YaoiCon 2005

 

So this was YaoiCon's 5th year and my fourth to attend. I was really looking forward most of all to hanging out with the friends I'd met at last year's con and with new ones I hoped to make this year. For me, YaoiCon isn't about buying a bunch of porn, it's about socializing and celebrating friendships. (but the porn doesn't hurt)

I met a ton of readers whom I'd known only online and I hope you enjoyed meeting me as much as I enjoyed meeting you. If you attend the 2006 con, please consider hanging out with our friendly group. The more the merrier!

Before I launch into this, I want to thank all the wonderful girls who helped and supported me during this event. Shay, Chris, Rith, Dustin, Lydia, Becca, Mascha, Kasey, Ashley, Simone, Ally, Ashkie and many others rolled up their sleeves and helped me set up and tear down the JF tables, and they sacrificed their lunches to support me at the panels. You guys are just too awesome for words. Thank you all :)

Thanks also to Mascha, Chris, Lydia, and Dustin for supplying the pics for this report.

I flew into S.F. on Friday. I got all sweaty at the airport because they sent both of my suitcases -- which held *all* of the JF comics -- to another airline at another terminal. So I had to hoof it all over the place to retrieve them, the only good thing being that I got a travel voucher for my pain.

Hopped on the Westin shuttle and discovered I was riding with Suze, a really nice JF subscriber. We then met Margaret at the hotel. Lovely Margaret keeps the JF bookstore in business, lol. It was great to see her.

Then into the lobby where I found a very bored-looking Prettykitty_Aya sitting on her butt, waiting for me. Off to the room and eventually the others started trickling in.

There were events at this time such as a Resident Evil gaming contest, the swapmeet, the Opening Ceremonies and afterwards Bishie Bingo. We skipped all of that. As you'll learn, for the most part we tend to miss most of the events, lol.

At registration, I picked up my badge and found a surprise on the backside: Saya, whom you'll see later, attached The Power of Chibi Compels you picture to the back of my badge. It sounds like no big deal but it really brightened my day, so thank you, Saya! I felt special :)

In the lobby. From left to right in a horseshoe from the back: Rithannen, Kasey_Sanada, Astentatioux, Aeneus11 and me.

I felt really bad because I told everyone to look for me from 3-5 pm, but I didn't show up in the lobby until after 4, ack! That ended up being a pattern every time we all tried to get together and go somewhere. It always took *ages*.

 

Another shot, this time with Chris White in the pic (orange shirt).

 

Aya, with her con goodie bag and one of my boxes.

Dustin was so incredibly helpful to me during con. She lugged boxes, packed and unpacked, and kept me company at my booth. I am so grateful to you!

While in the lobby I also met up with Gnome again, the wildest Australian I know, lol, April, who doubtless had her hands full with con business, and JC Robnett and her friend Shelly, who are in the process of setting up their site, Sacred Band. JC is also the reader on the Juxtan Audio CDs.

 

Astentatioux(Ally) (left) and Kasey.

I believe I heard Kasey say six words the entire con, lol.

 

Last year we ate quite often at the Elephant Bar restaurant, so we hopped into vans and headed on over.

Waiting *forever* at the Elephant Bar for our first dinner together. Left to right: Ravensilver, Rith, Trespassor, Prettykitty_Aya.

While we were waiting three police cars zoomed up and cops ran into the restaurant to break up a bar fight that was already over. I was hoping one of the cops would be hot, but no dice.

 

Left to right: Ashkie, Dustin, Seneschal, me, Dionycheus (on the ground).

The restaurant gives you one of those vibrating thingies to tell you when your table is ready. I sat on that thing for what seemed like an hour. When it finally buzzed it wasn't as powerful as I'd hoped, damn!

 

Prettykitty_Aya

After stuffing ourselves we headed back to the hotel to set up the JF tables. Everyone pitched in and I thank you guys a hundred a times over for that! Then we crashed in our room for a little fete, lol.

Ally, sexy mama.

 

A nosy Rith looking over my shoulder while I finish posting the weekly update. I forgave her when she began playing with my hair :)

 

Sittin' around.

 

Seneschal, on her way to getting a wee bit tipsy, lol.

She, Ashkie, and Dionycheus brought a load of booze. I believe Ashkie single-handedly drank it all, hehe.

 

Kasey and Rith, catching some zzzzs.

 

So Saturday, first day of con, there were panels and stuff. I have no idea. I was stuck at my table the entire con. I didn't even eat lunch Saturday or Sunday because I had panels then. JFers would come by my tables and show me their booty, so that was good. I bought one video and that was it.

JF was in the FanMarket Room, which turned out to be a not-so-hot idea. Traffic was light. I was in there with PL Nunn, Junkee Munkee, Ponderosa, Kiriko Moth, Variable XY, and two other tables which I'm afraid I never caught the names of. Next year JF will be back in the Dealers Room madness.

 

Rith and our Finn cosplayer, Aeneus!

Aeneus was so cute. She walked around sucking on a lollipop.

 

Finn's butt, hehe.

 

Junkee Munkee

 

Me and Aeneus.

I'm not trying to get away from her; I was wearing 4 inch boots which made me super tall, so I had to hunch over to stay in the picture. I had originally been wearing a mini-skirt, but I felt too trashy so I donned the longer skirt instead. Fortunately in this pic you can't see how awful my tan lines were.

 

The JF tables.

Look at the new banner! Cool, huh?

On this table: Starr in Charge, Strange Bedfellows, Descent Through Darkness, the Juxtan Audio CDs, Tied Up in Lies. In the front are the bookmarks, the book of prints, and the Juxtan and A:R sketchbooks.

On this table: all the comics, and in the front are the Calyx Starr Fan Book and the JF Anthology (along with some random prints).

On this table: mousepads, bracelets, T-shirts, the doll magnets, Member of the Yaoi Sisterhood totebags, and the plushies.

Rith, posing with the cover she drew for "Starr in Charge".

 

Chris White's book, which sold out, along with "Descent Through Darkness", on the first day.

 

Pix, me, and Heartfelt at the business panel.

I take full responsibility for this panel's lack of structure, and give full credit to Heartfelt for supplying actual info at this thing. Poor Pix probably wished I'd never invited her, lol. But I guess some attendees took something useful away from this, so I'm happy with that.

 

Dustin as Aya, and Seneschal as Gam.

Dustin had her hair cut and styled specifically to look like Aya's from Weiss Kreuz. Talk about dedication! And not to be outdone, Seneschal taped her poor boobies into her armpits. She looked *just* like a man.

 

Gam again.

 

Fiouri.

She made all of the outfits she wore during con. The Resident Evil mask she's wearing is promotional from the Resident Evil gaming contest held Friday afternoon. Fiouri had a great con -- she sold out of all her comics on the first day.

 

After I closed up my tables we all decided we needed to relax and then eat before the bishie auction which is for me, the highlight of the con. So we spent more time waiting for everyone to get together in our rooms, before we eventually piled into cars to head to Pete's Cafe.

 

Our Calyx cosplayer, Rith!

She died her hair in the hotel that night and it looked awesome. I think she decided to keep the color, which is great.

 

Being attacked by a randy Calyx.

Rith pretty much became another person once she donned the Calyx get-up, lol.

 

Calyx turning her attack on Dustin and Iubire_Mereu (Ash).

 

Calyx, slutting on the floor.

 

Chris White and Rith at Pete's Cafe.

I thought we had twenty minutes to eat before the auction so I crammed my burger down my throat. Turned out we had nearly an hour. I felt sick.

 

Waiting for the auction to begin. From front to back: Trespassor, Prettykitty_Aya, Chris White, Rith, Seneschal (standing), and just visible in the row behind, Dustin.

This year the auction was held in the ballroom (apparently last year was supposed to be there, too, but the hotel screwed us). There was a huge crowd and unfortunately the stage was difficult to see, especially when a bishie dropped to the floor and did, well, whatever he did there.

 

Kage and Dustin at the Bishie Auction.

If you want to know more about this pic, visit Dustin's LJ. She'll tell you *all* about it, hehe. Just playing with you, Dustin!

 

This year's auction was impressive, money-wise. I guess everyone went nuts and saved up their lunch money all year because every bishie went for a ridiculous amount of money. I'd brought my cash box on the slim chance I caved in and wanted to buy a boy, but the prices ended up nixing that possibility. For the amounts these boys were going for -- averaging around $400 a piece -- I'd rather buy myself a hooker and get *exactly* what I want from him!

 

Saya, co-hostess of the auction, inspecting the goods.

Saya was a sexy beast in more ways than the obvious. The con staff auctioned her off at the end and she blew the roof off the place! Turned out to be some friendly hazing by the con staff, which was funny since some people actually believed Saya went for $125,000. If I bought her for that much I'd have her living with me for two years!

Bishies bowing down to Saya.

 

I love this bishie. He's so sweet and he dances wonderfully. If I had had cash to spare I would have bought him to dance with at the dance afterwards.

First bishie of the night and he was a gymnast!! I saw him upside down more often than I saw him upright.

 

Shiki.

For his 'performance' he grinded on the gymnast up above as a birthday present to him. *whimpers*.

 

Caled!!!

This bishie went for $1300. I ran down and gave him a business card. If all goes well he'll be cosplaying Caled at the JF booth next year. And he is sooo Caled: I had him write down his contact info, saying, "Give me your email address and phone number. I won't call you, but just in case." He looks up with one eyebrow raised and says in a pure Caled-cocky voice, "You'll call me." With any other guy I would've been like, yeah, right, whatever, dude. But he said it so charmingly/cockily that it just cracked me up (maybe made me blush, too, hehe).

 

Ashkie with a bishie full of money.

 

Seneschal with a bishie.

 

Bishie sandwich.

 

Calyx and Finn are such sluts.

 

Fiouri at the dance with Rob, lead singer of "Secret Secret".

 

Chris, Kasey and Rith getting down at the dance.

To my disappointment, I was utterly exhausted after the auction. I guess the week leading up to con finally caught up with me that night. I retired to my room and passed out while everyone else went out and partied *pout*. Next year I'm going to dance the pants off these girls.

 

More dancing, whee! Look at Rith and Kasey, haha!

 

Next day I woke up and I was *still* exhausted. I felt like such a con loser.

 

Me and Junkee Munkee, who is absolutely *hilarious*.

I need to make a point to hang out with her at the next con.

 

This day I held the JF panel. I had it in my head that this would be like a press conference where I would answer questions. But duh, you guys aren't reporters with prepared questions! So it ended up with me being lame in front of a crowd. That seems to happen often, I've noticed. Still, I really appreciate everyone who showed up to lend support and I did have fun with your questions and comments. It was great to get feedback, especially on A:R, so the panel was very helpful for me. A special hi to Ninsetta and Kate :)

 

Chilling in our room after the end of con.

Yet again, we're trying to wrangle everyone together so we could go somewhere. In this case, dinner.

 

Dinner at Yeah! Chinese Restaurant. It was pretty good :)

 

More noshing. Afterwards, we hit up Baskin Robbins for ice cream. Of *course* we did.

 

Lots of people left on Sunday. It was sad. It seemed like the weekend had gone by in an hour. I hate when that happens. Those who remained hung out in our rooms and chatted. In the morning, there were five of us left so we went to breakfast.

Monday morning breakfast. All who remain, left to right: Ashkie, Dionycheus, me, Aeneus, and Chris White.

Then Ashkie and Dionycheus headed into S.F. to hang out until the Castro Street Faire that night while Aeneus, Chris and I caught the shuttle to the airport.

There were some interesting panels and fun events at con. I didn't go to any of them. But I still had a blast because I got to hang out with my friends and meet new ones. I'm sure you'll find other reports explaining what went on at cosplay and the autograph signing, so go look for those on LJ I suppose.

I wish I'd written down the names of everyone I met at con, but I didn't so I'm sorry I can't say hi to all of you. I wouldn't want to inadvertently leave anyone out. But please believe me when I say I hope to see you at con next year and I hope you'll spend some time letting me get to know you!

 

Tricia

November 4, 2005