I went to the con with my boyfriend, Chris, leaving our other two roommates home to guard the place. I shot eight rolls of film; he shot the equivalent of one and a bit. I'm an anime nut, he's an occasional watcher. Yet this is the second time he's come with me to mingle with the crazed otaku, and I'm glad of the company. We roomed with Sean Gaffney and Joan McDougall, two of my internet friends and fellow fanfic authors whom we'd met in person at ANY2K. Attending in our thoughts if not in flesh were Amanda ("Greenbeans") Anderson and Carp, who were both unable to make it this year.
Before we left I downloaded the tentative schedule from the AN website and picked about twenty or so activities and panels I wanted to attend. How many did I go to? . . . Three. Everything Fanboys related, and nothing else. I went to the con to see people more than anything else, and so given a choice between panels and hanging out with Sean and Joan and the Fanboys, people won out.
Last year I'd only vaguely heard of the Fanboys. But by the end of last year's con, I'd found myself unceremoniously adopted as their Hysteria (as I've bemoaned to several people, I hadn't read the stories at that point and so didn't realize that everyone hates her, or at least act like they do). I'd become friends with Havoc at the con, and over the year had caught up on the massive fanfic (no small task, that), and started to get to know Chaos a little bit over the internet. By this year I was ready to meet the others in more than passing, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I'd also been drafted to read Setsuna/Sailor Pluto in the live reading of Chaos' new omakefic, "Jo'o-sama's Apartment". That made me nervous, because despite my old wish to act for a living, I hadn't actually done anything resembling performance of any kind in about four years. But hey. I read the script, didn't print it out due to a shortage of printer paper in our flat, and hoped a practice run would find its way into our collective schedule.
Friday we got up obscenely early due to our flight times being changed for us. (Am I stupid enough to deliberately book a 6:30 AM flight if I can help it? . . . Don't answer that.) Our cab picked us up at 5:00 and got us to the airport in record time. Not much traffic at that hour. So, ok, it wasn't all bad. We got to see the first fingers of sunrise creeping up over a couple of lakes, and that was really nice. Sunup isn't something I get to look at much, being a fairly hardcore night person (just not hardcore enough to stay up until sunrise and then sleep).
The flight itself was fine. I think I dozed a bit, and I got my second breakfast (honestly, on the Friday I ate more in breakfasts than I usually do in entire days). The flight from Halifax to Toronto, while somehow shorter than the one from Toronto to Halifax, is not too long. (Of course, after the 26-hour trip from Halifax to Hong Kong, not much scares me in terms of flight time. I guess it's quite an advantage.)
We arrived at the hotel about four hours before anyone else, and of course at 8:00 or so in the morning one can't expect one's room to be ready, early check-in application or no. So we stowed our luggage, told them we were there, and wandered around for a while. We found all of the Marriott's restaurants, none of which seemed to follow our home province's handy habit of posting menus in the window for perusal. (It seems likely that this is because the place is so expensive overall, rather than because it's in Ontario. But I haven't been to enough restaurants in Ontario to be sure.) Being hungry again, and yet not wanting to start spending huge amounts of money so soon, we decided we would have to venture out into the world in search of the day's third (and final) breakfast. The main problem there was that the Marriott is so close to the airport that virtually all of our options were the restaurants in other hotels. No, food was not to be a cheap component of our trip. (There were several other eating places about a kilometer down the road, but I didn't want to leave the con for long enough to walk there and back with a meal in between, and the rain convinced Chris not to. It figures--that weekend supposedly had some of the best weather Halifax had
been given so far this season, but in Toronto it rained.
We wandered over to William's, a coffee place and the only non-hotel restaurant we could see, but left without buying anything. We wound up at an all-you-can-eat brunch at Pat and Mario's, which wasn't the best thing I've ever had but was good and not too expensive. We enjoyed it, and afterwards when we wandered back to the Marriott our room was ready, so we settled in.
Now, the situation was that I had a vague idea that Gaffney would be arriving sometime shortly after noon, and no idea when Joan was arriving. This should not have been a problem, since I called the hotel in advance and asked the staff to put their names on the file, and then sent them the confirmation number. In theory, this meant that our roomies could simply arrive, check in, and all would be good whether or not Chris and I were easy to find in the first moments they were there. In practice, their names had not been added to the file, so once I'd stowed my luggage, Chris hopped into the shower and I headed down to the lobby to wait.
I don't like waiting. I'm not a really patient person unless I'm being called on to have patience with personal problems or something that a friend is having. I also don't like being along in strange places, especially places where there're lots of other people who I don't know at all. I hoped my roomies would show up quickly, or that the Fanboys would appear, or that Chris would come downstairs quickly. But time passed and none of these things happened, until, with relief, I saw Riot on the far side of the lobby.
No one who saw me greet Havoc later will believe this, but I'm very shy. It's just well-disguised by the fact that I babble when I'm nervous. I dimly remembered meeting Riot last year, but back then all of the Fanboys except Havoc and Mayhem and Jelynne were kind of a blur; besides, Riot hadn't been around much the year before, being too swamped with volunteering. I'd also managed to just about convince myself, about a month before the con, that none of them other than those three might have any idea who I was (Havoc had said differently, but I was still nervous about the whole thing). Still, fear aside, he was a familiar face, and so I straightened up hopefully when I saw him. Thankfully for my nerves, he recognized me. More than that, he came straight over, greeted me as Hysteria, and gave me a hug. ^_^ Life was good. We chatted for a few minutes and then, not surprisingly, he had to go do work. That was almost the extent of my contact with Riot for the entire con, especially since his volunteer work was compounded by his mandatory absence on Saturday to attend a wedding.
After he left, I continued to wait, but he'd told me when most of the others would be coming. Soon enough, I saw some familiar faces outside, and I hurried over to the glass door, which Jelynne claimed I tried to hide behind.
More time passed. Eventually Sean and Joan both arrived, and there was much milling about and waiting to register for the con and settling in and it's all kind of a blur. When the dealers' room opened I went in and started pricing the CDs I wanted. They were more expensive than last year ($15-20 instead of $10-12), which disappointed me. But I still wound up acquiring quite a few, mostly bought from one girl who was really nice and sympathetic and friendly, whose name I didn't get for some reason. The dealers' room was much bigger than last year, which was good, but of course there were about twice as many guests this year, which filled up the extra space pretty effectively. Still, it was an improvement.
I think somewhere in there we had our first encounter with the anime being fed straight into the hotel room (mostly Viz stuff). The subtitles were kind of jumpy, but it was a cool idea and over the weekend I saw some Ranma and my first glimpse of Maison Ikkoku, which confirmed that I like Rumiko Takahashi in general but prefer her dark stuff to her comedy.
Many of us went to the hotel's pub for a while, which was ok. The company was good, the food was all right, and the drink (for me, since I'd ordered Coke and gotten Pepsi so watered down that I actually mistook it for really bad Coke) wasn't so hot. There were no complaints from those who'd ordered Guiness, though. The pub was where Jelynne's con notebook made its first appearance. ^^
Friday evening was when I realized how little time I'd probably be spending at actual con activities (Saturday's slew of Fanboys stuff notwithstanding). Instead of going to events, we largely hung out in Planet Hentai (Jelynne and Havoc's room). Havoc showed me some self-defense moves, which were kind of painful and think I'll need a few more showings of before I really have them down, but it was cool. I think Pan-chan's arrival was the first time I saw her (again, I may have met her in passing last year, but a lot of last year's Fanboys encounters all kind of smudged in my memory). Pan-chan is adorable! She didn't want me to take any pictures of her, at least until after she'd had a drink, due to being "un-photogenic", but I think I wound up getting enough good shots of her to disprove the claim.
I don't actually remember when I first ran into Carnage and Trixie this year. Hmm.
Havoc and Chris and I were downstairs when I first met Sarcasm (by now, the disclaimer about what 'met' means should be implicit) and her husband, Zel. On Saturday I was to discover that she has the most amazing hair I have ever seen (edging out her brother, who as of last year had that distinction, although Chris' hair is currently growing out at a good rate and will be providing good competition with Carnage's hair . . . however, if Chris' is ever as long as Sarcasm's, he won't be able to move with the weight of it, so she'll probably still win out). But for Friday, she'd gotten it all up under a blond wig and was cosplaying as a character from MAPS, which I've never seen. She was essentially wearing just a red ribbon, leading to many, many comments about fanservice. And, well, in my very limited online contact with her I'd formed an impression of her which made me very nervous. But there's something about meeting someone and discovering that they're the most purely genki person one has ever seen that dispelled the nervousness.
Chris laughed at me after she'd left, because my reaction was a bouncy "Genki, genki Sarcasm-hime!!!", which he is still teasing me about. But, damn it, she is.
Friday we didn't stay up too late, what with the obscenely early flight and stuff, and that kind of set my sleep cycle for the con: I actually slept. Unheard of.
Saturday we got up somewhat early (Sean, morning person that he seems to be, threw open the curtains at about 9:00 or so), and we began to get ready for the practice read-through of "Jo'o-sama's Apartment". Sean and I got dressed, and Joan met us later, but Chris wandered on down in his bathrobe, breakfast in hand. Several people thought he was cosplaying Arthur Dent. ^^ (I would like to mention that Joan produced some amazingly good and equally sticky cinnamon buns for breakfast. I don't think we have them in Nova Scotia, and I'm bitter. They were grand.) The read-through went fairly well, although Vampy-chan wasn't there; since she was playing Hotaru, a major role, this was a bit awkward. But Pan-chan gamely filled in for her, and I felt better about the upcoming performance . . . until I discovered that Setsuna, emotionally and mentally traumatized by the events of the fic, is supposed to sing at the end. Only a line of a song, but not one I happened to know . . . and I have HUGE stage-fright in terms of singing. Unhappy Hysteria-chan. But Chaos and Havoc said they'd work something out.
At 11:00 there was a Fanboys panel, which was fun. Chaos and Havoc and Carnage were there at the front for the whole thing, and Sarcasm slipped in with time enough to answer questions about the art. (There weren't all that many questions, since there was a lot of basic explanation going on, but it was cool having the author and his conspirator and the webmaster and the artist all there in front of us at once.) There was a guy who seemed to be there for the express purpose of eating Jello at Havoc. Many plushies were thrown. Chaos fell over a lot. Everyone had fun.
Chris and I went for lunch at William's, which we had passed over the day before. I had quiche. Life was good. We ran into Sean and Joan and Chaos, and we all chatted for a while. 'Twas nice.
The next thing on my schedule was the Fanboys' "kawaii tea-party-chan". It was essentially mandatory that I be there, seeing as Hysteria is the one who's always having such events in the story (and definitely the only one who ever enjoys them). The real one, held in Pan-chan's room, was more enjoyable than the fictional ones. There was lots of yummy food, a marked absence of anyone being chained to the table to keep them from escaping, and only one frilly apron in sight, which Jelynne had thoughtfully provided for Chaos to wear. (There are more pictures of that moment than I want to think about. I alone have at least five . . . ) He was a good sport about it. Chaos kicks ass. ^_^ I waited there for a while in hopes of meeting Desolation, the lost Fanboy, but I think I finally left before he emerged from the dealers' room, which is a good place to get lost if one really must. I needed to rest up before the actual reading.
Somewhere in there I went down to the dealers' room again, and reached the sad conclusion that the fourth Utena CD was just nowhere to be found (I did keep looking throughout the con, but never did see a copy), and it was one of the things I really wanted. I found everything else I was particularly looking for, and after some more tragic eyeing of this year's prices, I picked up a number of other CDs, but I remained sad about that one. Alan Harnum came to my rescue! He kindly offered to burn me a copy of the CD (given that I was looking to buy a bootleg, what with the total absence of legit copies, this didn't faze me), and I took him up on it. Alan and I go way back. At least as far back as last year's AN, where we met in passing. I pouted hopefully at him, he showed me the Utena movie (the pain's subsiding now, thank you for asking), and since then we've talked online a few times . . . what, that doesn't make us close, personal friends? . . . Oh, all right. But in lieu of going way back, he did give me a CD, and he danced in my hotel room. So it's all ok.
The reading happened at 4:00, at Planet Hentai, and the place was pretty packed. I was nervous, but took my place on the floor and made myself chill out somewhat. Desolation was there, and I introduced myself, and discovered once again that we'd met last year.
As we sat down to begin, I realized that no one had told me what the plan was for Setsuna's sung line. That didn't help the uneasiness. But the reading went well, I think. Most of it's kind of a blur for me, 'cause I was focusing so hard on it. Weird how that works. We got to the end, I braced myself in case I'd have to sing the line, and it was sung for me (by Jelynne, I think, but again it's somewhat blurry). And then it was over. An hour and a half gone just like that, and I was suddenly very tired.
The rest of my Saturday I puttered about more than anything. I tried to locate the pinata bashing (Chibiusa was the victim) so I could take photos of the Spore's destruction for Beans, but was too late. I returned to the hotel room, and hung out with Sean and Joan for a while. We decided to order pizza for supper, and waited for Chris to get back from his sake run with Pan-chan and her boyfriend. Pizza is often my downfall. I love it quite fiercely, but it often makes me sick, as it regrettably did that evening. Sean and Joan went off to some panels after supper, and I took some medicine and waited to feel better. Time passed, and this approach failed to work. I had elected not to go to most of the masquerade, but I wanted to see Chaos and Sarcasm's cat-girl deathmatch, so Chris and I finally wandered downstairs despite the roiling in my stomach. We managed to (mostly) see their skit through the crowd--the crowd outside the room, mind you--and Chris fought his way through some people to photograph them for me, which I appreciated. ^^ Then I bailed back to our room and lay down some more, sadly missing the j-pop dance entirely. We did wind up hanging out at Planet Hentai some more before bed, which was good. Stories were told, like Chris' famous account of the "phone explode" customer (I can't bear to recount it in print, since it works so well out loud). Then there was sleep.
I woke up feeling fine, which made me happy, and it was just as well, since Sunday was the day of the two-meals-in-two-hours which Chris and I had managed to schedule for ourselves by mistake. First off, the whole bunch of us--roomies and Fanboys and others--tried to have brunch at the hotel restaurant, only to discover that the already-expensive $17 price went up to $25 on Sundays. We were collectively displeased, especially Havoc. But many of us went up the road to Pat and Mario's, which Chris and I could speak for, and had a not-quite-as-good but much more affordable breakfast. Then, Chris and I immediately turned and went out for lunch, a prior engagement with some friends of my family who Chris had met last year when we unexpectedly stayed with them. (A very cool family, the Carters; how many people will take in their friends' daughter, and her boyfriend who they've never met, on no notice at all and let them stay for almost a week with free access to fridge and house? They're amazing.) Despite the fact that we warned them that we'd just eaten, they insisted on taking us to another all-you-can-eat event and paying for us, which I was not expecting. We therefore did our best to get value for their money, and did pretty well, all things considered.
We tried to talk them into stopping by the con, but were unsuccessful. So, stuffed to the teeth, we returned without them and proceeded to lie about and digest for a while. I took a last run through the dealers' room, acquiring a couple more CDs and a Lain shirt, and we relaxed until evening, when Carnage had drafted everyone to help dismantle the con.
The dismantling took a long time, and Jelynne and Leah and I finally wandered off since we weren't doing much lifting anyway, and that was mostly what was needed. We talked for quite a long time (mostly they talked and I listened, which was fine with me), and I got some insight into the Fanboys as a group from people who are close to them, which I hadn't gotten before. I enjoyed that time quite a lot; it was the most peaceful part of the day.
The stress started later on, when the volunteers were told they could go to the con suite and get some of the free food there. This was supposed to include the ones who were helping to take everything down, but there wound up being a lot of bitchiness from the con chair, and most of us bailed (since I didn't do much to help, I didn't really want any of the food, but the atmosphere was just too tense for me, so I left right after Chaos and Sean did). Chris, who is more able to ignore bitchiness, waited and got some of the food before leaving. He's very practical.
Rather than wade back into the stressful situation, Chaos and Sean and Chris and I went down to the hot tub. That was very nice. We soaked for a while, and Chaos told us about the last non-Fanboys fanfic he plans to write before retiring in favor of original writing, which I think will be a very good move for him. He's really talented, and it seems like something likely to make him fairly happy. It was also the only real chance I got to hang out with him (and for that matter, with Sean, which is odder 'cause we were rooming together. But he went to a lot of panels and stuff that I didn't, as did Joan, and so I didn't see either of them that much outside of group gatherings in Havoc and Jelynne's room).
Afterwards we made our way to the pub and ate there, running into some of the others. Chris was once again drafted to help load things, and that was pretty much the last I saw of him for the night. Joan returned from Pandora's, where she'd gone for the evening. We all wandered up to Carnage (who was off loading) and Leah's room for a while, with Chaos in kitty ears and tail, and there was more hanging out and some drinking. Finally, we departed for bed, with Chris and Carnage still out working. Sean had to get up frighteningly early to catch his plane, and Joan and I were tired. On the way out I finally glomped Chaos. And that was, I believe, the last I saw of him (hope I didn't scare him too badly).
I woke up to the faint sounds of Sean quietly leaving, and was instantly sad. I wish I could see everyone more often. But he had to catch the flight, and so we said goodbye, and he was gone.
Those of us who remained made another attempt at the hotel brunch, which was back down to its somewhat cheaper price. It was really good. And then we waited, and waited, and a huge taxi came, and there was much piling into it by people and luggage. Chris and Jelynne and Carnage and Leah and Havoc and Mayhem and I all stuffed into it and headed to Mayhem's place, although Leah had to bail halfway through. More stories were told. Upon arrival Jelynne called home and her father agreed to not only come pick her up but also give Carnage a ride home.
We all waited for a while, and Carnage and I quoted bits of the X-Files episode "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" at each other. And then he and Jelynne were gone.
Chris and Mayhem and Havoc and I went to a small restaurant in Mayhem's complex, and talked about more serious things. Japan, the Olympics, the state of the world . . . some of it was saddening, but the talking was good. I so very much want to see these people more than once a year.
Finally, we said goodbye to Mayhem and Havoc took us halfway on the subway to get to the airport. He told us more stories. And then he too was gone. Chris and I retrieved our luggage from the hotel's storage, and got onto our plane.
I guess that's all.
--Ysabet/Hysteria