Jan 1, 2018
Here is my top nine on instagram for 2017.
A post shared by Lauri Ailane (@daredreemer) on Dec 31, 2017 at 8:57pm PST
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Argentina
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Portugal
Here is my top nine on instagram for 2017.
A post shared by Lauri Ailane (@daredreemer) on Dec 31, 2017 at 8:57pm PST
It made it into the local newspaper. I didn’t expect to find Ciel staring at me when I opened the movie section of the paper. So excited. Just a few more days until I and my peeps go see this jewel.
-Dare
Surprise Surprise! - FanimeCon 2017 Day 1
FanimeCon 2017
So I forgot to post this last night. This is my friend, Whimsy Rainbow Star ‘s vlog of the first day of con. I make a lot of cameos in this video, so you are welcome to check it out. It covers our bus adventures to and from Clockwork Alchemy...which had pretty much shut down for the night. And while the con looks empty, it really wasn’t. Friday, day 1, is always a bit lack luster and since they have removed the majority of the Ghost issues, it’s less crowded inside than it use to be. Mainly we did the Free! gathering and then went shopping in Dealer’s Hall. It took like three plus hours to get through the whole thing, but we managed to do it in one day this year. Which previously has never happened. Usually Dealer’s Hall is over crowded and very stuffy, but we seemed to have hit it just right and I spent more money than I had planned to. I’ll share pics of the merch later. I found some rare Kuro items and bought all my roomies a small gift each. Which I presented them with on the last night we stayed in the hotel.
Video: Whimsy Rainbow Star Go Matsuoka: @daredreemer Rin Matsuoka: @askthetinybishie Makoto Tachibana: @alicedrankthepoison Sebastian Michaelis: Whimsy Rainbow Star
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FanimeCon 2017
Makoto fell a sleep on their date...lol Just more goofy pictures before the gathering. And look a wild Sebastian joined us...lol
Makoto Tachibana: @alicedrankthepoison Gou Matsuoka: @daredreemer Rin Matsuoka: @askthetinybishie Sebastian Michaelis: Whimsy Rainbow Star
Bonus: Rin Matsuoka
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FanimeCon 2017
The Matsuoka siblings: Gou tries to take her brother down. I literally glomped the hell out of @askthetinybishie when he showed up at the gathering…lol I think Gou startled Rin.
Photos by: @alicedrankthepoison
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FanimeCon 2017
Gou and Makoto on a date...lol
Impromptu selfie shoot with @alicedrankthepoison before the Free! gathering on Day 1. Gou enjoyed playing with Makoto’s Willy. ;)
Bonus selfie: @alicedrankthepoison as Makoto
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FanimeCon 2017
I’m finally getting to sit down and write my review, (story), for Fanime this year. Last weekend was the best con experience I’ve ever had to date. At least I think it was. I’m so glad I got to attend Fanime this year. I had the best hotel mates anyone could ever ask for. I don’t think we ever stopped laughing. Line-Con was nonexistent. Someone finally got their shit together and fixed that issue. Everyone was terrified that pre-reg was going to be a nightmare, but pre-reg opened an hour early and the new system everyone was in and out within ten minutes.
The new system consisted of tables and tables of laptops with scanners. You walked up scanned your registration code and then a person at the end of the table had your badge printed instantly and waiting for you. After verifying your id matched your badge, you picked up your lanyard and your program as you exited. In and out. It was so fast we didn’t know what to do with ourselves...lol
Day zero always has us marathoning the Kuroshitsuji, (Black Butler), musicals. When we got back to our room I hooked up my blu-ray player and my laptop, so we could watch the latest musical, Noah’s Ark Circus. Unfortunately two of the roomies had never seen the stage productions, so we started with the 2010 musical and then the 2014 run of Lycoris. We ran out of time for NAC. Needless-to-say Whimsy Rainbow Star fell in love with Taisuke Saeki, (Eric Slingby), both the man playing Eric and the character. She plans on cosplaying him next year...lol
Friday was the Free! gathering: (pictures will come next week as I am having trouble getting them off my phone), I was cosplaying as Gou Matsuoka and I was sad that my t’shirt for her didn’t arrive until we left for con, but I found a shirt that I thought suited her, so she kind of was a cos-test. @alicedrankthepoison was Makoto Tachibana and @askthetinybishie was cosplaying as my big brother Rin Matsuoka. I’ll tell more about this gathering later. There were some pre-gathering shenanigans as well.
FanimeCon also hosts guests from Japan. Especially when it comes to music. They have a little music fest., (concert included with badge and autograph sessions) This year’s guest of honor for music fest. was X4. If you don’t know who X4 is, then you need to be shot. X4 is the J-pop group founded and lead by Yuya Matsushita. He also played Sebastian Michaelis in the first four productions of the Kuroshitsuji, (Black Butler), musicals.
Well on our way back to the convention center on Friday afternoon, as we were approaching the corner, I noticed a bunch of cute Japanese boys at the hot dog stand. I instantly knew who it was. It was X4. I had just turned back around from telling my mates behind me to look at the hot dog stand when Yuya sees us walking down the street. Now what I believe caught his attention was Whimsy Rainbow Star, who was cosplaying as Sebastian and directly behind me. This got the attention of the other band members as well, who were excited to see Sebastian. They stepped forward and stopped us on the street. Yuya was like Sebastian-chan. I of course was a dork and was like, “We were watching you on TV last night”. Whimsy Rainbow Star bowed to him. And we probably could have gotten our picture with all of them had there not been so many people walking between our two groups. A matter of fact, I’m pretty sure that was what they wanted, because they kept trying to move closer to us. Unfortunately we were all starstruck and no one spoke up and the next thing I know we are waving goodbye to each other. I also may have developed a crush on Kodai. I’ll come back to the guys later in another post. There is more to tell when it comes to these lovelies. I’m not done with them yet.
We also rode the shuttles over to Clockwork Alchemy, Fanime’s sister con, and showed Whimsy Rainbow Star where that con was located. The shuttles are really fun to ride. It’s like being on Indian Jones Adventure at Disneyland. Veery bumpy. This is also where @kimberlycosplay texted me the announcement about the up and coming Kuro musical, Tango on the Campania. I actually screamed on the bus and scared everyone. Probably the bus driver as well.
Saturday saw me cosplaying as Grell Sutcliff and Whimsy Rainbow Star as my Sebastian. We attended the autograph signing for X4, and then @alicedrankthepoison and I stuck around for Chris Cason’s autograph session. More on those later. I didn’t get to cosplay for long, because I wanted to change for the concert that night. Plus Grell’s boots were beginning to kill me. I’ll give my full review on the concert in a later post. I’ll just give a little teaser; Hot!
After the concert we all went to the Japanese tea shop and got some cool beverages. I actually tried a “Green Sour Apple” slush. It was really good and very bright...lol This thing was neon Green. Whimsy Rainbow Star shows it in one her videos. I’ll be linking those as well. Where I actually make appearances on camera. You’ll all get to see a rare sighting of me on film...lol
Sunday I decided not cosplay and we had a hotel mate flip for the X4 Q&A panel. Where Whimsy Rainbow Star had been with us on the street and attended the first X4 autograph session, she was replaced with @sugar-coated-dame who had missed out on the other two events, as well as the concert. I took her to the second autograph session as well.
Sunday night we ordered room service and finally watched, Noah’s Ark Circus. I’ll have a review of that later.
Sadly our weekend was coming to a close and none of wanted to leave. Monday was final day of con and thanks to mother nature being a bitch to me, we got a later start on checking out, but we managed. @alicedrankthepoison and myself never made it back to the convention center, but that was cool. We got to hangout with our roomies till their rides arrived. Took some selfies. Acted like the dorks we are and made awesome memories. We’ve already began to make plans for next year. Turns out we are all pretty sappy, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. So much happened...I wish I could put it all down in words, but I can’t, so I leave this post as it is and end it here. More to follow, including pictures and videos as well as links.
-Dare
P.S. I want to thank my roomies for being so awesome. I know I said all of this on FB already, but I truly am glad you all could attend and room with me this year. You guys were the funnest bunch of coconuts to hang with. “Oh my!”
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On a happier note look what finally arrived in the mail today. I’ve been waiting so long for these to get here and I can’t be anymore happier. They are so awesome and the top one is huge. They’re even more gorgeous in person. I am also grateful that @kuso-taisa offered these pieces to overseas customers. I hope in the future they will consider making more of their incredible art available to us. Thank you so much, Hun.
-Dare