On Saturday, we got there super early again. How early? They wouldn't even let us into the lobby! We were directed either upstairs outside. Edward and I chose the former.
We sat near the elevators and joked around and took selfies and doodled on a whiteboard that Edward had brought. I wrote "Have you seen my SOUL BROTHER?" on the whiteboard and drew a sloppy picture of Ling. Someone saw me hold up the whiteboard and asked to take my picture. SCORE!
Some people who were sitting across the room started playing music. I commented on how I liked the particular song they were playing. After playing some kinda mainstream stuff, they played the "Caramel Dance" and the "Numa Numa" song (I know that's not the song's real title) and they started doing the dances. Edward and I joined in. Afterwards, they came up to me and we had a little exchange that went something like...
Music guy: This is for you, Greed.
*Music guy starts playing an instrumental.*
Me: Uh...?
Music guy: It's Dante's theme. You know, from the first anime?
Me: Thanks a lot, dude!
*I start sulking.*
Then the music guy started playing stuff from musicals and he and his friends started acting them out. I knew there wouldn't be karaoke this year, but if I had a chance to perform a song, this was it. I confided to Edward that I was a bit nervous suggesting the song to them. Edward reassured me that I didn't have to; she already did it for me. Unfortunately, they never got around to playing it because THE LOBBY HAD JUST OPENED!
As we made our way down the escalator, I looked up to find someone cosplaying as Alphonse Elric. In full armor. Now there's a rare sight indeed. I didn't waste any time screaming, "Alphonse Elric! I want your body!" (In-character moment #1).
The Fullmetal Alchemist photoshoot was coming up at 10. The question, though, was where it would be held. If it wasn't raining, it would be outside, but there was a backup location just in case of stormy weather. Now, it was gloomy outside, but it wasn't raining, so Edward and I figured that the photoshoot would be out in the garden.
We were very wrong.
As we made our way to the garden, we found that there were no people. Anywhere. Not even in the back lots where photoshoots tend to happen. Figuring that the photoshoot was happening inside, we retraced our steps. Then we got caught in the rain. Fortunately, we didn't get TOO wet. It only started to really come down around when we got to the entrance of the convention center.
The photoshoot was just about to start as Edward and I stumbled in. Lucky! Unfortunately, it would take a long time to describe everything that happened (a picture is worth 1,000 words, y'know) so I'm just going to do a quick bullet point summary.
- I had a little standoff with Wrath just before people started taking pictures (in-character moment #2).
- Two (count 'em!) people showed up dressed as Alphonse. That NEVER happens. The Ed-to-Al ratio was about 3 to 1.
- "My" Edward (for the purpose of differentiating her from the other Eds, I'm going to call her "Tall Ed" throughout this section) totally crashed a shot with all military personnel. Her excuse: "I'm a State Alchemist, so that means I'm in the military, right?"
- I posed with my sin-siblings and gave Wrath bunny ears. Then I gave Envy bunny ears. Neither one noticed. (YAAAAS!)
- All the Eds posed with a single Nina Tucker and her plush dog. Spoiler: Then they tried to revive her.
- The Winrys ganged up on the Eds-- wrenches and all.
- Izumi showed up (first time I'd seen her) and proceeded to beat up all the Eds and Als. Her husband (also a first) tried to stop her. I don't even know if the two of them coordinated their costumes or found each other by sheer luck.
- Military vs. homunculi stand off!!!!!
- I played dead many times in many ways.
- The Eds and Als showed some love for their mom. Then she "died" and the Eds got in a big semicircle to revive her. Izumi tried to stop them.
- The Eds attacked Wrath
- I suggested that the Mustangs should beat up the Envys after the Envys killed the Hugheses. My exact words: "Kick his butt, Roy!"
- There was much blood (and by "blood" I mean various Eds' coats serving a second purpose).
- Tall Ed suggested that all the characters that were killed off should be zombies.
- In the grand finale photo, there was much dabbing.
- Post photoshoot, I FOUND MY SOUL BROTHER! We took a picture together-- with my sign of course.
- Izumi kicked me in the head.
Also, this happened when one of the Envys was getting ready to leave.
Edward: Who's that Pokemon?
Me: It's Exeggutor!
Envy gave us the finger.
After the photoshoot, Edward and I decided to go buy drinks at Starbucks. Big mistake. First off, the line was sooooo slow. Then they were out of the sandwich I wanted. Then there was a hold-up on Edward's Frappuccino. A very long holdup. In fact, she and I finished the rest of our food and my drink just waiting around for it. I felt sorry for the poor baristas. They must have been so stressed.
Once Edward finally got her drink, we did more shopping. We went to another bookshop where I bought a book on how to read Japanese, so that maybe I could translate that artbook. Edward bought the manga version of the novel, The Count of Monte Cristo. I guess she was starting to build a collection of manga-fied novels because she had bought an illustrated edition of The Wizard of Oz a few months back.
After that, we went on a hunt for plushies. I wanted to make my purchase count, but I felt that I had to settle for a fluffy bunny or something. Then, I saw him. There may not be any official plusies of FMA's Greed, but getting his counterpart from The Seven Deadly Sins was the next best thing. The best part is that they made him look really adorable.
Edward wanted to buy a plushie, too. She had her heart set on a five-tailed fox. Fortunately, I remembered a booth where they were selling some, so I led her there. The foxes came in a number of colors, sizes, and costumes. She decided on a small, red one. We later named him Chibirama.
Around 3 PM, Edward and I split up. I wanted to go to a panel and she wanted to see a My Little Pony photoshoot. It worked out because I know very little of MLP culture and she wasn't interested in this particular panel.
The aforementioned panel was about the relation between anime fans and people with autism. It was a letdown. I'll leave it at that.
Needless to say, Edward had a better time hanging out with the bronies. She met a YouTube MLP reviewer with the same steampunk top hat that she had. He suggested they take a picture together. When we met up again, Edward was tired and I was already in line for another panel.
There were two panels that I wanted to see, but they were at the exact same time. The first was an official Sailor Moon panel. The other, Anime Taboo. On the one hand I was hoping that the SM panel would have some big announcement. After all, I'm still kicking myself for missing the panel three years ago when Viz made their announcement of a license rescue and redub. On the other hand, I had waited a year for Anime Taboo, since I went the previous year and wasn't picked as a contestant. I figured there would never be as big of an announcement as the re-licensing of Sailor Moon, so I picked Taboo. Besides, I was feeling lucky.
Apparently, many other people were feeling the same way, because that line was loooooong. I was a little bit afraid that I wasn't going to make it in due to the room being at full capacity. Fortunately, I did make it in, and I got a pretty good seat, too.
In the game of Anime Taboo, six people are on a team. Three members, the describers, face a screen with an anime title, and a list of words that they can't use to describe that anime. The other three, the guessers, face away from the screen and have to guess the anime. If the guessers can guess the anime without the describers saying the taboo words, the team gets a point. If the guessers give up or the describers say something taboo, that counts as a miss. The object of the game is to get 12 points before seven misses.
There were also prizes. Participants get a raffle ticket and if their name is picked they can choose prizes such as comic books or posters. Winners get two raffle tickets, doubling their chance of winning a prize.
From my experience last year, I knew that the best way to get picket was to either (a) have a recognizable costume or (b) hold up a crazy prop. I had to do the latter, so I held up one of my boots.
Two rounds passed, and I wasn't picked. By the third round, I was getting a bit desperate. The hosts picked six people, but one backed out. This was my chance. I waved my boot around and shouted, "COME ON!"
That must've done the trick because they picked me.
I chose to be a describer because I'm really good at stuff like that. My trick was when someone guessed part of the title, I'd tell them whether it was the first word, second, et cetera. The downside to that strategy came up when the anime I had to describe was Lupin the Third. Fortunately, the guessers were able to figure that one out.
We did hit one bump in the road when the other describers and I had to describe Kino's Journey. I had never seen it, and apparently, neither had the other subscribers. They only way I could describe the second word was, "They sing 'Don't Stop Believin''." The response was, "...What?" After elaborating a bit, they finally got the word "Journey". The hard part was describing "Kino". One of the other describers said it meant "of wood", but the guessers couldn't figure it out. They decided to pass. Of course, now I can think of ways for them to figure out the word "Kino", but what's past is past, and I have to let it go.
Much to my delight, that was our only pass and we all won the round. Not bad for a team of total strangers. We each filled out two raffle tickets and returned to our seats.
After that, the hosts decided to hold the first raffle and MY NAME WAS PICKED. I was thrilled. I went up, and picked up one of the comic books. Since I didn't have to be around for the rest of the panel, I just left. Besides, Edward was waiting for me in the hall. I ended up giving the comic book to her (out-of-character moment #2).
We went back to the exhibition hall to do more shopping. We eyed the DVDs at the Funimation table. I think I made a comment about them going on sale the next day. The guy selling the DVDs informed us that the DVDs they had were not going to be on sale at all, and to get while the getting's good. I bought a copy of The Seven Deadly Sins and Edward bought both seasons of Free. That was another lucky moment for her because she got the last copy of one of the seasons.
I was getting a bit hungry, and I saw a food station selling fried rice, cake pops, and other treats. I caved and bought vegetable fried rice. I also bought two cake pops to share with Edward (out-of-character moment #3).
We sat down to eat. The fried rice was sub-par, to say the least. I was about halfway through when I bit into a lump of chicken. I decided to (politely) complain.
I walked back to the fried rice stand and told them that there was chicken in my vegetable fried rice. So one of the guys at the stand took it back. I then went to the cashier to ask for a partial refund. She said she had no authority to do that, and that her supervisor was in a meeting. To make things right, she offered me some cinnamon-sugar nachos, which I accepted. Then the guy that took back my rice gave me another one. I took both items. Because I could. Hey, I was getting my money's worth.
After eating the nachos, I decided to save the fried rice for later. Besides, it was almost dinnertime, and I needed to eat food with actual nourishment. Edward and I took the shuttle home, changed into our normal clothes and went out to dinner.
Dinner was probably one of the low points in our little adventure. We got there around 7:00, ordered our food, and waited. Hey, at least there was loud music and many TV screens to keep us busy. When our food did arrive, someone had the bright idea to sprinkle my sandwich with pepper flakes. I didn't really notice until I took a bite and practically set my mouth on fire. Since it would probably take forever to get me a new sandwich, and I wasn't super hungry to begin with, I just brushed off the flakes as best I could. By the time we were done, it was already 9:00.
We got back to our hotel room and I instantly collapsed. Tired and stuffed, I thought I'd relax a little on the bed. It wasn't until the middle of the night that I realized that I had fallen asleep in my clothes.
