#her neck's too long in the second picture "OTL

[lycorogue]

Kyoru Week: Day 6 - Birthday Wishes

Man, I could NOT think of what to do with this prompt today. Not sure why. Maybe burn-out? If so, then I'm sorry for the quality of this story. At the very least, I'm happy enough with it to publish. I just wish I had figured it out sooner so I wasn't posting around 1am. @_@ Lord, I'm tired. And to think, I get to do this sort of thing for a WHOLE MONTH for NaNo in 29 days!

OTL  TT3TT Also, I'd like to note that life would be so much easier if all three kids were canonically named... just sayin'....

Full story is below, but you can also read it over on AO3, on FFN, or on DA.

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The Greatest Gift

Spoilers: Post-manga story; minor Fruits Basket Another reference Romance Level: Contented Lovers/Established Spouses/Parents Word Count: 1150 Summary: Kyo reflects on his favorite birthday gift, and all that entails.

A gentle snore pulled Kyo's attention from the TV. Tohru was curled up beside him, her shoulder tucked in his armpit, and her head against his chest. He wasn't sure when she had passed out, but he coiled his arm tighter around her to make sure she didn't flop off his side. He rested his cheek against the crown of her head and glanced around the living room.

Tohru wasn't the only one to have conked off. All three kids were in a little pile sprawled across the floor, with Hajime practically a futon for his brother and sister. Their shared bowl of popcorn was mostly empty, and tipped over; a few kernels spilled onto the area rug.

Kyo wasn't sure what was going on in the movie anymore, but he didn't mind. He enjoyed listening to his family's collective heavy breathing and soft snores. That is, except for their youngest. For such a tiny little thing of only three, her snoring gave Kyo terrible flashbacks to Kagura's boar form snorting with rage.

Overcome with love, he kissed Tohru on the top of her head, and played with the ends of her long hair.

"Hmm?" Tohru moaned. "Kyo-kun? Did I fall asleep?"

"Yeah. It's okay." He absentmindedly ran his fingers through her silky locks and continued scanning the room.

"Oh! We all fell asleep?" Tohru bolted upright as she caught sight of their kids.

"It's fine."

"But it's your birthday! We were supposed to be celebrating."

"I was still enjoying the movie, and it's actually really sweet to watch you all passed out like this."

"You watch us sleep? Kyo-kun, that's a bit creepy," Tohru teased. She had gotten more comfortable with doing so with him over the years.

"Maybe, but I enjoy it regardless." He smiled and playfully tugged her into a hug.

"Still, I'm sorry we all drifted off when we should have been spending time with you."

"You are. You're still in the same room. Besides, you guys kind of went all out." The living room had streamers draping down the windows and doorways, balloon bunches marking the corners, a wall-length banner made by the kids wishing him a happy 36th, and wrapping paper still confettied around him. Most of a birthday cake was on the dining table, and half-finished glasses of milk remained at each child's seat. A stack of gifts towered to Kyo's right, and a sash reading 'Birthday Boy' still draped across his chest. He sort of feared what they would all think of for his fortieth birthday, especially since his kids would certainly be old enough to pitch in their ideas by then.

"We wanted you to have a great celebration." Tohru squeezed his chest tight. "You need to know how much we love and appreciate you."

"Well, mission accomplished." He gave her a chaste kiss before pulling away and standing up. "Shall we get these corpses to their rooms to sleep off the excitement of the day?" As if responding to Kyo's suggestion, his daughter loudly snored. He wasn't sure if it was a snort of acceptance or protest of being moved off of her brother's chest.

Tohru nodded and walked over with her arms waiting for her daughter to be passed over. Then Kyo scooped up his middle child before rustling his eldest's hair.

"Huh? Dad?" Hajime sleepily mumbled. "Did I pass out?"

"Yeah. Go on up to bed."

Hajime held his arms out for his brother, but Kyo patted him on the shoulders instead.

"I got him. I want to tuck you guys in anyway. Head on up. I need to turn of the DVD."

"Okay. Happy birthday, Dad." Hajime lazily waddled to his father to give him a quick hug goodnight. He then shuffled to his mother, and the two quickly exchanged goodnight kisses on their cheeks.

Tohru escorted him to his room, their youngest still in her arms. Kyo lingered to turn off the movie and TV, then brought his son to the room he shared with Hajime. A few minutes later – after the younger two were stripped and dressed in their pajamas – all three kids were tucked into their beds, and kissed goodnight.

"Your turn." Kyo opened the master bedroom door, and motioned for Tohru to enter.

"Oh! I was going to clean up, but if you'd like-"

Kyo blushed. "No. You're tired. You've done so much already today. I'll go clean up, you go ahead to bed. I- I mean, unless you're now awake, and you want to-"

Tohru had on her dazed smile. She was clearly still groggy from her impromptu nap. Kyo shook his head and kissed his wife on her forehead.

"Tohru, go to bed. I've got this."

"But it's your birthday. You shouldn't be doing any work."

"Eh, I've got energy to spare. You need to rest up too, ya know." He gently rapped his knuckles against her forehead to accentuate his point. "Go on."

She nodded and gave him a sweet peck on his cheek. "Happy birthday, Kyo-kun. I hope we got you everything you wanted."

He hugged her tightly around her waist, and nuzzled his jaw between her shoulder and neck; breathing her in.

"I have you. I have the kids. I'm out in the world. I'm actually friends with my family. I couldn't imagine anything else I could possibly wish for."

"What about those leg weights for when you jog?"

"Yeah, okay, there's one thing you guys missed for my birthday."

Tohru giggled, and Kyo kissed her jaw line. One more squeeze, and he sent her into their bedroom. He then worked his way back downstairs so he could clean up the lovely party he had. After putting everything away, throwing the wrapping paper, streamers, and balloons into trash bags, and lining up the homemade birthday cards, Kyo walked over to the memorial shrine Tohru kept in their living room.

Kneeling before it, he ran his fingers over the Zodiac-painted stones, and pet the cat one between the ears. He then picked up one of his old prayer beads and rolled it between the pads of his fingers for a couple of seconds before putting it back into the little bowl. Finally, he turned to the picture of Tohru when she was a toddler, being held by both of her parents.

"Thank you, both, for creating Tohru. And, Kyoko-san, thank you for sending her to me; or me to her. Either way, she is the birthday gift I have wished for since I first saw her picture, and the one I continue to treasure each year. Thank you, so much."

With a bow, Kyo turned off the lights and headed up to his bedroom; to the greatest gift he ever received: Tohru's waiting embrace.

[kusunogatari-a]

[ SasuHinaMonth Day Ten: Lust ] [ @sasuhinamonth ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: A Light Amongst Shadows ]

Despite what any rumors may say, Uchiha Sasuke is not some kind of horndog. Quite the opposite, really. For as many women (and the occasional man) may lust over him, he’s never been particularly interested in sex. Between the obnoxious reputation his hopefuls have garnered over the years, and his narrow focus to goals that had nothing to do with it...it’s just never been something the Uchiha has felt a need to explore.

He’s been approached by more people than he can count, hoping to lay some sort of claim to him. And with each passing rejection, he becomes more soured to the idea at all. Perhaps it was his upbringing, but such an act - in his mind - requires intimacy. Respect. Love. While he doesn’t care who does what with who (so long as he has no part in it), he can’t picture himself just throwing inhibitions to the wind and screwing someone just to say he did.

Naruto makes the mistake of teasing him about. Once. The subject is never breached again.

“Y’know, that whole restoring your clan thing is gonna take a little gettin’ jiggy, ‘ttebayo.”

“...if you ever utter that phrase again in my presence, I’ll rip your tongue out of your mouth.”

Sakura, thank the gods, doesn’t even try. Apparently his stone-cold silence has been telling enough. Soon, it seems to turn into a bit of a reputation among his peers. Not that he minds - at least a few people will know better than to bother him about it.

...and yet…

He will admit...he’s the tiny bit curious. Not so much about sex as he is about...intimacy as a whole. He’s never had a relationship. Not a romantic or sensual one, at any rate. And as his agemates begin tentatively pairing off, he can’t help but feel - partially to his annoyance - a bit...left behind.

Admittedly, what seems to bring the feeling about most is seeing his teammates. It’s not a matter of jealousy - he’d never interject himself, nor does he want that sort of attention from either of them. But...something about seeing them together brings a rather severe case of being a third wheel. A strange melancholy makes being near them difficult, so...he spends less and less time around them.

...they hardly seem to notice.

It’s not long before the others follow suit. He cares little, really, about the personal aspect. He’s never been particularly close to any of them. But every announcement of coupling seems to deepen the chasm between him, and those he was encouraged to befriend again upon his return.

...all but one.

The only fool that didn’t notice Hinata’s affection for Naruto was Naruto himself. As absorbed as he is in his own self-pity, Sasuke - ever-observant - can’t not notice hers. Like himself, she seems to skirt situations where the pair of them end up together: excusing herself with a bow to tend to clan business.

But even so, he still sees the somber smiles she gives them. Genuinely, she seems happy for them. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel heartbreak at a love lost. Or rather...a love never reciprocated.

So, almost naturally, those left to their devices...converge.

Their quiet natures - hers more reserved, and his more subdued - still manage to mesh well. To his surprise, Sasuke finds himself feel at ease around her...rather quickly. Like...friends. He can appreciate her unassuming presence. Nothing about her screams for attention. They can sit in the silence with neither boredom, nor awkwardness.

He finds himself seeking her out more and more often. Something about her feels...therapeutic. Different than he ever felt with his teammates, or family.

Sasuke doesn’t have a word for it until she kisses him.

Too caught off-guard to resist, he just stares down at her with wide eyes and a mind full of static. A kind of warmth seems to bloom from where her lips find his, swelling his chest and coursing through his nerves like a shock.

...he’s never believed those cliches until then.

Once he regains his senses, he urges her back half a step with a careful grip on her shoulders, looking to her in lingering surprise. “...are you okay?”

“I...yes. Did...did I do something wrong?”

The clearer his head gets, the more he second-guesses himself. Not one to beat around the bush, he asks, “...are you doing that because you like me...or because you can’t have what you want?”

It’s her turn to look taken aback. “You...you really think I would -?”

“I don’t want you settling, Hinata. You don’t deserve that.”

A moment of silence, and then she softens. “...I’m not settling for anything, Sasuke-kun...just because I cared for someone else...doesn’t mean I can’t care about you. You’re not a second choice...you’re a second chance.”

They linger and look at one another - Sasuke in search of a fib, and Hinata in search of understanding. “...you really mean that?”

“...I do.” Palms carefully reach to cup his cheeks. “...we each had our eyes elsewhere for...a long time. For our own reasons. But that doesn’t make what we see now worth any less.”

Still holding her arms, he studies her a moment longer. What he felt when she kissed him...that wasn’t just surprise. That was...relief. As though he’d been waiting for her to do that for a while now.

Just to test his theory, he takes a turn to kiss her. That same pleasant heat seems to wash over him, like a hearth in the bowels of Winter. A want for more of it draws her closer, feeling her grip shift to his neck as his own lowers to her waist. His hold is careful, feather-light...fearful of both hurting her, and making her feel trapped. But her own seems unphased in its fervor, helping bow him further toward her lower height.

It’s then that warmth seems to...intensify. It grows from coals to licks of flame, urging him to bring her a little closer, hold her a little tighter. Mouths meld and she starts to invade all his senses. Touch and smell and taste and sounds.

But before he loses his head, Sasuke surfaces with a gasp, looking to her with heavy-lidded eyes. Was that…? That was…

Hinata’s head ducks demurely, still clinging to his neck. “...was that...too fast…?”

“...no. But...maybe we should take a moment. I don’t want to -” Hurt her? Rush her? Push her away?

She gives a soft smile. “...okay.” Hands slide forward to rest atop his shoulders, a cheek resting against his chest.

Something within the cavity swells as he watches her.

...well, maybe there’s hope for the remnants yet.

     Word count: 1112      Cumulative: 11,880      SORRY this is a bit rushed - I ran out of time, and honestly this is a topic that, at times, can be a bit difficult for me to write for...personal reasons ^^; I really wanted to do more, but I have other responsibilities tonight, and honestly just...wasn’t feeling this prompt too much.      I write Sasuke in fics as I RP him, and I’ve always pictured him as grey-ace. I just don’t see him as a very sexual individual, so he wasn’t too keen on writing this, haha~ I wanted to expand much more on their relationship and its growth before things got serious, but sadly I just didn’t have the time. Sorry about that, guys OTL I know this is a bit of a tease compared to what could have been, but I do hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll do better! <3 And who knows? Maybe someday I’ll get back into multi-chap writing, and we can have a nice, long, proper SasuHina story rather than daily quips, ne?

[saitou-shuka]

shukamod @ First Live LV [1 of 4]

This post covers what I did before the LV and the LV itself up to the first six songs in the setlist!

Hi everyone! This is a post that’s been long overdue and I truly apologize. Many things have happened over the past week, including tons of schoolwork, more than one all-nighter, more than one 14-hour-sleep day, and me snapping my chair in half cheering too hard for Shuka, among other things... not to mention general laziness and procrastinating on Discord :))))

Excuses aside, I know at least a few people were curious on my thoughts about the Live Viewing. I wasn’t actually sure how I wanted to write the post another reason it was delayed so much ... It kind of turned into a strange diary-style post about my entire experience. Hope you guys don’t mind hearing about my weekend too...

I’m also terrible at summarizing, so the whole thing got super super long. So long that I’m splitting it up into four parts. (This way you don’t need to wait for me to finish writing everything, too...) Each individual part is still extremely long, so under a cut it goes~

Sorry for the page stretcher, mobile-users ( ‾▿‾ ;;)

The Day Before Our LV was at 12pm on a Sunday. Turns out the earliest bus from where I live doesn’t actually reach NYC until 11:50am on Sunday (... lol), so I resigned myself to arriving in New York on Saturday and paying to stay the night. My friends and I ended up buying tickets for a five-hour bus ride leaving at 7am on Saturday (rip sleep) so we could have time to hang out with the /r/LoveLive Discord community later in the day. It was really lit! We went to karaoke, which was tons of fun, and then had KBBQ for dinner. Thanks to everyone who made sure I ate properly for dinner ;__; I made sure to eat a lot to honor the price tag on the buffet  (•̀ ∀ •́)ﻭ✧ I was actually super sleepy that day, so my bad if I seemed super quiet or dead ( ‾▿‾ ;;)

Also: It was cold it was cold it was cold it was so cold that day fml

The Day of: Pre-LV I think my friends and I left for the theater around 8am? On our way there we decided it would probably be wise to actually eat breakfast, so we stopped at an IHOP and met up with a bunch of people from the Discord community again. It was kind of difficult for IHOP to serve all of us quickly, so we didn’t get to the venue until like 10am instead of 9 or 9:30am like I was hoping for. There was already a sizable line forming by then. I handed out a bunch of call guides and UOs, as well as a couple of handwarmers (because it was still cold af) to people, and then we put the banner on the ground for people to sign. Thanks to everyone who signed the banner! I don’t really remember what else happened in line because I was trying to do so many things at once lol...

The theater let us inside earlier than expected (thank youuuu). Everyone was inside by about 11am. I was already super excited at this point. My group and I picked seats in the middle-back behind a railing. During the LV I leaned over this railing like Chika in Episode 2 more than a few times and people were afraid that I was going to fall off. After I got my stuff all settled, we set up a speaker to play Aqours music. Then at some point I got bullied into going up in front of everyone in the theater with a megaphone and introducing myself OTL

I got to talk to a few new faces too! I think it was @keipointo​ who greeted me first? I awkwardly offered to shake hands because I didn’t know what to say :’))) My bad. Also had a brief exchange with one of @takatsuking​‘s friends, which was nice! (waaaa I didn’t catch your name I’m sorry ;__;) I was probably also awkward then aaaaaaa I’m bad at one-on-ones Thanks for taking the time to greet me, all of you! :D

And now onto the Live itself, finally ꉂ(･∀･ゝ ≡ ･∀･)ゝ

Some background. We only saw Day 1 of the Live, since none of the American venues offered Day 2 viewings. I was already pretty much spoiled for the events for both days of the live due to Twitter, but being able to see it in person on a giant screen was still a whole different experience altogether. It’s a sensory overload, to say the least. Yokohama Arena is soooo pretty. It’s kind of hard to describe the structure in words, but there’s a main stage with steps and a screen in the back for displaying camera shots and special effects, like so:

... which is connected to a circular center stage by a runway, which you can see here:

The floor of this center stage was actually a giant screen which was used to display some amazing special effects in a lot of the songs; I was really impressed aaaaaaa

And, as some of you might remember from μ's concerts, sometimes the seiyuu will also hop onto carts and ride them around the arena, like so

hi ainya

Here we go! ( *˙0˙*)

Aozora Jumping Heart The seiyuu rise up from below the stage and you can practically feel the tension in the air. I think... a bunch of people screamed when the music started, but I don’t remember too well. I broke two UOs off the bat because I was so excited lol. People behind me, I’m so sorry if I blinded you... Not much to say about this one, actually. Familiar song, familiar outfits. What was different this time was that they finally did the full version of the song! Since the solo lines in the second verse are done by subunit, there was some cute subunit interaction :D

Koi ni Naritai Aquarium Uhhhhhh.... lol. I didn’t want to die this early in the concert, but here we are... This song was 👌👌👌, and I pretty much... reacted how you might expect me to react. (:D)|￣|＿

Since I was spoiled for the setlist, I knew this song was coming up right after Aozora. I still wasn’t prepared. It’s just...... the choreography looks so good live and Shuka was so cute I was dying the whole time ashfsdkjfhsdkjfs. THERE ARE SPINS IN THE CHOREOGRAPHY (covered up by cutscenes in the PV) THANK YOU..............

The blue → orange → blue penlight color transition in the theater was also better than I expected wew, but then again my expectations weren’t that high in the first place.

In my humble, definitely not biased opinion, the Yousolo was amazing. I broke 8 UBs (uhhhhhh... LOL) and attempted a balrog for the solo but it was pretty spaghetti, considering how much I was freaking out.

AT THE END OF THE SONG, THE CAMERA ZOOMED ONTO SHUKA AND SHE DID A LITTLE HEADSHAKE AND FLASHED THE BIGGEST GRINｓｊｋえｊｓｇｄｘｃｖはｊｄｈｖｋｇｈｗｌｇｈｓｄｇＤ？ＧＳ

I’m so proud of Shuka, especially because she talked about how nervous she was for this song in her blog post aaaaaaaaaaa. There must have been added pressure from having to perform it second in the setlist, too...

My voice was pretty much already dead after this song :)))))))) oops

After KoiAqua, intros happened! The usual calls and all. It was good seeing the seiyuu looking just as excited as we were! Hearing so many people in the theater do the Call & Responses was really refreshing as well :D

Aqours☆HEROES  I’m always hype for this song because I love the choreography (read: Shuka’s 128759 spins). The calls for this song are also tons of fun! They were displayed on the main stage screen for the fans. I think this was the first song where the seiyuu went out onto the center stage. A lot of different camera angles (they started singing on the runway part of the stage) and modified choreography to account for the circular stage shape. They ran in circles a lot and it looked pretty tiring tbh because they were running in circles I don’t think Shuka did her “muteki datte” spin (either way the camera wasn’t focused on her) T_T Still good though, I love Heroes :D

The seiyuu leave the stage, and a short intermission drama happens. I’m going to avoid summarizing what happens in the dramas just because my Japanese listening comprehension is really bad, but I’ll mention that the animation for the little talking heads has really improved since the μ's days. They’re much more dynamic, they have more expressions, they have necks... Man, I wish I could GIF this :’)))))

Kimeta yo Hand in Hand Second years take the stage in their Daisuki dattara Daijoubu! outfits! The outfits have pretty wide sleeves, so you can see hints of Yume de Yozora costumes underneath (it doesn’t help that Shuka and Rikyako are wearing blue and pink, whereas their Yume de Yozora outfits are red and blue, respectively...) if you look closely when they raise their arms up.

At the end of the first round of solos, Shuka does a really nice spin which has the unfortunate side effect of flashing the red skirt of her Yume de Yozora costume, as well as her safety shorts LOL.

I remember laughing super hard at the arm-flailing choreo in the chorus when I first heard the song in the anime, but it actually didn’t look that weird in real life. There’s one part where all three of them just grab each other’s hands to form a circle and then run around, which I thought was really cute... ;__;

Daisuki dattara Daijoubu! Err, let’s just say that when Shuka jumped for the “Jump da!” part I thought I was going to have a heart attack lmao :’D

Choreo was pretty much exactly like the anime. For the second half of the song, the three of them moved out to the center stage while holding hands. During the instrumental it looked like there was no choreography, so all of them just circled around the stage and waved at all the fans. Shuka bounced around like a little kid on a sugar high and it was adorable ;__;

Then we had a short second years MC, the highlight of which is seeing the three of them turn in a circle to show everyone their costumes! There’s a giant ribbon on the back :>

Yume de Yozora o Terashitai Okay I already posted the official picture for the Yume de Yozora performance but I have to post it again:

This performance was sooooo beautiful, definitely one of the prettiest songs in the setlist. The whole performance itself took place on the center stage, where they could take full advantage of the screen display on the floor. Lots of aerial camera shots so we could see the evening sky displayed right under the seiyuu... Sooooo pretty. They put a really nice animation of the lanterns spelling out “Aqours” on the floor for Anchan’s solo as well :))))

There was this one part (or maybe two parts? I forget) where Aiai and King reach out and touch each other’s hands in this song, and I gotta say... their height difference is really moe. Ashkfhdsfjdkfh

... I would also like to personally thank the choreographer for putting in a Shuka spin in the second half of this song :)

You can’t see it too well in the photo, but the skirts on the costumes are all glittery. So prettyyyyy aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

After that, the stage goes dark and the seiyuu leave the stage. Next up: Subunits! (and more) → [Coming Soon!]

[aureus-ignis]

When I was young, I fell in love with the Pokemon series. I loved the RBY and GSC games, I watched the anime on TV every weekend, bought the movies, played the TCG, and collected the PokeSpe manga zealously. But as the years went by, the newer Pokemon games failed to hold my interest, and I soon stopped following Pokemon entirely. Last year, the generation of Alola was announced, and after watching a few trailers, I found myself drawn to the music. The adorable Rowlet also caught my eye, and on top of that, it seemed like the story was going to be interesting. A conservation society full of nice people dressed in white that looked strangely sinister at times? Hell yesssss. So I decided to buy the game... and then I fell deeply in love. Once again I was in Pokemon heaven (or hell).

So when Mei asked me if there was any series we could cos together that'd be fun and simple to do, I suggested Gladion and Lillie, since their costumes are fairly simple (c o u g h). She agreed, and that was the beginning of it all.

I started working on stuff around mid-June this year. People who know me know that accuracy is pretty high on my list of priorities, and I was determined to get the not-very-logical hair of Lillie and Gladion as good as I possibly could. Lillie's problem, of course, was the thickness. She has two insanely fat braids that had to be made up of almost all the hair on a normal human head, yet somehow still has a thick wide mane of loose hair behind her. So I had to spend time wefting as many extra rows of fibre into the wig, and then crafting removable bases for the braids from batting and more wefts.

Testing!

Batting base WIP HAHAHA

And the final result was worth it <3 <3

Next was Gladion. When it comes to the subject of pulled back hair, I've gotten to the point where I can ONLY accept lacefront. Anything else is too fake for me. For me, cosplay has always been about portraying the characters as if they were real, no matter how zany and strange their designs may be. I wanted the hair to look almost as though it grew on me. I ripped out almost the whole front to get rid of the fringe, and sewed in longer wefts, adjusting the direction of the hair to the left so that they would comb back naturally. Then ventilating hell began

Darkness, my old friend, we meet again. ;___; My hooking skills have improved since I first started ventilating, but it's still a long, tedious process. School started before I could finish, and I had to work on everything else too...

The realization that his uncut wig looks like Mercy from Overwatch HAHAHA

But as with Lillie, the final result was worth it <3 <3 <3

With regards to his costume, I'd actually had the hoodie and pants tailored because I ran out of time. I'd wanted just the base made so I can do the rest of the details myself, but the tailor forgot and did everything for me... and ended up messing up the accuracy. It was a disappointment, so much so that after STGCC was over, and we planned to have a shoot at the end of the year... I decided to remake everything from scratch. I'm terrible at patterning, really, and Gladion's biggest problem was THE STUPID GRAVITY DEFYING HOOD. Ultimately I couldn't get it to look exactly like the original (because I didn't want extra seams and all, but it was close enough. And the second time round, all of the holes were in the correct areas HAHAHA.

I'd made his first waistpouch myself, but for some reason, despite my careful measurements, the size turned out far too large the first time. So I had to remake the whole thing a second time. The hardest part is sewing the damn thing together, because I'd had to put two layers of hard inferfacing for each piece and sometimes the needle just wouldn't. Go. Through. OTL In version 2, I had more time, so I paid more attention to getting the shape accurate. The stupid thing tapers towards the bottom and has a curved side. Even more stupid, the strap goes from FAT TO THIN TO FAT for some reason. But I succeeded!

New VS Old

Next was the Z-ring. Gladion's official art doesn't have one, but he obviously wears one in-game. I felt that it was important, because Nanu gave it to him. So I had to dig out references from the game screenshots 8D;;

This is how a lot of my prop drafts look like. ALGEBRA IS MY FRIEND.

Also crafted the Z-crystal thanks to Pythagoras' theorem 8D; I used liquid quartz to glue the clear acrylic sheet together without leaving traces.

Final result! I'm pretty happy with it =>

Before STGCC, there was one more segment that I worked really hard on. After we'd decided to do SuMo together, I thought of making a Nebby plushie for Mei to carry. Yes, Pokemon Center had already released their Nebby plush by then, but... For one, it's smaller than life-size. For another, the shape looks more like a sunflower than a starry cloud. I didn't want it to look like Lillie was just carrying a toy; I wanted to give the impression that Mei had an adorable, soft, beautiful real-life Cosmog. But how on earth would someone with very terrible patterning skills make a 3D cloud plushie that could be dyed for Nebby's distinctive gradient colouring, and still be nice and soft to hug?

The answer is, I struggled.

Set up a spraying booth to airbrush the gradient on. Due to a problem with shipping, I couldn't get my compressor in time, so I ended up having to splurge on compressed air cans, which were horrendously expensive oTL.

BUT LOOK AT THE FINAL RESULT. LOOK AT HIM. <3 <3 <3

Let it also be known that I tested to make sure he could fit inside Mei's bag the moment I finished the base HAHAHAHAHAHAHA-----

So that was part 1 of Project Alola! We went to STGCC together and met lots of Pokemon fans (quite a lot of people were very happy to see Nebby, in particular XD), and Laki offered to come shoot with us as Moon since she already had the costume. We then planned to have our shoot at the end of the year during my holidays.

As mentioned, I'd already planned to remake my entire costume and waistpouch, but aside from that... I had the mad idea that I wanted to make a Silvally prop. It's something I'd considered for STGCC too, but I was really short on time then, and Mei told me to FINISH EVERYTHING ELSE FIRST THEN DO IT IF YOU HAVE TIME.

The problem is... Silvally's official size in the Pokedex is 2.4m. That's 80cm taller than myself. )o) Sure, I could scale him down, make a tiny lap plushie like all the other cosplayers, but what would be the point? Although I'd never cosplayed from the Pokemon series before, I'd always thought that if I were to do so, I'd want to make life-size Pokemon so that it'd look like I actually have a Pokemon partner, and not just a Pokemon toy. But I'd thought then that my projects would be starters like Pikachu or Charmander or Cyndaquil, or maybe one of the Eeveelutions. Not a giant horse-dog like Silvally ^^;;;

I had to consider the fact that my house isn't very big and I'd have barely any space to keep him. I had to consider how I'd be able to transport him, and how to construct him so that I could take him apart. I also had to consider the amount of money I'd be spending on him, because honestly, cosplay is not a cheap hobby. Materials in Singapore are especially expensive. As an unemployed student, I'd be splurging a lot if I decided to go ahead with this crazy project. When I told this to Mei during one of our dinners out, she suggested just making his head and taking halfbody shots so no one can tell that he has nobody. Like a hobby horse, except it's a hobby Silvally.

Good idea.

So when school finished, I started drafting him out, and the basic paper draft itself took like three giant sheets of patterning paper taped together HAHAHA.

The base

Honestly, even though I had an idea of how I'd make him, I wasn't completely sure if it would work. As I've said repeatedly I really, really suck at patterning. I can never seem to envision where to cut darts in a piece of EVA foam to get the shape I want, so half the time I was just taping drafting paper on and folding and taping excess parts off, then that that up for a trial-and-error pattern.

With paper mache and paper draft pattern for the mouth.

That's how large the whole thing is 8D'

Apart from the making of Silvally, I'd also spent time searching for reference pictures and sketching storyboard ideas for our shoot. I went to check out the our shoot location (Sentosa Island) a few weekends back, so that we could decide where exactly we wanted to shoot. In hindsight, there were a lot more shots I could have planned to bring out the personality of our characters more, but oh well ;w;

The shoot itself went pretty well, for the sun was quite kind to us, and hid under clouds for most of the day. Sei's working style is quite different from mine, but she was very gracious and did everything I asked of her. Sakami and Greg were wonderful helpers, and some of my best memories from the day include our hilarious videos, and the shenanigans with the Pokemon.

I've already thanked my wonderful team mates, helpers and photographer in another post, so I won't go into details here. But everyone was very kind and obliging, and listened to all my ambitious plans, allowing me to be a bossy director. I'm very, very grateful to all of them.  

So now, a bit of reflection on Silvally, and the whole project.

The patterns for Silvally weren't perfect, and I messed up a lot. The final result was definitely far from what I had hoped for. Most noticeably, the top of the head is bumpy holey because I ran out of gesso to fill and sand. But the proportions also came out a bit off, and the neck piece patterning failed on the right side. But when I finished painting... I felt very, very happy. I'd gotten some small bouts of joy when I finished each stage of the crafting process, when I looked at what I'd done, but looking at the final product was just.... incredible. It wasn't as beautiful as it could have been, and I still regret all the imperfections that are so obvious to my eyes, but....I was so excited. I couldn't wait for the shoot.

Perhaps it was partly because I hadn't really been sure if I'd be able to make things work, so the success tastes that much sweeter. Some of my friends had told me I was crazy. I kept asking myself if I were crazy. All that money and time and pain sunk into a project that I'm not even getting paid for, with a success rate that seemed really low. My mom telling me straight out that I was 'too ambitious'. Was it worth it? Would it have been better to make a smaller, much more perfect prop, than an actual sized, flawed one, with half the effort and money? Cosplay is already an indulgence, but had I crossed the line into foolish waste zone?

When I looked at my completed Silvally, the answer didn't hit me like Mjolnir. I still don't know if it was the right thing to do, or if I was an irresponsible child wasting the money that could have gone into feeding me better food.

But it made me happy. So happy. I nearly cried as I stood there for a few minutes staring at him. He was truly a labour of love. I spent hours spraying gesso and paint because I love Silvally. I spent days sanding until my arms want to fall off and my eyes are dying from dust because I love Gladion. I spent hours cortorted in weird positions with a paintbrush trying desperately to stay within the pencil lines, sweat dripping into my eyes, because I love this art. Sure, the process itself was often painful; I suffered multiple burns from hot glue and a hot iron and cut my fingers open way too many times. I still hate hand-sanding with a burning passion because it's tiring as hell and I get blisters on my oversensitive skin. But the thought that all of the suffering helps to build the final piece of art that I envision makes me grit my teeth and soldier on.

Cosplay is my art, something that I would put 500% of me into. Whether the crafting of insanely large props, or the preparations for the shoot, or the styling of my entire team's wigs, or the endless sewing adventures on plushies.

Because I love it.