Otakon Two Thousand and Twenty-Five

Amazing Yaoiful Weekend

It is finally time for the main event!!!!!!! After a long day of travel and exploring Washington, D.C. all alone, I woke up on Thursday the 7th of August not extremely well rested but plenty energized with the power of anime.

Thursday

Today I finally got to see Selin and friends so I made sure to put on a cute outfit. I wore my moschino bunny tshirt and my bright mint green shorts :P It felt like forever but when the time was nigh for Selin's bus to arrive, I went to go meet it at its hotel .YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY

We hung out in the room with Selin's friend for a bit until both of them were about to starve to death, and then we took the metro to downtown in search of food. We decided to go to nando's in chinatown. As a side note... the D.C. chinatown is unlike any chinatown I've seen in my life... Instead of being mostly a bunch of mom and pop chinese supermarkets, restaurants, shops, etc. the majority of chinatown that I saw here was wide streets lined with american fast food chains with the only feature distinguishing them from any old mcdonalds or chipotle being a sign of the restaurant name in chinese next to the regular one. I later saw more areas of it with more of the typical small businesses but that main area of it was super strange to me. Anyway, it was my first time trying nando's and I thought it was really yummy. I got a chicken sandwich with fries. Selin got coleslaw as a side and it honestly tasted like an insult to every coleslaw fan out there. I fed Selin my fries instead so all was well.

After our meal the three of us walked in the direction of the convention center because there was a matsuri the day before the con, but there wasn't much going on since we went so late. We did get to see some cute cosplays already though :D Also on the way back to the metro we saw a crime scene with a huge puddle of blood on the ground. It was taped off with a police line and they were even putting up the little numbers for evidence and stuff.... We will never know what happened...

Friday

The first day of con is officially HERE! Everyone get excited. I woke up at 7 to make sure my L cosplay would be perfect. Which didn't take much seeing as its so simple but what can I say I was excited! I drew on big fat eyebags over my already big fat eyebags, put on a white tshirt and jeans, and was basically done hehe. Good thing L Lawliet is like the most recognizable cosplay of all time cuz you could basically tell what my deal was even with my brown curly hair XD but even more when I linked up with Selin who was cosplaying Light and who I handcuffed myself to! Cute!!!!!

Peep the Misa in the back... we didn't notice her until
looking at the pics later what a nice stroke of serendipity ^_^

I also finally met Selin's other two friends. One friend was dressed up so cute as twilight sparkle but her ears broke (;´Д`) so our real first stop was the cosplay repair station.  Just walking around the con and looking around at all these cosplayers and otaku made me soooo happy. I'm by no means an outgoing person but being surrounded by people in this way feels so good especially when everyone and everythign is so cute and happy too! Anywaayy Selin and I decided to split off and go check out a visual kei panel. After that ended we were still waiting for the vendor halls to open so we made our first trip of many to the gaming hall. It was SO! FUN!! We played so many rhythm games, a lot of which it was my first time trying after wanting to for a long time. I also discovered Wacca for the first time and I must say im obsessed with it... I'm now having cravings to play again.

Once the vendors opened we gathered back with everyone and headed downstairs to artist's alley. I think I entered a fugue state as soon as we hit the first booth because I came out after four hours dehydrated and quite a bit poorer. I have avoided adding up the total amount of money I spent because seeing the number might kill me but oh boy I'll just say a lot. We kept seeing 3 for $20 and similar deals and splitting them between ourselves because how could we possibly pass that up!!!!

The shocking moment of the day for me was coming across this artist with super cute riso prints that had a karaoke iko one!!!! It was sooo cute and obviously Selin and I started fangirling as soon as we saw it and we chatted with the artist about how Wayama Yama is a GENIUS! And we did both buy the same print. But after I paid the artist asked if I had read captivated by you which of course I have, and she randomly pulled out a captivated by you print that wasn't even displayed for sale and gave it to me for free!!!! I'm so happy because I really wasn't expecting to see anything Wayama related or meet a fellow fan! (╥ヮ╥)

The sad moment of the day was that there were these yaoi paddle keychains Selin and I were really looking forward to getting but when we got to the booth they were out of the uke ones. It'd be sad to me to get one without matching with Selin so I didn't get myself the seme one. Maybe next year ;-;. I will say I found it to be very funny environmental storytelling that only the uke paddles sold out lololol

HAUL!!! There's a few things missing that I was too
lazy to gather up for photos but this is the bulk of it

That was extremely exhausting so we finally escaped the artist's alley and went upstairs to go sit and listen to a metamorphose q&a. It was SO cool and we even got to hear from one of their designers!!! Plus I loved seeing so many cute lolitas in one room omg.

Afterwards we were all so starving. I had literally only eaten a granola bar all day O_o We went to this taco place after spending a long time unable to decide what to eat. It turned out to be vegetarian with some pretty weird options but they were actually quite yummy! (just not the cheapest -_-) I got a kale and potato one, a sweet corn one, and an eggplant one. Though we had fueled up with food, we were still really tired so we headed back to their hotel to rest for a bit before Selin and I headed back out at night for our very important expedition to: LAST FUJOSHI STANDING. The one and only fujoshi game show hosted by ProdigalFujoshi.

We had been anticipating this panel for so long leading up to the con and we were so prepared to win the grand prize of knowing we are the realest out there. Which we ARE. However, we weren't able to prove ourselves because disaster struck. When we arrived back to the convention center, almost an hour early mind you, the line for the game show was literally wrapping around the hallway multiple times and there were volunteers at the end of the line marking it as closed, meaning we wouldn't even be able to get in. ARE YOU KIDDING!! We asked around and found out there had been people waiting since 3 hours before the panel time. OMG WHYYY.

We were both so disappointed but at least we learned our lesson and we didn't want the night to go to waste so we hit up the game hall again for a quick pump it up sesh before leaving. I dropped Selin off and said goodbye, but on the way back to my hostel some guy on the train yelled "HE'S GOT A KNIFE" super loud and I thought I was about to have to get up and run for my life for a split second but then he started laughing. Some prank...... Anyway I made it to my bed safe and knocked out because tomorrow was a big day~

Saturday

Hehehehehe. Today is day two of the con and more importantly Selin's birthday (ง ˃ ³ ˂)ว ⁼³₌₃⁼³

I woke up bright and early again today because I actually had a bit more work to do to get into costume. Today I was cosplaying Makoto Mita from sweet pool, but not just regular old Makoto Mita. Gyaruo Makoto from this official art in the sweet pool liner notes:

Well I was kind of doing a girl version of him so genderbent gyaru Makoto to be more accurate I guess. I was nervous for how my makeup would turn out because despite practicing it a couple times over summer I am not the best at makeup just because I rarely wear it. But I think it turned out pretty decent if not for my top eyeliner being a little thicker than I would have liked it to and the fact it would look better with false lashes. But that was only really noticeable when I closed my eyes. U will see ;-D I'd painted my nails like the drawing the the night before. I did a concealer lip of course (which kept coming off) and put a shit ton of bronzer on, did my hair, put on my outfit and my red bag and was out the door. WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The sticker I got as a free gift from dykemint yesterday is pretty true to the character too lolol

I met up with Selin and friend who wanted to participate in this hunter exam :0 We got in line early but guess WHAT. Of course we were supposedly late again and both the regular line and an extra overflow line were full, at least according to the volunteers repeatedly yelling at us to leave and saying we wouldn't get in. But it was like 9 in the morning and we had nothign else to do at this hour so we were naughty and stayed in the line (sorry). Selin and I both really needed to use the bathroom after waiting for a bit so we both left the line to quickly go and you won't believe what happened! In the 5 minutes we were gone the whole line filed into the activity and so did Selin's friend who supposedly had zero chance of making it in. So now we know we should take everything the security people say with a grain of salt... maybe we could've gotten in to last fujoshi standing last night if we had been more stubborn but OH WELL...

Selin and I were not as enthusiastic about getting our hunter licenses so we decided to sit outside and get coffee while Selin's friend competed instead. It was much needed ☕︎ (ᵔ ̮ ᵔ)› Selin's friend made it pretty far hooray but when she came out it was time to meet up with the rest of the Crew and go to the FASHION SHOW! It was so fun and there were a variety of jfashion brands and a bit of streetwear stuff but mostly lolita (Yayy). I loved seeing how the models were styled and how they 'choreographed' the shows for each brand... it was just so cute. It comes as no surprise that the star of the show was Metamorphose but I saw such cool stuff from the various indie designers/brands participating and I really wish I got more (good) pics!

All the meta models and designers posing together at the end *_* beautiful

The show was amazing but at long last it was time to eat afterwards! We decided to go to this place called Bonkers' chinese burger so you already know I was excited~~~ I got the titular chinese burger (a bao with braised beef in it basically) and a dragonfruit rose black tea o_o Eating a burger was obviously necessary in makoto cosplay and the tea came out kind of looking like blood which was also neat hehe. They were UHMAZIIINGGG I'm drooling right now while I write this just from the memory of it. Selin got some sichuan cold noodles which you know I had to beg for a taste of and were of course incredible too. Though it ended up getting a burger too because mine was too yummy ;D A scrumptious and filling and saucy succulent chinese meal was exactly what my body needed. [satisfied burp]

Makoto and his omega burger

After being healed by Bonkers I was totally ready to go play in the convention center again. We finally got to attend a yaoi panel after the mishap from last night and it was so amazing. It basically went over the entire history of BL and online yaoi culture albeit in a somewhat abridged manner. It was so so fun to be in a room discussing the best thing in the world and this Japanese woman in the audience who'd been a fujoshi since the 70s ended up speaking for a bit and shared so much interesting stuff! She is literally my idol ( ✧Д✧). Also someone in the audience randomly shouted out sweet pool when the topic of VNs came up for a moment and I wanted to find them afterwards so bad but I had no idea where it even came from lolol. No one ended up recognizing my Makoto cosplay all day but that's ok I will find my people one day.

After that amaaazing panel it was once again time for our favorite place in the world... game hall. We spent so long in there playing rhythm games again and mayy have missed some panels but wacca is TEEWWW addicting. And OMG. Time for Saturday's shocking moment of the day. At one point Selin and I were walking around and in a corner we suddenly saw something incredible. I couldn't even believe my eyes but there was the most perfect Levi, Daan, and Samarie from Fear and Hunger Termina anyone has ever laid their eyes upon. You guys they were SOOOOOOO CUTEEEEEEEEE and SO REAL it looked like the characters literally came to life and the way they were acting in the corner was also exactly how they'd act if they were real. I couldn't take it... me and Selin were fangirling so hard but we gathered ourselves slightly and asked to take a picture with them. I can't even lie, I was starstruck about this for like the next 72 hours and every time I thought about them I started squealing and/or giggling. The picture of me with them is seriously a prized possession of mine. I even spent a long time stalking social networks to try to find out who the cosplayers were because in my shock I didn't ask them. I did end up finding the Levi cosplayer, yay (his username is parfaitgay and he also cosplays enstars big surprise hehe). They also gave us a super cute ribbon to add on to my stack of... one ribbon lol

It's not much but they are very meaningful to me.

Since Selin was cosplaying Junko Enoshima and wearing a big huge wig, it really started to get exhausted and wanted to go change in the hotel so I came with. But ummm we ended up having a bit too much fun in the hotel room and let time slip away~~~ so we did end up calling it a night after that. No problem for me at all teehee this was an extremely eventful day. I went back to my hostel and was ready to pass out but suddenly realized the outlet by my bed just randomly wasn't working anymore -.- There was no one in the lobby to ask for help so I had to spend a while downstairs charging my phone in the lobby so that it would be charged enough to a) use as an alarm tomorrow duhh and b) last me a while during the day because my portable charger was also dead!! Ugh it was very annoying but by the time I got to bed I passed out so quick.

Sunday

The dawn of the final day... and guess what all that fuss with making sure I had an alarm was for nothing because I guess I was so exhausted that I slept through ALL my alarms and Selin literally had to call my hostel front desk to get them to wake me up so we wouldn't miss our bus back to Selin's town. SO!!!!! EMBARASSING!!!!!!!!!!!! Since the bus left in the early afternoon and we had already planned to only spend a bit of the morning at the con on Sunday, I couldnt even make it to the con on the last day. Aaaagghhhh. On the bright side, all the interesting panels on Sunday were happening after we would've left anyway so I'd probably have spent all my time in the dealers' den. At least I saved my money.

Soo all of Selin's other friends ended up getting sick and leaving early so it was just us on the bus back. We came kind of close to missing it but thankfully we made it on in time and were on the almost 3 hour trip back to Selin's home. The trip went by quite fast. Selin's parents treated me very kindly and its mom fed me very well Yaayyy. It also got to blow out the candles a day late on a supar cute birthday cake and I got to eat a slice! Yum! We spent a long time afterwards just hanging out in Selin's room and scrolling Tumblr together until it was late and time for me to go to my hotel nearby. Ugh I love Selin's room.

'Twas a very chill day but 'twas what we needed. Whew~

Monday 

I redeemed myself for my blunder yesterday morning by waking up bright and early today. This time there was really not a moment to waste because I would have to say goodbye to Selin for real this afternoon(╥﹏╥). No use in crying though we must have the funnest day ever today. I went and had my scrumptious hotel breakfast whilst I waited for Selin to get ready and come join me.

Oh yes.........

Soon Selin arrived in a limo (mom's car) and I dropped off my bag with the chauffeur (mom) for later. We hung out in my room until it was time for me to check out and then began our trek through the wilderness (incontinuous sidewalk). We made our first very important stop at Dunkin to get delicious fruity refreshers. It was really hot out so this was kind of the most delicious drink I've ever had, probably also because I was having it with selin. We were near Selin's uni campus so we took a walk there and peeped at the shirtless boys playing sports. It was soooo hot so what we most wanted to do was go sit in the library and play roblox, and we did just that. I haven't played roblox with someone in the same room as me since I used to play with my brother in like 2016 and I forgot how wonderful of an experience it is. Otakon was like autism heaven but so was this.

Werking in the mines

After we cooled off and had epic fun we were about ready for lunch. We went to Selin's favorite poke place and both got huge and delicious bowls. We just hung out in there after eating for a while before getting picked up again. AGH... the time was going by so fast. It wasn't time for me to leave yet but I could feel it creeping closer ;-;. We spent some more time in Selin's room, but there was one really crucial event left on my bucket list before leaving this place. A Buc-ees trip OF COURSE. Good god that place was amazing... Who needs disneyland? I finally got to fulfill my dream of making an insane dirty soda. I added dr. pepper, blue coconut, vanilla creamer, a ton of ice, and lime. Literally a dream come true... It was so disgusting (both taste wise and visually hence the lack of photos) but it was also so so so indescribably delicious. I think I miss bucees dirty soda more than I miss Selin. Kidding... but it's definitely close. I also tried beaver nuggets - they were yummy but maybe not worth all the hype I would say - and beaver chips which were good because fresh potato chips are always good. I still really want to try their jerkeys so I guess I need to make another visit ;P

At last it was time to get ready to depart... Selin's parents drove us to the uni campus where I'd hop on a bus back to the airport alone (TT) and dropped us off by the lake so we could walk for a bit, and it was soooo nice and pretty. We really really stalled to walk to the bus stop, and it seems like the universe may have heard my prayers to let me stay forever because I got an email that my bus was deleyed for almost an hour ( ˶°ㅁ°) I felt bad that Selin's parents were going to stay and wait for me in the heat that whole time but we got to hang for extra time so I was secretly happy! The last several minutes went by way too fast and it was time to leave for real this time. I cried so much on the bus and on the plane don't tell anyone that ok....

This is how we were (I'm the girl)

I wish otakon could be every day of my life but alas it is time to move on wiht my life and get back to school! SAD! Only until next year though ;D I am melancholic but extremely excited for my next otakon because it's going to be ten times as epic as this one. Plus just so happy I finally got to experience it! If U read all this.... youre crazy. THANKS.... CYA o7

 

P.S. Anyone want 2 count how many times I said selin's name in this post? XD