Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ World Collision ❯ LILIEDOVE'S ANICON EXPERIENCE ( Chapter 51 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Just an extra; go on to the next chapter if you don't feel like reading it. I wrote this for the crowd at fanfiction.net because I had been notifying them about my progress on the Akatsuki cloak I was making; hence, they wanted to hear about the convention. BTW: I've got pictures of my costume and the ItachiXPedobear-Chan picture up on my DeiviantArt account now unlike I did when I wrote this.

Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Suspense / Romance / Drama / Comedy / Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 05.28.2009 | Updated On: 05.28.2009 | Pages: 2 | Words: 4.9K | Visits: 251 | Status: Completed

*EXTRAS: LILIEDOVE'S REAL LIFE ANIME EXPERIENCES: THE TORACON!*

Okay, you all know how I've been talking about this `Toricon'(actually its Tor-A-con) lately in the author notes and how I was preparing the costume for it, right? Well today was that special day! I've decided that, since I've made such a fuss over it, that I should tell you about my first experience at an anime convention. So pretty much, this isn't really a chapter but a log on what occurred while I was at this `holy' gathering of fellow narutards, inutards, and anitards in the like. I would normally just tell you in the author notes of the next chapter, but it's a bit too long for that to coordinate with everything else… I would say it would be interesting for you to read, especially if you're bored and have been wondering about it, but if you REALLY don't want to know about it, just go ahead and skip this chapter all together! (…Well, until I actually get another REAL chapter out.)

As for the pictures; I've taken some, and one of them I'll be talking about later in this post, and I hope to get them up on deviant art as soon as I can… Though sadly I never got a picture of Bri/Orochimaru… Once I get my stupid camera to actually transfer them off of the stink'n camera! Anyhow, here is my view of the story. Some parts of it I'll leave out or just skin over because it's either boring or um… `To personal', but I'm sure you'll be fine with that. Including in this, I will change the names of the people to help protect them… Oh, and I suggest you read this in full view; it looks less `scary' in size that way.

Okay the characters are:

Liliedove (me/I) --- Tobi

Er (birthday girl/person who lives at the house I was staying at) --- Itachi

Kel (another friend who loves swearing much to my displeasure) --- Kisame

Bri (A girl who is a friend of Er and Kel who I didn't know) --- Orochimaru

Miss G (one of the others' teachers from school who was chaperoning us) ---Konan

Isa (Another narutard who I had the pleasure of meeting, but bummed out and only wore a Suna head band! We decided to just say that she was our hostage.) --- Random Suna pedestrian

Cat (Another Narutard who didn't dress up!) ---Random pedestrian

I was woken up after getting about four hours of sleep (for I was high off of mountain dew all night, hence I couldn't get to sleep till like 3AM!) from the painfully annoying thud of my Tobi mask landing on the side of my face, along with the wig that looked like some freakish dead animal off of my head and my lovely cloak. Apparently my friends (who, if you haven't guessed yet, are violent people) Er (who doesn't sleep much anyhow) and Kel had gotten up about a half an hour before, hence they had all their things along with taking the duty of grabbing all of our costumes as well from Er's room on the second floor.

Rolling over a bit more till I was almost completely off the couch, I looked at the DVD player's digital clock and found it to be around seven o'clock. Hugging my cloak, I then quickly got up and grabbed the rest of my costume to get ready; there were five other people besides me who would need to get ready to go to the Toracon besides me, three of which were also cosplaying as the Akatsuki along with me. All of us had to share my friend's small, first floor bathroom, meaning the short time we had to eat and get ready would only be harder for me if I had to try to get around all of the painting and dyeing they were about to do to themselves. Going up stairs, (we slept in the basement) I found that luckily, no one was occupying the bathroom. So, of course then I quickly got ready. I put on my black layering shirt, the cloak, my black uniform school pants (which surprisingly work great for this costume! I just tucked the ends of it in the sock tops, and let the loose fabric gather there and wala! Akatsuki styled!), my black sandals, and a pair of knee high socks I bought that I cut the toes and heels so it could be used like the Akatsuki leggings. (You wouldn't think so, but they actually really do look like them a lot! You'll see once I post some pictures of it!) Of course, I still needed to pull my hair back in a bun and put my mask and wig on, but I still had to eat breakfast; meaning that it would only be an inconvenience to put it on. Afterwards, I grabbed the bottle of dark purple nail polish I had bought the day before while shopping for a birthday gift for Er, and started applying a coat onto my finger and toe nails. Soon Er and Kel joined me, and much to Er's displeasure, (Know that these people are anything BUT girly… Besides Cat; she's about normal. They're all more on the `emo' side, which resulted in Er commenting the whole time about why Cat looked so odd amongst us all who were wearing dark colors… Except for me; I was wearing bright greens, reds, and off whites the day before when I arrived.) She along with Kel began painting their nails as well. After we all applied three coats (which is what it took to make it dark enough and not a girly purple.) Er's Dad came in with a box of donuts to serve for our breakfast. (They were good! I hadn't eaten any in ages!) Soon Cat and Isa came up dressed in their “non-anime-anything” outfits, (besides Isa's Suna headband she kept around her neck.) along with Bri, and we ate our fill before all of the `fun' began with applying the messy part of Kel, Er, and Bris' costumes.

When I say it gets messy, I mean it gets MESSY. Kel, going as Kisame, used blue face paint, which turned out to be so dark that she looked like she belonged in the Blue Man Group! Bri, who was going as Orochimaru (from when he was in the Akatsuki of course) then, slapped some of the white face paint she was going to use on her and it helped a bit… Though we all agree that we'll try harder and give more time to do that stuff next year… But it worked I guess. By the time we had to go, we found that there was no possible way we'd be about to style Kel's long hair to look like Kisame's… (I told her to get a wig!) So she was just a long haired, Kisame-like Cosplayer. With her hand-made cloak, (Which I must say was pretty good for something she had out of felt and bed sheets! She had to do it all by hand, so I think she did really well!) 2-D Sameheda, her clay missing ninja mist head band, and her washout-spray-dyed hair (black was better than brown for Kisame you know?) she was as ready as she would be this time around. Bri, on the other hand, had also dyed her hair with this stuff before applying her white face paint and paint stick to make herself look as much like Orochimaru as possible… Though she looked a lot like a vampire in the end. She and Kel were still recognizable as Orochimaru and Kisame to people at the convention, so that's what counts at least. Er, who was originally going to wear a wig, used the spray-dye and Bri's black face paint stick to make her face look more like Itachi's. Er was the only one of use who decided to just by the over priced merchandise for cosplaying, including; Itachi's headband, Itachi's cloak, Itachi's necklace, Itachi's ring, Itachi's shirt, and Itachi's shoes. I, during all of this, started to freak out when the elastic strands that would hold the mask to my face quickly deteriorated before our eyes. (Our eyes being mine, Bri's once she came out, Isa, and Cat's.) So, I then started pounding on the bathroom door to get Er, who was helping Kel paint herself, to get me some string. So, in the end I was stuck with using some fluffy blue yarn, which thankfully you could only see from the side of my face. After I placed that on my head, I then pulled my wig on to let everyone look at my results. (Which I was really pleased with myself; that's what I love about being in a family of artists. When I can't do one thing, my Mom could do another, and when she can't usually my Aunt or my Cousin can.)

After taking a group picture in Er's living room, we then began to pile into her van. Of course, none of use wants to be the one to sit in the middle of the back bench, since that is usually the worst seat in the car. Isa and Cat had already gotten in the back, and Er had gotten `shot-gun', so all three of use who were left wanted the two pilot seats. As we were all setting into our `characters', Kel then said that “Tobi needs to be a good boy and sit in the back.” I, refusing to do so, then got pushed by one or both Kel and Bri, and find that the top of the two highest curves of my mask cracked at the top of the van as I was being pushed in! That resulted in me worrying even further for the mask, giving me one of the pilot seats. In the end, Bri sat in the back while I had to buckle Kel's seat belt. (Since her paint was getting EVERYWHERE! I'm so glad she didn't touch me!) I not knowing who really did it for sure, (though I'm sure it was Kel…) claimed that Zetsu came out of the ground, pushed Tobi/me, and left. Everyone agreed on this, and my Mask didn't look that bad, so everything was fine in the end. When we left the house, we all laughed about what people would think if they looked into our car and saw us all. I, thinking of this, quickly began picking up my role as Tobi and waved to every passing car. It wasn't till about two minutes later that Er's Dad told me that the windows were blacked out on the other side. Strangely enough though, when we stopped at a stop light and waved at a guy in the car next to us, he looked at us and chuckled a bit.

When arriving at the Toricon, we saw the largest crowd of cosplayers we had ever seen. (Of course, this was all our first anime convention experiences.) The words “Holy crap, look at all of those freaks!” Were pretty much the very words that came out of half of our mouths. As we looked for a parking spot, it then occurred to me that we were the freaks.

“Kisame-san, we're doing this ourselves so why on earth are we making fun of it if we don't think it's cool?” I asked as I cocked my head to the side.

“Good point,” she replied, as she tailed off for a minute. It was then that we saw more cosplayers up close, which the first we saw was a Bleach cosplayer who was dressed up as an Esperanza I think. Once we got out, we walked until we found my friend's teacher, Miss G, who was cosplaying as Konan. It was then, that we waited… And waited… And waited for two hours to get “pre-registered”. During that time though, I think I had the most fun actually. What happened was for the first forty minutes or so, was that we'd spot all of the other characters we recognized. Scary as it was, we found at least THREE Jeriyas! One of which, continuously walked from the front to the back of the line! We thought that he was trying to scare all of the Akatsuki cosplayers… And it was working. Of course, I being Tobi, waved hi and said “Hi Jeriya-san!” and “Jeriya-san is back again!” when ever he passed, for I wearing a mask now had no shame. We also saw about two or three other small Akatsuki groups. There was actually a rather large rate of Deidaras coming in… I saw at least five! (In which none of them answered my whining calls.) The one Deidara I got to talk to a little, was a friend of Er's who we called literally at 1:30AM to remind her to bring the Akatsuki rings for us when I raised the question of whether or not we would have them. (Man that ring is cool! I want it myself now!) So, she gave us all of the rings, except for Er, who already had Itachi's ring (middle, right hand.) and then sadly abandoned us. Then, by the time we were about half way through the line, we found a LOT of Akatsuki fans… I mean, like, out of all the things I would have expected, HUGS were not included in the picture of an anime convention! Yes, this means people literally came up and hugged us! After that, some people even THREW (yes, when I say THREW I mean they literally ran, jumped, and latched onto you as if their life depended on it!) themselves on us, and by us I mainly mean Tobi! I, who was struggling not to whack anyone in the face or trip over something with my short eye sight radius of the mask, was completely caught off guard to just about all of them but the ones that had hugged the others first. I literally said to Miss G, “This is the ONE DAY of the year I will allow people to actually hug me!” This was because, of course, there was no stopping it. Besides that, even though I'm not a `touchy' person, (meaning get a hug from me and see yourself as a very special person indeed.) it was still fun for some odd reason. I was hugged by a different Konan other than Miss G, a Temari, a Tenten, and a few others I either didn't recognize or I didn't see because they hugged from a point I couldn't see.

When we were almost in the building, there was this creepy guy in this giant bear costume who was running around hugging people. He had passed us a few times before, and we were glad he didn't stop near us. But then we had an idea… I then shouted, “Teddy bear-Chan today is Itachi-san's birthday! Hug Itachi-san, it's his birthday!” Er, being a person who hated hugs and people who dressed up in those costumes even more than I do, was then pushed by me, Bri, and Kel into his/or/her arms! It was so fantastic, seeing the horror on her face! I then knew I had to take a picture. I was like, “Teddy bear-Chan, Tobi wants to take a picture; don't let go!” I then pulled my camera off of my belt, and for the next twenty seconds or so, we all took pictures of her with the bear-guy-thing! (And actually her birthday was like five days before but we were celebrating her birthday then so… heheheh! And ya, I'm so posting that picture on Deviant art!)

So once we FINALLY got INTO the building, we weren't attacked so much except for the Konan; she came back for hugs three more times. Another twenty minutes or so, and there were only about three more groups ahead of up who were being identified to make sure that they were who they registered as. This, of course, was a GREAT relief. Once I was in that building, which was where they sold a bunch of anime/manga merchandise, I saw another Tobi, who was actually a guy. I guess he was pretty good, but as I assumed he didn't have as cool of a mask as I had. (Meaning it was a piece of paper that had a hole in it for the eyes, and had sharpie lines for the curves of the mask. It didn't look bad, but it wasn't as good… `Quality', and luckily for him it probably didn't make his face sweat like mad the whole time. We talked a little (meaning like… waving and saying “high”) and I then later found that he hugged me from behind before I walked up to get my registration necklace thingy. (You know those things teachers sometimes wear around their necks with their IDs on them? Yah, the cheap part about them is that the thing that goes around your neck says “Tora-con 2008” on it.) It was sort of creepy… Though my group just laughed about it.

Now registered, we walked around a bit, and looked at stuff after I fixed my mask that had been constantly falling off. Well, more like I concentrated on keeping up with everyone while at the same time, not ramming into anyone one accident from my `handicapped' sight. (I finally realized why Tobi always moves his body around in such great movements… IT'S BECAUSE HE CAN'T SEE!) Then, sitting down on a bleacher for a while after taking a group picture, I had a few people come up to me. One guy, who did the carma (totally spelled that wrong I just know it) dance (if you know what that is… That weird thing where the anime characters flap their hands at their ears and sway their hips) earlier while swinging his long hair everywhere (it was funny, I've got to admit… Though he wasn't really dressed up as anyone… Though I'm sure he'd make a great Deidara; that hair was naturally that long! And by long I mean like Deidara's length!) told me that I should go up to people and say “I'm watching you.” I was like… Okay then…

Soon afterwards, Miss G and some of the others wanted a signature from some voice actor named `Vick' I think… He is the English voice actor for Elric from Full Metal Alchamist and Dark from DNAngel, and a few other things along with being a music composer. On the way there, as I was TRYING to follow the others at their fast speed as I yelled out at them (of course calling them by their characters' names.) I was then stopped and was made to hug a line of about five different girls who wanted to hug Tobi-san. By this time, my mask had yet again been falling off, along with my wig. I didn't think till later that I should have tucked the strings into the hair ties… I tried it a little while ago when I took pictures of my self in it for you guys and found the theory to be true… Anyhow, after searching for a while I found them again. I, still not having much interest in this signing, sat with Er and Kel in an empty room where we waited for another hour. We then got fed up with it, since we'd have to leave in another hour! (Er's birthday party was at 2PM, so we had to get to her house and clean up around 1PM before other people who didn't go to the convention got there.) So we got Miss G, and we left to go walk around the campus area. We then were met by the other Konan again, who told Miss G that all of the Konans were going to gang up and `kill Jeriya' later… Along with giving us more hugs… (Boy we must have really reminded her of the real deal!)

We then went into the art building, where people were selling their fan art and plushies… Sadly for me, all of the Akatsuki plushies were already taken… I didn't have money with me anyhow, but I wanted to see them since some other girl came by and made Kel hug her Kisame plushi chibi. After leaving that place, we then went back to the main building where I was found by some girls I go to school with. I was sort of surprised they found me… Since nothing recognizable about me was there! But because there were only 3 Tobi's around then, and two were guys, they decided that I was the only one left that could be me. To make sure though, one of them sent their mom to ask. Of course, it was me so we talked until we headed back to the signing again. Only a few minutes afterwards though, we had to go back to Er's house so we left again. On the way though, a lot of people asked to take our pictures; each time I was in the back either mocking one of the others or jumping up and down. In all, I think we got about 10 pictures taken by other people… So I'm going to search on Deviant art later to see if I can find them posted by other people!

So ya, that was the end of the Toracon for me, which still irritates me since it is literally right now AS I AM TYPING THIS (Not necessarily as you're reading it though.) The convention is still going on for another three hours without me! I have to wait a whole stink'n year to go to another convention again now! Which really bums me out! Over all though, I had a good time… And I've gotten more hugs than I usually would get in a year… And I we found that Kel was the ONLY Kisame Cosplayer there (at least when we were there.) You know, I really wonder if any of you reading this could possibly have been any of the ones who had attacked me like rabid fan girls… I guess we'll find out when you see the pictures of my costume and my companions now won't we? (Or more likely you if you don't tell me… Though I would find it rather humorous to find out that one of my readers actually saw me in person, and even went to the point of HUGGING ME without knowing it!) *Boy this was really long!*

People we saw:

(a TON of) Sasuke (all parts of the anime/manga: even some gender benders.)

(Two) Naruto (One was a female naruto... as in, like another gender bender!)

A God Relm Pain

(Five?) Konans

A Rock Lee

About three Sakuras

About three Kakashis (One of the ladies who did him actually bught these contacts that made her look like she had the sharingan! Her eyes were still brown, but she had the black markings in them! She said they were 100$ each! YIKES!)

Three Jeriyas (One was a female Jeriya! Ick!)

One Ino (Shippuden)

One Sai (A girl of course acting as him)

...And a bunch of others...

~Liliedove

PS: Oh right, I forgot to add that well... You know how Tobi just eats like a bazillion things in a second when he turns and takes his mask off? Ya, I tried that during breakfast and I ended up choking.... So don't try at at home unless you're cosplaying with people around you for your protection... Heheh!