One time, Ned begrudgingly cosplayed as a robot (with a slightly similar design to the toy robot from Lethal Company) at a cheesy sci-fi convention when his original outfit idea fell through.
He'd rather have been anywhere else and it didn't help that his costume was being mocked by certain attendees.
"Ohhh! He's state of the art!"/s

His advisor had been wrong about this being a way he could meet and connect with people like him.
Ned was not very amused.