Otakon 2019 kicked off to an auspicious start with my iPod of almost 11 years (I bought it on October 18, 2008, which you could not possibly care less about but I spent approximately 4 hours of research to find out) dying less than two weeks before the con. In its defense, not only was it over ten years old, but I had also dropped it two years before, and despite having dropped it numerous times during its years of service, this time it landed face down and the face shattered, and it had been being held together by packing tape ever since. So while I understood it wanting to retire with full honors, I really couldn't face driving down to Washington D.C. without any music. (My radio doesn't work, so all I have is an auxiliary input.) Which meant not only did I have to do my usual pre-con prep, I also had to decide on, buy, and load an iPod. Thankfully both eBay and a program called iExplorer allowed me to get a replacement *and* transfer over all (well, almost) of my music literally the day before I had to leave. No pressure.

But not to the con! At least, not yet. Earlier that month my high school friend Lani had reached out and asked if I'd like to swing by her house, not far from Baltimore, so I could finally meet her husband and kid and dog, and then we could go the rest of way to the con together. Generally speaking I will gladly jump at the chance to see newborns and puppies (husbands are pretty okay too), and while I have been lucky to have had Lani Hangout Time in the past few years, this would be just us in a closed car where we could sing together (something we used to love to do in high school), so of course I said yes.

In fact, as it turned out, detouring to Lani's house somehow shaved about 20 minutes off of my trip? Now, granted, I was planning on spending at least that long, maybe longer, visiting, so it wouldn't get me to the con proper any more quickly, but shoot we all enjoy making good time on the road, don't we? It's like any road trip turns me into an 80s sitcom dad, I don't know why. (Possibly because I watched so many 80s sitcoms, but that's neither here nor there.)

So! I arrived, and met Mr. Lani, and their puppy Freya, and their adorable bébé, then seven months old. I unfortunately didn't get a chance to hold him, as I had recently gotten over a cold and didn't want to take a chance of infecting him (poor little newborn immune systems) and he was at that stage where he was much more interested in being as mobile as humanly possible than in being confined to one person, especially a stranger. But he crawled around and was generally adorable, and then Lani got her stuff, we got in the car, and got on our way.

I turned the operation of the iPod over to Lani so we could belt out some Broadway tunes together, and she made the interesting discovery that all of my playlists seemed to be in reverse order--something that hadn't come up, as I had kept it on shuffle the entire drive. (I usually do; I find listening to songs in the same order can get a little tiresome for me.) So we had fun trying to sing RENT backwards, and generally catching up, and were making good time...

...UNTIL...

...Lani suddenly looked at me, wide-eyed, and yelped, "YO, I FORGOT MY BADGE!"

What could we do? Thankfully, we hadn't gotten very far, so it wasn't at all a big deal to turn around and go back and get it. I warned Lani to call her husband and let her know we were coming back, and before long we were back in the car and back on our way, singing and debating who we would cast from our mutual friends in high school as whom in RENT. (Teddy and Richie would be Collins and Angel...or Angel and Collins, we couldn't decide.)

In due time we made it to the Henley Park hotel, turned the car over to the valet (it was actually parked right away this year, which was...something of a disappointment after seeing it all weekend last year), and got my stuff up to the room. Lani and I chatted some more while I texted all of my local friends to let them know I had arrived, and while I unpacked. Lani also played Harry Potter: Wizards Unite on her phone, while I started doing my hair and makeup. I couldn't do too much to get ready, though, because in another "first" for Otakon, I actually didn't have my Friday costume--Alyce, who had agreed to do the TREMENDOUS favor of making this really difficult, convoluted costume for me, was transporting it to the con for me (which made more sense than shipping it to me, only for me to schlep it back down.)

It was already at least mid-afternoon by this point and I, of course, hadn't eaten since I had had breakfast back at my house before starting out, so Lani's mama instincts kicked in and she insisted on running out for some wraps so I could have a little something, especially since we had some time to kill anyway. I always forget food at conventions (except when Firesketches is with me and my own mama instincts kick in) so being reminded to eat when I can is very much appreciated.

Before too long Alyce and our friends texted that they were on their way, so Lani decided to head out to see a bit of the con (since she'd be there on Friday and part of Saturday only) and we agreed to meet up later. I spent a few more minutes putting the finishing touches on my hair and makeup, and generally enjoying the air conditioning respite from Washington's heat and humidity.

Alyce arrived! With her romantic other half, Tom (as opposed to her platonic other half, Lady Somairot), and our friend Vil, and Lady Terentia. Alyce, Tom, and Vil were cosplaying Mozart, Beethoven, and Liszt from ClassicaLoid, which I had never heard of but the character designs were amazing (as was Alyce's handiwork, of course.) Alyce showed me how the different parts of my costume worked, and left Teren (in her matching costume, which Alyce also made) to help me get into it, and then the three of them left for the con as well.

Lady Terentia laced me into my corset and snapped my ridiculous 80s power sleeves in place. I buckled Teren's shoes onto her feet (off-the-shoulder costumes often limit mobility, take note fellow cosplayers!), and we threw her flats into my bookbag, and we were ready to be on our way.

(I want to state for the record here that neither Teren nor myself "ship" Captain America and Iron Man. No offense to those that do, of course, we just don't. Who we do ship, emphatically, are Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. as Captain America and Iron Man--and even then, only in a family-friendly way. The fact that Evans and RDJ seem committed to the ship are what really make it for us. In the same vein, Teren and I don't ship ourselves together, only us as "Stevie" and "Toni". The more you know.)

As I've mentioned before, the Henley Park Hotel is across the street from the Marriott Marquis, which is connected via concourse to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, and whose lobby is really well lit and gorgeous, making it a popular meeting place and hangout spot for attendees, especially cosplayers. As soon as we walked in we spotted an Agent Cater cosplayer that I just *had* to take a picture of with Teren, even if she was "my" Cap for the day.

After texting Lani and a few of our other friends, we decided our first stop would be the Dealer's Room--again, Lani was only going to be at the con for one day, so she had to get all of her shopping in now. Plus, it's a nice long walk from the Marquis lobby to the Dealer's Room, which would give Teren and I a chance to hunt for Spider Children.

This is not nearly as bloodthirsty as it sounds. Remember how I said above that Teren and I very specifically ship *only* RDJ and Chris Evans as Tony and Cap? Well, Tom Holland (the kid who plays Spider-Man) apparently does as well, and once tweeted a picture of him and Chris Helmsworth (Thor) with the caption "Me and Uncle Thor are gonna pick up my dads!" So of course the fandom ran with it, and there are numerous memes about Tony and Cap raising Peter, so Teren and I were hoping to find kids in Spider-Man costumes to take pictures with. (Unfortunately we only found one that day, but we found a REALLY GOOD ONE!, which made up it.)

We found Avian Firefly and Aki Reinii in the Dealer's Room, who were once again wearing the identical bear-themed Lolita dresses that inspires me to call them the Twin Disgraces. I had seen Avi at least twice this year, but it was my first time seeing Reinii in a year! Granted we *used* to only see each other at Otakon every year, but in the past few years OPIB had been making an effort to get together outside of conventions more often. 2019 had been a bit of a letdown in that regard (due almost entirely to my own mental health struggles) so it was wonderful being among my beautiful cosplaying girls again.

We found Lani in the Dealer's Room as well, and Hime-chan's brother David, so we all decided to walk around and browse and shop together. Looking at all of the anime gear is entertaining enough, but Lani likes to lend her own brand of humor to everything she does, and before long she and David were embroiled in a spirited game of "Punch Mario", a variation of Punch buggy she invented at that very moment wherein participants punch each other on the arm upon first sight of a character from a Mario game. The rest of us declined to play (I cannot imagine a realistic scenario in which I would punch Terentia!) but we did end up getting caught up in it enough to quietly whisper to whoever we were physically closer to if we happened to see a Peach or a Toad before either Lani or David did.

I, of course, was more browsing for cosplayers than I was for merchandise. (Although at David's suggestion, I did stop in one of the light-up T-shirt booths to buy extra batteries in case my arc reactor burned out!) Sailor Moon Avatars is sadly two years behind schedule, but 1) I always *intend* to go back to updating it, and 2) I just like photographing Sailor Moon characters regardless. But there were so many great costumes to see, including some from my old school favorites.

I broke off from my friends to take a quick detour of the game room--both because I wanted to see if my friend Nick was working there (he often is), and to see what new (and old) games were being played by today's congoers. I didn't see any Puzzle Fighter, more's the pity. I did see more people playing Just Dance than I ever had before, but I didn't stop to play with them--not only were they full up but, you know, I have Just Dance at home. (Also I was wearing a short dress and wedge platform gladiator sandals--I manage to trip wearing sneakers, so.)

There really wasn't anything else too outstanding in the game room, and I knew we had reservations again at the Henley Park Hotel for tea, so I headed back into the Dealer's Room to meet up with my friends. While looking for them I unexpectedly ran into my friend Charlie! I hadn't known he was going to be there, although in fairness he hadn't found out until the last minute either. I can't believe I was at Charlie's first ever con, he and his girlfriend are such hardcore cosplayers now that I feel like they're more "veteran" than I am!

Tea was, as always, a great deal of fun. Eric and Annalee joined us (Eric was knitting something, I think a scarf? But I was very impressed, I really should learn because I'm a lot happier when I have something to occupy my hands when I have to sit still, and I think a fidget spinner would stop being fun after the first three seconds), and Avi invited our old friend Sai, whom I had met back in my Kou days and whom I hadn't seen in almost as long. Lady Terentia and I had fun recreating the "A Very Civil War" fanart by loopydave on DeviantArt, and it was generally just a really nice chance to rest our feet and spend quality time together before diving back into con madness.

We couldn't linger long, however, as Tom had graciously agreed to conduct a photoshoot of our Formal Avengers group. Teren and I went into the Mariott Marquis' lobby to wait while Avi changed into Hawkeye. On the plus side I got to see Baltimore Lauren (who was the picture of ecstasy when we bought her a Starbucks--caffeine is almost as necessary as water to keep going at a con), and I met a new photographer, Harvard Lim, who did some really neat practical effects with lights. Before long Alyce and Vil rejoined us as Bucky and Dr. Strange, and finally Linwood rounded out our group as Black Panther.

We just took a few shots on the lighted staircase in the lobby, and in one of the hallways nearby, but we had a *ball* trying to not only recreate our character's personalities (seriously posing with a drink in my hand was...unsurprisingly natural), but also, just, SO many memes. All of the memes. Cap/Tony Civil War, Distracted Boyfriend, Cool Facial Hair Bros, we were giggling like mad almost the entire time.

I had also texted Doc, because it's just not officially Otakon until I see him, and when he was either done with or got a break from his duties, he came by. At this point I'm not sure which of us is keeping the other sane, especially when it comes to the convention--I'm hoping it's a symbiotic relationship by this point. At any rate it's always nice to relax with friends when the day is winding down, and Doc is one of my closest.

A few of us (Teren and I especially, because we were wearing such pretty dresses) had been interested in checking out the formal dance that Otakon was holding for the first time, but Linwood had headed over there as soon as we were done with our Avengers photos, and it was now an hour later and he was *still* in line outside. I really was starting to fade at this point, and I knew I'd need extra time in the morning to straighten my hair, which I've never had to do at-con before, so Teren and I decided discretion is the better part of valor, and went back to my hotel. I had one more drink in the hotel bar because hi I'm Tony Stark, and then it was up to bed.

Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury

Prince Demand and Sailor Moon

Utena

Luna

Give me a scotch. I'm starving.

Avengers family

Super Mario Brothers group

She looks like a trade show model!

Nothing like a Lolita throwing up gang signs

A show about reincarnated classical composers that cause stars to fall and giant robots to appear because of their music, because Japan.

Charlie and me again.

He was there to sell shirts!

Twin Iron Men

It's hard to see in this pic but her glove holds the Infinity Stones

Really all of her accessories were perfect.

My lipstick is on point here.

Look at that spread!

Avi and I with doc (with Vil looking awesome in the background.)

Panda and Hedgehog use my arc rector for lighting.