a wild time at nostalgiacon!

a little recap of my biggest con trip yet, full of nightmare flights and dream opportunities!

#personal #travel #ramble · posted 06·05·2024

(more accompanying graphics coming soon!)

long time no see! for one reason or another, i was a bit too busy to update this site since march. i've been steadily doing commission work for the most part, but i also managed to finally get my learner's permit! so i've been taking little lessons with my family in empty parking lots, and i'm hoping to get all the basics down by the end of the summer. but besides all of that, i was putting most of my time in april and may into planning for this: the very first NOSTALGIA CON in san antonio, texas!

not only was this the largest con i've ever been to, but also the farthest west i've ever been in the US! and if i wanted to go to texas of all places in the middle of the spring, there had to be a damn good reason. something that i'd give my left foot to experience in person. and that was...

the first and largest yugioh voice actor reunion OF ALL TIME! apparently.

i caught wind of this event through a tumblr mutual, who said they'll be attending for their birthday. i knew for a fact that i wouldn't be able to fly out that far without permission from my parents and some heavy planning on my end, but the amount of FOMO i was feeling when i checked the huge list of guests was insurmountable, to say the very least. so, just on a whim, i talked about it with my family over dinner.

and... somehow... they said yes? my mom and sister were okay with asking time off from work to fly out and see san antonio. and a wild hail mary on my end ended up being the start of... actual plans to see this reunion!!! along the line, i asked my best friend (the one who got me into yugioh in the first place) if he could come, but something came up, and i brought my girlfriend along instead. needless to say, i was pumped, and did my best to plan our trip schedule to a T.

unfortunately, on the day of our departure... things started to go south. way, way, WAY south.

the evening of our first flight, the plane's arrival was delayed. one hour... then two hours... then three hours... finally, after four hours of waiting in our tiny local airport, the plane was here and ready to board. we were in our seats, and the plane was on the runway, when suddenly...

it turned around. the flight was CANCELLED.

i've been on a lot of flights in my life, most of them overseas. but never in my life has a flight been cancelled while we were SITTING INSIDE OF THE DAMN THING. on the bright side, i made a few friendly acquaintances with the college students on the flight; most of them were on their way home at the end of the school year, some even heading out to their graduation ceremonies. but regardless, all of us had to file back out of the plane and reschedule our flights for another day.

to say i was disappointed was an understatement. not only has this never happened before, but this was also my girlfriend's first time on a plane AT ALL! i didn't want this trip to give them a bad impression of flying, but despite my efforts, it still happened. we rescheduled our flight with someone at the front kiosk, and all seemed... okay. our next flight out of here was at the same time tomorrow.

...or WAS it?

we went home for the night, and got up and ready at the same time we did yesterday. but... something was off. i checked the airline app to make sure our flight time was accurate, and... nothing showed up. it was still showing our cancelled flight from yesterday. what gives?

i called the airline for reassurance, but what i got was the exact opposite. the rebooked flight the person at the kiosk promised us? IT NEVER WENT THROUGH. in a panic, i asked the person on the phone to reschedule all four of us to another flight in the day, any that were available. she managed to do so on our rushed drive back to the airport! but as soon as we came back to the kiosk... it was too late. the check-in window for THAT flight had already passed.

so, i don't want to talk too much about the breakdown i was having by that point. all of my plans and hopes for the trip were getting shattered right before my eyes, in ways that i had no control over. all you need to know is that from this point on, my face is red, my eyes are stained, and something inside me just... broke.

but no matter what, i had to make things right. we had to make it! so we talked to a few other staff members to see what could be done. a police officer gave us quite a bit of help, with him being a big traveller himself. this flight was meant to get us to north carolina, where a connecting flight would take us to san antonio. NC is a three-hour drive by car, and if we left as soon as possible... we could make it just in time for our connecting flight to texas. it was a gamble we were willing to take.

and as if god wasn't done playing tricks on me, all of the airport's rental cars were sold out; lots of people were making their ways to graduation ceremonies too. so in an act of desperation and financial irresponsibility... we got an uber. a three-hour, $400+ uber.

beggars can't exactly be choosers in that situation, but in my broken don't-care-anymore-as-long-as-we-get-there stupor, i still secretly hoped that this uber driver wasn't going to be a pain to ride with. and luckily for us, he wasn't! he was a super nice older guy and a retired choir teacher, and he kept us in good spirits the entire way to north carolina. but as time ticked on in the car, the check-in time for our connecting flight got ever closer, until... it was too late again.

it was too late again. by the time we reached the airport, the time of its departure was imminent. siiigh. fortunately, there were still options for us in a bigger airport, so we made our way to the airline kiosk yet again. when suddenly... i checked my phone.

the connecting flight got DELAYED. with just enough time to spare for us to check in and get through security! FINALLY, 24 hours after we were MEANT to land in san antonio, we were FINALLY getting on our very first flight. WHAT. A. RELIEF.

and our first flight, after all that turmoil, went off without a hitch. we arrived in texas at around 1am of the first day of the convention, and were sound asleep at the hotel by 3. and as soon as we woke back up, things seemed to take a turn for the better.

months in advance, we got a room at the hotel right next to the convention center, and it was a call i couldn't be more thankful for! not only was it a roomy two-room suite, but i realized something else when me and my sister were picking up breakfast in the lobby. the hotel's location wasn't just good; it was the one that a majority of the biggest voice actor guests were staying in! in the lobby, i noticed a guy in a fedora, talking to a guy with long white hair. i thought they seemed familiar, and a cursory glance at the fedora-wearer's suitcase, decorated with a seto kaiba and team rocket keychain... i had my answer. that was eric stuart, voice of seto kaiba. and i could only assume that the guy he was talking to was the one-and-only dan green, the voice of YUGI HIMSELF!

needless to say, i was giddy by the time i went back upstairs to change into cosplay. passing by two of the biggest names in the yugioh dub, before the convention even began, on the complete coincidence that we picked the same hotel??? it was too good to be true. somehow, right then, the nightmare of travelling here was WORTH IT.

and the convention went off without a hitch! it was one big room, full of vendors and artists. the voice actor guests were sectioned off at the back half of the venue, and to my surprise, panels were being held in the larger room, with two stages and seating on the sides. i was cosplaying weevil underwood, a controversial fave of mine, as you may know from my last journal entry. going as such a dislikeable side character, i mentally prepared myself for playful insults and "DURO MONSTA CARDO" jokes being thrown around like nobody's business. but, somehow... people were excited to see me. they actually kinda liked me!

it's a given, since this is the largest con i've been to, but more people gave nice comments about my cosplay and asked for photos than i ever expected! in fact, one of the vendors gave me a little exodia mini-figure still in-box FOR FREE, just so "weevil could finally have it". HUH?! and as if that couldn't get much better, two (2) people at the con recognized me AS viviraptor-art. THE ARTIST. ME. one of which even commissioned me last year! i wouldn't even blame you if you didn't believe me, 'cause i almost didn't either!!! if the terrible trip here was already worth it, then it was now QUADRUPLE WORTH IT.

AND YET IT STILL. GETS. BETTER! on the second day of the con, there was a yugioh panel featuring the voices for yugi, kaiba, joey, and pegasus, as well as one of the audio engineers for the 4kids dub! the panel itself was awesome to watch, but before it ever started, i met so many amazing yugioh cosplayers! i was cosplaying weevil again, while my girlfriend was cosplaying rex raptor, and my sister was chazz princeton. practically by the front door, we met cosplayers for mai, joey, and mana, and practically went on a scavenger hunt finding more and more yugioh cosplays! by the end there were about three kaibas, two yugis, the entire orichalcos trio, marik, ishizu, a BUNCH of dark magician girls, and many MANY more. needless to day i now could die happy in a room with so many fellow fans, especially ones that were so enthused to see me and my gf as rex and weevil!

after the panel was over, we held an impromptu yugioh photoshoot in front of the nostalgiacon banner. IT WAS AWESOME. so many people came to take photos, and even more cosplayers joined in by the minute! someone even asked me and a yugi cosplayer to reenact an infamous scene from season 4. by the end, we were all exchanging socials, and now i have a LOT of new friends on instagram. i didn't even use instagram very much before this, but keeping up with these awesome people was the motivation i needed to start checking it a lot more often.

(and if you look around, you can find a metric ton of pics of that big photoshoot. i'll post some of my favorites here later.)

so. big voice actors are staying at my hotel. my cosplay was positively received. and i made a ton of cosplaying friends, some of which even recognized me for my artwork. but even on top of all that, my experience with the voice actor guests was EVEN BETTER.

on day one, we met jonathan todd ross, the voice of marik ishtar. i was planning on getting an autograph and video as a gift for my best friend who couldn't come with us. he was so nice and amiable, and the video message we got of marik was unbelievably fun to hear!

next up were the big guys, eric stuart and dan green. both were super duper nice guys, and we spent a little extra to get a video of us with dan green. me and my gf wanted him to voice yugi and yami, having a conversation relating to rex and weevil (to match the cosplays). other than that, he got creative liberty, and he TOTALLY delivered! i'd like to mess with the audio mixing on said video a bit before posting online, but i really wouldn't trade what we got for the world.

and last but not least... tony salerno. rex raptor has had three voice actors in the course of the series, and tony was the third, only around for season 5. knowing that one of rex's voice actors was there at all was enough motivation for me to go to san antonio in the first place. the other two are busy guys; rex's first voice actor, sam riegel, has a big online presence for his participation in "critical role". and his second, sebastian arcelus, is on BROADWAY of all things! if i was gonna meet any of the three, tony was the easiest bet.

and man... did he make things TEN TIMES more QUADRUPLE worth it. not only was he super friendly, but he had a lot more to talk about regarding his short-lived role as rex than i ever predicted! he even had a red beanie with him, just that level of recognition for the yugioh character that's had the most influence on my life... it almost makes me want to cry just remembering it for this journal entry. i got an autograph and photo with him for a steal of a price, and the print i got is actually the best-looking one i got at the con period. but the very best part was... i showed him a drawing of rex that i drew to celebrate his birthday last year. not only did he say it was awesome, but as if things couldn't get any better...

he asked me if he could feature that artwork as an autographed print for future conventions.

NO. GODDAMN. WAY. WAS HE SERIOUS?

a voice actor for one of my favorite characters of all time, featuring MY ARTWORK for selling autographs?!?!?! my jaw was on the floor. i was over the moon. i always secretly wished that something like this would happen one day, but in the moment, it seemed to come out of nowhere! and just like that, as of this morning... it's up on his streamily page, where he'll be signing prints of it LIVE next month.

in just one weekend, it seemed as though those all 24+ hours of travelling hell were being gifted back to me tenfold. i was already a firm believer that good things will always come after bad things, and vice versa. and this trip was a culmination of just that. on top of it all, i haven't even mentioned the lovely time i had outside of the convention, just enjoying the riverwalk of san antonio with my family.

though, with all that said, the trip back still had some hiccups. our first flight was delayed, making the connecting flight impossible to board, so we had to stay overnight and catch the next flight home in the morning. in retrospect, what fitting, macabre bookends to an otherwise incredible trip.

so, after all that... what now? i've got prints, merch, and VIP souvenirs from my time at nostalgiacon to preserve the memories, new friends to catch up with online, and a gateway opportunity to work with voice actors like tony salerno. i'm actually working on a commissioned piece for him right now, featuring chazz princeton, another character he voiced in yugioh gx! i may be looking too far ahead, but if i can somehow find a way to keep working with va's and con guests on a simliar level... i'd be totally satisfied. but that'll only happen if i play my cards right with this one opportunity that i have. but a girl can still dream!

other than all that, things are the same old in the viviraptor household, just marginally better and more hopeful than before. i hope the travel story was entertaining to read, and the positives not too braggy. i really wanted to get all my thoughts and feelings down on paper (or screen) before it fades from memory forever, and that included the goods AND the bads. if i ever happen to have another good karma/bad karma experience like i did with my trip to texas, i'll let you guys know, and SOMEDAY it'll make sense. for now, take care!

viviraptor signing off! ❤︎