Life - Southeast Game Exchange MMXIX-1

The annual Southeast Game Exchange finally rolled around again, and I was semi-prepared this time. Sure, I didn't have as much spending money as I would have liked, but that was for a pretty good reason - the cosplay contest!

I can't remember when, but I started preparing for the contest in advance. I'm not super creative about this kind of stuff, so it was more of a "scavenge the right clothes" type costume. Some, like the jacket and pants, I already had. I managed to just barely get the right shirt in time. However, the key pieces of the ensemble - the tie and rubber hand - had to be sourced. (Oh, I also got my hair bleached. I would like to say it was entirely for the costume, but I also had to get a "natural" non-blue hair color for my day job.)

He likes the Mona Lisa

Having just finished catching up with the anime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, I was insisted to go as the Part 4 villain, Yoshikage Kira. The synergy of needing a "natural" hair color, being a costume with relatively mundane parts, and having a simple prop all came together.

My original plan was to paint a wooden model hand and carry it around. However, a trip to Sally's revealed small, already ready rubber hands. All I had to do was add some fake nails and paint some blood/bone on the end for extra effect. It's a good thing that it was JUST a prop for effect, since my skills in applying nails would have failed any kind of technical inspection.

I actually spent most of the day at the cosplay stuff. After arriving too late for the speedrun panel, I had enough time to sign up for the contest, go to a panel, change into my costume, and look around a little bit before going back to hang out before the line-up.

I can't remember exactly, but the categories were: child and/or teenagers, adult novice, adult advanced, and group. I am (still?) very glad that there is a novice category, since some of the costumes were extremely elaborate - stuff like sculpted swords, hand-made clothing, etc... I didn't win, but I did have a few people that recognized and/or liked my costume. Also, some people even asked to take pictures with me!

I feel like I should have started off in costume, for two reasons: (1) my small suitcase was still big enough to be annoying to wheel around, and (2) I could have been looking at video games while carrying the hand around, talking to it, and being a little bit in-character. Maybe next year?

Afterwards, it was 3:something, so I managed to find some time to actually look around. There were a ton of tables this time. I think the location (new location again) is even bigger - at least, the ceiling was way higher! (As were the concession prices...). My "haul" was GTA: San Andreas and Dragon Fantasy. The latter was from the Limited Run table, and I was motivated to get it because I wanted a nice little indie JRPG-like game. I might go back and get another, possibly.

I think tomorrow I will try to peruse more and play some of the free play stuff. There was VR, arcades, pinball, and a whole row I missed.