DragonCon 2014 Part 2: Hotel Hijinks

If you haven't read part 1 of my Dragon Con experience and my proposal plans, you may do so by clicking HERE.

This blog may start off with more of a rant than a description of what happened when we finally made it to Atlanta, Georgia, but I assure you there is plenty about our wonderful experiences together on our trip...so keep reading till the end. Originally my group was able to obtain two hotel rooms in the Hyatt this year. This was also the first year having a hotel in one of the hosting hotels which was perfect, since my costume was so large I could simply, put it on, go down the elevator, and walk around. My friend Spencer had procured his room and had called the Hyatt ahead of time to secure his room and had requested it be right next to mine so we could open up the doors between the rooms and have more space. Everything seemed in order when we finally left around noon on our 9 hour journey. Spencer's friends had checked into Spencer's room around 8 o'clock that night and had already began partying. Spencer and his brother Adam however, were still working that day and didn't leave until 6 o'clock that night. Mandi and I were in one car while KP, his wife Katie, our friends Austin and Joe, were all riding together just behind us.

Check-in: Thursday Night

Coming into Atlanta is an amazing experience in itself. Living in rural Ohio for so long, tall buildings tend to appear intimidating, but quite beautiful when lit up, such as they were in Atlanta. Traffic on the interstates had already set us back about 50 minutes more and so, being tired wasn't an option once the adrenaline started flowing with our arrival. Mandi and I had arrived about 15 minutes before KP and his car, and so we had the luxury of making a few directional mistakes while trying to navigate the one way streets and heavy street traffic of random cosplayers. Eventually we found the Hyatt which, when we drove up to the front, they immediately directed us to a parking garage on the side of the building. After circling around a few more times, we pulled into the garage and was told to check in a few floors up and left our car sit idle. Grabbing our bags and leaving our costumes, which took up a majority of the space in our car, behind. Things were getting pretty exciting, and as soon as we made it up one flight of escalators, I immediately noticed a particularly famous bald man. Turns out it was George Perez! Before even getting off the elevator, I looked at him and shouted, "Mr. Perez?" in which turn he began to approach me. Knowing that famous people must have this happen to them all the time, I shook his hand and told him I was a big fan of his work, and briefly mentioned I would look forward to seeing him later in the weekend to get a few books signed. He acknowledged my sincerity and we parted ways.

George Perez, being ...well...George Perez

Heading up another flight of escalators, Mandi and I made our way to the front desk. A young gentleman was there and after about 5 minutes of waiting while he typed away on the computer he finally announced to us, "I do apologize Mr. Kouse, but it appears we have overbooked our hotel." Confusion began to seep into my head, and thoughts of us driving back home this very same night seemed like a very possible thing. He then followed up with, "We are very embarrassed by this, and would like to put you up at the Sheraton Hotel at our expense. We will also take care of your parking because we know it can be expensive. On top of that, we are willing to offer you first priority booking at our hotel for next year's DragonCon and your choice of either 1 night stay for free between now and the end of next August, or 12000 points on your gold card, which could be used to help pay for a room next year." I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but apparently they had not closed the reservations in time for the event, where as I had called in my reservation on the first day of booking. Frustration eventually ensued, but I knew yelling at this guy would do me no good. Working in retail, where I have to listen to customers all day beg and whine for things, doesn't always guarantee you stuff. I was patient with the hotel clerk and selected the 12000 points option, which he then signed and printed me a copy. How this was going to effect my costume wearing was going to be a problem. I immediately called KP and his group, once then had arrived in the city. I explained that we were being put up in another hotel and we would have to figure something out for parking.

 This WAS, supposed to be our hotel.

Heading back down to the car, we loaded it back up with our luggage and asked them about parking. They said there was two options, we could take our luggage the to Sheraton and then drive back and park at the Hyatt for free, or they would comp our parking at the Sheraton. We drove to the Sheraton just in time for KP and his car to arrive behind us. After calling Spencer and telling him about the problem, he said we could put my costume in his room, thus solving the costume issue. Checking into the Sheraton was pure chaos, simply because everyone was being redirected there. Once I ran to check in, I asked them about parking in their garage, which they said they knew absolutely nothing about free parking. This was beginning to get more aggravating, and so we devised a plan to drop off our luggage and then drive back to the Hyatt to unload my costume and park the cars for free. After dropping off what we needed in the Sheraton, which our room happened to be in the basement, (no romantic skyline for us,) we proceeded to drive back to the Hyatt to park. Upon driving up to the garage we were promptly stopped by a man, who I assumed didn't understand a word we were saying, but all he said was that they were all filled up. I told him, we were told to drop off our luggage and we could come back and park for free. Eventually he let us in the garage and after a few minutes of flashing our papers which stated they would comp our room and parking, they decided to let us park in their garage.

With two problems taken care of, now we had to figure out how to get my costume upstairs to the 15th floor. We loaded it up on a couple of bellhop dollys and received tickets for them, which we took upstairs to the lobby again. Speaking with another gentlemen, we explained we needed to have them sent up to Spencer's room and dropped off. Naturally they wouldn't just allow us, who were not on the reservation list, up to his room. So, I got on the phone, talked to Spencer and told him to call the hotel and add me to the list. After a few minutes I got a text saying it was done. The gentleman who I was working with pulled up the room list, and low and behold, it said I was cancelled off of the room list. He asked for my ID and walked away, which I felt was quite odd. He came back a few minutes later and told me to call my friend back, which I then proceeded to do. Once I got him on the phone, the gentleman from the hotel took my phone and ID this time, and decided to walk away with them to the end of the lobby, (I've never felt so naked.) Eventually he returned with my affects and told me to take a slip of paper to the front desk and it would be taken care of. Once there, we gave the paper to the clerk, who had absolutely no idea what was going on and after a few minutes of suspiciously measuring us up, she gave me a key card to the room. By this time we had spent about 2 hours managing our luggage cars and costumes, I had to request if she could compensate us a meal at the hotel since we had had nothing to eat all night. She walked in the back room like all the others and came back with a simple "NO!" Needless to say, I kind of figured as much from this hotel, and I kind of dread the fact that this is my cheapest and easiest option for next years con. As of right now I have no clue as to whether the 12000 points they gave me will be able to be used on the convention, but at least they can work on the Thursday before the con or room service.

 

See that guy in between the two on the left at the desk? That's me, dealing with all this.

Heading up to Spencer's room to await the arrival of my costume, I was jealous to find their room had an amazing view which I wanted to badly, mostly for the sake of my girlfriend, who was spending her first time in this city and was about to be proposed to in just a few short days. Alas, my costume arrived and we stacked it neatly in Spencer's room and headed to ours. Once back to our dungeon of a room, we called Domino's and ordered about $40 worth of pizza and called it a night.

Our hotel room, with the view of the sidewalk.

The 1st Day: Friday

Many of us were still tired, but again, with a little left over pizza to get the ol' mojo working, we were excited, for what we hoped would be an experience like none other. Sadly, Mandi was starting to feel under the weather. It was getting hard for her to talk and eat, which we later found out to be bronchitis and an ear infection, so she remained pretty doped up for the rest of the convention, (probably partially why she said yes to my proposal.) Once we were all suited up and fed, we headed to Spencer's room, which was unoccupied at the time and I suited up for the first time in my steampunk Darunia costume. I was a little worried about the ventilation of the costume, and only days before decided to put in a computer fan powered by two 9 volt batteries. The fan was tested, but how long it would have lasted had still remained a mystery. Up to this point, and I know this was unwise, but I had not put on all of the pieces at once. Surprisingly the suit held up and wasn't too hard to walk in. Although I was a little slow, I had my fellow comrades to hold my hand and guide me around the mob of photographers. Prior to getting on the elevator we found that the Megaton Hammer I had created, the head of it was too much for the rest of the handle and it promptly broke apart, but this worked out so much better. Looking back on the costume, I don't think the whole hammer would have made it through the con. Our first stop was a test run at the bottom of the Hyatt lobby by the elevators. From there I could make out all of the photographers and the passersby, but had very little head mobility to return their thanks for letting them take my picture. A few times Mandi had to run upstairs to change shoes, so she missed out on a lot of the cosplaying at first. Since the costume took one other person to put on, once she left I began to have some loin cloth problems and I am sure there are a few photos out there where my loin cloth was dangling around my ankles instead of my waist. Luckily we modified the situation and once we were ready we made our way to the Marriott hotel. I knew this was the junction that most people meet at since it was between the Hyatt and Hilton. After a lot of photos and a slow, but steady walk, we made it to the Marriot central area for more photos. This was the only time I recall us all meeting up in costume with Spencer at the convention. At one point a man with a Tri-force hat asked us to pose for a video, which we managed pretty well. We were asked to come down with our weapons in a domino like effect towards the camera (If anyone has seen this video, please share it with me!) it was definitely a highlight of my day.

After about 2 hours, we were getting hungry again and so we made our way to the food court again through the connecting sky bridge. Once there, my fan finally gave out and I was able to reload on water. Once finished, I decided to take the costume back to the room, but only after switching out the batteries from the goggles with the fan batteries for one last round of photos. Back at the Hyatt we were stopped by some people taking our pictures and a man by the name of Ross Lincoln, from theescapistmagazine.com , noticed my costume and asked my friends if they could give me his card later so I could set up a time to do an interview for his article. I was really thrilled by his proposal and was more than happy to accept... only I couldn't because I was stuck inside my suit. He managed to grab a quick photo of me and a young girl named Samantha who was dressed up as Link. This ended up being my favorite photo of me in costume because it made it to the escapist website, but the proportions of Darunia to Link was just about right. Not to mention, this little girl was adorable.

Photo by Ross Lincoln, TheEscapistMagazine

Fistbump

Once out of costume we headed back through the lobby and decided to go check out a few other sights. Along the way I recall running into Ross, who had never seen my face, and I mentioned who I was and we set up an appointment the following morning to do an interview. I also mentioned I was getting engaged the following day and he was very adamant as to put that in his article, which I happily agreed to. The rest of day 2 was filled with lots of walking around and trying to find one another amongst the chaos of people. A very successful day, and without the hassle of dealing with the hotel.

The 2nd Day: Saturday

Today was to be the big day, I was finally going to propose... but if you read Part 1, you would know there was a slight miscalculation on my part, and it wouldn't be until Sunday that this happened. However, I was dressed in my fancy white over shirt, Captain America shirt, jeans, and nice shoes. I was ready to propose. The plan for the day was, no matter where we went or if we got separated, KP and Katie were to make sure my fiance to be was to be at the Hilton photo shoot by 3:45. I hadn't planned to do anything cosplay wise until after the engagement took place anyway. Most of my group was dressed with the exception of Mandi, who was still reeling from the medication and illness. Katie took a few Advil with what looked like water, but turned out to be some alcohol that was left out the night before. Everyone seemed to want to go to see the vendors, which I had no intentions of going, but instead I took the time to get some comics signed. Originally, I had wanted to meet George Perez, Tim Sale, Mark Bagley, and also meet, author, Christopher Golden. Patrick Stewart was another person I wanted to meet, but I figured there would be time for that on Sunday. Heading to the artist alley, George Perez was gone early for the day, Time Sale was only making appearances the first and last hours of the day, and although I got my first appearance of Carnage signed by Mark Bagley, I wasn't really impressed with his conversational skills. I assume many of the writers and artists get tired quickly, but there's never a need to never make eye contact with your fans. So after getting my books signed, I walked around a bit and eventually made my way back to the top of the Hyatt for my interview with Ross Lincoln. I must have waited a good 30 minutes for the elevator, but luckily enough, Spencer squeezed into an elevator and had already pulled the pieces of my costume out into the hotel hallway for inspection by our guest. Ross eventually showed up, and we spent about 30 minutes recording our interview and he took some pictures of how I had constructed it. Once done, I told him he could come along with us to the Marvel photo shoot and watch me propose. This would also allow him access to an area to take photos he otherwise would not have been able to get.

Once everyone showed up at the hotel room, we put the costume back in the room and I was interested to see that KP and Katie had purchased a real Hylian shield and Master Sword replica. They left them in the hotel and we took off for the photo shoot. I could tell Mandi was struggling with her illness, and as we made it to the Marriott lobby, somehow she stopped to take a picture of an other Saria and we lost her. Ross had also taken another turn and had disappeared. Things were falling apart quickly and I was under a lot of stress, trying to get us to the photo shoot in time. Eventually, Mandi found us and we made our way to the Hilton balcony. Onto one balcony we went, but there were only DC characters, so we went to the other side. Again, Batman and Harley Quinns galore. Eventually Ross caught up with us, and I assumed the Marvel shoot was about to happen soon. I noticed Allen, the director of the photo shoot from afar, and knew that we had to approach him, and so I had previously given Spencer the ring to sneak to him. Once Allen had walked away, Spencer quickly chased him down and gave him the ring. Standing in direct light was really taking its toll on us all, and eventually Mandi said she was done taking pictures. I knew I had to make my move and asked her to follow me. We approached Allen and I introduced us, just as we had talked about over the phone. I could see he was caught off guard, just a little bit, but I figured it was part of his acting to not tip off Mandi of the proposal. He played his part magnificently, and eventually he said, "Are you guys coming back for the Marvel photo shoot tomorrow?" It finally dawned on me... we were one day early. How stupid could I have been. We said we would be back and Allen encouraged us to come back because he had special guests coming to the shoot and he also needed civilians for the photos. After we had left the balcony, I texted Allen explaining how things got mixed up, which gladly he was okay with it, and with the worry that the Marvel photo shoot would be more hectic and crowded, at least Mandi was sold on the idea of being there, dressed to impress, and Allen already had the ring to give to Thanos. I remember falling to sleep that night worrying, "What if he loses the ring?"

This was not the photo shoot we were looking for, but still cool to watch.

Now that we were able to spend some time cosplaying, since the rest of the plans were postponed till the next day, we headed back to the Hyatt, to Spencer's room, to put on my costume. With fresh batteries loaded into the fan, we again traveled the floor of the Hyatt and then again into the Marriott. This time we were in time for a much larger afternoon crowd. I was much more relaxed that now that the important things were prepared, I could cosplay with a mind at ease. Mandi and I had spent some time repairing my costume that day, so it was good for another beating. While we were in the Hyatt I found a nice gap in the wall that allowed me to fit into perfectly. I had a great time standing like a statue, and when people took my picture, if they had a flash, I would slowly walk forward toward them and give them a hug. A lot of people got a kick out of it, and I even got a photo with an Assassins Creed Deadpool which I saw off to the side. Later, I realized Mandi took a video of him break dancing, which was pretty spectacular to watch.

I'll take it to the face, if you take it to the groin.

Once back at the Hyatt, my batteries in my fan having died 10 minutes earlier, we made our way to Spencer's room to unload my costume and grab my belonging. Knocking on the door we were greeted by Spencer's half naked roommate, who stared at us blankly when we explained what we were there to do. He simply replied, "Yeah...that's not going to work," and promptly shut the door. Confused as to what the situation was, we called Spencer, who woke up in the room and quickly came out. He had just woken up from our call, and told us we would have to come back in a little, since his roommate was a little... preoccupied. Being slightly frustrated and really tired, I pleaded my case for why I needed to drop off my costume and grab my belongings. Mandi went inside the room and dropped off the costume and grabbed my stuff, and we went on our merry way to the hotel. A slightly awkward ending to our second night at DragonCon.

 

Spencer was tired when we knocked on his door, not drunk, just tired.

Spencer's friends Kevin (Ruby) and Ed (Right)

The 3rd Day: Sunday

George Perez and Kelly Sue DeConnick at the photo shoot

James Gunn with Allen at the photo shoot

Now!...today was the day of the proposal. Everything was in place. My clothes from the previous day were soiled with sweat, and so I had to wear black and the only shirt that was clean was a Batman shirt. I would have to make sure to button that up once at the photo shoot. Again, the plan was to not wear my costume until the proposal had taken place. No one wanted to get up this morning as early as I did. I had made it my mission to find Patrick Stewart, and so I made my way to the Walk of Fame, where I knew celebrities would be. Once there I sat in line for entry and I learned that Patrick Stewart had in fact, already left the con. :(... So, I decided to make the best of it and I hopped in the first line I found of someone famous. Of course, there was no one there celebrity wise once the doors opened. (Shocking*) Well, I saw Billy Boyd from a far, and I eventually hopped in Karl Urban's line. He was supposed to be there in about 20 minutes, so I though I would meet Judge Dredd and Bones while I could. 45 minutes rolled around, still nothing, so i left his line and I heard it wasn't for another 45 more minutes that he showed up. While waiting in his line I had more celebrities walk by me than I did of Karl. I saw Giancarlo Esposito, who played Gus from "Breaking Bad," and Tony Curran from "Underworld: Evolution." Once I started to make my rounds, I waited in line to meet Peter Weller, who you may know as the original Robocop and the bad guy from the latest "Star Trek: Into Darkness." I got to shake his hand and tell him I had been "Staying our of trouble" since the late 80s. Another person I wanted to meet was Manu Bennett who recently played Slade on "Arrow" and did motion capture for the white orc in "The Hobbit." When I hopped in his line, there happen to be 3 really tall guys in front of me, decked out in Slade gear. Once they approached him, he stood up and greeted them as a group. Manu looked over at me and said, "Hey Brother, would you mind taking a picture with me and them." I was shocked and happy to oblige. Manu handed me his phone, which I promptly looked over at his publicist, who may have also been his girlfriend/ wife, and said "I'm holding Slade's phone!" I took a couple pictures and then one of the guys dressed as Slade gave me his phone to take a few shots. At this point I thought I might have a chance to get a quick pic with him. As soon as I pulled out my phone to get it ready, his publicist said, "He isn't going to take a picture with you." My mind immediately took a 360. I told her I knew my chances were slim, but I figure, I just did the guy a favor, so what does it hurt to ask. Again she said, "No, he has a photo shoot down stairs where you can have your photo taken with him." I responded with, "I took a photo for him, I just assumed he might take one with me, it couldn't hurt to ask right?" She again said no, I couldn't, and that he only does this some of the time with fans. Sadly, I didn't feel like fighting with her and potentially risk getting beat up by Slade, so I "Failed my resolve" and surrendered my phone to my pocket. Manu was really cool though. I shook his hand, and he does have a firm handshake, and I told him I enjoyed his work and was hoping we would see him on the next season of "Arrow." I mentioned I just wanted to come up and meet him, shake his hand, and take his picture for him, in which he thanked me again. I recall walking away, I really wanted to tell his publicist that he needed to delete the photos I took of him on his phone, since I charge $50 a picture (lol), but again I didn't want to be "that guy."

Just...not a photo.

 Spencer as Aghanim

Heading back to the Hyatt and then to Spencer's room, I grabbed a few slices of morning pizza and hung out with Spencer while he put his costume on. I snapped a few photos since I hadn't really had the opportunity to see him in his costume. It so happened he was going to the Sheraton to see a panel, and so I figured I would head back, knowing that Mandi was still in bed, and everyone else had gotten up and went to get food. Once I was in the hotel room with Mandi, I helped her pick out something nice to wear for the photo shoot. I kept telling her, "You should wear your hair down," and "You should not wear your glasses during the shoot." Go figure, both requests went unfulfilled. Once we left and arrived at the shoot, KP, Katie, Joe, Austin, Spencer, and Ross were already on the scene. We waited a few minutes for the photo shoots that were based on genre to finish up. Allen had texted me the night before and told me that he told his crew that Mandi and Chris would be arriving to help out with the shoot and to let us pass into the restricted zone. Once everyone was loaded on the stairs for the final shoot, I worked my way up to the security guard and asked him if Allen had told him about Chris and Mandi, in which he responded, that he was waiting for us and had started to worry. I motioned to my group and told him they were all with me. I took point and walked around the back drop area when I noticed that half of our group had been stopped by the security guards, and so I had to go back and retrieve them. After a few minutes, Allen brought out George Perez and Kelly Sue DeConnick for some quick photos and walked over to Mandi and I and told us we were next. I was pretty pumped for the whole event, and kept going over what I was going to say. If you want to read about the proposal in more detail please click HERE.

After the hard part was done, we all made our way back to the side of the stage and the DragonCon TV people brought in James Gunn to do a live interview with the cosplayers. Although we thought that was pretty great, it couldn't hold a candle to our big moment together. We talked and hugged and took a few more pictures. Once everyone dispersed from the stairs, we said our thanks and was congratulated by a few people from the shoot. Mandi and I went and grabbed some bottles of water and just took in the moment to discuss our future with one another.

Later that night after heading back to our hotel, everyone just kind of shut down for a while. We took showers, then naps, and then barely was able to wake up again for what we thought would be our last Hoora of cosplaying. KP and Joe had already started the drinking festivities a little earlier that evening and KP thought it would be funny to mash up the costumes and go out for pictures. I decided to not go back for my costume, but instead I walked around to take some last day photos of everyone else. Mandi and Katie put on their costumes as well. KP decided to wear some of his Gannon costume, with Links sword and shield, while taping a Malibu bottle to his chest and wearing a horse head mask. It was pretty epic, and what ensued was quite hilarious to witness.

Joe took the drunken fairy catcher path

No one really knew what he was, but they took his picture anyway. There were a few moments where he was videoed doing some ridiculous stuff, so be on the look out Youtube. People kept finding one another and then became missing again, so Mandi and I decided to grab dinner. I took her to the Velocity restaurant in the Marriott for a nice meal. Sadly, as soon as it arrived, her throat began to hurt again and so we grabbed some to-go boxes and took it back to our hotel. We talked about our evening and Katie told us she was hit on by a creeper who told her that Zelda was his fetish. Mandi and I packed up our luggage the night before and went to sleep with the intent on leaving before checkout at noon, the following day.

Other than having to go back because I left a camera charger in the hotel room, checkout went pretty smoothly. We managed to stuff my costume into the back of the car better than when we originally packed it. Everyone met up at a Waffle House, which is quickly becoming a tradition for our DragonCon trips. No one died or was sent to the hospital this time. I think we could say this was a successful trip, and I am 90% sure most of us will be going back next year. Although not much will top my proposal moment, I am sure our cosplaying will be even better next year. Stay tuned, because my next blog will be all about my Steampunk Darunia costume. I tried to take lots of pictures of how it transitioned from a can of foam into a full bodied costume. Be sure to click the Angelicomics link below to go to my facebook page and like it. Thanks for reading. Till next time.