A few embarrassing pictures, but nothing too bad.

Here it comes, the moment of truth, the final countdown, Alan gives us a thumbs-up and sheepish grin of reassurance as he unclips the velvet rope at the front of the procession of screaming, animated nerds, allowing the first group in, they're heading towards us for their picture now, and I feel light headed with embarrassment. Oh God, were my shorts riding up again? Did all my stitches pop loose? Was I about to be seen naked by hundreds of screaming women?!?

No to all three? Phew. That's gotta be some kind of record.

The first group to come up for pictures were actually some diehard fans dressed in cosplay for the video game our characters were from, good cosplay too, it looked outright professional, and was about as revealing as ours. As an ensemble, the seven of us looked amazing, all skimpy clothing and Halloween accessories. We take a few awesome snapshots together, Natalie doing her strong-woman poses, Raquel blowing kisses, and me shyly flexing with the gun across my shoulders, while the guests bring a smile to my blushing face, taking my attention away from my near nudity with their sheer excitement; all of them were so happy to be here it was contagious.

The brief, yet enjoyable photography session seems to end before it even begins, and as the chipper friends walk off, the Latina woman among them—the lady in the sexy werewolf costume—winks, and tells me, "Nice rifle." It takes me a couple seconds to catch the innuendo, but when I do, my face burns red.

That was quite pleasant, but I still thank my lucky stars we had the protection of both a sign and security guard to safeguard against less than savory characters, as we continue.

The next several groups of attendees also keep their hands mostly to themselves, although a whole mess of women wanted photos of themselves grabbing, caressing or otherwise laying hands on my muscular bare torso. Such requests were super embarrassing, but I reluctantly obliged, making several ladies' whole week by allowing them to rest their hands on my shredded abs as they got their pictures taken. My face flushed pink every single time someone asked to pose with me like that, as well as every single time I had my picture taken at all. I mean, I was for all intents and purposes wearing nothing but men's lingerie in public. Though at the same time, I have to admit, it felt kinda nice.

After one of these pictures, I hear the ecstatic young woman next to me say, "Ohmygod, I can't wait to show Zoey this!"

Wait, shit! I hadn't considered it until just now, but all of these people are going to share these humiliating photos of me with their friends, they're going to keep pictures of me in this skimpy, sexy, embarrassing costume!

With that realization, I've completely lost my nerve, and have gone back into 'Oh my God, I'm practically naked, why did I agree to do this!?' mode, just in time for our boss to let the next group in.

And that group was about to give us Hell.