Cosplay year 2016 - the year of major f*ck ups

The title tells it all. This is the summary of the cosplay year 2016.

This was the year when I got absolutely nothing done. Yes, I ordered a shitload of new wigs and lenses + bought new fabrics, even started to make new costumes, but this year turned out to be more hectic and stressful than I could have imagined and cosplaying wasn't my priority number one.

(Btw, picture credits can be found on con summaries.)

But let's see what I actually did in 2016!

Yukicon 3.0 was held in Helsinki in February. I almost decided not to attend it since my physical health wasn't very great at the time but since I had been selected to host a lecture there I had to attend it... And I don't regret it.
Hosting a lecture for the first time was, of course, quite stressful and made me nervous but somehow I managed to stand in front of the audience for half an hour. And that's going to happen in Yukicon 4.0 too - I will be hosting a lecture about StarStable Online with my friend Merezone (who kindly recorded my lecture in this year's Yukicon)!

(The lecture is only in Finnish but basically I just spoke about the psychological and philosophical issues in the game series called Starshine Legacy.)

My costumes in Yukicon were these two:

Josh from Starshine Legacy in Saturday.

Gijinka!Darkrai from Pokémon in Sunday.

 I didn't make almost any effort for these costumes - like I said, my physical condition was shit and on top of that I was working as a helper teacher at the time I still think that all the symptoms I had were caused by stress so I didn't have that much free time either.
Anyway, I enjoyed this year's Yukicon a bit more than last year's, probably because it was held in a different building. When the con took place in Espoo the building there felt always very crowded and small. In Helsinki that problem didn't exist. Despite my constantly nauseous and tired feeling I enjoyed my first con of the year!

I was supposed to compete in Tampere Kuplii 2016 and that would have been my main reason to go there. Sadly I didn't manage to make my costume ready Chikane Himemiya, you're still my greatest enemy and it meant no competing for me. Anyway, I had already told my friends that I would attend it, at least for one day, so I couldn't skip it.
And yes, I attended it only for a one day and that was quite good decision - I didn't feel good at the con. I still don't know why, I just felt restless and tired at the same time for the whole Saturday. I'm not saying that the con itself would've been shitty or anything, I just wasn't feeling up to hanging out etc.

This year Tampere Kuplii was held in Tampere-talo (in the previous years it was held in the Finlayson area) and the change was... At least interesting. Well, I'm positive that things will be easier to organize there from now on.

My "cosplay" in Kuplii was casual!young!Severus Snape. I just didn't want to put on any "real" cosplay. You get what I mean.

I don't have anything else to say about Kuplii. Quite nice con, like it has always been. Hopefully next year I will get to compete there again.

Cosvision. Oh, Cosvision...
I don't think that I'm the only one thinking that the con itself wasn't very good. The location was good but Verkatehdas is simply just too small place to hold a convention if you actually want the convention to be big, For a smaller con the building would have been just fine, but... Ghh. Let's just say that I attended this con just to meet people whom I usually see, like, once in two years. I enjoyed their company but, sadly, I didn't enjoy the con almost at all.

I like the surrounding areas of Verkatehdas though; there were parks etc. in which it was easy to have photoshoots!

My cosplays for the Cosvision weekend were these:

2p!France from Hetalia: Axis Powers.

Ayame Sohma from Fruits Basket.

I didn't make anything myself for my 2p!France cosplay, I just bought everything for it(and actually the jeans belong to my Josh cosplay). I didn't even order a wig since my own hair was quite good for this cosplay at the time.
And Ayame... Well, it's one of my "if I don't have anything else, I'll take this with me" costumes. Nothing else to say about.

So, Cosvision was one of those "hang out with friends" cons to me. Except that this one was more expensive than the other "hanging out" cons I attended this year...

Tracon was held in Tampere-talo in September. It has always been one of those "I have to attend it!!" conventions since I begun cosplaying in Tracon 2012 nostalgia is strong with this one. I actually managed to make a costume for Tracon - sadly I'm not very pleased with it. You see, in the fabric shop I had to choose the fabric by color and not the material...
And I fucked it up at that point.

I also hosted a lecture in Tracon about Hetalia. I never found any kind of video material about it - it would've been nice to see it afterwards and look for things to improve but no can do. Maybe I'll learn with time.
This year, however, I didn't enjoy Tracon that much. I don't even know why; the con was well organized etc., but for some reason something felt very off.

Anyway, the cosplays...

North Italy from Hetalia: Axis Powers.

Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way from a fanfic My Immortal, written by Tara Gillesbie.

I made Italy specifically for Tracon and, well... It could've been worse but it could've been better. I'm likely to improve the costume, make-up etc. in the future when I find time and energy for it. Right now I don't feel up to it.

I bought a new wig for Ebony (I will link the store later if I find their website again) and improved her make-up. I also decided to wear different shoes this time. I think that I managed to improve her pretty well... Even though this was one of the most uncomfortable costumes I wore this year.

I also attended Kitacon this year; I happened to be in Northern Finland when the con was held. The con itself was one of those small cons where you just hang out with your friends. Sadly I just wasn't in the mood of attending the con and my own mood (a bit tired and a bit anxious) took revenge on me in the shape of anxiety attacks and feeling sick. I just don't like small places with a lot of people... Perhaps I'll get used to it at some point.

I still liked the con itself - if I happen to be in the north the next time the con is held, I will attend it. I can't let one bad experience ruin it for me.

I cosplayed - once again - Ayame Sohma.

Skecon - perhaps my favourite con this year!

At first I wasn't even supposed to attend it but, in the end, I decided to go there - and I haven't regretted my decision at all. The campus area was simply a great place for a convention, people were kind and the most important thing: I had fun.

This was also the first con in which I slept in a dorm can't find a better word for it and not in anyone's apartment/in a hotel room. At first I was a bit afraid to try it because my back and my left leg ache chronically but I found out quite soon that sleeping on a floor doesn't damage them any further.

The cosplays for the Skecon weekend:

Japan from Hetalia: Axis Powers.

...well, you know this snek quite well already.

I also competed with my Ayame costume; I didn't place (to be honest, I didn't even think that I would place) but I had fun - it was quite nice to compete after such a long time! I had actually forgotten how much I love to be on a stage. <3


But yeah, there it is - my cosplay year 2016. Hopefully 2017 will be at least a bit better - I already have some plans for it. I will also finish some other costumes when I have time and when I feel up to it. Hopefully I'll also get more pics of my costumes because I've been a bit lazy with photoshoots once again, oops...

But yeah, see you next time!

-Firith

Tracon 2016

Friday, 2nd of September

A few days before Frozen Angel had come to my place and we had decided to go to Tampere on Friday, a day before the con actually begun. The reason for this was that changing the e-tickets to wristbands was possible already on Friday and since Frozen Angel wanted to skip the long queue and I wanted to have my badge as soon as possible... Well, that's why we went to Tampere earlier.
We had talked with our now common friend Gure if we could sleep in her apartment and luckily she said yes. Unfortunately she wasn't able to come to the center of Tampere when we arrived but Rikari happened to be around at the time. She was also going to Tampere-talo to fetch her badge so we walked there together.
I had no idea which bus we should take to get to Gure's place (she has her own apartment now) but luckily Rikari knew the way and helped us. Thanks, I owe you one!
At Gure's we pretty much just derped around, listened to the songs linked below (don't even ask), did some make-up tests and Gure and I spammed silly stuff to people on Snapchat. At some point we decided to get some sleep because all of us knew that we should wake up quite early.

Saturday, 3rd of September

Gure and Frozen Angel were both up before I had even opened my eyes - mornings just aren't my thing at all. On Saturday I cosplayed North Italy, Gure cosplayed casual!South Italy and Frozen Angel cosplayed Germany - all of the characters are from Hetalia: Axis Powers, if you didn't already know that.
At some point (I think that it was past 11 a.m., oops) we left the apartment and went to Tulitikkutehdas. It used to be a factory back in the days but then it was destroyed in a fire. Nowadays the building just... Exists. We didn't have luck on our side though; when we arrived there we noticed that some sort of airsoft game was going on there so we gave up on one location and went to another building. I must say that the building is pretty spooky and if one moves around there (s)he has to be careful - the tiles might fall from the walls any minute and even though I'm a hard-headed person, I don't want any tile to crack my skull.
Anyway, Gure had promised to be our photographer. We took a few pictures there but since the light wasn't on our side we decided to change location. Other pictures are taken around Näsilinna.


Note; Frozen Angel and I are just friends. Very good friends indeed, but just friends. And if you definitely dislike GerIta pairing, scroll past these pics. I'm not forcing you to watch them. Thank you.

After the photoshoot we decided to go to the con place since the clock was already... Well past 12 o'clock in the morning and since I was hosting a Hetalia-themed lecture/panel this time, I wanted to find the room where I should host it. At first Frozen Angel and I (Gure had already left since she didn't have a ticket) decided to go to check the dealer's hall and the artists' valley - and I was so happy to see that Lumissa's Purple Octopus was there again selling the amazing hand-made jewellery (I bought a necklace from the collection on Sunday)!
In the dealers' hall we ran into Trixena and decided to hang out with her for a while. For my bad luck I wasn't able to spend time indoors almost at all since the uniform was so damn hot - really, the breakfast bacon effect happened again. We went outside and soon after Frozen Angel and Trixena decided to go to the local Subway restaurant to get some food. I didn't feel up to it and instead decided to stay at the convention area and meet people.
When I was drinking an ice coffee I heard someone say "Italy!" and saw a couple of other cosplayers coming to talk to me. They asked if I could hug them and of course I said yes - my ice coffee wasn't so important that I couldn't hug somebody and chat for a while.
I also spotted quite many Hetalia cosplayers and chatted with some of them. It's so nice to see people still cosplaying from Hetalia even though the highlight years for those series have long gone.

At some point I ran into Frozen Angel and Trixena again (after a couple of hours or so). I decided to go to eat at this point and immediately ran into Hant and his friend. It was so nice to see him and meet new people! I ate at the canteen since, well, the workers/lecture hosts etc. get some privileges and that was one of them, eating in a canteen. The food was damn good though.
At some point we - Trixena, Frozen Angel and I - also went to check out the Harry Potter meet. I've been a Potterhead for over ten years now and it was so nice to see and meet other Potterheads! We also ran into Frozen Angel's friend and I also managed to greet Saga Cosplay whom I have followed on Instagram and Twitter for some time now. It's always nice to see people outside the Internet.

Then it was time for me to host my lecture.
I was expecting for max. 20 people to come to listen to my explanations but, to my surprise, over 40 people were there in the end. The AMV competition was being held at the same time so I could say that I was very happy to see that amount of people.
I'm also happy that the audience once again discussed about the topics of the lecture with me. Thanks guys, you were a great audience! <3
If somebody took a video etc., could you send it to me? My e-mail address can be found on my contact information.

Almost immediately after the lecture Frozen Angel and I decided to guy back to Gure's place, change out of cosplay and then come back to the center of Tampere, We also met Vivian, one of my and Gure's common friends. It was so nice to see her too!


Sunday, the 4th of September

I woke up at some point during the morning. Frozen Angel had woken up a bit earlier and I accidentally woke up Vivian who woke up Gure - yet only Frozen Angel and I went to the con. This time I had my Ebony cosplay with me, once again. I still hate the character pretty damn much, but well, at least I don't have to take everything so seriously in that costume.

Since it was Sunday there wasn't much to do. We just took some pictures, Jarkko and I decided to have a photoshoot of my costume and Frozen Angel, Joona and I also went to the Maid Café. Somehow I just like those places and our maid was very nice!

Just have a couple of pics and a photoshoot about my Ebony costume since we didn't do that much on Sunday, just enjoyed the con atmosphere overall.

Photoshoot
Photographer: Jarkko
Character: Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way

(Quality © my mobile phone's camera since that camera is better than the camera I had with me...)

Other pictures

I might have fanboyed a bit when I saw this costume... Cosplayer: Awaek cosplay

My friend Asuka cosplayed Takahashi Minami.

A random picture from Maid Café.

I also know that I haven't been blogging pretty much lately. The reason is this: I haven't had anything to blog about. Yes, I have lenses I could review but my eyes still have the Sahara effect for some unknown reason and inserting the lenses into my eyes feels quite uncomfortable. I also haven't sewed that much - I have projects I've already started and I'm about to start a couple of more costumes quite soon. It's just that my blogging motivation has been quite low for some reason now, but I'll try to be more active when I finally get something done.
(And my sewing machine is still quite a bitch.)
A lot has happened during my silence. Please, forgive me.

Trying to become more active with blogging again,
Firith.

Vee~! North Italy WIP & preview

A few months ago I decided to cosplay North Italy from Hetalia: Axis Powers at Tracon 2016. At some point I almost cancelled this plan since, well, I really thought that I couldn't make this costume - I've never made military outfits before and I thought that they would be too difficult for me to make, especially when I haven't made almost anything myself this year. In the end I decided that "fuck it, I can do it", called my godmother and she was kind enough to help me with the patterns etc.

So, let's begin~!

The collar shirt I used in my second Walter photoshoot is actually meant for Italy. I bought it from Tallinn in May since it cost something like ten euros and I wouldn't have had time to sew it myself anyway. Well, in that point I might have had time, but.. I know myself too well.

The first self-made thing for this costume were the pants. I used the same patterns which I used also for my James and Levi pants, just modified them a bit. Nothing too difficult, only took me a few hours to make (I think it was something like four hours). Note that the fabric I bought isn't legit for the uniforms but North Italy's uniform in Hetalia isn't legit either so I decided not to be too strict about it.

The next part on my "must to do"-list was the jacket of the uniform. I know, it's missing some details but I ran out of time (probably my own fault this time AGAIN) and since the uniform isn't legit I was like "nah, fuck it, it's good enough". I'll probably make those details later.
Since I hadn't done anything like this before I quite quickly contacted my godmother again and asked for her advice. And today, a couple of days before the con, she had time to help me. It took us 8 hours to make everything ready, and I had already made the lining, half of the jacket and some things for the pockets! x__x
One can't see the buttons in the jacket since the buttonholes are hidden under the facing - we decided to be ninjas since the buttons can't be seen in the reference picture either.
The most difficult thing to make was probably the collar. I've tried to make a similar collar before but without good results. This time, however, I managed to make it quite well!
I didn't have time to take pictures during the making process but there really wasn't much to photograph (and at some point the whole costume got on my nerves and I was ready to go into the rubbish bin).
Anyway, here's the end result (some kind of preview at the same time)! Pictures © my brother.

I'll wear the same shoes which I wore when I cosplayed Levi in 2014. I had no time to search another shoes so those will do this time.

But here it is, the blog post about my North Italy! See you at Tracon, vee~!

(Oh, and I bought my Italy wig from Lucaille WIG. I had a huge headache while doing the preview so I decided not to wear it but you'll see it in the photoshoot pics - and probably in a bunch of stupid selfies I'll post on FB and Instagram.)

-Firith

Cosplay plans for Tracon 2016!

Hello folks!

Since I'm not going to any summer conventions this year I decided to tell my final cosplay plans for Tracon. I just didn't feel like going to Desucon or Animecon so I just decided to skip them this year (which actually doesn't bother me that much since this summer I have A LOT of work to do so I'll probably be dead tired all the time).
But anyway, those plans for Tracon!

Saturday

North Italy (Feliciano Vargas) from Axis Powers: Hetalia. 

Since I'll keep a lecture about Hetalia on Saturday I decided to cosplay someone from the said series. Usually I cosplay France - as you know pretty well - but this time I decided to cosplay somebody else. 

North Italy's personality is quite different from mine but that's exactly what makes cosplaying him so funny! Making that uniform might not be so funny though, I can already see myself banging my head to a wall... 

I won't be a "forever alone Feliciano" but I won't tell just yet who will belong to the group - I think that they might want to tell it themselves.

Sunday

Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way from a fanfic My Immortal,written by Tara Gillesbie.

Oh yes.
OH YES.

I will cosplay this "omg I will love Draco Malfoy forever but Vampire Potter is the second best boy in the world!!1" lady once again, this time in a different outfit though - I read the fic through once again and despite my constant cringe I managed to find some information about her clothes. We've also been talking about a My Immortal cosplay group with my friends and I really hope that we will make it to Tracon! 

This time I'll sew some parts for Ebony's costume myself.
I still hate the character to nuts (and I hate her clothes ((not her style though)), those pieces of fabric will be so uncomfortable to wear) but since it's pretty funny to derp around as her I decided to cosplay her again.

But, yeah, these are my cosplay plans for Tracon!

At the moment I'm waiting for a couple of wigs to arrive and I should also review Italy's lenses - that might not happen in a while though since my eyes have been so dry lately that they could become a part of Sahara without anybody questioning it.
The lecture I'll keep will be in Finnish. Like I've said before, I won't keep lectures in English yet. I write and speak it quite fluently but... Nope, not yet. 

Still alive,

Firith.

Tracon 9 ja kuinka opitaan tanssimaan tangoa vartissa./Tracon 9 and how to learn to dance tango in fifteen minutes.

Hopsista! Jos tiedät olevasi allerginen fanservicelle ja etenkin sille ei-niin-heterolle fanservicelle, tämä päivitys sisältää kumpaakin, BL: ää ja yuria! Mitään erikoisen graafista täällä ei tietenkään ole, mutta joka tapauksessa: sinua on varoitettu!
Notice this! If you know that you´re allergic to fanservice and especially to not-so-heterosexual fanservice, this blog update contains both BL and yuri! Here isn´t anything too graphic but in any case: you have been warned!

Nyt kun suurimmat conidarrailut on podettu (joskin väsymystaso on edelleen siellä 9000: n yläpuolella) taitaa olla aika alkaa kirjoitella coniraporttia. Eli perjantaina lähdin siinä illan puolella Tampereelle, ja suureksi huviksi totesin ottaneeni yhden viikonlopun reissulle enemmän tavaraa mukaan kuin viikon reissulle Pariisiin. Tavaramäärä oli siis huomattava, mutta onneksi Rika (jonka luona majoituin, kiitos kovasti tästä<3) tuli minua asemalle vastaan ja tavarat saatiinkin sitten joutuisasti ruokailun jälkeen hänen kämpilleen. Oli muuten mahtavaa viettää kaveriporukalla iltaa pitkästä aikaa, kiitos Rika, Kage, Yuurei ja Minna! Perjantai-ilta meni siinä Free!-AMV: itä katsellessa ja Shingeki no Kyojinin crack-videoille nauraessa, kunnes oli aika painua niille kuuluisille muutaman tunnin yöunille ennen conia.
I've got rid of my con hangover (though my tiredness level is still over 9000) so I think it's time to tell you about Tracon. I left to Tampere on Friday evening and the amount of stuff made me laugh - I had more stuff with me now than I had last year when I travelled to Paris. Thank goodness I met Rika at the train station and she helped me to get my stuff to her place after the dinner. It was very fun to spend an evening with friends since I haven't done that for a long time, thank you Rika, Kage, Yuurei and Minna! At Rika's place we watched Free! AMVs and crack videos of Shingeki no Kyojin for the rest of the evening before we decided to get some sleep.

Lauantaina olikin Ayamen cossaamisen vuoro. Asuun kuuluvat piilolinssit jätin kotiin, sillä ne olivat kuivuneet todella pahasti ja vaikka ne tuntuivatkin testatessa silmissä miellyttäviltä, ne olisivat voineet aiheuttaa silmilleni pitkän ajan kuluessa pahoja vaurioita. Muuten koko asu olikin mukana, ja conipaikalle pääsimme lähtemään yhdeksän jälkeen. On edelleen huvittavaa seurata ei-cossaavien ihmisten reaktioita, kun astuu cossi päällä ruuhkabussiin sisään. No, conipaikalle tosiaan päästiin melko nopeasti ja piakkoin törmäsinkin Mallaan, joka cossasi Kyo Sohmaa lauantaina.
Lauantaina oli vain yksi itseäni kiinnostava ohjelma, joka tällä kertaa oli NCC-paneeli. Sai kyllä pohtimaan sitä, että josko joskus itsekin... Ensi vuonna tämä suunnitelma ei tosin ainakaan toteudu, mutta kenties sitä seuraavana? Vaikutti nimittäin todella mielenkiintoiselta, ja jos joskus voitan yksinesiintymiskammoni, niin ihan varmasti osallistun karsintoihin. Paneelin jälkeen sitten meninkin tapaamaan KuroNekoButleria, jotta saisimme sunnuntain suunnitelmat esityskisan suhteen selviksi.
Kahden aikaan minulla ja Mallalla olikin photoshoot-aika varattuna. Kaikki kuvat on ottanut Mimmistiina Photography, joka löytyy myös Facebookista samalla nimellä.
I cosplayed as Ayame on Saturday. I left the contact lenses that belong to the costume at home because they had dried very badly and even though they felt comfortable when I tested them they could have caused too bad damage to my eyes during the day. The rest of the costume was with me and we were able to go to the convention place after 9 o'clock in the morning. We arrived there pretty quickly and soon I met Malla who cosplayed as Kyo Sohma on Saturday.
On Saturday there was only one speech that interested me and it was a speech about NCC (note: 'speech' really isn´t the best word to describe it but I don´t know better words either so...). It made me think about it: maybe someday... Well, won´t happen next year but perhaps a year after it? NCC (Nordic Cosplay Championship if someone doesn´t know) seemed to be very interesting competition and if I someday win my fear of being on stage alone I will participate in NCC preliminaries. After the speech I met KuroNekoButler and we planned the schedule for Sunday since we took part in the skit contest together.
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon Malla and I had a photoshoot. Every pic is taken by Mimmistiina Photography - you can find her on Facebook with that name.

Shootin jälkeen Malla ja minä lähdimme eri suuntiin, eli suomeksi sanoen jäin hetkeksi hengaamaan itsekseni. Onneksi Tiina ilmaantui paikalle suhteellisen nopeasti, ja liikuinkin sitten hänen kanssaan muutaman tunnin ennen asunvaihtoa. Eli siinä joskus cossikisan jälkeen (jota en valitettavasti päässyt katsomaan, mutta ahdisti ajatuskin lavan näkemisestä ennen sunnuntaita) lähdin Rikalle vaihtamaan cossia. Pakko sanoa, että jos en olisi sopinut kaverini kanssa Luka/Miku-photoshootia, olisin varmaankin jäänyt jo kämpille nukkumaan, mutta lähdin kuitenkin Tampere-talolle takaisin siinä joskus... En edes muista kunnolla enää mihin aikaan, yhdeksän jälkeen.
Löysin Annin melko nopeasti, ja shootia päästiin ottamaan siinä joskus puoli kymmenen jälkeen. Kuvauspaikan löytäminen tuotti ensialkuun hieman ongelmia, sillä valaistus alkoi olla jo melko huono, mutta lopulta kaupunkimaisema ja Tampere-talon oma valaistus tarjosivat otollisen valaistuksen. Kuvat on ottanut Joona Matero.
After the photoshoot Malla went somewhere and I hanged out with myself for a while. Thank goodness I saw Tiina pretty soon and I hanged out with her for a few hours until I decided to change costume. So, after the Saturday's cosplay competitions (unfortunately I didn't see them but only thinking about seeing the stage before Sunday almost caused me a panic attack) I left to Rika's place to change my costume. I have to say that if I hadn't promised a photoshoot time to my friend who cosplayed as Luka I would have stayed at Rika's place and get enough sleep. However I went back to Tampere-talo... I don't even remember the time anymore, after 9 o'clock in the evening.
I found Anni pretty soon and we were able to take the photoshoot after half past 9 in the evening. Finding a place to take pics caused some problems because there was so little light left but thank goodness lights of the city and Tampere-talo's own lights were enough. Pics are taken by Joona Matero.

Anni lähti sitten etsimään omia kavereitaan, ja itse pyörin sitten hetken omassa seurassani siinä jälleen. Ilta ei ollut mikään hohdokkain, enkä edes muista siitä paljon mitään ahdistuksen vuoksi. Ilmeisesti yo-kirjoituksista johtunut stressi päätti purkautua kaikki kerralla, ja loppuilta menikin Keiko-chanin olkapäätä vasten nojaillessa. Tuli siinä vielä Tamamerua ja Satsukiakin nopeasti moikattua, mutta eipä minusta ihan hirveästi sosiaaliseksi seuraksi kyllä ollut. Ilta huipentui luonnollisesti bussipysäkillä jäätymiseen bussin ollessa myöhässä ihan liian kauan (Luka ei ole se maailman lämpimin asu pitää päällä, kuten olettaa saattaa). Siinä asussa myös tuli kohdattua sitä huutelua, joskaan ei conikansan puolesta vaan muuten. Odotettavissahan se oli, mutta se oli kyllä eräs iltaa kruunaava elementti. Onneksi pääsin Rikalle siinä joskus puoli kahden maissa, ja teekupillisen jälkeen olikin aika painua unten maille - en edes jännittänyt kisaa vielä tässä kohdassa. 
After the photoshoot Anni went to look for her friends and I - once again - hanged out with myself for a while. The evening wasn't the best one I've had and I don't even remember much of it since I felt so uneasy. I think that all stress that the matriculation exam had caused broke out and the rest of the evening I almost slept agains Keiko-chan's shoulder. I saw Tamameru and Satsuki but I really wasn't a social butterfly so I didn't speak with them much. And, of course, the bus was way too much late and I felt frozen (Luka isn't very warm costume to wear). There were also some people who shouted and whistled at me but they were others, not cosplayers. I knew it would happen but it still didn't feel nice. I was at Rika's place at half past 1 in the morning and after a cup of tea it was time to get some sleep - I didn't feel too excited about the performance contest at that point. 

Sunnuntaina sitten noustiinkin enemmän taikka vähemmän pirteästi sängynpohjalta siinä vähän yli seitsemän. Tässä vaiheessa jännitys alkoi olla sitä luokkaa, että kurkusta alas meni käytännössä vain kahvi ja hieman jotakin syömisen puolta. Cossi löysi tiensä päälleni, ja leukani päätti pudota lattian tasalle vilkaistessani peiliin - mitä hemmettiä, hahmonäköisyyskin pelasi vaihteen vuoksi ja cossi näytti hyvältä o__O Siinä lähti saman tien se noin 50 % kaikesta panikoinnista ja stressistä. Tampere-talolle en ihan yhdeksäksi ehtinyt, mutta nopea tekstari cosplay-vastaavalle hoiti aikataulupaniikinkin ihan mallikkaasti pois.
Conipaikalla olin noin puoli kymmeneltä ja suuntana oli saman tien bäkkäri, jossa tapasinkin sitten Marin ja KuroNekoButlerin (miksi mulla on jatkuvasti tunne että kirjoitan nimimerkkisi jotenkin väärin D:). Siitä sitten käytiinkin kuvauttamassa cossimme ja lavaharjoituksiin päästiin nopeasti. Tässä vielä voitaisiin mainita yksi fun fact: ensimmäiset lavaharjoitukset olivat myös ensimmäiset lavaharjoituksemme yhdessä. Silti lähdimme aika rennolla fiiliksellä kisaamaan, sillä no, jostakin sitä on aloitettava ja meidän kohdallamme se oli nyt tästä.
Kuten ehkä olettaa saattaa, ne lavaharjoitukset eivät menneet ihan putkeen, ja tästä viisastuneina siirryimmekin harjoittelemaan ulos. Tulipahan tutkailtua sitä esitystä kirjaimellisesti aika ruohonjuuritasolta... Totesin olevani ilmeisesti jotakin sukua katuharjalle, sisällä taas totesin olevani lentävä lattiamoppi (ei, sitä ei saa Lentävän Kalakukon sävelelle, yritetty on). Lopulta kaikki oli suurinpiirtein kunnossa, ja päätimme testata esitystä vielä myöhemmin bäkkärillä kertaalleen. Jännitystaso ei vielä ollut edes korkealla - aika ihme, sillä joskus ennen kisaa en saa edes nukuttua edeltävänä yönä. Grell-cossissa oli kuitenkin itsevarma olo, sillä oikeasti: rakastan sitä hahmoa ihan liikaa ja häntä on vain aivan liian kiva cossata ;__;
On Sunday I was less or more tired when I finally got up. At this point I was pretty excited so eating anything proper was almost impossible - I just drank some coffee and ate just a little. I started to dress up and when I looked at myself from the mirror I dropped my jaw - bloody hell, I actually looked like Grell and the costume was pretty good o__O 50 % of all stress and panic was blown away at that moment. I couldn't go to Tampere-talo before nine o'clock but I sent a message to a person who was in charge of cosplay competitions and then it was okay.
I was at the convention place about half past nine in the morning and went straight to backstage where Mari and KuroNekoButler (why do I feel like I'm writing your nickname in a wrong way D:) who were waiting for me. Then we went to take the official photos of our costumes and after that was time to practice the skit on stage. Fun fact: that practicing in Sunday morning was our first practice of that skit ever. Still we were kinda relaxed because well, if someone wants to start competing (s)he has to start somewhere and we started like this.
Maybe you already guessed but that practicing didn't go too well and we decided to practice more outside. It was pretty fun to see our skit from (literally) the level of grass... I also noticed that I may be a relative to a street brush (...my translations, so beautiful...) and on the stage I said that I was a flying swab. In the end everything seemed to go quite well and we decided to test our skit at the backstage before the competition. At this point I wasn't overflowingly excited - it's some kind of a miracle because sometimes I can't even sleep properly before a contest. I felt pretty self-confident in my Grell costume because seriously: I love that character way too much and I love cosplaying as him ;__;

Jonkin ajan kuluttua menimme sitten ottamaan photoshootia. Kuvaajana toimi jälleen Joona (jolle soitin sellaisella kivalla puolen tunnin varoitusajalla, sori :D) ja hänen avustajanaan toimi Mari.
After a while we went to take a photoshoot. Pics are once again taken by Joona (I feel pretty guilty because I called to him and was like 'Can we take a photoshoot in half an hour?', sorry :D) and Mari assisted him.

Ja mitäs hittoa - sen jälkeen olikin jo aika painua bäkkärille niin nopeasti kuin kumpikin niillä korkokengillä pääsi! Fiilikset alkoivat siinä kohtaa olla luokkaa, jonka äänitehosteeksi sopii parhaiten Grellin rääkäisy Kuroshitsujin kolmannen jakson alusta (jos joku ei tätä kaunista rääkäisyä tiedä, se on jotakin "IIIIAAARRRHHHH!!"-tyyppistä). Kävimme esityksen vielä kerran läpi, ja sitten olikin aika siirtyä jonoon odottamaan. Kesken kaiken tunsin kuitenkin vasemmassa silmässä jotakin häikkää, ja hetken kuluttua välähti: ei nyt helvetti, piilolinssin kanssa ongelmia. Ensin ajattelin sen menevän ohi, mutta yllättäen linssi alkoikin liukua paikaltaan silmäni taakse. Ei muuta kuin pikavauhtia vessaan ja linssit pois silmistä.
Bäkkärillä tunnelma tiivistyi tiivistymistään, ja lopulta oltiin siinä pisteessä, ettei henki meinannut kulkea ja huippasi. En missään vaiheessa kuitenkaan epäillyt, ettemme pystyisi siihen, mutta jos totta puhutaan, en ole näytellyt missään moneen vuoteen. Grellin rooli tuli siis pikemminkin jostakin syvemmältä melkein näyttelemättä, suurin ongelma minulle olikin liikkeideni ajoittaminen. Juttelin siinä hetken vielä Catun (Yamuraiha) kanssa, ja totesimme jokseenkin huvittuneina molemmat olleemme viime vuonna myös Traconissa kisaamassa ja lisäksi vielä aloittelijoissa :D
Ja sitten yhtäkkiä kuuluikin "Numerolla 69..." ja oli aika nousta ylös tuolista ja varmistaa viimeisen kerran, että jalat tosiaan kantoivat. Viimeiset syvät hengenvedot ja lavalle. Jostain syystä koen aina lavalta tulemisen jälkeen blackoutin, mutta muistan yleisön kuitenkin nauraneen suhteellisen paljon. Tavoite saavutettu: yleisö viihtyi. Jos esitys ei auennut, ideana oli siis tämä: Sebastian kaatui, löi päänsä ja luuli melkein koko esityksen ajan Grelliä isännäkseen Cieliksi. Esitys pelasi melko paljon piilotiedolla - olen jostakin noukkinut tiedon, että alkujaan Kuroshitsujin olisi pitänyt olla vähintään BL: ää Cielin ja Sebastianin välillä, mutta tämä ei sitten toteutunutkaan ja sarjassa on vain vihjauksia kaksikon sisäiseen suhteeseen. En tosiaan ole satavarma, pitääkö tämä tieto paikkansa, mutta ainakin vaikuttaisi pitävän ja sillä siis pelattiin koko esityksen ajan.
And what the hell - after that was time to go to the backstage as quickly as possible with those heels! My feelings started to be something that I can only describe them with a voice effect from Kuroshitsuji's third episode's beginning - Grell screaming somehow like "IIIIAAARRRHHHH!!". We practiced the skit one more time and after that it was time to go to the line to wait our turn. Soon I felt something in my left eye and after a while I understood: bloody hell, problems with a contact lense. First I thought that it would go away but suddenly the lense started to move in my eye and the direction of it was "behind the eye". Well, I could do nothing but take the lenses away.
The atmosphere got more excited and soon I couldn't breathe properly and felt a bit light-headed. I never suspected our ability to perform the skit but to be honest I haven't acted for years anywhere. Grell's role came naturally and I had more problems with timing my movements. I talked with Cattu (Yamuraiha) for a while and we noticed that we both had been competing at Tracon last year too and in the beginners' category :D 
And then suddenly I heard "With number 69..." and it was time to get up from the chair and for the last time make sure that my legs would carry my weight. The last deep breaths and to the stage. Somehow I always have a blackout after a contest but I remember that the audience laughed pretty much. Goal achieved: the audience had fun. If the idea of the skit didn't open up I'll explain it now: Sebastian fell, hit his head and for the rest of the skit (almost) he thought that Grell was his master Ciel. We used pretty much "hidden information" - I've read that originally Kuroshitsuji should have been at least BL between Ciel and Sebastian but somehow it didn't happen. There are still some references to their relationship in the series. I'm not hundred percent sure if everything of that is true but it seems like it and our skit was based on that.

Koko kisa täällä/Full contest here: Tracon 2014 esityskisa

Sijoitusta kisasta ei tullut, mutta realistina en sitä oikeastaan ihmettele. Esityksen eteen oli kumpikin omalla tahollaan tehnyt kyllä kovasti töitä, mutta emme tätä ennen olleet työskennelleet yhdessä ja lisäksi minun kohdallani lavakokemus näyttelemisen suhteen on miltei olematon. Hauskaa kuitenkin oli, ja kavereilta tuli jälkikäteen palautetta siitä, että hahmoihin eläytyminen ainakin toimi hyvin. Mielestäni kärkikolmikko + Cattu ansaitsivat sijoituksensa, onnea heille vielä kerran!
Kisan jälkeen rintamasuunta olikin Hervanta, jossa Rikan kanssa vielä keitimme kahvit, söimme ja sitten lähdimmekin piakkoin juna-asemalle päin. Sen tavaramäärän kanssa taiteileminen oli kyllä aika luksusta... Not. En kadehdi isoja proppeja mukanaan raahaavia cossaajia lainkaan - herranjestas, miten ihmeessä te sen teette? o__O
Traconista muuten jäi kyllä hyvä fiilis, sunnuntai korvasi suurimman osan lauantai-illan angstista. Kavereita tuli nähtyä, ja sain jonkinlaisen esityskisakärpäsen pureman. Seuraavaksi suunta onkin vasta kohti Frostbiteä - mikä on kyllä todella hyvä asia, sillä olen jo Icy-cossini kanssa törmännyt ongelmiin: tarvitsemaani kangasta ei löydy koko Maa-planeetalta :I Vaihtoehdot ovat siis seuraavat: a) jatkan etsintöjä tai b) vaihdan versiota Icysta, koska kyllä minä tuon neidon tosiaankin olen cossaamassa!
We didn´t place in the contest but, being a realist, I´m not surprised. We had worked hard for our skit but we hadn´t cooperated before this (aka we hadn´t even practiced together before Sunday) and my acting skills are not very good. We had fun and my friends have told that we actually were like characters. In my opinion top 3 + Cattu really deserved their prizes, congratulations once again!
After the contest my and Rika´s direction was Hervanta where we drank some coffee, ate something and then headed to the railway station. It was fun to carry my stuff around... Not. I really don´t envy those cosplayers who take really big swords with them (for example) - gosh, how do you do that? o__O
My opinion about Tracon: I had really fun and Sunday was one of the best moments in my cosplay history. I met my friends and also got bit by a skit contest bug. The next con where I´ll go to is Frostbite - which is really good thing since I´m already in troubles with my Icy cosplay: the fabric I would need really doesn´t exist :I So my options are these: a) I´ll continue my searching or b) I´ll cosplay as one of Icy´s other version because I´m really going to cosplay as her!

Kuvasaldo muista cossaajista jäi harmittavan vähäiseksi, mutta tässäpä nämä mitä napattua sain! Jos näet itsesi ja haluat kuvasi käyttöön, mainitsethan nimimerkkini c: Minulta voi myös tulla pyytämään originaaliotosta, korkeintaan rajaan kuvia jos tarpeelliseksi katson.
I don´t have much pics of other cosplayers but here are the pics I took! If you see yourself and want to use your pic please mention my nickname c: You can also contact me if you want the original photo to you, I don´t manipulate pictures at all in practice.

Character: Kahrun Leather Set. Game: AION. Cosplayer: Quirky/Kissaten.

Character: Levi Ackerman. Series: Shingeki no Kyojin. Cosplayer: Paranormia Cosplay.

Characters: Ryuko Matoi and Mako Mankanshoku. Series: Kill la Kill. Cosplayers: Tuikkis as Ryuko, her little sister as Mako.

Character: Belarus. Series: Hetalia: Axis Powers. Cosplayer: ?

Character: Rin Matsuoka (police version). Series: Free! Eternal Summer. Cosplayer: Tamameru.

Siinäpä nuo kuvat! Nyt pidänkin ihan pienen hetken hiljaiseloa, mutta seuraavan kerran taidammekin tavata Lukan asun tekoprosessin merkeissä! ^^
There you go! I´ll have a little break now but I think that next blog update will be about making of my new Luka costume! ^^ 

-ShinigamiUchiha