I just love local cons. There aren't enough of them. I don't even mind that I didn't get to spend a full day there on Friday--for one thing, NYCC was only open to vendors and the like in the morning on Friday, and only opened to the public around 3 PM or so, for another, I kind of get a kick out of working all day at my perfectly normal mundane job for eight hours, and then walking eight blocks to transform myself into a psychopathic clown hench-wench. Dichotomy is fun.

As I exited the stall and positioned myself in front of the mirror to do my makeup, my hands were shaking. Why? Well, a number of reasons. For one thing, Harley Quinn was the very first time I was wearing spandex, or at least some sort of polyester facsimilie, and of course, spandex is not kind. For another, I hadn't had a chance to practice putting on her makeup yet, and white face can be a bit of a challenge. For a third, Harley is Louis's All Time Ichiban Numero Uno Favorite Girl, so I had a lot to live up to. For a third...what if no one else was cosplaying, and here I was running around in one of the least subtle costumes I've ever owned, I'd look like a fool. (You know...moreso.)

My anxiety was further increased by the way-younger, way-skinnier than me girls who next entered the bathroom, and said something to the effect of, "Look! A cosplayer!" That's it, I'm done for, these teenagers are going to mock me mercilessly until I crumple up in a ball behind the next potted plant I can find, crying and rocking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth...until two of the girls emerged from their own bathroom stalls, dressed as The Black Queen and the White Queen from X-Men. I felt instantly better.

People were actually very supportive of my Harley Quinn costume. I'm sure they somehow understood my nervousness, why else would they have gone out of their way to ask me for pictures just to make me feel better? Several people did ask where my mallet was, which means when and if I do this costume again, I'd better get a mallet or at least a bang-gun. And I ended up seeing quite a few other cosplayers, too, especially considering as I said this was only open for Friday evening. I found Louis in the dealer's room and we started touring the booths.

I'd have to say, this con had at least as many toys (though comic book related) as it had comics...or, at the very least, it devoted as much space to toys as it did to comics, while understanding that you can fit more comics into the same space because they're smaller. My point is, even if you weren't a comic book fan, there was still plenty for you to see.

I didn't buy anything for myself that day, as I try to make it my policy not to buy anything at these things until I've given myself at least 24 hours to think it over, but I ended up buying Louis an early release of the 25th Anniversary Leonardo figure, and a Nightmare on Elm Street plaque that he had been eyeing for years. For himself, Louis scored most of the Hellblazers he needed to complete his collection.

After shopping, we decided to join our friends Jess and Dennis at the X-Files panel they were already attending. I'm not an X-Files fan (don't get me wrong, I have nothing against it; it's just that I've only ever watched three episodes, and each of the three episodes SUCKED, and each time I had a different group of friends that were die-hard X-Files fans tell me, "Well, don't go by that one, it was a bad episode", and while I realize that three is not a big enough sample to make a sound judgment, I also realize that hitting three out of three is enough to get me into the major leagues, so I'm not terribly anxious to give it another chance), but Louis is, and Jess is pretty damn near obsessed with it, so we gave it a shot.

Plus, panels by the creators are ALWAYS interesting. It's so neat to hear their take on their creation...some of them get frustrated with series or characters that take on a life of their own, and want to be differentiated from their fandom (like Leonard Nimoy), and others are grateful that something they've produced has given so much joy to so many people, and have a gentle sense of humor about it (like Leonard Nimoy), and you also get to hear what the creator really intended with what he was doing--for example, Chris Carter said unequivocably that Scully's baby is Mulder's. You heard it hear first.

Oshidori and some of her friends found us after that, and she (dragging Jess along with her, who desperately wanted to go but who seemed to have developed a sudden but total paralysis of her legs) pounced on Chris Carter as they were leaving the auditorium, and we all snapped pictures as quickly as we could before they whisked him away. Yay!

Soon after that, one of Oshi's guy friends came by looking for her. He looked kind of familiar, and he was kind of cute which is why I probably sort of remembered his face (normally I'm horrendous with remembering faces, and especially at remembering the names that go with faces), but I couldn't think of who he was--I figured he was just one of her friends that I had maybe met at K.C. Moore's (her and Louis's local bar) or something. He was desperately looking for Oshi because, it appeared, he had gotten a rip in his pants in a most unfortunate location...

"Oshi! Help me! My balls are going to fall out!"

"Well, I don't know how I can help you, I don't want to sew your balls TO the pants..."

"Take your pants off!" I suggested.

The guy laughed.

"I wasn't kidding."

I teased him once or twice more about going pantsless, and we started on our way--it was getting pretty late at this point, and I think we were all looking to start getting going.

"I've really got to talk to them about getting into voice acting," Jess said.

"Oh, yeah," I said, "one of my friends is a voice actress."

"So is one of Oshi's," Jess answered. "That guy does the voice of Dean Venture for the Venture Brothers."

"Oh, wow!" I said. "I thought he looked familiar--I must've seen him last year at AnimeNEXT."

I really wish we had been videotaping what happened next. I turned to her, no doubt my face showing my dawning horror, as I said, "Oh my God, I just told Dean Venture to take his pants off!"

"Yeah, I was wondering about that," Jess said.

Well, really, how do you follow up something like that? We said good night to our friends, I dragged Jess to another ladies' room so that I could change out of my clown costume and take off my makeup, and we headed out to the Dallas BBQ for dinner. After all, the three of them had a panel to discuss...