remember everything. Hopefully I covered most of it

And pictures! (i only took 60..and none of cosplayers really): Cosplay.com