Fanime 2010: Day 2
The night before, like every night, I had gone over our planned schedule for the next day. I had been looking forward to the Aksys Games and BlazBlue panels, since I desperately wanted Mori and Ishiwatari’s autographs, but Sam and Derrick suddenly lost interest.
Since we were no longer going to the panels and were learning to ballroom dance later that day (in preparation for the Black and White Ball), I decided being Miku would be more comfortable. Unfortunately it took me over an hour to put on her costume. I had read up on several tutorials on how to put on a wig, and it was definitely well-secured.
However, in the car, the twenty pins in my hair coupled with my tendency to get carsick caused me excruciating pain and I began crying. I did take Advil and felt better, thankfully.
We went for a snack run and bought a box of Honey Nut Cheerios, which Derrick elected to carry around all day. He spent all day saying that he was cosplaying “you know, the Cheerios guy from that one anime.” Annoyed, I told him to please shut the hell up.
We went around the Dealer’s Hall to buy things again but I eventually had to take a break. My poor planning caused my feet to hurt. We hung out for about an hour, which accounts for many, many of the random photos I took as Miku.
Sam excitedly got a free BlazBlue poster, but was disappointed he couldn’t meet the creators at the panel. “Your fault,” I said.
We also stopped by the FAKKU! booth. For those of you who don’t know, FAKKU! is a website which features translated hentai, and is also a website Derrick and I frequent. I walked right up and greeted the creator, openly discussing that I visit his website, while Derrick pretended to be looking at something nearby. The creator declared that, as a frequent visitor of his site, I deserved a free sticker. I called out to Derrick, loudly pointing out that he visits the website more than I do. Derrick looked like he was about to die, but accepted the sticker nonetheless.
The creator told Derrick, “By the way, I like your costume. Cheerios guy!”
We headed over to the ballroom for dance lessons. I am a very clumsy dancer. I partnered with Derrick nearly every time since, as a talented dancer and my friend, he was skilled and patient enough to deal with my mistakes.
Suffering from my same problem, Sam was better off coupling with a skilled girl (not to mention he was a heck of a lot more social than me and had no problem asking random people to dance with him). He seemed to be having a good time but he later told us he shamed himself.
Learning to swing dance was horrible. I never got the hang of it till the very end. Then it was really, really fun. I liked it a whole lot more than waltzing.
Afterward, I met Daniel and Dustin. Both were very, very skilled at ballroom dancing.
This is going to sound utterly creepy, but Daniel bore a striking resemblance to Jon Kim. Not in appearance, but his disposition, style of speech, and even voice were exactly like those of Jon Kim’s. He was even majoring in dance and would attend UCI in the fall.
Dustin turned out to be from Garden Grove as well. We talked about how crazy everyone is there and told my friends that I’m tame compared to Garden Grove girls (“But you’re still horrible,” added Sam and Derrick).
We left dance lessons and talked about our experiences. Then we passed a group of people speaking fluent Japanese. I looked over and saw Mori and Ishiwatari and their translators.
Derrick, Sam, and I all looked at each other open-mouthed and looked at Sam’s BlazBlue poster. I ran after them and waved the poster, asking for an autograph. They excitedly agreed and gladly signed it. They gave me a hug and shook Sam and Derrick’s hands, saying, “Thank you for liking our game!”
Sam looked starstruck as we walked back to our car. It seemed that it made up for the entire trip for him.
That night Sam left only Derrick and me to go to the rave, since he said he would rather stay behind since he didn’t like raves. Despite our protests, we both got out of the car and watched him drive away.
The rave was fun but we missed Sam. I spent the night feeling insecure since I was with super-skilled-dancer-man Derrick. God damn. I just did ridiculous moves all night since I knew they looked ridiculous and didn’t care if Derrick or anyone laughed.
Later a guy asked me to dance and I thought, why the hell not.
“You’re totally turning me on,” he said. Uh, and you’re totally creepy. See you later, weirdo. I didn’t leave Derrick’s side for the rest of the night.