I slept well and deeply after my long Friday, and on Saturday morning I woke up refreshed and ready for breakfast. I treated myself in the Henley Park's restaurant again, then went back to my room to start getting ready for my first costume of the day, Sailor Witch Mars. I had seen progress pictures of it, but I hadn't seen the finished product yet, and had to wait until Beth and Vill came by to drop it off. I fell in love with the sleeves instantly; Alyce had gone above and beyond making them so silky and swirly and swishy. I knew I was going to have fun.

As it turned out, when we got to the booth, it turned out that they DID have official Otakon pins! And also an extremely long line to wait on to be allowed to buy them! (Or anything at the booth--not just the pins.) Reinii wanted to get more shopping done, so she went off while I patiently waited in line. I was a little tempted by some of the other Crabby related merchandise, but what am I going to do with an oversized Crabby fan? I only have so much room to display things. When it was my turn, I bought the "starter set" and the three official Otakon pins, and received a paper listing the other Otakon pins that were being sold by other dealers during the con. There was only one other pin that caught my eye, depicting Crabby in a cowboy hat twirling a lasso that spelled out "YeeClaw", and I made it my mission to collect it before the weekend ended.

Once it hit noon the girls wanted to get into their costumes, and I decided to tag along to their hotel room to be whatever help I could (and also get a little help with my costume--I thought I had it on right, but could always use another set of eyes.) As we were going through the Marriott lobby, we spotted a Captain America cosplayer, and I stopped him to get a picture. As I was taking his picture, Reinii asked him, "Did you take a picture with a bunch of ladies in Marvel evening gowns last year?" He looked a bit confused, but said yes, at which point I yelled, "Oh! You're America's Ass!"

It's not my fault--that's his actual Instagram handle! I had even sent him a message on 4th of July saying I was going to leave out milk and cookies for him. Well, I had to take a selfie with him after that, he's so nice, and such a good sport. He also cosplays Cloud Strife, and I really should see if he wants to coordinate costumes one of these days. At any rate, after our selfie, we left the Marriott, and stopped at my hotel room so I could get more pieces to my evening costume to store in girls' room, and then continued on to the Embassy Suites.

Once again this was my first time seeing everyone's costumes in person--people had been posting progress pictures to our group on Facebook all along, but pictures did not do that sparkly starry fabric justice. I would have been jealous of everyone's long flowing skirts if I hadn't had my own long flowing sleeves to make up for them. And while I'm not much use when it comes to costume construction, I can help people put things on, and I had the most fun putting glittery silver star stickers on Reinii's back; they came in a variety of sizes and designs and I felt myself slip into hyperfocus mode as I tried to decide which type of star should come next. Honestly it looked so *cool* when I was done that I hope it kind of catches on as a fashion trend.

We were *almost* ready in time to attend the mass Sailor Moon photoshoot in the game room at 2 PM--and I want to divert a little to talk about that here. Photoshoots? In the game room? I'm not protesting because I have anything against video games--far from it. I'm protesting because the lighting isn't great, although it could be argued that the lighting in the panel rooms was no great shakes either, so maybe here it's a case of six of one, half a dozen of the other. But the accoustics were terrible. The video game room is a vast, echoey hall that sound bounces around and gets lost in, and that would be bad enough, but also you have hundreds of video games and arcade games and dance games and I don't know what else electronically beeping and booping, and THEN you have ANOTHER hundred video game players talking or cheering and just, you know, having a good time, as they should! But all of that combined means that NO ONE CAN HEAR ANYONE WHO IS NOT IMMEDIATELY NEXT TO THEM. The person running the Sailor Moon photoshoot, bless her heart, had some sort of small microphone and amp, but from what I heard from Teren and the girls, the Genshin Impact coordinator the day before had not, and that had made it very hard to run the shoot.

Regardless of the sound issues, it was nice to be at a Sailor Moon photoshoot again, as I hadn't been to one in a good five years. And there were so many more characters than usual! And alternate takes on characters! There were a fair amount of Sailor Cosmoses and Sailor Animamates, which I was surprised at until Stevie suggested it might be because of the Sailor Moon Cosmos movie which had been released in Japan earlier in the year (and WHEN are we going to get it in the United States??) There were a good sprinkling of other villains too, and great civilian versions of the senshi (including the pink overall version of Rei I did for "Fauxtacon" but that has yet to make it to an actual convention), but by FAR the best costume in my opinion was the "Sailor Moon tennis ball" from episode 14 of the original 90s anime. That is just...that is legitimately so freaking hysterical and original and insane that I don't think anything can ever top it. Kudos.

Our photoshoot with Dave was at 3:30, so as soon as the mass shoot was over, we headed back to the Marriott lobby (seriously, I think I spent more time in the Marriott than I did in the convention center, by an overwhelming amount) to meet with him. On our way we headed towards the Lost and Found to see if they had Teren's water bottle, but before we got there, ran into Baltimore Lauren! I miss her cosplaying with us, but I enjoy getting to see her any way I can. We caught up for a bit, and reminisced--it's hard to believe she's been going to conventions even longer than I have! Watching the way the convention scene has grown and changed is really pretty incredible to reflect on. But, we couldn't stay too long, as we didn't want to be late for the start time for our shoot.

We were directly across from the Lost and Found, which was itself thankfully pretty easy to find. There was a "found" desk, presumably for attendees to turn in any unclaimed belongings they happened across and, next to it, a "Lost" desk. Which had a sign "The Game" on it. I told the staffer behind the desk that that was ALL sorts of wrong. He said he didn't get the reference, and that so far no one was willing to explain it to him. I wasn't, either. The sooner that meme dies, the better. ("Then why are you mentioning it now, Crissy?" For completion, mon cher.)

They asked Lady Terentia to describe her water bottle in detail, which she did, and then they wanted MORE detail, which she gave (despite my well-meant but awful attempts to help; for some reason I remembered the bottle being like 32 ounces, which it definitely is not, I'm a terrible estimator). I don't know how many extremely purple with purple flowers with gray tops and a little broken bit at the top they had back there, but eventually they said they couldn't imagine anyone wanting to drink out of someone else's water bottle, so they brought it out and it was indeed Teren's bottle. They asked her to sign the Fan of Shame (which I took a picture of) and she got a really neat ribbon to add to her badge which said "Actually Lost An Item At Con". I love the Otakon badge ribbons, such a neat touch.

With water bottle restored, we continued on our way, and made it to the Marriott lobby. I got to meet Lynna, who is a friend of Stevie's and Lauren's who had planned to join OPIB this year, but extenuating circumstances got in the way. She took a lot of lovely photos of us, and I hope to see her more on the other side of the lens in the next few years. Lady Somairot was joining us with her two daughters; her older daughter, who was our Saturn this year, had joined us in the past as ChibiChibi and Diana, and her younger daughter, who would be making her OPIB debut as Chibiusa. And my very own Hime-chan would be joining us again as Black Lady. Both Lady Somairot and her crew and Hime-chan were running a bit late, so we started with the senshi on hand, with plans to stop and start photographing the children whenever they arrived, and we ready. One thing we've learned over the years of having little kids join our group is that you shoot around *them*, you don't expect them to conform to your schedule! Lady Somairot and her husband and their daughters joined us soon, and we did the best we could--her oldest daughter was a seasoned pro, but the little one took a little while to warm up to the rest of us. Mainly what both of them wanted to do most was play with their Auntie Alyce. But Dave worked around them, and I think we got some good shots nonetheless.

Bas and her partner Yulverick made it a point to stop by to say hi, which I really appreciated as I hadn't seen them yet at all! I miss getting a chance to hang out with Bas in a group; she's got this great way of dissecting thoughts that really makes it easy for me to understand and is just so interesting. We caught up on things for about an an hour or so, when Hime-chan arrived. The awful snarled mess that is DC traffic had put her behind schedule, and she still needed to get into costume, but when we saw each other we just wrapped our arms around each other and stayed there for a good long while. She's not on Facebook these days and I am *terrible* at keeping up with people off of it, a flaw I'm going to have to seriously address in the next year. Dave had finished the solo shots of me, so I went with her to the closest bathroom to help her get ready, and to spend at least SOME time catching up while I did.

It takes quite a bit to get into costume, as I know, and by 4:30 we weren't quite ready, and we only had a half hour of "scheduled" time yet. Lady Terentia sent me a message asking me to come back, so Dave could get some of the inner senshi and full group shots, so I left Hime-chan to put on her finishing touches, and went back to the second floor of the Marriott lobby. Dave worked his usual magic and got all of us, and as soon as Hime-chan arrived took some more of her with her good little alterego (Chibiusa), and others of her with the outer senshi.

While this was going on the sky, which can be mostly seen through the Marriott lobby's skylights, got SUPER dark. This was good in one way, as Vill had brought light up orbs for us to pose with, that hadn't shown up at all prior to this because it had been so bright, and Dave was able to adjust his camera's settings to change with the changing light, but was bad in another way because it meant a MASSIVE storm was rolling in. This was bad. I don't do well with lightning and thunder. I'm not horribly afraid of them (the way I am with moths), but I don't like them and I was so overstimulated and tired that I wasn't at my best to begin with. Thankfully it started to lighten up by the time we were finishing up with our shoot, but if you see photos of me crawling into Reinii's lap, that's a big part of why.

Unfortunately I couldn't stay to watch all of Hime-chan's pictures, as Reinii and I needed to change into our evening costumes. I wasn't sure how much it was raining outside, and I was worried about my hair (one drop of moisture and it's curly frizz city), so while I had an umbrella, Lady Terentia convinced me to borrow her poncho to make sure I stayed as dry as possible. It was a big poncho that was folded up really small, and I needed help getting into it, so I stood there like a toddler while my mom friends dressed me. I really can't believe I'm the oldest (well, one of the oldest) sometimes. And wouldn't you know it, once we got outside the rain had passed, although it was still plenty humid.

As I mentioned in the previous day's report, the plan had been to get sandwiches from Potbelly and bring them back to the OPIB hotel room to eat while we hung out (and while Reinii and I changed), but as Reinii and I approached the Potbelly, we found out that they had JUST closed, at 5. That put a damper in our plans. Reinii and I really didn't have time to first find and then travel to an alternate location, so we decided to just order food in the hotel's bar and grill, start to get changed, and then run down to pick it up when it was ready.

As it turned out, the other girls ended up going somewhere else for dinner, so it was just Reinii and I in the hotel room for a good hour or so. And as much as I missed getting a chance to visit more...honestly, a little down time was what I needed right then. It was quiet, the lights were a bit lower, and let's face it the fact that I hadn't eaten since breakfast probably hadn't been helping very much either. We had washed off our elaborate makeup and I had taken off my Witch Mars costume and was standing around in my, uh, foundation garments (I didn't want to eat with a costume on if I could help it, as I just *knew* I would drop food and it would stain) so Reinii volunteered to go down and get our food while I waited in the room. I touched up her Ariel skirt with an iron that had to have been programmed in FORTRAN or something, it was so difficult to figure out! But I eventually got it on a hotter setting, and got a fair amount of the wrinkles out by the time she came back with our dinner. I made my three sliders disappear with a quickness, and then heroically offered to help her finish her French fries. Because that's the kind of good friend I am. Food gone, we put on new makeup, got the rest of the way into our costumes, and headed back to the convention.

Hime-chan had to leave and wanted to say goodbye, so we lingered in the Marriott lobby long enough to meet up with her. The other girls came along to see our costumes before heading to the Artists' Alley, and as I was starting to get nervous that I wouldn't get there at all, I asked them to keep an eye out for that last Crabby pin I wanted, and because my friends are the best (and didn't realize I had asked multiple people)...well I now have two awesome amazing Crabby pins. I hear tell that there is some sort of support for people who trade pins of this nature? So perhaps I will someday trade that Crabby pin for an older Crabby pin I am missing, but for now, I'm grateful to have two (and even more grateful to have so many friends who are so willing to go out of the way for me for even silly things.)

Baltimore Lauren and her boyfriend Richie were also there, and she took some great shots of Reinii and I as Ariel and Vanessa. Reinii was also carrying our most important prop, Crabby, who was "cosplaying" as Sebastian. (I had thought about getting him a little reggae hat to indicate he was Jamaican, but decided against it. It was better than my original idea, which was dressing him up as Flounder, which I only abandoned because I ran out of time, and only AFTER I gave up on that idea did I remember that...there is a CRAB...in THE LITTLE MERMAID. I am not terribly intelligent.) I unfortunately couldn't hang out long, as I really wanted to meet up with my high school friend Lani, whose costume was the reason Reinii and I had brought these in the first place, and try to have our photos taken in Otakon's Photosuite, as I have a guilty wish to be in the Guidebook someday, and I felt sure that our awesome group plus the inclusion of Otakon's own crab mascot would be our ticket in.

Lani was waiting for us in front of the Photosuite and I COULD NOT BELIEVE HOW GOOD SHE LOOKED! I still can't! The woman refuses to age! I told her so, and she retorted that she was wearing at least three layers of makeup, which...yeah okay, but so was I! Plus over all the years I've known her I must have seen her hair be every color under the rainbow and some beyond it, but this platinum blonde thing she had going for Ursula (and you thought *I* was dedicated, using my real hair for costumes, this kicks it up at least ten notches) just might be my favorite so far. She had her friend with her (whose name I've already forgotten, but she was SO nice!) to man the "eels" when Lani wanted them "floating" around her. Sadly, we were just barely too late for the Photosuite (they were closing in less than an hour, and there were several people ahead of us), so my dreams of being in the Guidebook are deferred, at least for now. We went back to the Marriott lobby, and happened to run into Dave ahead of time, and since we were all free, we decided to start our shoot a little early.

Dave wanted to start with "double" photos, and Lani had the idea of wanting to recreate the scene in which Vanessa is singing into the mirror, and Scuttle discovers that she's the sea witch. We just needed something to simulate a mirror. We looked around, but there was no good glass around, but there WAS a luggage cart that we thought had a suitable arch. We asked a Marriott lobby attendant if we could borrow it for just a moment, and explained we weren't going to take it anywhere, just move it out of traffic so we could use it as a prop for photographs. The attendant agreed, and even helped us move it past the elevators so we could shoot against the wall.

As we were posing, Lani was trying to think of the words to the song that Vanessa sings during that scene, so I started singing it, so she started singing it along with me, and instantly we were transported back to chorus in high school and were belting "Soon I'll have that little mermaid and the OCEAN WILL BE MINE!!!" as the attendant tried in vain to shush us. I'm not sorry. We were loud for maybe all of a minute and a half, and we have good voices. However, we couldn't stop laughing. Poor Dave.

Lani had mentioned wanting both full light and dim light shots; it was WAY too hot for any of us to go outside (and twilight is pretty late in the summer, and we didn't want to wait), but Dave had noticed the blue lighting in the little alcoves of the Marriott that overlook the lobby, and had taken some really cool shots there the night before. He ended up constructing one of his "story shoots" using me, Reinii, and Lani, that made use of white light, blue light, and two floors combined, that I can't wait to see.

After we were done shooting, I asked Lani to sing a little of Poor Unfortunate Souls while I recorded her, because my father is totally in love with Lani's voice and I knew he'd want to see it. Lani's friend crouched down behind her and did the most amazing puppet show along with the song, and I managed to keep my giggles in check long enough to get at least the first verse of the song. She's put it on TikTok, so follow missstormtrooper if you want to give it a watch--I promise you won't regret it.

Honestly, what could follow that? It was late and I was tired, so I said goodnight to Lani, her friend, Reinii, and Dave, and headed back to my hotel room to de-sea witch myself, cool off (what was I thinking, wearing a cape in high Washington summer?), and get ready for bed.