One bit of bad can spoil a whole ton of good.

[kageotogi]

Good first, because I'm like that. To start, Otakon was a blast!

Friday

I went to the convention after work on Friday and met pereppi and tir_synni in the line for Vic Mignogna's autograph. Since I've never really seen the FMA anime and, well, didn't know exactly who I was supposed to be fangirling over (not to mention I didn't want to wait in line at all!), I took the first chance I could to wander around. Said chance came about when a spokesperson from Risembool Rangers came around selling CDs. She had her hands full, so I offered to carry the box and follow her around for a little while. She accepted, I had a good time checking out the cosplay while I wandered, and I met Sam back in line in no time at all. Unfortunately, the cut-off came about forty people ahead of her, so she did not get an autograph. However, I did get to draw a lot of weird stick figures, which was fun.

In the meantime, Lauren had gone over to hold spots in line for Tomokazu Seki, who has literally been in every anime ever. He autographed one of my stick figure drawings (one of Sousuke Sagara -- I'll scan it later), and laughed at the picture, which was pretty great.

After our autograph fun, the three of us went to Video 4 to watch some of the Japanese Classic Collection. While there, we met up with photoash, who was an absolute dear. We hijacked her for dinner, then met up with a friend of hers (or was it a friend of a friend? Ash, please feel free to correct me). After that, I (with Sam and Lauren in tow) separated from Ash and friend so that we could meet domacatrix et al at Power Plant Live (in the heart of downtown Baltimore). We didn't stay long, sadly, because Sam and I were feeling nauseous (ugh) and had to go, but we had fun catching up with Joan. We miss the Joan. *le miss*

We got back at Otakon in time to see the majority of the AMV contest, which was pretty great. My favorite of all of the AMVs was "Sesshoumaru Champloo", which was amazing and (sadly) is not up on YouTube at this point in time. Close seconds were "Everything Comes Down to Poo" and "Cows With Guns", which I don't have the patience to look up. ^^ Anywho, after the AMVs the three of us were wiped and headed home.

Saturday

We had decided the night before that we didn't "need" to be at the convention until eleven o'clock, since we all had panels and such we wanted to attend at noon. Upon arriving at the convention center, I got in line for the Maki Murakami Q&A. From what I understand, this was Murakami's third time in the USA, and her first time at an American convention. In any case, it was pretty fantastic. She was adorable. Seriously. I loved the short slideshow she had prepared, and we all learned a great many things about her, I think. Her favorite Gravitation character is Shuichi, for instance, and she has a model gun collection which does, in fact, include K-san's magnum. Also, she loves the Legend of Zelda... and takes fan requests into consideration when writing and drawing her remixes/megamixes, etcetera. Tohma and Mika's baby will be making an appearance in Gravitation EX, and ASK will probably show up in the future as well.

Also, there may be more K/Hiro, and possibly some Ryuichi and Eiri pairings. I'm already frightened.

After the Q&A (I did not get an autograph at that time; there was a rush to the front, and I decided it wasn't worth losing a limb), I headed over to the Tsubasa showing to meet up with Sam. I watched a bit of that, then we wandered away to find Lauren, who had gone to the Witchblade viewing. That accomplished, we hit up the Dealer's Room and Artist's Alley, where I got some amazing swag. On the way, we saw photoash again. She was leaving for the day (sad), but we got to say goodbye, take pictures (omgwhutno), and, um... Well, she gave me a fic prompt. More on that later. So that was fun.

After the Alley, we met up with vetes3, vetesgirl (his fiance and an amazing, amazing girl. Much love on her), his brother Samuel, and another guy whose name was (I think) Boom. We hit up the Hooters for some dinner, yumyum, and then moved on. Oh, the waitress (Jaimie) spilled something on Steve. It was quite depressing, but nonetheless fun. ^_~

After dinner, Sam, Lauren, and I hijacked Jenny (vetesgirl) and went to the showing of Karin, which was fantastic. In short, Karin is a vampire (or, rather, an anti-vampire; instead of sucking blood, she makes it -- long story) whose blood intake gets all funny when the new transfer student arrives. It's hilarious and I loved it. So, yes. (I bought two of the DVDs later on. Squee.) After Karin was something called Kashi Mashi, in which a very feminine boy gets hit by a spaceship (!) and is turned into a girl. It was pretty bizarre, and we stuck it out for a few episodes before we decided it was time to go. At that point, we said our goodbyes to Jenny and went on home. I dropped Lauren off on the way, and Sam and I listened to Eddie Izzard the whole way back.

Sunday

I had only one goal on Sunday: get Maki Murakami's autograph. In order to accomplish this, Sam and I arrived at the convention promptly at nine o'clock and got in line for the eleven o'clock session. I know it seems weird to arrive so early, but I'm glad I did; there were only some tickets, and there was a mob of people there. For serious. Anywho, I lined up with Sam, and the two of us wrote fic (we'd exchanged prompts on Thursday, and so we were working on those) while we waited. I finished up the one for photoash, which will be typed and posted somewhere at a later date -- promise. As the line started moving, Sam went to the Dealer's Room to track down Steve and Jennie (who would be giving her a ride home later on; she lives in West Virginia, which is very much not on my way).

I'd already picked out the picture/page I wanted Murakami to sign, and I'm glad I picked the one I did. (For those curious people who don't want to wait for me to scan it, it's Volume 8 of the manga -- see my icon for reference.) She saw the picture and started laughing, then smiled and said "He's a genius". That was sort of amazing.

After the autograph thing, I headed down to the Dealer's Room to track down everyone else. Upon collecting Sam, I bought a few more things (who could resist?) and then we headed out. We got her things out of my car and went to find Steve's car. When we couldn't find his car, we went back to the center and I dropped Sam off. I hope Steve and Jenny helped her with her stuff and/or took her to the car, but I have no way of knowing, so... Right.

Anyway, I left Otakon early. I was supposed to see the new Harry Potter movie with the rest of my family (it's some sort of tradition with us), and I was running late. I called the 'rents to let them know, they told me it was fine, and I headed home.

About twenty minutes after I called, my aunt called the house. Turns out my cousin (her youngest son) was killed in a car accident. He was twenty (my brother's age). Right now that's all I know (his mother was on her way back from New York, and had only received the alert from the police a little while before), but yeah. Jebus. I walked into my house, sat down, and was told there was bad news.

Needless to say, Harry Potter was then out of the question.

So that's my bad news. I didn't know this cousin all that well. He and my brother used to be best friends growing up, but they grew apart several years ago and, after that, I only saw him two or three times a year, if that. Still, he was my cousin (my younger cousin), and... Well, I'll miss him. I'm not sure the news has really sunk in yet. So. Um. Yeah.

Ficcage, pictures, and autograph scans to follow at some point. We're having family moments.

The second part of my Otakon report (with pictures) is here.