We either had to get there by 2 or 4, and suddenly I can't remember which. I think I wrote 4 the other day, but I wrote 2 in the original journal, so it was one of those and it doesn't really matter. Why are you fretting over this so much? Get a job.

We very nearly miss it. We're already late, and N1NJ4 absolutely has to stop at McDonald's first. So shit. I guess we're stopping at McDonald's.

We get to the convention and go wait in the sitting area for Jon St. John to show up. Ten or fifteen minutes go by, and it occurs to me to peek in the window to see what's going on in the room next to us. And what do I see, but Jon St. John! There's a voice acting panel going on inside (Voice-a-Palooza) and we need to be there.

Accompanying Mr. St. John is Wes Johnson, Matthew Mercer (he's EVERYWHERE), and um. Well, the guy with the glasses. But not THAT Guy with the Glasses. Anyways, we sit in the back, I climb upon a stack of chairs, and dig for a camera just in case. The panel's pretty entertaining. I've been considering trying to get into voice acting, so I paid full attention. At the end, however, it got really good.

The four guys got together and, using suggestions from the audience, put together a scene they would (voice) act out for us then and there. JSJ was Blanche Devareux, a smoker from North Carolina. Matt Mercer was a... gay Scottish gnome, I believe. But those last two mostly seemed to converge into something vaguely Leprechauny. Wes Johnson was the narrator and shopkeeper (the shopkeeper being my favorite voice, somehow), and the fourth guy was Woody Allen.

Now, that IS quite a motley crew.

Woody Allen and his gay gnome sidekick are sent by Blanche to get a BFF sword and Slap-Chop from the store. They head out, and the shopkeeper's all angry at them a bunch and they get a knock-off BFF sword and forget the Slap-Chop. Allen, with his new sword, decides to fight Blanche. His sidekick turns coat and they attack Woody. He chop the gnome in half and dies. Dies a fiery death (insert intense, applause-worthy scream)! Then the narrator shows up and sells a vacuum to Blanche.

I get all of this on video, noticing halfway through that, for some reason, night mode is on. So every single thing in the shot that's black is now an odd shade of green.

They announce at the end that they'll all be getting together upstairs by the LAN Room. The moment the doors are opened, I'm out them and up the escalator. I'm going to be there first. Then some time passes, and they seem to be taking their time. Hm. My friends catch up and we head in that general direction, anyways.

We pass by a large crowd. The Protomen are all together, having a signing. They've got on their crazy facepaint and they're ready for people. Now, I had promised hitalec/Kyle (my P.I.C. from 2 Guys 1 Cast) that I would get him an autographed CD, if possible. So I head over and buy a CD and get a couple of the guys sitting near me to sign it for him. I tell them it's for my friend, Kyle, who couldn't be there, but who's a huge fan. When they ask if that's with a "K" or a "C", I tell them it doesn't matter, they can write whatever they want. He's got a sense of humor.

So the first one write, "DEAR FRANK, GET WELL SOON -TURBO LOVER". The second one does his thing and I look around, but the others are busy at the moment. So I'm standing there with the album open, because they signed on the inside and I don't want it to smudge right away. Then I feel somebody try to pull it out of my hand. I tighten my grip, turn, and say, "Hey!" Assuming, of course, that it's one of my dick friends doing the things that they do.

It wasn't. It was one of the band. He grins and says, "I've got to sign it!" I sort of smile and laugh all embarrassedly and let him do his thing. Then I get it passed around and soon this thing is filled with signatures. I get a picture with them for good measure (so I can send it hitalec and brag, mostly) and head over to regroup with my friends when the Voice-a-Palooza posse walks by. We leap into the crowd and I wind up right behind (who else?) Matt Mercer. So I finally speak to the man. I tell him he's just the man I wanted to see and I'm going to creepily stalk him the whole way to where we're going.

Then I realize I'm hunched over right behind Matt Mercer, and right in front of Jon St. John.

Perhaps the sexiest place to be in the entire world.

So everyone finally stops and I get my picture with Matthew Mercer. In the shot, I am leaning back and checking out Mr. Mercer's ass. Then I get his autograph, making my badge rather impressive by this point.

We hang out for a bit, and wait for JSJ to be done with whatever he's doing so we can get an interview. Some people are getting some videos with him, and some other people are setting up for their interview they had dibs on. Chun-Li is now a tiger-girl and setting up a camera by us. The Duke is doing everything everyone asks him to, because that's his style. Finally, I see a break. He's just sort of waiting and signing a couple autographs. We're open!

I try to convince N1NJ4 to go over and meet the guy. Let me do a little set-up, here. Every time in the past couple years (and probably even longer) that N1NJ4 has found himself with nothing to add to a conversation (and sometimes as the start of a conversation), he has defaulted to saying "balls of steel." It's only poetic to have the man meet with him now that they're this close together.

N1NJ4, however, won't have it. He walks over into a side-hallway and does whatever. CK informs me that he just got a text from Grant of Metroid Metal telling me they're free to do our interview awhile. So I go up to JSJ and ask him if CK can get an interview with him when he's done with the one they're setting up. Sounds good. But in the meantime, could we get just a quick little video here with him and N1NJ4 saying "BALLS OF STEEL" to each other a bunch?

Sounds good.

We go collect N1NJ4, and now he can't refuse this offer. That's how I work. I force you into things that, deep down, you really, truly want to do.

JSJ suggests they should do it like a conversation. Like, N1NJ4 would say, "Balls of steel." Then JSJ would say, "Balls of steel?" And basically it would continue on. If you need reference, it's sort of like the "dude" conversation from BASEketball. He also has the idea for them to have their balls-off at the phone bank nearby.

And so they do. We get some good footage of this, albeit a bit hard to hear in that place, it was still picked up, so it all worked out.

And then I head off down the hall with N1NJ4 to get an interview with Metroid Metal, while CK waits here to get his with Jon St. John. Oh god. My heart. It won't calm down. I'm going to be doing an interview alone. My first interview ever with a famous person, and I'm by myself (N1NJ4 doesn't count, because he's the cameraman, and also doesn't say much anyways).

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.