Wow. I can't believe ANext is over already. I have a week until I leave for Alaska and (SURPRISE!) I'm completely unprepared. Anyway, despite the unpredictable weather, we were able to have some really nice gatherings for photoshoots! I was really nervous considering I've never actually RAN anything before, but it was pretty cool when people spotted me and were like "O HAI. UR BITTER, RITE?!"

...Why, yes. Yes, I am.

Ironically enough, I somehow became the object of much stalking this weekend whenever I was in Madam Red. Since I didn't want to drive to the con in full cosplay, I did my make up and put my contacts in prior to leaving the house. It was awkward enough having to stop for gas and I actually put my sunglasses on to hide my eyes since I looked like a damn vampire. I got there with no problems and somehow managed to change in the parking lot of the convention center, where some pervert proceeded to wolf whistle at me even though I was clearing wearing shorts and a t-shirt under it.

Not even a minute out of the car and I spotted a rather lovely Ciel and Sebastian who asked me to take a picture with them. From there, I headed into the convention center to register for the weekend, but was repeatedly stopped and snipered by a slew of photographers who proceeded to throw their business cards at me. I stopped and talked to a Grell and another Sebastian, but then I spotted my Ryohei and Chikusa from Otakon/cosplay.com. They wound up heading back to their hotel to change into Bard and Finny to attend my gathering. I wandered around the Artist Alley and made sure to stop by 's table to say hello. While I was talking to her, I was asked for photos about five times and one particularly awesome Sebastian suggested that we do the ass-rubbing/groping pose since I was cosplaying Madam. Much to the delight of random photographers, my response was: "Bend over. "

After the excitement of the butt grabbing, I headed down to the lobby to meet with the Kuro group. Much to my personally delight, Inuashley from cosplay.com made a special appearance on the East Coast for the convention and brought along her Sebastian cosplay. One of the group actually took this youtube video and you can hear me introducing myself (I admit it. I like...fangasmed a little at meeting her.):

[link]

We headed outside since the sun decided to come out and set up for our shoot by the red bridge/lake. Out of nowhere, the paparazzi showed up again to start snapping photos and whipped out their solar paneled lighting equipment (you think I would remember the name of this stuff considering I was a film/video production student). It was really flattering being photographed so many times. You can see some of the awesome shots that Mrgetalife from cosplay.com took since I uploaded them to my photobucket along with own pictures:

[link]

The rest of Friday was quiet and boring, though my hotel-mate Justin (a STRAIGHT male cosplayer who didn't have otaku funk)and I went to watch the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh: Abridged which is always epic amusement. After that, we grabbed some Ruby Tuesday's and I passed out.

SATURDAY = HELL DAY. I literally changed cosplay outfits 5 times starting with the Vongola Suit version of Gokudera. The shoot here was over in like 15 minutes, which was admittedly a disappointment. However, it worked in my favor since I had to hurry and pull a Clark Kent to Superman change in the bathroom in less than five minutes so that I could attend the Hetalia picnic. Words cannot describe the Hetalia picnic...I have never witnessed so much rape in my life. It was personally WAY too wild for me since most of the cosplayers were in the teeny-bopper bracket and were SCARY. All I could think of was "christ, I'm so glad I'm not Russia right now" since I was cosplaying Ukraine. Seriously. Everyone knows that the female characters don't get much love! I was more than happy to huddle with China, Russia and a flag-shirt Ukraine (my friends from Otakon who I pretty much met up with at EVERY shoot) while stealing the sustenance the kiddies provided. That cupcake kept me full for most of the day! I kept getting pounced by Hetalia (and some non)cosplayers who spazzed like they just jizzed their pants whenever they saw me. "OMG! WHAT A CUTE UKRAINE! CAN I HUG YOU?!" ...and then there was rape. Soviet Union rape. A neko-earred Russia coyly asked me for a hug and when I obliged, "he" whispered into my ear all creepy-Russia like "Youwillbecomeonewithme." Of course, I couldn't help but respond with a "Little Brother is so scary~!" and then fled for my life. At the picnic itself, there was a GIANT RAPE TRAIN. I had a Shinatty in front of me and I think Canada behind me, but all I could think of was "That is the most disturbing threesome I could ever think of and WHYDOESCANADATOP?!"

The only way to describe Saturday night was "epic". I was worried since I had arranged for a 7 pm Kuroshitsuji gathering starting at the same time as the Masquerade. I tend to skip that event since most of the time I can wind up seeing the skits on youtube later anyway. Thankfully, the gathering turned out to be a large one! Since it was raining outside, we started shooting inside the lobby. Yet again, out of nowhere, the con paparazzi showed up! There was a giant chin-grabbing orgy photo just for laughs and I went bustle-butt to bustle-butt with a cute Elizabeth. Inuashley showed up again as Sebastian and we headed outside to a mini-garden area with tables. Despite it being dark and damp, we managed to get some good shots and had a really great time! We even had a mini-ball and (ironically enough) it was myself as Madam and Inuashley as Sebastian who taught everyone how to waltz.

I was pulled aside by Frecklez and Zippy (also well-known cosplay.com members)for some shots, but wound up being kidnapped and (willingly) dragged along to observe their professional private photoshoot. I hadn't planned on joining in since, you know, it was PRIVATE and was perfectly content just to watch. However, they asked me to take some photos with Grell, Sebastian & Ciel, and one group shot. I had no idea that the one doing the photography was TheBigTog over on cosplay.com, but I'm really excited to see all of the shots. He only has one preview pic up so far:

[link]

After all of that, I wound up following the group back to their room at the Double Tree and was invited to join them in an impromptu KHR romp to Taco Bell. I wound up changing from Madam back to Gokudera again and by Frecklez' request, I left one red contact in to do a Muku-dera since Inuashley was cosplaying as Mukuro. Zippy changed into Dino and much to my personal delight, he actually could snap his whip. Frecklez changed into Hibari and then we all piled into cars to head to Taco Bell. Just for laughs, I parked and we all squeezed into ONE car to go through the drive thru. Inuashley and Zippy recorded the whole thing which was just...hilarious. I can't wait to see if they actually put it up on youtube. After the Taco Bell excursion, we stopped at 7-11 to pick up cigarettes and were gawked at by a couple of locals and the store clerk. Grell and I couldn't resist getting push-up pops...oh, the innuendo. After we got back, I exchanged numbers with Frecklez, Zippy and our fabulous Grell who I discovered will be attending Otakon.

Sunday was rather uneventful. I wound up cosplaying as Ukraine again for the gathering. As promised, I stopped by Lav's table again and dropped off her sour gummies. In exchange, I got a free print of Yukito. She said "Okay, go home and fap now." Unfortunately, by the time I actually GOT home, I was way too tired to fap.

...
Oh, good lord.
Are you still reading this?
IT'S THE END UNTIL OTAKON.