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Tales of
Anime: The Novel! ...Day 2: Vergil & Me
CaT and I were
on our way to a press conference when we were flagged down by the
Masquerade show recruiter. Apparently, he was short on cosplayers for
the show, and since I had a thematically appropriate costume, he wanted
me to sign up. The prize for winning the costume contest was a Nintendo
DS, but that required either having a skit or doing a walk-on. Both
involved getting on stage with the entire Con watching. Me? Getting on
stage?? HAH! I don’t want a Nintendo DS that badly, and even if I won
one, selling it on eBay wouldn’t be worth dragging myself in front of
a crowd of people. Yes, I went up on stage at Yaoi
Con, but that was for
DANTE! And it was only for a few seconds. Then the
recruiter told me that Reuben and Dan would be judging the contest. This
made me go “hmm...” *mental wheels starting to turn* Perhaps it was
a good way to get their attention and further my devious plans. After
all, I dress up as Vergil because I love Dante. Vergil x Dante is one of
my favorite pairings, so I go around looking for Dantes to kiss – as
Vergil. And as far as Dantes go, Reuben is the ultimate goal. I told the
recruiter that I’d think about it, and CaT and I continued on to the
press conference. Jo, one of the Con organizers, told us the rules for
interacting with the Guests of Honor. In interviews, we were not allowed
to ask anything revealing about DMC4, any personal questions, or make
proclamations of undying love. Nobody was allowed to follow, talk to,
take pictures of/with, get close to, touch or harass the guests in the
hallways or outside of designated events like the Autograph/Photo
sessions. And Jo was true
to her word! She herded Reuben and Dan around from event to event,
shooed everyone else off, and was seldom seen outside of ~4 feet of
them. Damn, realizing my master plan would be harder than I thought! *eyes
narrowing* Oh well, I like a challenge. Coming back out
of the press conference, I thought to myself that maybe, instead of a
Nintendo DS, I can ask for some, errm, non-material compensation for a
prize. Like, say, a hug... or kiss... from the judges. ^_^;; The
Masquerade recruiter was a little wary of my request, but said they
could probably arrange a hug or something if I won. SOLD!! It really
must’ve been fate. Because if I had said no, and if I didn’t spend
those extra three minutes standing in that spot filling out that signup
sheet, this wouldn’t have happened. From behind me,
I heard Vergil say, “Nice costume! Can I take a picture of you? I
played that character in a video game.” I’m not sure
if I should’ve been happy or panicking that he’s going to attack me.
And really, how witty of a line is that?! It’s perfect! I quickly
twirled around and there was Dan in all his... Dan-ness. I said “Yeah!
*_*” and did a little pose so he could take a picture of me on his
cell phone. Of course, I was grinning like a moron. Not very
Vergil-like. Damn. Once he was
done taking the picture, I threw everything I was just told at the press
conference to the wind and asked if I could have one with him, too. Then
again, he initiated it, so I figured it’s only fair to get a picture
in return. I tossed my camera to the Masquerade recruiter aaand here’s
what happened: $H!T... It
would seem that I forgot to switch my camera off video mode from the
night before when I was taping them playing the Wii. GAAHHH how
embarrassing! >.< I managed to set it back to photo mode and
finally got a picture. This is my happy fangirl face:
I thanked Dan
and he continued on his way, but there you have it... a picture of me
was, at some point, on Dan Southworth’s cell phone!! ^____^ Zipp Dementia
(of Devil’s Lair forums), who witnessed the whole thing, told me of
something that happened while I was spastically fumbling around with my
camera, oblivious to everything except my own stupidity. Apparently, Jo
came up to Dan and told him “we gotta go we gotta go this is taking
too long!” but he held up his hand to her and insisted on staying.
*dreamy sigh* DAN is AWESOME!!! *_* I bounced around singing his praises
and telling everyone how awesome his is all the way to the Guest Focus
panel with the Q&A... where he proved to be even more awesome!! Johnny, Dan,
and Reuben (and Jo O.o) were all sitting in a row from left to right
answering questions. Johnny... well, Johnny couldn’t really answer any
questions. Anytime somebody passed him the microphone he’d say, “I
can’t really talk about anything in DMC4” and one time, “Kyrie,
the chick that my character is in love with... I can-I can say that
much, right? uhh...”
Reuben was giving pretty straightforward, public relations answers to
everything. One interesting thing he did mention was how one fan wrote
him saying how playing DMC3 saved her from committing suicide. Dan, though,
was a complete goofball. Some highlights included him talking about
dislocating his finger while demonstrating a backflip. He didn’t feel
like going to the hospital to have it fixed and just snapped it back
into place for the duration of his shift, “...they still talk about
that!” And how in Mission 20 they had to motion capture his facial
expression for anger and pain, so he slammed that swollen finger into
the ground, “...and then I don’t have to act!” Somebody asked
if there was ever a time when he just didn’t feel like working, and
how he managed to snap out of it. Dan said, yes, there was one
particularly long day when he just wanted to cry, but he heard Tom
Hanks’ voice in the back of his head saying, “There’s no crying in
baseball!” So he perked up and went back to work, because “I’m a
stuntman! We don’t cry unless something falls on us!” And then there
was the Cerberus episode. Oh dear god the Cerberus episode. I think at
that point Johnny was trying to sink into the floor while Reuben was
attempting to calm Dan down, but it was HILLARIOUS!! You... just had to
be there. ^_^;; It was quite a
contrast. Dan was acting just like Dante and Reuben was acting a lot
more like Vergil. Dan was loud, funny, playful... making funky poses,
rolling around on stage, being friendly with all the girls... just a
ball of energy and charm all around. This reminded us of one of
Dante’s famous DMC3 lines directed at Vergil: “Look at you... making
a big dramatic entrance and stealing my spotlight.” Steal the
spotlight Dan did. No wonder Reuben and Johnny called him “DANgerous.” When asked about their least favorite line, they both agreed on “Jackpot!” popular though it is. “It's the first time I use a gun as the character," Dan explains, "And they want us to say 'Jackpot!' And I'm just... having a real hard time... with how and why and what the backstory is on 'Jackpot.' Were we in Vegas together one night?” Still, they reenacted that line several times during the Con and each time it drew zealous cheers. DISCLAIMER: if anybody doesn't want these pics or
the entry up here,
please contact me!! |
