This gonna take me awhile. Hmmm.
Okay, so, as many of yall have been told, this was my first time flying. I didn't take well to it. It's kinda terrifying. When I got to the airport, I managed to find where I was supposed to be, then after much searching realized plans had fallen through. So I got to a payphone and called UK's cell, which was my emergency number. I was directed to the lotto booth by gate N3, where I would have to trust to luck to hook up with Kilga.
This actually worked out rather well, because Kilga was wearing his kitty hood I had seen in a picture previously. So it was easy enough to approach him, yell "KILGA YOU SON OF A BITCH!" and then stab him with a paper shiv I was carrying. Now some may wonder why I was carrying a paper shiv and I'll tell you why: I was intending to shank my original contact, which was UK. It was labeled OTP along the blade. I think I improvised well enough. After that, I shouted at other people in the group, trying to figure out who was who and break some tension; namely my own. Some chit-chats happened, then Xavier came to collect us and herd us onto a shuttle. He was quite the dashing sort!
Eventually we were herded onto the shuttles, and I wondered aloud if we were being kidnapped. But no, they were just taking us to the hotel. It was a nice, relaxing ride. Silent for a little bit, until I cracked some jokes with Totaku and got the ball rolling a li'l bit. Afterward we got charged 25 dollars a head, which I didn't expect and I am still miffed about (that is way fucking pricey). However, though sheer force of will, I pulled a two tens for a five scam on the driver and got some of my money back. Or rather, I asked him to make change for a ten (I didn't have fives to spare), and he gave me two without taking my ten. Now, I'm dyslexic, so I wasn't sure if my math was wrong or his, so I just left.
Then I was ushered to room 808; or as The Suite as it'd be known. There got to take a break, chillax, and meet Overcoat. This meant I could finally give him the five bucks owed him! And then decked him in the kidney while he bearhugged me. I also met a lot of other people, but the names are faces are all a blur to me. I am sorry, guys, just so many faces. After awhile, I figured out where my room was; which involved more or less yelling at others until they told me, because I wasn't able to pick up the details until then. This would be a running theme for me, yelling at people. I also visited what I am going to term Jerry's Room; because Jerry was there. Jerry was a treat this whole time. UK was also there, as well as IoSpace, who I didn't know and turned out to be a hidden treasure the whole time. There were other peoples too, but goddamn I cannot remember any of them. Sorry. Then I finally figured out where I was supposed to be and went there. There I met the others; some of them anyways, and ended up trying to get some sleep in a fold out bed with Larry. This was a valiant effort, but it didn't work out for me. I toss and turn too much due to arthritis. I got maybe 4 hours of sleep, tops? Also didn't get supper, but that was fine. Missed meals are a regular occurrence in the life of Purvis.
Morning came! I ended up slipping off to get a much needed shower to wake myself up, while Kilga slipped out to do god knows what (It turned out to be getting breakfast). I ended up pacing around outside a bit waiting for Kilga to get back so I could learn the day's plan. In doing this, I discovered that the hotel had a complementary all you can eat breakfast. This would become a bastion of sanity in my world for the next three days. That had biscuits and gravy, and scrambled eggs/omelettes made to order! And a fucking cranberry juice dispenser! I had never seen one of those in my life before. But I'll tell you what, I drank a goddamn gallon of the stuff while I was there. But before that, I was able to link up with Kilga, and got a rough idea of his plans. So I went along with them for awhile. These plans mostly were getting prereg badges ASAP, which I was down with, then getting in line to get into the dealer's room, so he could get his con shirt. I tried that for like ten minutes, then my arthritis, already agitated by trying to share a bed with Larry, decided it didn't like standing there for the two and a half hours it was gonna take. So instead I went and sat against a column, tried to plan out what panels I wanted to see, and let my muskals ease up. This would be a recurring theme. Then I took to wandering a bit, and passed Gandalph and Jon; or at least I think it's Jon =[. We parted ways, then met again like five minutes later, and I decided to follow them because I figured they would have a phone. This turned out to be a wonderful decision!
You see, these two are most righteous chaps, fun as hell to talk to and properly chill. Gandalph had his laptop, so we spent some time messing around in MoF and DCC (I did the worst!). Then we attended a panel about attending cons like a boss, which was pretty much a couple of dudes running a panel where they told old war stories in exchange for a free badge. And talked quite a lot about how to sneak liquor into cons. After that was raiding the Artist's Alley, which was largely Gandalph exchanging dollar coins for stuff and marveling at the food trucks inside; though John and I went halfsies on a two for one deal on prints so I could have a gift for Kilga; after he gifted me with a lovely Kisume figure. I tried to break off to see a panel about Ghosts in Japan, but that fell through because the room hit capacity. So instead I followed them to a panel about anime in the eighties, which was hella awesome. We left in the middle of it, though, to get an early dinner at subway (My other food-based savior. Five dollar foot longs were nothing to sneeze at!), and then get in line for ZUN's Q&A two hours in advance. This put us about like 15th in line.
The line gathering was long and painful on my arthirtus, but there was cool conversings with Gandalph, then with IoSpace and...um, three other folks whose names I have absolutely forgotten. The Yoshika cosplayer, his friend with the colorful hair, and...I can't recall the third. Shit. Sorry. Anyways, eventually, after several line reorganizations, we got inside and I got to sit down. The panel itself was fun. Some good questions, some groanworthy ones that always get asked, and in general just outpouring support for the Big Man. Then after that was the infamous Touhou Death March. And this will be a treasured memory, because it's exactly what I wanted to do: gather up as many people and wreak havoc. The crowds split before our might, and none remained unconquered. When asked what were were doing, I gleefully called back that we were going to go pillaging. When we crossed the pedestrian walkways over the street, I shouted "We've taken the bridge!" It was a great time. Shame I wasn't actually hungry, so I just got a large Baha Blast from Taco Bell, and a refill before leaving. On the way out, we hassled a Dark Link cosplayer who rolled into the wrong neighborhood (as in, we joked with him while passing by).
After that, we seized for ourselves. I watched a little PoFV, and played some, before heading back to the hotel room. We had some visitors! I can't quite recall who they were or what was talked about, but I got to introduce some peoples to
Pepper Steak. It was good times. Then I ended up collapsing onto Kilga's bed for an hour because I was beat and also sore. Once the guests were chased off, I had to evict poor Larry onto the floor, I was just too sore from all the walking. For this I owe him much. We then talked about MMOs for a little bit, until sleep overtook us.
And I'll finish the rest of this later.