Okay! So, the weekend started out on Thursday afternoon when I went to go pick Deb up from the station in Providence. This was an adventure all on its own, as parallel parking on a main street in Prov is always crazy stuff. It took me like four tries. I’m not ashamed to admit it.
Deb and I headed home and I finished my costume (because I like to procrastinate!) while she worked on a program for NFTY. Something about making up Israelis on Facebook. Honestly, your guess is as good as mine. Then we watched Make Me a Supermodel because Princess Fierce was on it, and we’re very loyal to her. Nah, who am I kidding? We’d watch it anyway.
Friday started out fairly relaxed, save for some cosplay drama which I won’t even go into because it’s ridiculous. Deb and I ran out to Shaw’s to grab some food so that we wouldn’t have to pay bunches of money at the con. We bought granola (which was delicious), cup o’ noodles (also yummy!), apples (healthy and delicious!) and peanut butter, which…neither of us really ate. I think Deb had some on an apple or something. Kind of a waste of $2.43. Which I remember, because…I’m a Jew.
We headed out to the Attleboro station for a 12.02 train—a little later than we wanted, but what can you do? The train was actually on time (!!!) and we trooped on with our giant duffles and roll-ons and my wig box and played Spot the Otaku as various people got on the train.
We got into Back Bay at about 1.00 and followed a crowd of in-costumed otaku through Copley and into the Marriot. Deb checked us in while I talked to Kitty, who was a member of Team Evil (more on this later), and then we went upstairs to settle in very briefly. I got changed and put on the Shoes from Hell (five inch heels—I measured) and put on my adorable little pink wig, and then we grabbed our purses and trooped downstairs.
This year registration was inside the Hynes, so we followed the signs into a giant exhibition hall where we encountered The Line. We were in The Line—the pre-reg line, mind you—for four hours and seventeen minutes. We counted. Because there was nothing else to do.
During this four hours we:
- watched no fewer than three mental breakdowns
- lost The Game (ha ha!) six times
- danced
- broke out into song
- explained various cosplay/AB events
- took pictures of a (gorgeous) male Sailor Mars cosplayer. Can’t even explain how awesome his legs were.
- ate really bad Hynes pizza
- contemplated both suicide and homicide
- took several trips to the front of the line to see how far it went
- talked to some really nice staff people who told us to hang in there for X many more hours
Finally we got our badges and started to head downstairs. It was about 6.30 at this point and we were sort of browsing our con books to see what was really around to do at this point. Deb, of course, was legal to go to the 18+ Dating Game, but I, as we know, was not. :( So we were heading down to see what we wanted to do and maybe sit down for a few minutes when we ran into Lupe, the very nice staff member who talked to us in line. She said she was going to get some water to distribute to the people in line, who were on the verge of passing out. Being the Jewish mothers that we are, we decided to help out.
Deb and I spent the next two hours or so carrying trays of water to people in line, making sure everyone stayed hydrated. I was called “God”, “Jesus”, and “Lovely pink-haired bearer of watery goodness”. The line finally wound down at about eight-thirty (they cut off the line at eight, I think) and, amused but thoroughly exhausted, Deb and I trooped back up to our hotel room.
(During the water-distribution period, Deb very subtly asked Lupe if there was any way to sneak me into the 18+ Dating Game. Lupe tried to pull some strings, but the policy was made due to legal issues and so she was stuck. But all the same, it was really nice of her to try! Thanks so much, Lupe!)
Back in the room, we showered, did the PJ thing, made some ramen, and settled down to watch a House rerun. It was the one where Cameron killed that old guy who wanted to die. Blah, blah, blah. Cameron’s such a useless character. We pretty much went to sleep at about 10.00, which is obscenely early for any decent, self-respecting con-goer, but whatever.
We woke up at about 8.30 on Saturday. There was a second screening of the AMV contest, and we decided to go watch it. Highlights included:
- “Serenade”, or as I like to call it, “the most obnoxious AMV ever made”: an Evangelion video to “I Know a Song that Gets on Everybody’s Nerves” with a rickroll at the end.
- “Bustin’”: a FFVII video to “Ghostbusters”
- “Twincest”: an Ouran High School Host Club video to “I Touch Myself”
After the screening, we decided to head into the dealer’s room. After some browsing, we split the cost of some yaoi manga and I got my picture taken a few times. It was about 12.00 at this point, and we decided to go get in line for the Anime Dating Game. During this line wait, my mom called and told me I’d been accepted to Brandeis! Yay! More on that in a later post. Also, we very briefly met up with my friend Rachael, which was nice.
The Dating Game was a lot of fun. I don’t remember the participants so much as the banter between the hosts, which were Naruto and Ed Elric. The usual digs were made—short jokes at Ed’s expense, various jabs at the dub of Naruto (“believe it!!”) and also Naruto informed everyone that not only had we lost The Game (ha!), but that we would continue to lose The Game whenever someone mentioned anime conventions (true), microphones (understandable, as he was speaking into one) and package delivery trucks (…okay?).
The Game (ha!) itself was pretty good, though I don’t remember exactly who picked who. There was, however, some Cosplot drama toward the end, when it was revealed that the Ouran High School Host Club was supposed to host the Dating Game, but Ed attacked them and tied them up, hiding them under a table! (The Hitachiin twins of course were tied together, and many comments were made about it.) And then, to make matters worse, represents of Team Evil came and took half the contestants (including Honey-sempai! Oh noes!) hostage, saying that they’d hold onto them unless able to make demands at the Masquerade! K-san (Ada) of course granted their request, knowing mass murder would ensue if anything happened to Honey-sempai.
Worried as we were about Honey-sempai, Deb and I decided it would be much more prudent to head up to the room and grab some food before getting into the Line From Hell Part II—otherwise known as the Masquerade Line. We made some ramen and read some manga and then grabbed the box of granola and trooped back downstairs to get back in the Line. We got in early enough that it had only stretched down about one hallway, and we snagged the last bit of wall before it jumped across the dealer’s room. We made very “good friends” with some random line-sitters, bashed some narutards, and got a little nervous about the sheer numbers of people wearing V for Vendetta masks (seriously, it was a little creepy), and finally headed into Main Events at around 6.00. Not bad, considering we got into line at about 3.00. :)
The Masq pre-show was pretty funny this year. It included a sing-along to "Still Alive" (from Portal and also That Amazing AMV mentioned above), con wishes from the chairwoman, and a TON of Good Idea/Bad Idea, some of which I will share with you now.
Good Idea: Hitting on a cute cosplay girl.
Bad Idea: Accidentally hitting on a cute crossplay boy.
Good Idea: Lolcats. “i can has pocki?”
Bad Idea: Lolcatgirls. “i are not a furry. >.< “ Good Idea: Learning the words to your favorite song. Bad Idea: “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down...” Worse Idea: “I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves...” Good Idea: Cosplay Chess. Bad Idea: Cosplay Chess...full contact. Good Idea: Going to hentai dubbing with your friends. Bad Idea: Going to hentai dubbing...with your mom.
- Lauren Goodnight and Mike “Voice of God” Lee’s fabulous banter. There seemed to be a little less of it than in past years, but it was still funny.
- Sketch’s light-up costume. OMG YES.
- Duck-hunt ninjas. Don’t ask, just youtube it. Trust me.
Deb and I left about halfway through the award ceremony (it was long and boring, and frankly by 11.00 we were fucking TIRED), but we could go to bed because there was a Cosplay Chess leaders meeting that I had to get there. Damn my role. -_-;; The meeting wasn’t supposed to take place until after the Masq, but I headed up to Cosplay HQ anyway to find a few people already there. Deb hung out for awhile, but eventually I just told her to go to bed—I figured there was no reason for BOTH of us to be exhausted.
The meeting itself went pretty quickly once Ada and everyone showed up—I was going to take notes, but it ended up just being clarification of things we’d mostly already known. Mostly we just worked out specifics of the beginning and the end, which were the most complicated parts of the game—and when I say complicated, I mean complicated.
Ada let us go around 11.30 and I dragged myself back to the room, had some ramen—which Deb had so helpfully prepared for me, I love that woman to death—and then flopped down and went to bed. OMG SO TIRED.
Sunday morning started around 8.30. Deb and I figured the night before that we should get all packed before we left and check our bags out before heading out to the con. I woke up first, got in the shower, and then threw a pillow at Deb (not really, lol) to wake her up while I got into my Shuichi gear. Let me tell you, it was GREAT to be a boy again! Well, kinda. You know how Shuichi is. Just kidding, gay rights activists. Chill out.
We headed downstairs at about 9.15. Deb checked us out and then we both checked our bags with some very helpful AB staff members. We had enough time to make a quick sweep of Artist’s Alley, but we didn’t buy anything, just talked to a few people and hung out for a little bit before heading down to the Cosplay Chess rehearsal at 10.00. Deb got us breakfast at DD’s (seriously, did I mention that I love this woman to death?) and snuck a few minutes after me.
The rehearsal was pretty well-organized. I was entrusted with the Emergency Anti-Roy Mustang Super Soaker. I never got to use it (*sad face*) but it was nice of K-san to give it to me just the same. ^^
So, essentially my job was to be in charge of two of the four onstage microphones, i.e. handing them out when they were needed. Unfortunately, despite my shockingly pink hair, I was generally stationed behind Ada and a lot of tall cosplayers, which made it very hard for me to actually see people who needed mics. Fortunately Sketch and B-kun both had microphones and were able to see people a lot better than I could. Thanks again, guys!
The game (ha ha!) was very, very complicated this year. We started out awarding the prizes/humiliations for the Catch the Barrel competition, which I don’t understand at all and hence will not recap. Then, as K-san was about to introduce the chess pieces for the Good vs. Evil game, Jiraiya and Roy Mustang announced that since the kids made plans for the Good vs. Evil game without the adults’ approval, they wouldn’t play. They handed over a proposed list of chess pieces for a Kids vs. Grown Ups game. K-san protested, saying that “There’s no one we can use for chess players who epitomizes THAT rivalry!”
Cue the Neon Genesis Evangelion music, and out trooped Shinji, Gendou, Misato, Rei, and Asuka. After some screeching and squirming, Shinji agreed to play a chess game against Gendo, and the pieces were in place.
The game (ha!) went pretty smoothly, for the most part, until suddenly Team Evil came onstage and randomly murdered members of the Kid’s team! Being Shuichi, I promptly informed K-san that I was terrified and proceeded to hide behind the podium with Team Sit in the Corner and Sulk (Team SITCAS, as we fondly referred to them), which consisted of Sasuke, Tamaki, and...um...I think someone else but I don’t remember who.
More murders, more chess, etc. etc. We actually had to cut the game very short, due to time constraints, and what would have ended in a checkmate ended in Gendo (rather uncharacteristically, I think) surrendering to Shinji. The display screens read, in very large letters: “WINNER: THE KIDS!!”.
But then, suddenly, Team Evil stormed the stage and promptly started killing everyone!
WINNER: TEAM EVIL!
Suddenly, Team Evil dropped dead onstage, and Raito walked onstage quite smugly, Death Note in Hand.
WINNER: KIRA!
But THEN, Mello, Near, and Leon stormed the board and cuffed Raito, informing him that they had switched his Death Note with a fake one. Team Evil came back to life as Leon walked Raito offstage, reading him his Miranda Rights.
WINNER: JUSTICE?
Just when it looked like the now-revived Team Evil would win, who should appear but...THE PIRATES! Team Evil was so shocked that the Pirates were able to defeat all of them!
WINNER: PIRATES!!
Using their victory as leverage, the Pirates convinced K-san to lift the Pirate-fighting ban. Since the Pirates were just declared the saviors of Anime Boston, K-san agreed, and the Pirates were re-installed as the Ninjas Official Rivals—kinda puts the Shinigami out of luck, huh?
So, with that, the game (ha, ha!) was over, and Ada dismissed us after a quick cleanup of backstage. Deb and I trooped upstairs and got into OH MY FUCKING GOD ANOTHER LINE to pick up our bags. We were only in it for about an hour, but SERIOUSLY PEOPLE. Fortunately I am a very patient person and managed to keep my head about me, but it was NOT fierce.
We finally got our stuff around 3.30 and I got changed in the bathroom. Deb and I went downstairs and had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, which was delicious, and then headed out to Back Bay. We got completely disoriented because I’m used to leaving AB through the Sheraton, but we still managed to skid into the station at 4.43—plenty of time to spare before Deb’s 4.45 train to NY and my 4.50 train back to Attleboro. :)
Hugs were exchanged and I saw her on to the train before getting onto mine. But the con love didn’t end there! I started talking to a very familiar-looking girl in the station, who turned out to be none other than Val, my Yuki from last year! I hadn’t spoken to her since AB07, and we were taking the same train home! It was very small world and amusing, and we had a jolly old time chatting on the train ride back to Attleboro.
So, that was that! The con was great this year, and I had an awesome time. No telling what next year’ll bring, but expect awesome cosplay from my end. Plans are in the works, but they’re Very Secret. :)
Who knows, maybe I’ll even get a camera so I can take some pictures.
Oh, and also? You all just lost The Game. :)
Have a great day! Read more! Read more!
