I'll say this much- at least Anime Milwaukee let me leave the masquerade during the halftime show. That earns them points over Anime Iowa.
Those are points they're going to need, because not everybody was as free.
The Rest
One More Time
There wasn't anything else to do, but a number of the No Branders had left as well. Most of the time was spent idling around and talking about the general Doing It Wrong element of this part of the masquerade. This was amplified when we found out that not only were the masquerade entries not allowed to witness the masquerade itself (the exact opposite problem as last year), they weren't allowed to leave until everything was over. This was especially troublesome for Scott, who had to leave immediately if he wanted to get to work on time.
Word has it that Simon tried to drill his way out, but to no avail.
For some strange reason, the dance had already started downstairs. I've never seen a dance start before a masquerade ended, usually because they both used the same room. It also seemed a little unfair to the participants upstairs. Not that it mattered: the location was full of obstructions and already cramped.
When I returned to the masquerade, I peeked into the green room, where the trophies were being awarded. Apparently the judges had come to a conclusion somehow, although why they were giving awards out in private was beyond me. They eventually made the news public, but by then Sarah and Evan were free and weren't in the mood to stick around.
Evan had to stick around as he was contractually obligated to entertain Rin. Sarah wasn't interested in sticking around or tagging along, so we returned to the hotel to get a head start on setting up the room party. It was a fifteen minute ride, and I almost got lost a couple times, but we made it in time to turn on the computer, set out some snacks and turn around to pick up Evan.
As it turned out, the "date" was a disaster. The restaurants were closed, the maid cafe was closed, they almost got injured during the dance (apparently here was a mosh pit), and the line to play Rock Band stretched so long that by the time they had a chance to play, it was Rin's curfew and she had to leave. You could have had all this fun too for $17.
When we got back, Sarah, Mike #1 and a few others were playing Uno, one of those games that seems innocent but is truly a vicious, deadly game that brings out the worst in everyone (Scrabble at an intermediate level is another). Satisfying Evan, we switched to Mille Bornes, which makes no bones about its intent to destroy friendships. Through its guise as a simple racing game, when one team faces an obstruction, it encourages them to drag the other teams to hell with them. But eventually, we returned to Apples to Apples.
Most of our players had to leave around 1:00, so things died for a moment as it was just us and Mike #1. Then Mike K. showed up, not entirely sober, and asked to see a calendar. Mike #1, who has never met Mike K. before, made the mistake of pulling out his cell phone.
My new friends. Let me show you them.
Eventually, Mike K. left, to be replaced with a number of folks leeched from the karaoke room (which had been pretty much hijacked by a rowdy wedding reception in the hotel). Rather than busting out the games, we elected to keep the conversation, snacks and music flowing freely and let the energy flow naturally.
We had random people doing random dancing and the Norway from Friday even changed into her Vocaloid outfit for some structured dancing.
At this point, we also time traveled. Demonstrating our awesome geek powers, we traveled exactly one hour into the future, proven true by everyone's cell phones and my laptop (the microwave needed some convincing, though). As Evan noted, the future was full of drunken wedding guests, who dropped by soon afterwards, presumably to see where we had been for that hour.
Mike returned too, still somewhat out of sorts and apparently without hotel room or ride back.
We chatted for another hour before hotel security "canonized" our room party with a polite phone call. We shut things down at this point and kicked everyone out, save for a wayward Wakka whose roommate locked him out and went to sleep.
None of us wanted to wake up Sunday morning, but we did and managed to get everything packed up and checked out. While Sarah and I had completed our hours, Evan still had coat check duty.
...but not before getting a prime photo opportunity of Arpegius on Rock Band.
Although with James on the axe and Hungary on the skins, any character playing Rock Band is a prime photo opportunity.
We made another swing through the vendor room and artists alley looking for goodies and to chat with folks. I also swung by the fanfic panel, but they were demonstrating proper use of adverbs and conjunctions. And I have no tolerance for grammar Nazis in my fanfic panels.
Then it was back to the table.
The adage "Pyramid Head makes everything better" is proving to be more and more universal. And check out the remarkable Grenadier cosplayer behind him.
At least this time I could pull out my laptop and enjoy some tunes. While its battery lasted, we said goodbye to some parting friends, finally returned Cineplexity to those OddCon guys, and found more nifty cosplayers.
Finally! We get a Kenny!
Finally! We get a Belgium!
Tyler even whipped up a quick Holland for full effect. Hetalia- condensing the relationship between two sovereign nations into a basic sibling rivalry.
By the time the laptop's battery died, it was 2:00 and the con had pretty much wound down. Sarah and got in a couple rounds of Rock Band.
I did drums behind a very enthusiastic run of Don't Stop Believing, where the vocalist insisted that we sing along with the chorus.
Turned out Mike was on Evan's shift too. I'm sure they had plenty to talk about given this year's con.
Once he was off, so were we. Again, it was straight to Madison for the Geek.Kon staff meeting. Trae and several No Brand regulars stopped by to tour our new hotel and share what we all learned from Anime Milwaukee. To sum it up, it was a very enjoyable and very educational convention. They do a lot of things very well, a lot of things very poorly, and seem to be well on the path to being what a Milwaukee convention should look like- a solid con that brings in outstanding guests and puts on an entertaining show for the local crowd. Although still a little rough around the edges, it's fun. Their move to a hotel next year will be very interesting, as it's a Hyatt downtown- which means more freedom, but also more expense for hotel rooms and parking.
Either way, I'm sure we'll be there to plug Geek.Kon every step of the way!