I'm back!! FINALLY XD Real world, here I come u_u Tomorrow I get to deal with more worker's comp crap, ugh.

Annnnnyways, I'm getting my con report and photos up now, but first I am going to comment a little on the convention itself, its essence, and the truth behind why everyone that's gone says it will be the best convention you will ever go to and why it will ruin all other cons for you (heh, I sound like a D*C veteran or something lol, but I swear I'm not pretending to be! These are just some thoughts and observations from a first-time D*Cer)



Before coming to D*C, everyone who I knew who'd ever been before all told me basically the same thingS:
IT WILL BE THE MOST AMAZING CON EXPERIENCE OF YOUR LIFE.
IT WILL SPOIL YOU AND RUIN ALL OTHER CONVENTIONS.
YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO NOT GO AGAIN.

And I officially agree with them and am joining the legions of people telling everyone GODAMMIT, DRAGON*CON IS FRAKING AMAZING!!!!!!!! And here are multiple reasons why it's just an incredible convention compared to all others.

1. SIZE MATTERS!!! Walking into the Marriot the first night of the convention, you just have to stop and stare. I am not sure I have ever seen as many people in one hotel lobby. Ever. Otakon is pretty damn big, but D*C is twice as big as Otakon. Just imagine that, for those of you who've been to Ota. TWICE AS MANY PEOPLE. THERE ARE A CRAPTON OF PEOPLE AT OTA, BUT D*C HAS TWICE AS MANY. The Marriot in the evenings is jam packed, so much so that it takes a while to get anywhere, but somehow it's ok, because it's just so mind-blowing and exciting, and it's not like anyone's actually trying to go anywhere in particular anyway, because it's freaking 1am in the morning. Which leads me to my next point...

2. THE CON NEVER STOPS. IT SERIOUSLY KEEPS GOING ALL HOURS OF THE DAY AND NIGHT. We were up till the wee hours of the morning every night, out and about in the hotel, and there were as many people out milling about that late as there were during the day...and on Friday and Sunday nights, at least, there were more people out during the late/early hours than there were during the day. Because during the day, there is a ridiculous amount of things to do and panels to see (all of which are awesome and entertaining beyond belief), but at night everyone comes out to drink and party and socialize and be merry...nighttime at Dragon*Con is...wow, I dunno, it's just one big party. Even if you're not a drinker, it's a blast just socializing and wandering around admiring the costumes (the best costumes come out during the night, too!). I thought I'd have a little trouble since I dislike alcohol for the most part, but even having 3-5 big bars in the lobby of each hotel, it wasn't too problematic. Even being in the unofficial party hotel, the Hyatt, wasn't bad at all...well, ok, I admit I didn't get any sleep the first night because I was wound up and we could hear the people in the lobby (since it's an atrium) until 4am, but that's ok ;D

3. THE PEOPLE. THE PEOPLE ARE KRIFFING AMAZING. The staff is GREAT, the guests will walk around and socialize with the attendees, and the attendees themselves...oh my goodness, I've never been to a con where I wasn't once annoyed by someone. I am simply in disbelief that everyone was so polite and kind and happy and friendly...and MATURE!!! Oh god, the maturity at this con! I swear 80% of the attendees must have been 21 or over, because I could count on my hand the number of teenagers I saw. And then you have the children...I've never been to a convention where I've seen so many happy families running around. It may be a party con at night, but it's totally a family con during the day, and something about that just makes me happy inside. Seeing all the little kids going around with their parents and having photos taken with ewoks, with Disney princesses, with us in our Narnia group...everytime we would walk past a little girl (sometimes little boys) and their parents, the child's face would light up in delight and we'd all pose around them for the photo, and OMGGGGGGGG it was precious ;_; And I don't even LIKE kids that much, but it just made me so happy seeing them having so much fun :)

4. THE VARIETY. I still cannot figure out what this con is...it's like a variety convention...pirates, Star Wars, Doctor Who and British sci-fi, mainstream television shows (Scrubs, NCIS), Star Trek, Battlestar galactica, Stargate, everyother sci-fi show and movie out there, Anne McCaffrey and the Dragonriders of Pern (whom we ran into in the elevator, actually :D), skeptics and paranormal/supernatural, new science and astronomy, writing and costuming, graphic design and illustration, robot and puppet building, concerts of all sorts of music...there is seriously something for everyone. Any normal non-geek could go and have the time of their lives, I swear. I am trying to get my parents to go next year, even, because I know they'd absolutely love it! And of course there's an anime track for all of you weeaboos ;)

5. THE LOCATION IS WONDERFUL. All of the main hotels are close enough to just walk across the street, but there is also the Peachtree Center, which is a big mall between them, with connecting skywalks to the Marriot and the Hyatt, which I would say are the two main hotels, so you could go to the convention and never have to set foot outside. And the MARTA trains are so easy to use and there are stops all over the area, including one right in the foodcourt! And speaking of the foodcourt, yessssssss, it's like Ohayocon's, except bigger and better. It's such a convenience. And there are other great restaurants and locales just a little walk from the hotels, such as the Corner Bakery across the street (which we quasi-discovered this morning), and a bunch of tourist spots are just a few blocks up the road (World of Coke and the Aquarium, to name just two).

6. THE COSTUMES ARE SOME OF THE BEST I'VE SEEN ANYWHERE. Such quality costumes, for the most part, and lots and lots of creativity and variety. You could seriously cosplay anything you can think of, and it'd be accepted and praised at D*C. The two that come to my mind are the Hooter's Girl Twi'lek we saw in the foodcourt, and the "yip yip" red alien guy from Sesame Street...also, a Wild Thing, various varieties of stormtroopers (Dallas Cowboys trooper, Hawaiian stormtrooper, lego stormtrooper...), that big red furry monster from Looney Tunes, Popetine, zombie Disney princesses, and so much more weird and silly things.

7. This last one doesn't merit much commentary but OMG THE CON IS 4 DAYS LONG!!! Saturday night I was almost like "Oh no, last day of the con, tomorrow we have to go home and it's gonna be depressing and this hasn't been long enough and *insert more post-con depression thoughts here* oh but WAIT THERE'S A WHOLE EXTRA DAY OMG TOMORROW WILL BE LIKE A SECOND SATURDAY!!!" and...man, it's just so awesome having two "Saturdays" at a con...actually, Friday was like a normal con Saturday too. Just too awesome <3



Ok, so enough of that lol...here is my report!! WITH A TON OF PHOTOS, TOO, OMG.





So Friday I didn't get there till around 4pm, immediately met up with my room-mates Kara and Anna (whom I'd never met before, but ended up being the best roomies and new friends I could have asked for) to pick up my room key, then met up with ayakasan and _rosiel_ who were just wondering around people-watching, because they share that hobby with me <3 They helped my exhausted self with all my crap up to my room on the 17th floor, which was HUGE and AWESOME, and I immediately changed into Tahiri for the shoot with Kayla. Met Kayla in her room, got lightsabers, got some preliminary Beniri shots (which I need to work on lightening), then headed down to the shoot.

Not many people showed, but we got some funny pics, especially when tenel_ka and co. showed up in their Scrubs costumes and proceeded to have a big epic battle with us in our Star Wars EU costumes XD It was hilarious!


BENIRI WOOT WOOT. XD *amused*


yay family!




LMAO LOVE THIS <3


SCRUBS VS STAR WARS!!! Omg so funny XD Several different shots, because everyone's doing slightly different, but just as funny, things in each one =P




Me and Heather ended up poking each other's fingers or something lol XD




Again, lmao <3 CAVALYN I LOVE HER SO MUCH XD




Afterwards, me, Kayla, Ayaka, Luke, Sara, Jacob, Cavalyn, and Cavalyn's Zekk and Jag (don't know their names ;_;) went to the foodcourt to eat our first meal of the day...Kayla and I were so hungry that we wern not able to eat anything, it was horrible x_x After that we did an awesome photoshoot outside :)

Luke and KaylaBen! XD Kayla makes a rather adorable 14-year-old boy, btw <3


LOL and you can see Cavalyn's friend who cosplayed Zekk in the background ^^

Some of the photoshoot pics (which I already posted)...I'll get the rest up later ^^;:





I'MMA MOLEST YOU >:D

Um, not sure what happened next, but at some point Kayla called me wanting her red lightsaber back because she had found a Mara Jade cosplayer and wanted to put on Jacen and get pics with her lol...so I grabbed the lightsaber which I'd borrowed for Tahiri and ran as fast as I could to the Marriot, where I found her (in Gambit) right in the lobby, and she's like OMG YOU SHOULD GET INTO JAINA OMG so I'm like DAMMIT KAYLA D: so I ran all the way back to the Hyatt and put on my really ghetto closet Jaina Solo costume, then ran back and found her in the lobby in Jacen with her Mara xD Then proceeded to be some rather epic Star Wars-ing...

Kayla wanted desperately a pic with some little kid to pretend they were Anakin Solo, so we went on a quest to find one, but ended up downstairs where there was apparently some Star wars shoot going on? LOL there were like....ten gazillion SW costumers milling about, so we're all SHIT, MAN O_O and had lots of awesome photo ops and omg Cavalyn was there in yet another awesoooooooome Jaina outfit, and so we got some epic photos, but they're all on Kayla's camera...*pokes her for pics xP*

A few random pics I got:

Cavalyn and Kayla really wanted pics with the clone troopers and the red Mando


OMFG ROGUE SQUADRON DRESS UNIFORMS FROM THE X-WING COMICS AAAAAAAGHGCKBHJFRNVCHJBSDRNLJDVBN OMG TOTAL FANGIRL MOMENT <3


Jacen follows in his grandfather's footsteps...

After all the photos, and everyone had wandered away, Kayla and I were almost the last ones there...we were also horribly tired, and so we just layed on each other on the floor for a while XD Somehow we managed to get a really really reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaalllly epic-ly cute Jacen and Jaina sleeping pic ;~; If I get no other photo from Kayla, I HAVE to get that one ;o; LULZ and then she was all HELP ME UP MY BOOTS ARE HUGE ARGH I CAN'T GET UP \O_O/ and I tried to pull her up but couldn't and...I dunno, it was really funny and dumb but extremely amusing at the time because we were SO EFFING TIRED and slaphappy xP Also, Jacen and Jaina XD

I think we pretty much just went to bed after that lol.

Night view from our balcony!




Our hotel~


The Marriot 3rd floor lobby thing...


View from the 3rd floor of the actual lobby lol





Saturday I woke up early to go get my badge, which turned out to be awesome because I was able to get a disabled badge (which meant no waiting in lines at all!) because of my back :D SCORE!!! Also found free, movie-theater sized posters of Quantum of Solace, two versions (which I got a tube for and brought back home with me, Anne...I'll have to send yours to you or something). Then went back upstairs and watched the parade from our balcony with bale_ikura (who, I might mention, was being lazy and sitting in bed the entire weekend watching panels and events on the Dragon*Con tv channel in our room XD I found this entirely too amusing), Anna, and Ayaka.

After that, we all headed separate ways and I wandered for a long time out of costume, waiting for people to call me about Star Wars ;__;

Random pics from my random wandering (oh yeah, I also visited that surprisingly disappointing Dealer's Rooms around that point, too):



There was a ridiculous number of colorful and impressive Mandalorians...I loved it <3




BADASS OMG LOVED THEM <3


At one point I was going up the Hyatt escalators to head back to my room for a while, when I saw a big line of Marvel people going the opposite way down the escalators...so I turned around and followed this amazing Nick Fury cosplayer all the way to the tenth floor of the Marriot, where the Marvel shoot was apparently being held XD Ran into Kayla up there (in her awesome Gambit) and proceeded to be her photographer like I ended up doing all weekend (not that I minded ^^). Marvel shoot was a ton of fun, and now I REALLY wanna do a Marvel costume for next year!! BUT WHO TO BE?!?! @_@ Also found my first favorite cosplayer of the con, the girl who cosplayed Phoenix!Celeste of the Stepford Cuckoos from X-Men...omg, I was so happy to see her because Celeste is one of my favorite Marvel characters but no one knows of her, and the girl was so excited that I knew who she was XD We had a Phoenix: Warsong geek-out for a while, it was awesome <3 I really should have gotten her info or something ;~; Poo.


There she is :) <3


VERY LARGE MARVEL SHOOT MADE ME EXCEEDINGLY HAPPY <333333333


Close up of where Kayla was (she's Gambit!)


Slightly blurry pic of the X-Men costumers


Gambits and Rogues :3


AHAHAHA HYDRA GOT TONY STARK XD


LULZ I about died when they did this <3 I feel like such a NERD but I LOVE IT SO MUCH XD

After the shoot, Kayla and I were like OMG NEED FOOD \O_O/ so we went to the foodcourt (where I briefly ran into Kaitlin!), and had Subway which was ok but the staff there were kind of rude =/ We talked and ate for a while, and then realized that we only had 30 minutes to change into our SW stuff for the photoshoot XD So we had a brief and hilarious moment of panicky packing all our stuff up and running off in separate directions to our respective hotels (I was in the Hyatt, she was in the Marriot) and yelling back to each other where to meet and stuff XD It was funny.

Got into Tahiri again, because I love being Tahiri, and managed to beat Kayla to the shoot. Found Cavalyn there and other people we didn't know, then Kayla showed, and then Heather and her Hapans (and Alema <3), and we moved to the 10th floor open area, and...wow, we got some ridiculous photos XD Can't wait to see them, because I didn't get any on my camera (which, by the way, was sucking the entire weekend...ugh, I wish my own camera still worked ;-;).

/>After a while Kayla and I realized we were 30 minutes late to our Narnia group LULZ so we basically ran from the SW shoot and up to her room where they put me into Susan and OMG SO AMAZING OMGOMGOMGGGGGGGGGGGG <3 I loved being Susan, you don't even know ;-; And my Jaina wig worked out so well for her, and styled so nice and easily...and the dress was gorgeous, Kayla did a great job on it... Sara made the perfect Lucy, and Jacob was awesome as Peter XD Kayla could not keep in character as Edmund lol, she's so funny =P

We went downstairs and OMG FOUND A WHITE WITCH!!! We got stopped for so many photos, it was unbelievable...we'd stop and twenty people would come up and take pics and we'd be stuck in the same pose for several minutes, move 5 feet, and repeat the process...wow, I've never had that much attention while cosplaying before!! But we had such an awesome and full group, it was so epic <3


So awesome, and so much fun ;___;

Kayla was talking about how she had a photoshoot arranged with Lionel, but needed to run upstairs to get her phone to call him, when, out of the blue, he shows up right in front of us XD Then Al/Eurobeat King walks over and is all OH HAY and then ayakasan finds us pretty much two seconds after Al and so we're all like OH HAY LONG TIME NO SEE O_O and have a big reunion and it was great XD

So shortly after, we head off for a photoshoot with Lionel (omgomgomg) and Al and Ayaka and various random other people follow, and oh my GOSH it was so much fun! I've always wanted to do a photoshoot with Lionel XD And he recognized me, yay!! XDDDD I cannot WAIT to see the pics, they're gonna be so awesome x3 omgomgomgomgomggggggggg <3

After that we went to eat dinner in the food court and found this delicious place called Farmer's Basket which was one of the least popular places there, but had the best food at the cheapest price...really hearty servings of delicious REAL chicken with REAL vegetables and oh man it was so nice to have some real, healthy food <3 We sat eating for a while, chatting about random crap, watching all the girls wearing corsets that made their boobs weird and gross shapes (o_x), talked about Twilight and glitter LULZ, and introduced Luke (Kayla's friend from the military) to Moolatte's from Dairy Queen xD Eventually we left the food court, Ayaka rendezvoused with Rosiel and co., and the four of us went and wandered around as the Pevensie children do =P

More photos, some chilling on the floor in the lobby, and several hours later, we all dragged ourselves to Kayla's room and walked in, literally throwing our costumes off as we came...the other roomies were all "You look like zombies o___o". We felt like zombies lol...omg, we were all SO TIRED T_T I just went back to my hotel and went to bed x_x Omg SO TIRED BUT SO AWESOME <3



Ok, so Friday and Saturday were as long as most con reports are for the entire weekend, so I'm gonna continue with Sunday through Tuesday...tomorrow, hopefully ^^;