None of my friends had planned any costumes that I especially wanted to match for Saturday, so I looked through my archives to see if there was anything that hadn't been worn often. I knew a bunch of them were wearing Pimped-Out Dresses™ and that we had a tea party planned for later in the day, so what would be better to wear to a princess tea party than Alice? Specifically the live action Alice dress that I had only worn once before to NYCC. I decided to do normal makeup this time instead of the Tim Burton pallor; I go around with pale lips and dark circles under my eyes too often in real life these days to want to simulate them for cosplay.

The Alice in Wonderland group

On the left looks like a mix of the March Hare and the Mad Hatter

A closeup of me

The second from the left is classic Alice

The second from the right is the Mad Hatter

He's offering me some tea

Though of course Alice never actually gets to drink any of the tea

Still it was a fun pose

The Beauty and the Beast group--I'm not entirely sure who the gentleman on the left is supposed to be

Mulan and an "auntie"!

Well Disney does own Marvel now

I low-key love Charlotte; I wish there were more "spoiled sweet" characters like her

They called for an Alice group again because more characters had shown up

Namely, a Cheshire Cat!

It's neat to see different people's different takes on characters

It was just the three of us for a bit

I wasn't sure what to do

It was hard to think of another pose

Another closeup of me

I think I'm calling to someone here?

Yes I must have spotted the Mad Hatter

And asked him to rejoin us

That Alice must have been with him as well

It was a pretty cool take on the character

I especially love the mug of tea on the hat!

I think we're all trying new poses

Some poses don't work as well with masks

Talking to each other

I don't remember about what

Probably poses

There are a lot of these

So naturally the Mad Hatter decided to pour his tea into his hat

And our reactions

A tiny Tink!

Gathering for the all character shots

The right side of the group

The left side of the group

You can see a bunch of Kingdom Hearts cosplayers on the left

And some Pixar cosplayers on the right

I spot three classic Disney Princesses

And in the front, a rather unconventional Disney prince

And you have to love the Baymax who is watching over us all!

Kind of love the Encanto cosplayers, too

And all the little kid cosplayers

More and more people kept joining the group shoot

And photographers kept taking pictures

It's too bad we couldn't have gotten some Star Wars in there

I love the Donald that has the three eggs in the stroller!

There were some Disney animated series cosplayers as well

I think the photographers had us change pose again

Even though there are so many of us, it's hard to focus on any one person

Here you can see more people who put their own unique spin on their characters

As you can see the group was far too large to fit in one frame

But it was nice after being broken up into the individual shoots

I really have to thank LunarChandalure for taking all of these pictures

I hope some of the other people in them find them!

One last closeup of me

And we're done!

The Disney photoshoot was a lot of fun! Albeit the largest photoshoot I think I've ever been a part of. Granted this is in part because of a) how long Disney has been in business (it'll turn 100 in 2023!) and b) just how many other franchises now count as part of Disney, either fully or in crossover (Squarenix, Marvel, etc.) But it's also because of how many people it appeals to, all backgrounds and all ages. My mother still loves Disney and her mother did until the day she died; it's practically tradition in our family. I have to thank LunarChandalure for taking all of the photos that I'm in for me!

After the shoot was over, LunarChandalure, Owen and I went to the Dealers Room, in part to do a bit of shopping, in part to see Reiniibow and Alyce and Beth and Vil. They had started walking the aisles in the Dealers Room at the opposite end than we had, so we went our separate ways temporarily, and LunarChandalure and Owen and I shopped until about noon, when my poor feet were just about to give out--I swear I used to walk for 8 hours in heels with no problem, I don't know what happened to me! (You got old, Cris. Happens to everybody. Yes, but I didn't want it to happen to me so soon!)

I went back to the atrium in the Marriott because I figured there would be some comfortable chairs left there (there were) and that it would be a good place to people watch (it was). But I shortly regretted my decision to leave the Dealers Room, as this incredible line stretched all the waythrough the hallways, up the escalators, and through the atrium! I think I overhead someone say there was about an hour wait if you wanted to get in! My friends had planned a photoshoot at 1:30, so after I called my family to check on them, I decided to just relax and read for a bit--there's no rule saying you have to do something con-related every single second you were there. Both my brain and my feet appreciated the break.

The girls showed up and they look absolutely precious. I haven't read or watched My Next Life as a Villainess yet, but Terentia had explained the basic premise, and more or less who their characters were supposed to be. Alyce looked beautiful as Katarina, the main character, and Terentia was a natural choice for Maria, who was supposed to be the protagonist before Katarina began changing things. I loved Beth's dress for Mary Hunt, because it reminded me of Princess Daisy, and I helped Annalee get the red contacts she needed in order to be Sophia. (They'd be good for Tifa, too, who Annalee also cosplays!) Vil rounded out the group nicely as the genius Suzanna in a wine colored gown that I have to admit I coveted. While we were shooting, another Katarina spotted the group, so we invited her to join a few pictures. Wearing costumes from the same series is still such a good way to meet new people!

We had reservations for 3 PM at The Tavern at the Henley Park, so as soon as we were done shooting, we crossed to the hotel and were seated at one of the big round tables in the back. Tea was both a chance to take more pictures--pretty much all of the characters in My Next Life are upper class, and as for me, as I said, what is more natural than Alice at a tea party? But it was also a chance to relax and eat delicious food and talk about everything and anything. My friends are a varied lot; we all have a love of anime in common, and I think we're all pretty decent people, but beyond that, we all have different lifestyles and other hobbies and it's wonderful to hear about all of them.

It was also my chance to take a few extra silly photos of my own: for whatever reason, I decided that 2022 would be The Year of the Crab in Casa de Crissy, and I had taken themed pictures of Crabby every month so far--him wearing a top hat in January, with hearts in February, etc. There are no real holidays in August, but what better picture than for Crabby to be surrounded by beautiful cosplayers in his native homeland, Otakon itself? So Crabby got passed around the table, and you can see for yourself that he looks pretty darn happy in the photos.

After tea, Lady Terentia and I went look for Con Ops so we could visit Arlette--she had been unable to attend Otakon the year before, so we hadn't seen her since before the pandemic. The maps were fairly easy to read so we were able to find it without too much trouble, and since the desk wasn't swamped at the moment (sometimes it is!) we had time to sit down with Arlette and catch up. I mentioned that I hadn't gotten a program yet--I hadn't even been sure there was one, because there hadn't been one the year before--and Arlette dug out a copy to give me. I started leafing through it idly, when I saw a picture I immediately recognized.

As I've mentioned roughly once or twice (two or three billion times), my first website was Sailor Moon Avatars, which I started as a "practice" site while teaching myself HTML (or, well, how to use Dreamweaver, at any rate.) I don't even remember where all I used to get pictures from; originally a Sailor Moon message board (if anyone reading this is even old enough to remember those), then later from Cosplay.com and American Cosplay Paradise. I don't remember every person on the site--how could I? The site is over 20 years old, and at the last count, had almost 600 people on it!--but of course some stick out, especially if I added them in the early days. The picture I was staring at was of a tiny little girl dressed as Sailor ChibiChibi, who was quite possibly the first very young child I ever added to SMA. I excitedly pointed this out to Arlette, who I had also met through my recruitment efforts for my website.

"Oh yeah," she said. "That's her and her mom over there," she said, nodding to two women...

..both of whom were taller than I was.

Look--I get it. Time goes by. But what I get my nose rubbed in, again and again and again and still NEVER seems to stick, is how MUCH time goes by and how little you notice. I still feel like a newbie cosplayer--I've only been doing this, what, a few years? Not a whole decade, surely. Intellectually I know that 2022 marked my 22nd year of cosplaying. Emotionally...I wasn't ready.

Libby was a good sport about it. I pulled up Sailor Moon Avatars on my phone, and showed her her five year old self, when her favorite animal was penguins, her favorite hobby was drawing, and her weak point (as told by her mother) was apparently "listening". It turned out that she was in the guidebook because her father was that year's con chair, and he had wanted to touch upon how many of today's attendees had grown up in the con scene. It's a different world from when we started, and I think the kids who are now young adults are benefitting from our mistakes and making it a better one. Libby strikes me as the type who is, at any rate.

Once I was finished reconstructing my bones from the ancient dust they had crumbled into, Teren and I said goodbye to Arlette, and headed back to the con floor. I had been talking with a new photographer, Rewt, on Instagram who was local to me about doing a shoot, but our schedules had never lined up. It turned out he was attending Otakon as well, so after a bit of back and forth, we managed to find each other in one of the side hallways near the main entrance. We did a quickie photoshoot, and I felt so out of practice. I also felt out of touch, I'm not used to using Instagram to communicate with cosplayers and photographers, but I noticed it seemed to be the preferred app both this year and last year.

We had been texting with our friends all throughout, and when we checked in with Stevie and Lauren, they said they were on their way to crafting session, which I had not known Otakon even offered; apparently there are crafting sessions where they teach you how to make something and provide all of the materials, free of charge. In this case, it was paper lanterns. This, again is not normally the sort of thing I would think to attend at a con, but my friends were interested, so why not give it a shot?

I had so much fun! Now, granted some of it was way harder than I thought it would be--how did I mess up the colors of Sailor Mars's fuku after being a Sailor Moon fan for over 20 years! I must have redone some things three or more times. And granted I might not have if I hadn't been with friends, but all in all I was honestly pretty pleased with the way my lantern came out--although it was nothing compared to the masterpieces of my friends, with what we deemed 16th Century Jarvis made by Lauren as my absolute favorite. (Lady Terentia's flower themed lantern was gorgeous, too, but she left early to catch the AMV contest, so I didn't get to take a picture.) It took us right up until closing time at 9 PM to finish, so after we were done I said goodnight and headed back to my hotel room.

I think I've watched all of two episodes of this--I'm sorry Lady Terentia!

I'm tempted to cosplay her Jolly Holiday dress someday

Is he guarding the line, or guarding us from the line?

Not sure if Alyce or Katerina

Crabby in his homeland

Me with a tart

Me with a tea cup

Trying to smile

I make dumb faces

This one's okay

Someone made me laugh

For someone with an obnoxious laugh I have the audacity to find a lot of things funny

Finally one I like!

I SHOULD'VE WORN A PINK MASK DAMMIT

Liz, Arlette, Lady Terentia, and me

Liz is Libby's mother

We are so pastel. I'm not used to being so pastel

Arlette was in bear lolita, in case that wasn't clear.

Katarina offers Alice sweets

I am definitely tempted

Seriously she was so nice and so pretty

To quote Terentia, "Yay friends!"

For some reason I am really digging us in these colors. Maybe it's because they go well with the blonde.

For the record I don't know what we were talking about but I swear it wasn't as vehement as it looks!

And now it looks like I'm saying, "Whatever. I have strawberries."

Our OTP name is "Teeny".

I was catching a snake. You had to be there.

Tea time!

I mean technically there is a crab in Alice in Wonderland.

Posing with Reinii.