Saturday morning! Traditionally the biggest day of the con. I had had so much fun wearing my new(ish) Tifa costume to Otakon that I decided to rewear her to NYCC. So Saturday morning I touched up my hair (there's almost always a bit of humidity in the air down in NYC), popped in my red contacts, got dressed, and got on my way.

As I was headed into the con I got a text from my friend Mike, letting me know that he and his wife Juliawere on the show floor. Mike and I had been texting on and off throughout the year, tossing shoot ideas back and forth (there's a little black dress I'm saving for something in the vein of Breakfast at Tiffany's), and while we hadn't had any luck aligning our schedules for a proper shoot, he had let me know he would be bringing his camera, so we could get at least a few cool shots.

Mike and Julia and I spent a little time catching up, but we decided to postpone our shooot until a little later, as they're the kind of people who actually attend the programmed events and all that jazz. (I've only done that at anime cons a few times. I have yet to do that at NYCC.) We agreed to meet up later when he was free, and I started walking the con floor myself.

There were SO MANY cool costumes on Saturday! I know I must be one of the "casual" fans that hardcore fans would probably like to ban from the con, but I can't help but take pictures when I see someone dressed as a character from a show I know and loved, whether it's the most obscure background character from an indie comic book, or the main character of a megapopular children's show from my childhood. To badly misquote Marie Kondo, if it sparks joy, why not allow it?

I texted LunarChandalure to see where we could meet up, as she was at the con again as well. She was dressed as Tae from Zombie Land Saga again, only this time wearing her everday zombie dress instead of the idol outfit she had worn on Thursday. I really have to give Zombie Land Saga a watch one of these days; apparently LunarChandalure's character is voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi, the same voice actress who does Sailor Moon..even though all Tae ever does is growl. That's some next-level company trolling right there.

We decided to start with walking the Dealers' Room floor as per the usual, as we hadn't quite had our fill of shopping yet, plus it's a good way to check out more costumes of the attendees. And it's extra fun because LunarChandalure and I have very little overlapping of knowledge: I know more about the comics and shows of the early era of the fandom, whereas she's more up to date with the shows that are currently popular and can point them out and explain them to me.

That being said, I was surprised at how few Final Fantasy VII cosplayers there were, either original or remake! Otakon had had what I felt was the expected amount; granted the remake had come out a year and a half before, and NYCC is more "everything" based and Otakon is more Japanese media based, but still. FFVII was responsible for making RPGs more popular in the US than they had ever been before, it was massively successful, which is why they made the remake in the first place! But I ended seeing only three other FFVII cosplayers that day, and not a lot more over the course of the weekend.

We also met up with Pete when he got to the con, this time repping a Pete's Basement tee-shirt (I may own a few tanks myself.) One of these days (maybe next year) I will get Pete back into costume, because while he swears he's not into cosplay, he can't deny he enjoys the attention he gets when he does.

The three of us decided to head down to the Artists' Alley again since we hadn't quite finished going through it yet, and I was doing my photo hunt as usual. I hadn't seen any truly epic single costumes like the Hulkbuster or that one person who dressed up as the Javits convention center, but there were more group costumes that I noticed on Saturday compared to the other days. And I have to say more cosplayers were observing the mask rule than the non-costumed people were. (What can I say? Cosplayers are used to sacrificing comfort for clothing choices.)

While the quality of the art in the dealer's room was truly impressive, I rarely buy art (unless I'm absolutely in love with the artist) due to not having a lot of free wall space, so I didn't really see anything I wanted to buy. Mike texted me that he had a free spot in his schedule, so I promised to meet Pete and LunarChandalure later, and headed outside to meet up with Mike.

As I walked outside I was struck again by how many of the more amazing costumes were being displayed outside, though again, what with it being safer to remove your mask in the open air than in indoors, it made a lot of sense. Many photographers had their rigs set up along the sidewalk outside in order to take advantage of this. It's also easier to assemble a less moveable setup if you're out of the normal flow of traffic, which is virtually impossible within the convention center itself. It makes a lot of sense.

After snapping a few pictures outside of my own, I met up with Mike and together we looked for a free space among the wall. Mike took some cool shots, utilizing everything from the reflection in the glass of the windows behind me, to playing up the pops of color among my otherwise mostly monochrome outfit. I've worked with a lot of photographers over the years and it never fails to impress me how different each one is; they all have different "feels" to their shots even when they're otherwise on the same technical level. I love experiencing all different types of creativity!

Mike had pretty much finished everything he had been looking to do, so we said goodbye and I went back into the convention center to try to find more friends. As luck would have it, Pete was looking for me right about then, because he was having another episode of "Should I Buy This?" and honestly wanted my opinion because it wasn't just a cheapie pair of boxer shorts (seriously though Legos why) this time.

At one of the booths selling graded rare comics, Pete had found one of the issues on his Most Wanted list: Showcase #8 from DC, from 1957, which featured the first appearance and origin story of Captain Cold. Now I'm no expert on graded comics and I'm *certainly* no expert on The Flash, but even to my untrained eye the issue looked to be in really great shape considering its age, and Pete assured me it was a fair price. Ordinarily I'd talk Pete out of his more frivolous purchases, but this had been on his list for so long, so--why not?

And it turned out, the guy who was currently running the booth was not the vendor, but either a new hire or a helper, and this was his very first sale, and he was over the moon! We took a picture of Pete and his purchase and the seller to commemorate the occasion, and really everyone just kind of rode that high for a while. This is yet another reason cons exist: to connect people, in person. Sure buying things over the internet is convenient, and maybe you get that little extra burst of dopamine when you snipe somebody on an eBay auction (is that still a thing? That used to be a thing), but happiness shared is happiness doubled, at least, and this put a smile on all of our faces for the rest of the day.

I got a text from David around this time to let me know that he was helping out at another vendor's booth also in the Dealers' Room, so after Pete had safely stowed his comic, we made our way to booth 3300 to say hi. There were more comics for sale there which immediately diverted Pete's attention, and while I have a small collection myself (I adore the ridiculous comic covers of Worlds' Finest especially), I was more interested in chatting, so we hung out there for a while just browsing and shooting the breeze.

David hits multiple cons per year, and one of these days I really should take him up on his offer to accompany him to one of the smaller ones. There's a comic book convention up in Saratoga New York that is not that far (well according to how Adirondackers judge distance) from where I used to live that "my" kid Firesketches has been to, that I would love to hit up one of these days. David knows a lot of interesting people, and I know that smaller cons often mean you can have more one-on-one time with the guests of your choice, so that's definitely something to keep in mind.

It was starting to get dark outside so I decided to head out for the day. I said goodbye to David and his friend, and started limping towards the front of the Javits Center. The heels on this costume are not super tall nor super skinny, but I had been on my feet pretty much non-stop the entire day!

On our way out I noticed an area I had never seen at NYCC before: a gaming zone, complete with tables set up for D&D sessions and card games and board games. There have always been video games at NYCC, usually sneak previews of stuff that's coming out, but I'd never seen classic tabletop gaming before. Possibly it had always been somewhere in the con and I had missed it before, but this was right on the Dealer's Room floor! I'm guessing they had fewer vendors than they anticipated due to the pandemic, and thus had additional floor space to fill.

It had been a pretty successful three days, but I had to get home to get ready to debut a brand new costume on the last day of the con. I was tired, but Lord was I having fun!

The other end of the enormous Assassins' Creed group

This guy was really very cool.

There were so few Final Fantasy cosplayers there, I was so glad to see her!

Thankfully she seemed glad to see me too.

Yay more FFVII people!