Fanime Day 3

Sunday, my last day at Fanime.  Here was my last chance to make the most I could out of the con...

I decided to go without makeup for the day, as I was just...kind of tired after wearing it for the past 3 days or so.  I just wanted to take it a little bit easier and not worry about eyeliner getting all messed up whenever my eyes got irritated or something.

I didn't have anything to do until the Disney gathering at 1PM.  I was going to grab lunch at a sushi place near home but it turns out they were closed for memorial day weekend or something, so I just headed over to the con, found cheap parking (I think I actually parked in a different parking garage every single day of the con, lol!), and grabbed a sandwich from Subway while on the way to the Disney meetup.

I saw many of the same faces that I had the previous day during the Disney Extended Family gathering, but there were some new people here as well, including Queen Elinor!

We finally got a Brave group shot too--look at the little bear! (His name is Hubert)

I ended up making some small talk with the Merida on the right here (and her bear friend) as we were doing other Disney photos and everything.  I also got her in an action pose with her (handmade!) bow:

So cool!  They said they were going to head to the Artist's Alley to meet their friends and then get lunch, and I asked them if I could just hang out with them--they said yes!  So I spent a good portion of the day just hanging out with them, which was super cool!  My first time meeting strangers at Fanime and hanging out with them, I was really happy being able to meet new people like that!  Not to mention...I got to hang out with Merida!  Omg~

After they got lunch, I mentioned to them that I was planning on heading over to the cosplay masquerade show, which started at 4, and they said they would come check it out with me!  After splitting off from them for a bit to go to the gaming hall (played some more TGM3), we met back up and headed over to wait in line for the masquerade.  And...waited for a long time in the line....quite a while, and later we learned that despite what I had read in the forum post ("curtain opens at 4PM sharp") the doors wouldn't open until 5PM for seating, and the actual thing wouldn't start until 6!?!?  -_-  My friends had to leave too--Merida had a flight at 8 or 8:30 or something, so that wasn't going to work.  So we just returned to the artist's alley to reconvene with their friends (I apologized that it turned out that way).  So that was sort of a bummer.  I didn't really want to keep waiting for the masquerade--for one thing, I was tired of being in line, and for another thing, even though I did enjoy it last year, I kind of didn't feel like going to it by myself--I think it wouldn't have really been as fun.  I said to myself (and Merida and bear) that I could always just go and try to watch it on youtube later or something.

I said farewell to my two new friends at that point, and split off with them in search of other people and other things to do.  My memory is actually a bit fuzzy at this point; I think I probably just ended up playing some more TGM3 (running into Kitaru maybe?  Or Ray and Allen, I think it was?  I forget...), texting/twittering/IMing people to see where they were at.  Eventually I left (1-2 hours later or something) and was going to check the masquerade to see if I could get in now.  On my way there I happened to run into Belicia and Erica and co (their mom, Alicia, Katherine, etc) who were on their way to get dinner, so I asked if I could join them.  We went to a hot dog/sandwich/panini place and my panini took forever to come out so I ended up only eating half of it haha.  I said goodbye to Belicia and Erica and their mom, who were going home, ran into ShinDeh randomly (oh hey!!~), and then headed back to the gaming room yet again.

I first checked the status of the Nidhogg tourney, which I was late for (it was past 7PM), and though I had put my name on a sheet somewhere I didn't see it on their list or waiting list, and frankly didn't care when I saw that there were already 50+ names on the list and waiting list combined.  I asked how many setups there were (only 1...and Nidhogg is a 1v1 game) and made a somewhat snide remark about how there should be more, at which point the guy who was there told me very explicitly to "fuck off" if I didn't have another TV, controllers, and game, which left me with quite a bitter taste as I walked away.  I guess we were both sort of in the wrong there, but anyways I tried my best to see if I could shake that feeling.  It really bothered me, and was honestly the most negative thing I've ever experienced at all of Fanime.

I ended up running into Russell, Kyou, and Wendy, who were going to get dinner, so I followed them (even though I already had eaten a bit and had the other half of my panini in a box that I was carrying around).  They went to a Chinese restaurant and I just chilled with them as they ate.  I went back with them to the gaming hall, where we sort of...walked around and did nothing.  Eventually CCY showed up and they tried to get some Mahjong going on, which I briefly watched a bit of.  I think I tried to play a bit more TGM3, then got up and headed over to the Dance.  I had mixed feelings on going into the Dance; on the one hand, EDM can be great and all, and I actually had quite the experience last year.  On the other hand, they haven't allowed chemical glowsticks in quite some time now so I can't go and glowstick in there, which is disappointing.  I checked out the line, saw that it wasn't bad, and just decided to go for it anyways.  I made it in and checked out what was going on.  There were 3 rooms--I passed by the smaller rooms and went into the big one, where I saw somebody spinning some LED-based poi.  I asked if I could try (guy said to be careful since they're fragile, and I told him I'd just do some basic weaves), and I just did some basic weaves and windmills and such before giving it back to him (explaining that I mostly did glowstringing so I was used to wraps and stuff, which I couldn't do with those), so that was fun.  Obviously he was much better than me though...man, poi moves look so fluid and awesome when someone good is doing them, haha.

I walked around a little more between the rooms after the big room started playing some meh music (non-4-on-the-floor stuff), and I found that the first room that I had passed was actually playing trance!  Uplifting trance!  Wow!  I set my stuff down in there and just stayed there for a while, until midnight when the guys' set ended.  It wasn't amazing or anything, and although I recognized some of the melodies, I didn't actually know or particularly love any of the songs (come on, play some stuff that I'd hear on Group Therapy or something, please?), but...man, uplifting trance is just great!  I also used my earbuds as makeshift earplugs from time to time as to not expose my ears to the full volume for too long, which was helpful.  But yeah, I was dancing a bit, but mostly just standing in the back and taking in the music.  Haha, it's really been a long time since I've listened to good ol uplifting trance like that.  Good times.

Back in the gaming hall, I handed my badge off to Russell since I wouldn't need it anymore, and then I ran into Kitaru who was clearing the invisible roll on Master mode (good job!).  I sat down and played a bunch more TGM3 with him, including a bunch of Shirase versus mode...good times.  I also managed to qualify for S7 and then later S9!  I still didn't finish the game -_- made it to 998 before topping out, can you believe it?  But I passed by S9 qualifying exam anyways, so hooray~

After that we headed out, Alex caught up with some of his friends and I said bye to him as well, leaving the con, walking away from the convention center, and saying my final mental farewells to Fanime for this year.

It was a good time this year...it really was.  It actually turned out...really really well, thinking about all of it.  I'm glad for the awesome prints I bought at the artist's alley, I'm glad for all the friends that I was able to run into and hang out with.  I'm glad for meeting Merida and her bear, and being able to hang out with them, despite having only just met them.  It felt nice to be recognized as Kikyo by random people, though I know that it's not "true" since I don't really know Kikyo so well.  I'm really glad TGM3 was there, I feel like it's not a proper Fanime experience without TGM there in some form or another!  I played 120+ of the 477 games of TGM3 that were played there, haha...yes, I played quite a lot of TGM3.  I didn't mind missing out on the swap meet, or the cosplay masquerade, or the nidhogg tourney, or anything.  I think there were some moments where I really did sort of worry that I didn't really have anything to do, that I would just "finish" Fanime early and have no one to spend time with...but that didn't end up happening.

It was really different this year.  I think it really worked out.  Thank you Fanime.  Thank you everyone.