After a minor food poisoning incident (my fault; don't ask), I spent about an hour overnight in the fetal position on the floor of the hotel bathroom hoping to fall asleep, or vomit, or die, anything to placate my stomach. I eventually got about five hours of sleep, rallied and drove Jack from Schaumburg back to Rosemont for more cosplay, panels and games.
Our first stop was the Exhibit Hall, which I covered thoroughly Friday but Jack had yet to see. While many of Saturday's cosplays weren't as inspired or personally resonant to me as the day before - I heard tell of a Freakazoid but never found him - we still found a couple more than worth photoing as soon as we came through the door.
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| The Happy Mask Salesman |
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| Big Daddy, complete with rotating, bloody drill |
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| Not really, but trust me: You're better off not seeing this. |
Despite some initial sluggishness - we had no idea what the game wanted and started out too close together and doing very subdued motions - Jack and I got loose, had fun and, dare I say, busted a move. I enjoyed it so much, in fact, I'm considering actually buying a Kinect. (I promise this desire has almost nothing to do with a stunningly erotic performance of "Venus" that Jack and I watched after we gave up the dance floor. Seriously, almost nothing.)
The most interesting dance for Jack and me was our final routine, a bafflingly strange choreography to "Bad Romance," which I watched back and realized only true bros are willing to looking that stupid together in public.
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| It bears mentioning that theatre gave us a large head start looking like idiots in public.
After that bonding experience, we had lunch at the Expoteria - yay $11 burgers and fries! - and returned to the attached Exhibit Hall to do our consumerly duty and spend. On the way we spied the line for Saturday badges, which we were able to avoid but Megan would have to go through when she arrived that afternoon.
At the hall we ran briefly into the amazing Katy, cosplaying something I don't remember but didn't understand at the time, before we returned to the booths. Jack picked up the first issue of a comic called "Flipside" and a couple shirts, while I bought an "I don't blame you" Portal 2 button for Megan and a "Link to the Future" t-shirt for myself. I also picked up a Serenity poster and GameCube controller for Tim, who may or may not have a clinically diagnosable obsession with Super Smash Bros. by now.
On the way to our booths of choice, we saw more cosplay and the single strangest sight of my weekend.
After that sight, we returned to the car to reorient ourselves with the outside world and drop our purchases in my trunk.We'd just wandered over to the Hyatt when I got a text from Megan that said she'd be in Rosemont momentarily, so Jack waited with me while I jumpstarted her effort to get through a mercifully-shorter registration line.
While we were in line, I interviewed Jack about the weekend. If it's true your career should be what you'd do anyway, this seems to show journalism was a good call.
Once Megan arrived I cut the interview short and bade a brief goodbye to Jack as he headed to a Persona 4 panel while I slung Megan's backpack onto my shoulder and we waited for a grand total of 2.5 hours for her badge. Given the 5 I was quoted that morning, I could live with that, especially with a group of clowns streaming hits like "Time Warp" and "You Give Love a Bad Name" through an iPhone and bullhorn.
After a bout of freedom-induced energy, I realized the backpack and morning were weighing on me, so I sat down on one side of the hall while Jack and Megan roamed. I felt my heart plummet as my friend Jason called and told me Derrick Rose tore his ACL, but the sight of my favorite cosplayers of the weekend reminded me why I came to ACen in the first place.
I reunited with Jack and Megan shortly after, and we decided it was time for dinner. Our only stop on the trip to Giordano's (my second of the weekend, but first for both of them) was to hear a pitch from a very excited Aperture Science recruiter.
One of his prior subjects was on hand to give testimonials.
We were accompanied for the walk by an excitable gentleman cosplaying another Japanese character I didn't recognize - shocking, I know - who couldn't wait to share his plans to get a degree and teach English in Japan. I still don't know your name, but good luck, wayward traveler.
I also took photos of Megan and Jack for my contacts, which oddly became the most-liked pictures from my ACen album on Facebook.
We were seated and eating when I got my second odd call of the day. It was Forsuk, our long-lost fourth traveler, who was in a panel at the Hyatt when he believed a panicked staff member pulled the fire alarm because the room was over capacity. There's some debate over the exact circumstances, but the building was evacuated immediately.
Since we were at dinner I didn't really miss anything, but I found out the next week the Masquerade, in which the best cosplays are honored, was cancelled as a result, while Soap Bubble, a booty-bumping rave, still went on later in the same room. WTF, ACen?
That scare inspired the three of us, after leaving the leftover pizza in my trunk, to return to video game freeplay at the Hilton. I was excited to see Megan try Dance Central 2 (in more ways than one), but the room had filled substantially, and it was not to be. Maybe best to do that sort of thing in private anyway.
We trekked to the reopened Hyatt to bust out Wits and Wagers in the tabletop room, but we quickly ran up against the steampunk panel at the DoubleTree that Megan was set on attending. We made a few minutes for Megan and Katy to catch up, which totally made sense since they live a whole 1000 feet apart on campus.
It also gave me a chance to get a photo of Jack's favorite cosplay of the weekend.
After the steampunk panel, a mixed bag that featured a lot of cool pictures, some interesting discussion and an off-putting amount of self-congratulation, we decided to head back to the hotel. We stopped to pick up Forsuk at McDonald's and drop his ex-girlfriend Amber back at the Hyatt, which was cool because I finally got to see her again but sad because she's moving across the country. The Lord giveth...
Back in Schaumburg we said goodbye to Jack, who hopped on the highway to Lockport and ended our bromantic day together. With Megan scheduled for an 8:15 train at Union Station, Sunday would be all about Forsuk and I finally banding together to wring the last drops of awesome out of a weekend full to bursting with it.
Concluded in Anime Central 2012, Day Three: Dazed and Enthused
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