...More specifically, where have I been?

For those precious few who actually wondered what happened with the many many many cosplay pics I promised, I have finally gotten bored enough to tell you what the Hell happened [I'm downloading Flyff, which will take another two hours].

So. The AnimeOasis [the con I went to] was amazing, no lie there. I adored wearing my Howl costume, my coat was beautifully made by my mother in two days [yes, my mother made my costume. Laugh it up] and my best friend let me borrow the perfect boots for keeping my dress pants off the floor and myself on my feet. Because a constantly-tripping Howl is not a very in-character Howl.

The only problem: my camera hates me.

The batteries died about two seconds before I attempted the first picture. We had a million more batteries in the camera bag, so it was no big deal, right? Well, none of the batteries worked. NONE OF THEM.

The next day, we got Cal's [ ] camera from her parents and used it the rest of the time. Only problem there? Well, I have no idea whatever happened to those pictures. And the camera was more trouble than it was worth. We nearly lost it Saturday night [-dies-]

BUT after a multitude of emotional breakdowns on my part [dear gawd I'm a drama queen when I'm sick] we were successful in tracking down the camera. The people that ran the con were so nice. Sure, they were absolutely no help in the end, but they were so very nice.

Alright. Now for the part I actually want to talk about. The fun parts of the con. There was a lot, so I'll try to break it down into easy bite-size pieces.

× - - - Being Howl
Though Howl's character is not nearly as easy to figure out as most, nor as easy to portray, I feel I did a pretty good job overall. There were a few times I was a bit too this or a bit too that but I couldn't have done any better if I ever used the cosplay again, which will most likely not happen because I have more fun cosplays in store. Anyways. Several times I got asked for pictures, for which I had no idea how to pose Dx Also, many people [all female and taller than me, for some unknown reason] asked if they could give me a hug. I enthusiastically agreed of course~

× - - - Being With Calcifur [CAN. NOT. SPELL. NAME]
As usual, she was tons of fun. She is mah BFFL after all ;D But she played the role of my slave/seme [a weird combination if there ever was one] flawlessly. I'd toss my coat at her, and she'd catch it and promptly hand it off to the next person to walk by, whom I would have to chase after. I'd start falling asleep [ONLY ONCE I TELL YOU] and she'd put my head in her lap [quite forcefully] and stroke my hair until I snapped out of my sleepiness. But the best part was undoubtedly when she jumped in the pool, fully clothed.
It was about 3 or 4 in the morning on Sunday morning, we had officially gone 20+ hours without sleep and we were still running strong. I had gone completely without help in staying up [except for one can of Dr. Pepper. I am weak ;.;] and she was getting drowsy, so when I wandered off to play ParaPara [oh gawd ParaPara...more about that later] for about the fifteenth time that hour, she just...jumped in the pool. I was warned by someone [I CAN'T REMEMBER WHO] asking me if I knew where my Calcifur was, then informing me I should be dead. I GOT THE REFERENCE, believe it or not, and raced to the pool. Upon seeing her swimming about gleefully, I yelled "YOU'RE KILLING ME" and raced in to save my heart. Seeing as I didn't want to get my nice dress pants wet, I was hopeless, and my heart, being made of fire, continued to swim.
My Cal

× - - - Spin the Bottle
YARLY. Those of you who know me in real life know that I am a prude. A major prude. So playing spin the bottle was an experience I never expected to have. But it was great. The rules were altered to fit the situation, thus making it much more fun. Instead of the usual 'you kiss who the bottle points at,' the rules were changed to 'you choose whoever out of the crowd will get a kiss on the cheek from who the bottle points at.' Tons of fun, that. Cal and I got in on that game ASAP. Once or twice, the bottle would land on myself or Cal and the spinner would ask for some Cal x Howl for the fans. We did as any proper ladies would do: happily obliged ;D

× - - - Clouds
There were many Cloud Strifes present, as would be expected, but two in particular caught my attention. One of them definitely caught the attention of every con-goer. He called himself: Yatta!Cloud. In case you have no idea what this means [at the time, I was unlucky enough to be thoroughly confused] let me enlighten you. He was wearing nothing but a pair of white boxers with an Adam leaf attached to them. I believe at some point a Yatta!Kadaj was running around with him, but I never got to see that one [sadly]. I never talked to that Cloud personally, but he seemed too awesome for words~
The second Cloud was female, but the best female Cloud I have ever seen. Or maybe I just liked her 'cause she was awesome in general. The first time I saw her, I had my sister with me [who ended up making a brilliant Tifa costume in under eight hours], and she offered Tifa [who for now shall remain as Tifa] a Hershey's kiss x3 Sadly, this was when my camera failed me, so Tifa shoved the kiss in my mouth due to the fact that she hates chocolate. Of course, jokes were made at the 'expense' of Howl and Cloud regarding the stolen kiss.

× - - - ZETSU
I saw a Zetsu. He was brilliant, and I adored him. I finally got to talk to him [after he took off his makeup] and I fear I was teh n00b-ness, but only towards the end. I mentioned the lack of a single Hidan at AO, and his response made me a happy fangirl. "Hidan is made of sex" were his exact words, I believe. Then mah n00b was showing D; I regret that I was n00besque, but I loved the chance to talk to someone willing to dye his hair BRIGHT GREEN for cosplay, not to mention wearing all that makeup :3

× - - - Dealer's Room
I swear, I'm almost done >.> But this wouldn't be a proper chronicle of the con if I didn't mention the dealer's room. There were so many things I wanted, of course. But finally I settled on the perfect CD: FFX-2 songs. Every one of them. 2 disks, $25. TOTALLY. WORTH IT. I freaking love those CD's with every fiber of my soul. Fo'srsly. It took me forever to choose them, though. I was really leaning towards a really big Deidara plushie [TEH PLUSH. I CANNOT RESIST.] but lucky for me, it was gone when I went back with my money in hand. So that's what I got, along with MAN POCKY [aka dark chocolate pocky] and some yummy chewy things which I do not know the name of, as the package was entirely in Japanese, which I cannot read. But enough about me. My sister bought just about the most amazing shirt ever. She got a shirt that read "I'm a pervert." And because it was in Japanese, she got to wear it to school~

× - - - ParaPara Paradise
And finally, we come to the most important part of the convention in my eyes. I have officially grown addicted to ParaPara. For those of you unlucky enough to not know what this is, it's like DDR for your hands. Sadly, I shan't be able to cure my addiction until TomodachiFest in November. My favorite song is Bang Bang Fire, and I pwn it. But I don't pwn it as much as the NE-AH I saw. NE-AH was amazing. Srsly.

. . .

AND YOU THOUGHT THE JOURNAL WAS OVER. HA.

I have more to rant on about. Because I still have at least an hour and a half before Flyff is done. Now I must speak of what shall be happening at the next convention. Yes, I can do that ;D Actually, all I know of is what I'm going to be wearing.

× - - - DAY ONE: Kadaj [Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children]
I know, overdone, right? Well, I have an excuse. I have one concept that will be entirely from my own mind, and one character that is almost never seen in cosplay form. So a single seen-at-every-con character is excusable. Now, I could just buy a fully-made Kadaj costume off of eBay for less than a month's pay [fundage explained later] and honestly I'm beginning to consider it, despite the lack of a chance for winning the contest. But I'm also more leaning towards actually making the costume myself, at the risk of it looking totally lame-ass and badly-done. So, which do I do? Buy costume and thus lose all hope of winning the contest but look good at the same time, or make costume with my nearly non-existent sewing skills and have minimal chance of winning but risk looking really bad? I really do need the opinions of those who happen to read this far, if you would care to give them D;
On the bright side, I'll definitely have a hand-crafted Souba [his sword] courtesy of my father. It'll probably be made of wood...I think. Iunno. I have to check the con rules on weapons.

× - - - DAY TWO: Suigetsu [Naruto]
Overdone series? Yes. Overdone character? Not so much. I can honestly say I've never seen a Suigetsu cosplay. For Sui, I'll be mostly just shopping around at thrift stores for the proper shirt, pants, and multitude of belts. I'll find a nice wig online, and then my father will be helping me make the main part of the cosplay: Suigetsu's sword. Semi-life-size. By that I mean, if Suigetsu was my size, and his sword was equal to how it is currently proportionally, it would be as large as Dad is making it. It shall be made of paper mache. Or whatever it's called. Once again, I must check up on con rules regarding weapons...

× - - - DAY THREE: GLaDOS Concept [Portal]
This concept is pretty far along. In fact, I know exactly what I want. I'm going to keep it nice and simple, with a base of a full-body white suit, most likely spandex [-dies-] On top of this I will have a white jean mini-skirt [acceptable because of the bodysuit] and a white jean jacket, short but with long sleeves [like Sai's shirt, if you know who that is]. On my feet shall be a pair of tall white high-heeled boots [HELL YES] and around my waist I will don a white belt. To top off the main outfit, I will of course be wearing white [yes, more white] gloves, most likely satin.
I will be having some color, though. My wig will be a beautiful pale lavender-blue mixture, and will reach about down to the small of my back. I will also be incorporating the programs that fall off of GLaDOS in the final 'fight' against her in the end of the game. The first to fall off, purple aka Morality, will be on one of my shoulders, strapped on with a purple strap. The second, orange aka Curiosity, will go on my other shoulder in the same manner. Third is blue, the Cake core. This one took me forever to figure out, and ended up being the last one I chose a position for. My face will be painted entirely white with the black lines like one of the programs, and on and around my mouth will be painted blue like the core. This'll be Hell, but also worth it. Finally, red aka Anger or Aggression, will be attached to my belt on one side with a red strap for some added color. Actual cake will not be included in my costume due to the fact that carrying around chocolate cake with an all-white costume is just asking for trouble.

I will also be making Loz and Yazoo costumes for one of my friends and my sister, as well as another costume for my sister which she has yet to choose. I'm going to be busy this summer. But I couldn't do it at all without...

× - - - Funding
This summer I will be babysitting my three younger sisters Monday through Friday, earning $10 a day. This sounds like I'm getting cheated, and I am, but I try to look at the big picture. I will be making $50 a week, and thus $200 a month.

JOURNAL FINALLY OVER

Oh, yeah, and my mood thing down there? I'm awestruck by just how freaking long it takes to download Flyff.