Day 75 - Eirtakon 2009 Day 2

It's my turn to join the cosplay fray today as Chrona the Makenshi! I was there an hour early with some other people but the staff wouldn't let us in! The (damn bastards) staff left us outside in the rain while the MC entertained. Sure he was funny. But some people are FREEZING!

I met Nikki again while queuing up to enter. Nikki was one of my teammates for the pub quiz last night. I also met Ray, a 5th-time attendee of Eirtakon who is even so never remembered by the staff, except Shinji.

When they finally let us in, I was overwhelmed with the sight of cosplayers several times more than last night. I'd say nearly 50% of the attendees were cosplayers, and there were like 200+ today? Crazy, man. Yes, I do have to admit that a lot of them were no good, but there were those awesome ones, like a Lelouch in his Zero outfit, with the helmet.

Anyway, there were several stalls selling tons of stuff. Anime, video games, accessories, plushies, T-shirts, posters, bunny/kitty ear hats, figurines etc. I bought myself a D.Gray Man Exorcist Badge necklace. Yes, I'm hoping it will replace the Griever necklace I lost. This one cost me 8 euros. I'm considering buying something else, but I'll see tomorrow. ...Maybe that Konata plushie :D There was also an Artist Alley where people sold their hand-drawn art. A member of GameSoc I knew was there, though I keep forgetting her name. Frankly, her art was only average compared to some of the others.

The first event of the day was a guest panel. They invited a famous voice actor that did some good dubbings. Since I don't watch dubs, and personally think dubs suck except for Pokemon, I did not go and see.

The second event was a cosplay skit. You basically do a performance on stage individually or in a group. I did not enter that one because I had no skit in mind. Heck, only 3 teams signed up. But they weren't any good.

After that, we had some free time while the gamers killed each other in a Super Smash Bros Brawl tournament. I would've entered but they charge for registration. The cosplay competitions had no such fees though. Yay!

I met up with Nikki again after that and hung out with her for quite some time...even though we kept losing each other while browsing through our individual interests. It's amazing how time flies even though I was only browsing through the merchandise and talking to some of the cosplayers.

There was a cosplay photoshoot session at about 3pm. I curse my camera for dying just before this event. SHIT!!

Finally, it was time for the cosplay masquerade. I entered this one. You only needed to pose or do a short performance, much shorter than the skits. I seem to always have bad luck when I'm having fun with groups of people.

Just 10 minutes before the masquerade began, I left Ragnarok leaning on a wall while I did my hair. Then, somehow, it slipped and fell onto the floor. It was solid enough to withstand a fall like that, but because the spikes wouldn't let it fall flat onto the ground, the piece connecting the blade and the hilt cracked a little. It wasn't severe, but I couldn't swing it or even hold it by the handle anymore or the wood might just snap. A sincere thanks to Kakashi who reallocated my turn so I had time to fix Ragnarok. I couldn't fix it, so I needed a new idea.

Since Chrona tends to hug Ragnarok a lot, that's what I did. This time, stage-fright was not a problem. Chrona is generally a fraidy-cat who shivers and stammers a lot, so it was to my advantage instead. My performance was simple.

Chrona walks up stage slowly, sees the whole bunch of people and says, "So many people are looking at me. I don't what to do, Ragnarok. What do I do? K-kill them? Alright... SOUL RESONANCE!! SCREECH ALPHA! KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!" I am amazed how I managed to pull that high pitched "Kya" for so long. But I wanted to say Soul Resonance in Japanese, and Chrona's doesn't shout, except for the "Kya" bit. So that was my bad.

Since I wasted some time fixing my sword, I didn't see a lot of the masquerade. Notable ones were Chi. She had this totally cute voice and kept calling everything "Hideki", just like in the anime. A second Chi had an awesome dress, but all she did was pose. What a waste. There was Enma Ai, but she wasn't scary enough.

There were also group cosplay masquerades. A Phoenix Wright group comprised of Phoenix, Edgeworth and Maya. They were all kids and were very cute when they screamed "Objection!" The biggest group was this crazy-ass Final Fantasy VII group. Cloud, Zack, Cid, Sephiroth, Tifa, Yuffie, Vincent and Aeris. They filled the whole stage. Another group was Ulquiorra and Aizen. They did a funny yaoi scene which I had to admit was pretty good but Akito's back in Ichibanzai 2009 was better.

Following the ending of the cosplay masquerade, the crowd started to disperse. Most people stayed just to watch the Code Geass screening, but most of the cosplayers went into town for some beers, as typical Irishmen and Irishwomen do. I didn't join them because I was worried about Ragnarok.

I immediately sealed Ragnarok (a cooler way of saying "put it back into the box") after that and went playing around with some of the cosplayers that remained. I couldn't find Ray again though. I wonder where he went.

Me and Nikki went to watch the Romeo X Juliet screening. We met Vanessa again at last! I found out Nikki was from Cork, Ireland and Vanessa was from Brazil! I thought she was from France! Neither of them are UCDents. Nikk

At long last, it was closing time. Me and Vanessa took the 19C bus down to City Centre where lots of people had gathered. I think it was Ireland vs France today, so that explains a lot. We then parted ways since she wanted to eat and I needed to get some Super Glue from Tesco. I didn't see her after I got the super glue, but since we were taking different buses anyway, I left first.

Upon arriving at home, I applied the glue and will leave it over night. Still, the glue is damn strong! The moment I applied the glue, the cracked bit stopped moving! I hope it's strong enough to be good as new by tomorrow. Ugh... if it doesn't... I am definitely jinxed in crowded places.

Right... time to upload photos!