Since I already knew what I needed to do, I didn’t spend as much time to do the make up for my cosplay. It was odd but I was starting to get comfortable with the costume. I suppose in the long run, that was for the better.
One of the first things that we did today was attend the Gearbox panel that would take place in the main theatre in the Paramount Theatre. While I may have never played any of the Borderlands games, I still found it very enjoyable and it sparked my interest in the game (about time too perhaps). The entire thing was very entertaining but the thing that made the entire panel really cool was that everyone in the audience got a free pass for the new Borderlands prequel that would be released soon.
It was already near noon when the panel had finished. There would be about four hours before I would have to attend to the Markiplier autograph session so that I could drop off my friend Anne’s letter to him along with a small jar of paper stars that I made for him. So in that time, I roamed around some more (yet again) and played a few games here and there. One game that I played (that I enjoyed a lot) was called Adventures of Pip. It was a platformer game with a few interesting features that would make for an interesting plot and also serve as an interesting tool for gameplay and progression. Go ahead and click the link to get to the official website or you can go to their Kickstarter page and back them up! I think it will definitely be worth the money and I sincerely hope that it will at least reach the goal that is needed to fund the game! It would be nice if I could find all the cool games with the highest package ever~~~
Anyway I digress.
After a certain time had elapsed, I walked my way back to the Paramount Theatre so that I could wait in line for Markiplier’s signature (though I was mainly there to deliver the message to him for my friend). After the line started moving, I found out that I was in the wrong line to begin with so my wait was further delayed. I thought I would have finished in time to be able to attend the Mighty No. 9 panel with Keiji Inafune and join Luke. It was most unfortunate but it was okay. I didn’t mind and I had already promised that I would do it.
The irony was that Markiplier actually planned to meet up with all of his fans outside the convention after the autograph session would finish so that everyone that could not attend PAX would be able to visit him. I believe it was due to some miscommunication that he had put out prior to the autograph session and he wanted to make up for it. To make it even more ironic, Anne and Brandon decided to come up to Seattle just so that she can meet him. So in the end, it wasn’t really all that necessary to have me deliver it to him but I’m glad that Anne got to meet him in person like she had always wanted to.
It was not for nothing, however. While I was waiting to get his autograph, I met another crossplayer and he was dressed up as Rise from Persona 4. He wanted to do a photoshoot so he waited for me to get the autograph just so that he could do it. The concept was the Persona Arena Ultimax. You can find the result of the photoshoot that he and his friend did here. I was quite honoured though that someone would wait that long just to have a photoshoot. I suppose I understand; there was no other Yukiko cosplayer that I saw and it is tough to find any other cosplayer that isn’t cosplaying as a League of Legends character.
After a certain amount of time had passed, Luke, Ruby, Phil and I gathered together to see each other one last time (Ruby and Phil, that is). While Luke would obviously stay for a while longer, they felt that they had experienced PAX well enough to call it good. So once we exchanged our final goodbyes and hugs, Luke and I hung around for just a little bit longer before we decided to head back to Kenny’s apartment.
Since there was a little bit of time, I had to quickly make dinner for the three of us using the remainder of the food we had purchased two days ago. So again, I made hamburger steak (with ground pork again) and some easy stir fry. It was almost exactly the same as last time: I cut the vegetables and let Kenny cook it while I put the ingredients together for the hamburger steak to be mixed and cooked the patties (and everyone else assisted when the stir fry was complete). This time however, I managed to make the hamburger steak much better (they said that it was good the last time I made it, but it was too sweet in comparison to tonight’s version).
We had finished eating just in time to be able to head to the concert and get fairly good seats. We sat practically in front, but we were on the right wing so our view was a bit more skewed than most others. It was still okay and we were fine.
The first people at the concert were a group of people called the Super Guitar Bros. They were two guys who played the acoustic guitar (one played nylon strings while the other played steel strings). It was mellow and dynamic enough to capture everyone’s attention. Their arrangement of several different game music captured everyone’s nostalgia and managed to move everyone. They played a lot of memorable songs along with a few newer game music. I’ll write a full post on them later. I don’t think I will be able to do them justice by placing it in this post which is exclusive to telling my story. After they were finished, Luke went out to go see if he would be able to purchase their goods.
The second to play was a group called the Bit Brigade. Now these guys were very noisy but it was great nevertheless. They were a heavy metal band that did something that I probably will never see in any other concert. One person in their group would play the first Legend of Zelda while the band would play the music accompanying each BGM. What we didn’t know was that this guy was an experienced speed runner of the game. So they would put what he was playing on the big screen so that we could watch what he was playing and see how they would sync their music with the game. I couldn’t tell what was more impressive: the speed run or the music (though admittedly I was probably more impressed with the speed run than the music). Luke still had not come back even after the Bit Brigade had started playing. After about ten minutes, he finally came back and presented me with a copy of their first album. This guy is too nice, I swear.
After the Bit Brigade were finished, Luke had me go with him to meet with the Super Guitar Bros in person (that way we could also take pictures with them). They were gone for the moment but they eventually came back. When they did, I got to talk with them and they are very nice people. We often forget that when these performers are not on the spotlight of a stage, these people are just as normal and human as we are. Being able to speak with them opened my eyes to just how human these two individuals were. It made me realize that the music that they played that night wasn’t just good because they were good, but it was because they too really enjoyed the music themselves and were able to express that in their own personal ways.
Again, I will have to post a separate entry on them later.
Last but not least, we had MC Frontalot. While rap may not always be my cup of tea, he was very entertaining and ended the concert very well. It was definitely interesting to see him perform considering that outside of rapping on stage, he appears to be quite calm, reserved and quiet (from what I had observed when he was on the Nerdcore panel a few days ago). It was just really difficult to make out everything that he was saying. I always had difficulty being able to listen to people clearly and I had always hoped that I would be able to remedy that. It doesn’t help that rap is close to impossible for me to understand if it is being done at a really fast pace.
The concert was amazing and it was sad when it was over. When we had exited the theatre, my friend Narunet and Anne had called me asking for help. I ran up to them to see what was going on due to the fact that they were relatively close. Apparently there was an error in information for the light rail that they were supposed to take in order to get back to their car and they had missed the last one. They were going to take the bus but they only had 20 dollar bills (as some of you may know, they don’t give change back and they usually don’t accept 20s anyway). It was highly unfortunate (since I possessed no cash whatsoever), however I had to go back and meet up with Luke (I told him already before hand that I would find my friends to see what was going on).
As I was running around though, I saw someone who was dressed up as the main protagonist of Persona 4 (different than the one I took with back on Friday). I had to ask if he was gong to go again to PAX wearing the same thing. As soon as he had confirmed that he would, I began to run back to what I was doing.
Once Luke and I met up again, we went back to Kenny’s place to go sleep for the last time. I remember the look the both of us had. While we both knew that this would happen, it still made us a bit sad to think that the time Luke would have to leave and say goodbye to all of this was a bit saddening. In a simple exchange of simple glances, we both knew that we didn’t have to say much as we both understood that this is simply how it is and that we should just go to sleep so that we can enjoy the next day as much as we can. Thus we went to sleep for the last time at Kenny’s apartment.