Evidently Jed's phone and my phone both synced up with whatever local cell phone network flies around in Seattle because both of our alarms went off at exactly the same time. A little bit funny and a little bit frightening because his alarm was a freakin' blaring klaxon.
So we were awake. Ish. Well, I probably started walking around the room a bit first before the others started showering up and all that, just getting things in order and stuff again. I dunno, I found I tended to be the first one out of bed every morning, either because I was just tired of lying down or because I just wanted to get the day started. I suppose in a lot of ways I thought of myself as the team captain, trying to keep everything and everyone in order; hey, my credit card, my visual.
Jed', kiddo and I all headed off for Pike Market a little after 10am. We wanted to buy a fresh bouquet of flowers for kiddo's Punzie wig as well as just soak in the local scenery, being that kiddo has never seen anything of Seattle beyond the convention center.
Pike Market, as always, rocks. Was tempted to buy some fresh oysters but thought against it being it would have been the first thing I ate that day, and it could have ended badly for the rest of the day. Also got to introduce kiddo to the infamous gum wall, where an entire brick wall in an alley has been covered in years and years and years of gum. Kiddo contributed, as we all have.
Got our flowers, hit up McDonald's for some burgers, considered finding out if they had the 50 McNugget party bucket, but alas, was not to be. The plastic bag holding the water for the flower bouquet also popped and spilled all over the floor, and we eventually carried the flowers out in a McDonald's cup.
By the time we were back to the hotel, gearing up into cosplay (and running a little later than I would have preferred but meh), it was already creeping up to noon. Also, we saw another adorable Rapunzel cosplayer in the Sheraton lobby with a little frying pan. The gauntlet had been thrown.
Okay, not really. Anyway, basically, once we were out, we'd be able to walk around a bit for an hour before getting back to the hotel to grab the box of stuff for the theO meetup. But yeah. Kiddo went upstairs to our friends' room so they could do her make-up, Jed' and I just relaxed a bit . . . I fixed my hair a little again . . . I kinda fussed with my hair all con. It was the first time I had ever seriously worried about it as much as then - most other times it's either cemented into position, or just falling naturally. Flynn, well . . . his hair combs back and stays back. So it took a little effort.
Anyway, kiddo comes back all dolled up, puts in her eyes, puts on her wig, and we flower it up. Once we were set, it was out to the con to peacebond our toys and just camwhore for a bit. Also, we saw Jayne.
Ladies and gentlemen: Team F.A.P.!
And yes, I'm totally going to use kiddo's Tumblr for purposes of showing off pictures. Take that, kiddo. Also, happy birthday!
Anyway...
So people loved Jed' because that's how Jed' rolls. And people loved us because people have a thing about Tangled. It was a fun little bit of time, and it also let us kinda field-test our gear. For example, I was finding that the stupid leather spat-thingies on my boots were slipping and getting caught right under the flat of the boots, so I ended up holding them in place mostly with electrical tape. Anyway, grabbed a bit box of terracotta figurines and stuff, some delicious maple syrup cookies, and off to the meet-up we went!
(This reminds me, I need to really get that video footage cut together of the meet-up . . .)
So a few funny things happened once we came back for the meet-up. One, I got back in touch with the other stick of Vancouver types all in their super-dapper Vocaloid Magnet cosplay.
Second, we spotted another Rapunzel right around the corner from where the meet-up was about to take place. And then just before we started to take pictures together, freakin' Mother Gothel starts making her way down! Apparently Laura tipped her off earlier . . . clever Laura. So we take pictures. And as we do, we're talking about how great it is to see so many Tangled cosplayers all together. And we mention the other Rapunzel we saw at the hotel with the little . . .
. . . we look over to the doors. THERE SHE IS!!!
"RAPUNZEL!!! RAPUNZELLLL!!!"
She looks over and freaks out a little. Suddenly, 'Punzies. EVERYWHERE. Hugs all around.
Third, my other friends from Vancouver find us randomly - one of them is the one that cosplayed Selvaria Bles last year. Well, this year she wasted all her time doing silly things like work and learn to drive and stuff, and wasn't able to finish her cosplay. She told us she was kinda bored being out of cosplay since she didn't really do much else at cons. A shame, really.
So yeah, we have our meet-up, a few regulars, a couple surprise visitors, and also exciting word that Ace is mostly on his way! So we have our meet-up. We eat cookies. Kiddo zooms in on my nose. Abby pretends to be jailbait. I ask some awkward questions. Ace receives the gift of giant raccoon dog balls. It's nothing fancy, but it's always a pleasure to see everyone, so hey.
Also, it occurs to me that we didn't take pics of the meet-up. That was silly.
After the meet, we all split up a little. Team Abby (and Ace) head up to get their badges, Team Magnet (and kiddo) go to the dealer's room, and 2/3ds of Team F.A.P. (sans P) go back to the hotel to drop off stuff. We also leave the last of the cookies behind for what seems to be a different meet-up of people. Oh, we also run into the glory that is Big Chris, a local cosplay legend and probably the nicest gigantic black man you will ever know. He's dressed in blue this year, and that is amazing. We hug gently.
I'm also pretty sure Jed' pours himself another drink of lychee wine before we head back down. "To help me loosen up a little", he says. Oh Jed' . . .
Coming out, we run into Team Abby (and Ace) in the elevator randomly. We're all in the same tower, yay! Well, back to the con we all go!
So I guess it's about 3pm or so now at this point in the day. Jed' and I make our way into the dealer's room to look for Team Magnet and kiddo. Sadly, this starts a trend where I spend most of my time in the dealer's room looking for people instead of things to buy . . . but whatever. There's some good solid camwhoring to be done in dealer's, y'know?
We also find another Ezio cosplayer: my buddy whom I met a few years back when he was Byakuya. We exchange pleasantries and marvel for each other's hidden blades - he had two that extended out further, Jed' had a glorious spring-loaded one. We also tell him about the Fantasy Fight Tournament, and how we will most likely need assassins as a summon . . . he's totally game.
Anyway, walking around the dealer's, looking for kiddo and the others, getting our photos taken . . . and then I hear probably the funniest thing that stays with me the rest of the con' . . .
A girl asks if she can get a picture of Jed' and I (being Ezio and Flynn Rider). We oblige, pose, look awesome . . . after the girl gets her picture, another asks for one as well. Again, we oblige . . . except this time we also get to hear the first girl talking as she passes us:
"They are my new favourite pairing!"
The second girl gets her photo snapped a split-second before I keel over laughing. I retell this story throughout the rest of the con because it's just too damn good. Sure, it's a joke implying I'm man-loves-man with my buddy, but what can ya do? Quality humour is still quality humour.
Anyway, we find kiddo and Team Magnet finally, and spend a little more time in the dealer's room before heading out. Thinking how to kill time, we end up going outside to the courtyard for a little bit.
We see Xena right before that, though.
So outside, Jed' asks if I can get some pictures of him climbing stuff, much in the way he has often graced my requests for like photos when I'm in Nathan Drake cosplay. So he takes a grip. And he finds out it's not as easy as it looks. And we laugh. And he mentions a 30 foot drop on the other side of the wall. And I laugh.
Inside we find Leonardo Da Vinci sitting next to a TARDIS cosplayer (totally happened). Leonardo was very impressed with the blade. I was proud.
A little more camwhoring, and then it was time to head back to the hotel again; I had a masquerade ball to hit up, and kiddo had to change into Vocaloid cosplay with the others. So I get myself all dappered up, leave my cameras in the hotel, and head off for the masquerade.
I'm a little late to the lesson, but from what I was seeing, it was the last bit of the lesson and they were just finishing up the basic box step. Now, at that exact moment in time I was super underwhelmed because it seemed like the whole hour was spent leading up to that. I did later find out that the first half of the lesson was the East Coast Swing basic step, so I was more whelmed later.
Had I known that, I wouldn't have been as surprised by all the swing music they played, probably. Through the whole masquerade ball, there was a lot of swing! And y'know, being a former UBC Swing Kid, I was totally fine with that! Swing was my original ballroom dance, and it felt damn good to reflex those old muscles. Sakura-Con put on a pretty baller ball this year, and I quite enjoyed myself.
Further, I made a couple random friends in the line-up going into the ball. The three of us decided we would enact "Operation Wallflower", whereupon every song or two we'd reconvene, touch base with how things were going, and then redeploy to ask people who were sitting around doing nothing to dance. We felt it our duty to make sure people danced.
And yes, Operation Wallflower was a resounding success.
After the ball, I found the others again. Kiddo had indeed joined Team Magnet. They were taking some nice photos with the giant camera near some big windows with the evening sky behind them. I, meanwhile, was playing around with one of Jed's swords, doing some random straight sword movements I remembered from here and there.
Then I got in trouble with the peacebonding staff guy for doing so, and he gave me a warning about swinging swords around, especially in the lazy, unfocused way I was. Oops.
Also, apparently someone took a picture of me in "Dress Blues Welkin". Go fig.
Anyway, it had essentially been about nine hours since my stick of people had eaten real food, and we were quite hungry. So we, as well as some other various Vancouver types, gathered up, those of us in cosplay geared down, and we all went to The Elephant & Castle for dinner.
And dinner was delicious.
It was maybe 9 or 10pm when we were back at the hotel again. We're pretty much winding down for the night. Upstairs they have a bottle of wine out, I've got my bottle of sake out, kiddo has her ethnically unique wine out . . . Jed's still smashing the lychee wine with a fury . . . and we're just chilling, looking at our pictures and the like. Oh, the other stick is also wearing the kigurumi that they bought in the dealer's room. They look comfy. In fact, kiddo puts one of them on and I laugh every time I look over and see her dressed like a tiger.
A couple more Vancouver types come in. We talk about cons, about future cons, about who came, who didn't come . . . eventually we talk about the one individual in particular who didn't come . . . remember all that drama that came up when we were filming that horror film? Apparently a few guys didn't know the story.
So we all got a drink, sat down . . . and I went into a patented SomeGuy Storytime. It was good times.
Also at some point it occurred to us that we still hadn't played Rock Band yet! This had to be remedied!!!
So now we're all a little buzzed on wine and such, and we head off to the Rock Band area to line up for a chance to rock some ass. And act like dicks in the line, singing and cheering and clapping and doing the wave and whatnot. Y'know what? It's late night Rock Band. We're gonna make the most of it, damnit!
Also, the others came to watch us. Wearing their kigurumi.
So we're up on stage, we get a guy to play drums for us . . . and we go into a rather good performance of "25 or 6 to 4". Including the epic guitar solos. Even when I fucked them up. Whatever, my friends say the girls in the front were impressed. It's something.
The others went into some M-rated panels after, and while we could have, we didn't feel like going through the hassle of getting the "adult stamp" on our hands and stuff. Apparently this was an issue at the con that got a lot of complaints. Ah well . . . we're old and tired anyway. So our team went back to the hotel to gear down for good and get some sleep. Also, to work on kiddo's Black Rock Shooter cosplay. Still had a lot of finishing touches.
Ohhhh last minute cosplay . . .
. . . also, Jed' finished off his lychee wine. He was a little sad.
So yeah. That was Friday.
