Mia & WonderCon: The Wednesday before the convention.

You may have felt an empty feeling in your gut, whether it was helping Jaina make sure she had everything she needed for her motorcycle trip up to Nor Cal, or watching Candice take her flight to New York, then driving to the seaport, to watch Jessica go on her week-long cruise. However, you had made your choice, which was to accompany Mia to the big Eastern Weekend comic convention in Anaheim, WonderCon. While WonderCon may not be as big as the world-famous San Diego Comic Con, it is run by the same group that does the San Diego event. To make things easier for everyone, Mia & her brother, Benny, pooled their extra money to reserve a pair of rooms at the nearby Hilton hotel for the weekend, with the checkout day being that following Monday. In return, you used some of your own savings, to buy a set of weekend passes to the Disney Resorts, for everyone, complete with the fast passes--a cost of over $1,500, which is right about the same total cost of the hotel reservations.

So now it's the Wednesday before WonderCon, and you had sent copies of the confirmation for the Disney passes to Mia & her brother--who passed it on to his own girlfriend. But Mia wanted you to come over to her apartment, so that's what you did. Her roommates greet you first--three other women of multiple backgrounds & occupations that share the relatively small apartment with Mia. You can imagine the struggle for space, whenever Mia needed to work on her new costumes, or store her various costumes & props. For now, though, you're led into Mia's room, which is obviously a mess, of sorts. You can see the costume pieces she plans to use over the weekend, based on one of her social media posts: Bayonetta from the first game for that Friday, her "Star Wars" Elektra spin for that Saturday, and then her White Rabbit from DC Comics that Sunday. In addition to all of that, there are her normal clothes, extra undies, hygiene products, all the cosmetics she needs for her cosplay, and repair kits for her costumes. Finally, there's all the things she needs for her cosplay booth, ranging from cosplay prints, to sharpies, a pack of cosplay trading cards that feature her as Zatanna, and even packs of stickers.

You watch as Mia checks off all the costume pieces she needs to pack, then pack them all in neatly. It's only then that she notices you, and she hops onto her feet, giving you a wave, as she smiles, before coming over to give you a big hug. Not surprisingly, she's in one of her nerdy tees, and a pair of light blue jeans. Otherwise, she's barefoot, and she has no lingering makeup on.

"Glad you can make it, Eric." Mia tells you. "I was hoping you'd come tonight, so that we can talk on many things."

"On many things, Mia?" You ask her. "I thought all you wanted to do, was brief me on what we need to, when we arrive at the comic con."

"Yes, there is that, Eric," she tells you, "but there are some matters that I want to discuss, regarding two things: our relationship, and your interactions with other cosplayers, who also happen to be exotic dancers. I'm not talking about Abbie or Chrissy here, I'm talking about that one woman I heard you spent a night with, and now I hear she's planning to attend WonderCon this weekend."

"So you've heard about Michelle Mui, Mia?" You ask her. "How did you find out?" (Ref. to Thread 201932)

"One of my roommates' friends follows her personal & cosplay social media pages." Mia tells you, showing you Michelle's cosplay page. "I first heard about it a few weeks ago, while I was in Houston for Comicpalooza. I saw her a couple of weeks ago, when she was starting to do photo shoots with Alex & his photography crew. It was all nice and friendly at first, but when we started throwing your name around, she slowly got angry, and I got dragged into a verbal argument with her, over you."

"How did you & Alex defuse it?" You ask her.

"It wasn't just me, or Alex, or his crew that got Michelle to calm down," she tells you, "it was Alex's secretary, Shannon." (Learn more about it in a future "Alex Leon" thread, coming soon.)

"That Shannon LaVeaux person that you've been mentoring?" You ask her.

"Yes, that's the one." She tells you. "Anyway, Shannon worked with Michelle & I to break up & cool down our verbal battle. I guess she's been going through the same sense of jealously in regards to Alex, as Michelle appears to be because we have you in common, and I am more popular in the cosplay scene, than she is....at least for now."

"Well, Michelle hasn't told me about it, yet." You tell her. "What do you suggest I do?"

"First of all," Mia tells you, "for everyone's safety, I would try seeing her, while I am off doing panels, or working with the professional photographers. I want everyone to be happy, & having fun at the comic con, and I don't want Michelle to go to the con, feeling gloomy. After all, Michelle & I share a few things in common now: you & your love for exotic dancers, of course; but also the face that we love to cosplay, too. Michelle should be happy, doing her own thing."

"Should I call her, then?" You ask Mia.

"If you must," Mia tells you, "then yes. She never apologized to me, when we had our argument at the studio. We hurt each other's feelings, and it ruined the mood for everyone, including Alex. I want to know if she will apologize to me now that time has passed. I want her to be happy, when she comes to WonderCon. That's what I want to get out of the way, before I start talking about what we'll do this weekend."