This is the second article in a series of three detailing my adventures at Otakon 2016.
You can read the first article here.
Sleeping arrangements were a bit tricky, with seven of us to two conjoining rooms. We made it work. Kait and I slept on the floor of the room with the pull-out-couch-bed that Reba and Austin (married) slept on. Other Kait and Danny (engaged) slept in the other room, on the real bed, with Jared on the floor in there. It was a tight fit — and god forbid someone needed to pee in the middle of the night — but it was like a giant sleepover.
Friday morning dawned bright and early, with Reba’s work alarm going off at six. The alarm was collectively ignored in favor of getting more sleep. The convention didn’t open until nine and we were about a seven minute’s walk from the convention center. No one’s costume dictated that they needed to be up three hours before opening.
The alarm went off again at 6:10. Ignored. The 6:15 alarm? Also ignored. 6:30? Ignored. Eventually, around 7, I rolled over and poked Kait in the face.
“We should probably get up,” I grumbled.
Her response was a wordless complaint.
I shrugged and burrowed back into my sleeping bag. Someone else could get everyone up.
Turns out that “someone else” was Other Kait. She roused everyone around 7:30 and we were all ready to go around 9. I took a quick selfie for Instagram — like you do — and we were on our way.
Isn't hotel lighting the best?
The walk to the convention center was nice, but the heat of the day could already be felt creeping up. Thankfully, my Isabela costume didn’t require pants. (It did require nude Spanx and some pantyhose for modesty purposes, though. Gotta love those female character designs.) We arrived at the convention with a lot of time to kill before the Bioware — the company that made the “Dragon Age” video games among others — photoshoot that Kait was running. The shoot was scheduled for 1:30. We walked around somewhat aimlessly, being stopped every few minutes for people to take pictures of Other Kait’s Undyne the Undying costume from "Undertale," a hit indie game that came out in late 2015.
Other Kait (left) as Undyne the Undying with a Sans (right), also from "Undertale."
Eventually the photoshoot rolled around. I looked around at all of the other people and spotted another Isabela. My self-esteem immediately took a hit. Her costume was so much better than mine. Also, she was amazingly beautiful. I felt so inferior standing next to her.
I quite literally pale in comparison.
My self-consciousness didn’t exactly disappear at the shoot went on, but it did recede slightly — enough that I felt somewhat comfortable in my own skin again.
After the shoot, Kait and I went back to the hotel room to change into the costumes for another photo shoot that would be happening at 5PM. This one was for the video game “Undertale." I was dressed as the main protagonist, Frisk.
There I am, with a MERCY sign.
Kait and I didn’t stay at the photoshoot very long, though, it was located outside and it was hot. Soon after that, we called it a night and headed back to the hotel room.
Saturday dawned the same as Friday, but with fewer alarms at 6AM. Other Kait came bounding into the room, rousing us all with a manic laugh. That day I was Yang Xiao Long from “RWBY,” an animated show by Rooster Teeth — a company known for its humor shorts and podcasts as well as the michinma series "Res vs. Blue." Everyone else was dressed up as characters from the “Borderlands” series. My photo shoot was scheduled before the “Borderlands” one, so Kait and I left for the convention center before everyone else.
That day, I felt much more comfortable in costume. Maybe it was because I knew the character and the show. Maybe it was because I had shorts on. Who knows? As more and more “RWBY” characters amassed, my excitement began to grow. I was ready for the photo shoot. I was comfortable enough to goof off a little bit. When the coordinator called for all of the Yangs to come up, I hopped up on the ledge by the indoor fountains, where the shoot was being held, and proclaimed: “I AM THE ALPHA YANG!”
I am the Alpha Yang and no one can tell me otherwise.
After that, Kait and I made our way to where the “Borderlands” photo shoot would take place. I couldn’t believe the sheer amount of people that were there. And they all seemed to know each other in some capacity. I will admit that I did feel a little left out as the group talked about “Borderlands” related things. But, they let me join in on their tea party and have some of the cookies and pretzels, so they were all amazing people in my book. Besides, everyone in my group seemed to be having fun and that’s all that really mattered to me.
One of the Otakon staff members came over and talked to the coordinator of the photoshoot. Originally, the photoshoot was supposed to be on the terrace. Outside. In the crazy-hot weather. Apparently, the staff and convention runners had taken pity on the group and decided to move it inside, to a space near the indoor fountains.
The shoot, from what I can tell, was a huge success. There were lots of laughs and jokes. Kait, dressed as Angel, “suplexed” a Handsome Jack so hard, his wig well off! That garnered laughs from everyone.
Kait suplexing Handsome Jack on the left, dank Angel in the middle, highly amused Handsome Jack on the right.
After the photo shoot, Kait and I went back to the hotel so she could change out of her Angel costume, which was starting to fall apart a bit. We stocked up on more water, Gatorade, and baby carrots, and were ready for the rest of the day, which consisted of the coolest experience I’ve ever had.
I was approached by a photographer. And not just any photographer, a deaf one with a translator. He wanted to take pictures of me. Me! Me, in my completely thrifted costume. I was super excited. I went to tell the rest of the group the good news and found out that the photographer was also a "Borderlands" fan. Ironically, one of the guys in our group, Austin, is fluent in Sign Language, as both of his parents are deaf. We kept talking about it, long after the photo shoot was over. It was an amazing experience for everyone, and the photographer took some great shots!
My new Facebook cover photo
Everyone ganged up on me!
But then I beat them all!
At the end of the night, I crawled into my sleeping bag. I knew that tomorrow would be the last day and, while I was sad, I was ready.
