There was almost a bit of a kerfuffle with my attending New York Comic Con this year. First, I missed the window to buy my own four day ticket, so I started out with no pass. Then, my Senshi in the City girls bought enough passes for everybody "just in case", so I had one pass. Then, I bought individual day tickets for another friend of mine who ended up being unable to attend, so I had two passes. I was still in a pretty bad state that I wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle attending the con on my own, so I dialed my own Emotional Support Terentia and asked if she'd like to be my Plus One for NYCC 2019.

This aided me further by helping me figure out what to wear: I had my group costume with Senshi in the City for Sunday set in stone from the year before, and I knew I wanted to wear "Birthday Nat" with Pete, but I had two days open with no idea what to wear. I had even started an Excel spreadsheet to try to track how often I'd worn my costumes and how recently, because, again, giant nerd, but with Terentia coming along it was blessedly simple. It would be a *great* opportunity for us to wear our "Stevie" and "Toni" costumes again--Captain America and Iron Man belong at a comic book convention even more than they do at an anime convention--and since she was going to meet Paige O'Hara of course Teren was going to wear her Belle costume, so this was a perfect opportunity for me to wear my Snow White Peasant Dress again. Problem solved!

So, Lady Terentia arrived at my house Wednesday night, we got everything situated, and left together for the Javits Center on Thursday morning. Teren has been in the city a few times by now, so she's getting used to the New York City subway system and our Metrocards and all that jazz. She's even been to midtown before, since I work there, but this was her first time going all the way down by the water. Fortunately the lines weren't too bad, and we made it inside, and one of the very first cosplayers we saw was Elsa from Frozen. It was a good day to be a Disney princess.

Right away I wanted to pick us up each a program and a lanyard (both for their practical uses and souveniers) but the first bin we came to was completely empty. I asked a staffer nearby if there were any more, and they said there were at least two more bins by the information stands in the Dealer's Room. I wanted Teren to see the Dealer's Room anyway, so that seemed like as good a place to start as any.

Prior to the con my friend Jon had texted me to see what my costume schedule for NYCC was like, as he was shooting a music video recap and wanted me and Terentia in it. Between the two of us we figured Thursday would probably be the easiest day for us to meet up, so as soon as we got in I texted Jon to see where he was. He was in the Dealer's Room! Excellent, two birds with one stone.

We met up with Jon, he took a few shots, and asked us what we were up to. I told him about our princess schedule, and groused that we were unable to find any programs at all. "Here," he said, reaching into a bag and pulling one out, "take mine, I have the app anyway." What a great guy! Teren had the app too, so it's not like we were completely without schedule or map, but *I* didn't have the app, and as I said I save the program from every con I go to as a souvenier, so I was very happy.

And, as always, there were a ton of cosplayers to make our nerdy little hearts happy. Don't get me wrong, Otakon always has a ton of great costumes, and Katsucon did the one time we all went, but I think New York Comic Con had more variety (due to being more of a pop culture con than a specific to one medium con) than Lady Terentia's gotten to see in one place before. Some people go there *just* to debut new costumes that can't even be worn around the con center, so there's plenty to gape at if that's your thing the way it is ours.

Someone mentioned that the program bins had been refilled, and I still wanted to get one for Terentia if I could, so we made our way back to the front entrance to see if we could snag one. Empty! Either we had heard wrong, or they were really going that fast. But it wasn't a wasted trip, because when we turned around we saw this *gorgeous* Belle cosplayer with a Beast! Of course I had to take a picture of them, and then a picture of Teren with them, and then when I turned around *again* there was a beautiful live-action Cinderella cosplayer waiting to take *our* photo, and before we knew it an inadvertant Disney photoshoot had broken out. Thankfully because we were standing by the big bin traffic was already diverting around us so we really didn't cause a jam, because you wouldn't believe how many photographers seemed to pop up out of nowhere! That's always a little thrill.

Lady Terentia had bought her/our photo op times with Jodi Benson and Paige O'Hara ahead of time online, and they were coming up so we left the Dealer's Room and started over to the Autographs & Photo Ops area. There were a *ton* of celebrities doing both there: Benedict Wong, Paul Reubens, Sean Astin, James Masters, Tom Hiddleston, and those are just the names I remember and recognized off the top of my head. There were long lines everywhere you looked. But the staffers kept us moving and in the right queues. First up was Jodi Benson, and we spotted plenty of Ariel (and Prince Eric, and Ursula, and even a Flounder or two) cosplayers in the line with us. It wasn't long of a wait before it was our turn.

"Hi!" I said, as we tripped on over to her. "We thought you might appreciate some princess company!"

Ms. Benson was so nice! She loved our costumes and her smile is just dazzling. I think it's only recently that Disney has started deliberately and obviously basing the designs of their characters off of their voice actors, but it's hard to look at Jodi Benson and not see a little bit of Ariel. You only get about 30 seconds and two shots with each celebrity so it's not like you have time to have a deep and meaningful conversation, but even with just the few sentences we passed Ms. Benson made us feel like she really appreciated us coming out. What a sweet woman.

After we exited the photo area and picked up our photo (see below!) it was time to get right back on the line to see Paige O'Hara! I was going to go into the booth with Lady Terentia so I could watch, but we decided that Teren should be in the photo with Paige alone, as meeting her had been a dream of Teren's for as long as she's been a fan of the movie, whereas I'm a much more casual fan. And Paige, too, was *so* sweet. I think maybe it's a pre-requisite of being hired to be a princess by the Disney company. Lady Terentia was able to tell Paige how much the movie had meant to her growing up and to this day, and Paige told Terentia that she loved Teren's costume and that Teren was so beautiful, and my eyes welled up a little and in the photo of the two of them you can see Teren beaming from ear to ear, and the con was already 100% fantastic and the first day wasn't even over yet. Holy crow.

But, there were still plenty of things to do and see! There were also two artists (one related to Disney, no less) that we still wanted to meet, so once we had our photos we aimed next for Artists' Alley. You can easily spend hours in there even if there isn't anyone in particular you're looking for, there are such a wide variety of creators there. But, one of the women we were looking for, Amy Mebbeson, was right in the first aisle, so we found her right away!

Amy Mebberson does the really cute Pocket Princesses Disney comics that you sometimes see online (David Ng was a prolific share-er) and had also worked on some of the published Disney princess comic books that Lady Terentia owns. Her art style is adorable (which is what attracted Disney's eye, I'm sure) and mutual friends had gotten to meet her at a different convention earlier that year, which made even the usually patient Terentia slightly jealous. But here she was! And, continuing the most wonderful theme of the weekend, was also incredibly friendly. Unfortunately she didn't have any Rapunzel or Eugene artwork for sale but there was a Belle for Teren to buy. She also posed for a picture, which was awesome.

We were also on the lookout for Katie Cook, but she wasn't there--I believe she had left for the day. But, we had three more days in which to find her, so we weren't too upset. We still wanted to check out who all else was there, so we wandered Artists Alley a bit more, and Lady Terentia spotted a table with a banner saying "Lady Mechanika", which Teren recognized as a title her uncle reads, so she took photos of the merch that was being offered at the booth to send to him to see if he wanted anything.

While we had been wandering the Artists Alley I had also been texting with Pete. Lady Terentia and Pete had talked online a bit (mainly conspiring to try to keep me alive) but hadn't met in person. I was both excited and very wary about introducing them--if Terentia is the good angel on my shoulder, Pete is...definitely...not. Teren's a gentle soul and Pete is out to corrupt virtually every person he comes into contact with (and yet he still helps women with strollers up subway steps and gives his seat to the elderly. Weird dude, I'm telling you.) I was ready at the first sign of a hideously inappropriate remark to approach his lips to snap his neck, but Pete was...weirdly...oddly...well behaved around Lady Terentia. Thank. Friggen. Christ.

I was also able to introduce her to our friend Rich, who, thank God, is a lot less problematic than Pete, and we decided to walk around together. Honestly we had a lot of fun! We went back to the Dealer's Room with Pete so that he and I could see if Seb was at the Stranger Comics booth--Seb wasn't around, but there were these two cosplayers helping him out who were SO nice, Terentia and I started talking to them while Pete did Pete's Basement things. We had so much fun talking to Brytt and Kayla, and we promised to stop by every day so we could show off our costumes and take pictures with each other.

Pete was also taken aback by the fact that The Far Side had an exhibit at Comic Con. It's been almost 25 years since Gary Larson quit making new comics, but it had been announced just before con that there would finally be a Far Side website, which would mainly feature his old stuff (which can be tough to find on the internet; Larson fans are actually very respectful of the creator's wishes) with occasional new content if and when the mood struck him. Really though, it was just nice seeing his work enter the scene again.

Pete with Brit and Kayla in the Stranger Comics booth

Since Doc wasn't going to attend the con but still wanted a chance to hang out with Terentia and I, I begged them to take me back to one of my favorite comfort food places, Alice's Tea Cup. Alice's is only open until 8 PM, so as soon as it started to get dark Lady Terentia and I knew we had to get moving. We said goodbye to Pete and made our way to the exit.

This was one of the colder Comic Cons (October in New York is a bit of a crap shoot; sometimes it's still summer and then one Halloween it snowed), and while we *could* have worn our ordinary jackets, why would we when Teren had two hooded capes that were just perfect for our costumes! She had a blue cloak that Patti and Steph had made for her to wear to the live action Beauty and the Beast movie, and she had bought this adorable red BatB cape from Hot Topic that she brought along for me to borrow. So even when we were dressed to go outside we were princesses.

We took a cab to Alice's (while I have no problem taking the subway in full costume--obviously--we were pretty tired) and, thankfully, did not have too long to wait for a table. Tea and scones and sandwiches and cookies and good friends are the best mental health medicine in the world for me, and at least some of the evening was spent with my back comfortably propped against the cushioned booth back listening to Doc and Teren catch up.

Doc had recently gotten into 3D printing, and had gifts for us! Mine was a red Mars symbol on a complex 3D background, which I now have hanging from my bookbag's zipper pull. (It clatters companionably against the plastic miko keychain that Anna gave me over the summer, but it also means my days of stealthily sneaking up on people are just about over). Teren's was an adorable little purple dragon that changes pink with heat! Teren absolutely loves anything dragon related or purple, so this was, quite literally, custom made for her.

After tea we said goodnight and Terentia and I headed back to my place. Day One had gone extremely well!

Sailor Jupiter

Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Frozen

Me and Jon

The Daywalker

A beautiful Belle and her Beast

He was more than happy to have two Belles to pose with!

Cinderella from the latest live action movie

A bevy of Disney princesses!

And one prince.

Having all of us in a group was too much of a lure for photographers to resist.

We tried hard not to block traffic.

I think we were mostly okay.

Mainly because we posed by an already immovable object.

Linwood reprised his formal Black Panther from our Otakon group

Chun Li from Street Fighter

More Disney princesses!

My dad has been obsessed with Moana since we watched it together.

My mom liked it too but she was super nervous about the pig.

Beauty, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White

Jon and I

Teren and I with Jody Benson!

This kid looked SO much like Tom Holland, Jesus Christ Bananas.

Three for tea!

Luckily Alice's doesn't bat an eye at our shenanigans.