I almost never set an alarm on the Saturdays and Sundays of conventions; for one thing, we very rarely schedule anything very early (some of OPIB are night owls), for another, I have a pretty strong circadian rhythm that wakes me up way closer to 6:30 AM than I appreciate on the weekends. Nevertheless I let myself sleep in as much as my body would allow, and to further add to the decadence, ordered breakfast to be delivered to the room for the first time in ages. It felt good to relax.

As I mentioned I have been conditioned to be a bit more of a morning person than most of my group, so I had plenty of time to roam the con before I'd be meeting everyone for our photoshoot. I decided to go on a photo hunt as per my usual, making my way through the Marquis' lobby and then into the convention center proper. I hadn't really seen the Artist Alley yet, so I figured I'd start there and then roam onward.

After the Artists's Alley I wandered through what I think of as the "main" section of the convention center, the front entrance where all the badges and info and photo suite are, and then up the giant steps to that little...I almost want to call it an atrium, it's so airy and full of light. I'm surprised more photoshoots aren't conducted there, although I suppose no one wants to be that much in the way of foot traffic. But there are always a lot of cosplayers to stop and grab a quick pic of.

The game room is also at the top of those stairs, so I took another tour through it, and lo and behold Nick was on duty! I was really glad I got a chance to see him, even if it was only briefly. I so admire all of my friends who volunteer, conventions absolutely would not be possible without people like them.

 

It was getting on towards afternoon by this point, and I always prefer to be early rather than late, so before too long I curtailed my photo hunt and started heading back to the Marriott to meet with my group. David Ng, in his glorious return to Otakon, had agreed to shoot us. I started seeing cheongsams in the lobby, and Dave had staked out a great sunny spot on an upper level, so we trooped up the stairs to set up.

It was a really pretty spot, and attracted a lot of cosplayers. I saw someone dressed as Usagi and ran over to take her picture, only to realize once I got closer that it was my friend Lisa! I mean after 18 years (...Jesus) of stalkingmeeting Sailor Moon cosplayers you'd really think I'd be less surprised that I actually *know* some of them personally by now, but it's always a pleasant surprise for me. I have very cool friends.

Lauren and me

Usagi and Rei

Pretty turbulent friends in the source material...

...but we get along just fine.

Stevie and me

Makoto and Rei

Stevie did *such* beautiful embroidery on her dress!

I'm so glad she joined us back in 2015.

Me and Linwood

Rei and Mamoru

Setsuna did such a beautiful job on his costume.

Hime-chan and I

Chibiusa and Rei

I always love when Rei dotes on Chibiusa in the anime.

I wish they interacted more in the manga.

Forever my princess

Me and Lady Somairot

Rei and Haruka

I get to hold Lady Somairot's daughter!

She was our Diana

I know I don't want kids but oh Lord does holding them make me happy.

I mean why have any of my own when there are so many perfect ones already in existence?

SERIOUSLY LOOK AT HER LITTLE FACE! I CAN'T TAKE THE CUTENESS!

Me and Avian Firefly

Rei and Hotaru

We're making good progress on our "Cosplay all of the forms of the Sailor Senshi" goal.

  Rei and Hotaru have a lot of background similarities, such as the same blood type.

They both also lost their mother at a young age.

How they were raised after that was very different, however.

  Annalee and me

Sailor Iron Mouse and Rei

  I know this pose is too cutesy considering we're supposed to be advesaries...

But Annalee is just too cute, I can't help it!

Besides Sailor Moon is very good at reforming people.

  Aki Reinii and me

Minako and Rei

Gosh I love her.

  Both in and out of costume.

Alyce and me

  Michiru and Rei

And a cat-form Diana!

  Vil and me

Sailor Galaxia and Rei

Again, I know Rei shouldn't be chillin' with the villains...

  ...but I really wanted to take a picture that would be a nod to our "Cool Facial Hair Bros" picture of the day before.

Lady Terentia and me

Ami and Rei

  Thank goodness she takes care of me or I'd be dead right now and people would be upset.

We got started. Normally in the past I have appointed myself "Photoshoot Drill Instructor" and have print outs of our reference material, and help decide who gets shot in what order, and generally herding the cats, but 2019 was not a good mental health year for me, and I was, for me, pretty unprepared. But my friends rose to the occasion: Dave quickly appropriated two of our "handlers" to try to redirect traffic behind him, rather than passing in front of his lens. Lady Terentia took over the role of "secondary director" (Dave is first, of course), which let me have time to just visit with people--or to duck behind the foliage to try to slow down my breathing and heart rate when I started to get really anxious.

See, I wanted to see all of my friends and enjoy them, and the thought that this was the only time I was going to get to see some of them started to make me freak out so that I COULDN'T see them and enjoy them, because that's how the brain worms work sometimes. Luckily, I have very patient (and honestly knowledgeable when it comes to mental health) friends who let me take all the time I needed to get myself under at least a semblence of self control whenever I needed to, not just during the shoot but all weekend.

And of course I mean my friends are fantastic. Avi, Reinii, Teren, and I have been doing this together since 2006, and over the years we've been slowly pulling people into our madness. Alyce and Lady Somairot joined us two years later when we did the Dreaming Dresses, and my soul-sister Hime-chan, whom I met through our mutual love of Chibiusa (particularly grown-up Chibiusa), finally cosplayed with us in 2011. We recruited Linwood, Stevie, and Annalee for our giant coronation photoshoot (the only shoot we ever did where we had every single main character, and then some!) in 2015, we dragged Vil in two years later, and finally Stevie convinced her sister to join us when we wore kimono last year. I'm incredibly, incredibly lucky to know so many people who are not only talented but also love Sailor Moon. That's not the only reason I love them, of course, but it's a wonderful excuse to get together at least once a year.

Dave, of course, took amazing photos as he always does, and knowing that someone who knew me *so* well and was so understanding of the nonsense my brain was putting me through really helped me relax and not come out looking like a stiff mannequin or an anxious...polecat? Is that an expression people still use? I don't know what century I'm in sometimes.

At any rate, after our photoshoot was done, I received a text from Lani, because she was Dave's next shoot! When I found out Lani was bringing Padme's beaded indigo dress to Otakon, and that she had never gotten really good photos of it, I had to introduce her to Dave, who is not only a really great photographer to work with if you're still relatively new to posing (not that I don't have ten million pictures of Lani from our high school years, but photoshoots are different), but is also a *major* Star Wars fan. Lani had brought the dress with her to the lobby, so I joined her in the bathroom to help shove bobby pins into her head (seriously Star Wars hairstyles for women are outrageously uncomfortable) and various other pins into various other places not for public consumption so we could get her ready.

Dave had alotted about a half an hour between shoots (which, by the way, is why you should always respect your photographer's schedule and be on time, it is 99% certain that you're not the only person they agreed to meet that day), and I didn't have much else to do (and I was still crashing from the adrenaline high of the anxiety during my own shoot) so I tagged along. Dave had found a great Senate-looking building (one of the perks of Otakon being in DC now) to use as a backdrop, so as they started shooting I draped myself on one of the wide railings and just kind of...soaked in the sun. Not very ladylike, I'm sure, but I very much appreciated the chance to rest.

Harvard spotted me while I was doing my best gecko impression (but not as good as my stepfather's GEICO gecko impression) and took a few shots of me himself, and then accompanied Lani and I back into the convention center when she was done with Dave, and took more photos of both of us. The lighting effects Harvard is able to create with entirely portable equipment is really astounding! I look forward to working with him more in the future.

Lani had to leave to get back home to her bébé, so after I saw her off I texted my friends to see where they were. They were taking another tour through the Dealer's Room, so I decided to join them. There was a Purikura booth there that I wanted to do, and oh my gosh it's terrifying how those booths manage to plunge perfectly human faces into the Uncanny Valley--see below. It was a tough squeeze fitting all of us in there but once we saw the results we were howling with laughter. Worth every penny and inch of cramped space. I also got to see Carrie at her booth where she was selling hats, which is always fun for me.

I also made sure to find Serge--we'd be doing the Escape the Room that he staffed the next day, but I wanted to see him to see how he was holding up and find out how Arlette was doing, she had had a health scare literally one week before the con that kept her at home. She was doing better, thank goodness, but I can imagine how hard it was for Serge to be apart from her (though she wasn't alone), and I *know* how much we all missed her even though we totally understood. Serge is such a sweet guy, he and Arlette are one of my favorite OTPs.

At any rate, I'd been promising myself that I'd leave the convention center for at least a *little* while to see some of D.C. during the con, and conditions were perfect this year for me to go out on a little walk and grab a little dinner. Now, between when I was a kid, and Hime-chan's wedding, I had done a lot of the usual tourist attractions, but there was one spot in particular that would appeal to only me...

...you see when I was a teenager, my uncle and godfather used to work in D.C., and as I think I've mentioned before, D.C. traffic is somehow even more horrendous than New York. So a lot of D.C. workers used to drive to big parking lots, and then leave their cars there and hitchhike into the city. The way my uncle used to tell the story, he would stand at the ingress point and yell "Twelfth and Constitution!" until someone would pick him up, and then on the way home he'd stand on the corner and yell "Bob's Big Boy!" until someone would take him back. So his office's address has been burned into my memory since I was like 15, and I was so tickled to find it that I had to take a picture to show him.

That was enough excitement for me for one night (I told you, I'm old and boring), so after getting my silly picture, I went right back to the hotel room to relax for the night. It turned out the lace details on my dress had irritated my skin--although I didn't feel a thing, my décolletage was all red, so I applied some witch hazel, washed off about forty pounds of makeup, took out my contacts, and turned in for the night.

Sailor Pluto and Eternal Sailor Moon

Gym Utena! I'm working on this costume myself

Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter

I wanted to show Patti and Steph how beautiful their accessories looked with the rest of my costume!

Quicksilver, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Tony Stark, and, of course, Deadpool

Power Girl

Me and Nick

Hanging in the game room

I love the MCU

Dave giving Lani direction

Annette as Sailor Mars

I kinda wish I had brought Lolita to change into

Because seriously look how cute they all are

Though it was nice to "twin" with Annette!

All of my friends are really, really, ridiculously good looking.

Me and Serge again

Missing our Arlette <3

Dammit car get out of the way

You wouldn't expect the Department of Commerce to have such a beautiful building for their headquarters.

All of us with David!

With Serge

Why are we all so fascinated with our shoes?

I caught a Carrie!

Thassa good lookin' group of people right there.

Seriously these are terrifying.