HI HELLO I WAS CONSUMED BY ENSEMBLE STARS FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS!!!! An event started with one of my new fave trash can sons and I have been glued to my phone XD I also went out with friends to celebrate Elio's birthday last night, which included hot pot and karaoke~~~ We went to a different karaoke place than originally planned and it ended up being SUPER nice, so that was awesome :D

uhhhhh yes that's everything in one short paragraph XD

OH YES KATSUCON IS UPON US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We managed to snag a hotel room in my fave hotel, the Hampton Inn across from the Gaylord, so we'll be staying right by the con for the first time in years. I think the last time we stayed this close was 2019???? I'm looking forward to it!! Plus, free breakfast at the hotel and convenient parking~ We're going down Thursday night, too, so that'll be nice.

It's extra nice because Liz & Pat are running a panel, and it ended up being scheduled for 12:30 pm on Friday. So it'll be done and out of the way but I am also VERY glad we aren't trying to drive down and present in the same day.

Also, Liz ordered fabric for our Knives & Legato cosplays on Friday and it got here today, which was super fast and I'm glad for it!!!! It's gonna be a crunch to get stuff done in time, but slightly less of a crunch than expected. My binder arrived today, too, and it's way easier to get into + comfier than any previous ones. I can actually wear it around without feeling miserable :D

look, I did all 4 days of Otakon, what do you want from me? XD Anyway, I found this while trying to organize my Google Photos some and just thought it was silly ;D


There's just a lot going on here, okay? We were packing up the car to go to Miryokucon for the day and it's just...Knives body pillow, akeshu ita bag, a case of water bottles, our badges featuring lanyards covered in buttons & charms, and Liz getting into the car to drive because Legato is apparently the ultimate driving gay ;D


Also, I got the Vash & Knives plushes I ordered in the mail today :D they're very soft and cute and I'm gonna take them everywhere~~~~
Anyway, since apparently every fucking week there's some new thing, my dad had to be rushed to the hospital last week and he was diagnosed with leukemia. He's being released today and is doing better, but I don't know any exact details yet ;w; Because like, that's what I needed, right???? I needed my dad to have cancer.

RELATED to that: I completely forgot I had signed up to get a free piercing last Thursday - courtesy of Pat getting lost on the free section of Craigslist - and thankfully, they called me to remind me...approximately an hour after I found out my dad was in the hospital and about an hour and a half before the appointment. So, Liz and I hopped in the car and booked it to Rockville, because yes I agreed to drive an hour+ away, during rush hour traffic, to get a piercing XD

We made it in time, though!! And tbh the adrenaline rush was very much needed. So now I have my first ever dermal piercing, and it was honestly very easy? Barely any pain during the piercing and it stopped hurting in under 24 hours. I only remember it's there if I accidentally catch it on my clothes or something.


IT MAKES ME FEEL VERY COOL!!!! I'd wanted one for awhile, so I'm glad I got a free chance to take the leap~
And now today I have physical therapy, which...I dunno. I signed up while I was working the cake job and like super needed it, but now I'm not sure if I wanna pay $40/session for it :T We'll see.

OH MY GOD RIGHT THE BEST NEWS OF ALL THIS MESS: I finally have both my ADHD meds again, so I am getting shit done!!!!!!!!!!! :D

I just immediately destroyed my sleep schedule afterwards by getting caught up reading a webcomic XD I'm gonna write a con report after I do my homework and maybe finish something for KLK Week??? Maybe. We'll see; the prompts are super uninspiring.

But the con was in fact quite good and I'm really looking forward to it coming back!!! It seemed really successful, so fingers crossed ;w; It'd been AWHILE since I'd been to a small con and it was just very cozy and friendly.

But the main point of this post is not the con or anything like that; it's about me. Or, more specifically, about my username!!!!


DeviantArt was the first place I ever used SetsuntaMew and since my dA turns 20 today, my username is officially 20 years old!!!!!!!!

I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!!!! I mean I guess I can, since that is the amount of time that has passed, but I definitely didn't expect it to be that one that stuck around when I first registered it. But I guess that's being 13 and just signing up with different usernames everywhere?

It's cool. I feel cool! I'm glad I've maintained it for this long :D Later this month, my fanfiction.net account turns 20, and I kinda wanna celebrate the fact that I've been publishing fanfic for that god damn long. I dunno what I wanna do, but something????? Maybe a cake XD

Tomorrow is Miryokucon the first, aka Baltimore's new anime convention, since Otakon so rudely left >:O It's gonna be small, but probably not the smallest I've ever been to- that honor goes to either Tigercon or Erie Anime Experience, both of which are no more ;w;

I'm "closet" cosplaying in a sense, which basically means that I didn't have time to make Knives and am instead being Rem, brought to you by the Torrid clearance rack, Target, and my hoard of extra wigs XD Liz is gonna be Legato...sorta. They're gonna have his super cool skull shoulder piece and nothing else, because, once again, time issues meant we didn't finish the coat.

Uhhhhhhhhhh

Pat took tomorrow off work, so we might go down slightly earlier than Liz and just sorta vibe? I'm not sure yet; I'm trying to take it easy.

OH RIGHT oh my goddddd my memory is shit. I had my official interview at Pen Boutique today!!!!! I just have to meet with the owner next week and they should be making me an offer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The money is less than I would like but the work environment is much nicer, so I'm willing to take it. Fingers crossed everything goes well!!!!

Also, I have homework I need to finish before the weekend starts :TTTT

THE FINAL DAAAAAAY sobs I miss it already. That's how I'm prefacing this; I already wish I were back at the con ;w; It was so fucking good!!!!!!

We once again made it to the con at a reasonable time (somehow????), despite being very tired. I couldn't find my Vashwood shirt so I said fuck it and wore cute goth shit and called it a day. I was all decked out in Knives merch, so that's all I really need, right?

Liz dropped me and Pat at the con and went to go park, so we did a quick run of artist alley while we waited...and bought another print even though we were soooooo overspent on money. Oops??? OUR BAD. We then had to zip out and meet back up with Liz.

And then....we finally went to the dealers room for basically the first time XD It was, as always, fucking massive. And we'd already spent all our money a bunch of times over, so we were just browsing. We did get to see the bullet train booth and get free swag, so that was cool!! :D

After that, we ended up hanging out with the Livio cosplayer from yesterday for a bit, which was really nice!!! I always worry I'll miss saying goodbye to people on Sundays, so it was good to find them ;w; Then we ended up back in artist alley to meet up with different friends, get the gossip on some con drama, and accidentally befriend the guy who bought the Knives Thirst Standee XD

okay so straight up I have never really gone to cons for programming. But I really loved tristamp and wanted to support it and do more!!! So we went to the autograph session for Studio Orange and I got them to sign my Knives pillow *w*


HE LOOKS SO GOOD AHHHHH!!! I got to show him to the artist and she was super excited to see him autographed :D

We then had another lunch of champions - aka lunchables - before rushing over to artist alley a-fucking-gain to see more friends before the end of the con. I'm so sad to see everyone go, but since some of them are local and others hit up the same con circuit as us, I'm really looking forward to seeing them all again ;w;

I FEEL LIKE I'M FORGETTING THINGS BUT I AM JUST SO FUCKING TIRED SOBS

The drive home was so long and so sad, but it was improved by me forcing Liz and Pat to listen to my theme music (aka MILLIONS KNIVES -Vocal Ver-) until we got to the worst rest stop on I-95. It was even worse than usual because the vending machines were entirely fucking empty????? We were so thirsty and so denied any liquid.

And then, finally, we returned home to a fresh pot of coffee courtesy of Chi ;w; It was so thoughtful to come back to ;w;

( just a few pics from today )

I MISS OTAKON ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it went by so quickly and also that so much happened!!!! AND ALSO I can't believe that I wrote up a recap for every fucking day; this is a first for me :D

Oh my god its fucking 2 am I was at the con for neay 16 hours today and it was somehow even better than yesterday!!!! I'm exhausted and I wanna pass out instead of write this, but we're currently in a huge line at McDonald's, sooooo I have time to work on this while we wait.

First of all: 10 am Trigun photoshoot, so that was hell to get to. We left Baltimore at around 8:30 and I made it on time (while Liz and Pat parked the car). The room it was in didn't even open until 10, so I ended up waiting around for a little bit just watching people go by. And then we fiiiiinally got let in :D Everyone looked so good again today and it was really exciting to see how many people made it to the shoot despite it being early on fucking Saturday.

INCLUDING A TRIMAX KNIVES!!!! I was too nervous to talk to them at first, but I ended up complimenting their costume and watching their bag for a bit, since I was too sore to take pics today. Eventually my emotional support wife showed up and I was able to properly strike up conversation. And we ended up chatting with them and one of the Legato cosplayers from yesterday for awhile, as well as some of the other people at the shoot. IT WAS SO NICE SOBS EVERYONE IS SO KIND AND LOVELY TO TALK TO!!! People have continued to be amazed by the fanfic booklets I made ;w; I'm blown away by people's reactions tbh, it's made my weekend so nice.

We ended up chatting for AWHILE, during which time we saw a Midvalley cosplayer with an actual fucking saxophone, which was awesome. After the many hours of standing and talking, I had to go sit and recover, because.....apparently I went too hard yesterday ;w; I did run around a ton, but I'm still sad I was so wiped today. Eventually I realized that I really couldn't keep walking, so Liz went and got me a wheelchair so I could actually keep doing stuff.

And then the return to artist alley so I could get a Knives button I'd seen yesterday :D I needed him for my lanyard~~~ I was gonna look around more, but we wanted to check in at the featured events room to see when we could line up for the Studio Orange panel. They ended up letting us go in at around 2 (despite the panel being at 4) because we needed accessibility accommodations.

This ended up working out really well, because we got a little section of wall to hang out at while we waited. And then, various people we'd met yesterday and today recognized us and came to chill with us. AND THEN DURING THIS CONVO WE REALIZED THAT THE LEGATO COSPLAYER WE HUNG OUT WITH THIS MORNING ALSO LIVES IN Baltimore!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was just a ton of good conversation in general with people, including the trimax Knives that I am apparently eternally enamored with *w* They also had told an artist about the fics I gave them and wanted to introduce me to said artist... but after the panel, obviously.

THE PANEL!!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got to sit in the very front row, thanks to cripple powers accessibility, and I just sorta charisma'd our entire group with me uwu Liz recorded the entire thing and I took a bunch of pictures, but there's so fucking much that I think it needs its own post tbh. Just know that they were playing my song in the room (MILLIONS KNIVES -Vocal Ver-) and I was so happy for it. Also, Studio Orange was just so nice and excited so see how many people love Trigun here in America ;w;

ANYWAY!!! We then went off to the artist alley with our Knives friend and met up with the artist....who I'd gotten some charms from yesterday!!! They were super fucking impressed with our fics and very grateful, and it's just been so fun to see everyone's reactions ;w; I GOTTA BRING MORE TO THE NEXT CON BUT THE PRINTER BROKE SO I'M FUCKING DYING OVER IT.

uhhhhh

There was a lot of wandering around artist alley before finally being like fuck we should eat because it's after 6 and we still haven't eaten, like, all day. Dinner of champions: Lunchables and pudding/jello cups! :D

Okay, so after eating, we went on a wandering adventure through the con center, looking for something to do. We tried to see the Ota Museum, but it was already closed. And then we hiked back across the con center to try to go to the manga librar...which had closed early. fucking. We ALSO found out that we had to return the wheelchair by 9, because I guess disabled people don't exist after sunset????? Whatever.

OH RIGHT OKAY we'd been preaching the good word of Knives/Legato all weekend, and even gotten some people to join our discord server :D Which worked out because one of them ended up mentioning that they were just chilling outside of artist alley and since we didn't have any other plans, we went to hang with our new friend the Livio cosplayer~ For like, hours, just chatting with them and a Wolfwood cosplayer they'd met. It was very much like the best kind of con energy tbh!!!!

Once it was around 11? 11:15? We were all like fuck shit it's getting late - the Livio had to pack up for check out tomorrow and we had an hour drive home - so we parted ways. We went up the escalators towards the exit and...ran into the Knives and Legato cosplayers we hung out with a ton earlier XD So it's Saturday after dark and we're literally about to leave to go home, but I'm just like JUST KIDDING, TIME TO HANG OUT WITH FRIENDS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!! We ended up wandering with them and their friends for a bit before finally going to see the AMVs after dark...because nothing says the beginning of a beautiful friendship like watching hentai together ;D

And those went until 1:30 am, which is when the con closed for the day. They were basically like "okay you saw your Frosty the Snowman hentai, now get the fuck out of here" and we did!! The end- for now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

god I'm so fucking tired. This was written over the course of our drive home and finished up from the comfort of my own couch. I'm gonna go pass out so I can experience more con tomorrow~~~~~

Day one, success!!!!!!!!! I had such an amazing day and I'm so exhausted now, but it was so worth it :D

Somehow made it to DC by about 10:30 am, which is a new record for us getting out of the house at a reasonable time. I'm gonna try to pull it off again tomorrow....hopefully... We started by getting a lay of the land, as if we haven't been to the past few Otakons or anything XD I was playing "spot the Wolfwood cosplayers by looking for the punisher" as we wandered around, which was fairly successful.

We ended up lining up for artist alley at around 11:30, even tho it didn't open until 1, because I wanted to participate in a bunch of stamp rallies and also get a kuroneko plush that the artist only had 15 of. We talked to a lot of cool people while waiting, including some other Trigun fans who gave us LOVE & PEACE ribbons to put on our badges :D They also were running the Trigun shoot later, so we got to see them again... though more on that eventually XD


THE ARTIST ALLEY IS SO FULL THIS YEAR AND IT WAS LIKE A FUCKING FEVER DREAM AHHHHHHHH I LOVE ART AND BEING IN SUCH A POPULAR FANDOM IS DANGEROUS TO OUR FINANCES BUT IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! We ran all over the place collecting stamps for three (3) different Trigun stamp rallies, and got some pleasant surprises along the way. One of the participants was a friend of ours from MDZS and another lives only about 10 mins from us!! Small world!!!!! I was also on a quest to collect every Knives there, but our $$$ ran out before I got them all. OH WELL. We also got the very minimal amount of Legato merch we could find, and Liz got a Livio charm, surprisingly.

Anyway, we ran around for about an hour and a half before heading to dealers room...mostly so that we could sit at the tables there and eat our lunch. We packed Lunchables, fruit snacks, and pudding cups, and it was actually super helpful! It saved us from having the buy a meal while in DC :D It was also just super nice to sit comfortably and vibe while eating.......until the karaoke started up. Why the fuck is the karaoke being hosted in the middle of the fucking dealers room??? I have no idea, but it was....not great, to say the least.

And then....TRIGUN MEETUP TIME!!! We got to meet back up with the cosplayers we met yesterday beforehand, and then I took a billion pics with my nice camera. The auto-focus on my lens decided to crap out right at the beginning, but whatever, I know how to focus on the fly at least. I have so many pictures to go through after this weekend is over *w*

STUDIO ORANGE CAME TO THE MEETUP AND TOOK PICTURES OF THE WHOLE THING AND AHHHHHHHH IT FEELS SO COOL TO HAVE THE FUCKING ANIME STUDIO COME TO THE PHOTOSHOOT ACTUALLY????? AHHHHHHHHH!!!! I of course missed getting a picture with them because I was too busy taking pictures myself, but oh well!! Still fun!!!!!

After the shoot, we sat at a table in the main area and watched cosplayers go by while I rested up. We also chatted some more with the people who ran the meetup....mostly about how much we love plantcest and how we can't understand antis who stan Knives.

Eventually, we walked over to the Sbarro that's practically attached to the con center and had a quick, cheap dinner. The heat was fucking terrible though, straight up, it's so fucking bad. Just the brief walk nearly ended me ;w;

And then we returned to the artist alley, since we'd kinda speed run it doing the stamp rallies. We went through the WHOLE DAMN THING and I'm so proud of myself for all the stretching I've been doing, because I powered through the whole thing without a break. We talked to so many people and they were all so nice and I just am full of so much love for being at cons again ;w; I want to just keeping doing this forever, which is good because I think we will.

I ALSO GOT FUCKING THIEF KING BAKURA STICKERS!!!! There's never Thief King stuff, ever, so I was very excited. The artist is also taking preorders on a BAKURA BAG, so as soon as I have money again, I'm getting one. It's so important to me. I love him so much ♥

uhhhhhhh god I'm fucking tired

I had to go sit in the accessibility rest area and recover after doing the entirety of artist alley in one go, though, especially since I kept stopping to talk to people. We had more snackies (cheez-its and pepperoni) and chatted about the bullet train XD I also made the maybe stupid decision to redo my lanyard to be entirely Knives tomorrow, in honor of the Studio Orange panel. But I had switched to P5 lanyard, and that just won't do........so Pat's currently making me a new lanyard to use tomorrow XD What's a con without last minute sewing????

Anyway!!! That was most of the day, we were there for over 12 hours and while I'm in pain, it's not nearly as bad as it's been recently. Here's hoping to an even better day tomorrow!!!!!

( god I'm so tired but I wanna share some pix )

DAY 0 WAS SO FUN!!!!!

We made the very smart plan to go down today and get our badges, instead of wasting a chunk of Friday in the pickup line. And it was a very good idea; it went sooooo smoothly and quickly. I got all my accessibility stuff taken care of, too, so waiting in line for the Studio Orange panel on Saturday should go smoothly :D

So after picking up badges, we sat sorta near the entrance and watched people go by. I love watching cosplayers go by and seeing everyone's stuff, and I'm always impressed by people who get fully in cosplay for Thursday of all days. I ended up wearing my Millennium Ring because I wanted something fun, and I also wore Thief King's coat until I was too hot.

We eventually got hungry and went to dinner, which ended up being an exercise in pain because it was so fucking hot sobs. Maybe I shouldn't have been wearing a long sleeve coat in 97 degree weather, but maybe I'm just not smart XD Pat found the place and it was only about 10 minutes away, but I was cursing him out at about 2/3 of the way there because I was so overheated ;w; It ended up being really good, so all was forgiven. Pat had a particularly good mango margarita!!

On the way back to the con center, we stopped at CVS so I could get a 5 hour energy - because I left all of mine in Baltimore - and I got fucked carded at the self checkout. Apparently you have to be 21 to buy them??? So that was funny to me XD

ANYWAY. We finally get back to the con center and see the Legato cosplayer I was trying to meet up with...having a photoshoot outside the building, as you do. It was really nice to meet up with them!!!! I got to share my millionsummers fic booklets and Liz's Legato zine :D And then one of their friends recognized my XiYao ita bag and mentioned that they liked SangCheng, and Liz was able to produce a SangCheng fic from my bag of mysteries uwu We're gonna see them again tomorrow (hopefully!) at the Trigun shoot *w*

It looked kinda overcast, so I made the decision to head home. Which was good! It started raining as we are trying to get into the parking garage XD

Tonight, I'm gonna try to tone my hair and maybe fix the printer? And rest up for even more excitement tomorrow!!!!!!

I'll try to add pictures when I get home; it's such a pain to do on mobile ><

( click for pix!!!!!! )

I FOUND A SHIT TON OF MY OLD MUSIC!!!! APPARENTLY I WAS SMART ENOUGH TO BACK UP MY ITUNES LIBRARY IN 2008, SO I HAVE MOST OF MY OLD MUSIC AND PLAYLISTS FROM HIGH SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! IT'S SO GOOD!!!!!

Other good news: we're going to fucking Otakon!!!!!!! It's not really fiscally responsible, but we wanna go to the Studio Orange panel and see other Trigun fans and experience anime for a weekend. And then Liz's new job starts next Monday, so we'll be okay.

Other other good news: I'm using Otakon as an excuse to start stretching every day, so that I can be in better shape for a weekend of running around an anime convention. I know that I can't fix a decade of fucking it up in ~2 weeks, but I'm gonna do what I can!! I'm already feeling better :D I'm also feeling better mentally, and not just because I'm on my meds again. I think exercise is legit helping, which I fucking haaaaaaaate because it always works this way but still!!! How dare doing the right thing work?? XD

ALSO!!!!!!! We've been on top of updating our 2000s/LJ Trigun AU, as in we updated it twice this month. However, in finding old playlists, I had to discover that a huge chunk of one of the ones we made for the fic is basically the same as a playlist I made Pat in high school XD How could I have fucking known that the fanfic I'm writing to revisit only the best parts of my youth could possibly accidentally recreate things I made then? XD

Someone please shoot me though; why was I Hate Everything About You on nearly every fucking playlist I made back then? And why did I have Knives listening to it in the most recent chapter???? BECAUSE IT WAS POSTED BEFORE I FOUND ALL THIS MUSIC AND SOMETIMES BLORBO IS TOO REAL, OKAY, MY LIFE IS HARD!!!!!!

Life is going a lot better than it was even a month ago, though. So that's good!!!!! :D

IT WAS SO GOOD TO BE BACK AT KATSUCON!!!!!!!

We got there super late because I didn't wanna wake up, doing our makeup took forever, and then parking was a nightmare, but it was all worth it because it was so much fucking fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Katsucon 2020 was the last con we went to before covid hit, so it was definitely very special to finally be back ;w; Like, we went to Otakon in 2021 and 2022, but it wasn't the same; we hadn't actually been since it moved to DC. This was like...coming home, in a sense. I've been going to katsu since 2010, so being in the Gaylord is very nostalgic and familiar and incredible *w*

Also, I have got to get back to doing physical therapy, because my back nearly gave out on my countless times throughout the day >< I can't keep living like this. Like, I can handle my day to day life sucking, that's fine. But impacting my fun at anime conventions? NO. That's where I draw the line! XD

Uhhh okay so Liz and I wore our fancy juhaku robes that we made in 2017 because they're big and forgiving enough to still fit after gaining some weight. And we'd both made peace with the fact that no one would recognize us, mostly because literally no one did when we first wore them, and Magi was way more popular then. People even looked confused at the Magi photoshoot at Katsucon 2017. So okay. That's where we are. AND YET MULTIPLE PEOPLE RECOGNIZED US THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT. PEOPLE CAME UP TO US EXCITED AS FUCK TO SEE NOT JUST MAGI COSPLAYERS, BUT JUDAL AND HAKURYUU.

Not complaining, just confused.

Sooooo that was good, the weather was surprisingly mild, the vibes were incredible...just walking around and seeing so many cosplayers again was so good ;w; I feel reinvigorated just from being able to observe all of it.

The final part of the night was the midnight Persona shoot (as you do) and that was also amazing. There were a decent amount of P2 cosplayers (for once): the Suou brothers, Jun, and Philemon??? Who fucking cosplays Philemon?????? So that was exciting!!!! I think Liz is gonna be living that high for awhile ♥ I mostly ended up talking to one of the Joker cosplayers about our akeshu itabags and other insane amounts of money we've spent on fandom merch XD

Oh!! And Pat found a Naoto figure in the dealers hall (always a dangerous play to go), which was a fun find. Since we got to the con kinda late, we had to speed run artist alley and dealers room in just over an hour, but we still managed to get some cool stuff.