The Duck’s Mini Comicon Tour 2014

Well, the comicon and the masquerade are now over, and I had a really wonderful time. It was actually one of the best days of my life, and the post for it is over on United We Game, if you want to check out the full article, including videos of some of my favorite performances. But, seeing as I began writing about this whole affair on this blog, I thought it would be most fitting to include extra photos here, including extra pictures of my costume. So don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you guys out. To be honest, though, I was so busy that day that, for the most part, I didn’t take many pictures of other people’s costumes, even though I planned to, but I do still have some things to share with you all that I thought were cool. (The stuff on my own costume will be towards the end of the post, including a video of my performance that someone in the audience recorded and put on Youtube. How awesome! Thank you, person!)

But, I’m going to make you wait for the good stuff (and if you didn’t get that, I’m the good stuff). Unless you just scroll down. That’s also an option. Anyway, time for a rather lacking tour of the comicon. I was drawn to the subject of my first picture when I heard a rather frightening series of roars coming from not far off. I headed in the direction of the noise, and what met my eyes but none other than an animatronic Balrog from “The Lord of the Rings”. At one point, the Doctor (from “Dr. Who”, of course) was trying to subdue the savage beast with his trusty sonic screwdriver. Sorry, I wasn’t in possession of my photo-taking phone then. Just know that it so happened.

 

Is that you, Ifrit?

I also like to visit the “Star Wars” section of the comicon every time I go, and seeing as this was my first time with a photo/video-taking phone, I just had to get a video of R2D2.  The video doesn’t seem to be working, though.  Sorry, my dears.

The last time I was at the comicon, they had the Tardis and a Dalek in celebration of the 50th anniversary of “Dr. Who”. They had more stuff for the show at this year’s comicon, as well, and while I don’t remember seeing the Tardis this time (though, it was likely there), I did take some pictures of some Daleks, one of which is below.

 

Exterminate? Not if I kill you first!

For a time, however, I was quite disappointed at not finding an actual moving one like I did last year. And then I spotted it, and I took a video as I stalked it for a time until I could get in front of it.  Again, no video, dear readers.

I got lots of people asking for my picture, which was pretty awesome (and I’m curious to see if they end up on Google images at one point), including one lady with a beautiful dress. I was so flattered that someone with such a lovely costume would want a picture of mine, and I loved her costume so much, that she was one of the few people there that I actually took a picture of. (Possibly the only one, come to think of it.)

 

Nothing like whacking someone in the face with a giant mallet. This image is Kefka-approved.

I’m not sure who she’s dressed as, but it doesn’t matter, because her costume was one of the best there. But, enough about them. It’s time for some pictures of me, no? And it’s not really so arrogant, is it, as I’m sure you must want to see this costume I’ve been telling you so much about. Right? Okay, if you insist. Below is a picture of me waiting in line for the prejudging. (Who thought I’d find someone with even more feathers than mine? See them behind me? She was in the Master category as Merlin. Pretty impressive feat to be able to enter in such a category, that is.)

 

I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate waiting in lines!

And here’s me just at the comicon. I think this was around the time a guy asked me not to destroy the world. Hmm, I’ll think about it…

 

Observing all my future servants.

And here is a picture of me at home, sometime around midnight or 1 in the morning or so. I was surprisingly not that tired, though I think the comicon made me hyper. But, I couldn’t bear to take off the makeup I had worked so hard to apply, plus it felt like the official end to a wonderful day, so I had to take a bunch of pictures before I could wipe the makeup off. It was still emotionally painful, though, and filled my soul with much sadness.

 

Hey, this isn’t Vector….

But, I get ahead of myself. I haven’t shown you guys any of the masquerade yet, have I? I now share with you all the grand finale of my post, my performance. (And the video ends before this, but the announcer dubbed my performance as “dandy”.)

Video from Youtube User: Blao9

That’s right, that’s the Duck up there, and I wasn’t quite as nervous as I was expecting. Once you’re up there in front of all those people (at least 1,000, I believe), you really can’t afford to be nervous anymore. I didn’t win, but I had a lot of fun, and I did get some cheers from the audience, and even though I was quite disappointed at losing, I realized that what really matters in the end is if the audience enjoyed your performance or not, and they certainly seemed to. And below are some pictures from the comicon’s Flickr page of me up on stage, as well.

 

Now who’s this handsome devil?

The crowd loves me. If they value their lives.

The bow. A dandy bow.

Ta-ta, losers!

The entire masquerade should eventually be up on Youtube, as well, filmed by professional camera-peoples working at the comicon, which I can share with all of you in the future. (I’m going to be famous for sure now. I just know it.) I had such a great time performing in the masquerade and getting to have so many people ask for my picture, that I’ve decided I want to do this again. I want to make new costumes every year and perform in each masquerade, and I’ve already decided that I’d like to try my hand at making a costume for Ghirahim (from “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword”). I already have a performance in mind (one that might be rather hard to pull off, but if I can manage it, I think I might stand a pretty decent chance at winning), and I’m currently contemplating how to go about making the costume, as well.

I’m actually making this into a rather serious thing. I’m going to get myself a sewing machine, and I’m even willing at this point to cut my hair in order to wear wigs (because there’s no way I can do Ghirahim without the white hair). And so it would seem that I’ve found for myself an entirely new hobby that I love, and next time the comicon rolls around, I even plan on going both Saturday and Sunday, so that I can perform as Ghirahim on the first day and then just stroll around the comicon on Sunday as Kefka. (I got so much attention in that costume that I simply must wear it again. Being Kefka for a day was just too awesome not to do again. Plus, the comicon will be much more relaxing if I don’t have masquerade-related things to rush around to.)

And I have one more plan. If you enter at least two masquerades, you then get to enter into the journeyman category, which has fewer entries, which means less people to compete with. (Plus, it feels like there’s more prestige associated with the higher categories.) There is actually another comicon in my area next February, and if it’s okay to enter a costume you’ve already done before, I’m going to perform again as Kefka at that comicon’s masquerade, because it’s much fun and because that comicon is smaller, so I might stand a better chance at winning with less people to compete with, and then that will allow me to enter as Ghirahim in the journeyman category once the next big comicon is here. How perfect is that? Perfectly perfect.

So it’s rather thrilling to have discovered another thing I love doing, I must say. (Are all my hobbies video game-related, you think?) It’s not everyday you find a passion of yours that you’ve overlooked for years, but I’ve found one (another one, really, as I’m passionate about nearly everything, it seems), and it’s funny because, when I was first looking into entering the masquerade, I nearly backed out of it when I saw I had to perform. Little did I know that this would actually be one of the best parts of the day. (It just goes to show, sometimes it’s good to try things you’re afraid to do. As long as there is no risk of being maimed, of course, and the chances of that at a costume contest are relatively low.) Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed my performance, and check out my post on UWG if you can, as well. It’s rather long, but I didn’t want to leave anything out.

Soon to Be the World’s Most Famous Duck