tothestarsandback

Saturday:

Arrival: We left a little later than we originally planned, but we hit next to no traffic on the way over. We arrived early with 50 minutes to spare before the con started, so we finished getting ready and relaxed a bit before heading in. Once inside we got our badges and headed up to our panel room. Being early, I signed up for the Masquerade before my panel started.

Teen Titans Panel: First up was my Teen Titans panel at 10:30. It went really well. The room was pretty full, and almost everyone seemed really intrigued by the panel and information. We made it through with a few minutes to spare, and we had a lot of fun talking and watching one of the episodes.

Momoko’s League of Legends Jeopardy: Next up was ’s panel, League of Legends Jeopardy. Thankfully we didn’t have to move rooms, so we set up for her panel. She split the audience into 3 teams: Shrima, Piltover, and Noxus. The guys on Noxus were pretty funny, even though they had a rough time getting points. Shrima ended up winning with like 1400 points, Noxus had I think 500 or so, and Piltover ended with 2 points after the Final Jeopardy question. I know next to nothing about the game, but it was a lot of fun listening to them as they tried to work together to come up with answers.

After our first two panels of the morning, Momoko went and changed, returning with food we had packed while my group and I rehearsed our skit a few more times. Then, we headed into the skit review, did our brief skit, got approved, and left. I ate and changed from Raven into Charlie Bradbury, her LARP outfit, for our Supernatural panel.

A Hunter’s Initiative: A Supernatural Panel with : The panel was awesome, pure and simple. The audience was amazing. We started off with our normal bit, and when we reached our discussion/spoiler bit, we gave them a choice. We ended up talking for the rest of the panel, which was like 50 minutes or so without any major spoilers. That’s the first time since we started the panel really that that section was talked about. We had a blast, regardless. There were some tears, some laughs, and a lot of glares from Cas. I really enjoyed it, and I wish it didn’t have to end. One of my favorite moments happened at the end of the panel when we were breaking down and talking with a few of the crowd that lingered. One of the ladies came up to me, saying she was a mother there to support her child. Of all the panels they had been to that day, she said ours was by far the most entertaining and fun, even though she had only limited information about what we were talking about. She also said that the relationship between all of us hosts really added to the whole panel, and all of that about made me cry (surprise surprise). We also had another mom who had never seen the show, but because of the panel, she said she wanted to try watching it, which is always a great feeling for us. We’ve had people come in who have seen a couple episodes or a season and then stop, and I always love seeing them get excited about it again and pick up where they left off, or even start the series. Throughout the weekend we had a lot of great feedback from everyone, and it still makes me really happy to the point of tears. (Yes, I am an emotional person. Obviously.) I never thought that I would ever be a part of something like this, and I’m so proud of how far we’ve come. We’ve had crowds of 25 to 30 and some up to 185. We have so many plans and things we want to do, and I’m really excited to see where it leads us. This was also the first time that our Cas was up doing the panel with us. Normally, we have a few of our friends sitting on the sidelines for the first part of the panel. They join us for the discussion and questions once we’ve opened the floor. This time, though, we were just like, “Yeah, you’re coming up here. No questions. Just join us.” And, it was fantastic in the end. <3

Prepping for the Masquerade and Performing: Once our Supernatural panel was over, we all rushed to the bathroom to change for the Masquerade. I changed back into Raven, while Stiles (Cas) changed into Homura from Madoka Magica. Once I was done, I ran out to meet with my group (Steph, Cody, Eli, and Megan) to run through our skit a few more times. Once we did that, we waited with the other cosplayers to enter Main Events. Before we went in, two girls came up all excited to Starfire (Megan) and I, asking for a picture. They were so cute, and it really made me so happy. Right after they had walked away, another person came up for a picture, telling us his favorite episodes with our characters. He even asked if I could say Raven’s signature line, to which I prompted sat down in meditation and said it. He clapped and smiled, which just added to my happiness at that point. We eventually headed into the room, sitting down and running through our skit. They had our audio working without any major problems, so we were ready to go. We waited back stage, to which I finally found the other Raven that had been around the con. We talked for quite awhile, which was really cool. I also bounced between my friends that were there, talking with Kyd, Dean, and Homura quite a bit before returning to my group. During the skit right before ours, we decided to have a little dance party, which made us all laugh (silently of course). Then it was time to go on stage. We started of great, but the audio just got softer and softer until it stopped half way through our skit. I said whatever and started meditating on stage until one of the MCs came up and asked if we wanted to redo the skit with microphones. So, we reset and started again. Thankfully, the audience didn’t seem to mind, which was awesome. We made it through our skit pretty well, I think, even with the fact that in our audio, I did the voices for all characters but Starfire (Jigglypuff and Darkrai were pitch shifted). Once our skit was through, we headed to the back of the room, waiting for the award ceremony. Our Homura won Best Noivce, Kolaios won Best Intermediate, and Kyd won Best Original Design. It was so cool seeing everyone up on stage getting their awards. I could’ve been happier for them. When it came to skits, since there was only three, they had decided to give only one award, which we were fortunate enough to win (Best Experienced Skit).

Post-Masquerade: Once the competition was over, we headed out to the car to relax and eat, Momoko eventually heading to a Sailor Moon panel. I ended up going with Steph, Cody, and Eli to the Trapped Toledo attraction that the con was hosting. It was actually a lot of fun. It was hard at first, since we found a lot of the information and clues right away. It took us a little while to figure everything out, but we did. We came so close to getting through, but we got a little dyslexic at the end and flipped two numbers around. We came the closest to getting out that night. They let us see how much farther we had to go, to which we found we would’ve had it if we had had a few more minutes. It was still a lot of fun, and I’m very happy we went. After that, I headed down to the lobby, where Abracadabra was doing a casual dance thing, allowing people to request songs and dance with them. I ended up doing “Run Devil Run” by Girls’ Generation with one of the ladies, and it was a lot of fun. Neither of us remembered the entire thing, but we worked really well together in the fact she remembered parts and I didn’t and vice versa. After that, we ended up going to the third floor to try and find our friend, getting side tracked by Deana and Cas (Dean [] and Homura [Little Lost Cosplay]). We talked for quite awhile about all sorts of things, from our panel, to cons, and everything in between. It was nice to sit and relax, but we eventually left, heading to McDonald’s before going to our friend’s house for the night. We learned he is just as nice as his mother, which really made our night fun.

Sunday: We ended up getting around a little later than we planned, mainly because we didn’t want to get out of bed. We did get up and head out, stopping by Walmart so I could grab some ribbon for Yuki (since I had conveniently forgotten it at home). We got ready and headed into the con around 11. We registered for the Cosplay Exhibition, then proceeded to Dealers. We wandered for a bit, looking around before I approached LIlly’s Art and Photography for my scheduled shoot. She had done Momoko’s the day before during my Supernatural panel, and Momoko had had fun. We went off to do our shoot, moving around different parts of the con. It was fun, though I had wished it wasn’t as hot since the photographer and I were pretty hot by the time we were done. We headed back to her booth, talking while she loaded the photos. Another girl joined us, and we talked for a little while about cosplay and the community. She was really cool, and it was funny because we actually had a friend in common. (We learned this when she added me on facebook.) Once I got my CD of photos and picked one for my print, I walked around some more in Dealers and did a little shopping. Once I went out and found Momoko and Alex, we headed over to wait for the Exhibition, meeting a couple more people and talking with them. Once Deana [Dean] and Castiel came in, I went over and gave Cas her late birthday present: a bumblebee cube. She got really excited and was adorable. I talked with the two of them some more before we went and got lined up. We went down and walked across the stage, heading back to Dealers yet again to wander and chill. After a while longer at the convention, we decided to leave. we went and said our goodbyes to everyone then started our journey home.