Adventures at ACen, Part 1

Ah Anime Central... That marvelous time of year when the gang and I all cram ourselves into a tiny hotel room for the purpose of dressing like morons and partying for three days straight.

Man it sure looked nice... For about five minutes

Anime Central, or ACen, is a rather large (more like friggin' humongous) anime convention held every year in Rosemont, Illinois, a mere hop, skip and a jump (plus four hours, give or take) from home. 'Tis a tradition we have upheld for many years now, with each new year bringing new cosplays and new shenanigans.

Like last year we chose to stay the the Aloft Hotel, a place that, while nice and quiet for a convention hotel, was also about a mile walk from the convention center. All the better to combat the all junk-food diet during conventions, I guess.

Unlike last year it was unnaturally cold outside. It's May, mother nature, no need for friggin' snow conditions. Thankfully Aaron and I chose somewhat warm cosplays.

Somewhat.

Day one we decided to be characters from the anime Kenichi: World's Mightiest Disciple, with me dressing as Kisara Nanjo (or Valkyrie) and Aaron rocking it as Ukita Kozo the Thrower. Saturday we glammed it up with a corset and layered skirts for me and a suit for Aaron as he cosplayed Wolf, his favorite of the four Payday guys.

Thursday:

Naturally we start our adventure with a last minute panic to get everything ready and packed, with me taking quick breaks in order to finish the mask for Aaron's Payday cosplay, because of course it wasn't finished. We hop into the van a mere two hours after our intended take off time, making multiple stops along the way to grab all the last minute things we forgot to grab before hand.

We managed to get to the hotel at an uncharacteristically decent time this year, rolling into the lobby around 4 or 5 pm. Of course such a  flawless execution cannot go unsullied, as one of our number realized at the hotel that he had forgotten all of his bags, including the badge needed for entry to the convention, at home. We spent the remainder of Thursday evening cramming seven people's stuff into a two person hotel room and play-testing our game Employee of the Month while waiting on our forgetful friend.

Friday:

Because Tetris

We start the day by cramming ourselves into our tiny bathroom area to get ready. With five cosplayers all jockeying for a spot by the sink, I wandered, mostly dressed (in costume, of course), toward the lobby bathrooms, picking up a follower in the process. A woman wearing a tube top and a scraggly black boa tailed me awkwardly into the bathroom, where after a long pause told me she loved Valkyrie and asked if she could hug me.

With Aaron and I costumed up we hit the con. We spent the day taking in the sights, for better or for worse, and perusing the merchant room. When drooling over what couldn't be got boring we hit the game room, a space consisting of a couple dozen gigantic old tube TV's and home game consoles like the NES and PlayStation. Aaron thoroughly whooped myself and our friend Ares at Tetris before the gang moved over to a couple quick rounds of Mortal Combat 2, where I had mild success with my frantic button-mashing strategy.

Toward the end of the afternoon we returned to the hotel for a rough game of Pick the Pizza Place, after which Aaron and I hit up a two hour improv workshop. After barely getting in the door (place was packed) Aaron took a ticket to participate while I took a seat to watch.

The workshop consisted of four 'team leaders' all wearing different Pokemon shirts, an Ash Ketchum, and a nurse Joy. You might think this means there was a theme. It didn't. I still have no idea where Pokemon factored into this.

After 30-45 minutes of watching the 40 or so participants circle the room walking like ogres and squeaking like mice they broke off into four groups, Aaron falling in with the Pikachu's. 15 more minutes were dedicated to either singing or passing back and forth an unwanted imaginary platter of spaghetti in Italian accents of varying levels of offensiveness.

Finally there were four short improve shows, each put on by one of the groups, during which any of the group's members could jump in at any time and the plot changed erratically. Now, I won't say they were bad. I certainly couldn't have done half as well. What I will say is it was with a warm wave of relief when the final group concluded their performance. But hey, we learned a few things for LARPing and D&D AND Aaron won a Pokemon movie DvD.

Added bonus: We got to watch a guy get arrested on the way back to the hotel room.

This con's just getting started, folks. Check back tomorrow for the good stuff in part 2!!!