Most of the Otakons Louis and I have attended, we’ve preferred to get down to Baltimore fairly early, stow our bags in the hotel’s bag check, and then either change into our costumes in the lobby bathroom, or roam the con in regular clothes for a few hours while we wait for check in time.  But changing in a bathroom isn’t fun, and having to run back to the hotel isn’t much better, so this time, we timed our arrival so that we could go straight from the train station to the hotel, check in, unpack, change, and go to the con.  It meant we lost some of Friday afternoon, but it let us sleep in a little, eat lunch on the train, and generally have a much more relaxed arrival.

Upon reaching the dealer’s room, we immediately found Mario Rob and his friend Nick, semi-dressed as Yoshi.  (Basically, he had a green shirt and a Yoshi hat on.)  This would prompt Mario Rob to leap on to Nick’s back at multiple times throughout the weekend and dig his heel’s into Nick’s side to urge him onward.  If anyone would like to contribute to Nick’s hernia fund,  please message me privately.  Soon afterwards, we met up with Chris, the Ferio that Outer Power, Inner Beauty had met at Otakon two years ago, and Caloris, a fellow Sailor Moon fan and cosplayer friend of mine.  And then, within a few steps, who should I meet but Emily!  One of the earlier Sailor Moon cosplayers that joined SMA when she was still a pre-teen.  I’ve known her online for years, it was wonderful to finally meet her in person!

Now, as I’ve mentioned before, Dealer’s Rooms have lost some of their appeal for me over the years, primarily because the anime I’m most interested in is, at this point, at least a decade old.  Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura have been over for years, and I don’t blame vendors for not carrying merchandise that most people wouldn’t be interested in buying.  However, what was primarily for sale in the dealer’s room was anime, manga, T-shirts, and wall scrolls.  Now, I know not all of America has as many shopping choices as New York City does, but I do believe that anime is mainstream enough now that you can buy anime in any Best Buy, and manga in any Barnes & Nobles.  Are people still really stocking up at cons?  The same thing for T-shirts, while they’re probably not AS popular to the point where you can get them in Wal-Mart, I do know there are quite a few for sale at Hot Topic.  (Wall scrolls I can’t comment on, as I don’t think they’re readily available.  They’ve just never been my “thing”, even for anime I am obsessed with.)

On the way out of the dealer’s room, I finally met up with Caloris.  We had been talking through LiveJournal throughout all of the many months that led up to the con, and kept texting each other throughout the day, but we only finally ran into each other for the first time that afternoon.  He gave me the most adorable little koala, one of those types where if you squeeze the body, the arms force apart so you can clip them to things.  I love having a little reminder of Australia right on my desk where I can see it every day!

While all this was going on, I was checking in with my cosplay group, OPIB.  I had missed their first costume set for the day, a Sailor Moon S group, so they had decided to go back to their hotel rooms to change for the CLAMP photoshoot we were aiming for that night.  The shoot was scheduled for 8 PM, which is one of the later shoots I’ve ever attempted, so Louis and I decided that instead of having our annual dinner date as the last part of our evening, we would head over to the restaurant now, and then head back to meet the girls for the shoot.

Leaving our friends, Louis and I left the con and headed across the street in the general direction of where we thought we remembered The Wharf Rat had been.  And couldn’t find it.  Thankfully, Louis has a Google phone, so he looked it up…and The Wharf Rat was gone!  Apparently somewhere in the three years since we had last gone to Otakon together, it had closed down and been shuttered up.  Judging by the general location and the look of the outside façade, we determined that a new restaurant had opened in its place, The Ale House.  Once we got inside and got a look at the décor, we were almost positive…but when we got the menus, we were sure.  J  They may have changed owners, but they haven’t changed much else, and our dinner was fantastic.  I tried crab dip for the first time, and it was absolutely wonderful.

After dinner, it was approaching time for the CLAMP photoshoot, so we returned the con and made our way to the third floor terrace.  While we were gathering, who should we run into but Lauren and Master Photographer, Pat Gavin!  I hadn’t even known that they were going to be at the con, so that was a pleasant surprise.  Around this time my OPIB girls arrived, and windows immediately surrounding the con area were shattered as we jumped on each other and squeed and generally behaved as a bunch of teenage girls might, certainly nothing like the civilized young ladies we might otherwise ordinarily be.  Hey, when you only see each other about once a year, the world must be able to contain your excitement.

The CLAMP photoshoot was a LOT of fun.  I haven’t read everything CLAMP’s ever done (goodness, has anybody?  They’re incredibly prolific!) so I didn’t recognize all of the costumes that were there, but there were a few other Magic Knights besides us (but Lady Terentia was the only Fuu!), and quite a few xxxHOLiC/Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles costumes, as that series is still going on as far as I know.  After we did a few pictures of everybody, we splintered off into a Magic Knight Rayearth group first (minus Avi because her version of Primera was technically from Tsubasa), and then Tsubasa, and then finally, the miscellaneous characters (which were mainly a Chii, and a cute bunny costume, though I’m not sure which series its from.)

After the CLAMP photoshoot broke up, we headed off to the side of the third floor terrace to do our own private mini-shoot.  We had so much fun fighting over Mokona, and posing with Ferio, and showing off how obsessed with doing complete costumes we are by taking off our jackets and showing off our dress blouses underneath, and doing all sorts of silly Sailor Moon and sign language poses, that despite how late it was getting and how much the light was fading, we got some really great shots.  Special thanks to Louis for being so patient and taking so many photos of us.

After we were done taking pictures, it was kind of late (“late” for us old fogies, anyway), so Louis and I bid the girls good night, and headed back to our hotel.  Once we reached the lobby, Louis had a very sweet idea, and even though we had a bottle of Jaegermeister secured in our hotel room, he insisted on escorting me to the bar and treating me to a rum and diet coke while we relaxed and talked about the day.  This is why I love going to conventions with this man: he truly knows how to turn a convention into a wonderful, relaxing vacation.

Once we were back in our room, we got comfortable, got into bed, and searched the hotel’s TV menu to see what was on.  They were offering Date Night, which Louis had meant to see in theaters (he thinks Steve Carrell is hilarious, and he’s in LOVE with Tina Fey), so we ended up ordering it and watching it while in bed before going to sleep.  It’s funny; Louis had expected to love it, and ended up liking it less than he thought he would, and I hadn’t really cared about it one way or the other, but ended up liking it more than I thought I would.  Steve Carrell and Tina Fey had great chemistry—more than Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, in my opinion, to be honest.  But when did this con report turn into a movie review?  Never mind, Date Night will always be inextricably linked with Otakon 2010 in my mind because of this.

The full CLAMP group

OPIB in the middle of the full CLAMP group

OPIB in the middle of the full CLAMP group

The full CLAMP group starting from the left

The full CLAMP group starting from the right

OPIB in the middle again

OPIB in the middle again

OPIB in the middle again

The Tsubasa section

Just Magic Knight Rayearth

Magic Knight Rayearth: bottom row

OPIB in the middle of the Magic Knight Rayearth group

The Magic Knight Rayearth group starting from the right

OPIB in the middle of the Magic Knight Rayearth group

Ferio!

The Tsubasa group

The middle of the Tsubasa group

OPIB (well, one of us, anyway) in the middle of the Tsubasa group

The Tsubasa group starting from the left

The Tsubasa group starting from the right

Miscellaneous CLAMP

Two Umis!

Louis takes a picture of our reflection.

Louis takes a picture of his reflection.

Mario and his noble steed.

Trying to get the picture of our foot!

Mario Rob, Lou, Anastasia, Nick, and me.

Our friends Nick and Mario Rob.

Louis and I in the hotel bar. Taking pictures of yourself in a mirror doesn't work so well when you're using the flash.