Yes, I've just returned from a con, and I'm planning new costumes already. I'm a masochist, I know. So right now I'm going through and doing for Rufus what I did for Sephiroth back in September - laying out what I like and don't like about the different versions. The decision is really between in-game and AC, because if full-body shots from BC exist, I haven't seen them (and I'm trying to stay spoiler-free for it anyway), and while trying to design an Amano version of Rufus would be an interesting challenge, it would also probably be a bit silly looking. So, in handy list form!
In-Game
Pros:
-Classic
-Trench coat! (yeah, I'm a sucker for long coats)
-Nicer hair
-Dark Nation, which I would totally make in plushie-form

Cons:
-I really don't like the cut of the blazer at all - double-breasted, with exterior pockets, ugh. (big deterrent for this one)

Advent Children
Pros:
-Waistcoat (...I'm also a sucker for waistcoats)
-Classier Turks (black > navy)
-Jenova head-in-a-box and tasty Jenova goo (Um, don't ask)

Cons:
-AC is really popular right now
-Most ridiculous pants in the world (the big deterrent here)
-I'm not sure my hair will go that shade (and no, I'm not trying to use a wig for hair that short)

Opinions welcomed, particularly from any of those who have offered to be my Turks, as we really ought to match. And anyone interested in joining, speak up. I'd like to debut this at Yaoicon this October, but doubtless will bring the outfit to other cons as well. Any and all Turks welcome - I've had at least two offers on Reno, which means at this rate, I may end up with a Reno clone army (which would be both awesome and scary - although I'm particularly looking for a Tseng (Skuld~ You know you want to. *coerces*)

So, I finally have my ridiculous amounts of photos up, and got my Gallery install working again, so you can find them all here. All of them have commentary, which along with titles took me the whole afternoon to put up, because there are over a hundred total. Enjoy!

Home, and rather tired (also hot and sticky, ugh), but I will do a con report before I forget everything. Photos will come later, along with any con-bits I forget here, because I think I've got about a hundred of them, so it'll take a while.

Friday
Got up at quarter 'til nine, which is ridiculously early by my standards, but I had to be on the 10:30 train in. Did any last minute packing, and then got changed into Ada, because I didn't know if we were going to be able to check in when we got there. This, as we will see later, was not the brightest idea. Jon picked me up, we got all out stuff onto the train, and headed in. We accidently made the mistake of getting off at the Hynes stop instead of the Prudential stop. Despite it's name, the Hynes stop is actually about three blocks away from the Hynes, and then security told us we had to go through the Sheraton anyway. My backpack was huge, and I was also trying to lug my summoning staff, an inflatable mattress, and a grocery bag full of food and drinks. In four-inch stiletto heels. Yeah, bad plan. Anyway, we made it into the hotel, and I spotted a RE remake Wesker just as he was walking into the panel and couldn't get his photo. We checked in, and dropped our stuff off in the room before I dashed down to Masquerade HQ, afraid I was going to be late for the begining of judging (I wasn't). It was interesting to be on the other side of the table this year, so to speak. The other two judges were really nice - there was the really enthusiastic friendly one, and then the quiet one. There were a lot of really excellent entries, particularly in the novice division, which was huge (thirty out of the forty total). I did learn costumes that appear simple can be a lot more involved when you know the stories behind them - we gave first place novice to a couple who did Inu-Yasha costumes. It was their first con and first costumes, and they didn't know how to sew when the started. The seams were all straight, all the edges were finished, they were both hand-painted, and the designs matched the references perfectly, and the neatness puts my work to shame.

Anyway, after judging, I wandered around some, mostly trying to find the Wesker. I didn't have any success, but I did find a Chris and a C:V!Wesker, and got photos of a bunch of other really awesome cosplayers, ran into various friends (shout-outs to Katt and company, Michelle and company, and Mel), and also hit the dealer's room in hopes of buying pr0ntastic yaoi doujin. Alas, there was only one dealer, and the selection wasn't good. I also got mistaken as a guy crossplaying as Ada, lending some weight to my jokes about being Leon in drag (Leon hair at the moment). I was under the impression that I was supposed to meet up with Skuld after the Kaiji Big Battel (she went, I didn't) for dinner, but never called, so I ended up changing into Hatori because my feet were killing me, and got in line for the Yaoi-Yuri Dating Game. I actually wound up next to a Kagura, who was one of the two people that recognized me as Hatori, which was neat. We chatted for a while about various stuff - DMC, in particular. The Dating Game ended up being a lot of fun, and there were far too many great bits to post all of them here, but a few of the highlights were Roy (one of the contestants) asking Link (one of the eligible bachelors) if he liked fairies. The responce was "The only good fairy is a bottled fairy! Always with the nagging! 'Hey! Listen! Look! Listen!'", to which Roy went, "...I sense some past emotional baggage here. I'm not sure I want to deal with that.", and then when Hakkai ended up picking Sephiroth, Aeris ran up and started bitching him out, all 'How could you?! Does our relationship mean nothing to you?', and then Tifa comes up and is like 'Aeris, why are you bothering with him?' and then there was hot Aeris/Tifa kissing. After it was all over, I wandered into the dance for a bit and end up being kind of stripper!Hatori because I kept losing layers and undoing buttons because it was hot. I eventually headed up to bed when my feet got tired.

Saturday
I woke up around nine when the fire alarm went off, although it was quickly followed by a PA announcement to the effect of 'Everything is fine, really'. Put summoner!Yuna on in various stages, as that costume has a lot of little fiddly bits, and discovered that the wig is itchy (and also needs to be trimmed, but that's managable), and that my eyebrows are too thick to cosplay Yuna, which will be remedied next time. I did some more wandering, and both took photos and had them taken of me, because everybody loves Yuna. I also actually bought something in the dealer's room, because the Sasuga booth had a copy of the first CCS manga artbook, which is out of print and hard to find, and I've been searching for it for ages. After wandering, it was back to the second round of judging, and then picking the winners, which was tough because the quality level was really high, and because of the number of entries in the novice division was high. A few stood out, though - I think a lot of people probably wondered why we gave the Temari first place advanced, because it outwardly looks like a really simple costume, but her attention to detail and choice of pretty much everything was stunning. Drafting a stuffed ferret pattern and making it out of fake fur (and having it look good enough to be store-bought) = way more hardcore than I will ever be. Did a little more wandering afterwards, and finally ran into the S.T.A.R.S-Wesker I saw Friday, and someone dressed as the Merchant from RE4. I also got a photo of a really awesome Axel cosplayer - there was a flood of KH2 and FFVII:AC cosplayers, but most of them weren't so great.

I got changed back into Ada for the masquerade because I was tired of carrying around the staff, and then took advantage of one of the perks of being a judge, which was third-row seats with no wait. I ended up next to one of the other groups we gave judges awards to, because they had really awesome prop-work. Masquerade this year was overall pretty good - there was only one act I really didn't like at all, which was the dancing moogle-girl. I skipped out when the started playing the AMVs, so I can't comment on the winners of that. Headed over to Advent Children, which was my reason for skipping out early (well, and I don't like AMVs much), only to discover they had switched the schedule around, and it was already half-over. So I've now seen the second half of AC dubbed, and will comment later.

After that, Winter and I got changed for the dance and headed down there after taking some Asher-ish photos, because I love my OCs way too much. Music kind of sucked at first, but they switched DJs at midnight, and it was awesome again. And there was dancing!Rude. He was hands-down one of the best Rude cosplayers I think I've seen - right build, had the little beard and the bald head, right skintone and face shape, piercings (well, okay, not quite as many piercings as Rude). He was standing next to a Reno, sunglasses on, watching the dance floor. He reaches up, takes the sunglasses off, folds them up, puts them in a jacket pocket, and starts dancing. It was pretty awesome, because I am a sad fangirl like that. Totally spent half the dance watching him out of the corner of my eye. I also got asked to dance by two sketchy looking older guys at different points in time (politely said no), and Winter ended up talking to a guy who was cosplaying as Cid earlier, who was pretty cool. We eventually headed upstairs and did most of our packing before going to bed.

Sunday
Which brings us to today! We all kind of slept in, and then had to rush around to get everything out before check-out time. I opted to wear Hatori because it is real clothing, and comfortable shoes. We made our last rounds in the dealer's room, and I picked up Fruits Basket 11 (which I then lost when getting a photo of aforementioned awesome Rude, and found again because anime fans are a little more honest than the average person, and someone returned the bag to the dealer), and took more cosplay photos.

I also ran into Claudia, or more accurately, she ran into me, while I was sitting waiting to meet up with Mara. It was...less awkward than I thought it would be, but still kind of awkward. I'm still not emotionally ready for any sort of relationship with her, even just friendship, and honestly, I'm not sure she is either. Back to the con, though - I got distracted from emoing over relationship junk by spotting the Kagura I met Friday running past dressed as Ayame, with another Kagura in tow. I gave chase, and found out they were running out to meet a Hatsuharu in the courtyard, so we got a bunch of group photos, which was awesome. After I returned, I chatted with awesome-prop-group some more, and then it was time to go. Aside from a 'medical emergency' which stopped up our red line train for fifteen minutes, the trip home was largely uneventful.

Overall, a pretty fun con. I was a bit annoyed by the fact that my friends kept ditching me, but it was nice seeing some familar faces, as well as all the awesome costumes, and I'm glad I went to more events than I usually do - they were all really awesome.

Off to the con, will see some of you there and everybody else when I get home Monday night. Cell is in a flocked post on my LJ if you need to reach me. And everyone coming to AB or going to Fanime - have fun :D

So, leaving for the con tomorrow morning, which means I'm doing all my last-minute packing now. However, suggestions as to what I may have forgotten are always welcome, because I'm good at forgetting important things. What I've got packed: all costume bits, normal clothes and stuff for the dance, camera and batteries, cell phone and charger, food and drinks, wallet with money and driver's liscense, inflatable mattress, hotel confirmation number, safety pins, glue gun and glue, contacts and solution, hair stuff (gel, brushes), deodorant, toothpaste and brush.

I think I've got everything, but I always manage to forget something. Yuna wig came on time, so I don't have to worry about that, although I'm bringing stuff for Hatori anyway, because it's not much, and having a costume with shoes that don't hurt will be nice. Food and drink-wise, I've got six packs of bottles of apple juice and fruit punch, Fruit Loops, saltines, nilla wafers, tea, microwave ramen (you can make it in a coffee maker, I've done it), apple sauce, tea, and I'm going to make muffins tonight. I also have plastic forks and spoons.

...You'd think I'd be going to spend a week in the wilderness or something with all this shit XD;

Before I forget, a happy Towel Day and Glorious 25th of May to all. And if you don't know what the second is, take this as a little shove go to and read a Discworld book, they're quite good. I will have my gigantic lilac towel with me today, and I may re-read Night Watch tonight if I have time.

It probably comes as a bit of a surprise to anybody who's actually seen the disaster area that is my room to learn that I have any method at all for organizing all my shit, but I do. And occasionally it serves me well - I found the draft of a Rufus-fic I was working on back in the fall I thought I had lost in my folder of fic drafts and character notes. I honestly need some sort of system because I'm so totally absentminded - if I were to just put stuff down anywhere (which I do sometimes), I'd never find it again.

Of course, I think I'm better at finding things when I'm not actually looking for them. Case in point: I was trying to figure out where I put down the print copy of that Ada/Leon fic I was talking about a couple weeks ago, with all the edits that still need to be typed up and a bunch of playlists scrawled out on the back. I didn't find it. What I found instead were my clip-on sunglasses I've been looking for for weeks, and the sketch that shows all of Asher's piercings that I was sure had either been tossed out or gone through the wash in a pocket. Maybe the fic will turn up when I'm looking for something else, later....

And as before, opinions, please!

So, Ada is just about as done as she's going to be for this con, I think. I may put the straps on her shoes, but I'm thinking I'm going to totally go over those again later, so I may just wait. Oh, and if anyone knows where I could get two or three yards of two-inch wide black velvet ribbon, I haven't been able to find any. White Mage Yuna is oh so close to being done - I just need to do a little stiching on the boot uppers and then glue them to the base shoes, but I did that stupid 'forgetting the thread I needed in the sewing room' thing again, so it'll have to wait. On summoner Yuna, I'm just going through and doing all the little tiny things I've got left - I think the only real big one is the staff, which I need to buy gold paint for to finish off tomorrow. And augh, I forgot how bad epoxy smells.

Also, if you haven't already, give me an opinion, because as we all know, I am horribly indecisive and can't make up my own mind.

In the event that my summoner Yuna wig doesn't arrive on time (it shipped yesterday, so, uh, we'll see), what should I wear to AB instead?

-PoA!Remus Lupin, Harry Potter
-vet!Seishirou, Tokyo Babylon (hair is way off for this one, but nobody will really recognize me anyway)
-Hatori, Fruits Basket
-mafia!Leon, RE4 (only one that requires any additional work, although it's an hour's worth at most, and I'll have perfect hair)

I'm open to other suggestions as well, but I'm packing light this con, so anything bulkier than a suit isn't happening, and I can't bring my other Tatsumi outfits because, uh, I don't fit into the pants any more. Leave your vote in the comments because I am not cool enough to have a real poll script.

More cosplay updates! I got the cuffs and most of the hood done on white mage Yuna - I was thwarted in finishing the hood by the fact that I left the spool of thread I needed in the sewing room, and didn't realize it until my mom had gone to bed (the sewing room is off her bedroom). This means that I have assorted hemming and the boots left on that, pretty much. I also discovered that the white wrap top for summoner Yuna I made waaaay back a year and a half ago is actually salvagable, so it just needs a little hemming along the bottom edges. I also finally finished the edges of the top bit of the staff for that, so it mostly just needs to be painted gold and then attached to the handle bit. The lining for Ada is sewn together, and now needs to be sewn in, and then I have to put in the grommets for the lacing in the back.

It's not a question of whether I can do this or not, it's how crazy I'm going to be when I'm done. I also passed my lifeguard recert, which is good, because it means I can keep my job, yaaaay. And I'll make another big sparkley KH2 post sometime soon, because it is wonderful special crack, and has been my reward system to myself - sew some, play some KH2.

Dear self, this whole 'Getting Things Done' thing works a lot better when you don't misplace the only sewing needle you were able to find the other day. Argh. Tomorrow, then, I bet there's more in the sewing room somewhere. Current status - I got the flame pattern for the cuffs of WM Yuna cut out, but need said sewing needle to sew them down. I also got the lining for Ada cut out and partially pinned together, which is somewhat of an accomplishment, as I modified the hell out of the bust on the original pattern, and then had to trace all my modifications onto tissue paper for the lining.

Non-costume-wise, my Life Saving and First Aid recert is tomorrow, and I'm panicking already, because I haven't done any of it in three years (that being how long a certification lasts) and I know I'm going to screw up deep water spinal. Ugh. May go play some KH2 to take my mind off of things.

I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but I kept forgetting - I'm not going to AX. I realised that while I do have the money, I'm going off to college on the other side of the continent in the fall, and thus should be responsible about my savings account, particularly as I'm not working full-time this summer. On the AB front, I'm going to keep the hotel room, whoever needs space can have it, and I'll just figure out cost-splitting after, I think. Costume-wise, I'm thinking Summoner Yuna, half-finished Ada (I'm not going to have time for all the accesories), and vol. 11 yukata!Tatsumi, because it's comfy and hasn't been worn to any cons yet.

As far as things being done on costumes - I got all the little semi-circles sewn on to the overrobe of WM Yuna, which leaves the cuffs, hood, boots, and front insert. The only one of those that'll take more than an hour or two is the hood, I think, which has more little fiddly bits. I've almost finished all the painting on Ada, though, and I may just sit down and do the rest before going to bed. Didn't get a chance to work on summoner Yuna, although there isn't much left to be done, but I did finally order the wig. Hopefully it will be here in time.

One quick largely spoiler-free KH2 note - Auron is the win. Now I crave Auron fic, and will probably go start re-reading Legendary Guardian.

-Fuzzy!
-Doesn't slide all over the place when you lay patterns out
-Doesn't really fray
-Sticks to itself just enough to make placing things easy
-Comes in basically every color ever.

I've been hand-sewing little fuzzy bits of detailing for White Mage Yuna since three this afternoon. On a mostly unrelated note, I think string bikinis are made for women who are either smaller-breasted, wider-chested, or who have a much more lax definintion of 'indecent exposure' than I do. I think my bras cover more than this. Ah well - it's going to be under that weird white wrap-top I still have to do.

So I went out and spent too much money this afternoon. As a result, I now have lots of cosplay supplies, including a black string bikini top, OMG, and thus have no excuse for not spending all of my free day tomorrow working on stuff. On the plus side, this means that Summoner Yuna is almost finished, and White Mage Yuna is starting to actually look like White Mage Yuna. Now I'm practically up to all the little fiddly hand-sewing bits. Which I could probably machine-sew, but they'd look like crap, probably. Note to self, which others are free to remind me of should I forget it: no commissions, ever, not even for friends. Unless they agree to the 'it gets done when I get around to it' clause, and even then, only if they're friends I know won't get annoyed by said clause.

Anyway. My other spending was on a birthday pressent for Jesse, which will be in the mail...uh...when I get around to it, which is my timeline for almost everything at the moment (Mara, make me post as Satsuki tomorrow. I keep saying I'll do it and then forgetting until it's two am and I don't have the brainpower to do it). And I finally caved and bought Kingdom Hearts II with some of the money I got for graduation, because I have no shame. I spent my free time this afternoon (and evening, and early morning) playing, and thus, have some begining thoughts (warning, spoilers through the first trip to Hollow Bastion):

Read More?

Are we ever given any indication in-game that Rufus's weapon is a shotgun, other than it being double-barreled? Mostly because while I'm willing to believe that it's possible, if unlikely, to build enough strength to hold a shotgun steady and level with one hand, with no stock, but the recoil seems like a really fast way to seriously injure your wrist and/or arm. I didn't fire more than fifteen shells last weekend, several of which were from a smaller guage (20 - with shotguns, bigger numbers mean a smaller barrel diameter), and it killed to move my shoulder for three days afterwards. And...while I've never heard of it being done, it seems like it should be possible to made a rifle double-barreled, which would probably be lighter and have a lot less kick to it.

...Apparently the internet has read my mind. Just took a quick peek at the gun community on LJ, and someone was asking about the legality of double-barreled pistols. So it's definately possible. And yes, I am entirely guilty of overthinking fannish obsessions.

So, I'm officially a high school graduate. The whole ceremony was very nice, not too overdone or underdone, as my dad put it. Almost started crying during some of the student speeches, which were really great, but managed not to. My gown was way too narrow in the shoulders and thus looked a bit silly, but I've decided the whole purpose of academic regalia is possibly to make the wearer look as silly as possible. The highter you go, the sillier looking it gets. Mrs. Ferrell came too, which was nice. We went out to eat at the Outback Steakhouse afterwards, and I made myself entirely stuffed on some rather excellent baby back ribs.

I don't think the whole thing has really sunk in yet, to be honest. I'm really tired today, so nothing is really registering.

This week has been insanely busy - volunteering in the mornings (officially done, yay! Though I'm going to continue anyway), work (we have a radio now, and the pool vac has died again), Tuesday was Senior Night (surprisingly fun), and tomorrow, or rather, later today, is the Senior Breakfast, graduation practice, and then graduation.

Which probably explains why I'm still awake - too nervous to fall asleep. My grandparents are flying up from Florida, and to be honest, I don't really want to see them that much. I actually haven't been in the mood to see much of anyone lately, which is why I haven't been on AIM and stuff much. I think it's the stress - totally just need to crash for a few days when this is all done. Oh, and totally unrelated, but everybody who told me how awesome George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire was are right. Finished A Game of Thrones last night, and I'm going to head to the library ASAP to get the next one.

And I keep saying this, but people totally need to post on Shinra's Finest. Or someone needs to plot with me over in the Lobby or something, because I really want to play with Asher and Ally some. Any takers?

So, this morning was my firearms class - aside from the early start, it ended up being tons of fun. I got to shoot two different .22 revolvers, a .22 semi-auto handgun, a 12-gauge semi-auto shotgun, a 20-gauge break-action over-under shotgun, a few different kinds of .22 bolt-action rifles, a .22 semi-auto rifle, and a turn-of-the-century.38-40 lever-action Winchester rifle.

A few observations, which may also help various writer-friends reading this (part of the reason I took the class was because I was trying to write a gun-fight on S_F and realized I had no idea what the hell I was talking about):

-Shotguns have a lot of kick, more than I expected - I'm going to have a nice bruise on my shoulder, I think. They're also both the loudest, and hands-down the heaviest of all the types.
-Conversely, rifles have a lot less kick than I had expected, even the .38. The weight varied a lot, with the semi-auto, which was all synthetic being the lightest, and one of the old .22s with a big wood stock being the heaviest.
-The .38, for some reason, was tons of fun to fire.
-The revolvers had less kick than the semi-autos, probably because they were heavier, and didn't have the slide going back. My aim was a lot better with the revolvers, and I think that was why.
-Apparently side-by-side double-barrel shotguns are generally the most expensive type, because the barrels have to be hand-aligned.

Dear Self,

I don't care how much you like Remus, you are not apping with him anywhere. If you had the time for RP right now, you really should be spending it on characters you already have who need some love, like Touya and Satsuki.

-Me

So, finals are over, which is nice, but it is not, as I had foolishly hoped, the end of Things That Need To Be Done. First order of priority at the moment is my community service for school, as that has to be in by next Friday morning. Going over to Abby's House tomorrow to do some more work in the thrift shop. After that is cosplay stuff for AB - I've decided that I don't have enough time for Sephiroth, so all my energy is going towards the two Yunas and Ada, mostly, although I'm still trying to find magnetic earrings for Asher. Did a little work on those after work today, while I read fic - got a bunch of the little trim-bits for white mage Yuna cut out, and I've started painting the butterfly outlines on Ada.

Ugh, so much to be done. Drives me crazy.