Saturday morning, we did our usual of ordering up some breakfast in bed (I ordered way too much food!) and leisurely getting ready while watching Saturday morning cartoons.  Let me just say, I know I’m going to sound like an old fogey saying this, but there is NOTHING good on during Saturday mornings anymore.  There are like three new incarnations of Scooby Doo, which has to be three more than are necessary, and if I thought Dragon Ball was bad with having episode-long fight scenes, it’s NOTHING compared to the tedium that is Beyblade: Metal Fusion.  A dueling game that uses spinning tops (LOADS of strategy there, I’m sure) is bad enough.  A cartoon about dueling with spinning tops is worse.  An entire episode where the characters explain which move they’re going to use, and how it works, and why it’s better than their opponents move, is OH MY GOD GOUGE OUT MY EYES ALREADY.  Luckily, it didn’t take us long to get ready, so we were out of the hotel room before any permanent damage was done.

We made sure we were out the door in time to meet up with the Sailor Moon photoshoot at 11 AM the fountains.  There were so many good Sailor Moon cosplayers there!  And I got to see Caloris in his otaku senshi’s school uniform, which turned out REALLY well.  The other Sailor Moon cosplayers were so nice to us, even though I’m not sure all of them figured out that we were doing our own versions of Sailor Moon characters—Avi’s EGL Hotaru, at least, was based on a rather well-known fanart, but the rest of us were just wearing EGL dresses in the senshis’ respective colors.  Extra big thanks have to go out to Andy for running back to the OPIB hotel room, where I had left my bookbag like a fritter-head, so that I could pass out my SMA business cards.  I ended up giving almost all of them away!

Louis met us in his Orko costume at the fountains, but he had only stayed behind long enough for me to get a shot of him in his costume, because he was desperate to get out of it.  It turns out Orko was even hotter to wear than Vash the Stampede!  Who knew?  As soon as I got a picture, he headed back to our hotel room to change.  While we were continuing to take photos, I recognized a beautiful Lolita behind a camera as my friend, Misa-chan!  I missed having her be the Pluto to our Sailor Moon shenanigans, but it was wonderful just seeing her again. 

After the big group Sailor Moon photoshoot was over, PopeCerebus was kind enough to lead us outside to the third floor terrace to conduct our own mini shoot.  You know, I had never been on the terraces at the convention center much before, but there are a lot of things to pose with out there!  We enjoyed the shade from some of the pavilion-like roofs, piled our fluffy selves into bowls for pictures, draped and climbed over the various stone benches, and had many conversations with the bees that were buzzing amongst the flowers, beseeching them to please not sting us because we meant them no harm.  The bees, I am happy to say, seemed pleased to oblige.

Louis came back from changing from Orko into Vash, which despite being a trenchcoat, was somehow cooler.  (We thought about it later and decided that even a coat and a wig is still cooler than having his entire face covered.)  We took more silly pictures with Lauren and Pat, but we couldn’t spend a lot of time in our EGL Senshi costumes, because there was another photoshoot at 1 PM that we wanted to hit, so we started heading back to our respective hotel rooms to change into our Disney costumes.

I was the first one changed and back at the con center, so I found the other Disney characters gathering on the third floor terrace.  It was starting to get pretty warm outside, so some of the organizers of the shoot decided we should move inside where we wouldn’t all melt, and the lighting would be steadier.  I kept texting the OPIB girls to let them know where we were moving.  While we were gathering, I ran into Sammy, a very sweet and talented girl I had met through Hime-chan at the last Otakon I had attended, 2008.  It was great to see her again!

Finally we found a good spot one floor down by the elevators, and many much picture taking commenced.  First we did a full Disney group shot, then we did Peter Pan characters, then my OPIB ladies showed up just in time for Reinii to jump in with the Little Mermaid characters, then Lady Terentia joined the Beauty and the Beast characters, then we took a photo of just the Disney women, then just the Disney men, and then I convinced everyone to do a full group shot again so all of OPIB could be in it together.  After that, the rest of the Disney characters dispersed, and we started taking solo pics of our Disney alternate princess costumes while I texted Hime-chan to see when we could meet up.  Much thanks to Louis again for taking so many wonderful photos!

The full Disney group

Ariel from The Little Mermaid

Kim Possible, Alice, Snow White, and two Wendys in the back

I love the little Peter Pan plushie the one Wendy is holding!

Princess Kida from Atlantis: The Lost Empire

All the Peter Pan characters

Bonnie from Toy Story 3

Peter Pan, two Wendys, and Captain Hook

All of the Little Mermaid characters

Ariel in her "date dress", "Vanessa" (Ursula's human disguise), Ariel, and Ursula

Ariel again.

All of the Beauty & The Beast characters

Two Belles!

Beauty times two!

Lady Terentia is in the dress from the music montage of Belle and the Beast getting closer, the other girl is in Belle's classic town dress.

Toy Story toys!

All of the Disney girls.

There's a Wendy on the bottom...

...and a Megara, Alice, and Wendy on the top.

Belle, Belle, Megara, Kida, and Wendy.

Kim Possible, Snow White, Briar Rose, Belle, and Ariel.

All of the Disney men.

Trying for another group photo...

...there we go!

Kim Possible, Snow White, Dr. Facilier, Peter Pan, and Wendy.

Briar Rose, Belle, and Megara.

Reinii as Ariel.

Me as Snow White.

Lady Terentia as Belle.

With her nose stuck in a book.

"Hey there pretty lady. Whatcha readin'?"

Belle again

Ariel again

Avi tries to help Reinii.

Pretty dress!

With a pretty corset.

Briar Rose.

Another pretty dress!

It's pretty similar to Ariel's, come to think of it.

An unconvential Prince Charming.

We's married now. :)

And EVERY DAY is like this.

"I! Am Mrs! Nesbit!"

"JACK SPARROW OH MY GOD!"

He was too late for the Disney photoshoot, but we still grabbed him!

While Hime-chan was on our way to us, a series of flashing lights and warning bells went off...this was not a drill.

Sure enough, staffers started herding the con attendees out the nearest exit, towards the main street, and the further up the block so that the people behind us could also get out.  I will say this; almost all of the attendees behaved beautifully.  Pretty much everyone thought it was either a fire drill or a false alarm or anything that wasn’t an emergency, but everyone filed out in an orderly fashion, and no one seemed inclined to fight with the con staff, which was great.  I waited for Hime-chan once we got outside of the con center, and felt a lot better once I knew that she was safe.

I have to say, it was a surreal sight, seeing so many of us, cosplayers and non-costumed otaku alike, just…swarming the streets of Baltimore.  It was this giant swell of fans, and while I’m generally all right in crowds, and this wasn’t a tightly packed or stampeding one, it was still a little unnerving.  We let ourselves be swept along for a while (and got to run into Janice, which is always a pleasure!), before deciding, you know what?  This was as good a time for lunch as any.  So I grabbed Hime-chan and Louis texted Chris, and we detached ourselves from the herd and moved away.

We found Chris a few blocks away from the convention center, with a friend of his that he introduced as Ben.  We started searching for somewhere to eat, but considering that EVERYONE at Otakon was out of the con center at the same time right now, we figured we wouldn’t be the only one deciding this was a good time for lunch, so we wanted to find a place that other cosplayers wouldn’t flock to, which ruled out most of the chain places like Starbucks and McDonald’s.  Wandering the side streets, Lou found a little pub that Hime-chan and I were initially wary about, because it was so far off the beaten path, didn’t look like much from the outside, AND it had bars on the windows and doors, but we had been walking for at least fifteen minutes by now so we decided to give it a try.

As soon as we walked in, there was a black grand piano directly to the right of the entrance!  That’ll teach me to judge a place by its appearance.  Sure enough most of the other con goers had completely missed this place, so we were able to get a table, a waitress, and our order in peace.  We had the best time: Hime-chan and I talked about her wedding plans, she showed off her sketchbook, Louis caught up with Chris, and we all got to know Ben better and he was absolutely hysterical.  The bad thing about these good times is it always makes you that much more depressed that we all live too far away from each other to do this more often!

After lunch, we said goodbye to Chris and Ben and headed back to the con center with Hime-chan.  We decided to take another tour through the Dealer’s Room so Hime-chan could check it out, and just generally shopped and chatted while we walked.  Of course, we bemoaned the dearth of Sailor Moon products to squee over, and enjoyed the wonderful Sailor Moon cosplayers I got to photograph together.  It’s amazing to think how many friendships I’ve made that started out with this magical girl series, and I know I’m not the only one.

Louis needed a quick air-conditioning break, so after taking another photo-hunt walk, I gave Doc a call to see if he had any time in his busy schedule to take a break.  I happened to catch him at exactly the right time, so we met up in one of the quieter, less-populated areas of the con, appropriated a sunny window seat for ourselves, and just spent an hour catching up (even though we live in the same city, this is the first time we had seen each other in almost a year!) and relaxing and talking.  I have to say it was wonderful, and exactly what I needed.  Hime-chan had gone off to find Sammy again, and once she found her the two of them came back and I was able to introduce them to Doc, and show off Hime-chan’s artwork again.  (I’m so proud of it you’d think it was mine!)

Doc had to go back to work, the poor man, so Sammy, Hime-chan and I decided to check out the Artist’s Alley, because I hadn’t been yet.  There were so many beautiful pieces of art and other handmade crafts there, but the highlight of the venue for me was meeting Gina Biggs, creator of Bunny’s Tour through the Silver Millennium!  I remember a time when I used to enter her fanart contest every month, even if I had to create a new drawing just for it.  She had given me wonderful feedback on one piece in particular, The Battle for the Grail, so I wanted to thank her and tell her how much that had meant to me, back when I had a lot more invested in my art.  I’m not sure she remembered me, but she was super sweet regardless!  I bought a beautiful print of Princess Mars and General Jadeite, and we continued on our way.

By this point Louis had rested and dropped his core temperature, so we decided it was time for something that had become another Otakon tradition for us: dinner at the very nice Luna del Sea.  Sammy had other people she had to meet, so Hime-chan and I said goodbye and left the con and crossed the street, where we met up with Louis, Mario Rob, Nick, Rob’s cousin Justin, Giovanni, and Mike.  Let me tell you, considering most of the time at cons it’s me, Louis, and ten thousand of my hottest cosplaying girlfriends, for Hime-chan and I to be the lone females amongst such a group of wolves, we felt like we had a platoon of bodyguards!

We had the most wonderful time at dinner.  It turns out most of the boys were into bad movies as well, and we had so much fun talking about everything from the true classics, such as Bride of Frankenstein and Nosferatu, to "Le Bad" standards such as "Manos": The Hands of Fate, Cool As Ice, and of course, the Star Wars Holiday Special.  Jokes were told, drinks were shared (thanks, Mike!), art was shown off again, and we just generally enjoyed ourselves and tried to keep our boisterousness down to a dull roar.  There is one specific point about dinner I should mention...

 

All right, so, here’s the thing.  We actually didn’t have dinner very long after that lunch we had with Chris and Ben I mentioned before, so I wasn’t super hungry.  I had ordered a bowl of seafood bisque to try, because Louis makes one at home that’s really, amazingly good.  (In fact, in my humble opinion, his is better.  And I’m not biased—if anything, I’m usually a ridiculously picky eater.)  And then I got an order of crab dip to share with the table, precisely because it was easy to share, and because the dip I had had the night before had been so incredible.  Well, Luna del Sea’s was also incredible, but there was so much of it, that even with everybody taking a little bit of it, we barely made a dent in it.  Thinking that I could have some in the hotel room that night while we were relaxing, when the waitress asked me if I’d like to take it home with me, I said yes.

The waitress came back with a clear plastic box.  Nothing else.  Now, maybe this is just me, or maybe it’s just New York, but any time I’ve asked for a doggy bag, the waitress takes it into the back, boxes it up, and brings it back to you already in a bag for easy transport.  Now, if this had been a burger and fries, I might have just plopped my food in there and called it a day.  But this was DIP, you know?  And some leftover pieces of bread.  I wasn’t really sure how I was supposed to get the dip in the box—scoop it out with my hands?  And there was way more dip than there was box, it would’ve gotten EVERYWHERE, including all over the pieces of bread, making them extremely messy to pick up again.  I just…I didn’t know what to do.  I sat there, staring down at the box, and then at the dip, at a loss as to how to continue.

“Take the bowl,” the boys urged.

“That feels an awful lot like stealing,” I said.

“Take the bowl,” the boys repeated.  

“I really don’t know how to get this dip home…”  

“Take the bowl!”  

I really didn’t want to be a party to this, so while I leaned over to calculate the tip (a nice, generous tip, I made certain of that) and sign my name to the receipt, the bowl magically disappeared from the table, and the box along with it.

After dinner, Hime-chan and I said goodnight as she still had a long drive home in front of her, and the boys and I headed back to the con to find the rest of my OPIB mates and take more pictures of our Disney costumes together.  We met up with Chris in his Chrono from Chrono Crusade costume again, and headed up to the third floor, terrace, to see what the outdoor fountains looked like by night.

We took a lot of fun photos together that night, but the absolute best had to be when, with the rest of the boys distracting us (I believe we were looking up reference art on Mike’s Droid phone, specifically), Louis decided to sneak around in back of us, get INTO the fountain, and surprise us from behind!  There are some really great shots of us jumping out of our seats and clutching our hearts while Lou looks absolutely maniacal.  The scariest part, though?  Louis somehow managed to leave clean footprints on the bottom of the fountain!  That says things I don’t even want to consider too closely. 

The only way to recover from such a scare?  Three pirate cosplayers came along about that time, and asked to take pictures with the pretty girls.  One of them had a hip flask, and when I asked him if he really had liquor in there or if it was just for show, blew a waft of rum-scented breath in my face.  The pirates gave me a swig from the hip flask to make me feel better, and then gifted me with a gold piece of eight for being such a good sport.

As we were starting to wind down for the night, suddenly a fair caravan of cop cars came screaming down the street, lights flashing and sirens blaring.  I’m not proud of it, but I have to admit that I may have lost my head for a moment and shrieked, “THEY KNOW ABOUT THE DIP BOWL!” and made a cowardly dive into the nearest flower bush.  I’m the worst thief ever.

We had talked about going out for a few drinks at night—I really wanted Louis to try Natty Boh, especially with Pat and Lauren, who are like King and Queen B’more in my mind—but it was starting to get late and we were starting to get tired (and clearly I had to lay low as the fuzz was after me), so we decided to head back to our hotel room and call it a night.  I’m sorry I didn’t get to go out drinking with my friends, but I hope to make it up to them next time!

Once we were back in our hotel room, we tried to fulfill yet another Otakon tradition—watching Saturday Night Live while relaxing in bed.  It was a rerun of the one hosted by Ashton Kutcher, but I hadn’t seen it during its original airing, so it was new to me!  It was actually really funny (and I have no great love for Ashton Kutcher), but I was so exhausted that I only made it halfway through.  (I really wanted to stay awake for Weekend Update!  But that’s precisely the skit I fell asleep during.  I think I saw most of it, though.)

Aki Reinii

as Ariel

from The Little Mermaid

This is the dress she wears when she goes on her date with Prince Eric.

Love the big bow!

It's funny because Briar Rose's peasant dress and Ariel's date dress are actually very similar.

Disney LOVES to reuse stuff like that.

Also, Avi and Reinii are cousins!

Sleeping Beauty

Lady Terentia

as Belle

from Beauty and the Beast

This is the dress Belle wears during the song "Something There".

This dress was one of the dresses the Dresser/Wardrobe gives her.

The ladies pose me!

OPIB taking pictures of each other.

Avian Firefly and Louis

Vash is such a pimp.

Kissie, kissie!

It wasn't hard to convince him to do this.

I bought that same messenger bag for Louis.

Queen Frostine is actually holding someone else's staff; that's hers to the right.

Climbing amongst the flowers to conduct our shoot.

Getting into position.

OPIB with Miss V

We have the best time at these things.

OPIB with Louis

Louis has the BEST time at these things.

Mario Rob and me.

Louis sneaks up on us.

Mario Rob and me.

Michael shows us some of the photos he took.

"Watch out ladies..."

"Silly Princesses, tricks are for kids...and Louis!"

Sammy, Hime-chan, and I.

Ryu and Chun Li, and if you don't know where they're from, get off of my site.

Jake Sully, Neytiri, and Trudy from Avatar.

Wolverine versus...frig, I forget.

The Penguin, Scarecrow, and The Riddler from Batman.

Woody and Jessie from Toy Story.

Queen Frostine! My mom would always pick to be her when we played Candyland.

Chewbacca!

Chris as Chrono from Chrono Crusade.

Morrigan from DarkStalkers.

A pirate and a monkey! Can't go wrong!