We had a really nice day with friends today!!!!! Mimi and Magenta came up from Virginia to hang, which is part of what inspired the manic house cleaning XD But now our downstairs looks a lot better and we got to hang with friends XD

So, after chatting and showing them around the house some - and letting them pet Lumos, which was great because people are always amazed by how soft she is!!! - we ended up going out to eat a late lunch at one of our fave places in Hampden. Pat came along too, since Mimi was like "you're coming too, come on" and I'm just happy whenever friends meet & get along. I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD GO BADLY but I have anxiety like, all the time.

And then we somehow ended up joking about Knights for too long on the drive back to our house, and now we're maybe cosplaying Knights together at Otakon??? idk exactly how this happened XD But Pat's gonna be Leo, which I think will be fun, and Liz and I are still trying to decide which one of us is gonna be Sena and Naru-chan. We're both fine with either, so it's like...okay I guess we need to figure it out soon-ish.

I usually like making our cosplays, but Mimi found some actually good looking ones to buy on aliexpress and Pat wants to remake some of the accessories when they arrive, so they won't look like cheapo costumes that we put no effort into. And we'll look very consistent if we all buy the same costume, which helps.

ALSO I JUST LOVE MAKING PLANS WITH FRIENDS IDK IT'S JUST NICE!!!!!!! friendship good ;w;

They stayed way later than they meant to but we were having such a nice time together...thus is life XD It was just a really nice day!!!! :D

AND THEN!!!! LUMOS IS SO FUCKING CUTE I LOVE HER!!!! I know it's after 3 am, but Liz is still grinding out the last points they need to get a 3rd copy of Shinobu so here we are!!! It means I get to share Lumos (and also some other pictures from today).


but also why does my cat look AI generated XD

( a few more pics under here! )

Last night I did end up screenrecording demon Madara in Halloween Rendezvous...and then also a few other MVs in his two feature scouts, because I was in the zone I guess???? idk I had fun! And now I have a ton of screencaps to make icons from OwO

Also I'm super achy because I had a long day but it was worth it so who cares!!! I'd do it again in a heartbeat ;D

FRIDAAAAAAAAY!!!! The day started with us booking it to registration so I could grab my badge before heading to the room for our panel- Anime Before Anime: Animation in Pre-WW2 Japan. Even though we got there 10 minutes early, there was already a huge line waiting to get in OwO This is the second time we've run it at katsu, and both times now it's gotten a really good reception :D

This year, I recorded Liz and Pat presenting it, so we now have a solid recording- or at least I hope so XD I haven't had a chance to review the footage yet, because you know, con weekend~

OH RIGHT. I didn't end up styling Ibara's wig on Thursday night, so I went in casual clothes + a fun wig so it'd be easier to get around and shop and such. Which was nice! It's always very cramped, especially artist's alley, so being more mobile made it slightly easier.

...only slightly, though, because it's still fucking Katsucon XD

We managed to hit artist alley before the infamous(?) "sewage" explosion!!! A pipe burst on Friday afternoon/evening and dumped gross dish water from the kitchens into artist alley, right on top of someone's booth D: I feel so bad for who it affected ;w; I really hope they're able to get some sort of compensation or something, since that fucking sucks!

Anyway...I usually try to do a full round of artist alley + dealers room before buying anything, but I couldn't resist the allure of Yu-Gi-Oh!


also the artist very kindly gave me badge ribbons for buying so much stuff XD I was just so fucking excited to see anyone selling ygo fanmerch *w*
And then the hell gauntlet: Dealers Room. It's soooooo big and katsu is so hit or miss for dealers, so it ends up being a lot of walking around to find a few gems. But that's cons babeeyyyyyy!!!! Honestly, one of the best parts wasn't even shopping: it was catching up with Tasty Peach! I've been buying their adorable plushies for so long, I've gotten to watch them go from a tiny booth in artist alley to a large presence in dealers room to seeing their stuff for sale in Hot Topic and other physical stores, which is so awesome. Apparently, they have stuff in fucking Epcot now!!!!!! I got to see pictures and it was just so wholesome to see how far they've come ;w;

BUUUUUUUT we only got about halfway through dealers room before we had to bitch out because we were exhausted. I ended up sitting in the lobby for awhile, watching the world go by, while Liz and Pat got our stuff out of our locker. Right before they got back, I saw a Kohaku cosplayer in the Spring Night outfit and let me tell you, the way I practically flew out of my seat to go say hi...

Since we had cosplay to finish - me and my wig styling adventures lmao - we went back to our hotel to get to work!!! If I never touch glue again.....

Also, we had snacks in our room, so we didn't have to pay out the ass for a meal in National Harbor XD

However!!! Some local-ish friends that Liz and I first met at Otakon were also staying in Alexandria, just in a different hotel, so we went over to hang out with them :D Liz was still in Nagisa at that point + they cosplay Hiyori and Jun, which meant that after gossiping for like two hours, I took a bunch of pictures of them. I'm looking forward to going through all the raws of those shots once I feel a little better~

By the time we got back to our hotel room, Pat was getting ready to get a Lyft back to the con for the raaaaaave~~~ Because I was still having a rough time with pain + wig styling to work on, Liz and I stayed behind and just kinda chilled while making glue wefts for Madara. It was sooooooooooo time consuming ;w; They look damn good, but I thought my fingers would be covered in UHU + PVA glue forever D:

After all the wefts for his braids were glued on, I realized two very important things:

1. the glue was gonna take awhile to dry before I could safely tug on the hair enough to braid it
2. we hadn't eaten any "real" food since the continental breakfast at around 9 am, and it was now after midnight

So, it was off to the 24 hour diner!!! There was one across the street from our hotel, which was very convenient after a long day. It's a local chain and we actually went to one of them after Anime USA back in October, and I remembered it being pretty damn good- and I was right! idk, maybe it's just me, but diner food always tastes best at 3 in the morning.


the boys went everywhere with me all weekend, including the high risk situation of taking pictures of them with food ♥
I somehow thought I'd be able to get back to the wig after eating, but it was like...4:30 am at that point???? So we passed the hell out, thus ending ~day 1~ of the con!

( but I doooooo have more pictures to share from it! )

aaaaaand that's a wrap on that! I'll get to the next day soon, hopefully, since I'm technically halfway done already!!!! I wanna complete the con reports~~~~~