Magfest 2015: Con Report

Characters of finalarcanum!

Thursday

After work on Thursday I took the bus down to DC from Philly. The ride is uneventful (unlike last time, which was horribly late) and I finally arrived by 10PM. Fun fact: when my cab driver drove by the harbor as we approached the Gaylord, I audibly “wooah”d as I saw the new ferris wheel all lit up. He probably thought I was crazy. After settling into the hotel room [which I was sharing with bluucircles (Amanda), ZeronXepher and his girlfriend] Amanda and I went out on an adventure in hopes of finding food. We did not. Everything was closed at that time since it was a weekday, so we ended up at the sports bar restaurant in the hotel (which was fine except for the incredibly slow service).

The new ferris wheel is so pretty at night!!

Friday

Friday morning was an easy-going one. For me, I had no obligations so I was in no rush. I took the opportunity to iron most of the costumes for the weekend. Eventually I got dressed into Hiro, which was originally intended for Katsucon, but I finished early. (I’ll have a lot of overlap with Katsu, actually). 

I even surprised myself with how kawaii I am as Hiro. I did not expect this. Everyone wanted to pinch my cheeks and I was like “no stahp.”

Right after I arrived at the con, I had a special moment with sorairo-days (Sarah). I was heading down a flight of stairs, she was coming up them. I looked at her, pretty sure it was her but not 100% sure (cosplay does this sometimes, it’s magic). When we passed each other, we made eye contact, and just kinda smiled at each other and kept going. I figured since she didn’t say anything that it wasn’t her, but about 5 minutes later I get a text saying “OMG are you Hiro today?!” I’m still laughing about it, so I had to document this.

This is about when I ran into my brother Tadashi! I can’t believe I found one so quickly, I had to take a selfie with him!

Then I actually met up with Sarah and crashed her shoot with tangledinblue, hahah. We hung out outside, the temperature was actually comfortable (for me). We ventured to the Titan statue, which was a first for all of us.

Photoshoot crashing, so I was inspired to take a Skwinky-esque selfie at the Titan statue, lmao.

I always love selfies with sorairo-days!

Back inside, we bummed around kdoranphoto(Kacie) and skwinkography (Steph)’s shoot with Amanda. There was shenanigans. Not long after, we ran into barnabunbun(Stef), yonakaniji(Katrina), and company. I then left with Steph and Kacie to help with some trips to the car to get luggage. Between the trips to the car, I got to see skeletim(Tim), death-rae(Rae), vintage-aerith(Lauren), shinjaninja(Mary) in the room, along with some new faces!

After the great task was done, I wandered around and ran into some peeps, including monobolical and celsius, and then hung around a bit with janiekat(Jane) and fenihel(Jess). Then there were lobby shenanigans, such as when Mary, Lauren and I all hid underneath Amanda’s giant Peach dress, haha. 

I told you not to pinch my cheeks

Later, after Amanda was more mobile (aka. not wearing a ballgown), we headed out for dinner, but not before happening upon the Triforce Quartet at the Gazebo! We stayed and listened, and although I don’t really play video games, there were a few familiar tunes, and I love violins. After the performance finished, it was time for dinner for real, but still no friends were around to join us, SOBS. We ended up going to the Thai place, which really hit the spot after not eating all day.

We returned to the Gaylord and hung around at the lobby bar and saw a bunch of people there. I turned in early because I had some hand-sewing to finish up and such (and was also tired).

Saturday

Saturday morning, Amanda and I prepped for our Over the Garden Wall shoot with Steph. And with Kacie assisting, it was a blast, as always. It was pretty cold outside, especially for costumes, so Amanda hid inside my cape in between taking photos. But it was super worth it, the photos turned out wonderful! (See below for a preview)

A little birdie told me to take a selfie, and I listened, because I’m such a pushover.

Love this photo from skwinkography!

We finished up with a few more photos back inside, and then ran into Sarah, blanko and sashadee-cosplay. We then did a quick take for Kacie’s video— she had a super brilliant idea for our characters, which I’ll let you see for yourselves in her awesome video: watch here. Soon after, we grabbed a bit to eat for lunch, which I’m realizing eating actual meals during the day is nice (oops). But it was soon approaching time for SUPER SECRET SURPRISE MISSION.

Around 4PM, Amanda and I changed into our secret costumes, which were part of a huge plan to surprise Steph for her birthday. A bunch of us made costumes of her characters from her webcomic, Final Arcanum, which coincidentally just finished up its first major arc. (Go give it a read!!) When we were done changing, we snuck over to Headquarters, aka. the hotel room where Steph and co. were staying. There were met up with ringleaders Lauren, Mary, Kacie, Tim, and everyone else— and so the super surprise mission was initiated!

terminallyxsadistic and Emory played as the distractors, keeping Steph busy while the rest of us got ready. Then, they led her on an elaborate “treasure hunt”, map and all, through the Gaylord— all in keeps with the world the comic is based. Then, suddenly Steph was “captured”, just like the protagonist Acacitli, and the story played from there.

Mary’s character, Iver, waits for Steph as she’s escorted up the elevator to sky prison. As she comes off the elevator, who’s waiting for them? Non-other than my character, Vale, the girlfriend, who is confused and concerned about what’s going on (in the story). Mary and I ad-lib as we bring Steph down the (very long) hallway to the prison cell (aka. hotel room). Once there, in keeping with the story, Steph’s comrades burst through the (connecting) door to save her! 

Mission successful! Here’s everyone after the surprise was complete, with the birthday girl in the middle!
L-to-R: death-rae, vintage-aerith, bluucircles, skeletim, kacielacie, skwinky, grandemagnifico, shinjaninja, firewolf826, shazzbaa

Steph was so overwhelmed with happiness, I’m so glad we followed through with this and made it happen! I’m glad I was able to work my way into the group, sort of last minute, and was able to be part of this. I really support Steph and her comic endeavors; she makes me proud! Special thanks to Mary and Lauren for initiating this idea, and to everyone else (really EVERYONE) who participated and managed to keep it a secret for so long!

We all then went down to the atrium to take some quick shots. Time (and light) was limited, but janiekat was a trooper and powered through to get pics of everyone. After about an hour we wrapped it up, and headed over to Public House restaurant for the birthday dinner celebration. Unsurprisingly, hilarity ensued, and the services was very nice and accommodating for our large party.

At dinner! I love taking table shots, but this was hard with so many people! I had to stitch three photos together, lol.

After dinner, we all went back to the room to have drinks and hang out. I had fun talking about art and webby stuff, amongst other things. And then we laughed, we cried. But no really. Good bonding friendship times all around. It was getting late, and some needed to turn in for the night, so a few of us (Steph, Tim, Amanda and I) went to the arcade room. I was surprised that we stumbled upon Stef, Katrina, Laura, and Zach at the DDR machine! We ran into some others as well, including supitscarrie. Giving into the noise, we left to go up to the board game room. There we spent over an hour or so playing the anime pitch game, Channel A. Or rather, I watched everyone else play because games like that make me nervous/self-conscious because I am not funny or clever at all. But it was entertaining nonetheless. By now, it was SUPER late, past 3am, so it was an odd miracle that I wasn’t sleepy at all (because I’m an old granny who’s bedtime is like 11). Everyone dispersed because it was seriously bedtime all around!

Some selfies with my boys~~! Plus one of my favorite photos from the night— when they recreated the last scene of Final Arcanum ;^;

Sunday

Sunday morning I took my time packing up my luggage and changing in Rin from Free. I wasn’t feeling very confident (I felt better during my costest) but resisted the urge to tear everything off. I hope to improve so I feel better when I wear him briefly at Katsucon [now passed, I fixed up the wig so I did feel better at Katsucon]. Around checkout time, I met up with Jane and we dragged my stuff to the car. Then, I grabbed some breakfast and coffee, and we later ran into Gianna, Alex, Jeremy and company, and hung around with them for a while. (I loved their Digimon kigus. I felt like all my friends made them for this con, I can’t wait to make my own too!) 

By the afternoon, we were joined by Lauren, Steph, Amanda, and Kacie, and continued the lazy Sunday hangout times. We briefly toured the Dealer’s Room and then ventured out to Potbelly to grab lunch (Lauren and I had a super cute interaction with a little boy while standing in line!). The weather was nice, warmer than it had been and sunny, so we sat outside, but by the end of lunch it started to get a bit chilly. We all headed back inside and hung out in the lobby, where we were joined by Ceri, Kat, Violet, and Jess.

Around 5pm, people started dispersing, so it was time for goodbyes! Luckily, with Katsucon right around the corner, we’d all be seeing each other soon enough.