The morning went by just as normal as the previous one (minus the crossplaying). I decided to wear my Kirito (from Sword Art Online) cosplay today. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate the boots that I had brought for the costume. I was really unhappy with myself considering that I have been very forgetful all weekend. It is definitely something that I must remedy as soon as possible. Anyway I digress.
After we had exchanged our agendas with Kenny, we went out to go enjoy PAX yet again. It was nice to be in clothing that fit my gender but the pants were very tight. I had forgotten just how close the tailor from Taobao had made the pants. In any case, Saturday would prove to be one of the more interesting days considering that our day was practically completely free other than the Keiji Inafune (Megaman lead designer) autograph session around 5pm.
When we had arrived at the convention center, we decided that we would go ahead and eat breakfast first. There was a small place that had some nice breakfast items. Luke had a Bill’s Wrap (a breakfast wrap of sorts) while I ordered a french toast. We went to the table that was nearest to the cafe on the right hand side of the convention center upon entering the building. It’s slightly elevated so there are small stairs next to the tables. This is where it got a bit interesting.
Luke and I were eating our breakfast when I had noticed someone with a camera that appeared to be pointed towards me. There were some people who were sitting below us on the (mini) stairs. I figured that they must be friends and that he was taking pictures. I looked back up to see that the same person still has his camera fixed on me. As soon as I found out what was going on, the flash went off and he had taken a picture of me. The photographer smiled and then simply said, “Thanks!” and walked off. It took me a little while for me to realize what had happened. Luke then simply said, “I guess he just wanted to take a natural picture of Kirito.” I don’t mind having my picture taken without asking (in moderation and when it’s not incredibly inconsiderate), but it was definitely just an odd experience. Something Luke and I will always remember as one of those “cheekany” moments.
For the most part, I don’t remember everything that I had done prior to the autograph session, however I will make the best attempt I can to recall.
First, Luke and I went to the Shovel Knight booth so that he could pick up the new button that they had for today. This time, we made an effort to actually try play some of the games. There was a neat Slender: The Awakening booth so I wanted to try that out. While Luke and I were waiting, Luke decided to break off and try other things that caught his attention. The Slenderman booth looked interesting since it looked like you’d be entering a cave. It was only just a simple mini room with a flatscreen TV, a chair, and the game. There was nothing impressive about the set-up, but I can appreciate the effort to create an atmosphere that would prove to be most optimal for playing a game such as Slender.
I did get to try the Occulus Rift for the first time too. Instead of just purely the Occulus Rift alone however, I tried it with the PrioVR (which in their booth, they only had the upper body gear ready for demo). While it was fun, I found out that I do get motion sickness while using the Occulus Rift. It never really occurred to me that I would get motion sickness until I remembered that I do get car sick fairly easily.
When I met up with Luke, we decided to try to play Xing which also featured the Occulus Rift. It was kind of funny considering that one of the moderators of the booth had recognized who I was cosplaying as. As he put the Occulus Rift onto my head, he said, “Okay, I’m installing the Nerve Gear now so don’t worry.” I thought it was fairly funny and made the experience a little interesting. Unfortunately during this gameplay, I definitely felt more motion sick. It wasn’t bad at first, but then I started to immediately get really warm and started to sweat even. At a certain point, I had to stop moving overall and just enjoy where I was at a stand still point. Unlike the game that was being used to demonstrate the PrioVR, the game was in high definition and everything looked beautiful. If I wasn’t so susceptible to getting motion sickness, I probably would have been able to progress further and enjoy more of the map.
Throughout the convention, Luke and I would find booths where they would take our pictures for free. There was one from the Razer booth, one from the Lichdom: Battlemage booth, and one from the Microsoft(?) booth. I was supposed to get an email from the last booth but I still have yet to receive that picture. What was really neat though was that during the con, Luke and I found out that I had won for a free t-shirt from the Razer booth (and then the next day, I got a message from the Lichdom: Battlemage booth that I had won one of the Steam keys to play it for free).
The time of Keiji Inafune’s autograph session was drawing close and I still had nothing for him to sign. I was going to have him sign my copy of Megaman Legends, but I could not locate it in time before we had left my house. I did manage to find an art book of Megaman that I felt would be a great addition to my collection. The only thing that I really disliked about the book was the fact that it did not contain any of the Megaman Legends art. Honestly, I was a bit bummed but that’s how things are sometimes. I was just glad that I managed to find something for him to sign at least. Though upon hindsight, with the amount that I had spent for the artbook, I could have spent just a little more and got the limited edition Megaman helmet that they were selling at the Capcom booth. Oh well. Can’t do much about it now.
When we had arrived at the main theatre in order to get in line for the autograph session, Luke and I were practically the last people to enter in. Luckily for us, however, there was almost no room for us to fit anywhere so one of the enforcers placed us a little bit ahead due to its place in line. We were totally fine with that (though I had thought that we had to wait for everyone to move before we would be able to get our own stuff signed) and waited patiently. I was a little tired so I passed out for a little while as we waited. After a while, the man finally arrived and the line started to move. In fact, the line was moving much faster than we had thought. When we finally arrived up there, we found out that it was because Inafune had a really simple signature ahaha. Most of the time, people weren’t able to say much to him because it would take too long to interpret what everyone wanted to say to him. With my limited knowledge of the Japanese knowledge, I was able to express my love for the game and how much I truly enjoyed all the games from the bottom of my heart.
After we were done, we decided to eat at the Cheesecake Factory with Ruby and Phil. The only problem was that my camera and my phone was dead. I wanted to at least charge my camera so that I would have a full charge and be able to continue taking pictures the next day. When we had queued to enter the restaurant, there was about a 40 minute wait. I knew it would take about 20 minutes to walk to Kenny’s apartment so I figured I would have enough time. With that, I told them to wait just a bit and I would be back in time. Since I was going to go anyway, Luke asked me to take his poster tube (that he had purchased yesterday) so that I could leave it at the apartment.
As I started to run towards Kenny’s apartment, I noticed that there was someone who was yelling out “Kirito!” behind me. I turned to find someone desperately waving towards my direction and beckoned me to approach him. Apparently he was so happy to see someone cosplayed as Kirito (he loved the character) that he just “had to talk to you cause I LOVE Kirito.” After a small chat, he finally let me go so that I could go on with my business.
For a short while, I was a little lost but I managed to find my way to Kenny’s apartment (as you remember, we always entered his apartment through the back alley). I had to go up quickly and place my camera battery under charge and left my phone into the charger as well. I figured it would be a good idea to also leave my coat behind since I would be eating; I don’t need to be in full costume if I’m going to eat dinner.
I quickly took off to run back to the Cheesecake Factory and it turns out that I made it in perfect time. I am definitely out of shape and it was fairly embarrassing to be breathing like a whale and sweating up an ocean for everyone to swim in. In any case, I had made it in time. I don’t remember what everyone else ordered, but I ordered a Jumbalaya. I’m a sucker for noodle dishes so I figured that I might as well just order what I know. It was nice to be able to chat with Luke, Ruby and Phil of just good ol times. It was the first time we actually began to chat about our past and how far we’ve gotten since then.
After dessert, I had the Jumbalaya packaged to-go so that I could at least give Kenny some dinner (I didn’t want him to feel left out). Ruby and Phil were nice enough to offer us a ride to the apartment. I couldn’t remember exactly what street the alley was at so I had them drop us off at the closest street that I could remember. It was really nice of them to drop us off to begin with. I was really appreciative of it.
When we arrived, I gave Kenny the Jumbalaya for him to eat. Since I had brought my arcade stick, I figured that it would be a good idea to use that opportunity to have Luke play Street Fighter 4 with us since he seemed as though he wanted to get good at the game when he played a bit of it at GameWorks. So we brought some water that we had gotten from Uwajima earlier and I brought some paper stars to fold while I would wait for my turn. Kenny and I agreed to switch off so that Luke would be able to play more considering that he and I have already played a lot. After a while, I just let Kenny and Luke play the game as I focused on making paper stars to give to Markiplier.
After a certain amount of time had elapsed, all of us agreed that it was a good time to call it good and hit the hay. Luke and I were tired and we needed to go to sleep. For some reason though, something had possessed me to decide to use Yukiko cosplay again for the next day. With Nightmaren, Missy and Yuuiki pushing me to go for it again, I decided to do so. I honestly can’t remember exactly why I felt like I should wear it again but I was convinced that I should.
So with the day ending, I fell asleep a bit confused as to why I was convinced that I should cosplay as Yukiko again. I didn’t mind though. I was just going to be smart about it next time though: bring tennis shoes in case the feet are in severe pain again!