First off, I wanna state a correction to last day's review. It seems my camera photos got themselves out of order and I got my nights mixed up. The whole story about kigurumi, hotel stories and Rock Band didn't happen until Saturday night. How Friday night REALLY happened was that after dinner we went back to our hotel room, kiddo started sewing her Black Rock Shooter costume (like a boss) and I spent the night varnishing kiddo's bits and pieces like horns and claws. We also had to touch up the black paint for the giant scythe she had. So yeah, the night ended with lots and lots of last minute cosplay.
Yeah, that makes more sense, because kiddo didn't start hitting the wine until after she was completely done with her cosplays. This is definitely what happened. Okay, we're set now!
On to Saturday!
Once again, I was the first one up in the hotel room. Once again, I figured "ah heck, I might as well gear up now" and did so. Originally I would have wanted to do Tangled cosplay on Saturday, but the guys upstairs wanted to do Black Rock Shooter (their "big prop day"). So, Saturday was Uncharted day for me. Jeans, shirts, guns, belts and camera pouches (and an asston of hair gel) and I was pretty good. My chin had more than the standard Drake stubble, but whatever - I needed that goatee for Sunday, damnit!
As the others were slowly getting up I decided I'd pop out quicker and have my guns peacebonded and the like. I also asked people if anyone wanted crepes for breakfast; kiddo said yes, Jed' said no.
As I recall, this was the morning I walked halfway across the street to the convention center until I remembered I forgot my con badge in the hotel. Well, half a block and ten floors (both ways) later, I was back to the creperie just outside the convention center. It was gonna be a bit of a line, but whatever because crepes are delicious.
I also took a picture of this kid. Saw him a few more times through the course of the day (along with the Pacman next to him). I also give him props because when I saw him later, he was indeed holding his sword left-handed. Good job, kid!
So about 20 minutes later (while humourously standing behind three Japanese visitors wearing Ichiro jerseys), I order my two strawberry crepes and two large coffees; I also make sure that one is with milk instead of cream. Later I also make sure that one crepe is without whipped cream. Kiddo doesn't like her cream, y'know.
Also, let it be known that two large coffees and two boxes of crepes is not easy to carry alone.
Back at the hotel, I found Jed' was downstairs websurfing on his iPad and kiddo upstairs doing the last bits of either hair or sewing or something. I dunno, all I remember is eating crepes while watching "Fun With Dick and Jane". Eventually we called upstairs to see if they were free to help kiddo with her make-up and I got called by Laura to be told that willotaku was with her in the main stage floor of the con'. So I headed out with a little bag of what free stuff we had left and went to the con' while the others finished getting ready for their own gear.
I found Will (after also noticing that Laura had ditched him for a photoshoot, hur hur hur). Chatted a little, I videotaped the stuff he wanted to say for the meet-up type thingies, and he picked out one of the last few free things we still had. During this time I also ran into one of the Rapunzels from last day, except this time around she was wearing her long wig. She recognized me as the Flynn from last day. It was kinda nice. Funny enough, another random congoer then asked her to hold a Vancouver Canucks pennant in a photo. Presuming to have found one of my countrymen, I asked him how game 5 went. I was then depressed to hear the game went 5-0 for Chicago. Embarrassing, really.
Took a few more pictures while I waited for Jed' to make his way into the area. Got one of an amazing Mobile Infantryman from Starship Troopers, one of a gigantic Aku, and one of the Howl's Moving Castle guy - reminds me I still haven't actually watched that yet . . .
Saw a couple friends with press badges making their way to autographs right before I found Jed' making his assassino-like way through the crowd. I can't remember if we walked around much or anything. Mostly I just remember that we went back to the hotel to hook up with everyone else meeting there, including kiddo's other friends from another hotel.
Also, I remember that no one takes pictures of Nathan Drake. Especially when he walks with Ezio Auditore da Firenze. That's fine.
Got back to the hotel, kiddo's friend Justin changed into Speed Racer, and kiddo got all geared up completely for the first time as Dead Master. Soon after the others came down as well: three more Black Rock Shooter people and a Valkria Chronicles 3 - he was a little disappointed we didn't bring our Valkyria cosplays to match with him. Not too much, though. Actually, maybe he was . . .
Anyway, we were all geared up. And we looked awesome. Especially Justin, who knew that haters were gonna hate.
As the big group of us walked through the con, I pretty much just walked point, toy AK-47 slightly sticking out so as to clear a space while the others walked single-file behind me (to hide their numbers). Once we found somewhere good to relax, I mostly just stepped aside and documented while the convention glared in glory of the babbies in their spectacular giant prop cosplays.
Of worth, however, was this family I saw walking together . . . a monkey with a staff, a pig, and a little kid in monk robes . . . I had to bite.
"Excuse me," I asked, "...Journey to the West?"
"Yes!" the adults said happily, and I went on to ask for their photo. As they posed, I asked how many people knew who they were; they told me I was the first.
This is a position I've felt myself in before. I was more than happy to give them the recognition.
Eventually the children wanted pictures outside. It was a damn nice day outside so I couldn't blame 'em. So the four of them set up shop outside where hundreds of pictures were then taken of them. Myself, I snapped a few of them posing with some blitzball players and a not unattractive Rikku cosplayer. Also during that time outside, Jed' was doing his usual roaming around, snapping pictures thing. At least until he found a decently sized group of assassins all together. Well, we knew there was probably an Assassin's Creed photoshoot about to go on pretty soon, and I actually kinda wanted to check it out. I didn't, but in the meantime I did get this rather lovely little bit of video:
Funny enough, today at work Jed' asked me what "bellissimo" meant. Oh Jed', saying things you don't even understand . . . good times. Also, a girl told me my Drake cosplay looked great
The Black Rock Shooter types started having wardrobe malfunctions at about this point. Kiddo's claws were falling off of her gloves, Terri's giant fists were getting banged up enough that one of the fingers was starting to come loose, and at one point kiddo's scythe slipped while propped against the wall and the tip cracked off. A lot of that was bound to happen eventually, but it still sucked. For them, I quickly ran back to the hotel to grab the roll of electrical tape I brought with me and spent the rest of the day patching them up as their bits and pieces started falling off. I'm nice like that.
Also got a picture of David Bowie (missing sufficient crotch stuffing) as well as a group of Dragonball Z cosplayers. I mainly took that last picture because I recognized the scary-as-all-hell Goku on the left as Kenshiro, the organizer of the Fantasy Fight Tournament, and wanted to say hi. Still, looking at the picture now, it definitely occurs to me that this was one of the bigger Vancouver cosplay groups. Go fig'.
Anyway, said hi to Kenshiro, shook hands, and just talked a little. He too noted the Nathan Drake cosplay and that he was going to wear his on Sunday for a bit (and to be fair, I did know that from a random visit to his deviantArt). More interestingly, though, was that he mentioned they were going to have an Uncharted photoshoot Sunday morning at 10am. Well, that was going to complicate things quite a bit for me, being that that morning we would need to check out of the hotel as well as be geared and ready for the Fantasy Fight Tournament in Tangled cosplay. Still, when else was I going to have the chance for an Uncharted photoshoot like this? I made a note that I'd get to this . . .
Laura found me outside around then and told me she was gonna have a whole slew of folk all chilling together upstairs. Eventually after that, I bit my adieus to the other babbies doing their photo thang and headed up to chill with theO types and their affiliates.
We all shot the breeze for maybe an hour or so, just talking about this and that, con stuff, site stuff . . . made a joke about Pikachu stealing an umbrella that Ace's friend caught before Ace himself did . . . Ace, I hope you felt a little embarrassed by that. Truthfully, I can't remember at all what we really talked about during that chill time. Just that there was a lot of laughter involved, and that I cursed a lot.
Apparently that's how I roll. Go fig'.
Jed' found us a bit later and chilled as well, though he perhaps did not have as much to say. This is how Jed' rolls. I later ran into my friends with the press badges and Laura hawked her photography a little bit more. Abby found her old travelling school type buddy and caught up a little. We also shouted "GIRUGAMESH!" into a camera - one passer-by laughed.
Kiddo called me after that, and the vast majority of us headed into the dealer's room to find her and the rest of Team Magnet (though I suppose today they were Team BRS . . . whatever). Headed over to there to meet with them, ran into a couple Vancouver types doing Street Fighter cosplay . . . it was funny because I actually didn't recognize the Hakan until he started talking to me.
Justin also got a picture with a super awkward Speed Racer.
After walking up and down the dealers' for quite a while, we finally caught sight of giant black props and caught up with them more or less. Apparently Team BRS all bought kigurumi then . . . ah, but you already knew that from my time-skipping memory from the other day, don't you?
Anyway, just before heading out to eat (with Team Abby in tow), a girl asked if she could borrow my rifle for a picture. I think it's legit part of her character, but I couldn't tell ya. Team BRS then told us the plan was to eat at the Cheesecake Factory in full cosplay, giant props included. Sounds like fun!
But first, I decided I'd make Ace feel all awkward and uncomfortable by asking him funny questions. We were legit curious, to be fair. In any case, Ace, you were a good sport. Good on ya, man.
Cheesecake Factory was gonna be a long-assed wait. We said "screw that" and decided we wanted to go to Chipotle instead. So Team BRS and kiddo all geared down from their giant props and we went to Chipotle. It was perhaps the healthiest thing we ate all weekend. Chipotle rocks. So does Team Abby, who continues their tradition of "dinner with the Canadians".
Geared back up, went back out to the con for more private pictures. Terri, the Team BRS member with giant fists, brought her sweet camera out and we headed to the more secluded area of the outdoor courtyard. There, many epic photos were shot. Also, I have some ridiculously good-looking friends.
While out there, we FINALLY found B. again after not seeing him all Friday! He was in his 2nd Class Soldier Zack cosplay, being the social slut that he is as usual . . . he also picked up the one guy's cannon to size it up . . . he also photo-bombed Jed' while I was getting some more epic AssCreed shots for him.
Team BRS was doing photos higher up, so Jed' and I decided to do some game-planning for tomorrow's Fantasy Fight Tournament. Practiced a few moves here and there, even taught Jed' the concepts behind the superman punch . . . it felt nice to just roll around a bit in the cool early evening air. Eventually B. came down and we also started talking. We had decided a while ago that if we went against each other in the fight tournament, we would HAVE to do something amazing for the crowds. Well, I had a couple ideas . . .
. . . so he grabbed his sword, and I held my toy AK like a sword . . . and we went through some choreographies that I thought could work. Well, B's day job is stage performance, so he met me halfway very quickly, and we had what I thought were some really sweet fight sequences.
Yeah, we were getting excited now.
Anyway, we're all pretty much done for the day at this point and we all need to get back to our respective parties.
For us, we head back to the hotels and ACTUALLY go through all the late night stuff I described yesterday.
So yeah. Rock Band and stuff was Saturday night. And it was the first time all con we were all just wearing our civvies. Almost felt out of place to just walk around and not get stopped for photos. Kinda nice. But then again, I had spent the whole day not getting asked to get my photo taken, so whatever.
Oh Drake, you get no love sometimes . . . haha . . .
So that was Saturday.
