Omega19x

9:19am: Thrillvania!!
Apparently, east Texas is not the place you want to be at night. It's downright creepy out there. Nothing's well lit, nothing's easy to find, and the people that live out there are so Christian and white, it's scary. The perfect local for one of the most spectacular haunted attractions in the country, right? Right.

Last night, an old co-worker and I headed out to Thrillvania Thrill Park, to jump start our Halloween season and get our spook on. It had eight haunted attractions, and we were able to go through almost all of them. There was a neat, and cute, magic show, and plenty of other activities too.

Here's what I thought of the attractions:

Haunted Verdun Manor:
This was a huge haunted mansion, probably the biggest I've ever been in. And it was pretty neat. The graveyard out front was extremely well done, and the laboratory room inside was fantastic!! I want one.
Like all haunted houses, my biggest regret is that you have to go so fast that you can't enjoy the amazing surroundings. Apparently you're not supposed to enjoy them, you're supposed to run through them screaming like an idiotic teenager. I guess I just don't get it.

VooDoo Bayou:
This was cool. It's basically the path leading up to the big mansion. The fog was creepy, and there was plenty to see. A dark, cloudy night made it all that much better.

Cassandra's Labyrinth of Terror:
We went in this one first. So it was probably my least favorite. Being a normally alert person, especially one who had just been driving in frightening, barely visible conditions in East Texas... I saw all the spooky things coming. Maybe it's the martial artist in me, but I saw each and every one of them coming. It took me a good two attractions to zone out enough to be even remotely surprised.

Dr. Lycan's Trail of Torment:
This trail was through the woods, which would have been my absolutely favorite part, had it not rained so hard yesterday. Everything was muddy, much muddier than we'd anticipated. Most of the people who were supposed to jump out and scare us were pointing flashlights at the mud puddles that would go up to our knees. And it was hard to stop and admire the creepy woods, or the toilet with the guy crawling out of it, etc... when you had to watch your step so closely.

Granny Lupus's Séance Theatre:
This was a sit-down show. It was all animatronics, and to be honest, it sucked. Nothing spooky about it. And the seats vibrated, but not in a good way.

Maze of Chaos:
We couldn't do this one. It was too muddy. I do love mazes, though. And I wish we could have done it, even if it was just a lot of chicken wire.

Six Feet Blunder:
You know... we missed this one. And I have no idea how we missed this one. But if it was anything like the other sit-down show, that was probably a good thing.

Thorn Hall:
This was their new attraction this year, and I think it was probably my favorite. It did the one thing you wouldn't expect from a haunted house - it took away all the lights and made you wander through in the dark. Since you couldn't see anything, you had to feel your way through, even through billowing plastic sheets with giant fans behind them. Those were so hard to squeeze through, especially if you're a small person. I kept getting stuck!

Current Lips: black, orange and white stripes

4:30pm: Forget the victor. To the cosplayer goes the spoils!
I just got back from the Yugioh Mall Tour. From what I heard, it was supposed to be an event with tournaments, dueling simulators, lots of space to play, etc. In reality, there were no real tournaments, no dueling simulators, they only had six tables, and the wait for open dueling space could reach about an hour at a time.

But they did have one thing - a special appearance by Ryou Bakura... aka. me!

And there was a lot of trading. Including the cards I got from my friends for cosplay purposes, I came home with a whole handful of Kuribohs, 3 blue eyes white dragons, a blue eyes ultimate dragon, a blue eyes shining dragon, and the ultimate combo... 3 blue eyes white dragons... IN SPANISH! Not fake Spanish Yugioh cards, real official cards, with Spanish text. How awesome is THAT?!

Other than trading, the main highlight of the event was a chance to duel official Konami judges. There were four of them, and you could only duel each one once. If you beat one, you got one of the new Yusei booster packs.

I dueled all four.
So how many booster packs did Bakura walk away with?? Let's count!!

Match 1: I played against a plant themed deck, and I lost.

Match 2: This was my Bakura deck versus what the judge called, 'a deck a cosplayer can truly appreciate.' As soon as the first Blue Eyes White Dragon was put on the field, I immediately started appreciating it.
I appreciated it even more when my Dark Necrofear committed suicide against his Blue Eyes, so I could gain control of the monster. I used it to eat up his life points a little, and then sacrificed it on my last turn for a monster that took its attack strength from twice that of the sacrificed monster. That's 6000 points of damage.
He went from 5800 to 0 in one attack, and I snatched my first booster pack!!

Match 3: I played against a fish deck, and actually managed to hold my own for a very long time. In the end, I held off long enough for the win! So second booster pack for me!!

Match 4: This was truly epic. This deck was a crystal beast deck. We were actually neck and neck for the longest time, until he managed to lock me down with a 4000/4000 monster in defense mode, that all monsters had to attack, regardless of what they attacked. And he had a card that could attack my life points directly. All his card spaces were filled except for one, and they all had crystal monsters in them. I could survive one more attack if his field stayed the way it was.
One of my friends on the sidelines says, 'There's one card that can save you. You have to draw Zorc!' He was right. I had everything I needed to summon Zorc in my hand except for the ritual monster card itself.
My opponent, though, drew 'United we Stand' a spell card that adds 800 attack points for every monster on that side of the field. Everyone in the vicinity just cringed as he totally obliterated me.
But the most epic moment was still yet to come... I pulled the next card off the top of my deck. It was Zorc.
The duel was so hilarious, and it was so much fun, that the judge gave me TWO booster packs, even though I lost!

He justified it like this -

'Everyone who's come to play against me today has come to try and beat me and get free cards. You're the first person here that came to play for fun. And this duel was a lot of fun. So even though you lost, you win.'

It was definitely an uplifting ending to a really fun day.

Current COSTUME: Ryou Bakura