 Okage-Sama
De~ Tea Traumatazation Time!
When first informed about
the Okage-Sama De~ Tea I assumed it would be a quite
classy event with pastries, tea and civil conversation.
I should have known "civil cosplayers" is
as much an oxymoron as "honest politicians."
It was an informal event where I was fed only PB&J
and surprisingly, there was tea. And there was cosplay,
which lived up to the "Cosplay Tea" moniker.
I paid the small $7 entry
fee and headed into the equally small dining hall where
the fun and
games were held. Arriving a bit early, I milled about
with the small number of people
present. I checked out the three dealer tables, purchased
some excellently handcrafted little pancake earrings,
and laughed at the naruto graveyard. Later my colleague
KValentine arrived in a flurry of bites, kicks, and
polite card handing. His orders were to socialize and
network, which I did until the games started.
The first game was a
bloodthirsty race for the winning position in the most
brutal sport of them all: Musical Chairs. It was entertaining
to watch Rock Lee dance around in the middle of all
the cosplay competitors and even more entertaining to
watch said cosplayers leap into the chairs as if the
lives of their favorite bishounen character was on the
line. The first round ended with Naruto and Sousuke
literally wrestling over a chair.
Charades followed Musical
Chairs where we split into two teams and frantically
tried to get our team to guess the name of the assigned
character or anime. Mine was Tamaki of Ouran High
School Host Club and I looked like a chicken having
a seizure on an electrified floor. Luckily one of my
lovely friends was talking about him earlier so she
guessed it after my frantic gestures.
We played kick the Yondaddy
(4th hokage plushy) and I was flirted with in a manner
ranging from awkard to "Do I need a restraining
order?" Much love to those brave enough to work
up the courage to ask anyone out and
i was mostly flattered. A scavenger hunt was the highlight
of the afternoon and i got distracted when chatting
up a fellow Rosario+Vampire enthusiast instead
of commiting to the search. My teamates were one Hollow
Ichigo
and one Naruto, who had a bit more dedication for team
Melonberry (my choice). We won nothing but had fun baking
in the sun.
A poorly done Questions
Only game followed where my partner and I commented
how to improve it. Recess and food ensued as the game
ended. Some fool gave KValentine the microphone and
I performed damage control by wrestling it away from
him after rescuing a slightly traumatized Ino from said
megaphone wielding maniac. Supper was served and I
was a bit miffed that we ate amen and onigiri as it
was about the same thing Iwould have eaten if I stayed
home. But it was appropriate with the Naruto theme and
a nice relief for my grumbly belly.
After lunch came the
raffle. Throughout the day attendees could purchase
raffle tickets for a meager and nonviolent 50Cent. Three
prizes available were the mega prize full of assorted
anime goodies, a mystery bag well secured to prevent
advanced peeking, and the greatly coveted ecchi bag
which had a bevy of 18+ items. It was honestly less
adult than I expected with a few racy non-nude Chobits
pictures. I was pretty peeved i wasted most of my tickets
on the damned thing. The two tickets I spared on the
other bags won me the mystery bag. It had a Cardcaptor
Sakura doll and some other neat goodies. A rousing
game of cat and mouse started as people pawed Michael
for his ecchi bag. He chased down KValentine, who swiped
the Chobits DVD from that bag.
Kvalentine and I paired
up for the cake decorating contest. Luckily we got Cowboy
Bebop for a theme; something with which we were
both familiar. Our cake looked like a deranged cat shimmied
its way across with frosting covered feet in our attempt
to recreate Spike Spiegel's ship the Swordfish II
with Faye Valentine, Ed, and Ein. We won first
place... possibly due to candy Faye boobs we sculpted.
After scarfing down enough frosting covered cake that
I am pretty sure pushed me into the redzone for diabetic
shock, I was assaulted with enough candy pellets and
globs of frosting to get some WTF looks and was shooed
to the bathroom to wash up before the next activity.
I scampered over to another
room and when I realized where I attempted to flee the
scene like a bat out of hell. We were in a church. I
have proudly not set foot in one since I was 13. I did
not want to break my winning streak but I was dragged
back into it by my shirt collar. It was a bit nerve
wracking as I expected a pastor to try to make me confess
my sins. But instead we had a Masquerade where everyone
performed. My favorite was Sakura singing about a song
titled after her name and the Hetalia group fighting
over food preference. Okage-Sama De~ contributed a Q&A
panel where they answered questions in character and
Jiraiya's birds and bees panel. It was a bit jumbled
but fun and distracted us while they set up the dance
in the main hall.
The dance hall featured
someone's iPod. Everyone got their dance on and my partners
ranged from skilled to epileptic. And I was quite taken
with a very suave dancer who taught me to tango and
had me twirling around the floor like a pro. The rave
lasted late into the night and afterwards we all helped
clean up the hall. People who were not ready to depart
each other's company went to Carrows where the waiters
regretfully let us in. We were the
rowdiest and last to leave, but everyone had a blast.
I had the best time
at my first Okage-Sama De~ tea and am excited for the
next one! I highly recommend this event for any cosplayers
looking to meet up casually and have some laughs.
Love & Peace,
Photos shot with my friend Panda's camera and are used
with permission. Check the gallery
for the rest of the photos.
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