Metro Report-ish and Pix

So! Here's a somewhat abbreviated Metrocon report, along with the very few pictures that I took.

Friday: Drove down to Tampa as Naruto with Itachi and Sasuke in the car. Needless to say, that was interesting. ("Itachi's playing with my hair!" "No sharingan in the car!") Got to Tampa and couldn't quite find the Convention Center (At one point my phone rang and it was Jen, "Are you lost? Look behind you....") and so Jen and I drove around in a two-car caravan until we got separated but eventually found the hotel/Convention Center. We ran around the con for a few hours and went to opening ceremonies, then waited for our room for an hour and a half but finally got checked in okay and ran around the con some more. Jen's Prince of Tennis panel was that evening (I changed into Ryoma for that), and though it had an extremely small turnout (as we kind of expected), I had fun. And I got to drink a grape Fanta. XD I so want Ryoma to be in the chess match next year solely so I can be him. Um... Friday night Jirru and I hung out and she is teh awesome; we found a secret cave and sat in/under it and fangirled and it was really, really fun. ^_^

Saturday: Got up bright and early for Chess Match things; Claus got to move chairs and run around giving people glue and scissors and stuffs, then they practiced a few integral parts of the match and it was time to start! I had a really awesome time; though it was an hour long, it went by really quickly from backstage. I got to give Sam his arm and his spear and I totally almost felt more special for that than for Claus' five lines (though I really enjoyed the fifteen seconds of fame I got up on stage! Not nervous at all, really). I feel like I'm kind of slighting the wonderful time I had Saturday morning by not saying more... There was just so much going on, and it was a great culmination of all the effort that everyone put into the production. Everyone I talked to afterwards seemed to enjoy watching the match, and we hung around for a few pictures before Jen and I went back to change into Tetsu and Souji. The stuff I got for the scar worked *really* well and it was awesome. Ran around the con some more until Jen had to go back to get changed again for Anime Idol, and Jirru, Jennie, Eric, and I ordered a pizza because we were starving. Unfortunately I missed Anime Idol, because I would've liked to at least see Jen perform even if I wasn't really going to stick around for many of the other songs. After the pizza I ended up hanging out with Jirru, Fina, Kimmu, and a bunch of the other Sarasota kids; we tried to cheer Kimmu up and ended up having a great time, including finding and talking to Sam (and he gave me a piggyback ride - I feel so special! XD). I eventually went back to get rid of at least the wig and Shinsengumi coat before wandering back to the con for an hour or so at about midnight; I talked to a bunch of the con/chess match staff, as well as Maboroshi, and ended up having a good time doing that as well. It's just... *so* different actually *knowing* people at cons (that aren't Jen); it makes things a totally different experience. ^_^

Sunday: Got up at about 10 to pack and move things out to the car because checkout was noon; after Jen left for her costuming panel I helped Jennie get into Shiva and decided to just hang out all day as Tetsu. Jen and I had planned on entering the Peacemaker stuff in the costume contest, but the line was really long so we opted out to get some lunch (and ended up talking to Diana and her friend) and go to the dealers' room. I did actually run into Anthony too, so I know for real he's not dead. ^_^ Jen and I also stopped in I went to the ADV panel and I met the voice actress who does Tetsu; she was really awesome and thought my costume was cool - she even took a few pix for her fansite! I felt special. The Costume Contestwas after that; I sat with Kimmu/Sarasota Peeps, as well as Jen and Richard, and though it started late, there were a lot of wonderful costumes. I was very impressed. Afterwards Jennie got out of Shiva and we ended up heading home, after stopping at a random Wendy's for some foodage before hitting the highway for real.

All in all, I really had a wonderful time. It was great having Jennie and Eric there (they're still here, in fact, and just finished watching ALL of Last Exile and they ROCK and Eric unlocked so many DBZ characters for me and this is such a run-on sentence). I also really loved actually talking to people and going to events, both things that I usually rarely do because I'm a) antisocial and b) don't know anyone. So yes, MUCH better than last year (which was really only not fun because of not-con-related stuff) and one of my better con experiences, really.


Pix: I want to marry my Con Badge because it has Claus on it. <<;

Itachi playin' with some cards

Hikaru and... Hikaru, backstage before the Chess Match

Sasuke eating a snowcone.

Sam is the coolest he gave me a piggyback ride!

Pre-piggyback ride picture of all of us

Sakura stole Itachi's hat

Jennie in her Shiva makeup and Itachi's clothes (i.e. as Sharkboy), with Eric passed out in the background XD

Jennie took some pix of non-Shinsengumi Tetsu before we left. Part 1

Non-Shinsengumi Tetsu, part 2

Non-Shinsengumi Tetsu, part 3


Con Loot: Jen and I split some Destiny figs and I found a Sokyuu No Fafner Poster OMG.


Other Randomness: Got worshipped by Naruto/Ken... Um... that was cool. ^^;;

I'm sure I'll remember more and amend this later.