On Friday Lady Terentia and I approached the convention with much the same goal we had on Day One of Otakon that same year: take pictures with all the Spider-children! So she donned her "Stevie" formal dress and I put on my armored Toni cocktail dress with the power sleeves and we stormed the Javits Center.

In actuality, what happened was that Lady Terentia turned to the parents and said, "Would it be all right if we held your baby for the photo? I'm a professional nanny" (she is) "so I'm really good with children!" So the dad handed Terentia the baby and I coo-ed over it (teeechnically I've held babies in my time, I mean I've held my nieces and nephews and friends' kids, but I am NOT a professional baby person and my experience is limited so while I really really really always want to hold all babies I would be terrified of dropping a stranger's baby) and while the Italian background in me really wanted to kiss the baby's hands and feet (why do we do that, I have no idea) I restrained myself to just kissing *at* them and basically the two of just squee'ed and were total girlie girls for a minute. It was incredible.

Okay, after that our next mission was to meet up with Pete, who had a Meowmeow (...fine, Mjölnir) for Lady Terentia to borrow, because both she and Captain America are worthy. But we didn't make very fast progress because, much like at Otakon, pretty much everyone wants to take a picture with Toni Stark and/or Stevie Rogers. And of course I had to stop every cosplayer I wanted to take a picture with or of as well.

We found Pete with Rich as well as more friends I wanted to introduce Lady Terentia to: Cheezburger, who instantly started making her laugh with his ridiculous (but very accurate!) vocal impressions, David, an all-around stand-up guy who is always there when you need him, and Age, who has the distinction of being the artist of one of the only two posters I have displayed in my apartment. The gentlemen immediately jumped in to be our "handlers" every time a photographer stopped us for a picture, and helped us juggle our phones, our bags, and in Terentia's case Meowmeow. (Yes, there were many jokes about who was worthy.)

Once we were all together we decided to tour the Dealer's Room, both for people who hadn't seen it yet, and because the day before we had spotted an Iron Man poster that I had decided I *had* to take a matching photo in front of. We had fun winding our way through the aisles, looking at all of the cool merch, until we got to the middle where the poster was. Cheez and Age tried to keep people from walking in front of Lady Terentia while I tried to keep my balance to take that silly picture, but whatever, we enjoy what we do.

Terentia and I also got stopped by SyFy Wire, who asked us if they could take video of us for a feature on NYCC cosplay they were doing. We signed releases and everything, but despite stalking their YouTube afterward we never did find ourselves. (Well, you can kind of see us in the background for a split second.) In their defense there were SO many amazing costumes at NYCC that it would be impossible for anyone to feature them all--and the "Endgame Thor" they filmed right after us was definitely impressive!

Of course we also wanted to drop in at Stranger Comics and visit Brytt and Kayla again. Every day of the con they cosplayed different versions of Niobe characters, it was really neat. I'd been reading Pete's She Is Life and She Is Death comics from time to time, but I finally bought my own hardcover copy of the collected editions of The Untamed, where the story started, and I can tell you it is just magnificent. I can't recommend it enough.

Terentia had also noticed that there was a "NYCC Marvel Women of Power" photoshoot scheduled for Friday afternoon which sounded right up our alley (although we were genderbent versions of male characters, I thought we might still be accepted.) We noticed a female Thor who was just magnificent in every way (she towered over me, even in my platform wedges), and told her about it and asked her to join us, and then saw a female Winter Soldier who was absolutely smoldering that we convinced to join us as well. Basically between the Dealer's Room and the outdoor location of the photoshoot Terentia and I called out to every female Marvel cosplayer we saw to join us. Cosplay is more fun with more people.

The NYCC Marvel Women of Power was fun--I'm not a feminist by the general misuse of the word, but I do enjoy meeting other women in what is often a male-dominated fandom--but it was windy! Again, probably seasonable for October in the Northeast but I much prefer 70° days with no wind. I at least had long sleeves (but exposed legs) but Lady Terentia with her bare arms was shivering, and I'm a wuss so I wasn't doing much better. As soon as we were done we headed back into the con.

On our way in we spotted this INCREDIBLE Punisher cosplayer, who turned out to be a friend of Pete's. For a man playing Frank Castle Rocco was seriously the nicest guy! Normally he cosplays Deadshot (which we would see him in the next day) and makes all of his own costumes and props--people like him intimidate me even when they're *not* heavily armed. But as I said he was actually very nice and joined us for a bit as we went back inside and went back to the Dealer's Room. While we were walking I spotted my friend CHris and Lady Ava, and not only did we take a regular selfie, but I decided that one of my Polaroids for the day (part of an ongoing project I was doing for 2019) would be of all of us! So that was fun.

As we were shopping, we suddenly heard the theme from the "Thor" movies swelling behind us. Pete turned around and said, "Dude, that guy gets major points for walking around with the soundtrack playing." So I turned around, and who was it but Smiley-Eyed Thor! (See my previous con reports.) I ran up to him and hugged him, and introduced him to Lady Terentia and the rest of my friends. I think it was Pete's turn to be a little impressed by one of my friends because dude, he really does look *just* like Thor (he's been stopped in airports!) but Sean (I suppose I should use his name now, but I like the little nicknames I come up with for people so much) is such a sweetheart he puts everyone at ease.

Now that we were back inside we decided our next stop would be Artist Alley so Terentia could continue pursuing her objectives: 1) meet Katie Cook. We were in luck! Katie makes an online comic called Nothing Special that Teren has been reading for over a year. It's a fantasy romance comedy adventure story with a really strong female lead, which is right up Teren's alley, and a whole slew of other unique and well developed characters. Teren really loves the story and the art style and the attention to the little details that Katie Cook puts into it. I have to admit I wasn't familiar with her work to even the small amount I was with Amy Mebbeson's, but once again seeing Teren get to meet someone she admires, *and* have that person be so incredibly kind was still a great thing for me.

Our last stop of the day was the Lady Mechanika table, because Lady Terentia knew she was going to buy a bunch of comics for her uncle, and didn't want to have to carry them all day. The creator was there as well, and not only posed for a picture with Terentia, but signed everything she bought! They were out of Volume 1 of the trade, however, so we figured we'd have to make one more trip back before the convention was over. They had offered to reduce the price for Lady Terentia because she was buying in bulk, so before we left we got assurances that they would have that trade in on Saturday and that they'd offer it at the lower price.

There was only one thing left to do. I had "accidentally" let it slip to Lady Terentia that one of Pete's weaknesses is that the theme song to the Captain America cartoon from the 60s gets stuck in his head if he hears even just the opening lyric. In my defense I try not to abuse this too often, but with us dressed as Toni and Cap I figured the opportunity was too good to pass up. So I caught Lady Terentia's eye and winked, and we got into position on either side of him and started, "When Captain America throws his might shield..."

"Oh no."

"All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield!"

"I hate you both."

"When it comes to a fight and the...duel is...FRIG" and then we forgot the rest of the words and messed it up.

He wasn't impressed.

Ah well. Two more days to go!

Awesome custom gauntlet

Pretty sure Wolvie could kick my @$$

Captain America, Spider-Man, and Iron Man

So freaking cute

I loved running into so many Avengers

Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man

My friends are the coolest.

Cheez lovin' the Marvel ladies

Our best Stark impressions

I mean does the T-shirt mean he's technically cosplaying?

Age and me

Me, Linwood, Teren, and Drew

Age, Teren, me, I don't know, Lady Ava, and CHris

I found a Terry!

And a Jareth!

I smoosh Pete's cheeks.

Pete seems unaware that I am smooshing his cheeks.