Much like the Friday of Otakon 2012, I started Sunday morning hyperventilating over my weight. I had less reason to in one regard--Black Widow at least covered me from neck to wrist to ankle, even if it was skin tight. But I had more to worry about in another, in that I weighed more. (2012 was the best shape I was ever in in my *life*. Well, I'll get there again eventually.) Nevertheless, I relied on the power of the wig to prevail, and after screwing up all my courage, I left the safety of my house for the convention.

Penny had Pete's Basement duties to attend to, and I was far too cold for any of my neurons to be firing independently, so I tagged along, already starting to limp from where the boots were chafing. As they were filming, I got a text from David, so I sent him our booth location so he could find us, and then Doc joined us as well.

I was happy to see both boys, but they could tell I was even more scatterbrained than usual, and David asked if I was all right. "I'm so cold," I told him. "I'd feel so much better if I just had some socks. Would you believe I looked at every booth selling geek garb on the way here, and not one of them sold socks?"

"What, you mean like these?" he asked, and pulled a pair of socks out of his bag.

I stared at them. In his two hands were a pair of gorgeous, long, thick, Captain America socks!!! I mean, I would have been excited by these socks regardless (I have an astonishing collection of ridiculous socks), but...they were so soft and warm. "You want 'em?" he asked me. "I don't need them--I just brought them along as a spare pair in case my feet got wet, and they didn't. You can keep them."

I don't think anyone ever, in the history of the universe, has ever been so happy to receive a pair of socks.

Those socks made *all* the difference: once I had them on, my feet no longer felt cold, or wet, and they cushioned my ankles from the burgeoning blisters. David absolutely saved the con for me--I was able to walk comfortably the rest of the day. If not, I probably would've given up and gone home, I felt *that* bad. Pete and Penny finished up their interview, I was mobile again--it was time to explore the final day!

I was lucky enough to run into my friend Lisa in passing--she's one of the few people who is as long-term obsessed with Sailor Moon as I am, and it's always great to spend time with another Moonie. Sadly we didn't have a lot of time to get to hang out and catch up, but since she's always looking to set up Sailor Moon events in the city, I'm sure we'll get to eventually!

Let me take a moment to say, there were SO MANY amazing costumes at New York Comic Con on Sunday! I'm used to Sunday being a kind of "easy" day--I mean, sometimes I'll wear an elaborate costume (like this year) simply because of how my schedule worked out, but we're talking full groups of epicness here. The best was when I saw a pair of iconic sunglasses go by, and I gasped "Mugatu!", and he turned around, and he had the little dog and everything, and then I noticed the blond in the fringed jacket next to him, and realized he had a Hansel, too, and then there was a Derek next to him! I have never seen Zoolander cosplay before, but a full group? I absolutely fangirled.

As may be expected, there were a few Avengers running around--although no Cap or Tony, to my disappointment. (I had originally asked Pete if Mr. Stark could make his fourth Comic Con appearance, but events conspired against us.) But by far my favorite picture of the day was when a man tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I'd take a picture with his daughter, and when I turned around, there stood the most adorable three year old Black Widow. She was so excited to see another Black Widow! I crouched down to her level and gave her one of my guns, and we had a lot of fun shooting the multitude of photographers that sprang up out of nowhere.

I also got to see Roger and his son, because Sunday is still Kids Day at Comic Con. James was dressed as Batman, and he was so adorable I wanted to gather him up and take him home with me, but apparently that's a capital offense in the state of New York. All kidding aside, it's so amazing to see the friends from your teenage years start to raise geeks of their own. Nerdy parents are real superheroes.

Getting together with people was a lot harder on Sunday, because even though my phone had been in my bookbag, and my bookbag had been under my umbrella, it had managed to ship some water and was working kind of...wonky. I could text with it, but have you tried to text and walk at the same time in a sea of 180,000 people? It wouldn't have been so bad with my old phone, but the new one doesn't have a keyboard, so I had been relying on Google Voice all weekend to talk to text. And, naturally, that was the first thing to go. (What did we do in the days before cell phones? I mean really. Then again, I'm pretty sure I had a cell phone at my first ever convention, even if it was only one step up from two tin cans and a string.)

Richie also sent me a text to see where I was--yup, today was going to be the day where we were the obnoxious oversized group that was clogging the aisles, but I found I could live with that. Once he found me he made appropriate Tex Avery levels of comic appreciation, which made me feel a lot better about fitting into my costume. He made me promise to let him shoot me outside of a convention setting soon--a promise I haven't gotten around to filling yet, but definitely intend to.

We did a little bit of shopping after that, but it was really more browsing than shopping as no one seems to do the Sunday sales thing anymore. Plus, a lot of the "good" merchandise was gone--in fact this year for some con exclusives you had to enter a lottery online at least a month ahead of time, and even that didn't reserve you a figure, but just a ticket to be allowed into the booth to buy one! Can you imagine? Maybe I'm the wrong one to talk since my collecting has slowed down a tad, but I think exclusivity is getting a little out of hand. (Still, if the market will bear...)

All the while Doc was stalking the elusive Oshi, not only because he wanted to see her, but also because despite her daughter being...six years old now? I *still* hadn't met her! (No, I don't know why it is that I don't see my local friends except for at conventions, it's a phenomena that's still being studied by scientists across the globe.) She was hanging out by the Adult Swim booth, so we headed over there.

The booth was insane! They had people playing live music, and the way to get into the booth was to crawl in through a tunnel under their desk. The entire thing was encased in live plastic, so people outside could see what was going on--including the people crawling to get in! Oshi (dressed as was Joyce from Stranger Things) talking to Jess (yay I got to see her twice this weekend!), and maybe it was the red wig throwing her off, but I kept hovering over her like a creeper going, "Oshi. Oshi. Oshi. Oshi." until she finally turned around, and nearly gasped when she recognized me! YES I KNOW THIS WIG MAKES ME LOOK LIKE A REAL GIRL. And I finally got to meet Ollie (dressed as Eleven from Stranger Things), but she was way more interested in going through the awesome tunnel again than in meeting another weird friend of her mom's--well, I can't blame her; if I weren't mildly worried I was going to bust all my seams if I moved too much, I probably would've gone through the tunnel too.

Around this time I started having issues with my camera. If you read my Otakon 2016 con report, you'll know that I managed to drop it and break it literally the first day I was down there, but that Doc had managed to fix it. Now...either something was loose, or it had gotten wet, but sometimes it wanted to work, and sometimes it didn't. At least this happened on Sunday instead of Thursday, but I ended up relying on Doc for even more photos than I usually would have. I am so lucky I have so many friends who are so indulgent, or else I'd really be up that unpleasant creek, sans paddle! (Like, just, so often.)

Now that we had Jess with us, Pete wanted to find J. Scott Campell, as she's a huge fan of his (and, having met her, Campbell's a pretty big fan of hers.) He had a booth all to himself on the Exhibition Floor, so we trooped back the way we had come and found him. We (by which I mean, Doc) got an excellent photo of both Jess and Campbell punching Pete in the face simultaneously...I don't know, there's some sort of in joke there that I don't really get. (Maybe Pete's face is just provokingly punchable? I may have hit him once or twice myself. Though it's usually pun related in my case.)

Having done the Exhibition Floor to death, we figured it was time for one last turn through the Artist Alley. (Day Four: Still no James O' Barr. You can't say I didn't try.) We figured we would see if anyone Pete knew was there (he knows so many artists and creators at this point), both to say hi, and to maybe get a little last-minute coverage for the Basement.

I may not have gotten to see James O'Barr, but I did get to meet Victor Castro, an artist who has worked on the Hero Initiative and with Arcana Studios. His eyes widened when he saw our group, and he called for his young son to come out from behind the booth. The boy's eyes widened in the same way, then he dashed back behind the booth, and came back out with a cardboard Captain America shield.

"Black Widow," he asked me, "would you sign my shield?"

WHAT IS IT WITH THESE ADORABLE CHILDREN ARE THEY *TRYING* TO KILL ME? Apparently both Victor and his son had been looking for Avengers cosplayers all day; he wanted to get them all to sign his shield, and I was lucky enough to be the first. Let me tell you, I may never win an Academy Award, but I felt like an honest-to-god superstar signing that little boy's shield. I even tried to make my handwriting a little different from my usual signature. I hope he got a bunch of autographs before the show as over. I know he made my day.

Skye had been running a little late (the trains were still all off-kilter, although at least today I knew to transfer to the L at Myrtle-Wyckoff), but she was finally at the con and looking for a good Game of Thrones T-shirt. Jess knew where the GoT gear was, so we texted her a booth "address" and all started walking over that way. I got to see the "huge doe-eyed" look from her again, so between Skye and Richie I felt a lot less self-conscious.

To be honest, though, there was only about an hour left of the con, so it was time to start wrapping it up. We handed Doc's camera off to a random stranger to try to take a "dead dog" pic of me, Skye, Pete, Jess, Penny, David, Richie, and Doc, but of *course* it came out blurry. I guess that one was for the ages. Most of us (except for Doc, the lucky dog) still had a bit of a trek home (though at least it had stopped raining, thank the Christ), so we started saying our goodbyes and headed out.

Skye and I had the best "dead dog" party ever, just the two of us--after I took off that gorgeous wig and all of that dad-ratted makeup (seriously my washcloth looked like the Shroud of Ronald McDonald when I was done with it), I poured us each a glass of champagne, and she loaded Hitchcock, one of her favorite movies, and a superhero movie I had never seen, and we just turned into useless lumps for a good couple of hours. Then after I had driven her home, I got into a boiling hot tub and had myself another glass of champagne--and I *still* ended up coming down with con plague, so I guess my time-tested preventatives didn't perform well this year. But at least it waited until I got home to hit me.

There is an endless debate over whether such-and-such a con is worth it, and NYCC is no exception. I got to be a part of an epic wedding proposal, meet Stan Lee, see some old friends, meet some new ones, help a mom and her son, eat tasty snacks, and pose with some adorable children. Your mileage may vary. But remember: your con experience is what you make of it.

Neo Queen Serenity

David gave me socks!

Pretty much my job at these cons.

Lisa and me

Black Widow and Black Panther

"All I wanna do is bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

Oshi is REALLY SHOCKED that I'm me.

The BrOdinson and Nic as Thor and Gamora

Just goes to show what a picture of the same people in the same place looks like when taken with a much better camera!

Me and Richie

Jess and me

Me and Penny

"Pay attention to me
Pay attention to me
Pay attention to me
Pay attention to me..."

YAY she paid attention to me!

Even when I'm standing on something, I'm short!