DAY THREE AND FOUR: SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
I rolled out of my bed slightly hungover around 9:30 Saturday morning, and left to grab some free food before the hotel closed breakfast at 10. After some more granola, I headed back to the room just as Crazy Flower was getting ready to go eat. That worked out well, since I wanted to get changed and out the door before she had to get ready; she was getting into full Queen Brahne regalia for our Final Fantasy IX skit in the Masquerade later that day, and could probably do with the room to herself for a while. I was going to be Ruby from the Tantalus Theatre Troupe to match her, but since Ruby's pointe shoes kill so bad after a few hours, I wasn't planning on putting that costume on until as late as possible. Instead, I had brought my Advent Children Tifa costume to wear for the first half of the day, as she's easy, comfy, and, since its a small con, easily recognizable. I was all set to leave by 10:30 AM, and set off down Maine Mall Road to the con. It was my first time walking the route in costume alone, and I didn't much care for the honking and such -- in a group it's funny, but by myself it made me slightly nervous. At any rate, in a few minutes I was at the Sheraton, and busied myself trying to find something to do until other people I knew showed up. I found Sketch and chatted with him for a bit, and then PatD, before heading to the Dealer's Room to poke around. It was a moderately-sized room but crowded, and I hadn't been able to take a 
good look at anything on Friday while I still had Pegasus in tow. It was a relief not having to drag him around this time, though to my surprise, a few people recognized me as the Chibi Moon from the day before anyway.
was herded into craftsmanship judging, so I decided it was a good time for me to head back to the hotel and change into Ruby. I had decided not to enter Ruby in craftsmanship; it was not my best-made costume by far, especially considering my original Ruby had been ripped apart and my latest version was remade from the remnants, and in my rush to leave Thursday I had forgotten to print out reference images anyway. Also, given the size of the con, the complexity of Crazy Flower's costume, and the fact we had a pretty good skit ready to go, I had a sneaking suspicion we'd get a performance award and I didn't want to be an award hog. It was clear that PCM was a first-time con for many of the contest participants, and it just didn't seem fair. So, with a list of things to gather from the room for our skit, I left Queen Brahne and the rest of the gang at craftsmanship and began the trek back to the Days Inn. Luckily, now that it was later in the afternoon, there were more costumed people heading back and forth along the strip of highway, and I didn't feel as uncomfortable being hollered at. That came as a relief to me since Tifa was nothing compared to Ruby when it came to attracting odd looks.
It was also getting rather hot out, so it felt great to change out of all that pleather. It was only 1:30, so I took my time changing and relaxed for a bit. By 2:30 I was ready. I packed everything up for our skit, entitled Extreme Makeover: Royal Edition in a small plastic box labeled "Emergency Makeover Kit." I also decided to pack my pointe shoes, as I didn't want to wear them outside in the dirt. Gathering the box, props, and my tambourine, I headed back to the Sheraton. Once there I met up with the rest of the gang, and saw some delightful cosplayers, including an awesome Sakura and Li from Card Captor Sakura. Before long, however, we were stuffed into a tiny green room to line up for the Masquerade. The room was far to small to hold us all, and without windows it started getting really hot. . . and stinky. I found a corner to sit in and put on my pointe shoes, while Crazy Flower worked on staying hydrated 
under all her costume layers. We waited for over an hour for the event to begin, which sucked, and once it started, the video feed to the green room didn't have much audio and the video kept fading in and out. We were all about ready to pass out when the line finally started moving. Luckily, Crazy Flower and I were on relatively early, and soon enough we were out in the hallway waiting to go on.
"What's wrong with my hair? I have my mother's hair."
able to sit on the floor next to the stage and watch the rest of the Masquerade rather than being stuffed backstage. Hooray!
Awesome job, guys! :) By the time the panel was finished, the performance judges had made their decisions, and they announced the winners. Crazy Flower and I got a judges' award from Sketch for our skit, which was cool. Since it was a small con, all of the prizes were rather silly, but I liked ours - balloons! Fun, shiny, and delightfully temporary - the last thing I need is more junk in my house! Plus, I really can't remember the last time I had a fancy-schmancy balloon. Not since I was 6, at least.
After kidnapping Ladyhawke, we all went back to our hotel rooms to change and met back up at the restaurant. We got some yummy drinks and tasty food and bonded for a couple of hours. After dinner, we went up to Linker83's room to say our goodbyes, as he was leaving for home *tear*. Upon his departure, Jeffrey and I went back to the Sheraton to check out the dance and bust some serious moves while the rest of the girls headed to the hentai panel. I'd rather dance than watch cartoon porn, and as the skill level of dancing at cons is generally low, I enjoy showing off a move or two. Or ten. Plus, its a great way to burn off dinner. Jeffrey and I had a blast, and our small group were filmed cutting a rug several times - lol.
Post-dance, Gingeranne and Michela decided to turn in for the night, while Jeffrey, Crazy Flower, Ladyhawke and I went out in search of alcohol. We headed across the street to a small bar that was still open at 1am, and almost got abducted by a strange taxi which was doing slow circles around the empty parking lot. There was also a large truck idling in front of a vacant store which was shining its lights in our direction. Feeling slightly like we were in a bad horror film, we quickened our pace to the bar, where we met up with Sketch and some of the other webcomic artists. After getting slightly trashed and having plenty of laughs, the bar staff subtly turned on all the lights in a "get the fuck out, we wanna go home!" fashion, so we collected ourselves and headed out. And because we were slightly trashed, when we came across a lone shopping cart in the middle of the deserted parking lot, we decided to have some fun with it. Somehow, I ended up in it with Crazy Flower pushing, and Jeffrey riding upside down on the bottom rack. Luckily, Ladyhawke was there to capture the moment forever on film. Once that craziness was over, we were shocked to discover the truck was still there. Creeeeepppyyy. On that note, we decided it was bedtime.