My costume for Sunday was one of my most comfortable yet, and a character I had long looked forward to being: Sarah from Labyrinth. Her ballgown has been my dream costume, and in my "Planned" section of my website, for as long as I've had a website. I'm in talks to have this happen someday, but real life keeps getting in the way, so I decided to wear her main costume as my last costume of the con. My hair was already straight from Lois, but my makeup, man...I don't know. I watched a YouTube tutorial where the artist made herself look *exactly* like Jennifer Connelly, and I followed it as best I could, but...it did not work. I don't know if I'm too old, too tired, or too untalented, but it just wasn't working for me. I wasn't about to miss the last day of the con, however, so I swallowed my pride and headed to the Javits Center.

My wanderings took me back to the South Pavilion, and ran into Mike and Rob. It was early enough that they didn't have anything actively going on, so we were actually able to just relax and hang out for a while--it's the longest I've gotten to talk to Mike, and it turns out he's a really great guy, which I kind of knew, or else our mutual friends wouldn't like him so much, but it was still great to discover first hand! I love that even though he lives way down South, he comes back to New York Comic Con to hang with all of his friends.

I also wanted to spend more time with David, since I hadn't seen him since Thursday, and not long then, so I went over to his booth to see if he was busy. He was able to take his break after making a few arrangements, so we started to walk around the convention together--only for David to get a notification that the sale he had just completed had, let's say, something hinky about it. It was possible that it was just a miscommunication, so David and I spent some time walking around the show floor trying to find the buyer, but we had no luck. He really needed to take care of this (it was a pretty substantial sale), so he decided to go back to his booth to see what his options were. Pete had just texted me that he had arrived, so I promised David we'd be back to check with him later, and went to the front to find Pete.

So, yes, if you've read this far, you'll know that shocker! Pete actually made it to Comic Con all four days! I'm so proud of him. We waited on the ground floor's entrance area, because Pete's friend Rocco had promised to swing by, and introduce us to his new girl, Rachel, who it turns out is not only gorgeous but also really nice. They made a stellar Bettlejuice and Lydia, and I can't wait to see what they cosplay together in the future!

While Pete caught up with Rocco, I got a text from LunarChandalure that she and Kit had just arrived, so I let them know where we were so I could see their outfits for the day. LunarChandalure looked just so freaking adorable as Bee from Bee and Puppycat, a show she had encouraged me to watch (and I think I did actually watch the first episode of) when I was going through some employment issues. Kit was dressed in an original character of their own design, I forget which universe it was fram, but *damn* if Kit can't rock a hat (you should have seen the magnificent one they got married in!)

After we were done catching up, I took Pete to see David, both so that I could see if he had made any progress with the hinky sale, and because I knew David had a surprise. You see, Pete had made fun of me for the giant goofy grin I got on Thursday when David gave me my Raphael socks, and David had heard him. David also knew that Pete had cosplayed from Ninja Turtles with me, and while he didn't have Casey Jones socks, he did have Shredder socks, so he brought a pair for Pete. And, as you can see in the picture of the two of them, Pete got an even BIGGER goofy grin when he got them. So I'm sorry, but I don't make the rules: silly socks make people happy. You are no exception. Trust me.

There really wasn't much else we wanted to do, so we wandered the floor a bit more, seeing if there was anything we wanted to buy, or anyone we wanted to photograph. We had more luck with the latter than the former, I guess we were all shopped out. Pete's gotten a lot more exclusive with which comics he buys physical copies of these days. I've said this before on my anime con reports, but online shopping has really spoiled us. It's still worthwhile to look around, because often enough you will see something you didn't know existed, but the days of blowing an entire week's pay on merch are pretty much gone.

Also, I was really hoping against hope that I'd find a Jareth--hadn't every 80s movie taught me that at the last second, the thing you most hope for happens? And look at all the luck I'd had with Gambits and Magnetos the day before! But, of course, the difference is that X-Men is quite a bit more popular, especially at a comic book convention, and especially with X-Men '97 having just debuted, than Labyrinth, a movie that had come out close to 40 years ago. So alas, I never did find a Jareth. Not only that, I don't think a single person recognized me, not even the Lady Amalthea cosplayer I had photographed earlier in the day, even though The Last Unicorn is even older than Labyrinth. I think this may have been the first time I wasn't asked for a single picture. It's not a big deal in the long run, of course, but I had been feeling pretty bad about the way my makeup, and by extension my costume, came out already, and that did make me think it wasn't my greatest choice.

Nevertheless, of course I wanted to add it to Blood, Sweat, and Glitter, so I had the presence of mind to ask Pete to take a few "matching image" pictures. In retrospect, I should have asked him to take them outside, because the backdrop wasn't the greatest, but then again, everywhere near the Javits Center is pretty much all skyscrapers, so it's not like there was anything incredibly better outside. Maybe someday I'll give this another try, and do a proper photoshoot in a better setting, if only to get a few more pictures, but I very much doubt I'll ever wear it to a con again. Oh, well. At least it's comfortable--and I'm definitely going to wear it in my non-con life, so it's not like it's going to go to waste.

After four days of schlepping around, both Pete and I were running out of steam, so we decided to leave a bit early. I'm not sure I've ever mentioned it here before, but ever since the last con Skye attended with me, I've bought a bottle of not at all expensive champagne to celebrate the end of the con, so that's what I did: went home, put my feet in the foot bath, and popped the cork. I would have taken a bath, but I started to feel not-so-hot, and the next morning I woke up with 101.6° fever. Con crud is real, people.

All in all, though, it was completely worth it. I got to be part of my Ghostbusters team again. I got to get excited about merch again. I had one casual costume turn out to be a huge hit, and another turn out to be a bit of a dud. I took tons of photos. I finally got to pose with some Gambits. I got to see some friends I only ever get to see here. I got to meet new people. Different people have different criteria for what makes a good con, but those things are enough to keep me coming back year after year.

"Rob"

"Hey Rob"

"Look over here"

"There we go"

And now, one in landscape just for kicks

Aaand we're losing him again already

In his defense he is a very busy guy.

I hear they've finally added burlgers to The Sims 4

And finally, my last Terry Bogard of the con.

This didn't quite make up for the lack of Jareths...

...but almost.