In the off chance that someone from the year 2525 is reading this (or just me in my old age when senility has fully set in), let me set the stage that is/was blindingly obvious to all of us at the time. In December of 2019 a virus that caused severe respiratory tract infections spread rapidly over the course of a few months, and by March of 2020 the entire world was in the grips of a pandemic that would lead to, among other things, stringent lockdowns, preventing all but the most necessary of travel and gatherings. This impacted the world and all the private individuals thereof in many varied ways, but I bring it up here in this report for a reason: in 2020, there were no conventions.

My friends and I were on the fence. Otakon was mandating masks, which was great, but they were not mandating vaccinations, which meant anyone who was at risk for any reason did not feel comfortable attending--and for that reason, a lot of my friends decided not to go. I'm usually healthy as a horse, so that wasn't as much of a concern for me. And on the other hand, a lot of the con was already paid for: the badge was rolling over from the one I had bought in 2019 for 2020, and I had been putting together new costumes throughout the pandemic just to keep my sanity. When I got an e-mail in June confirming the hotel reservation I had forgotten I made back in 2020 (the hotel, too, had offered either refunds or rollovers when the 2020 event was effectively canceled), I took that as a sign that I should finally get out of the house and go.

Luckily there wasn't much planning I had to do. I had two costumes in progress (although, to absolutely no one's surprise, while I *thought* they were all done a week before the con, the *night* before the con I realized I was missing some minor accessories) and while I was planning on wearing a new "closet cosplay" of Rei, I switched to re-wearing the outfit she wears in the Sailor Moon Crystal opening to match my friends. The hotel and the badge were taken care of, and while I had some minor car snafus that kept me anxious until the last minute, I felt pretty good about attending. The health and safety officer at my job insisted I help myself to some KN95 masks that we had in the office for protection, so with them and Crabby in tow, I headed down to Washington D.C.

That's a lot of cosplayers!

And a lot of photographers.

Jurota Shishida and Kinoko Komori from class 1-B

LunarChandelure talking to some MHA fans

Right side of the group shot!

Middle of the group shot!

Left side of the group shot!

I got into my hotel room around a quarter to 1 on Friday and set about settling in. Thankfully, I've done the Mars makeup enough by this point that it's second nature, but between unpacking and texting people, I headed out to the convention center at five to 2. A coworker of mine had recently become more interested in anime cosplay (she's done LARP and similar things before) and we had planned to meet up at the con, so my first stop was the My Hero Academia shoot to see her new costume.

Unsurprisingly, the Marriott and the convention center seemed downright empty, compared with previous years. I would find out later that the attendance capped out at around 25,000, which really isn't that much lower than the 28,000 of 2019, but I mean, look at the pictures; they speak for themselves. Maybe there were fewer people "ghosting" the con (it means something different than in dating: "ghosting" means hanging out near a con in public spaces you don't need a badge to get in to), and it looked like aisles were made wider to try to prevent crowding. I also want to say that attendees were very good about following the mask mandate; over the entire course of the weekend, I think I saw maybe three noses, and exactly one attendee who was wearing it as a chin strap. And every single time, before I got out of earshot I heard a con staffer tell them sternly to get the masks properly in place.

I found the room the My Hero Academia photoshoot was being held in, and that was the first real crowd I saw all weekend; it looks like MHA fandom is still in full swing. I knew LunarChandelure would be sporting a giant mushroom hat, so thankfully she was *super* easy to find, but she was also in full photoshoot mode, so I had to wait until most of the photos were finished to say hello. We admired each other's costumes (although mine was really more of an "outfit" than a "costume") and then decided to hit the Artist's Alley to see what there was to see.

A very few of the vendors hadn't shown up, which I had never seen before, but by and large most of the booths were still full. Lunar was like a kid in a candy store. Online shopping is great for when you know exactly what mass-produced item you want, but if you're looking for something really unique that just appeals to your niche aesthetic, in-person is where it's at. And Artist's Alley is like finding an entire block of cool thrift stores run by nerds. There really is pretty much something for everybody.

Of couse, an added bonus of roaming the con for me is running into old friends! I found Carrie in the Artist's Alley in her Wink Ware booth, of course, and as would be the theme for a lot of my meetings this weekend, I hadn't seen her since the Otakon two years before. And it brought me a bit of nostalgia, as for a while there Carrie was so often the first person I'd run into at any con I went to that I used to joke she was my official greeter. She's got such a great smile and I'm so glad Wink Ware is doing so well.

And as usual I was on my costume hunt for cosplayers repping characters I love, and I was not disappointed. And let me tell you, so many of them got creative with their masks, whether it was just choosing a color or pattern that matched their costume, to people who really went all out and bedecked and bedazzled the mask so that it was as much a part of the costume as any other accessorie. I saw fabric paint, I saw jewels, I saw feathers. It made me really happy to see people fully embracing the mask.

After doing a quick tour of the Artists' Alley, we decided to take a walk around the rest of the convention center, just to learn our way around, because it was LunarChandelure's first time, and even though this was my fourth time in the Walter E. Washington, I *still* get confused (but I'm getting better!) This turned out to be a good idea because I ran into my friend Eri and her partner Jared in their Gundam Wing costumes. Eri didn't have a lot of time to hang because she gathers a lot of photos and information for her in-depth (WAY more in-depth than mine!) con reports (and she gets hers up a lot faster. And there's audio and video. And she checks references) so she's as much working as having a good time, but I'm glad I got to see her. (I'd really love to do a pin-up shoot with her someday; our Disney Pin-Up was nice, but I'd love to try something a bit more traditional. Someday I'll kidnap her for a weekend in NYC.)

I didn't have that much time to spend at Otakon, because we had a reservation at 4 PM for our (can I say "annual" even though we missed 2020?) traditional tea party in the tavern of the Henley Park hotel! I was especially excited about this because even people who didn't feel comfortable attending Otakon were coming to the tea party, since everyone in our friends group was fully vaccinated. We had even decided to do a casual cosplay together, which is why I had switched my Rei outfit almost at the last minute, as Stevie had been working on Jupiter's umbrella from the Sailor Moon Crystal opening, and the outfit to match. Some of us were able to either throw together or borrow pieces to make our senshi's outfits, and the rest of us attended in whatever outfit or costume we were already wearing that day.

It was *so* *good* to see my friends again. Phew. I am not the most extroverted of people anymore (it's hard to believe I ever was) so the seclusion of the pandemic had been relatively kind to me (and downright beneficial in some ways), but it's impossible not to miss the people you love. Lady Terentia had done all of the legwork arranging the party as usual, I swear she is 99% of the brain power of OPIB (I'm not kidding; Avian and Reinii and I went to a Ren Faire without her later in the year and it was like we had one operational brain cell between us, like a neurological version of Graeae), and also piecemealed Ami's summer dress.

Reinii had switched to Usagi since Minako's outfit from that opening is kind of "meeeh" and oh my God did she look super cute. Stevie's umbrella and outfit looked even better in person than they had in photographs. And I hadn't even known Hime-chan was going to be dressing up as Chibiusa, but put together a red and white outfit that was just perfect for "the pink spore". Sai surprised us too, not only did she have a GREAT Luna costume but had even gotten her nails to match! These ladies inspire me to up my cosplay game all the time.

It was also great having a chance to catch up with Lauren, and Alyce, and Beth, all of whom I also hadn't seen in two years. We lead such different lives outside of the convention setting that I love hearing what they're up to--oh sure, we keep up with each other on Facebook more or less, and that's nice because it's current and it has pictures, but it's not the same as getting to hear tone and timbre and go into detail. This really was just the most wonderful little respite from the real world that we were all dealing with, and feel almost normal.

It was interesting comparing notes, too, on how everyone had coped with the pandemic: who actually tried making sourdough? Who bought a bike? Who adopted a new pet? The entirety of 2020 was just so...odd...that I really don't think that in future years--I'm not even talking the distant future, I'm talking like five or ten here--we're going to have trouble remembering or believing that yes, there were murder hornets and unexplained monoliths and the Pentagon released UFO videos, and absolutely none of that was an Onion article.

Re-creating the opening

I thought it would be cute to take a picture of just our umbrellas

Stevie and I had the lipstick wands!

Me and Sai.

Reinii and me!

"No wait let me take it again!"

"AGAIN!"

"There we go."

I really like the way this came out.

I really DON'T like the way this came out.

There that's better.

I love my princess.

Lady Terentia taking over the camera duties.

After the tea party, we trooped outside to take pictures, with Alyce taking most of the pictures, but all of us taking turns as the need and mood arose. Lady Terentia had saved a bunch of reference photos on her phone, and we had fun trying to recreate the opening, and then just taking all sorts of silly shots just for fun. The front of the Henley Park as some really pretty landscaping, and we made sure to stay out of people's way, so mainly it was just goofing around in front of a camera. I love "structured" photoshoots a lot, but there's something to be said for just having fun and being silly.

After the shoot, some of us who didn't have badges were interested in checking out the Dealer's Room and Artists' Alley, so some of us who did have badges loaned them ours, and Lady Terentia, Hime-chan, and I went back to my hotel room to cool off and visit a bit more--as I said, these are some of the people I'm closest to in the world, and I had not yet gotten my fill of them.

It was so great getting to catch up; Hime-chan is apparently on TikTok now? Which, being an old person, I hadn't really had much experience with, but let me tell you, I can see why it's so great for artists. She's done time-lapse videos of her at that are just fascinating to watch; I've seen her draw in person, of course, but that was years ago, and while her art has always blown me away, it somehow continues to get better every year. She's incredible. And I love seeing how her boys are growing, and her home life is going, and all those little things that make up our days.

Both Teren and Hime-chan had to leave before it got too late because of the drives home, as neither were attending the con. It was a bit too early for even me to turn in, so I decided to head back to the convention center and see what else was going on.

I missed LunarChandelure who had met up with some other friends to go out to dinner, but Reinii, Lauren, and Stevie were at the AMV contest. I haven't watched any AMVs in a dog's age, so I figured, why not? I knew I wouldn't recognize most of the anime or the music, but I've said before that the mark of a good AMV is to envoke feelings even in a first-time viewer. The seats were mostly filled, but I was able to get a seat right behind my friends to join in.

I missed the first few, and I can't remember now if I even stayed until the end, but there were so many that were absolutely beautiful and one that even brought tears to my eyes (although I'm more prone to that now that I'm older.) I ended up saving my card partially because I thought there was a chance I'd come back on one of the other days, and then feel like I was making a more informed vote, but also because I knew there was a chance I wouldn't, and I love momentos of my convention attendance. (Plus, now I can look up any of the AMVs and watch them any time I want!)

That was pretty much the end of programming and our energy for the night, so everyone said good night and went back to their respective homes and hotel rooms after making tentative plans for the following day.

Haruka and Michiru

Me and Carrie

Look at all the neat stuff she has!

The beautiful proprietress

TERRY BOGARD!

Of course I had to have a picture with Terry Bogard

Even if Covid meant no glomping

Eri and me!

On a related note, have you guys read "Jurassic Park Updates" on Twitter? It's a fan-made parody account that is absolutely hysterical.

Our table!

Another shot