I try to make it my business to see Patti and Steph every two years, if at all possible. Their Sailor Moon Musical group, Last Chance Myu, was booked to perform at Anime Weekend Atlanta, and while I knew I would never be able to dedicate the time necessary to learn songs (especially in Japanese, second languages do not come easily to me) or choreography (I'm a good enough dancer, but I seem to mix up my left and my right more often than you'd think), I was willing to offer my help in any way possible--you can never have enough stage ninjas.

I took a cab from Hartsfield-Jackson to the hotel, and tried to compare the streets in Atlanta to the streets of New York...but since I believe we stayed mostly on the freeway, I have to be honest, I didn't see much. That's one of the few downsides to convention weekends: you can spend entire weekends in amazing cities, and see absolutely nothing of them. (Though, given my choice, I'd rather see my friends than any architectural landmark!) I texted Patti and Steph, and they were waiting for me at the hotel. As I was sharing a room with them, Koi, Heather and her daughter Ambellina (although to be fair, we had a "suite" rather than a "room"), and, well, we're cosplayers, we had fun trying to find a place to stash all of our costumes, regular clothes, toiletries, and makeup. Luckily all of my friends are extraordinarly sweet, intelligent, and helpful, and they soon helped me settle in so we could get down to business.

This was my first time meeting Ambellina, although I had met her mother at Otakon 2006, I believe. In addition to being one of the stage ninjas, my main job was to be Ambellina's best friend and constant shadow while Heather was rehearsing...and to help prepare Ambellina for an extra surprise of her own. We hit it off immediately--maybe I've gotten better at being around children since spending time with my niece for the past five years, but by the end of the weekend, Ambellina had me wrapped around her little finger. Of course, it didn't hurt that I can occasionally have a mentality of a six year old myself, and we had a lot of fun drawing our *own* stage to sing and dance on while the grown ups ran through their repetoire.

In addition to my roommates, I also got the opportunity to hang out with some other cast members of Last Chance Myu that I hadn't met in person before, either, like Ashley and Morgan, and others that I don't see often enough, like Fitz and Holly. Not long after, Ranma showed up as LCM's official videographer, to document some of the work that goes on behind-the-scenes that goes into making a successful show. I don't know how Ranma manages to make it to so many cons, but just having my onii-san nearby was a huge comfort to me!

There really isn't too much I can tell you about the rehearsal process itself; if you've ever been involved in any sort of stage production, whether in school, stock theater, a dance recital, anything, you know what it's like, and if you haven't, there aren't words to convey the bizarre blend of hilarity and stress that are involved. Since the room that the girls would be performing in was in use almost constantly throughout the weekend, we had the added problem of finding a space big enough to allow a cast of 9 girls to sing and dance simultaneously...so we ended up in the parking complex. Hurried shouts of "CAR!" quickly ended up becoming the catch phrase of the weekend.

Aside from rehearsing and meal breaks, we had two other goals we wanted to achieve: a Silver Millennium group cosplay photoshoot, and a Sailor Moon panel at 6:00 PM. After changing into our costumes, we headed into the convention center proper, and quickly started getting into position. I, of course, begged for the closest "matching shot" to the group scene from the ending to Sailor Moon S, and the girls were sweet enough to oblige. Then, Ranma started separating us for individual shots, and for smaller groupings--not only did we get inner senshi and outer senshi, but Heather was wonderful enough to go along with some of the out-of-canon Mars/Venus poses I had in mind (I have a very unique take on Rei and Minako's relationship in my head...not in love but more than friends kind of thing, it's hard to explain).

In between taking photos, I was checking my phone and texting some other people I knew would be there...and soon enough, who should show up but Krystal! I was so grateful to be able to see her--I hadn't seen her since AnimeNEXT 2005...seven years ago! That's the trouble with making friends online--this country is big, and it's hard to get together. Not long after that, Mario Rob and Courtney joined us--I hadn't seen them that long ago, since we had cosplayed together at Otakon only the month before, but given that they lived in Ohio, I wasn't sure when I'd get to see them again. I also got to meet Patti and Steph's friend Kelly, who I would have met through stalking anyway because she was dressed as an excellent Taiki (and really, Taiki cosplayers are rare enough, good ones are exceptional.) The photoshoot over, we all decided to head to the Sailor Moon panel together.

We would have attended the Sailor Moon panel anyway, not only because we all love Sailor Moon but because Kelly was hosting it, but we also wanted to promote the show the next day. I have to say, celebrating the classic that is Sailor Moon with other die-hard fans...they asked us to sing the North American theme song...at first, I rolled my eyes (because, really, fighting evil by moonlight? Winning love by daylight?), but...I realized, I still knew all those words. And singing along with everyone else, *that's* when I got tears in my eyes. Because that's how we all started, isn't it? That's what we all first fell in love with. And, really, that's how we all ended up together. (And you can see it here if you're interested.)

I had one more thing I wanted to accomplish before I turned in for the night: Mario Rob and Courtney had asked me to bring down the white shirt artbook outfit I had for Rei, so after they changed into the matching outfits for Haruka and Michiru, we got a hold of Ferio!Chris, and asked him to take some quick shots of us together in the lobby. As much fun as I was having, I didn't dare stay up too late, because the next day was D-Day...

"CAR!"

Leading the sing-a-long at the Sailor Moon panel.

Really good panel.