Skecon 2016 – New location and a car disaster

Hello people of the world!

I'm back home from Skecon (4-6 November in Skellefteå, Sweden) and I must say that it was one hell of a journey! I went there with Sacchan, Firith and my friend Marcus and this time all but Firith went there as con workers. Contrary to previous Skecons this year's edition was held in Campus and not in the usual Folkparken. Campus is an university area consisting of several school buildings and, while it's different from Folkparken, it's actually not bad at all.

But now, summary time!

Skecon poster.

The night before the con Sacchan and Firith slept over at my place. It was hella crammed but we made it work, lol. I did some day-before-the-con packing and Sacchan helped me save my Kashuu wig which had taken some damage from being stored. The night we spent talking a lot of shit and cocooning us with the help of a lot of blankets. As per usual we went to sleep way too late and because of that I don't think any of us got more than maybe 2 hours of sleep, if lucky – I know I slept 30 minutes and it felt horrible on the morning. Really horrible.

Friday morning came. I don't know how but somehow we all managed to worm us out of our beds and make ourselves look like humans for the trip ahead. Or at least we tried. When we were done we took our mountains of luggage and planted us into Sacchan's car. I remember thinking when leaving that I won't need my winter jacket, gloves or hats because it can't be colder in Skellefteå than up here – oh boy how I came to regret this later.
Before going to pick up Marcus from centrum we went to a shopping center to pick up a package and to buy some ES (aka energy drink). I texted Marcus when we were done with our business and it turns out that he had forgotten and hadn't prepared squat! Oh shit. D: I helped him speed-pack the necessities and then we left southwards.
We realized at some point that we'd never make it in time for the ideal "all workers should be at the con before 12:00" because the driving conditions were shit. For some reason all snow had fallen southwards from Kalix and it was really fucking weird to realize that even Luleå had a lot more snow than Haparanda did, for example. Basically looked like real winter and it felt unreal, considering the time of year and considering how late the snow has been in "southern Norrbotten" since the last 10-20 years. But yeah, even motherfucking Skellefteå had a major case of snow going on and all four of us were flabbergasted once we arrived. It was really something to realize that during the very first Skecon in 2012, which was held during the same time of year, there was no snow to be spoken of and now there was enough to look like we had time-traveled to January or February. I don't even.

Skecon entrance after opening. (main building)

We parked our car at a parking lot in the surrounding area – the cheapest one we could find. We had to walk a bit to get to the con but it wasn't for longer than maybe 5-10 minutes. But yeah, because the Campus area consists of several separate school buildings it took us a while to find the right one, especially because the con hadn't yet officially opened (we had to arrive earlier because of being workers) and thus there were no signs in which building it was. After running and slipping around for a while we managed to find one with Skecon people inside (spot them by the "funktionär" shirts!) and entered it. There we were met by some other workers who were preparing the entrance etc. We helped out by carrying merchandise inside etc and then we just waited until some other workers showed up and then we were led upstairs so that we could get our worker badges and t-shirts. Yes, we workers got free t-shirts and it was pretty awesome.

Casual me with my Skecon worker shirt.
I look tired because I was tired.

Before the con I was told that workers shouldn't cosplay so that it's easier to see who is part of the staff and who's a regular attendant. All workers got these white Skecon shirts to wear and I got one with the text "funktionär" – I honestly don't know what it translates to but it's basically just that I'm part of the staff. Some people had shirts with texts like "team leader" so that it would be easier to figure out who has what position.

As soon as the clock struck 15:00 local time the con officially opened its doors to the workers. We had time to get the entrance reception ready and then it was time for our first working shifts. It's worth noting that all three of us were entrance workers, meaning that we took care of con tickets and also had to watch over the entrance so that no one without con bands entered the building etc. 

My first shift was from 15:00 to 18:00 and it was by far the busiest pass I had during the whole weekend because yeah, opening rush. My other work shifts were night shifts and the last two hours of Sunday.

Our table during the opening, feat Marcus and Sacchan.

During the opening we were in charge of the ticket buying table, meaning that anyone who hadn't pre-ordered tickets (there was a separate table for that) could buy them for the regular price at our table – we sold one-day tickets and weekend tickets along with tickets for the sleeping accommodation and food tickets to the cafeteria. Payment options were restricted to either cash or Swish and it posed some problems because we had no way to accept credit card payments; that's something that would be good to add to future Skecons.

When the first customer rush had died down a bit we moved our table and later on the pre-order and the purchase table were united to just be one table. But yeah, because I was working the 3 first hours of the convention I had no time to actually go check the con out and as soon as our shift had ended we all were Godzilla-level hungry and headed straight to the nearest hamburger restaurant –aka Max– before anything else. 

When we were walking in Skellefteå after sunset it dawned on us that it's hella cold and that there's enough snow to build a snowman. :DD I started worrying if the sleeping accommodation would be cold as fuck during the night but I tried not to worry about it too much and hey, that's the reason I took with me no less than 3 big wool blankets, two mattresses and my sleeping bag. But yeah, Max wasn't far away and the walk there probably didn't take us longer than 5 minutes. We ate some warm burgers (discount coupons are awesome) and then we headed back to the con. We made sure not to take too long because me and Sacchan had a second working shift during the Friday and it was from 21:00 to 00:00.

Honestly, the whole Friday I barely had time to check out what the con had to offer because I was either stuck to my working position or I was eating hamburgers. I did do a quick run around before my second pass but didn't have time to actually do any closer checks on anything. During my short amount of free time I helped Firith change into his casual Japan (Hetalia) cosplay that I let him borrow and I also took some photos of him later. I don't remember what else I did during that time but I do remember that once our second shift was done me, Sacchan and Firith were rather tired and just wanted to go sleep – the lack of sleep during the previous night took its toll. I remember asking the info workers for directions of where the sleeping accommodation was and received some vague description about an E-shaped building closeby. I wasn't told where exactly this was and so the three of us jumped into the car and tried to manage with what little information we had. 

After circling around the Campus area for a while and being confused by the few "sovsal" (sleeping accommodation) direction signs we could find we randomly ran into Marcus outside. He had seemingly been looking for us and had some business with our car, aka he needed some of his sleeping stuff from the trunk. The thing is that Marcus had one of those 04:00 to 07:00 night/morning shifts and had decided that he'd try sleeping at the con, before his shift, instead of going to the actual sleeping accommodation. Nevertheless he and his long legs (he's a really fast walker/runner) decided to help us in our frustrating mission to find the damn sleeping place – the whole thing turned into a game of "Follow Marcus" while three of us sat in the car and slowly drove after him while he ran around and tried every door of every even remotely E-shaped building in the vicinity. xD Much to our disappointment all the doors were locked and then I got fed up with this guessing game and we drove back to the con building and asked for clearer directions. Turns out the building isn't even in the Campus grounds – Y U NO TELL ME THIS EARLIER?? (屮ﾟДﾟ)屮

Oh well, some other guy with a car was heading there and he was kind enough to wait for us and so we followed him to the sleeping accommodation. Hori shitto, finally.

A map showing the way from Skecon to the sleeping accommodation.
Guess if this was available when we needed it? :-DD

Once we got there we emptied our whole car in one go and can I say one thing? SO MUCH STUFF. D: Like really, no one had a single finger available when we plowed through the snowy shortcut to get to the backdoor of the building. My fingers were literally cramping because of the stuff I had to carry and because of the biting cold. Once inside the building we were shown around and told that con workers had a different classroom to sleep in than the rest. Seemingly there was one room for workers and like 4 rooms for usual congoers. After some explanations of our situation (a friend group of Finns and some with risks of panic attacks, pains etc) they agreed on letting me and Sacchan sleep in the same classroom as Firith, who wasn't working. We thought it better this way and were really delighted to see that the sleeping accommodation workers cared enough to do an exception for us.

I'm not sure why but for some reason we got to sleep the first night in an completely empty classroom and that was awesome. Later on in the night my friend Vicktor showed up in the same room, omg. I remember being able to sleep surprisingly damn well on the floor (what the heck? I never sleep well in these) and actually wasn't cold at all during the night! I was also happy that I had no early shifts on the Saturday and thus I could sleep longer.

Just showing off the con band.

Saturday morning. I had put some alarms but couldn't be bothered to wake up to any of them. #noregrets
Everyone was sleeping (except Marcus who wasn't there) until some worker came in and woke us up by saying that we have to get up because they will close the sleeping accommodation after 30 minutes. Turns out it's won't open again until ten in the night and if we needed something during the day we'd have to bring it with us. So yeah, nothing to do but change out of my pyjama, prepare to leave and wake up Vicktor who was still sleeping, unaware of anything thanks to earbuds and a sleeping mask. Vicktor was working at the con too, by the way. Not in the entrance though but in the RTF, aka Random Task Force.
Just before leaving we're told by another sleeping accommodation worker that there had been some error and they will have to move our stuff to another classroom. It was fine with us three as long as our request to still be in the same room and next to each other was still valid, which it was.
We exited the building, jumped into the car (Vicktor included) and asked each other who remembered the way back – no one did. Fuck. :'D So yeah, what was to follow was another one of those "we have no idea where we're going" trips around Skellefteå. We ended up with a dead end (thanks Vicktor xD) and drove around until we got lucky and somehow found our way out – although in a completely different place than yesterday. Oh well, despite the detour we found our way back to Campus!

This year Skecon even had a new banner. :'D

Once at the con I think I went to check around the building, now that I had almost the whole day to explore. Now that the sun was out the building was really lit, thanks to the huge amount of big windows and glass corridors. It's a really comfy building and fairly roomy. There'a a lot of bathrooms (incl. handicap WCs) and that's always a good thing. I actually liked the location surprisingly much, even though it might just be a "this year only" type of solution considering what might have happened behind the curtains. What I mean by this is that much earlier this year Skecon asked on Facebook on what time of the year the people want the con to be held and it turned out that a majority was fine with the time they always had the con on previously, aka early July. Thing is that at this time I think there might not even have been more than one month until July and if Skecon was to be held then they'd have to get it together in less than half a year. It could be that Folkparken was booked or something and they had to find another location and hence the location change. Then again, this is just my speculation and might not hold true – just wanted to mention it. This might also at least partially explain why the information was not running properly and it felt a bit unorganized at times.

Main hall/entrance area.

Cloakroom. Anyone could store their belongings here.
It wasn't guarded but I didn't have anything stolen.

The building's cafeteria. Too bad the opening times were really limited
and it hurt the con.

Cafeteria area. The stairs lead to the gaming room.

Skecon was held in, as far as I know, two different buildings. Forum was the main building and Campushallen was where the cosplay competitions etc were held because of the stage. The martial arts display was also in Campushallen. I honestly never went to the stage half of Campushallen so I can't say what it was like. ^^"

Convention schedule.

During my free time I think I first went to check out the Dealer's Hall. I didn't really find anything of interest this time. I was wary of buying anything because I noticed that the Pokémon plush dolls appeared to be fake goods (just like on previous years) and I don't want to support that. Artist's Alley didn't have anything that caught my fancy either, save for some cute cat stickers and those potted plant thingies – I've been wanting to buy one of them but I currently don't have anywhere to put/store it and seeing how crammed I live I don't want to take the risk of it accidentally breaking. Once I get a bigger apartment I'll get myself one because I love the idea!

View of the Dealer's Hall.

Pokémon Go themed caps.

Dragon and fairytale statues. That was something new!

One of the Artist's Alley tables.

They were selling cute cat stickers!

The snack shop was selling these interesting
DragonBall candies.

Once the clock struck 13:00 I headed for Campushallen. It was time for the Budokan martial arts display that I definitely didn't want to miss! I went there with Sacchan and Firith and watched the kendo fights. Something inside me woke up and I realized how damn much I miss kendo. Anyone who was trained kendo knows the "kendo smell" and it felt quite funny to realize that I missed that smelly odor too. xD

Budokan posters in Campushallen's basement floor.

One of the senseis talked generally about kendo and showed everyone the equipment that they use while training. Of course it all was familiar to me already and I just stood there and inhaled the infamous kendo stink meanwhile.
After that we got to watch the club members during their normal practice. They actually had a full training session during the con.

Kendo teacher telling interested congoers about kendo.

The kendo practicioners did some ji-geiko (free sparring), if I'm right. I couldn't help but notice that the pair closest to the entrance had one of the kendoka's using two swords, one long and one short – never saw that in action before!
Once we had watched for a few minutes we moved over to another room and there anyone who wanted could pick up a shinai (bamboo practice sword) and the sensei went through some basic information. Of course he was a really funny and charismatic man and threw in some extra bits of info and funny visualizations. I really enjoyed watching him and it did freshen up my rusty memory.
I picked up a shinai and we were to practice standing in kamae (at least the sword part of it, lol) and then hit the other one's sword away to break their guard and get an opening. Not too sure why this was the focus because it seemed like no one except me had ever done kendo before and thus had no idea how to even hold the sword properly, even less do a proper strike. I actually ended up acting as a secondary sensei so that there would be two "opponents" for the newbies to practice with. It was fun to tutor two guys who seemed genuinely interested!

Kendo sparring display.

Notice the dual-wielder to the right.

Once the try-on part was done I found the sensei in the hall talking about samurai history. Turns out that one of the armors on display was from his personal collection! But yeah, he told us about the armor and then some funny stories about how Japanese warfare was different in like 1100s if compared to 1500s. I actually learned a lot of new information and in a very entertaining way. I had no idea about the samurai armor "nipple rings". xD He also talked about the use of sashimono and how the early samurai cared more about doing something cool on the battlefield or to challenge a famous fighter than if they died or not. He also said that the katana sword wasn't always as important as it now is. Needless to say there was a lot of information in a neat and entertaining package, complete with hilarious faces and gestures. I love this guy, 10/10.

Display early samurai armor replica.

I ended up staying there for like 2 hours listening to his stories about his Japan experiences with the kendo and other budo clubs – I swear I haven't laughed so hard in years! His stories ranged from offering some Japanese men to taste snus (a chewable tobacco we have in Sweden) after telling them that in Sweden smoking is something that women do and yeah, of course the Japanese guys felt like they needed to prove their manliness or something (you know, if a gaijin does it it's cool) and the reactions that ensued, perfectly replicated by this kendo sensei's amazing skill to manipulate his face, were nothing short of hilarious – he even said that the original story ended up with both parties (Swedes and the Japanese) laughing hard at each other. xD
He told a lot more stories too, like Japanese children (young kendokas) tasting Swedish candies after practice and immediately spitting them out in front of the giver, only to have their mom hit them and the kid then being all "it's good, it's good" out of politeness even though their face says a different tale – of course this also led into mutual laughter afterwards.
But the best story was the one about some Swedish guy with Cerebral Palsy. He is of the kind that has problems walking normally and his face is always "hanging" etc – it's really obvious that he's handicapped, in other words. The thing with this guy though is that he's really good at judo or karate, I can't remember which one. He applied to some kind of high-end Japanese university for budo sports and got accepted. Once he arrived you can imagine the chock when the Japanese realized that this is not an ordinary guy but a freako. In Japan, sensei told, it seems like handicapped people are an embarrassment to the society and thus you rarely see anyone in a wheelchair in public etc – I don't know how true this is but I assume he knows what he's talking about. So yeah, now that this obviously handicapped guy had already come this far the Japanese seemingly just wanted to send him back home as soon as possible and thus sent the best, scariest, beast of a guy to fight him on his next (first?) practice. Turns out this handicapped Swedish guy beat the living shit out of this monster the Japanese sent just to get rid off him. Guess if they got an eye-opener? :DD The respect that ensued was amazing and even nowadays when this guy holds lectures in Sweden about his handicap and martial arts some high-ranking Japanese budo masters will fly all the way just to listen to him. It's an amazing true story about how people can change their view on others.

One thing though is that because I stayed so long at the martial arts place I completely missed the Saturday's cosplay competition. Normally I wouldn't have cared but the thing is that Firith took part in it with his Ayame Sohma (Fruits Basket) cosplay and I would have liked to see it. Oh well, no can do.
I waited for Sacchan and Firith to come back from the competition (I was done with the budo a bit before the competition ended) and once they showed up I called Marcus and Vicktor to ask if they wanted to go eat. Both showed up and we took the car to....................... Max. Again. #maxläski

Car filled with friends. ♥ #takapenkinfiilikset
Marcus, Vicktor and Firith derping in the back seat.

This time we went to eat a bit earlier because I figured that it's better I eat first and then change into cosplay, just to be safe because I'd kill myself if I got dressing on my vintage kimono or hakama.
Once we were done we headed back to the con and I went to change into cosplay. I had opened some new red circle lenses for Kashuu and I hadn't tried them on before the con and yeah, now that I was putting on my cosplay I worried that what if they are defective and I can't wear them etc. Luckily they were fine, except that they dried really quickly but, then again, that could be because of the expiry date being January, had I not opened them.

Only photo proof that I wore Kashuu.

I have a love-hate relationship with this wig. It's pretty and all but it's actually so goshdarn thick that I can't even pin it because there's so much fibers everywhere that it literally pushes the pins out! Fun fact too is that this is just a random cheap eBay wig. I can't even. I don't think I ever had a wig that was too thick.

I found Illuminati!
(on a random guy's overall)

The remainder of my free time, before my night shift would start, I spent in the video game room. I watched the Super Smash Bros. Wii U tournament for a while and then I went to play some Ultimate Marvel VS. Capcom 3 once I saw that a console was free. Too bad it was an Xbox but oh well. xD Me and Sacchan played versus against each other and had some fun with it. Neither of us had ever touched the game before but it was a blast to just hammer the buttons and wriggle the stick and hope for the best, lol.

Gaming room. Consoles ranged from Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64
to the newer generations.

TCG table for both Magic: The Gathering as well as Pokémon.

Crafting corner. Mainly drawing.

A small chill corner. I regret a bit that I didn't take a photo of
it during night time because there were some nice lights etc.

Mine and Sacchan's shift started at 22:00 and we were a bit late because we forgot the clock while we were playing some Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate with Marcus and some random congoer. Luckily Skecon peeps are super chill and no ragestorms happened. Our shift lasted until 01:00 and this time we weren't even tired once our shift was over. We actually just went back upstairs to the video game room, fetched some Mountain Dew and started playing on whatever was available. I almost jumped out of my pants when I saw that the super nostalgic Super Nintendo was free and Super Mario World was in. I played non-stop from the very beginning until I got stuck in that one side-scrolling fortress in the forest. I died too many times on it and had some hidden gamer rage that one time when I got to the boss, killed all four of them and then fell into the lava and died because the timer hadn't stopped and the ground underneath me vanished. >_>

Skecon also held a Pokémon tournament.

There were a lot of signs showing what was happening and when.

The overall atmosphere of the con was really relaxed and friendly. A lot of randomness happened too, like the workers at the info suddenly started to sing the HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA He-man parody song – yes, there were guys singing the high notes too and it was hilarious. Also, Marcus had a kazoo with him and he would play songs on it but well, once he did a sound that sounded like a moose's mating call and it stuck with us and stayed as a running joke throughout the whole convention. x)

During the night time me, Sacchan and Firith wanted to draw something on the paper that had been taped on the wall next to the stairs leading upstairs. It was one of those that some cons have on which attendants can draw whatever they want. At first I just drew a few smaller things but then stuff escalated and I drew memes, tentacles and even Dugtrio.

My beautiful tentacle. This is for you, Sacchan.

I had to do a Giggi because Giggi is love, Giggi is life.

Later on Sacchan came back to draw the Deviljho and the Memehunter. xD

We went to sleep really late, I think the clock might have been like 5 in the morning or something. Oops. Oh well, this time I slept really poorly because either my lower back hurt (because of the floor) or something else hurt. I don't think I managed to sleep much more than maybe 1 hour before we had to wake up because the sleeping accommodation was closing. Me and Sacchan also had the last Sunday shift, from 10:00 to 12:00, aka the con's final hours.

The thing is that on Sunday morning disaster happened. As soon as we got to the car (meaning me, Sacchan and Firith) and were about to start driving it became obvious that we wouldn't be driving anywhere. The car refused to start. Panic struck. We started thinking that it's hella weird that it would be too frozen to start because it had only been like 4-5 hours before it last was in use and after all it's not like there's -20 °C outside or something.
We started to fall into despair after several starting tries (car hardly even made a sound) and realized we're probably gonna be late for our work shifts. As if an answer to our prayers a random man with a young child is about to enter his car on the same parking lot and I ask him if he can help us. He said that it's probably something with the battery and that he could give us a ride, omg. ;_;

At the info desk one could purchase something
small to eat and drink. This was good considering
the poor opening times of the cafeteria.

So we got to the con in time, thanks to this friendly man who happened to show up at the right moment. Me and Sacchan did our last pass and meanwhile we tried to spread the word that we had a major car malfunction and would need to get it fixed or we'd be stuck 250+ km from home. Luckily for us Skecon has a lot of absolutely wonderful people and the other con workers spread the word around. Turns out that one of the girls in the info (if I recall right) is a mechanic and that my old con buddy since 2012, aka Mikael Alm Fjällborg, has a heart of gold.

This is Mikael in his Pokémon outfit.

We got together a bunch of people who went out of their way to fetch all possible tools and cables that could be needed to get the car working again. It is later confirmed that it indeed is the battery that died and needed to be replaced. Why now of all times? Then again, old car and batteries do eventually stop working...
Sacchan and some others went to Biltema to fetch a new battery. It took a couple hours and I stayed at the con overtime to wait for the others to return. Mikael offered to pay half of the cost and I'm seriously super thankful to him because we all were poor, especially Sacchan herself, whose car it is. The battery was changed into a smaller one but we were told that it would be enough to make the car function anyway.
The car started and we could leave Skecon behind us without further worries... or that's what I'd like to tell you. In the beginning everything went fine, we stopped at a gasoline station outside Skellefteå to fill the tank and continued northwards on the E4, the main road. We had time to drive a little bit under 30 kilometers when the car suddenly alarmed of battery malfunction. How is this possible, it was just changed? I freeze in panic, Sacchan panics even more and I can see that she is about to break down, tears are building at the corner of her eyes. I tell her to stop the car once someone in the backseat (Marcus or Firith) comments something that in the worst case it could blow up. The problem is that we're on the middle of the main road, on which one does not simply stop. But we have no choice but to park at the side of the road and put on the emergency lights. Sacchan has a complete mental breakdown, I'm about to cry because she's crying and I'm trying so damn hard to hold it in and try to comfort her instead. Marcus calls for help. Turns out they can't help us. He calls somewhere else and it turns out that we can't tow the car because of there being no towing insurance in the Finnish insurance company it's registered in, or something. Besides, no one of us could probably afford it anyway.
So yeah, we prepare for the cold (it's cold outside) and take the blankets and just sit and wait until someone eventually stops to help us, which is unlikely because we're on the main road on which stopping is forbidden. We waited about 45 minutes before a car came to our aid, a middle-aged couple who happened to have the equipment –and the heart– to tow us to the nearest village, a place called Byske. They left us at Byske bus station and I couldn't help but wonder what kind of humor God has that it had to be Byske of all possible places in Sweden. You guys probably don't know but ever since Skecon a few years back Byske has been dubbed "Sweden's Simo", thanks to Sacchan and her little brother Joni's comment when they took the bus that year and it stopped at Byske. Joni said the legendary comment, something along the lines of "Mitä helvettiä, ollaanko me Simossa?" (translates to "what the hell, are we in Simo?") and it has been an inside joke since then.
Now that we were stranded in Byske there were few options one could take. One was the bus but three out of four of us wouldn't have the money for that and I have no idea how in hell we'd get all our luggage with us either. Marcus got the contact information to a local mechanic but turns out that the guy is away from the town and wouldn't be back for God knows how long. Sacchan is still feeling like shit but manages to call her parents for help – her dad works with cars and heavy vehicles and would drive down all the way from Finland to help, although not amused.
Meanwhile we wait we prepare for the worst. It gradually gets colder and I'm so fucking thankful that despite this catastrophe we were more than well prepared for it with a lot of extra blankets, extra food etc – luck in misfortune. I have no idea how long we stayed in the car but at some point I got a sudden headache and Firith could instantly tell that it was related to the cold after my description. I don't even know how to explain that feeling when you end up in this kind of sudden and even dangerous situation. It's really weird. At some point your survival insticts kick in...
Marcus managed to go ask at a nearby foodstore if we could warm us in there and they were okay with it; I'm kinda surprised that anything was even open on a Sunday afternoon/evening in a small village like this. I was prepared to be forced to sit in the car until everyone slowly gets hypotermia. But yeah, we got out of the car and headed for the foodstore everyone was so damn frozen – I think Firith might have said something having problems to walk. We chilled in there until I felt like I was about to go crazy of waiting. I know we were stuck in Byske for over 5 hours, with everyone's phones low on battery and with shitty phone network too. The feeling when you try so hard not to panic that you almost turn apathetic in the end. You could almost touch the despair.
After forever Sacchan's mother suddenly show up in the foodstore. I swear seeing her face at that moment was like the best thing that could ever happen – it meant that we were about to finally get out of this frozen hell.
Sacchan's dad somehow got the car to start again and for a moment it seemed almost too easy. Me and Marcus went to sit in Sacchan's parents car while Firith and Sacchan were in her car. We barely had time to exit Byske before the car suddenly died again – oh fuck. This time it took a lot longer to fix and I'm not sure what exactly her dad did but he put something inside the car and did something with some cables. It started working again. Sacchan's dad made sure to drive in front and constantly check that his daughter was following behind, during the whole trip. I found it cute.
The driving conditions north from Byske but before Piteå were absolutely horrible. Talk about snowstorm. It was snowing so much that one could barely see one meter ahead and the road was almost impossible to see as well. Really scary, to be honest. Luckily it didn't last for much more than maybe 20 kilometers – what you mean local snowstorm?
I'm not sure how but Sacchan managed to drive her car all the way to Haparanda before it finally died outside Marcus' apartment, after doing some weird sounds. It had to be towed the rest of the way. Sacchan later told me that during the last 100 km the car had started warning about the battery and it's a miracle that it even worked for that long.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So yeah, despite the horrible end (that ended sort-of-well) Skecon this year was a good convention. It was clear that there were some issues with the information and organization but considering what a short time frame they probably had to work with I can't blame them for it. Campus as a con building works and I must say that I really liked that the "comfy corner" was back, been missing it since the very first Skecon in 2012. Too bad there was no anime karaoke room this year though, Firith would have loved that. Regarding working at Skecon I had fun and it was a giving experience – I'm sure that I'd like to work again at future Skecons too! Once again it's the people that make a con go from good to great. Skecon sure has potential and even though it's clear that they had a smaller budget than before they made it work decently. I will definitely keep attending Skecon and bring my friends there. Thanks for this experience and thanks to all the amazing people I met!

Thanks for reading and stay cool!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

Skecon 2016 plans!

Hi guys!

Kitacon is barely behind me and soon my next convention is already knocking at the door – never thought the end of the year would be so con-crammed! But yeah, here I am and this coming weekend I'll be heading towards Skecon in Skellefteå, Sweden. It's a small 3-day con that I've been attending since the start!

What's a bit different though is that this year I'll actually be working there and not just go as a regular visitor. I've been wanting to try working at Skecon for a couple years now and I felt like it was time to take that step and get some more con working experience (I've previously only worked twice at Nerdcon) under my belt! I'm a bit nervous but at the same time I'm excited, especially now that Skecon is in a different building (Campus instead of Folkparken) than on previous years. I can't wait to see what it'll be like!

So yeah, seeing how con workers are not allowed to cosplay during working hours I won't be able to cosplay conveniently on either Friday nor Sunday because of how my –presumably finalized– working hours are placed. Sunday is a short day anyway so I wouldn't have bothered with cosplaying even if I could. I happened to be lucky with Saturday though since it seems like my only working shift on that day is a night shift from 22:00 to 01:00 local time, which means that I'm free for a majority of the day, wiee! o/
Oh and yeah, a quick mention! When the preliminary working shedule was first shown to us workers I noticed that, for some reason, I and Sacchan had 5 shifts each while everyone else in the same team only had 3 shifts?? What the heck. Of course I naturally felt like it was unfair (on average it meant that we had to work 4 hours more) and brought it up and, luckily, it got changed immediately to be more evened out between all the workers. Normally I don't want to "be a bother" to the con organizers etc but sometimes I feel like I have to point out stuff if I feel like it's not right/fair. Of course no harm meant to Skecon – just wanted to mention it and yeah, mistakes happen. :) Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't have been noticed had I not brought it up and thus it's important to speak your mind during the planning stages.

But yeah, regarding the whole cosplay thing – I thought that I'd bring one cosplay for Saturday and, after going through my options, I felt pretty sure that I wanted to take a sword boy with me!

Character: Kashuu Kiyomitsu
Series: Touken Ranbu

I decided on Kashuu's uchiban/casual outfit because I need photos of this costume and I have a pair of nice red lenses that I really need to open or else they'll expire on January; I'd be sad if I got no use for them since it's a pair that is really good for cosplay. I'm hoping there would be other Touken Ranbu cosplayers at the con!

On all the other days I'll just be in more or less casual clothes, wearing the obligatory "funktionär" t-shirt (con worker t-shirt) during my working hours. I'll be stationed at the entrance together with Sacchan so be sure to say hi if you're at the con ~ ^o^

My (preliminary) working shifts are as follows:
Friday: 15:00-18:00, 21:00-00:00
Saturday: 22:00-01:00
Sunday: 10:00-12:00

That's about all I had to say! See you at my last con of the year!

Shiro Samurai out.

Fruits Basket Hatori & Ayame photoshoot

Hello people!

Some of you who read my Kitacon summary might remember that I mentioned that I had a quick cosplay photoshoot during the con. I debuted my Hatori Sohma costume and my friend Firith did Ayame Sohma to accompany me. ^^ It was quite chilly outside but we managed to get at least a few usable photos, even though a big chunk was unusable because of wrong focus or just not sharp enough. The photographer was my brother and he's sadly not very camera savvy, but we did the best of the situation and got a few good shots.

Cosplayers: Shiro Samurai (Hatori Sohma) & Firith (Ayame Sohma)
Photographer: Frozen Angel
Photo editor: Shiro Samurai

I just want to note that even though I used a real cigarette as a prop (Hatori is a smoker) on one of the photos I'm not a smoker myself. Firith let me borrow a cigarette but it wasn't lit.

I don't have anything else to say. Thanks for viewing!
Shiro Samurai out.

Kitacon 2016 – Morning poop almost got me

Hello puppies ~

Ah, Kitacon. That one comfy but small local convention that I've been attending for years. This year it was held on 29th October in a building called Sauvotalo in Kemi, Finland. As per usual I went there with my friends; a con with free entrance that is not far away is always a good way to brighten up an otherwise ordinary weekend.

Kitacon 2016 poster.

But before I get to the actual con summary I want to tell you a bit about the pre-con Friday!

Sacchan was sleeping over at my place and on the day before the con we were at a small Halloween party that Frozen Angel held at his apartment. Fun part is that during said small party I got really tired early but, of course, once I got home, took a shower and prepared to go sleep I... yeah, guess what? My tiredness just disappeared into some deep dark void and suddenly I couldn't fall asleep before I had tried 400 different sleeping positions and done a sacrifice to Satan. I don't remember exact times but I'm pretty dang sure I got less than 5 hours of sleep that night and, once our alarm clocks rung on the morning, I was so fucking tired I kept pressing the snooze button long after I should have gotten up. ._. I swear it was impossible – for a moment I even considered just staying home because of tiredness but, most of all, because my stomach was rampaging and shit was flying, literally. Yay, poop stories. In other words I was feeling really nauseous when I woke up; I had bad pains in my lower stomach and needed to run to the bathroom at least three times within 15 minutes – it was horrible. I constantly had the whole "I might puke" sort of feeling going on too. The con morning curse.

Once I actually managed to drag my ass out of bed it dawned on me that I had less than 1,5 hours to get ready (aka put on cosplay) before we had to sit in the car and be on our way to Kemi, at the latest. I realized that no way in hell would I have enough time and so I just became a filthy casual and jumped into the car. I also was too afraid to put on my cosplay only to realize that my nausea might get worse at the con and then I'd spend a too big chunk of my time frequenting bathrooms... No thanks.

But yeah, we got to the con a bit past 11:00 local time, safe and sound. I was being really wary and observative of what my body was doing and, because of this, I felt too unsafe to go attend the one and only panel that interested me. Oh well, it would have been too awkward to just suddenly leave because of an urgent need to run for the toilet...

Our company chilled around for a while, checked what the con had to offer and so on. Some sellers I recognized from earlier years but I think there was some new stuff for sale too. I didn't buy anything but a few items caught my interest, especially those kind of surprise bags. I mean, there were Pokémon themed ones! I also saw that someone was selling an used copy of Mario Party 6 for 44 € and I was really tempted because it's one of the Gamecube games that I'm still missing in my collection...

At times it was quite crammed, especially in the Dealer's Hall, but it was manageable.

Random main hall (incl. Dealer's Hall) photo.

After about an hour or so, maybe less, Sacchan told me that she'd go pick up her little brother because he also wanted to attend the con. I decided to come with her for company; she didn't live so far away anyway so I wouldn't be gone from the con for too long. Besides, I realized that my berserk stomach had calmed down a bit and I thought that it would be easier to change into my Hatori cosplay at Sacchan's home than at a small bathroom in the con, which were almost always occupied anyway. I wasn't patient enough to play the toilet waiting game.
Once we arrived at Sacchan's home I threw my cosplay bag into the caravan on the yard and went to say hello to their 13-year-old dachshund mix Piki. ;A; He's such a cute black sausage dog, I just can't. ♥  Sacchan put on the heat in the caravan because it was cold as fuck in that shit. I froze my butt off doing my makeup in there but I'm a true Finn and endured it like a man, lol. I was literally doing my makeup in my underwear and a leather jacket.
Oh and yeah, of course when I cosplay a character who only has one eye visible you can be sure that I'm gonna mess up the eye makeup and yeah, guess which one eye got covered by the wig? :-DD The one with the more succesful makeup of course – the other, visible eye, looked like a case of "end my miseryyyyy".

I didn't check the time when we got back to the con but our fetch-Joni-and-put-on-my-cosplay trip maybe took an hour or so. I remember Firith calling me and asking where we were; I of course told him that I had started to feel better and were putting on my Hatori cosplay so that we could have a quick photoshoot together later on.
At the con we quickly reunited with the group and just chilled around for a while.

Dealer's Hall items. Surprise bags always tempt me...

Pokémon merchandise.

We all wanted to go check the Artist's Alley upstairs since that has turned into one of my "must visit" priorities at cons lately. I don't know but I've kinda started to take a bigger interest in Artist's Alley merch and now I find myself buying more from there than from the actual merch sellers, if that makes sense. I just love seeing all the items that every person creates (it's always a surprise what's up for sale at each con!) by hand and, as an artist myself, it makes me happy to support the work of artists that I like by buying their products. Fan-made merch have a different feeling to them since each piece is unique, you know.

One half of the Artist's Alley.

I remember when I was at Artist's Alley in my Hatori cosplay a random person came up to me, excitedly, and asked if I was cosplaying Sebastian. I assumed they meant the one from Kuroshitsuji and I answered that I was Hatori. They just left without a word and I felt really awkward...
I can sorta understand the mixup though because both wear a suit and have black hair but yeah, neither their suits nor their hair style is the same so... *shrugs* It's not the first time someone mistakes my cosplay for Sebastian Michaelis – the same thing happened several years ago too when I cosplayed Toshizo Hijikata's Sweet School Life version (also wearing a black suit) from Hakuouki but, then again, this one makes a lot more sense because they're basically hair twins, almost. Fun fact is that both times I got mistaken for Sebastian I cosplayed different characters but had the same wig, except that my current Hatori wig is actually my former Hijikata wig that I cut shorter and styled.

Those dolphin plushies were so cute. I always had a thing
for marine animals ~

At Artist's Alley I found one of my favorite sellers in the north – it's the lovely tammukkasart's and hirnuperna's table! It's funny because I've been pretty much a regular at their table, almost always buying something at each con. I hope I don't sound like a stalker now, lol. I just love that they create merch from several different fandoms (as well as animals etc) and they are super fun and nice to talk to! I actually spent some time just babbling away and it was fun when they remembered me from previous cons, omg! It always feels so surreal somehow, ahaha. ;u; If I'm completely honest their table is one of the ones that I'm always hoping to find when I go to all these smaller local cons – it's the same people I bought my dragon form Haku (Spirited Away) and Magikarp scarves from and yeah, every time I wonder if there's any new ones up! Can't wait for the Gyarados one I heard was in the making.

tammukkasart's and hirnuperna's table.
The Touken Ranbu items are soooo cute!

Actually I got one of those Yamato no Kami Yasusada (Tourabu) keychains as a freebie and I was about to drop my jaw on the floor! ;O; I almost didn't believe it and I had to ask again to be sure if I had heard wrong. I can't really even start to describe that mix of sudden surprise and happiness – they're so kind that I just... just... asghfdsjghfds. ♥ Do check them out (the names link to their tumblr accounts) and shower them with love! >//<
I'm sorry by the way that the photo above is a bit grainy, it was taken not long before the con closed and the sun had already started to set, hence poor light conditions because yeah, this is northern Finland in the beginning of winter. Kaamos is approaching.

Of course there was the ogligatory sweets shop selling pocky, ramune etc.

Kitacon in itself doesn't have a huge lot of entertainment value but that's all the more reason for why I always go there with friends. It's one of those slow-paced comfy cons you go to and chill with your pals at. I didn't really care for watching the cosplay date nor the cosplay competition so most of my time I actually just spent walking around and then having a quick photoshoot outside with Firith as Ayame Sohma and me as Hatori. Those photos will be posted in a separate post so stay tuned for that, if you're interested.

This was one of the most interesting things up for sale for
a long-time Pokémon fan like me. The amount of nostalgy.

I'm actually surprised that seemingly no one recognized my cosplay. Or well, if someone did then they didn't tell me about it. Fruits Basket is a rather well-known series but, then again, Hatori looks extremely generic (black-haired guy in a suit) and not very interesting in a costume sort of way so yeah, I can understand very well. Oh well, not like I mind at all because I wanted a cosplay I could move around in freely and without any discomfort or annoying swords to carry, lol. Sometimes it's such a freedom to not constantly have to worry about bumping any props I might have into walls etc or potentially ruining my costume by sitting on the floor. Hatori was a good choice for this kind of slow-paced con because of its ease of wear. I sometimes feel like donning a more impressive cosplay is a bit of a waste at small cons anyway, because of the additional worries that comes with it.

Obligatory cosplay selfie. Bathroom edition.

It was nice to meet some friends I hadn't seen in a while as well, like Ronja. We didn't end up talking all that much but it was really nice to see her again and have a quick chat. I'm sorry though if I seemed a bit distant or something because yeah, at some point I was really freaking hungry and it was the only thing I could think of. xD
Oh yeah, some hours into the con everyone in my company were indeed hungry so we decided on where to go eat; most wanted to go to Subway but there were some votes for Hesburger too. I belonged to the Subway group together with Sacchan and her lil' bro Joni and because we're lazy fucks we took the car there. Real reason is that it was cold, mind you. We all took the cheapest (daily) option and I decided to try it with two sauces instead of just one – it was good to mix barbeque and ranch dressing, hehe.

The con's cafeteria sold some cute bakeries.

Sometime after eating I went into that one crafting room at the con. I don't know what its proper name would be in English but you know, that kind of room where you can draw and do creative stuff – it's really common in most cons I've been to. I ended up doing one of those doodle puzzle piece thingies to kill some time, it was fun. Sacchan drew her signature Buttman and then she drew... Hijikakka. Don't ask. xD

Yes, it's a Hijikata poop pun.
Made by Sacchan.

I also paid a visit to the gaming room a couple times. As soon as I entered I felt hyper nostalgic because there were only 8-bit and 16-bit games in there! I saw someone playing my childhood drug Super Mario World on Super Nintendo and all the memories just came flooding back! All the games were even played on those old fat televisions – all the better because it gave the right feeling.
The first time around I tried playing some Megaman 2 but that... didn't go so well. Damn those frogs and those falling chocolate bridges!

Megaman 2 gaming. Yes, that's the chocolate bridges I meant.

I'm not sure if Kitacon always had a video game room or not but, if they did, then I feel really fucking dumb right now. :)) I just can't help but wonder because if the gaming room was in earlier Kitacons too then I could have spent a lot more of my time in there enjoying myself while playing classics instead of being bored because hey, I love old-school games and playing them make me a happy geek. I don't own a SNES currently big sister wanted it back ffuu ffuu so any chance to play childhood games at a con is already a pretty sure way to tempt me to go there.

The last 30 minutes or something I spent at the gaming room as well. This time the Super Mario World was free and so I of course picked up the controller and played. It was fun to notice that even after years and years of not playing the game I still remembered secrets and where enemies appear etc. :D Of course I was far from as good as I used to be at the game but still definitely not bad. I really should buy myself a SNES one day, I need this shit in my life.

My loots. Everything's from Artist's Alley!
Articuno acrylic phone strap, Yasusada keychain and a magnet.

We stayed at Kitacon until it closed and even after it closed we had to stay there and wait because we got some problems with the car *coughnogasolinecough* and didn't want to wait outside in the cold. We got home safe and sound and, all in all, I really enjoyed this year's Kitacon surprisingly much. The video game room definitely did a lot in terms of giving me something to do. ^^ Sure that the con has free entrance and probably not a big budget or anything but considering how small it is it's a good one, I'd definitely keep on attending Kitacon.

I'm probably forgetting to tell a lot of stuff but I feel like this post is already getting a bit long so yeah, thanks for reading and yada yada.
Shiro Samurai out.

Fruits Basket Hatori Sohma makeup test!

Good evening folks!

Some days ago I felt like it was high time to grab myself by the collar and do a makeup try-out for Hatori Sohma from Furuba, whom I will be debuting at Kitacon shortly. This costume was originally supposed to be worn at Cosvision earlier this year but yeah, shit happened. :/ I did a costume test a while ago too but I never actually tried out the makeup and, well, nowadays I don't feel too comfortable just improvising something on the con morning. Too high risk of fucking it up.

I noticed when I took out the wig that, since I originally styled it before Cosvision, some of the hairs had gotten crooked while being packed away and well, now their default positions are really wonky and ugly. I'll need to run it down with a straightener and, possibly, wash and restyle it before the con because yeah, it looks like crap right now. Hatori would never let his hair be unkempt, lol.

Some Hatori selfies ahead (aka no photographer) ~
 Oh and yeah, the lenses I'm using are the Flora Diva Violet, great for bishounen characters!

I'm not 100% satisfied (can someone teach me how to makeup? ;_; it's so harrrrrd) and I don't think this will be the final look that I'll don for the con; I'm fairly likely to at least try changing it up but this should give you guys a general idea.
I'm still trying to figure out how to make the whole "anime eye" look work on my eyes because it feels like no matter what I do my (deep) eyelid crease gets in the way and fucks it all up. It's extremely frustrating and especially when none of my current liquid liners dry fast enough and yeah, then I accidentally open my eyes too early or something and, BAM, all my hard work is smeared all over my eyelids. >_> Also, lower lashes are a bitch when you're trying to use liquid eyeliner under your eye. People always told me I have beautiful long lashes but they're honestly a pain in the ass and constantly in the way, lol. Anybody wanna trade? orz

Psst, I'm going with the manga version –on which he has violet eyes– instead of the anime. I highly preferred the manga anyway and it was the one I first checked out – I honestly think the anime is crap (sorry!) but the manga is really good. Another good thing is that Firith will join me as Ayame Sohma, which should be a lot of fun as well as help with character recognization because, err, Hatori sadly looks like a really generic anime guy in a suit. Too bad I don't have any seahorse or dragon plush to carry with me, that could help as well...

That's about all I have to say for this quick costest. See you at Kitacon!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

Kitacon 2016 cosplay plans

Hello guys!

My next convention will be Kitacon in Kemi, Finland, held on 29th October in Sauvotalo. I see no reason not to go there seeing that I live close and Kitacon has always had free entrance, woop! Free local cons are always appreciated for a poor student like me, lol. I will go there with Sacchan and some other friends and, as per usual, I have little to no expectations of the con itself – Kitacon rarely has any kind of big things happening and I always spend a huge majority of my time just derping around with friends and chilling at some random corner. Not like it's a bad thing though because it's really relaxing with a small-scale con every once in a while. ^^

At first I wasn't sure if I could be bothered to cosplay, since Kitacon has always been one of those small "hang with friends" type of conventions, but after some thinking I decided to bring a costume – especially when Firith asked if I could do a pair cosplay with him. Firith was considering to bring Ayame Sohma from Furuba and asked if I could join in so that he wouldn't have to be lonely Ayame again; he even said that going solo in said cosplay had started to taste like wood. I can wholly understand, solo cosplaying is rarely as fun as group cosplaying when you get the chance. So of course, as the good friend I am, I decided to spare my pal from another wooden experience.

Cosplay plans in 3.... 2.... 1...

Series: Fruits Basket

Character: Hatori Sohma

So I decided on going with Hatori, mainly because he fits with Ayame, is easy to wear and I was originally supposed to debut him earlier this year anyway but then shit happened and yeah, it's been bugging me since then. ^^" I needed a costume that I can easily change out of because –as how things seem right now– after the con I'll be heading for a Halloween party so yeah, nothing too complicated that takes hours to take off. Hatori is a lovely character anyway, one of my favorites from Fruits Basket. I'm glad I get a second chance to debut him together with Firith as Ayame ~

That's all for this quickie. Hatori makeup test coming soon so stay on the line!

Bye bye!