Friday
I spent the fifty days before Tekko couting down and spazzing, but when I got to 5, I starting hoping it was farther away. Never fixed my BC shirt, never made pants, never got my mom a skirt (which didn't matter 'cause she didn't go in) and didn't even finish my second panel until Saturday morning.
BUT IT WAS AWESOME.
Got there around 5:30 on Friday and registered. Friday I wore my Doom outift and had the homemade duel disk. Met up with a friend cosplying Orihime--oh, actually, before that, have to mention my mom. So, about three months ago, my mom decided she wanted to go to the con. She then made the mistake of asking me, "do I have to cosplay?". Which sparked the idea for her to cosplay as Mrs. Kawai. Well, she consented and wore the outfit to the con. When we arrived in the parking lot, Orihime was there with her mom, who was dropping her off. My mom pulled over and rolled down the window to say hi. Now, Orihime tells me that her mom doesn't like her otaku-ness, so I hope my mom didn't offend her when she proceeded to tell her that she was "Katsuya's mom".
Anyway, we get in the con, and ironically enough, the first thing we did was go to artist's alley. I bought a really nice bag from my friends who were selling stuff for their senior project. At first I was a little ticked that they were going for $8 because they specifically told me that those bags cost $1.50 to make, but I was really glad I had it, and it IS a nice bag. And since it was for charity. After buying the bag, we toured the rest of artist's alley, and I bought nothing else. This was a recurring theme throughout the con.
After that, we went out to meet my other friends (Rukia and Axel) who also had our room reserved. (My mom was guarding our stuff in the car while we waited for them) Unfortunately, they came about an hour later than expected, so by the time I transferred my stuff, my mom didn't really want to take pictures. So we're going to take a couple tonight.
After that, we went back in with Rukia and Axel and they registered. I forget what exactly Orohime and I went to do, but I remember we were going from the direction of Artist's Alley (did we go back to the alley? ^_^;;) towards registration when I finally saw Laj and Celinra. There was a slight misunderstanding between Orihime and myself when she went off to find some more friends that were coming, and I took that as a sign that I was allowed to leave the group. They weren't particuarly happy last year when I left for 3 hours. ^_^;; (Of course, they aren't particualrly happy when I rant about Yugioh, either, and I'M not particuarly happy when they describe the various yaoi things they want me to put in my fanfics--Jou and Seto making out ON MAI'S COMATOSE BODY, I mean, really!!--so I think it all evens out in the end) Orihime understood, however, (especially since I was only gone for like 20 minutes) though Yoruichi kicked me in the shin and L shook her head. ^_^;; It was worth it, though, for Kaiba-with-a-Death-Note and Doom pics. (and hanging out with you guys again, of course. And my friends weren't really mad.)
After everyone was assembled and I came back, we went exploring a bit.
If I thought walking around as the only Jou at the con was bad for pictures, I was put to shame by walking with the only AXEL at the con. Especially an Axel with detailed chakrums. The first thing she did when she walked in the door was
get glomped. The trip to artist's alley was long, indeed.
I think it was around 8:30 by this point. Somewhere along the line, Axel, Rukia, and Orihime went off, and I was with Yorichi, L, and Kiba. We wound up getting in the Aaron Dismuke Q and A panel, where were learned such interesting things as Aaron's favorite color (green), how he eats his Lucky Charms, Ninjas or Pirates (Ninjas), Rangers or Miniskirt Army (Rangers), and heard interesting stories of getting stuck in booths and women's bathrooms. It was very interesting.
After the panel (it's now 10) we went back to the room. I then went back downstairs with Kiba for some reason... ...see Yorichi and L off, perhaps? It's all blurring together... and I went to register for minions. We were both going to, but she was only 15 and I forgot about the age limit. ^_^;; So she went somewhere and I became a minion. I cut out badges while he signed me up, then left to go to Cosplay Pajama party.
At first, my friends weren't going to go to Pajama party, so I changed into my "ninja" pajamas (they're black and I scared the crap out of a friend while wearing them once... long story...) but left the wig on and borrowed Axel's coat and pretended to be Pajama Demnex. (sp? I'm not big on Kingdom Hearts ^_^;;)
Then I got there and they had FREE BAWLS so I dragged my friends down and had to relinquish the coat to Axel. We watched Twister, Anime Scenes from a Hat, and I started to play Charades, but it got boring. (Light hosting Sesame Street: "Hello children, my name is Kira. What are your names?") Left, and went up to the room where me and Axel swapped Abridged quotes until we fell asleep.

Saturday
My dad came with the laptop cord so I could actually DO the panel. ^_^;; Then I finished the panel. (I never got pics for one of the categories, so I changed it to "Egypt" and made up some questions) and went down to the panel. L and Yoruichi came back, and they, along with Axel came down to heckel me. I got a lot more people than I expected, and a lot more questions about 5Ds than I expected. (should've seen that one coming, ne?) But I thought it worked out pretty well, considering I threw it together in less than a week. I wish I could've gotten some more people playing though, or some harder questions or something. Though even the guy that won didn't seem to know that much about the uncut, so I'm glad he gets to see the uncut DVD. I think I want to do a similar panel next year, because that really was fun. Oh, and I finally got to say an abridged quote! (You guys missed it; before we started, an L in the back made me say "Nyeh!")

Then, after putting my stuff away, we went to the Dealer's Room, where I once again looked but did not buy. And then to Artist's Alley, where I commisioned my Jou/Mai that came in the mail today. We met up with Rukia and Kiba after that, at which point I realized I left the room key in the room and we had to get Rukia's mom to let us in. ^_^;;
Then we hung around for a bit, and afterwards split up to get food. I took one of my lunchables (if I'm going to be a dork at a convention, might as well go all the way, right?) and met up with another couple friends, one from school who was kind of dressed as Tohru. I found the good Chrono and Rosette while I was with them and took pics. I stopped for some quick Deathcom photos afterwards.
Then I went to Autographs, discovered they didn't start until 3, and decided to minion for an hour. I stuffed bags.
2:30, get in line for autographs. At 3, they count off 60 people and make the rest leave. I was 53. At 3:45, after listening to the 5 people next to me (who were together) complain about how the ONLY THING THEY CAME FOR was to see Aaron and how much they want to see him, and they're going to kill some staff if they don't see him... they tell us we can't see him. We beg and plead and finally they agree that we can go in, but only one thing signed each and only one picture total. I didn't care, so long as I got to meet Aaron and Greg.
I got Robert and Carrie's signatures, and then got to Greg. When I first got my LJ, I posted about Chrono Crusade. Greg Ayres apparently saw that blog, and COMMENTED ON IT. I fangirled and never heard from him again. Well, I told him the story. He asked what my LJ name was and I told him, and you know what? HE REMEMBERED! XD (or at least he said he did) He signed my Chrono Crusade manga, then I briefly talked with Aaron and Mike and took a picture with all three of them. Unfortunately, that picture was not included with the photos I picked up from Rite-Aid today. Ranting about that is in the next cut. >_<

Then I went out and caught the end of the Kingdom Hearts photo shoot, which ended when someone in a hotel room on the first or second floor pointed a bubble maker out the window. I still can't get the image of two dozen Kingdom Hearts cosplayers squeeing and chasing bubbles out of my head. The Bleach photoshoot came next. Afterwards, we were all rather creeped out by two FEMALE Naruto and Sasuke cosplayers making out in the window for the group gathered outside. It was cold, so we went in. Orihime came back, and we went up to the room. It was close to 5, so we talked, then went down to wait for cosplay. On the way, or at least sometime on Saturday, we ran into some Pokemon cosplayers, one of which thought I was Yugi with really bad hair because I was wearing the puzzle. XD Only a few people got that I was supposed to be possessed, and I think they were wondering why I glared for all the pictures. Then to cosplay line, where my friend who cosplayed as Mint from Tokyo Mew Mew showed up as well.

Cosplay line. Not much to say there.

Cosplay itself. NPC, Cid hosting, Death Note Girlfriend, Itachi/Naruto Pokemon, Pyramid Head, CLAMP, Death Note fanfic, and the taunting goes too far were about the only things I really liked. The Yugioh one was cute, though my one friend whispering "Dark's hair isn't right! He's sexier than that! SEXY!!" kinda spoiled the moment. (Though, in her defense, Dark was her first anime crush) We really just need more cosplay skits, though. I mean, CLAMP winning Best of Show? They were good, but all they did was the Lucky Star dance. I mean... at least Death Note fanfic guy was original!
Halftime show. There were some leftover Auction items, so Carrie came out to auction them off. They took checks, so I joined in the bidding. We got up to $70 on an uber-signed Tsubasa DVD before I started to waver. Now that I think about it, if I had just bid right away, the other guy might've gotten scared and backed down. I hesitantly bid (thanks to Orihime's urgings, why she didn't just put her own hand up...) up to $95 before I quite. The Hellsing DVD I went up to 80, but there was this one girl that REALLY wanted it and I backed off. Then there was another girl who counted her money every time the bid went up. She wound up spending just about every cent she had because the fierce bidder girl disappeared and it went for $120.

Post-cosplay. We went back to Artist's Alley. (still, no buying) On the way, I spotted you guys with the Kurama and got to see the pocky/rose pictures. Then I ran into the Dark Magician Girl and her friend that was supposed to be Doom Mai, but she wore all black, so you couldn't tell. ^_^;; I took pics with both of them.
I stopped in the Haruhi Dance Panel, but it was over, and no hilarious Hare Hare Yukai photoshoot was to be found. We went back to the room to get ready for the dance, where I realized I had nothing to wear besides cosplay and one t-shirt. My friends tried to force me to wear some stuff, which I agreed to to a certain extent, and then they just wouldn't stop, so when Axel opened the door, I pretended to run away, then proceeded to change back into my costume to shut them all up. It was not a happy time. Then we started talking about the puppyshipping I had to write, and Axel suggested I have Jou get beat by his dad and Kaiba find him in the rain, bleeding. (in her defense, she's not a Yugioh fan, except through me) I tried to explain that that was the standard puppy plot, which made me think of Laj's hilarious parody fic. So of course I had to show them all the fic. XD We all ROFLed for a while over that, then Yoruichi had me read a Puzzleship about Yugi not letting Atem have sex with him. O_o;; Instead, I stopped halfway through and we all watched Harry Potter Death Note by Slinkers. THERE IS A SEQUEL!!!
Then we went downstairs.

I suddenly felt extremely out of place in a mullet and a white t-shirt, and, even though I knew I'd been in for "I-told-you-so's", went back upstairs to change into the blouse and tie. But then the line was ridiculously long, so we didn't try to get in. Yoruichi suddenly didn't feel good, so she lied down until her mom came. We went back down to get food, and while Orihime and I waited for her pizza, who should show up but Bandit Greg!! I was out of costume, unfortunately, but we talked (pizza took like 20 minutes!) and swapped IMs. He explained to me the plot of 5Ds (apparently the motorcycle guys are rebels in some totalitarian society) and then his friend showed up and told us that Kroze's train got messed up, and that's why he wasn't here. After talking about Yugioh for ages he left, we finally got food, and went upstairs. At midnight, Mint, Rukia, and Orihime went down to the rave while me and Axel watched SNL. I fell asleep very quickly.

Sunday
I kinda wished I'd gone to the rave, but that's just something to look forward to next year, right? And I heard the music sucked. So, Sunday. I get up early-ish cause I didn't rave. I go out, but nothing's open and no one's downstairs, so I go back up and realize I have nowhere to put my stuff because Rukia and her mom are leaving at noon. I call my dad, he gets my stuff except for Osiris, and I get to carry him around all day.
Another quick trip to the Dealer's Room, and Deathcom for Battle City pics. Then to the 11 AM Yugioh tourny Bandit Greg told me about. The guy from my panel who challenged me to a duel was there, and yes, I got to duel him! He had a sweet Horus deck that I thoroughly lost to. Now, for the main reason I didn't buy anything but a commision all of Tekko. I thought tourny was bracket. It was round robin. Which meant instead of half and hour, I was there for and hour and a half, just to lose three matches. It was fun, though, and I can buy stuff next year.
Then 'twas time for the panel! I met up with you guys, and did the panel. Got out on time, too! It was definitely better than last year, but rushed, and I feel like I didn't explain it very clearly. I completely forgot to talk about name changes, and I really wish I could've shown the FALCON!PUNCH. But everyone laughed much more than I expected, and I made the quote thread, so I guess it went well.

I had nothing else to do since my friends all left, so I minion'd for an hour. There was nothing to do for minions, however, so my minioning consisted of sitting in a room with other minions and eating Doritos. After about an hour of that, they told us we were going to help with Closing Ceremonies. We all go to Main Events, and they tell us we're not needed. So I just go and wait in line by myself and watch the Closing Ceremonies.
It wasn't all that exciting, actually. The VAs thanked everyone, Greg Ayres kissed Jim the Con Chair on stage, (okay, THAT was a bit interesting) a staffer proposed to another staffer (imagine 300 otaku simaltaneously going "Awwww!", standing up, and taking pictures) and a donation to the Lukemia people. Then my mom showed up and I was unable to minion after the ceremonies were over. I went with the minion overlord back to the room to get my stuff, where he gave me some pocky for my minioning time. On the way out, I asked what to do if I wanted to staff, and he gave me a recommendation! Whoot! So if I want to staff, I get to put his name on the application under references. ^_^;;

Phew! I think that's everything. Pictures soon to follow.