I had booked a room at the Comfort Inn through Triple A, since all of the hotels with the convention rate had filled up surprisingly quickly (I had booked my room for AnimeNEXT 2014 little more than a month before the con!) I hadn't *really* been considering room service, since I've been trying to budget intelligently, but I had been surprised to learn upon check-in that there was no restaurant attached to the hotel at *all*. This worried me.

This was only my second time wearing Utena's rosebride dress, and I remembered how much help I had had at Otakon the year before, and was a little worried I wouldn't be able to manage by myself. It helped that I the room to myself, which gave me a lot more room to navigate, and this time I was smart enough to pin all of the accessories on the dress *before* I put it on. I still had trouble closing the hook and eye at the very top and pinning the brooch in place, but all things considered I don't think I did too bad of a job.

As I was drifting around the front lawn of the Double Tree, I spotted a beautiful Sailor Moon cosplayer crossing the road towards me. I headed on over with the intent of asking her if I could take her picture for Sailor Moon Avatars, and as I got closer, I realized it was Scott's girlfriend, Tiffany! I had met her at the Sakura Matsuri that April, when she was dressed as Usagi from the Sailor Moon Crystal opening. Her friend Christilynn, who had been dressed as Rei from the same sequence, was also with her--although it's a mark of what a great cosplayer she is that I didn't recognize her right away!

About the time the girls were ready to enter the convention center proper, I got a text from Paul Karpey AKA PopeCerebus to see if I was dressed and free. I had mentioned to him I was interested in doing a photoshoot with him, which would be especially fitting since he had shot my school uniform Utena the year before--maybe we could link the two shoots thematically, or something. We found each other near the entrance to the DoubleTree's pool, which makes for a really great meeting spot by the way, and moved off the beaten path to do our photoshoot. I'm afraid I wasn't the best model to work with; it's a little difficult to move around in that big poofy dress, and the sun was so bright it was really hard not to squint. But Paul was very patient with me, and gave me a hand over any obstacles I needed to climb (or even step) over, and we did end up getting some really good pictures, although I attribute that more to his skill than the raw material he had to work with. :)

The boys were pretty busy, so I said goodbye to them for the moment and went back on my photo safari. If I had thought there were a lot of Sailor Moon cosplayers on Friday, there were so many more on Saturday! (Which just makes sense, of course.) Sailor Moon Crystal was now in full gear--at AnimeNEXT 2014, we were still awaiting the first episode. I'm not insane enough to do an actual count, but I'd say there were way more than double the amount of Sailor Moon cosplayers this year...maybe even triple. Happy, happy Crissy. And sure, I *maybe* only hear from 1% of the cosplayers I hand out my cards to...but those cosplayers usually have friends, and so Sailor Moon Avatars grows bit by bit. I can't complain--I can barely keep up as it is.

I did, however, think it was wise to get something in my stomach around midday, so I headed to the little food court again to see what there was to be found. And once again, the place was *insanely* packed. I thought about camping out on the floor as I had done with Pete the day before, but that was a lot easier to do in a black skater dress...not so much in a pale pink cupcake of doom. I circled the tables with my food, trying not to look desperate (or creepy) until I found an empty chair. A few girls ended up at the table with me, but we were all pretty intent on our 3DSes (in case you didn't know, conventions are worth going to for the Street Passes alone, if you're into that sort of thing) and it really wasn't too weird. A little tricky, balancing all that in one chair, but I managed not to get any food on my dress, or drop anything. Yay for Crissy.

As we were talking, our friend Victor and *his* fiancée Cathy joined us. I've known Victor for years--as long as I've known Andrea--but I believe this was my first time seeing him in cosplay! Cathy made him a Sub-Zero costume and it looked excellent on him. She was dressed as Orihime from Bleach, and even though I've still never seen any more Bleach than the first four episodes Louis and I watched with Ender back at Otakon 2005, I still recognized the character from the days when Bleach was the "It" cosplay of the convention scene. It was great to get to meet her, and it was nice seeing Victor again--circumstances may change, but ultimately, friendly and genuine people pretty much stay the same.

Drinks at the bar were a laugh riot. There seemed to be quite a few non-anime fans there, although I can't imagine what they were doing in this completely out of the way hotel if they weren't--possibly family members of some of the younger crowd? Who knows. But the anime fans completely took over, including breaking out into song at random times. Greg and I had nerd-themed alcoholic drinks, argued about whether or not I had a picture of him being violated as Pyramid Head (answer: I do), and got into a heated debate over the age old question: Cloud/Tifa, or Cloud/Aeris? He also introduced me to some of his friends, and we really had a great time just hanging out and being silly. I limited myself to one drink, however, due to my aforementioned determination to stay sober, so in order to avoid temptation after a little while I said goodbye to Greg and left the hotel bar.

I also bumped into Linwood again while I was walking, and since he had gotten a little sidelined during all of the girl talk, he decided to come with me before I had to head back to my hotel room. Having Linwood along on a photohunt is a true joy; he always makes it a point to say something complimentary and supportive to every single cosplayer we talk to. You'd think that cosplayers would take it for granted because they hear things like that "all the time", but the truth is, they don't: some, because they're "so good" that people are afraid to approach them; some, because their costume is more obscure and people don't really recognize them; and some because, let's face it, a fair percentage attendees are shy or socially awkward, and just take their pictures without actually saying anything. The fact that Linwood has something positive to say to everyone he comes into contact to really makes taking photos even more enjoyable.

It was getting close to dinner time, so I said goodbye to Linwood and headed back to my hotel room to change: Tony and Gigi are seasoned convention goers, so I had no worries about looking out of place, but there was *no way* I was attempting to drive enveloped in satin and tulle. I didn't want to go through the bother of taking off my wig and makeup, however, so I had deliberately packed a pink sundress that feels like something Utena might wear as my evening outfit for Saturday. So it was really just a matter of struggling out of my poofy cupcake, slipping on a wonderfully light and comfortable dress, and then it was into the car and onto the road!

Dinner was once again a blast. I have a great time catching up with Gigi and Tony, I really do--they're the role models of what functioning, responsible adult fans should be--but I have to admit a great deal of the draw for me is playing with the kids. Maybe this is a mark of my own immaturity but we. Had. A BALL. We ended up playing this complicated three way game with miniature plushies of Batman, Cinderella, and Elsa, where their oldest son would use Elsa to freeze me solid (at which point I'd make my whole body go rigid, and collapse onto the couch), and then the twins would make Batman and Cinderella rush in to rescue and unfreeze me (at which point I would get up again with an exaggerated sigh of relief and begin to thank them), only to have Elsa interrupt and freeze me solid again--faster and faster and faster, until I was pretty much bouncing up and down from the couch non-stop. Adults just don't know how to play, you know? Kids don't just play games, they invent them.

We lucked out: the sun was just starting to enter the golden hour, and the lighting was indescribably beautiful, making me look much better than I really do--although Tony had a pretty big hand in that, too. I've said before Tony brings out my inner glamour girl. We didn't go crazy, but we ended up with some really pretty pictures with what we had to work with.

By this point, Tony was the third male anyone watching would have seen me bringing up to my hotel room, which was starting to give me a little bit of a complex. Really, though, all we did was yammer a bit while I changed back into my Rosebride dress in the bathroom (in retrospect, it would have made more sense for me to put him in the bathroom, and get changed in the rest of the suite, as there was way more room out there) and share one shot of Jameson apiece as a toast to sailing beyond the sunset before we died. We were going to run around the convention center, at NIGHT, like college kids! Man the torpedoes and full speed ahead!

Well, it's a good thing we weren't playing for real, because we would've wound up in the emergency room getting our stomachs pumped within an hour. Apparently I hadn't paid attention to how many photos I had taken that day alone--and as I've mentioned before, I tend to only take pictures of costumes I recognize. Because, after all, for one thing, people don't just cosplay from anime and manga, they cosplay from pop culture, and a broader database means more chances for us to recognize something. For another, just because I haven't watched an anime or read a manga doesn't mean I don't recognize the character; being in the convention scene alone exposes you to the real biggies. Pretty soon I was adding rules in a desperate attempt to limit the game, such as it has to have originated from Japan rather than the United States, and we had to have actually watched, read, or played the original source, not just heard of it, which led to Tony instituting a rule saying that you can't change the rules of a drinking game after you've started playing. Touché.