[ line at the edge of forever ]

so as i stumble out of the room, there's this guy, this bloody unspeakable yatsu sitting in the middle of the floor in front of the masqerade ticket booth. knowing what he's going to answer, i ask why he's sitting there. surprise, surprise. he's waiting in line for the masquerade. nine and a half hours he intends to wait.

i stand there for a moment. you can hear the wheels turning in my head. do i remain and talk to this lunatic, or do i go back to my room and write an article? this required hard thought. all of two seconds' worth. i sat on the carpet, carefully picking a space behind him. it is dangerous to be in front of the otaku in line. keep your hands in view at all times, and make no sudden movements.

we talk. he shows me what he's drawn during his time in line. all otaku who draw show their work to anyone too slow to flee in terror. ^_^

more people come by. the first guy in line keeps count. of both the people and the passing hours. . . . help me, i'm in line next to a loon. . . and it gets worse.

[ otaku cannot sing ]

it develops that one of our comrades in line has some anime music on cd and printed lyrics in roumaji. he gets a boombox. we sing 'first love'. badly.

this is a good time to repeat my observation that otaku should not sing. this is further borne out by other highlights of the evening, (though it's 2 am by now,) such as 'country road,' 'don't stop,' and 'you get to burning.'

at the end of it, my ears are bleeding. i head back to the room for a bit. . .

[ katchi, katchi, katchi ]

memory check. . .

discover that not only does my computer take longer to boot than lain's, my memory of the day's events diminishes by the second. undaunted, i type, blissfully unaware of anime expo's frantic attempts to keep from being shut down by disneyland.

[ anti-humor ]

jeff stumbles into our suite. at 4 am. looking very unhappy.

'i was at the music video pre-judging,' he says.

'didn't that start at 10?' i ask.

'yes.'

'oh.'

and with that helpful comment i consider how the mahou shounen must feel, having been shut inside a video room for the past six hours. . . 'so how'd you do, do you think?'

'badly. my video was near the end. it was like anti-humor. no one laughed at anything.'

hmm. . . i would feel sorry for him, but i can't seem to remember how, so i turn back to my sporadic article. we talk about the dealers' room, and jeff gives me even more reason to stay awake and see what's going on. . . he talks about the meeting between the directors that went on right after the music videos. i hadn't realised it was that serious. this was when i first heard that the con might have been closed.

so i stay awake and head out into the dawn. . .

[ line again ]

of course they're still in line. i say hi and talk a bit. . . but these are truly devoted 'line people.' ^_^ nothing i say will ever make them move. now the line is pretty long, though. . . stretches out of the building.

[ battle angel mickey ]

kawaii deshou? ^_^ seriously, lucky (the guy with the mouse on his hammer) was politely but firmly asked to de-impale the rodent soon after. aldo has some comments on this.

and, as an aside, by now i was developing an increasing respect for the guy at the very front of those hundreds of people in line i cropped out of this picture. doubtless that was precisely the opposite of the opinion of the director of live programming, but i like my viewpoint better. ^_^

[ happy endings ]

after nine and a half hours, the line is about to move. i visit our maniac in the front, and he looks tired but happy. why i cannot comprehend. i suppose that's what makes him a maniac. ^_^

but hey, he's got the first two tickets.

[ nothing ventured, nothing gained ]

at this point i'm kind of used to the idea of being press. very strange. . . but i spent a lot of time just asking people their thoughts on the convention. one guy, a volunteer, flew in from texas. i met him in the line, ran into him through the rest of the convention.

he said that he was enjoying the con, but not as much as he hoped. it wasn't worth the trip. his comments made some sense to me, even though i actually was enjoying the company of otaku.

i annoyed a lot of people asking for press-related information.