#i was the only one who cosplayed sadly but it was expected my area is pretty boring with moviegoers

[feraldude]

night time prowl >:333

[airi-p4]

Tanabata - Lukagami fic

My first Lukagami fic for the Lukagami July 2020 Day 7: Tanabata

I don’t really ship them but I think they are cute together. 

Thanks to @livrever​ for check and corrections!

Ao3

___________________________________________

7th of July. Tanabata.

According to the legend, the only day of the year the lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi can see each other. A dramatic couple separated for a year until they can meet once again for one day only. And that’s, of course, reason enough for the Japanese people to throw a unique event as a celebration.

Writing wishes on long narrow colourful papers and hang them up on bamboo trees was one of the activities Kagami always looked forward to the most. Growing up with strict parents didn't give her much freedom or fun, but she was glad respecting traditions was one of her family's motto since she could enjoy every year the tanabata festival. And that was the most fun she would get each year: her favorite festival.  

The last few years she was in France she had missed it, which made her a little sad - even if she still wrote her wish and hung it up next to her window every year, there was no festival, no fireworks, not the traditional Japanese event fun she loved.

But this year was different. She was in Japan again for Tanabata, and she was going to enjoy the fun of the festival at its fullest. Her whole set had been ready since the previous day to be used at the afternoon: yukata, obi (sash), geta (sandals), inner yukata, hair pin and accessories, cloth bag matching the yukata, money and her smartphone (to take photos). She was anxious for the time to pass faster so she could get ready and go enjoy the fun.

Every 5 minutes she kept checking for the time, even while she was practicing either kendo or archery.

"Kagami. What do you think you are doing? Take it seriously, don't keep disappointing me any farther. Focus" Tomoe Tsurugi was seated behind her daughter, supervising her training.

"Yes, mother" Kagami answered, but inside her heart she could only giggle in expectation for the festival.

"You need to focus and lose sight of all your distractions. Remember how your efficiency has decreased lately. That's why we came back to Japan in the first place. Don't waste all your efforts until now for some useless thoughts. Many people have high expectations of you. Don't let your sponsors down"

"Yes, mother" Kagami replied.

She knew her mother was right. She couldn't focus at all in anything she did. Her head had been somewhere else for a while. To be precise, since the day she figured out her love for a certain blue-haired musician. Who was also the same boy that had once been in love with her best friend (and maybe he still was). Luka snuck somehow inside Kagami's heart in a totally unexpected way - he scolded her for going under the rain without the proper equipment and lend her an umbrella. 'What a silly reason to fall in love with someone' she thought, denying her feelings at first, remembering how Marinette had told her how she fell in love with Adrien in a similar way. But the more time the Japanese lady spent with the guitarist, the clearer and stronger her love for him became.

Kagami didn't know what was so good about Luka Couffaine to make her fall in love with him. Kind-hearted, handsome, mature, responsible, talented, quiet… yes, great, but nothing she didn't have on her own. Then why? His patience, maybe? His rebellious looks? The way he cares for his loved ones? Even after 3 months, it still remained a mystery for Kagami. And she loved mysteries. Could it be it? Maybe. She wasn't sure. She was supposedly mysterious herself too.

What was for sure is she was in love with him and, after two months without seeing each other, she missed deeply their time together. Good thing she was going to meet with him again today. On Tanabata. Just like the lovers of the story, the two stars shining on the firmament across the Milky Way. And that made Kagami excitement over the sun, even if her expression remained impassible as always in front of her relatives, her heart was ecstatic.

Their meeting was set at 4pm. He had a concert last night for Jagged Stone’s tour - which her mother didn't let her attend, of course. So today was the only day they could meet. How can it get more romantic than that?

After having lunch, Kagami excused herself to get ready for the festival, hiding the fact she was also going on a date. Or at least she wished it was.

After brushing her teeth, she proceeded to get dressed. It usually takes a lot of time for newbies to put a yukata on, but Kagami was almost a professional when it came to wearing traditional Japanese clothing, and it took her only 5 minutes. After applying some light make-up, brushing her hair and decorating it with her hair accessories, her look for the festival was ready.

She looked glamorous, elegant and beautiful, and she was well aware of it. In front of the mirror, the girl kept posing and practicing how to smile for more than 40 minutes, waiting for the time to go to arrive and thinking of the activities she wanted to try out there -as well as the boy she was meeting in a matter of minutes.

Finally the time arrived and she took her leave.

The festival took place in a shopping district on a city nearby the Tsurugi's residential state. It was decorated with Tanabata themed garlands, flowers, paper lanterns and statues and, of course, decorated bamboo trees. The view was even prettier than the last time she had been there many years ago.

While she was waiting for Luka, Kagami took a paper guide for the event, checking the performances and the shops available, as well as their distribution. She was checking and confirming her plan and route to follow to make it perfectly on time to each one of the performances she was interested to attend.

She was so caught up in thinking she didn't notice someone standing in front of her. After looking the upper part of the guide, she could take a glance at a men's yukata in front of her. Too close for her liking.

"If you plan to try anything funny with me I'll make you regret it" she said, without looking up.

"Not my plan, but I wouldn't dare to, knowing your strength"

Kagami's eyes met Luka's in surprise. He was standing in front of her, pretty close, wearing a dark blue yukata that looked unbelievably good on him. Luka's soft smile reflected on Kagami's face, mimicking it without noticing. Her face was glowing.

"You came early" she said.

"So did you. You look beautiful" responded Luka.

"Thank you. You look great too. I didn't expect you to wear a yukata"

"Yeah, I noticed" he giggled at his own comment, stealing another smile from the Japanese lady. "How have you been?"

"I've been ok. The training got harder since now I take archery classes daily too, but I've been improving. But I miss Paris. And my friends. And you" Kagami looked genuinely lonely, but changed the subject fast enough to not be questioned about it. "How about you? How is the tour going?" She asked.

"Oh, it's amazing. Jagged Stone is really an international star. Wherever he goes gets the tickets sold out in a flash and the audience is totally committed to his performance. Being able to perform with Jagged in front of so many people is such a privilege. I'm very lucky"

"Why do you cut yourself low? I've watched some fancams of your most recent lives and I know you've been performing some of your songs during intermissions. I've seen how the crowd lost it every time. Some of the comments said they liked your performance the most too. You're a star. Be proud"

"Wow, you've been following my tour and performances? Thank you. It makes me very happy" he thanked her sincerely, slightly blushing for her words.

"Shall we go? There's a shamisen live performance in 5 minutes I really want to attend to. This way"

Kagami didn't even wait for Luka's response to start walking, making the boy run some steps to catch her.

"So… you've thought of a plan?" Luka asked her, trying not to lose sight of her.

"Leave it to me" she only said, never stopping walking.

______

Kagami's plan was perfectly timed. The 30 minutes between performances were used to eat and play typically festival food and games: takoyaki, yakisoba, kakigori, crepes, water yo-yo catching, goldfish catching (which sadly had been returned to the owner), cork guns, etc. They took lots of photos in the process -especially Luka took them with Kagami's phone because she wanted a photo of everything. Some selfies together were taken too, mostly from Kagami when Luka wasn't looking. Sometimes he had noticed and posed to the camera to take a front shot together, a wide grin on his face, matching Kagami's.

The activities and performances were very fun and interesting. It was a first for Luka, but the whole atmosphere and Kagami's silent excitement made it extremely enjoyable for him. He was having a lot of fun (way more than he expected). Spending time with a Kagami with such a bright smile on her face was new for him too, and he couldn't help it but be taken over by her enthusiasm.

As the time for fireworks was approaching, Kagami decided it was time to move to the wish writing area, where the bamboo trees were already filled with colorful papers. But just before reaching there, a sign in front of a shop picked Kagami's attention. She stood in front of it checking the prices and the products. Luka stood by her side staring at her and looking at the shop from time to time, unable to read anything of what was written or figure out what kind of products they had to offer. He waited until she decided step in, entering shop after her.

Luka and Kagami were amazed by the shop’s interior. There were many different sets for many different themes - from schools to historical setting, cafeterias, rock stages… even a tennis court setting was available. Luka wondered why Kagami decided to check this shop. But Kagami spoke before he could ask.

"It's a cosplay studio. You can rent a cosplay and take photos in the different settings for the amount of hours you pay for. I'll try to bribe them to let me take the cosplays outside to wear for a while before the fireworks start. Look at which one you want to wear meanwhile. There's a catalog with photos at that counter".

After Kagami's explanation, she started talking to the shop attendant and Luka followed her instructions, checking the costumes available.

The truth is Luka knew nothing about costumes or cosplay. Most of ones on the list were anime or videogames related, like a Pikachu cosplay or high school uniforms. Samurai costumes piqued his attention, but seemed hard to move in. He couldn't decide at all.

"Have you decided yet?" Asked Kagami.

"No, I'm really lost. I have no idea what to choose. Have you decided yet?" He asked

"Of course. I've always wanted to try one on, but it's difficult with my family's strictness. I'm taking this chance. Oh, and I'll decide yours. We can't afford to waste more time than needed. I need to write my wish before the fireworks start" she said, leaving again to speak with the attendant.

Luka was always amazed by Kagami's determination. 'I never hesitate'. That was her motto. One of the reasons he admired her, along with her talent in sports, her delicate manners, her honesty, her beauty, and her rare sincere smile that made him melt in softness. She gave him the calm he could only accomplish with meditation otherwise. A calm sometimes broken by his heart’s beats, every time he was blessed by her affection and curiosity looks for him in her eyes.

He liked her. He liked her very much. Probably even loved her. He realized how important Kagami was for him a few days before she returned to Japan. And it was still surprising for Luka to see how a girl so different from Marinette could captivate his heart in such explosive way: unexpectedly, accurately and fiercely as a storm.

She was the Furinkazan in all its phrases.

Fast as the wind

Silent as the forest

Raiding and plundering as the fire

Immobile as a mountain

The old strategy used to win battles during Japan’s Sengoku Era. A phrase capable to be used in many different fields- even love. Luka was sure it worked on him.

The Japanese girl was strong, stronger than him in all aspects, but that was partially a facade. She was actually fragile on the inside and Luka could tell how hurt she sometimes was by her loneliness every time he stared at the windows to her soul. He usually patted her head or squeezed her hand or her shoulder when he noticed the look and, with doing so, her face immediately regained her shy honest smile, looking genuinely happy. Luka loved that smile, and was more than flattered to be the one it was directed to.

While reorganizing his feelings for her, Luka waited for Kagami's return. And there she was, two minutes later some clothes on her hands.

"Here. Wear this. I'm sure it will look great on you" Kagami said, stretching her hand to give him some clothing.

"Ok" Luka grabbed the costume and scanned it. The clothes given by Kagami consisted in Japanese traditional-looking clothing, white with gold, blue and purple details. Something similar to a Temple apprentice, maybe? He didn't know much about Japanese traditional clothing, but it looked pretty.

"The boys changing room is there. Ask the male attendant if you need help. I'll be in that changing room. Wait for me if you finish earlier than me" said Kagami, while Luka nodded and she moved to enter the changing room with the female attendant.

_____

The clothes chosen by Kagami fitted Luka perfectly. Luka was surprised at how unexpectedly comfortable they were. According to the list, it seemed to be some figure skater cosplay. He knew he looked great on it when the female attendant let out a 'kya' and fangirled a little at him, making him giggle at her exaggerated reaction.

Three minutes later Kagami came out of the changing room. She was wearing a black and red female ninja costume that looked as if it had been made just for her. She looked amazing. Beautiful, yet stronger than ever. Damn, she even threatened to throw him a shuriken (ninja stars) if he didn't start moving out and stop wasting their time. He thought he wouldn't have minded being attacked by her. In truth, Kagami just wanted the boy to stop staring at her since it was becoming embarrassing.

______

As soon as they went out of the shop, they inevitably became the center of all the gazes. A young woman recognized Luka from yesterday's Jagged concert and started to fangirl over him along with her girl friends. Kagami tried to fight to protect Luka, but he dismissed her help and encouraged her to go write her wish instead.

Kagami's eyebrows frowned in anger but left to the bamboo wish writing stand alone. She could see Luka gazing at her from time to time while he gave signatures and selfies to his fans. Kagami couldn't hide her jealousy and anger and was tempted to write as her wish for all Luka's fans to disappear. But looking at him making his dreams come true, his bright smile and energy on his concerts… she knew he couldn't be a star without fans, so she discarded the idea.

When she looked at him in a lonely apologetic look, Luka winked at her, asking for her to wait a minute until the signatures and selfies were finished. She loved him even then, posing at the cameras with a grin on his face surrounded by fangirls. 'How silly' she thought.

Kagami decided to stop looking at him and started to write her wish on the paper -the one she had originally play to write. It was a good thing Luka was occupied, because she didn't want him to see what she had written. Moments after finishing, Luka came back to her.

"Sorry for that. Fans can get crazy sometimes" he apologized. "This outfit didn't help either. Blue hair and Japan's number one figure skater cosplay is a terrific combination to stay out of people's looks. It's obvious I would stand out..." Luka concluded.

"The price of fame. I understand. I'm getting some of those too, sometimes" she smiled reassuringly at him, making him relieved. "I'm happy your dreams are taking form, even if I have to go through that sometimes," she said, squeezing his hand a little while hiding her wish paper from him.

Luka squeezed back at her hand. "Thank you, Kagami. It makes me happy to hear that" said as he smiled.

A few long seconds passed with them still holding hands, eyes closed, Kagami's head on Luka's upper arm and Luka's head on Kagami's, her hair brushing his cheek.

Luka and Kagami never once hid their feelings for each other. They knew there was some kind of attraction and deep affection, but neither ever mentioned it. They just enjoyed each other's company, silently, and tried not to force anything. They liked what they had and didn't want it to change. They meant too much to each other and didn't want to lose it. Or at least they didn't before.

Kagami had changed her mind after these two months they were apart and had committed to the idea to confess her love to him after giving it some thought: she hated the idea of him getting snatched by Marinette or any other girl while she was away. And so, even if she didn't know if her feelings were reciprocated or otherwise, he still had feelings for her best friend, she decided she had to give it a try.

Kagami knew Luka's feelings for Marinette were strong, maybe impossible to ever erase completely, even. But she also knew he was the boy of the second chances, reason enough for her to take the gamble and see if he had one chance left for her, now that Paris superheroes were already retired.

And with this resolve, Kagami had written her wish down to a pink paper, in Japanese. It could be read as: 'Luka-kun no koibito ni naritai. Kagami', which translates as: 'I want to be Luka's lover (girlfriend). (Signed) Kagami'.

Kagami really wanted her wish to come true. And she would know if it could become reality or not in about an hour, around the time the fireworks ended and she had confessed her feelings. She hoped for the two lovers of the legend to make a miracle happen for her. That's why she wanted to tie here wish in the upper-most stem of the bamboo, the closest as possible to the stars and off of Luka's view.

Luka's voices interfered in Kagami's thoughts "Have you written your wish yet?" He smiled at her.

"Yes. It's written. But don't ask me to show you because I won't". She smirked a little.

"Is it that embarrassing? What did you wish for? World peace? To be rich and famous? I don't think you would wish for anything this cliche" he teased her.

"It's my wish and it stays a secret. Too bad your teasing won't work on me" she stuck her tongue at him, teasing back. "Why don't you write yours already?"

"You're right. I'll write one too." Luka grabbed one paper and pen from the table and got ready to write, but Kagami staring at the blank paper, expecting it to be filled, made him unable to move. "Stop looking. Aren't wishes supposed to be secret?"

"Oh, that's not it. They're not supposed to be secret. I just don't want mine to be seen" Kagami said.

"Oh, I see. Let me write it first then, without you peeking. I'll show it to you later. Go over there, meanwhile" he said.

"Ok. But do it fast! I want to read it!" Kagami moved some feet away and started looking up for the tallest bamboo branch.

"Yeah, yeah…"

Luka was giving his back to Kagami as the ink impregnated the paper with the words of his wish. "Done" he said after some minutes. When turning to look at Kagami she was looking up at the bamboo branches. "What are you looking at?"

"This one is the tallest branch. I want to tie my wish at the top of it" she explained.

"Why? And how? It's too tall even for me…" he wondered, looked at her short stature.

"I'll use your help. I'm using your body as a ladder to reach there. The tallest the wish, the most probable for it to come true. That’s only my assumption, anyway"

"That's what am I to you? A ladder? You can't set this on your own, you have to ask first" he scolded her.

"You're my friend. And you care about me. So I know you won't have any inconvenience to help and lift me up to tie the bamboo. Please?"

Luka sighed. "Fine… but remember the correct ordered next time. And be careful"

"Of course! You won't let me fall, I know" she smiles. "But first… let me see your wish!"

Kagami tried to snap Luka's wish paper, but he was fast enough to dodge her and lift up his hand at his maximum level. After some of Kagami's attempts to steal the paper from Luka, the musician stood on his toes to tie it the highest he could. Kagami was still short after the years, so she couldn't reach it.

"So unfair! You promised! Liar!"

"I'll show you if you can catch it. But let's tie up your wish first. Fireworks time is approaching and we still have to return our costumes" Luka's mature voice mentioned.

"Ok. It's that bamboo, the branch on the farthest left. Duck so I can climb over you" Like made a 'tch tch' sound while his index finger moved to right to left and to left to right in repeat, in negation, asking for a missing needed word. Kagami frowned her eyebrows in disgust and finally added said word. "Please..."

Pleased, Luka kneeled down to let Kagami sit on his shoulders and stood up. The girl was lighter than he thought. He secured her ankles with his hands and watched how she stretched her hands to tie the paper at the top of the tree. Luka wondered what her wish would be, but Kagami signaled him to get her down before any idea came to his mind.

As soon as Kagami's feet were back on the floor, she took the advantage of Luka being down to run and jump as high as she could to catch Luka's wish from the bamboo tree. She remembered perfectly the paper. It wasn't difficult for her to reach with the run impulse used to jump

She then turned her body to look at Luka, how was approaching walking towards her. "I've got it! Did you think you had won? Don't underestimate me" she grinned in victory, while Luka just smiled softly at her determination, unaffected from his wish being exposed soon. His reaction made the Japanese girl's curiosity increase, so she started reading the paper.

She was first surprised that the wish was written in Japanese with a messy handwriting, signed in capital letters of the roman alphabet. But the contains of the wish left her stunned, frozen at place, unable to move with her heartbeat intensifying every second. The contents were so unbelievable she re-read those letters one time after another, considering there could be a mistake due to Luka's unfamiliarity with her mother language. But nothing. The contents were perfectly written… .

"So, do you think my wish can become true?"

Luka was standing in front of Kagami, who had been with her head down reading until she had heard his voice. Her face then looked up. She wanted to see his expression. She wanted to see if he was serious or just joking. She needed to know if she should stop her uncontrollable smile to go wider and change it for tears instead. Kagami's face was lighting in love and hope while studying the boy in front of her.

And Luka's face told her everything she wanted to know: he meant every word written on that yellow paper.

"Yes. It can become true now or whenever you want" Kagami happily cried, jumping into Luka's welcoming arms.

"I'm glad…" said Luka, hugging Kagami tightly. "I love you, Kagami. Be my girlfriend?"

"Yes! I love you too. You've just made my wish come true too" she hugged even more tightly to him.

"Don't tell me…?" he asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I've written the same wish. Different words, but same meaning. I wanted to confess after the fireworks. Take a second chance from you. Now I think I can enjoy them at their fullest. I don't need the fright or nervousness to confess anymore"

"There's no way I would reject you, Kagami. You're gorgeous, strong, confident… and you like to lead, while I prefer to be lead. A perfect match, I believe. You mean the world to me"

"Shut up and kiss me"

Luka didn't say anything. He lowered his back and face meet his girlfriend's lips and seal a soft kiss on them. After they broke the kiss, Kagami hugged him again, covering her blushing face, Luka hugging her back.

"Let's return the costumes. The fireworks are starting soon and it seems I have a confession to listen to when they finish" giggled Luka.

"Don't get used to it. You know we Japanese people are very reserved. We expect love to be told with acts, not words" she warned him, seriously.

"I can do that" then he became thoughtful. "Wait. Music counts as an act, right? I'm screwed if it doesn't" he slightly panicked in joke.

"Rest assured, it does. But there's more to be done, so don't let your guard down" she giggled.

Luka took the chance to kiss her again. "I love your smile…" he said, while Kagami, red as ladybug's suit, locked his hand with hers and started walking towards the costume shop, pulling Luka. The musician couldn't stop his grin for forming on his face at her unusual embarrassed reaction.

After returning the costumes, the couple watched the fireworks together, hand in hand, colorful flowers and shapes forming up the sky. It was beautiful and they had the best possible company with them.

They didn't know where that new journey of love would take them, or when they would be able to me again after Tanabata. But they knew they had two lovers watching over them from the Milky Way - the same pair that allowed a miracle to happen during Kagami's favorite Tanabata festival.

The end

[peepingtoad]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless /

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO / 50-50 (There’s a lot of love and a lot of hate, but I think many are actually pretty neutral on him too!)

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / 50-50 (I’d say he may be an... acquired taste? Of course a lot of people I know here find him sexie so it’s hard to say for certain, heh. We may just be the weirdos of the fandom :P )

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO

Are they underrated?  YES / NO (Not in terms of ability, but underrated for just how complex and multi-layered he is, I’d say)

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main character?  YES / NO /

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO.

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL (I honestly think he’s a man of many reputations, both in canon and in fandom :’D)

How strictly do you follow canon?  —  I’m very much a ‘use the bones of what we got in canon and do my best to flesh them out’ kinda roleplayer. There are some things that can be taken too easily at face value that I see fit to build upon. For example, I think Jiraiya’s feelings on the prophecy and his relationship with Konoha is something that could be too easily played off as simplistic, or like they were immovable constants. But that’s unrealistic for a man of his years and many experiences, so I try to put myself in his emotional setting at various points in his life, and trace how his feelings and behaviours change, if that makes sense? 

I try to avoid saying that any of the writing was straight up wrong because it’s disrespectful to the creator. But especially for Jiraiya, who had such a significant role to play in the narrative that it sometimes took precedence over his actual character, I do find some of his actions, and the way some interactions were handled in the canon to be a little OOC... so I’ll work with it and try to spin it in a way that I feel fits how he was characterised.

Basically, I’d say that I follow canon, but I like to enrich it in areas that were lacking detail or a nuanced view that took in all the surrounding events of the time. After Jiraiya’s canon death, of course, that’s when more divergence comes in to my portrayal... otherwise I wouldn’t be able to play any post-war scenarios! But the essence of his character is the same, which I try to keep as close to canon as possible.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.   —  A man of many experiences! You can bet that any topic that comes up, he’ll have some sort of amusing anecdote to share, or be able simply to talk shit about it. He's seen so much, and has a sensitive soul enough that he’ll give anyone a chance; he’s very open-minded and non-judgemental, and honestly is a humanitarian that wants to help those in need. Might leave your muse a little baffled as to how he could hold the status of ‘legend’, only to show it when they least expect it. You never quite know what you’re going to get with him: he’s generous and selfless, yet has many vices that seem selfish at times; he’s both a lover and a fearsome fighter; he’s immensely resilient at the same time as incredibly vulerable and damaged; he’s a himbo and a bit of a jock with the soul of a poet. Love him with no restraint and invite his love in return, and you’ll get not only a lover, but a devotee. Wears his heart on his sleeve... or does he? Chip away at him and find out!

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  —  The pervy, flirty, jokey schtick could get grating, or come across as disingenuous. In romantic situations, he’ll keep quiet about putting a label on whatever it is, and beneath his overall sweetness and devotion there may be an underlying reek of commitment issues and a fear of admitting he is afraid. He also has a habit of deflecting negativity in general, and playing things off as if they don’t matter or they’re a joke, making him actually rather a difficult person to get to know the heart of. One might feel as if they’re getting nowhere with him...

... Either that, or they get the complete opposite. Yes, as equally as he can be guarded, he can overshare like crazy, and has a tendency to become codependent with those he gets attached to, which is inconsistent with his free-spirited nature, and how adept he is at keeping others at arm’s length from his less sunny side. This inconsistency might make him seem unreliable—if the fact he’s always off who-knows-where doesn’t do the trick already.

What inspired you to rp your muse?  —  I’ve been a big fan of the Sannin ever since I first read the Deadlock, but being a very young person at the time I perhaps couldn’t relate enough to people who had experienced so much to do them justice in my teenage fic-writing endeavours, so I remained on the sidelines enjoying content by other people (there may also have been a little bit of ‘what the fuck, why do I dig the old dude so much’ denial in there haha). I’ve picked up and dropped my obsession with the series several times over the years, and my love for those three seemed to grow each time. They really are ‘the lost generation’, and as the sole survivors—alongside having a huge impact on the plot, how the shinobi world is shaped, and the three main protagonists—there’s a lot of juicy material there, a lot of emotional background, along with decades of history that basically goes untapped in the canon. 

Anyway, I digress. Coming to the Naruto RPC for the first time around this time 2 years ago at the age of 25, I made this blog and my Deidara one on a whim, but focused on the latter at first. Villains were always comfortable territory for me in my other RP experiences, and I think it made me doubt that I could possibly do someone who is frankly a lovely guy any justice, no matter how much I loved him. I even had the intention of making him fully Akatsuki/Missing-Nin AU at first. Yeah. That’s how stuck in my villain/anti-hero zone I was! But, I think in the end, the fact he actually isn’t a two-dimensional typical ‘hero’ was something I chewed over and realised would be incredibly enriching to write, worth stepping out of my comfort zone for. And being a little more mature and less angst-ridden myself by that point, I found I could resonate with his feelings and ideals in a way that I know I couldn’t have as a teen... but I was still tentative. 

Anyway, after leaving his blog empty for a bit (with its placeholder URL ‘frogdaddy’, which sadly got hoarded by someone else), I cosplayed the old bastard, along with my partner as Orochimaru. We’d been stanning that particular ship and talking about how great the Sannin are in general for quite some time by that point, but being casually in character for fun while drunk off my tits at a boat party, was a bit of an epiphanic moment. Not long after that, I threw myself right into writing this chaotic-good old bastard with gusto, and here I still am :’)

What keeps your inspiration going?  —  Taking breaks to recharge as and when I need to. Seriously. The death of all my other blogs has been pressure (mostly from myself) to be there and force myself to put out regular content, so I went into this not thinking that way and it’s really helped! 

Of course, there’s also the fact that there simply seems to be no shortage of areas I can delve into with this guy. Again, it’s his age and all the missing years in canon... but I think it’s also how much love he has and his genuine eagerness to engage with others that makes him one of the most naturally bountiful muses I’ve played. Because honestly? Most of my villain muses wanted people to just fuck off :’D this guy is open to everything.

That aside, I guess I just gel with him more than I ever expected to. I’ve changed a lot as a person and gained more confidence since various areas of my life got better, and I really just vibed with this chill, funny, romantic, pervy, big-hearted energy. I enjoy angst, but my real love is peppering the serious and heartbreaking with romance and comedy—and isn’t that just befitting of him? Writing through his eyes also helps to keep my outlook positive, so that keeps me stuck on him as much as the seemingly limitless content potential. 

And this is without even going into my cross-fandom AU ideas I have on the back-burner. Honestly, they’re there but I want to put a real effort into them while keeping his essence the same, which for some, involves brushing up on my lore!

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO.

Do you frequently write headcanons? YES / NO.

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO / RARELY. (depends on whether I get a flash of inspiration—which mostly comes with random asks that happen to stir up an idea for a scene, such as this one (NSFW warning))

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day?  YES / NO.

Are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO.

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO.

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / 50-50 /NO. (I tend not to take things personally but am also very passionate—call it my innate Leo-ness!)

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?  —  Hmmm. I haven’t actually had any critique on my portrayal, so I’m not sure haha! I’d say if it’s constructive, then I’ll take it into account and consider it, especially if it’s a case where it helps me realise I’ve perhaps not gotten across what I intended to very well. But I’m also quite fond of my portrayal in its essence, so I may end up just thanking the person for their opinion and carry on as usual :P

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  —  Absolutely! I’ve had some wonderful ones recently and it’s exactly the kick I need to get ideas out, some of which I’ve had on the back-burner but not had a framework within which to write it without it getting derailed. I definitely appreciate a question that will keep me at least a little on-topic, otherwise if I go off on my own volition I really tend to... well, go off! Even if a question is a similar topic to something I’ve already done, it’s a good exercise for me to go back to the similar headcanon and see if I can build further on it, deviate, and link it to show what past thoughts I’ve been working with. A great way of keeping some consistency in my portrayal while making improvements, I find! And then of course I’ve had some questions that are entirely new morsels for thought, and it leads me to something new and fresh, which I greatly appreciate.

Basically, any questions at all, fire away! I may take a while but I will get to them eventually!

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  —  Yeah. I mean I think it’s just polite to present a reason as to why not, instead of just being like ‘this is wrong/a bad take’ or whatever. Source material is down to personal interpretation, so if I draw different ideas from it to another person after discussion, then we can simply agree to disagree on it. 

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?  —  They are welcome to disagree with me I guess? So long as they’re respectful and don’t then treat me as if my interpretation is ‘AU’ or talk about ‘canon Jiraiya’ as if he’s obviously a different entity to my own, then disagree away. But if prompted enough, know that I will most likely defend my portrayal with what I consider to be justification from the source material :P I did pay close attention to it, after all, and I do consider my portrayal to align well with it.

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  —  Depends on the nature of it and the conduct, really? Like, people are allowed to dislike characters. I myself find a couple of characters pretty annoying or don’t particularly care for them (granted, usually it’s in a love-to-hate or simply a ‘this character doesn’t interest me’ way), but that doesn’t affect how I behave towards the RPer of a character. It’s just manners, really. People tend to RP characters because they like them, so why would you take negativity right to their doorstep, in this space they’ve made as an expression of enjoyment for, and to develop said character? 

There’s been some people who admitted to me that they didn’t care much for Jiraiya, but then began to like him more with my portrayal and that’s more than fine; I take it as the highest compliment in fact. It’s also the kind of open-minded attitude I like to have with portrayals of characters I don’t necessarily like or have much interest in, because by and large, people do tend to add more depth and nuance than the busy and character-packed canon allowed.

However, if it’s the type of hate that’s got its own devoted circle of bitter bitches, who seem to use so much energy hating a character... then please, don’t engage me. Doesn’t matter who the character is, don’t expect me to follow/keep following your negative ass if it’s constant on the dash—and if the target character is any of the Sannin then frankly I’ll have probably blocked/blacklisted in a heartbeat. The ‘critical’ views of them tend to diminish them as humans, diminish the context and events that surrounded their choices, and in a way that I find is a gross double standard compared to what people will allow other (read: young, attractive, fandom faves, ‘babies’ or ‘beans’) to get away with and excuse the behaviours of. I don’t need that kinda negative energy sullying my hobby, nor do I need moral superiority that isn’t applied consistently across the board.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  —  Absolutely! I meticulously fret and check, and cringe when I get a reply and happen to spot errors while rereading what I wrote before it! I edit a lot but don’t always pick up on errors, so I’m more than happy to have it pointed out. Chances are, I’ll be far more brutal to myself about it than anyone else would be!

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?   —  Overall, yeah. I’m not possessive or clingy (I don’t think) and don’t expect the world from people, nor for them to focus on or favour me or be super fast. I just expect the same respect in return. Having said that, I will express it when I don’t like something or it makes me uncomfortable, provided we’re familiar enough, because if we’re strangers I’d feel like I was coming across as entitled to your energy and emotional labour. I do my best to be diplomatic about it though, and rest assured it doesn’t mean I’m forever mad at you or turned off in any way just because I have a small grievance. I just find that being honest with each other rather than letting things pile up and fester makes a friendship more solid, and basically more genuine and long-lasting.

That’s about it, congrats for filling out!

Tagged by: @dokuhebi​ Tagging: Whoever hasn’t done this yet!

[moonlightreal]

Let’s watch in Italian!

Let’s watch some Winx Club in Italian!  I know no Italian but I can comment on the visuals and guess at what they’re saying.  And I’m super impatient for more Winx and not in the mood to type my fanfic or sew more right now.

There will be real episode summaries/reactions when the English episodes come out.

Hit raiplay to watch along—at the moment season 8 has episodes 16-21 though that may change at any time.

19 La Torre Oltre le Nuvole

Italian theme song! My favorite theme is the first but season 4 and 6 are other favorites. Season 8s is fun too, not as forgettable as some.

Flying!  Cowboy flying!  Even Stella seems to be having fun by now.  I like Bloom’s hat, it has mismatched wings on it.

The girls fly down towards some islands… and there’s Diaspro running up to Bloom! Neither is thrilled to see the other.  I wish I knew what they said, I think Disa is giving a sob story-- I would expect it to be a sob story about herself but… no!  Points to Diaspro, she’s told them that Sky is in danger.  And there he is, running from the black unicorn who keeps zapping him with fire!

Sky trips and falls!  His doom approaches!

I think the Winx direct their steeds to fly down and help sky, but they won’t. They’re scared of the black unicorn.  Aisha says they should transform and fly down themselves but Flora has a better idea.  She talks to the trees… it doesn’t work, too much negative energy.

Poor Sky dodges some more zaps.

Bloom’s unicorn dives down, it’s trailing rainbow colored sparkles.  Then the other winx unicorns get brave enough, they kind of circle the black one trailing rainbows.  I think this is unicorn positivifying magic! Heroic music plays!  Bloom uses her bond with her unicorn, I think, and they glow all sparkly.  All the winx unicorns fly in formation making a rainbow in the sky.  Sparkles fall on the black unicorn and he lights up all rainbowy before returning to his usual color.  He’s saved!

The girls land, and Bloom makes sure Sky is ok.  Tecna snaps her fingers and fixes Sky’s suit, love that.

Aisha goes to say hello to the black unicorn, but even rescued he’s a little standoffish.  Here come the unilumens and I think they’re telling the story of the black unicorn.  I think he has a tragic past.

Diaspro joins the party and shuts Bloom down when she tries to talk, then says some Diaspro-ish things to Sky.  Flora hides her face in her hat.  Ooooh, I bet Diaspro just referenced how long she and Sky have been out unchaperoned.  Bloom’s pissed.  Diaspro snarks back.  Sky is embarassed, yeah I bet you are Sky you let her lead you all over the magic dimension.

The black unicorn suddenly advances on Diaspro, who backs away in terror.  then—it licks her face and crouches down to let her mount!  I wish I knew what Diaspro and the lumens were saying, but it seems this unicorn has chosen Diaspro!  She mounts and they fly away.  Diaspro calls something back—but is it, “I’m turning over a new leaf, I’m gonna spend time with creatures who want to be around me!” or is it, “Now I’ve got unicorn power, I’ll win Sky’s heart in season nine!”  Which is it?  I don’t know!  Will she still have a unicorn friend next time she comes to bring the couple drama to our show?  Sadly, probably not, but it would be way cooler if she did!

Stella’s just glad that’s over.

Bloom gives Sky a stare.  The two of them go, ‘hmmf!’ and look away from each other.  I groan.

Flora tries to distract from all this and get everybody back on track for the mission and the rest of the Winx get on board, though Stella says something dumb first.

Sky and Bloom argue.  

Just dump him Bloom, a guy who doesn’t have the backbone to avoid the ex he hates is about as bad as one who actually still likes the ex.

We escape from that and go flying some more!

The Trix watch from the ground.  They chat a bit then go flying after the Winx.

Flying.  Bloom and Sky argue.  he’s flying with his suit wings, not sharing a unicorn.

Magic barrier ahead!  The unicorns light their horns up in a cool visual effect and the barrier opens.  Everyone flies through.

They emerge in what looks like the same place except up ahead is a floating island with a horn-shaped tower.  So I guess they went to a different part of Monocerous.  A purple light shines from a window at the top of the tower.

Instead of just flying there, the unicorns drop the girls off at the bottom of the tower.  ‘Cause you gotta dungeon crawl, you can’t just start at the final room! The girls thank them, and the unicorns fly away.

And then the skies grow stormy!  Sky and Stella have to jump back from a lightning strike.

And there’s our new favorite Trix!  With the other two.

Cosmix time!  The ops I love more in Italian but the transformation songs I don’t care about the language as much.  Except Sirenix, because Sirenix.

Aisha makes a BIG morphix bubble around the Winx, but Darcy takes her out pretty quick so I guess she overreached herself.

Battle battle fighting fighting, we’ll get the prime star first…

Icy does the smart thing and flies towards the top of the tower.  Sky confronts her and Icy… slaps him with a giant ice cube!  Ahahaha!

Bloom sees her sweetie flying through the air stuck to a giant ice cube… but Sky uses his suit and unsticks himself.  He and Icy grab for the prime star!  They’ve both grabbed it!  Purple light explodes out of the tower!

Bloom’s flying up to help when she gets whooshed into the purple and the she’s in this… rainbowy iridescent space?  The background looks like the glittery cosplay fabric I buy for twenty bucks a yard, but only if I have a really good coupon.

In this magic-space Sky is flying, dodging spears of ice.  Icy has some good minimal magic gestures too, she’s summoning big ice stalagmites with just a flick of her finger.  I guess the animators haven’t seen Frozen. Sky is trapped.  Bloom is upset!

Oh no, Bloom can either help Sky or go after the prime star, which will she choose? She looks back and forth.  Sky, to his credit, is trying to escape for himself.  He tells Bloom to go after the prime star.

Cool epic fight music!  Bloom summons her fire dragon, we see it grow out of her hand.  She sends the dragon after Icy while she grabs the prime star. Sky does something with his suit and he lights up and busts out of the ice prison.  Hooray!  In Italian i think Sky did the “yelling the name of your attack” thing when he lights up his suit.

The star case appears and the star tells them something, I presume about how they got the star because they trusted each other.

Icy comes back for more… but the Winx are ready.  Flora blows away all three Trix with a petal storm.  We’re blasting off again!

The girls congratulate themselves.

Their unicorns and the unilumens fly by overhead, and Twinkle flies down to join them.

Now would be a good time for… a concert!  With only Sky as the audience.  Twinkle briefly sits on Sky’s head, which is adorable, then she sits in his arms.  I love that, I always felt there wasn’t enough sitting on each other when the girls had their pixies, you know?  It seems like the kind of bond that would lead to snuggling, like with kittens.

The girls sing, the unicorns fly overhead, Sky nods in time to the music, then he and Bloom have a romantic moment.

Next time: Winxboards!  Mielle!  A giant… pokemon?

20 Il cuore verde di Lynphea

Green Heart of Lynphea, I can understand that just from being Latin-based languages.

Alfea!  Grizelda is giving a lecture in some place with really big plants.  isn’t there a greenhouse that’s like, a portal to another realm with giant plants?  Grizelda conjures a book with old-style botanical drawings of plants inside and an oak leaf on the cover.  The page it opens to has a blue flower and a pomegranate.  

I want to hear more even if I can’t understand it, but the camera follows Flora to an area with normal-sized flowers.

Grizelda lectures. Aisha follows Flora.  Flora’s checking out a bush with buds on it. Aisha magics the buds—but instead of blooming, they stick out their tongues at her!  Hah!  Grizelda comes over and tells Aisha off for using random magic, I assume.

Bloom has a great idea.  Is it a concert?  Every idea Bloom has this season is a concert.

Tecna touches a flower and it slaps her hand with a little vine.  Flora explains… something to Tec.

Stella sings a line to a flower, then talks in a slow hypnotic voice as she tries some magic.  The flower spits water at her.

Grizelda gives them a lecture about not upsetting the plant life.

Star case!  We’re going to Lynphea!  Flora’s happy she’ll get to see her sister.

Valtor’s asteroid!  We’re going to Lynphea!  Stormy lords it over her sisters that she found the prime star.  Darcy has to get between her and Icy.  Valtor opens a portal, but Darcy hangs back after her sisters go through, giving Valtor a significant look.  Hmm.

Winxboarding!  They land at Flora’s house and there’s Mielle!  She’s wearing the outfit from season 6 but looks like the age from season 3.  I mean, art style yeah, but I’d say she really has de-aged.  She comes up about to flora’s waist.  We’ll see if she transforms.

She’s still as fiesty as ever, she says she’s coming along and calls a giant ladybug.  Flora tells her to stay home where it’s safe, like Flora always does.  Bloom backs Flora up; the Trix are dangerous!  The star case appears and its compass points the way, so the Winx summon their boards and fly off.  Mielle follows on her ladybug, because she’s Mielle.  This is exactly what happened in season 7, isn’t it? Mielle follows and rescues them?  Flora should just let her come along!

Giant flowers! Winxboarding!  A walled garden!  that’s where we’re going!

Flora tells them something worrying about the garden… maybe like how you have to be in tune with nature, which the girls certainly were not back at Alfea.

Then there is some singing.  Even more random than the rest of the singing, because we can’t see who is doing it!

It’s these weird flower people.  They are very weird.

They open the gate into the garden, but before the Winx can run through it grows back closed again.  Flora realizes it’s the dance the flower people did that made the gate open.  Stella magics the girls into these adorable flower ballerina dresses.  Stella’s is the best I think, she’s got orange and yellow that go well together.  Musa has good colors too, the others are a bit too pastel for my taste.

Time to dance!  the girls leap around—en pointe, which normal people cannot just do, you have to train your muscles like a long time.  That’s about the limit of my knowledge of ballet: that it’s a serious physical discipline you have to practice every day.  As they leap about the girls’ skirts twirl independently, so this episode must be to sell a doll line with twirling skirts.  They dance around, leap in the air, dance on giant flowers.  I like the idea that the twirling skirts make them float, that could be a fragment of an idea about clothes that give you powers.  Like Mai’s bracelets in Mai-hime, they float out from her arms and she can fly with them.  The visual is neat.

It works!  The gate opens!  The Trix arrive just a minute too late, the Winx have gone through.

Darcy summons an illusion of the dancing Winx to make the gate open.  Go Darcy, that is smart!  Also how did she do that?  I guess they were watching the Winx dance and recreated what she saw.

The inside of this place I’ve been calling a walled garden is really neat.  it’s big, it has many levels and a bridge… it reminds me of a Starcastle!  That’s what it looks like.  It also looks like a wedding cake with several tiers.  On top is a very important heart grown with vines.  that’s where the prime star will be!  There are stairs and paths through the different gardens to get there.

The star case appears and disappears.  The flower people, who I think are called lillin, come to guide the winx to the top.

Up one set of stairs!  The lillin give the Winx seeds which sprout when they put them down.

Next garden! Lillin raking very small gardens and… aloe leaves with giggling faces?  That was weird.

The girls reach the heart at the top!  they’re basically walking on tiptoe even while wearing ballet flats.  The heart has a door in it and Bloom is sure this is where we’ll find the prime star.

Back with Mielle, she’s caught up with the Trix!  She hides behind a bush and listens to them plot.  How’d Mielle get in here?

The Winx now walking flat-footed approach the heart when the ground rumbles and up sprouts a… radish pokemon.  If there were a pokemon based on a radish, this would be it.  This is not the radish spirit in Spirited Away.  It looks friendly at first, then roars at the Winx.

Aisha is keen to try violence but Flora tries talking first.  She gets nowhere. Mielle comes running up then and she and Flora say a few words.

Cosmix time!  We’ll try violence after all!

Flora and Mielle argue, Mielle runs off crying.

Winx vs. radish!

The Trix see Mielle run past and Darcy realizes they can use her as a hostage to get the prime star.  She knows Mielle’s name and that she’s Flora’s sister, which is creepy to me.  Mielle gets zapped with Darcy-magic.

Winx vs radish! Bloom does her dragon, which goes right through the critter, which then falls to the ground as an actual radish.  That fight ended fast!

But here’s Icy and Stormy!  As they face the Winx, flora hears Mielle’s voice calling for help.  She abandons the Winx to save her sister.  Flora searches and finds Mielle passed out under a tree.  She says she was attacked by Darcy.

I’m pretty sure this IS Darcy, but Flora heals her sister’s injured leg while the Winx fight the other two.  Flora picks up Mielle and they fly up to the heart.  The rest are still fighting and I think Mielle says Flora should get the prime star while they’re distracted.  This is solid logic and Flora goes into the heart.  

It’s a very leafy room with the prime star floating in its hamster ball in the center. Mielle hops out of Flora’s arms and runs to it—and grabs it and turns into Darcy.  And laughs and flies off.

So Darcy can change her weight when she uses an illusion; Flora was carrying her and the real Darcy would weigh the same as Flora.

The real Mielle wakes up in the forest.  She’s fine, and mad.

The Trix make a clean getaway with the prime star!

Mielle runs up and hugs Flora.  

Next scene the girls are back in their space clothes sitting on the front steps of Flora’s house.  Flora has guilt over being tricked.  Mielle I think says it’s her fault for following, but Flora says something that makes it all right and they smile and laugh.  Mielle conjures a rose that sparkles with magic.

I do kinda like that Mielle didn’t rescue them, so it wasn’t exactly the same plot as last season.  But i wish She’d gotten to get a little revenge on Darcy!

Then we’re back at Alfea and the flowers  from the beginning of the episode have bloomed.  Flora casts a spell and sparkles come spiraling up from them.  She’s wearing the flower that Mielle gave her in her hair, so I guess sisterly love gave her the magic of nature.

Next time: Melody! Musa’s dad!  Riven!  Darcy getting up to more stuff!  Dance Dance Revolution!  Some very strange outfits!

[squeemcsquee]

Anime Zap 2019, Friday

Previous Posts: Cosplay/Dressing Fun at Anime Zap 2019

Two weeks post-con and I’m finally getting my review done. I need to work on that...

As I think I’ve mentioned before, Anime Zap is my hometown con. It’s small (2,000 attendees, give or take a few hundred, probably) and relatively relaxed. My friends ( @shbumi @lechevaliermalfet @el-draco-bizarro and @someoldmemory for those on tumblr) and I find it a great way to hang out, have fun, and see Greg Ayres again. 

This year, I had the brilliant plan of working 4 hours in the morning, then going home, changing into cosplay, eating, and making it on time to the start of the con at 12:00. In actuality, I think @lechevaliermalfet and I got there at about 12:15 or so. 

This year, our friend group had a couple of first-time attendees on hand. Now, my rule for Zap is that if I’m the one extending the invite, I pay for the person’s badge for the weekend. Especially, as with my friend Ryn, they can only experience one day. Zap doesn’t have single-day pricing and demands cash at the door. To me, $40 cash at the door is a little steep for one day. 

That is, honestly, an aspect of the con I’d like to see change. I think they had one-day passes back when I first began attending, but those were eliminated. Then again, the con is locked in with the Embassy Suites for ten years, and maybe they’re concerned about growing too quickly. 

Anyway, we met with Ryn, and got ourselves all checked in. I was sad to see the return of the simple red cord lanyards after last year’s lanyards. But no big - the main thing is that the badge holds up, right? Badges this year looked nice, but were also minimalistic in artwork compared to previous years’ efforts. But at least we got to see artwork on the programs, as usual.

Once checked in, we grabbed programs and picked our first panel: Conspiracy Theories.

It was sparsely populated for the size of the room, but that was to be expected. This was the start of the con and most of Zap’s attendees are younger - they were probably at school still.  As for how I enjoyed it, I can’t honestly say. Some of it was interesting and entertaining, and some of it was just too out there. 

We left a few minutes early to get into the line for Opening Ceremonies. And I observed another change for Zap - Opening Ceremonies was now further down the hall, closer to the viewing room. The video gaming room acted as a buffer between it and the Dealer’s Room. 

Of course, if I’d looked at the map in my program, I’d have noticed it sooner, but at least this was a pleasant surprise!

I loved it. From what I could tell, moving down to the next ballroom hadn’t sacrificed any space for events. You couldn’t notice the noise bleeding over, since Video Gaming has its own ruckus. And it meant the walls of the Dealer’s Room weren’t shaking through the weekend, either. I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing the artists positioned at that end of the con also got a bit more foot traffic over the weekend. 

Speaking of artists/vendors, we had time to browse a few before Opening Ceremonies began. One vendor had some awesome jackets, though sadly not in my price range for the weekend - here’s Ryn modeling one:

As far as Opening Ceremonies go, I need to give props to the Live Events team, as they are always upbeat and enthusiastic. Also, Greg Ayres was the only guest who was on-hand at the time, as the others were delayed arriving. We were also informed that Steak n Shake was closed on Friday for a water main break. Thankfully, though that’s the most popular place to eat during Zap, there are plenty of other options. 

As is somewhat usual for Zap, Opening Ceremonies ended early and we were released into the con proper. 

None of us had anything on the schedule we were absolutely itching to attend until Greg Ayres at 3, so we went to the dealer and gaming spaces to kill time.

Not a bad crowd for early in the day!

As has become a bit of habit for me with Zap, I made mental notes for what I was maybe going to get later in the weekend. But I also made sure to get a print and sticker that I wasn’t sure were going to last.

Another change that I noticed - and that wasn’t in the map - was that Zap was again utilizing the rooms across the hall from Panels 1 & 2. Those two rooms held an artist/dealer area and a tabletop gaming space, respectively. It was nice to see the con taking advantage of so much space.

Video gaming at Zap always has at least one thing I want to try out. This year, there were a couple different dancing games, Rock Band (Guitar Hero only for me, prior to this), a rhythm game that was very trippy but very fun, and then an arcade cabinet that actually had a bubble pop game. I think I killed more time in Zap’s gaming room this year than in previous years. 

Note to self: Cosplaying the Impala is not helpful for full-body dance games. And I need help with these, trust me. But despite my poor skills, it was fun!

The Many Voices, Hobbies, and Hair Colors of Greg Ayres was entertaining, as always. Greg is pretty much a staple of Zap, and always a highlight of the weekend.

After that, I debated attending Samurai Dan and Lady Jillian’s self defense panel, but as I’ve gone to it before, I opted out. Instead, I roamed the tabletop gaming areas a bit with @shbumi and Ryn, and played some Pokemon Go.

Last year, I had an exterior shot of the hotel itself. But this year, I want to include a shot of the views they have to offer.

We did finish with Pokemon Go and exploring in time to go into the final two demonstrations of No Sword? No Problem! Anime Fan Self-Defense. 

Afterwards, it was time to sort out dinner. But first, we had a tasting adventure. 

Now, normally Japanese junk food prices are super high in a dealer’s room. However, there was a vendor at Zap this year who priced everything pretty fairly. So, @shbumi got some durian-flavored mochi. $5 for 6 pieces. @shbumi was the only one who managed to eat a whole piece. Mochi in itself is pretty good - it was the flavor that was the sticking point. Durian is very...divisive, to say the least.

I think our taste test will become one of my favorite con memories, honestly. 

With Steak n Shake out of the equation, we opted for Jimmy John’s for dinner. And after dinner, was @lechevaliermalfet‘s first panel of the weekend: A Brief History of Ys.

Since he’s done it a few times now, we decided to try something new and filmed the panel, in hopes of either posting the footage on YouTube or at least figuring out where he can add/take away things. (We haven’t reviewed the video yet to see what kind of quality we got). Since I wasn’t sure I could record it in full on my phone without resorting to live streaming, we did stream it (and his other 2 panels) over Facebook Live.

Con Horror Stories  was up next. Both @shbumi and I came very close to offering up our story of the time I ruined her Lapis cosplay, but in the end, we opted just to listen to everyone else’s stories. 

We went to the Greg Ayres - Raw and Uncensored event next. Anime Zap brought back the 18+ wristbands, which are really a lifesaver.

And then, to cap off the evening, was Sh*t New Cosplayers Say. Moral of this panel? “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”  I was too busy giggling to snap a photo during this panel.

And that was my Friday at Zap! It left me with a great feeling for the course of the weekend!

I’ll put up Saturday and Sunday in separate posts. They won’t be as photo heavy, because wow apparently most of my photos were on Friday this year.

Up next:

Anime Zap 2019, Saturday

Anime Zap 2019, Sunday

[maevefiction]

Your Light in the Mist - Chapter 35

All the way to Kauai Pasta our phones chirped and rang incessantly, Anne being among the first to reach out. She loved my ring, thought it was the most wonderful news, and THEN I asked her if she’d be willing to be a participant in the wedding party. Her shriek was delightful, quickly followed by her asking me if I wouldn’t rather have someone closer to my own age, to which I retorted that I might have seriously injured myself due to rolling my eyes so hard at her bullshit.

Veronica called as well, and I booked her immediately to help with styling for the event. I was never the sort of girl who had a vision of THAT DRESS, so I had no idea where the hell to even begin. All I knew was that I wanted to be comfortable and not look like a Disney princess, but if I was going to avoid showing up in baggy shorts and a T-shirt, guidance from a professional was definitely in order. Norman texted his congratulations to us both, but other than that, most of the attention was directed to Tom’s device, though I chimed in with my thanks on every call because he insisted upon using speakerphone mode. Such an outpouring of support wasn’t something I was used to, and by the time we got to the restaurant I was ready to hide in the hotel room for a few hours and adjust to being someone’s fiancée.

The fettuccine alfredo was even better than I remembered, and Tom’s penchant for stealing my food even worse. After we’d finished inhaling all the goodness, Simon sauntered over to the manager and suddenly the entire establishment was singing happy birthday to me. Every time I tried to slide down the booth seat and under the table Tom grabbed me and pulled me back up, ignoring both my pleas for help and my obviously empty threats to withhold sexual favors from him if he didn’t comply.

Once we returned to the hotel, Simon nabbed the garment bag that contained my costume as well as the duffel of accessories that he’d brought from back home, and we adjourned to my and Tom’s room while Tom remained with Luke, who’d been the transporter of his contraband. I hadn’t actually SEEN my costume yet, having put my full faith in Simon when he talked me into opting for Lady Loki instead of just plain old Loki. When he unzipped the bag, I peered at its contents, looked back at Simon, back into the bag, then settled my gaze upon a pair of grey eyes alight with mischief.

“Um, Simon? WHERE IS THE REST OF THE COSTUME?”

The left side of his mouth turned up in a lopsided grin. “I don’t understand what you mean, Maude. That’s the costume. Lady Loki.”

I pulled out the pieces. All four of them. “This isn’t a costume. This is a bikini, two pillowcases strung on a belt, and a cape.”

He nodded. “Uh HUH. Lady Loki. The horns and the boots are in the duffel bag. You are going to LOVE the boots, by the way…”

“SIMON. Where is the SHIRT? Where is the SKIRT?”

“Lady Loki doesn’t wear a SHIRT. She wears a TOP. A midriff baring top. And kind of a skirt, but the sides are OPEN so you can, you know, SEE. How do you not know this? You’re fucking…oh, wait, sorry, you’re engaged to the man who plays him. Her. Whatever.”

I flopped down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, left wrist and hand resting on my forehead. “Somehow I doubt that particular look is set in stone. I’ve seen the comics, and looked at a ton of cosplay pictures. There are shirts. There are skirts. And, by the way, even though we’re engaged I’m still going to be FUCKING HIM. My god. What the hell am I going to do for a costume NOW?”

He sat down next to me, the black faux-leather top and bottoms held aloft in his hands. “You know, it’s NOT a bikini. It’s actually a push-up bra and booty shorts. And they’re LEATHER.”

An entirely new sound came out of me as I sat up, a hybrid of a terrified scream and maniacal laugh. “HA! Well, if it’s a push-up bra and booty shorts I suppose that makes everything JUST FINE then.” I touched the shorts to ascertain the exact material. “And that’s not REAL leather. So pffft on you. And my midriff has not been seen in public since…since…like, never and…”

Simon dropped the bra into his lap in order to cover my mouth with his hand. “LIES! Your bathing suit has cutouts in that area. You’ve also exposed bits of yourself on that very balcony out there, and then THE REST of what the good lord gave you as you walked across this very room. And heaven knows where ELSE you’ve stripped down for the sake of carnal pleasure. Come on, Maauuudddeee. At least try it ON.”

My head shook back and forth as I pouted. “I don’t WANNA.”

He leaned in, cheek brushing mine like a cat demanding attention. “But…but…imagine Tom’s FACE when he SEES YOU.”

I stood, snatched the pieces from his lap and charged into the bathroom, peals of his laughter echoing behind me. After stripping naked, I stared at myself in the mirror, taking careful note of the fact that I appeared to be somewhat…smaller. I hadn’t weighed myself since New York in July, and admittedly my clothes had seemed to be getting a little bit looser, but we’d been so busy it wasn’t something to which I gave more than a passing thought. While I’d spent a good amount of my time naked during our road trip, said time was typically spent pursuing matters other than gazing at my reflection, and it was only when faced with the prospect of putting on a ridiculously skimpy outfit that I finally viewed myself with a critical eye. And, realistically, after more than a month of frequently skipped meals and constant activity, I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised that I’d shed a few pounds.

First I wiggled into the booty shorts, my back to the mirror, then stared at the push-up bra. It fastened in the front, which typically spelled massive wardrobe malfunction for me, but I swallowed hard, took a deep breath, slipped it over my shoulders into place and hooked the clasp. As I exhaled, I fully expected it to pop open, but it didn’t. Nor did it pop open when I reached in to adjust the girls. The shoulder straps were easily an inch and a half wide, which perhaps distributed the load more efficiently than most others I’d tried. And my lord, push up indeed. I yelled to Simon.

“Dude, I could serve drinks off my tits. Seriously. It fits perfectly.”

“Of course it does. Boobs may not be my thing, but I’m dead on with sizes every time.”

I snorted. “You’re full of shit. You either peeked or Tom did and told you.”

He scratched at the door with his fingernails. “Whatever. Fuck you. Let me IN.”

As I turned to unlock the door I got a glimpse of myself, mainly my ass from the side.

“Sweet baby Moses, I look like a fucking Kardashian in these shorts.”

Simon flung the door open, grabbed my shoulders and spun me around to face the mirror, busily studying my rear end, shaking his head vehemently.

“Oh honey, no. No you do not. But if you want to I’m sure I can get my hands on some padding…” His eyes roamed over my body, then met mine in our reflection. “Maude. You look so beautiful, I may weep.”

I rolled my eyes. “Please.”

“No, I mean it. And not only are you lovely on the outside, you’re even more gorgeous on the INSIDE. Tom is a lucky, lucky man.”

I turned to face him. “You’re not switching teams on me, are you?”

He pinched my cheek. “Not unless you’re hiding a cock in those shorts.”

“We’re both being very non-PC right now, aren’t we?”

Roaring with laughter, he slapped my ass and ran out of the bathroom. “Being indiscriminately insensitive to all of humanity is one of my favorite things to do with you. Now come on out of there and put on your BOOTS. Then we have to call the wig and makeup person, because I need help too, and then we’ll both finish putting on…”

I interrupted him as I entered the living space. “I’m sorry, did you say wig and makeup person?”

Sighing, he patted my shoulder. “Yes. Tom borrowed someone from the Skull Island set for himself, and we get to use her too. YAY!”

Words escaped me as I wondered what the hell Tom was up to, needing an actual professional for his costume. And it was a wig AND makeup person. My god, could he���would he…I grabbed Simon by both biceps.

“You know, don’t you? You know who he’s dressing up as. You have to tell me, Simon. HAVE TO TELL ME.”

“Woman, I kept the whole proposal nonsense a secret…if you think I’m going to spill something so insignificant you are sadly mistaken.”

I leaned in so we were nose to nose, knowing staring into his eyes was my best chance of detecting a falsehood. The man had a poker face like none I’d ever seen, but I’d witnessed him being less than truthful enough times at the office to figure out his tell. “Lestat. It’s Lestat, isn’t it?” Just the slightest tick to the left. “OH MY FUCKING GOD IT IS I AM GOING TO DIE.”

He took a step backwards, crossing his arms. “Totally not Lestat, Maude.”

“Don’t you try and lie to me, old man. You have a tell, you know. Your eyes shift to the left every time. Every. Time. And they did just fucking now.”

“Um, I’d like to point out that if I’m an old man that makes you an old woman because, HELLO, same age.”

My index finger connected with his chest. “Your attempt at diverting my attention to a potentially inflammatory topic in order to disguise the fact that you’re a lying liar who lies is neither appreciated, nor will it be successful.”

He covered his face with his hands. “Oh lord help me she’s using her Smartypants Businesslady words. Make it stop.”

“Apologies, but this will continue until you opt to proffer a full, one-hundred percent factual, truthful confession…”

His hands fell from his face as he fanned out his fingers in exasperation. “FINE. You’re right. Happy now?”

“NO. Because now I’m afraid of WHICH Lestat he’s going to be. Old school? Rock god? Modern tailored suit with flair? I think I need to sit down.”

Simon shoved me down onto the bed. “Please do, you naughty spoilsport. I’m making my call.”

He wandered out onto the balcony, and I completely forgot about the fact that I’d soon be traipsing around half-naked in public on purpose as visions of Tom in all of Lestat’s various incarnations flooded my brain. Simon’s knuckles rapping on my noggin snapped me out of my trance.

“Martina’s on her way up. Look alive, woman.”

Blinking as I looked up and met his gaze, I reached out and poked his thigh. “So…who are YOU dressing as?”

“Draco Malfoy.”

“You’re joking.”

“No, I’m not joking. Luke and I are coordinating. Harry Potter universe.”

I leapt off the bed. “Luke as Harry? That is just…it’s too…adorable. I can’t wait…”

Simon shook his head. “Ah, ah, ah…not Harry.”

My head tilted to the side. “Not Harry?”

“Not Harry.”

“But…who…Ron?” He shook his head. “Dumbledore?” Another shake. “Hermione?” A snort, then a wide smirk, followed by a deadpan expression as he spilled the beans.

“Snape.”

“GET THE FUCK OUT.” Just as the words were out of my mouth someone knocked on the door. “Shit. Go get that. I’m going to hide.”

He answered, and an hour and a half later we were dressed and ready to roll. Martina had painted my nails gold and adorned me with varying shades of green eyeshadow, heavy black liner, and black lipstick. The wig was black as well, the very realistic faux hair nearly reaching my ass. Golden horns topped it off, thankfully made entirely of plastic, the headband portion set with a huge faux emerald smack in the middle. There were strips of gold sequins taped onto the edges of my bra that formed a triangle, and a matching band to go over the belt portion of the skirt. Elbow-length pieces of fabric that resembled gloves with no fingers were wrapped with gold elastic string, and then came…the boots. They were black leather, skin-tight thigh high lace-ups with a two and a half inch platform at the toe, a 4 inch chunky heel and I loved them more than I’d ever loved any other pair of boots I’d ever worn, ankles be damned. The cape turned out to be way too long…like five inches too long, so that was scrapped because that plus platform boots was a perfect recipe for disaster. One or the other, yes. Both, no fucking way.

Simon’s wig made his eyes stand out even more than his natural blond, and his gleeful expression when he exited the bathroom in his robe made me wonder if he was wearing anything underneath it, at which point I closed my eyes and thought of truffles to distract myself. Martina gathered her things, wished us luck, smirked in my direction and away she went.

I rested my right hand on Simon’s shoulder. “Gotta say, you make a damn lovely Draco. So is this like a May-December romance thing after you’ve left Hogwarts or what? Of course we’ll have to ignore the fact that Snape, you know, DIES…”

“Maude, since you’ve attempted to put a damper on my fantasy I’m going to call your fiancé because if seeing him…and I know what he looks like, Luke sent me a pic…doesn’t shut you up, nothing EVER will.”

“You realize you’ve just essentially invited me to tackle your sorry ass and snatch your phone, don’t you?” As I moved my hand to his chest and began to push, the door opened, and I spun around so quickly I almost fell over. Luke was in the doorway, his black wig in motion, tendrils of hair brushing his chin as his head turned forward. He bit his lip at the sight of Simon, and I heard Simon gasp behind me at the same time. Luke began to stride in our direction, and as he drew closer I saw an arm holding the door open, the body attached to it not yet visible. The fingernails were black, arm ensconced in what appeared to be a very finely woven black metallic netting, the outer portion of the bordered sleeve gaping open, held in place by a black metallic fabric tie between the wrist and the elbow that matched the border. When I noticed that the sleeve didn’t end at the wrist but instead formed a V-shaped hand wrap also made of the border fabric, crossing the top and slipping between the middle and ring fingers, it dawned on me which Lestat I’d be spending the evening with. Surprising myself, I began walking toward the source of my imminent doom instead of running to lock myself in the bathroom.

A bit of blonde hair dangled into the formerly empty doorway, followed by an incredibly pale face…his blue eyes resembled ice crystals, ringed with black liner, lids darkened with shadow, lashes ridiculously pronounced as the result of a heavy application of mascara. His lips were pinker than they normally were, a dusky shade, and the hair, my god, THE HAIR. It reached his shoulders, curly and so, so blonde and I saw FANGS and was just about to lose my shit when he slid fully into view and into the room, knees buckling at the sight of me, leaning on the wall for support.

I nodded. “Same, asshole. Same.”

He laughed, completely exposing the fangs, and I resumed my walk, grabbing hold of his jaw with my right hand when I reached him, tilting my head and leaning in to inspect his canine teeth.

“Are those, like, really…you know…attached?”

He nodded, chin still in my hand. “Uh huh.”

“As in, ‘I can totally bite stuff’ attached?”

His eyes widened, and I felt the warmth of his hand on my belly. “Uh huh.”

I released his jaw and turned to Luke and Simon. “So, um, how set are you on going to this party, exactly?”

Simon whipped his wand from his robes and pointed it at me. “Maude GALLAGHER. You can shag vampire boy LATER. We are GOING OUT. It is your BIRTHDAY. There’s a DJ and we’ve never really been out dancing before and that’s essentially CRIMINAL. I will curse you if I must. I swear it.”

Sighing, I turned to Tom once again, noting that the shirt material was actually rather iridescent as opposed to just black metallic. My eyes closed and my chin fell to my chest as I responded.

“Fine. Fine. Let’s go dancing. But I think we should take separate vehicles.”

Luke cleared his throat. “I hate to be an utter downer, but you’re our designated driver, Maude.”

Eyes still shut, I rested both hands on Tom’s shoulders. “Right. Designated driver. Okay. I can handle this.”

Tom’s arms wound around my waist as he whispered quietly in my ear. “I can’t. I’m on the verge of fucking you right here, right now, right in front of them.”

In reply I ran my tongue along his jaw, not expecting the makeup to be quite so…vile. My eyes flew open as I shook my head back and forth, tongue still sticking out, as if that would help even remotely. “Bleech. That is…man, that tastes HORRIBLE.” He responded by biting my neck, and as I felt the tips of the fangs sinking into my soft flesh I pushed back and away. “Thomas. No. No no no no no. Honey. No.”

As he chuckled I grabbed my phone and keys from the dresser, handed them to him since he had pockets in which to store them, then headed for the door.

“Come on, let’s do this before I change my mind. And you’d better move your asses, because if we aren’t on our way to the lobby in the next twenty seconds it’s game over. I mean it.”

****************************************

Tom had followed me down the stairs, muttering to himself the entire time, eventually jogging down to be by my side as I tried to focus so I wouldn’t fall and maim myself permanently. His right arm linked with my left, steadying me, voice even with a hint of incredulity.

“Lady Loki.”

I nodded. “That’s me. Were you surprised?”

“I fear may never recover from the shock, actually. Luke told me you were dressing as Loki. He left out the ‘lady’ bit.”

A very indelicate snort escaped me. “Lady bit. Lady bits. Heh. Wait, Luke told you?”

“Believe me, it took a considerable amount of effort to even get that much out of him.” His hand squeezed my forearm. “You knew who I was going to be, though.”

“Why would you think that?”

He grinned. “You didn’t faint when you saw me.”

“My, my…what a large ego you have there, Hiddleston.”

“Matches my…”

“Shut. It. And yes, I knew…but all I managed to ascertain from Simon was that you’d be turning up as Lestat, so I didn’t know WHICH Lestat.” I stopped in my tracks, three steps from the lobby floor, as I realized I hadn’t given him a complete once-over yet. His pants were black leather, but a matte finish, as were his boots, the toes squared off, and around his neck was a Sid Vicious-style padlock choker…not an official accessory, but damn, I loved it. “I’d ask if that was the actual Queen of the Damned costume but you’re four inches taller than Stuart Townsend and the pants aren’t short so…” His abs through the shirt were downright obscene, and the waistband of the trousers was low…so, so low…leaning in, I could see not only his entire happy trail but a sneaky peek of the top of his pubic thatch poking out as well. “Okay, I might faint now. Rock God Lestat equals too much hotness for poor old Lady Loki.”

His arm unlinked from mine and slipped around my waist, spurring the completion of our descent and walk toward the exit. “Ah, that’s better. That sort of compliment makes the thought of wearing leather pants to go out dancing in Hawaii much more palatable.”

“Caution is advised, Thomas. Can’t have you chafing anything and ruining my fun.”

We decided to take the Jeep…’decided’ meaning my stating that since I wasn’t drinking, I was driving whatever I wanted. Tom offered to take the wheel for the drive there, and as Simon bitched about how horrific it was to have to climb into the back seat of a Wrangler while wearing a robe I leaned back against the hood area of the passenger side. Tom, waiting for the clown circus to cease so he could tuck me safely inside the vehicle, looked me up and down repeatedly.

“Maude…honestly…you are so, so sexy in that get-up…a level of sexy that should likely be illegal.”

I lifted my arms above my head, feigning a stretch, watching his jaw clench as I wiggled my fingers high above. “Misdemeanor or felony?”

He growled as his head tilted to the left. “Woman. Get in the Jeep.” A slap on my ass as I climbed aboard made me shriek with delight, and another one followed immediately, harder, and I moaned softly for the sole purpose of torturing the poor man, smirking as I heard him mutter ‘bloody fucking hell’ under his breath.

Rob’s Bar and Grill was eight miles from the hotel, and on the twenty-minute drive my gaze moved from my ring, to Tom, back to my ring, then back to Tom, again and again. This beautiful man beside me, currently a living, breathing incarnation of my most favorite fictional character, wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. His life. With me. Us. Together. Which we’d both already known, but somehow, having a circle of silver with a stone in it on my finger made it REAL. We hadn’t been alone since he proposed, and my mind was scrambling to think of exactly how to convey how much everything he’d done today meant to me, but kept coming up blank. The words I wanted wouldn’t fall into place, only floating around my head, scrambling away as I reached out to grab them.

The parking lot was nearly full, but Tom found an out of the way place perfect for a Jeep near the very back. We walked in, four unrecognizable people merging into a crowd of a hundred or more of the same. I hadn’t thought about it until that moment, but tonight, no one had a clue who we were, any of us. Granted, if someone was a huge fan they’d know Tom upon close inspection, but at a glance…no way. For him, it was probably a very freeing feeling…but for me, it was license to behave badly on the dance floor. Dancing Queen was cranking on the sound system, the giant wall of televisions displaying an endless array of sporting events, and Simon immediately bolted for the bar, Luke in tow. I turned my head to meet Tom’s gaze.

“Do you require a beverage as well, or shall we just get down to it, Mr. Hiddleston?”

He took my hand and pulled me out onto the dance floor, wiggling his hips seductively as we worked our way through the crowd. “Down to it, if you please.”

My brows rose as we found our place and he faced me, then placed a hand on my lower back, pulling my hips in to meet his own. “Oh, I please. Do do that voodoo that you do, baby.”

Luke and Simon joined us midway through the next song, Calvin Harris’s Feel So Close, and we all lost ourselves in the music, dancing with abandon to Lean On, Connected, 1999 and Brick House before I needed to take a bathroom and soda break. Not dipping my costume in the bowl was a challenge, but I figured I’d continue to make it through the night unscathed since I wasn’t getting hammered, as long as I remembered LIFT came before SIT. The music was too loud for conversation, so we stood together between the bar and the DJ, admiring all the creative costumes. There were superheroes, of course, Superman, Batman and the Joker among them, along with werewolves, Dracula-styled vampires, zombies, witches, a ballerina, a Playboy bunny, someone who was either dressed as Weird Al or was actually Weird Al, and my personal favorite, an older couple with the woman in costume as Jimmy Buffett and the man as a giant margarita glass, complete with salt on the rim.

When Wonderful Night by Fatboy Slim began to play, we ditched our drinks and wormed our way back into the middle of the dance floor, and as I watched Tom gyrating and spinning and jumping I was reminded of how music was such a powerful force in both our lives, how it moved us, allowed us to express our own through someone else’s words…and in that moment, I thought of THE song, the one that could say for me all the things my mind couldn’t seem to put to order as yet. As Wonderful Night finished, I yelled in Tom’s ear.

“I’m going to see if the DJ takes requests, okay? Be right back.”

As I walked to his table, he looked up, saw me, then looked back down and began typing on his phone. Upon reaching him, I bent down and shouted above the din of Cotton Eye Joe, which, frankly, I was thrilled to me missing out on.

“Hi there! Love your set so far…I was wondering…do you take requests?”

He nodded, stood, then motioned for me to follow him into the kitchen, where it was insanely busy but much quieter. Shorter than me, native Hawaiian if I had to guess, slightly overweight with dark hair back in a ponytail and tucked under his backwards baseball cap, dressed in a black Walking Dead T-shirt and white board shorts, a huge smile lit up his face and made me smile in return.

“For you? I absolutely do. Especially if you promise to keep dancing. You and your fiancé are the life of this party, man.”

My head tilted to the side, and he laughed heartily, extending his hand. “I’m Sammy Hale, otherwise known as All Hale the DJ. My wife Melanie is a huge fan, of you and Tom both. You should have heard her screeching when she saw his Tweet earlier…heck, maybe you DID. It was that loud.”

I laughed as well, accepting his proffered hand and shaking vigorously. “Maude Gallagher. But you knew that already. So, you recognized Tom? Nicely done.”

“Do you have any idea how many pictures of that man I’ve seen? But honestly, I knew who you were first, and once he started dancing I was sure it was him. She shows me videos, too. Congratulations, by the way. Here, look at what she posted on Facebook when she found out.”

He handed me his phone, and I focused in on the screen.

“Tom and Maude just got engaged right here on the island…I’m so happy for them! What an exciting time! And imagine…what if they decide to get married here? Even crazier, what if they choose my place for the reception? I’m such a hopeless dreamer, LOL.”

Eyes wide, I returned my gaze to Sammy. “Her place?”

“Well, it’s not really her place…but she’s been there since college so it feels like it is, I guess, plus she’s very passionate about her job…she’s the head event coordinator at the Coconut Beach Marriott.”

“Seriously?”

He nodded. “It’s a beautiful hotel, perfect setting, amazing beach…”

“Oh, I’m aware. That’s where we’re staying.” I pulled up his contacts, which was probably rude, but when fate intervenes you have to set such things as. “This is my personal cell number. Will you have her call me, please? We are getting married on Kauai, and the Marriott never crossed my mind as a reception location until right now. June 29th, 2016…that all needs to be kept under wraps, though…”

He looked shell-shocked as I handed him back his phone. “She has prior experience with celebrity weddings that required thorough confidentiality. Wow. This is…this is off the hook. It’s going to take me a good while to convince her I’m not yanking her chain when I tell her.”

Hand on my hip, I pointed at him. “Tell you what…Tom and I will do a video hello for her to send first so she knows for sure you met us, then you can break the news later. Sound good?”

His head shook back and forth slowly. “Sometimes, the universe just sets such amazing things you never expected right in front of you…”

“HA! Tell me about it. So…about my requests…” I provided him with my short list of songs, then revealed my plan, which he seemed nearly as excited about as I was. I went out and brought Tom into the kitchen to film our video hello for Melanie, who was, we were told, out trick or treating with their three little ones, ages eight, five and two. Once it was sent off, it was back to dancing. And, for me, waiting, riddled with anxiety and wondering if I’d be able to pull off what I’d decided to do without fucking it up too badly.

I lost track of time and space, especially after being whirled around to You Should Be Dancing, and how many songs had played between that and Poison by the Prodigy, I had not a clue…but that song and the one after were my cues, and I was at once grateful to have recognized the first but terrified that it was almost…time. Tom grinned fiendishly when he heard the opening notes, and we danced separately at first, him pausing during one section where the beat allowed me to do some hula-like hip shaking, then spinning me around so he could grind up against me until it was over. That was followed Steve Aoki’s Freak, during which I fully exercised my right to behave badly. Very, very badly, rubbing my scantily clad nether region up and down his leather covered thigh, bending over in front of him, his hands on my hips as he bucked against me, grabbing my ass occasionally, ending with his turning me back towards him and lifting my leg up so I could wrap it around his waist. After the last beat, I pulled away from him and headed once again to the DJ table, and Sammy handed me a microphone. Several deep breaths later in the strange silence, I began.

“Um, hi. Terribly sorry to interrupt the tunes, but…” I pointed at Tom, whose makeup had begun to run just a tiny bit, hair damp with sweat, body glistening with it as well, standing and staring at me with an expression of puzzlement upon his face. “That beautiful man right there…a few hours ago, he proposed to me in the most spectacular way possible.”

The crowd cheered and I held up my left hand, waggling my fingers. “Of course I said YES.” Everyone laughed, and I honed in on him, everything else becoming a blur. “Tom, I love you. So much. You…you are my everything. What you did for me today, how much my life has changed since we met here, on this island, back in June…I can never seem to find the right words to properly convey how it’s made me feel. So, I’m going to use someone else’s. And I’m going to sing them, because I think you kind of like it when I sing.”

The crowd had cleared around him, and he’d come closer, now standing six feet away, and as he nodded I could see his eyes had filled with tears. The song began to play, Flyleaf’s All Around Me, which was probably unknown to most of the folks at Rob’s, and perhaps to Tom as well…but it was perfect, and I sang along with Lacey Sturm, though Sammy had muted her vocals down to what essentially amounted to background noise.

“My hands are searching for you My arms are outstretched towards you I feel you on my fingertips My tongue dances behind my lips for you This fire rising through my being Burning I’m not used to seeing you I’m alive, I’m alive I can feel you all around me Thickening the air I’m breathing Holding on to what I’m feeling Savoring this heart that’s healing My hands float up above me And you whisper you love me And I begin to fade Into our secret place The music makes me sway The angels singing say we are alone with you I am alone and they are too with you I’m alive I’m alive I can feel you all around me Thickening the air I’m breathing Holding on to what I’m feeling Savoring this heart that’s healing So I cry (Holy) The light is white (Holy) And I see you I’m alive I’m alive I’m alive And I can feel you all around me Thickening the air I’m breathing Holding on to what I’m feeling Savoring this heart that’s healing Take my hand I give it to you Now you own me All I am You said you would never leave me I believe you I believe I can feel you all around me Thickening the air I’m breathing Holding on to what I’m feeling Savoring this heart that’s healed”

As was my habit, I lowered my chin to my chest once I finished. I knew I’d struggled with a few bits that were at the upper edge of my range, but to my ear, at least, it had sounded okay overall. When I raised my head up, I saw Tom, openly weeping and rushing towards me, wrapping his arms around me and burying his face in my neck as the crowd began to applaud and cheer. I rubbed his back as he murmured words of thanks and adoration in my ear, finally pulling back to look into my eyes.

“Pretty sure I already knew it, but now it’s completely crystal clear to me…asking you to be my wife was by far the smartest decision I’ve ever made, and likely ever WILL make. Thank you, for saying yes, for being willing to spend the rest of your life with me, ME, for loving me, and for that song. I will never forget this day, this hour, this moment…my god, how I love you…”

I poked his shoulder. “Dude. Shush. You’re totally stealing my thunder.”

We both laughed, and when we heard ourselves do so over the sound system, it dawned on me that the mic was still hot, and I brought it up to my lips again.

“Well, now you know why I had to resort to singing, right?” The crowd erupted in laughter as I flicked the off switch, and seemingly out of nowhere Luke and Simon arrived, embracing Tom and I from either side. Simon’s wig was mildly askew, and I made a huffing noise.

“Um, Simon…did you, like HEAR me sing or were you, like, BUSY?”

A rare blush spread across his cheeks. “So, who’s ready to head back to the hotel?”

Luke was red as a beet as well, and I snorted.

“I’m not sure whether I should be pissed or proud. How about I decide on the ride?”

They bolted towards the door, and Tom took my hand, leading me outside and to the Jeep without another word.

****************************************

The relative silence continued as I drove, just the noise of the wind, all of our windows rolled down to let in the night air. We said our goodnights in the hallway, and as soon as the door closed behind us Tom had me up against the wall, a sense of deja vu washing over me. His mouth found mine, tongue thrusting in roughly, groaning as I bit down on it gently before sucking firmly. Moving my head the way I wanted was entirely too challenging with the horns on, so I yanked them off and tossed them across the room, along with the arm wraps. He buried one hand in my fake hair, and I could feel him fumbling behind me with the other, searching for the bra clasp. I grabbed his arms, pulled them in front of me, then placed his hands on my breasts, hoping he’d get the hint. Instead, he opted to show off his motorboating skills, followed by testing his fangs, dragging them back and forth across my still-covered nipples.

“Fuck. Tom. Front. It’s in the front. Take it off. OFF.”

A moment passed as he pondered the mechanics of the thing, followed by my boobs springing free as he slid the straps off my shoulders, down my arms, off my wrists, pulling it from behind me and finally dropping it unceremoniously onto the carpet. The right nipple was his first target, laving it with his tongue, sucking it into his mouth, then biting it gently until I swatted him away, at which point he switched to the left one. Using his hands, he pressed my breasts together, tongue sliding back and forth quickly from nipple to nipple, my head flopping back against the wall, eyes closed. Suddenly, he was gone, and when I opened my eyes he was staring at the belt, and when the latch that closed it couldn’t be easily located, he forced the belt and attached fabric over my hips, taking the booty shorts along with it, tapping first one leg, then the other, prompting me to lift each in turn so he could slip the shorts over my boots and move the belt out of the danger zone.

I watched as his eyes roamed over me, standing naked but for my thigh-high boots, and I could see he was rock hard right through the leather. Reaching out, I lifted the hem of his shirt and yanked upward, and he lifted his arms, licking his lips, eyes rolling back into his head as I paused to flick his nipples with my tongue. He stepped back, completing the removal of the shirt himself, grunted, then rotated me roughly until I was facing the wall. It was then that he spoke his first words, other than wishing Simon and Luke a good night, since we left the bar.

“Arms above your head, all the way up. Hands on the wall.” Short, curt, and nearly a growl. I complied, moaning as his hands grasped my inner thighs, pushing outward, indicating that I should spread my legs. I complied with that, as well, hearing the sound of a snap coming undone and zipper being pulled as I moved. His cock dripped into the crack of my ass as he gauged our alignment.

“That’s it. Just like that. Don’t move a muscle.”

His left hand wrapped around my wrists, holding them to the wall, and with his right he guided himself to my entrance, just the tip of him nudging inside. As I began to push backward, the same hand moved first to stroke my belly, then downward, his middle finger reaching into my folds to circle my clit as he thrust forward, my hips hitting the wall as he slid home. He’d left just enough room to allow his finger to continue its stroking, but left me no way to move, pinned in place hanging on his cock. And because apparently that wasn’t enough torture, that’s when his fangs sank into my neck, causing me to orgasm without even the slightest warning, clamping down on him, desperate for friction but unable to attain it.

“Oh god oh my god ohmygod Tom…I need…need…you…move…you have to move. MOVE. Please. PLEASE.”

He ignored me, focused intently on my neck, biting, sucking and finally licking the spot he was finished with, then moving on to another. That pain, mingled with the pleasure originating from his consistently stroking finger, drew me to the brink, easing off whenever his mouth relocated, and just when I was ready to begin to genuinely protest against his edging, he began circling his hips in time with his finger.

“Is that better, Maude? Need my cock in motion, do you? Need to feel it rubbing against every bit of you, pressing against your walls, round and round we go, where we stop, nobody knows?”

“Fuck off.”

He stopped moving.

“Okay, fine. How about fuck ME instead?”

Nothing but stillness. Even his finger had ceased its ministrations.

“Thomas.”

Nada. Time to break out the big guns, then. Fulfilling, months later, a request he’d made back in New Orleans. I started to sing Closer.

“You let me violate you, you let me desecrate you You let me penetrate you, you let me complicate you Help me I broke apart my insides, help me I’ve got no soul to sell Help me the only thing that works for me, help me get away from myself”

He swallowed, hard enough that I could feel it against my back. I continued.

“I want to fuck you like an animal I want to feel you from the inside I want to fuck you like an animal My whole existence is flawed You get me closer to god”

He began moving again, but much faster, adding thrusts to his circling.

“You can have my isolation, you can have the hate that it brings You can have my absence of faith, you can have my everything Help me tear down my reason, help me its’ your sex I can smell Help me you make me perfect, help me become somebody else”

When I got to the word ‘perfect’ he groaned, loud and long and full of neediness, almost throwing me off my tempo as he let go of my wrists, pulled out of me and spun me around.

“I want to fuck you like an animal I want to feel you from the inside”

He lifted my left leg by the back of the knee, holding it aloft and allowing me to wrap it around his waist as he shoved himself back into me, eyes on mine, wild, pupils fully blown, jaw clenched, tips of the fangs resting on the edge of his lower lip. I leaned back against the wall, his weight pinning me again as I lifted the other leg and wrapped it around his waist as well.

“I want to fuck you like an animal My whole existence is flawed You get me closer to god”

He began slamming into me, pulling out, then slamming in again, our gazes still locked, my hands clenched together behind his neck. I leaned forward to run my tongue across his lips.

“That’s it. Come on. Fuck me.”

His breathing was labored, his reply more of a grunt as he moved faster and faster. “Like. An. Animal.”

“Mmm hmm. Just like that.” I began bucking against him as his finger found my clit again. “More. Harder. More. Make me scream.”

He lowered his head, breaking eye contact in order to sink his teeth into the unmarked side of my neck, and that’s when, I did, in fact, scream. Entirely too loudly for well past 9 PM, even on a Saturday. The bite grew ever harder as he stifled his own scream, spurting inside me as my walls convulsed around him, finally letting go just as I thought the skin would break.

We stilled, coming down, without separating. He leaned back a bit, inspecting his work.

“Well. That…I…lord, are you all right?”

I snorted. “I think it probably looks worse than it feels.”

“I sincerely hope that’s the case. Sorry, love. You singing to me in conjunction with watching nearly every man in that bar gawking at you resulted in my feeling incredibly…territorial.”

“Men were gawking at me?”

Both eyebrows shot up. “You didn’t notice?”

I shook my head. “That’d be a big ‘ole NOPE. Probably because that, like, never happens. And don’t be sorry. I spent a good portion of the evening relishing how those fangs felt on my neck and dying for…more.” A huge grin spread across my face. “I adore your feeling territorial…like you enjoyed my jealousy, I suppose. Next time if the urge to shout ‘Stop ogling my girlfriend you blood louts!’ arises, I totally won’t hold it against you if you succumb to it.”

“Fiancée.”

After unwinding my legs one at a time and ensuring the solidity of my feet on the floor, I removed my hands from behind his neck and stared at my ring as he slipped out of me. “Fiancée. By the time I’m used to saying that, it’ll be ‘wife’.”

He kissed the tip of my nose. “But that will be the only other name you’ll ever have to get used to. Well, except for mum…”

I looked down at myself, naked but for the boots and the ring, and began to giggle.

A smile spread across his face. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, really. Just that there’s a man in leather pants, wearing a blond wig and sporting vampire teeth with his cock hanging out, talking to a woman wearing only thigh-high lace-up leather boots, an engagement ring and a smile about…about…” My giggles turned into chortling. “KIDS. About having kids. And I can’t help but see it…us, when we’re like, fifty, sneaking into a bedroom late at night, neglecting to lock the door and a Hiddlespawn wandering in and seeing us…like this…ohmygod…”

He threw back his head, laughing that infectious laugh that was uniquely his. “We’ll just explain that sex is a natural thing, that it’s a wonderful, beautiful expression of love between two people and that sometimes…”

“Bwhahahaha! SOMETIMES, kid, you inadvertently discover that your parents are kinky as fuck when you don’t KNOCK before entering a room.”

After composing ourselves, we provided wig removal assistance for each other, then hit the shower. Tom got out before I did, and just as I finished drying off and putting on my robe there was a knock at the door. I turned to Tom, eyes wide.

“Christ, Simon and Luke have to be passed out by now for sure, so who the hell is THAT?”

He shrugged and answered it, his black shorts hanging low on his hips, and when the door closed he turned around, a covered dish in his left hand. He walked to the desk, set it down, and removed the lid, revealing a cheesecake topped with strawberries, a tiny Happy Birthday pick and six candles. I swiped the side of it with my index finger, then licked…and as soon as it hit my taste buds, I gasped.

“Hiddleston. That’s a Carnegie Deli cheesecake.”

Nodding, he leaned in to kiss my cheek. “Did you think I’d dare forget CAKE? Happy Birthday, Maude.”

I pinched his arm. Hard. He jumped, squealing. “Sorry. I just needed to make sure you were real. So now I have confirmation of that, which is cool. But a real…what? That’s the question. Because you CANNOT be human. And…whatever it is that you are…how is it that you’re…mine?”

His arms wrapped around my waist from my left side, chin on my shoulder. “I hope you realize that I ask myself those same questions. Repeatedly. And, I think in order to answer them, we have to consider that…maybe…maybe apart, we’re human…but together, we’re something that transcends that, those earthly, tangible limitations.”

“Huh. You know what? I think that together…that something…it manifests itself as human again. That’s…it’s…that’s…children.”

A sharp intake of breath from him, followed by a gentle kiss on my neck. “I believe you’re on to something there, my love.”

Twisting my head so I could meet his gaze, I winked. “I believe I totally one-upped you there, my love.”

He laughed. “Oh, you most definitely did. I’m impressed.”

“Heh. Prepare to be even more thoroughly impressed as I devour this entire cheesecake.”

His nose nuzzled against my clavicle. “None for me?”

Sighing, I patted his arm. “Well, I suppose if you do a decent job of singing happy birthday you can have a slice. A SMALL slice…”

He lit the candles, sang it Hank style, and as I blew out the candles I realized that there really wasn’t anything left for me to wish for. Everything I could ever have wanted, or needed, was right there in that room, and as we gorged ourselves sitting out on the balcony, admiring the three-quarter moon reflecting on the water, the truth of the lyrics from the song I’d sung for him overwhelmed me, ‘I can feel you all around me, thickening the air I’m breathing, holding on to what I’m feeling, savoring this heart that’s healed’ and I leapt up from my chair and stood before him, taking his face in my hands, tilting his head upward as I spoke eight simple words that made us both weep.

“Thank you. For everything. I love you. Always.”

[writemoment]

Matching Interests

Writer: Ellie-Mae (Pen Name)

Part: 1/1

Summary: While attending a comic convention, y/n literally knocks into a person who's cosplaying a matching character to hers. Although, appearances can be deceiving. She enters an interesting conversation that may be the start of a new chapter in her life.

Pairing: Original Character x Female!Reader

Warnings/Rated: G. Don't think there's anything.

Word Count: 1,476

( Readers ) P.O.V.

"Smile!!" says a girl cosplaying as Mad Moxxi from Borderlands. The flash goes off and she thanks me, leaving to rejoin her friends.

God, I love going to comic conventions but this costume is getting warm with all the bodies pressing into the building. I'm just glad I used alcohol based paints or else this stuff would be everywhere. 

Even then, my face prosthetic is coming up at the edge so I make a trip to the bathroom to re-adhere it. I re-adjust my jacket, making sure everything is in order before walking out. 

I make my way through the halls, attempting to enter the exhibit room but I get shoved into the person beside me. Throwing a dangerous glance at the person, they continue on their way, clearly not phased.

Turning around, I start to apologize but stop mid sentence. "Oh, my beast!!" the man says, curtsying. I throw my head back, laughing. There is a tall man in front of me, dressed fully in Belle's ball gown and heels. 

"Belle! You came back!" I say, smiling widely. 

"Nice cosplay. I hope that's not your real face though." He says smiling, extending his hand. "Hi, I'm Timothy."

I take his hand, shaking it. "Hello, I'm y/n and no this is not my real face. Well, not completely. It's a prosthetic, you know, special effects makeup." We both laugh.

Before we can continue talking, a few people come up and ask for pictures. We oblige and turn for the camera. "This is such a cute couples cosplay!! I'm blown away!" One of them says, their phone making a shutter sound.

They thank us and move along. I face Timothy again. "Well, that was interesting." I say. He nods, making an adorable face. "I must ask, how did you come to decide on this costume? Don't get me wrong, it looks great but I'm just curious."

"Oh, yeah...It was a dare from my friends to cosplay as a girl and I thought I'd have fun with it. I like Beauty and the Beast so I thought it'd be cool. Now, seeing a female Beast is not what I was expecting today. But it definitely has become the highlight of the convention." 

Through all that makeup, I can't tell what he actually looks like but I'm immediately attracted to his personality. He asks why I chose the beast as my costume.

"Well, I wanted to do something different and not stick to gender specific cosplay. I love a good gender-bender so I decided to do this, knowing no one else would. Seeing a male Belle definitely surprised me but in a good way." I finish.

He smiles at me and I laugh. Gesturing to the doors, he asks if I'd like to join him and his friends for lunch. "Sadly, I can't. I have some friends I'm meeting up with. But are you free tonight?" I ask, shocked at how forward I sound.

"Yeah! I, uh, I don't think I have anything planned." He says, stuttering a bit. I smile at him and we exchange numbers.

After we're done typing in the digits and names, we hand the phones back to each other. "Okay! Well, I'll see you later!" I say, waving before leaving. When my friends come, I tell them about Timothy and they about fall out of their chairs. 

"Oh my god!! That's priceless! Imagine what you'll tell your kids one day!" Janet says, laughing so hard that tears make her mascara run.

Rolling my eyes, I tell them "I don't even know him!! We're going to do something later tonight and I'm not specifically looking to date anyone. If anything, I'd just like a new friend. Especially since you guys suck."

My friend Lucas pouts and Janet is banging her fist on the table, still laughing. These losers, man oh man. Good thing I love them... After I left lunch with my friends, I head back to the hotel I'm staying in. So happy to get this outfit off, I peel off my makeup and hop in the shower. It takes a while to get all the stiff hair jell out but I manage.

I put on a Kingdom Hearts T-shirt and a pair of jeans before flopping down on my bed. Sighing, I just lay there, enjoying the silence and cool air conditioning. After a while, I pick up my phone and see that I'm tagged in some photos. Scrolling through and liking them, my screen lights up with a text. "Timothy (Belle)". Laughing at his name in my phone, I click on the message to read.

"Hey y/n. It's Timothy. Just wanted to see what time you wanted to meet up tonight and if you had any clue on what to do around here? No rush. Let me know whenever."

Hmm. I'm not sure what there is to do either. Thanks to modern day technology, I google places around the area. There's a few things that could be fun and I make a list, sending it to him.

"The third one sounds fun. Let's say 6:30?"

"Okay, sounds good. :)" I reply as I'm plugging my phone in to charge. Well, that's only a few hours away...Should I change or stay in these clothes? 

Deciding on the latter, I sit back and read a book to kill time.

Wow. Just saying, John Green is a teenage girl at heart. My bookmark slides into place and I lay the hardcover on the bedside table. I hop up and head to the bathroom to slap on some lip gloss and blush.

After wearing makeup all day, I don't want to kill my skin more than it already is. I grab my stuff and walk out the door, heading to my destination.

When I arrive, I'm surprised that there isn't as many people as I expected. There's still people but just less. Not knowing exactly what Timothy looks like, I stand by the entrance and give his phone a call. 

Ring Ring Ring

The sound comes from a line of people waiting to pay their way in. My eyes scan the crowd and Timothy picks up the phone. "Hello?" I hear through the phone and faintly in front of me now.

Not answering, I see a dark haired boy holding a phone up to his ear. When I hear him repeat himself and it matches the lips of this person, I hang up. He looks confused but I walk up to him.

Once I'm in front of him, I greet him. He looks different without the makeup, wig, dress AND high heels on but I know I look drastically different as well.

 He smiles at me, causing his hazel eyes squint. He's still tall without the heels, he has dark disheveled hair and lightly tanned skin. On the bridge of his nose, there are faint freckles marking his skin.

Dude, he's kinda beautiful.

"You hung up on me, y/n!!" He says, inviting me into the line. I awkwardly step in front of him, relieved that no one says anything about me cutting in. 

"Yeah, well...I saw you pick up the phone and thought it'd be faster to just walk over. If you want, I can call you again and not hang up?" I say, teasing him.

"Hmm, tempting. Maybe later. By the way, you look extremely different without your costume on. A good different, just to clarify." He says, hand rubbing the back of his neck.

I thank him and say the same about his appearance. We slowly move in the line, talking about our experience at the convention to kill time. Turns out, we have a lot in common as well. He's just as much Fandom Trash as I am.

We reach the front and he insists on paying, which I thank him for and we pick up our golf clubs and choose the color of our golf balls. I'm lime green and he's orange. 

"I'm surprised you chose mini golf, Timothy. I thought you'd be more of a movie type of person." I say, following him to the first course. 

He laughs, setting up his shot. "Well, I love movies but you can't really get to know someone while watching a movie. At least in theaters." He hits the ball and immediately makes it into the hole.

Turning to me, he smirks, saying, "How about this: If I win, you have to go on a date with me. If you win, I do whatever you want. Deal?"

My arms cross over my chest and I chew on my lip. Timothy seems like the kind of guy most people take for granted. Sweet, funny and passionate about his likes. I don't want to be one of those people, I want to know him and him to know me.

"You're on, big time!"

A/N: Hey Guys! Thank you for taking the time to read this! I know it’s silly but Butter Bug and I were talking about it and I thought it was worth a shot. Also! Thank you for all the nice feedback on my first fanfic (TMR Newt), I appreciate it so much! Make sure to start following us to get updates on our stories or request stories! Recovery Companion will be getting part 2 on Monday, so be on the lookout. Thanks again - Ellie-Mae

[noditchablepromdate]

Wales Comic-Con Dec 2017!

//So, as many of you will probably already be aware, I took off for the above-mentioned con on Friday with my partner in crime @respect-the-king. Actors were met. Photographs were taken. Cosplayers cosplayed. There was a minor case of stalking. It was an excellent time.

Extremely long and rambly story below the cut, complete with several photos!

Links to the cosplay photos I took here and here.

It did not start well. Friday was a very cold day.

Our first train was delayed by about 20 minutes, which led to us missing our connection and having to wait a good 45 minutes for the next train. And then we had to wait again at the second connection for a good 20 minutes. And all 3 trains were pretty much standing room only. And then when we got to Wrexham, where the con was being held, we had to wait AGAIN for a good 30 minutes or so for a taxi to get us to our hotel.

Which meant by the time we finally got to the hotel we were very, very tired and cold. XD We pretty much just had enough energy to thaw out, go get food and then fall into bed.

Saturday morning opened with Mark Pellegrino screeching “GOOOOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAAAAAAAAM!” courtesy of @respect-the-king’s phone alarm. My extremely eloquent response of “What the fuck?” was accepted as perfectly reasonable.

After a short while of stumbling around getting ready, we went to breakfast, where @respect-the-king got a little too into character flirting with Bobby. The conversation when Crowley disappeared and came back with a banana went as follows:

Crowley (peeling the banana): Reminds me of you, Robert, darling. Bobby (after a moment of stunned silence): ...Bit on the inadequate side, ain’t it?

Hysterical OOC gigglefit over, we returned to our hotel room so Bobby could put his beard on, and then set out to the con’s first day. This is what we looked like.

We spotted several amazing cosplays while queuing up to go in, including a handful of Deadpools, Thors and Wonder Women, plus Festive Negan complete with tinsel-wrapped Lucille. The crew had got into the festive spirit too - one guy had decided the only appropriate thing to do was shove his head into a plushie turkey and wear it on his head all day. XD

Once we actually got inside, we went to get our weekend wristbands and immedately got very confused... as the woman handing them out took one look at me and went, "BALLS!" This earned her a bewildered stare because I wasn't sure I'd heard her properly, and she repeated it a couple of times before adding "Bobby, right?" at which point I realised she was actually just saying Bobby's catchphrase at me. XD I confirmed that yes, indeed, she had ID'ed my cosplay, and she sent us off with a huge grin.

We tried to sign up for the cosplay competition, but were told signups wouldn’t be until Sunday morning. Undaunted, we set off to explore the area so we knew where everything was, and to kill time until our photo ops.

First photo op was with Mitch Pileggi (Samuel Campbell, Supernatural). I wasn’t sure what to expect, having never had a photo op before, but it was absolutely lovely. Queueing was efficient and relatively painless, and the man himself was very kind and friendly. He asked if my beard was itchy, and when I said no, his response was “Really? Mine is!”

He also said my cosplay looked great, before we had to scoot out of the way for the next people in the queue. @respect-the-king​ and I tried very hard not to squeak over this for the next half-hour or so, before she took off to have her photo op with Andrew Scott (Jim Moriarty, Sherlock).

Once those were done with and the photos collected (which was pretty much instantaneous - the guys in charge of prints were amazing!), we headed into the signing hall to get the pictures autographed. Mitch was lovely and even got up to give me a hug when I approached him ^_^ He signed my photo and my hunter's journal!

I also collected a few autographs in my hunter's journal from other guests I recognised (pics here). Said guests were:

- John Noble (Denethor, Lord of the Rings) who was very friendly, and when I told him it was my first time at a big con, shook my hand and said he was delighted to have been there for my first experience

- Chris Rankin (Percy Weasley, Harry Potter) who was thrilled that I was collecting autographs in an old-fashioned autograph-book way, as he hadn't seen that sort of thing for years

-Jed Brophy (Nori, The Hobbit, + numerous other roles in Peter Jackson films) who was absolutely thrilled with the effort I'd gone to with my beard (I took this as a massive compliment - many of his roles have involved heavy prosthetics, so he knows what it takes to apply false beards etc.)

- Kevin McNally (Joshamee Gibbs, Pirates of the Caribbean) who also complimented me on my beard

- Stanislav Yanevski (Viktor Krum, Harry Potter) who looked pretty worn out by the time I reached him but still had a smile and a handshake at the ready

I also had time to play one of my favourite games at a con - Find the Fudge-Man! This is a stall run by a couple who make home-made fudge and brownies to sell at cons all over the country, and they've been at so many of the cons I've attended that they recognise me on sight no matter what cosplay I'm in XD I bought about a kilo of assorted flavours of fudge from them this time. It's always soft and squidgy and really delicious.

Then it was back off to our final photo ops of the day - Corin Nemec (Christian Campbell, Supernatural) for both of us and Kristine Sunderland (Joyce Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) for @respect-the-king.

Corin was completely over the moon on seeing me! He absolutely had to have a little grope of the beard before the picture was taken, and told me I looked amazing :D He was so sweet and enthusiastic I just melted when he hugged me, before we had to move out of the way for the next people <3

We made some new friends in the queue for Kristine - a pair of ladies right in front of us who spotted me and were delighted to chat. One of them informed us that she had personally asked Jim Beaver if he'd be willing to come to next year's con, and got a reply from him saying he'd be more than happy to! We bonded immediately. XD

Once all our photos were done with, we headed back into the signing hall. Andrew Scott's queue was positively HUGE! So we circled the hall, poked around the stalls, and got a few other autographs. Corin got the biggest grin on his face when we showed up again and we spent a little while chatting to him while he signed my photo and journal... and then he insisted on giving us both a big hug before we left ^____^

@respect-the-king got a couple of autographs from actors I didn't recognise (she's seen a lot more than I have XD). But our best reaction of all came from Travis Aaron Wade (Cole Trenton, Supernatural). He practically bounced out of his seat on seeing the two of us show up at his signing desk, insisted on getting a selfie with us, and asked for a picture of me - and then promptly sent it to Jim Beaver, telling us "Jim's gonna love this!" while we tried not to giggle incoherently. XD

Once he hugged us and finally let us go, we went to get Andrew Scott's autograph and nearly got run over by an amazing Dean Winchester! Sadly we didn't get a pic as we were in the queue at the time, but we chatted for a while and agreed to meet up the next day.

We finally left the con about an hour before everything ended, worn out and delighted, and headed back to the hotel for an evening of eating fudge and watching Moana. I kind of accidentally got @respect-the-king hooked on the fudge I'd bought. XD

Sunday began with the terrifying strains of "HEEEEEEEEEEEEAT OF THE MOMENT" and only improved from there. XD

We went for breakfast at the hotel's restaurant again and just as we sat down to eat... who should walk past but Travis! He stopped short on spotting the pair of us and the first thing out of his mouth was "Hey! It's you guys! ...Where's your beard?!" at which I just kind of cracked up. @respect-the-king spent much of her time trying to process the situation (in fairness, she hadn't had her coffee yet XD) but we managed to talk for a couple of minutes all the same.

He was so lovely - it turned out he was there with a couple of fans who'd won a breakfast with him as a charity prize and he's been donating part of the money to a fund to help rescue dogs. He also informed us that he'd had a reply from Jim - who said he loved my cosplay! Officially endorsed by Jim Beaver, y'all! XD

We managed to get into the con without anyone yelling BALLS at us this time... but promptly got ambushed by an 11th Doctor/TARDIS duo for photos instead. XD We also spent some time chatting with a very festive Kaylee Frye!

We spent a while checking out the areas we hadn't managed to get to on Saturday, took more pictures of awesome cosplays, and then headed up for the only photo op we had on our schedule for the day - Sean Pertwee (Alfred Pennyworth, Gotham).

On the way there, we almost literally ran into Corin Nemec on his way back from his own photo ops... he stopped dead, gave us a huge grin, and the first words out of his mouth were "Did you SLEEP in that beard?!" (I think I may have accidentally discovered one sure-fire way to get the guests’ attention. They all went NUTS over my freaking beard. XD) He gave us both a huge hug before heading back to the signing area and left us both squeeing quietly in the middle of the road. I thought the day couldn't get any better!

Once we got back into the signing hall, we managed to find the demon!Dean we'd promised to meet, and she took us over to find the other two in her group, who had come as Sam and Mary. They did get a group shot, but alas - I didn't. XD

After that it was just a matter of idling away our time looking at stalls and cosplays, and rehearsing for the cosplay competition... and just as we'd taken a snap of a rather impressive Wolverine, we got literally ambushed by Travis yet again! He popped up behind us with a "Hi! Yeah, I'm stalking you guys! :D" and we both just about fell apart laughing XD He was incredibly sweet and happy to chat and seemed so pleased with himself for having run into us so many times.

When he finally had to disappear, one of the old-time crew members who was taking a coffee break wandered over and said he always enjoys working with the guests - he's worked so many cons he never really sees them as stars any more, just ordinary people. We mentioned Mark Sheppard and his reponse was "oh yeah, met him... he's a prick." He saw the looks on our faces and hastily qualified this comment with an explanation about Mark being incredibly sarcastic and prone to teasing fans, not actually a jerk. XD

And then we had to go for the cosplay competition.

It was a good time! There were some amazing cosplays, including an incredibly cute under-16 group Potter cosplay that included a Dobby who could just about toddle =3

I felt really confident when it came time for me and @respect-the-king to get up on stage and do our skit - but oh my gods! I goofed one word in my very first line and the rest of the skit was a thin veneer of calmly playing it out over sheer OH CRAP OH CRAP I MESSED UP... when I got back to my seat my hands were shaking from the rush of adrenaline and terror. XD

We didn't win, but it was fun to see the ones who did. A group Walking Dead entry, and a gorgeously crafted Edward Scissorhands ^_^ and we got complimented on the way out by a few people who really liked our skit!

Aaaaaaaaaand that pretty much brought Wales Comic-Con to a close... we did run into the cutest little Moana while waiting for a taxi, though.

All in all, it was an awesome weekend and I am really excited to go back in April for the 10th Anniversary!

[askkayleefrye]

http://ift.tt/2eLAih0

After missing its 2016 iteration, I was so happy to be back at Wizard World Chicago this year!. Like all Chicago Comic Cons, this event took place at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL August 24th-27th.

  I attended with my sister, Little Dove Cosplay, who was showcasing a new Sansa dress on Friday & Saturday… but I am getting ahead of myself.

Since we were presenting two panels, we picked up our badges in the ‘Exhibitor/Vendor’ section in Hall B. In past years, we were able to pick these up from the VIP or other sections, but this year we waited longer in line.

On Thursday evening, we walked the con floor and established what we wanted to see before heading to the “Make a Nerdy Living” panel. This panel featured The Pumpkin Geek, Amanda Meyer, Emily Evans, Scott Larson, Onrie Kompon, and later Mogchelle showed up (who was overbooked and hustled from panel to panel with nary a moment’s rest!). I was really impressed by what The Pumpkin Geek had to say; he was incredibly personable and gave good advice, like how reaching out over social media allowed him to save money traveling to different cons by staying on folks’ couches. Despite the panel being titled “Make a Nerdy Living” (emphasis mine), the majority of the panelists have a “day job” that pays the bills separately from their nerdy passion projects. This disappointed me because I still don’t know how to turn my passion into something that pays the bills. With six panelists, the conversation felt crowded and no one really got enough time to talk. Friday, Tess wore her X-Men: Days of Future Past Jean Grey cosplay, super comfy for a short day at the con, and I wore my coveralls.

On Friday, with an increased attendance, security had folks go through several metal detectors set up outside. Though some lines were dedicated to folks without bags, everyone filed through whichever line they could. Tess was dressed as Sansa in her black, season 6 dress (the one with all the feathers) and had her trusty direwolf purse with her (it’s name is Lady), and I wore my blue silk jacket and flip flops along with my coveralls for more of a pilot episode look. Once we got through security, I hosted my panel on ‘The Expanding Firefly ‘Verse,’ which is always shiny. This year, I incorporated new info on upcoming board games and some rumors about the fabled Firefly Online. I met with a bunch of other Firefly cosplayers for pictures with them before going to Artist’s Alley. This year (unlike my last Wizard World Chicago in 2015), the Artists Alley had its own huge area between vendors. I think this was a nice set-up, though I didn’t care for the second floor of the convention center being only cars and a haunted house. Oh well, it meant me and my sister didn’t have to crowd on the escalator!

We closed our Friday night watching “Dungeons and Dragons Improv,” featuring a Bloodrager Dwarf named Buttsteak, a punny bard halfling named Matthew McConaughey whose signature tune was “Take On Me” by Aha, and a shapeshifting gnome by the name of Cuddles who could only turn into marbles. These three were on a quest to rid Detroit of the Unicorn plague, fight a Spiderman-o-taur (half bull, half spider-man), and get a lapdance from Striptease the Unicorn, but in the end it turned out they might have been part of the problem. We left the con with tears of laughter streaming down our faces.

On Saturday, we returned bright and early so I could catch a panel called “Intro to Podcasting.” Despite several experts (David Vox Mullen, John ‘Bear’ Kolb, Patrick Newson, Paul Hinic, Nick Mataragas) clearly knowing what they were talking about, the panel was not very planned out. The panelists didn’t follow an outline and it was more of a Q&A than an introduction… and they kept pimping their new website which is a podcasting platform. Vox Mullen advocated paying for all of your own things (a website to host, etc.), and spoke most of the time, leaving very little time for Hinic and Mataragas to speak. I don’t think this panel was wasted time, but it definitely wasn’t what I was hoping for or expecting.

Saturday, I wore my screen accurate floral top with my coveralls, and we naturally went to see “One Season and a Movie: A Conversation with Summer Glau & Jewel Staite.” The panel started late, but it was refreshing to hear Lindi of PureFandom instruct everyone in the Q&A line for “No Personal Requests!” When asked where they would want their characters’ stories to go, Jewel answered that she wanted Kaylee and Simon to have lots of babies, and Summer offered River as babysitter. Jewel politely declined.

Jewel’s favorite episode was “Out of Gas,” while Summer’s was “Objects in Space.” “I don’t know if you can recapture something in the same way,” Summer said, when asked about a Serenity 2 focused on River. “I really respect what the show was.” Finally, if Summer could change one thing about Firefly, she’d wear shoes and brush her hair more. Ha!

After that panel ended, we headed down to Game Of Thrones Trivia, though sadly we didn’t participate (or win). It was a nice way to get excited about the season finale and hear speculations on how it would end. Tess was again wearing her black Sansa dress, and a lot of folks really loved it. After that, we went to the Creative Stage which was at the back of Artists’ Alley near a food station. I really like how this Creative Stage was set up and I think C2E2 could learn a thing or two from Wizard World. Not only was there more than one microphone, there was also an A/V set up to show a powerpoint! This was the first time I presented my panel “Getting Started With Etsy” and I was really glad to have Laura of Rebel Among the Stars Studios alongside to help me. We both have very different ways we use Etsy; she does it full time for a living, whereas I do it to fund going to conventions. We got some excellent questions and I can’t wait to see new Etsy stores that I hope were inspired by our info!

Sunday was a much more relaxed day since we were quite tired! We love that 5 Hour Energy has a booth at cons, because drinking those made us able to get through our last day! On Sunday, I wore my Elizabeth Swann cosplay and met up with friends (Sparrow Style Entertainment & Gormassmuss) who were both cosplaying Jack Sparrow! Since I was walking around with my sister as Sansa Stark, a lot of people thought I was a Game of Thrones character too. Whoops! I may have to start cosplaying Margaery again! Tess had opted for her pink King’s Landing Sansa dress, which she loves to wear because it makes her feel like a princess.

Overall, I had a really great time at Wizard World Chicago. I was excited to present both old and new panels, while spending time at a convention with my sister

My next convention is New York Comic Con, October 5-8th. Stay tuned for a panel announcement soon!

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[bitchfacetokiya-archived]

6th Stage Goods Day 1 Report

At long last…my report on the UtaPri 6th Stage event! 

As you may be aware, the Maji Love Live concert has evolved from a weekend affair to a week-long event! This is mostly thanks to the goods they had for sale as early as the weekend before the concert! Since my adventure began before concert day, I decided to write my first report about buying (and trading) goods! This post will focus on the first (and easier day) of shopping.  

I arrived in Tokyo on the night of May 24th. Before that, my friend in Japan had attended the goods pre-sale on the 21st and she was able to pick up some capsule goods that I need to purchase for the 6th Stage Proxy Shopping Service that I hosted. Sadly it was too late in the evening for me to do anything other than have dinner that day, so my concert buddy and I just prepared for our first shopping day, the 25th.

The 25th—a Thursday—was thankfully not as busy as anticipated. This might be because they didn’t restock anything since the previous sales day, which was the 21st. We took it easy and got in line at around 9:00am, thinking that sales would start at 10am. Turns out they weren’t supposed to start until 11am that day, but it was still a good thing we got in line when we did. It helped that the weather was decent! 

So here’s how shopping worked: While waiting in line, the staff members handed out an order sheet, which was to be filled out and submitted once you got inside the exhibition hall where the merchandise was sold. They had PDF copies of the order form on the official webpage, so that helped me keep track in advance of what I needed to purchase. You’re expected to calculate the total yourself, but it turns out that the cashiers will re-calculate everything anyway. I definitely missed a few numbers here and there but the correct total was given to me at checkout. 

They had three people accepting forms: One person accepted only orders paid for with cash (which was the vast majority of us, including myself); one person took the ones paid for with credit card, and one person accepted either. Once it was your turn, you’d pick a line according to how you planned to pay. They’d attach a numbered ticket to your sheet and give you a ticket of the same number. Items for each order were processed in the order that forms were received. If you had participated in my proxy shopping service, you might remember when I said that you could name some alternate items to purchase in case items were sold out. That didn’t work, and the reason why is that they don’t allow you to change your order after you submit the form. So once that form is handed over, it’s a matter of waiting and hoping that they have what you requested. Since there was no restock of items on the 25th, I didn’t have to worry about T-shirts or light sticks since those had been sold out on the 21st and weren’t being re-stocked until the 26th. So I used the first shopping day to pick up what I knew was available, like the trading items. The wait in line after submitting the form was probably around an hour? I can’t quite remember. I spent that time texting my friend who was a bit separated from me in line because they needed to check to make sure her U.S. credit card would be accepted. They played UtaPri music in the background too! ^^ Once it was our turn, we were directed to the first available cashier. We’d give them our numbered ticket and they looked for the corresponding basket, and then confirmation of items began. Fortunately I was able to get everything I requested for that day! After payment was completed, we were then directed towards the exit/back of the room, where there were tables set up with shopping bags so you can bag your own items. I took a bunch of bags just in case, although I didn’t really need them (I used one as a mat to sit on the ground when it was time to trade XD) 

Towards the exit, there’s a station selling CDs and DVDs, and on the opposite side a barricade separating the incoming customers from the outgoing customers, decorated with banners of each character. At the booth, they were doing a promotion in which you received a poster with the purchase of a CD, or a signed bromide with the purchase of a DVD. I wasn’t interested but my friend ended up buying two CDs, thus receiving two posters. I think were done some time after noon, but before 1pm. Either way, it was a LONG wait. After that was done, my friend and I exited the area and went outside of the mall, where we found a lot of other customers sitting around trading items. This part was fun but also kind of frustrating. What was fun was the trading of course! I noticed that people had different trading styles—some people walked around to look at what other people had, and asked which character(s) they were looking for. Some people who were sitting around had come prepared with signs indicating which characters they were looking for and which ones they had to trade. And though it was hard to tell, many people were probably also tweeting photos of their stash and naming their requests, waiting for responses to come in. I’ll talk more about trading via Twitter in my next report. I mainly sat around instead of hunting because there was an array of characters I was looking for on behalf of other people, and also to help my friend who was trading for Syo items and doesn’t speak Japanese. It was pretty successful, although I hadn’t completed my trading that day, which meant I had to continue over the next few days.

What was frustrating was the fact that the staff refused to accommodate customers when it came to trading. There was a rule stated on the website that “trading around the merch area was not permitted,” meaning most of us sat outside or around the mall area. Trading was also not permitted by law in the park next to the mall as well. When the area outside the mall got crowded, staff started to tell people to leave. A friend told me that people inside the mall were also eventually told to leave because they were taking up sitting space for other mall goers. What I’m thinking is, why are you making “trading” items and going through the trouble of renting out mall space to sell said items, yet refuse to offer the space for us to trade that would prevent the public from being inconvenienced?? Why not create a designated area to be able to trade the items that you MEANT for us to trade?? They do this for cosplayers when it comes to photography—at most exhibition events, they designate “cosplay areas” where cosplay photography is acceptable. Taking photos of cosplay is banned in other parts of the event because it can get in the way of other attendees and cause crowding. If you know that customers are going to want to trade the items that you’re selling to them, and you don’t want them to cause a disturbance to the general public, it would make sense for you to create such a space that benefits the customers and other shoppers. Hopefully if there’s a suggestion box or a survey then people can suggest this for next year!

My next report will be about the second and most grueling day of shopping—it was incredibly tiring but a lesson well-learned if I ever get a chance to go back to Japan for a future concert!

[artbyjenisse]

A Review of Cons

I have been doing cons for about three-ish years now, figured it was time to lay out my opinions of the ones I’ve been too.

Salt Lake Comic Con (2014-2015 – SLC, UT)

The FIRST time I did this con was with my school, The Art Institute of SLC. Had we been in the Artist Alley I’m sure my first experience would have been much better. But no, despite the efforts of our dept. head, we ended up in a really weird hidden cubby area on the other side of the Salt Palace. There was a group of us that went to represent our school and sell our art work.. I think only one person sold anything.

The second time I did SLCC was much better! I booked the AA table and make it back by the end of the show. A small achievement for my second con. A lot of the con-artist people who know me met me at SLCC because they tabled by me, saw the Tiki Room, or fell madly in love with my Tarot Queens. It was a good first show!

I didn’t go to the 2016 show because I was in Cali and had no idea if I would be able to go back for it. I wish I could go this year but they’ve raised their AA table prices and I cannot justify spending that kind of money.

If you’re able to put the money down though, I do recommend Salt Lake Comic Con.

Anime Banzai (2015 – Layton, Utah)

Once upon a time-many a year ago I went Banzai as an attendee, this was when it just started and the con was in the Sheraton Salt Lake City Hotel. It was small but a lot of fun. Flash forward to 2015 with the con now in Layton, I shared a table with a friend. We both made profit at the show, however, since I really don’t sell a whole lot of anime or Japanese inspired art I didn’t really feel like I fit in there. Most of the people I sold too were the parents of the teens and kids at the show, which is fine! I did get a lot of compliments on my work. It just didn’t feel like a con I fit into. I haven’t done Banzai since for that reason.

I recommend Anime Banzai to anime artists and especially artists who also have small items (charms ect.), or make plushies. I saw those flying off the tables.

Side note - I wish Banzai would move its venue. The con itself is too big now for the conference center it’s been using.

Salt Lake City FanX (2016-2017 – SLC, UT)

FanX is put on by the same people who do Salt Lake Comic Con. Compared to SLCC, FanX is a smaller event but I dare say I’ve had more fun at FanX than I have at SLCC! The AA is a little smaller and still full of nice people and great talent. Crowds are good, not everyone buys, yet they do compliment work and ask for cards.

I recommend FanX. (unless that gets a price hike too).

Anime California (2016 – Long Beach, CA)

This show was a roller coaster of problems. My first show in Cali and they neglected to provide info on what a California Sellers Permit was and how to get one (stressful 24 hrs holy shit). And to put a long story short for set-up day, let’s just say the staff had no idea what the hell was going on. The start of the first day was not much better as far as communication between staff and exhibitors went.

Aside from the staff, the show was slow but everyone I met looked like they were having a good time. I did make profit at the show.

I do not recommend this show, however. The lack of organization and communication between the show runners and their exhibitors was a huge turn off.

Comikazi / Stan Lee’s L.A. Comic Con (2016 – L.A., CA)

I was a little hesitant to do this show at first because it was going to be a big show. It was so worth it! This is one of the biggest shows I’ve ever done, one of the most fun, and by far the most profitable. The only problems I had were nothing really related to the event itself so much as transportation and parking. The parking garage at the Staples Center is not well designed. Lots of cool people and since it was close to Halloween the con did a little trick or treating thing for all the kids attending, exhibitors and AA’s got to give candy out to the kids, it was cute.

Fun Side Story – A few of the tables around me decided to do something funny and keep a tally sheet of how many people went by dressed as Harley Quinn or Joker since Suicide Squad just came out a few weeks before. It was a very impressive number. I also saw the best cross-over cosplay: Dead Pool Pikachu.

I would highly recommend L.A. Comic Con. Great show!

WonderCon (2017 – Anaheim, CA)

I honestly did not expect to get into WonderCon. When I got my acceptance letter I squeed. It was also a bit intimidating at first too since WonderCon is put on by the same people who do San Diego Comic Con. Thus I feel like it’s a pretty big show. A lot of the artists who I admire and have wanted to meet for a long time were at WonderCon, only problem was I couldn’t get away from my table long enough to talk to them! Oh well. Next time. I made profit at the show and met a lot of cool people, even landed a commission (yay me!).

I do recommend WonderCon!

Pop Culture Convention (2017 - Pleasant Grove, UT)

I want to say Pop Culture Con is in its second year? A smaller event but it was still fun. I was able to reconnect with artists who I haven’t seen for a while. I sadly didn’t make profit at this show, but it happens.

I do recommend Pop Culture Con. Small? Yes. But sometimes the smaller shows are a little more fun.

 A quick note about Salt Lake Comic Con and FanX. If you are selling in the artist ally they have a rule that you can only be selling 2D artwork. So no bags, statuses/figures, jewelry, or things like that. Unless something has changed, you can sell charms and buttons but they want your stuff to be like 98% 2D art work. I have no idea why they decided to do this, I have heard there are other conventions that have this same rule, yet this is the only one I’ve been too with this rule.

 These are all the shows I’ve attended as an exhibitor and my personal opinion/experience with them. I’m hoping to return to L.A Comic Con this fall and go back to FanX and WonderCon in the spring. I’m always on the lookout for new shows! Have you guys been to one of these? What did you think? And what shows do you recommend to others?

[bwprowl]

TakaraTomy’s latest entries in their Transformers run get a look at first tonight, along with the formal reveal and pre-order of the new Nendoroid from a video game that’s kinda popular. Then we’ve got pre-orders for toys bringing back the anime boom of yesteryear, with another Nendoroid of the classic variety, and Bandai of America trying to bottle that Dragonball lightning again. Plus a quick peek at a new Pokemon toy that caught my eye, and a new Transformer hot off the shelf onto my desk, tonight on Tuesday Night Toys!

New Stuff: Fine China

After seemingly staying quiet for some time, TakaraTomy finally saw fit to show off the next entries in their collector-geared Legends line: Targetmaster versions of Kup and Hot Rod, and Sharkticon with a bonus Sweep head. The Targetmasters continue to go as ambitiously above-and-beyond as TT has been getting lately, including multiple retooled parts (including new arms for Kup and a flip-down engine cover for Hot Rod) and completely new-tooling figures of the transformable gun-buddies. Those look great, though a couple things are rather off. Hot Rod’s got his proper magenta colors here, though his flame decal is looking a bit oddly stained-glass-ish. Kup’s colors are the real question mark, desaturating his distinctive teal all the way down to a mix of greys. This seems to be the result of Takara referencing some particularly poorly-colored models from late G1 episodes, and leaves it looking, as a friend of mine said, like a toy of Kup’s corpse. That aside, the new Targetmasters still look very good, and will likely still be worth it to those going in for the new tooling.

Hey TT, if you wanted to throw together a pack of Nightstick and Fracas, I’d be totally okay with that.

Sharkticon is predictably done up in a more specifically cartoony color scheme, and includes an amusingly Wario-esque alternate ‘Sweep’ head for the Scourge body. It’s nice of them to pack two troop-builders together.

Nendoroid Mei from Overwatch was fully revealed and put up for pre-order yesterday. She continues the detailed standard set by Tracer, good to see GSC is not just phoning these ones in. She includes a removable Snowball who can be set up with an effect for her Ultimate (the description even suggests you set up other Nendoroids ‘frozen in place’ within it). Sadly, no tiny Ice Wall or defensive block is included, those would’ve really pushed Snow Waifu over the edge. These Overwatch Nendos could maybe benefit from Zelda-style DX releases with bonus accessories. As-is, she still looks great, and they know people are going to buy her anyway. Apparently Mercy will be next.

Wishlist: Runnin’ in the 90’s

Nendoroid Lum from Urusei Yatsura went up earlier. The classic Alien Girlfriend getting a new toy like this just this year shows the endearing popularity of Takahashi’s formative rom-com, and the toy looks to be a good choice for anyone still nostalgic for it.

I saw that the first few of Bandai of America’s Dragon Stars line of six-inch Dragonball figures was up for pre-order, and that led me down a rabbit hole of finding out that they were actually launching a full Dragonball Super toy line for aisles over here! Not just these premium collector figures, there are also little blind-bagged spin-battling figures, collectible figurines, a fan-launching Goku, and these goofy things that apparently flex and their shirts fall off. It even includes role-play toys like deluxe Scouters and what is probably the greatest Dragonball cosplay accessory ever: A wristband with a firing Kamehameha.

Oh god anyone actually remember Karate Fighters?

Seeing all these clearly kids-play focused gewgaws makes the impending rollout of Dragonball Super in the west an interesting anticipation. DBZ was indeed hot shit in the late 90’s/early 00’s, and toys not unlike these ones were available to kids like me. Bandai made a lot of money off the franchise, and it’ll be interesting to see if they can repeat that success nearly two decades later.

Tangentially, Tamashii’s World Tour exclusives include this very nice-looking Kaioh-Ken-effect Goku SHF.

I haven’t paid enough attention to Tomy’s stateside Pokemon line. For all that some people gripe that Nintendo doesn’t release toys of enough of the Pokemon, Tomy does seem to do their best to make multitudes of miniature and posable figures of a variety of the cute little bastards. Notably, I was in the aisles the other day and came across a new figure they’re done of Mega Mawile! Mawile’s been a sleeper favorite of mine for some time now, and the Mega form was welcome when it appeared in Gen 6, and this new figure is an impressive, decently posable rendition of it. Nice to see Tomy willing to throw some unexpected choices out there along with all the Starters and Eeveelutions. I’ll have to grab this thing at some point, to indicate to them that I’d like more like it.

On-Desk: Couldn’t hit him

Hasbro’s distribution on Transformers has been nothing if not consistent lately. I hear people are finding that Chaos on Velocitron pack in Toys R Us across the country, so I head to my local TRU and there it is! Now just the last few days everyone has been finding the new Broadside in stores, and indeed, I found one for myself. Broadside was an anticipated release for me, not just for completing the Autobot Triple Changers or adding one more to a modern Wreckers lineup, but because he’s always been a rather unique design with a particularly underrepresented alternate mode. So how is the toy itself?

Titans Return Broadside is a ‘retool’ of Alpha Trion in the same way a chicken burrito is like a chicken salad. Some of the same ingredients are there but you’d probably need someone else pointing it out to even notice. Broadside really is pretty much a whole new toy. The robot mode is one of the looser reinterpretations we’ve gotten from the otherwise stringently G1-accurate Titans Return, sporting the character’s artwork-distinctive ‘broad’ grey chest with a cockpit bit in it, and in spite of ‘only’ being a Voyager-class toy, does a good job of ‘looking’ bigger than average, the way Broadside has often been shown in comics. Lots of bits besides his chest contribute to this, from his thick lower legs with the fins jutting out even further in front of them, to his big meaty mitt-hands, to his solid block of a face. He just conveys size, something that’s always cool when toys of any scale do it.

Transformation to his jet mode is shockingly simpler than I was expecting, especially after the enjoyably involved conversions of the previous wave’s Megatron and Optimus. You really just angle his legs up, shift the arms down, and flip up the nose and you’re there! It definitely is more than the sum of its parts, at least. Once it’s all in the right position everything converges together into a decidedly fantastical but still cohesive jet mode. Once again it commands a sense of size, with the bulky back end and chunky cockpit with its big bubble window that can easily be popped open to seat his Titan Master (delightfully named ‘Blunderbuss’). Thanks to a couple well-placed pegs and clips, it even holds together decently, in spite of playing fast and loose with how the transformation itself works. Still, this is definitely the ‘third mode’ of the Triple Changer.

So would a Broadside gijinka just be a KanColle?

The ‘main’ alternate mode would of course be Broadside’s aircraft carrier form. Fully stretching out the robot’s frame and pegging together panels on the top to achieve the ‘deck’ of the ship, this mode delivers the most fully on the ‘big’ promises of this toy. It’s as long as possible, and even stands high thanks to some creative ‘landing gear’ that folds down from the bottom, to help it set stable. There’s a wide variety of details on top of the deck, selling the idea that this is a big ship with lots going on, including an ID number, a runway (made up of some stickers that could be better) a tiny little scale control tower, and plenty of spaces and areas sculpted in for planes (and more on those in a minute). If there are some imperfections like the stickers and top panels not lining up perfectly flush, it’s all kind of swept away in the overall appeal of the toy achieving a big, unique mode like this.

Broadside is complimented with one of the coolest extras I’ve seen included with a mainline TF in some time: A sprue of absolutely tiny scale airplanes, which are actually sculpted in the likenesses of the Combiner Wars Aerialbots! You clip these off and they’ve got holes on their undersides to peg into the standard-scale tiny pegs that all TR toys have in some places (nominally to let Titan Masters stand on them). In Broadside’s case, the deck of his carrier mode is loaded with a bunch of those things, letting the planes be pegged in a multitude of different positions all over it, completing the look of an aircraft carrier and fully selling the size and scale of the thing once and for all. It rather awesomely turns the whole thing into a mini vehicle playset of sorts. It truly brings the toy to life in this mode, and was a super-cool thing for Hasbro to include. These tiny jets honestly make this toy.

Meanwhile, you can flip over the control tower for probably the goofiest Titan Master seating option in the entire line.

Broadside is far from perfect, with each mode having its share of issues or shortcomings. But it’s the way all the good parts those modes also have come together that makes him work as well as he does. He’s unique and fun to play with, and the bonus of the tiny Aerialbots is just a hoot (you can even peg them onto him in robot mode to sell the idea that he’s super-huge in that form). I know most are going to get him just to complete one or another ‘set’ with previous toys, but he is totally worth getting on his own merits.

I’ll see you all next time, and as always, I hope you have fun!

[recentanimenews]

EVENT REPORT: Heating up with Anime Figures at Wonder Festival Summer 2019

  Wonder Festival, WonFes for short, is the biggest figure convention in the world. Held twice a year (once in summer and once in winter), the festival is held for only one day at Makuhari Messe, just a short train ride out of Tokyo into the neighbouring Chiba prefecture. We sent our Japan Correspondent, Daryl Harding, to check out all the newest figures on show on the hot and humid summer day.

    Out of the big anime conventions to go to in Japan – the others being Comiket and AnimeJapan – Wonder Festival was the only one I hadn’t gotten a chance to go to yet. Ultimately, I only really expected a bunch of figures in a room, but what I found when I walked through the door was a love letter to figures and the entire industry, with some of the usual anime fun as well.

    GARAGE KIT HALL

  Walking in, I was greeted by one of Makuhari Messe’s halls, filled to the brim with tables and stalls set up with everything from Gunpla to figure painting, model creation, and so much more. While I would have loved to spend more time in the Garage Kit area, I quickly got distracted by the Wonder Showcase.

    The Wonder Showcase had a huge booth of figures shown off in past festivals. Celebrating its 20th year, the booth had an array of figures that were both original and based off established series on display. Some personal favorites shown off here were Kitsunetsuki, Wakker, Fuhehe, and Land of the Lustrous character Cinnabar (picture below). That red hair is beautiful.

    COSPLAY AREA

   Outside in the heat was the cosplay area. I was surprised by the lack of variety of cosplays and cosplayers at Wonder Festival; maybe it was due to a typhoon that was supposed to hit? Or maybe it was from the heat being unbearable. Whatever the reasons, due to the lack of cosplayers, the lines of the cosplayers that were there were too long, so I only got a few shots.

  Cosplayer @HCLI_JPN

  Like the spectacular looking Sanji cosplayer above, who was inspired by the Indeed x One Piece crossover promotions, and looking very suave!

  Cosplayer @denden007

  And this Yoko Littner from Gurren Lagann. While I thought her costume and gun were impressive, what was even more impressive was the full-size Lagann behind her. Sadly, I was not allowed to ride it.

    Finally, it wouldn’t be a figure convention without some “dollers”, also known as kigurumi (roughly translates to costume) or animegao (anime face). I was able to snap this very photogenic Yugiri from ZOMBIE LAND SAGA. While I wasn’t able to get a name – I got a strong dame (no) when I asked – they were very sweet and even held my hands in thanks. A true Legendary Courtesan.

  INDUSTRY HALL

  The main area of Wonder Festival is in Hall 2, where all the industry booths are. This is the area where you can see all the new figures being released soon, art installations, and even some, quite tasteless, World War II uniforms. All in all, though, this was the hal in whichl I spent the majority of my time.

    There was no shortage of Evangelion love this year, with the franchise having its own booth and taking over others with figures on display and art installations. The Evangelion booth itself was blaring previews for the upcoming Evangelion 3.0+1.0 film, which included the 10-minute preview shown at special locations around Japan and Japan Expo in France.

    The best figure on display here was the imposing Unit 01 running through the city (pictured above). Outside of the booth, there were intense displays set up recreating key moments from the original Neon Genesis Evangelion series, including when Unit 02 was being devoured by the Mass Production Evangelions (pictured below).

      Figurama was showcasing the most spectacular of figures. The sheer scale and detail on the figures – well, they were more like dioramas, recreating pivotal scenes from the series Figurama had licensed – was out of this world. The Hellsing Ultimate diorama (pictured above), with Alucard shooting a Nazi from The Millennium Organization, was 67cm tall and just blew me away.

    Around the corner from that was the Tokyo Ghoul diorama (pictured above), recreating the fight between Kaneki and Yamori from the series. At a whopping 63cm in height, it felt like the figure was taken straight out of the manga pages and brought perfectly to life. The craftsmanship of all the figures on show at this booth were just exceptional.

    Ichiban Kuji, from Banpresto, brought an impressive array of figures to Wonder Festival this year. In Japan, usually the first-run of the figures are lottery only, and you can only see pictures of them when trying your luck, so being able to see the figures in the flesh was really cool, especially the upcoming Tanjiro and Nezuko figures from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (pictured above). Luckily for international audiences, you can buy them outright! Sometimes it pays to live outside Japan...

    The vast amount of figures from That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime made me so happy, including this adorable Milim and angry Rimuru figure (pictured above). It’s truly a series I’ve enjoyed, so seeing it well represented at Wonder Festival with so many different figures was great.

    Bruno Bucciarati, from part five of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, has an upcoming fabulous figure being released, but shown off was a variant version that gives his Stand, Sticky Fingers, a beautiful blue sheen.

    Dynamic poses from the Ichiban Kuji series are just one of the reasons they’re so popular, and the above figure of Luffy from One Piece showcases his free-spirited nature so well.

    KDColle, KADOKAWA’s new line of premium figures that tell “A new story that you can take in your hand”, was also on display at Wonder Festival. KDColle were showing off some production figures that have yet to be fully realized, including the above figure of Subaru and Rem from a scene in Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- in this gorgeous and detailed figure that I need when it's properly released. 

    All of the figures shown off in the new line were incredibly detailed with rich expressions, like the above figure of Mamako from Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? I may not like her two-hit attack, but I love the work done on this figure.

    The KDColle series also announced KONOSUBA -God's blessing on this wonderful world- figures featuring the trio of Darkness, Aqua, and Megumin in yukata. They match their respective colors in the traditional dress, and look absolutely adorable doing so.

    Over at the Good Smile Company booth, they announced a whole range of dazzling Pop-Up Parade figures based off the characters from PERSONA5 the Animation, including Ren, Futaba, Makoto, and Akechi.

    Continuing with the Pop-Up Parade series, the newly announced Garou figure from One-Punch Man was shown off alongside another Saitama figure (pictured above) in his casual hoodie. All the Pop-Up Parade figures I saw being shown off were really well designed, with the eyes on Saitama above showcasing the level of detail that went into his design superbly.

    The Good Smile Company booth was also attached to a stage area that I was not allowed to get images of. They had some stage events during the day of upcoming anime, with some voice actors coming out and discussing why they’re excited for their upcoming series. One of the events I was able to catch was for the upcoming CHOYOYU!: High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World! TV anime series, airing in October. They brought out the group DIALOGUE+ to perform the opening song live on stage. The energy the girls had on stage was infectious and the song was enjoyable too!

    I could go on and on about the amount of figures I saw during Wonder Festival, but then I’d be here all day. I was surprised by the amount of fun I had just looking at figures and being able to take photos of them. If you’re into figures (and you have A LOT of money to spend), then Wonder Festival is for you. It’s held twice a year in the summer and winter, so be sure to check the website for more details.

    ----

Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs the YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza and posts photo of his travels on Instagram.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[sewgeekmama]

This week’s Geek of the Week is a mom blogger, LEGO fanatic and former child TV star (scroll down for the evidence) that’s about to welcome a new little girly geek any day now. Check out her blog for coverage of all the geeky stuff you were probably expecting to find here at Geek Mamas and then discovered it’s really just me complaining about potty training and tantrums with an occasional Star Wars reference.

1) Let’s start with the basics – name, what do you do, etc.

I’m Christy Marie aka Geek Mom. I’m a mother and a blogger, cosplayer, a huge AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego) and a photographer. My website is www.GeekMomLife.com and I’m @GeekMomLife on Instagram, Twitter, FB & Pinterest. I blog local San Francisco Bay Area events and about geeky products and fandoms.

2) What do you geek out on?

I have so many fandoms! The Walking Dead has been a huge one for me since the comics and I love the show too. Negan and Daryl are my dudes and I am a huge zombie fan. I have even cosplayed as female version of both of them. When I am Negan people ask me to kill them all day at Cons, its great! 

I also love Star Wars, Willow, Lord of the Rings, Ghostbusters (yes the female version too!), Star Trek, Alien, The Dark Crystal, Firefly, Labyrinth, Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, Legend, How to Train Your Dragon, Nightmare Before Christmas and Jurassic Park. I would really like to cosplay a character from all my favorite fandoms. My fiancé Danny and I only got into cosplay in the last 5 years or so. Also, I have to order most of it because sadly I can’t sew. My favorite cosplays are turning male characters into female, it’s so much fun to just let go and be someone else for a day especially when they have super powers or cool weapons right?

We are also constantly at Lego conventions. Danny and I have, well let’s just say, a few too many Lego sets.

3) Marvel or DC? and Why?

I love strong female heroes and villains so there are two totally different reasons I like each. DC has the better female villains like Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Cat Woman, who I adore. But Marvel has the better female heroes like Rogue (my all time favorite), Jessica Jones, The Wasp, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Domino, man I could go on all day. Plus my first ever cosplay was Scarlet Witch and Danny was Nick Fury, so if I had to choose one I would definitely choose Marvel.

4) Star Wars or Star Trek? and Why?

Star Wars over Star Trek for me. I have such a love and admiration for General Leia, she is the biggest reason this fandom wins out. I have a big Leia collection of toys, comics and memorabilia. She never put her hand on her head and fainted, or yelled save me, or anything like that she took charge and kicked butt. When I was little I looked up to her and wanted to be her. She has always been my favorite movie character, with Ripley from Alien as a close second. The geek industry has such a shortage of bad ass moms like Leia and Ripley. And newer Star Wars characters like Rey and Jyn Erso have made me fall in love with the fandom all over again. Plus the world of Star Wars always seemed more real to me, all the characters and especially the Jedi, I have always wanted to be a Jedi.

5) Were you a geeky kid or did you come into it later in life?

I was a hugely geeky kid, got bullied by girls for wearing Star Wars shirts and talking about things like Willow (my favorite movie as a kid) not that any of it has stopped me in 35 years. It was hard to find a place to fit in, all the girls at school watched Boy meets World and Saved by the Bell, I was watching Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Ninja Turtles, the animated X-men series and Sea Quest. I found out that I fit in better with the boys and can even remember playing Ninja Turtles with my guy buddies on the playground in elementary school. I was always April keeping the boys out of trouble. I also loved Nickelodeon and was even a contestant on Legends of the Hidden Temple, remember that show? Though I didn’t get past the first round, it was a lot harder than it looked!

6) Are your kids into the geek stuff too?

My son is a huge geek, and he has grown up proud to talk about his fandoms and has never been bullied for it. Crazy how that has changed over the years. He goes to conventions with us, loves to dress up and can talk fan theory just like adults.

I’m pretty proud of how much of a confident geek he is, because for me that means I raised him right. We also have a baby girl due at the end of the month and we will be bringing her up on all the best fandoms and she can family cosplay with us too!

7) Are you working on anything right now you’d like to share?

Sadly I can’t fit in any of my cosplays right now so I can’t work on those, though I did just wear a shirt to a Con over the weekend that got some serious attention. Its had a Death Star on it and said ‘That’s No Moon!’.

The project I am currently finishing though is putting the final touches on our baby girl’s nursery before I post it in my latest blog. It is all Star Wars themed! I actually had quite a hard time finding things not only for a baby that was Star Wars themed, but especially stuff showing female characters. It took me pretty much the whole pregnancy to put it together and I’m very proud of it.

I can’t wait to show her all of our fandoms and get her excited about their characters and stories. Being able to enjoy my fandoms with my family will always be my favorite thing!

Big thanks to Christy Marie for answering my questions and congrats on her impending arrival! I am LOVING that Star Wars nursery. I really wanted to do that wall decal but it would have to say “I am a Jedi, Like my Mother before me.” Dad is more G.I. Joe than Jedi around here.

And if you are a Geek Mama interested in being featured, send me an e-mail!

Geek of the Week: Christy Marie from Geek Mom Life This week's Geek of the Week is a mom blogger, LEGO fanatic and former child TV star…

[canaryatlaw]

Okay. So I’m right now writing this while on our flight back from Rhode Island, currently on plane 1 from providence RI to DC where we’ll transfer to our second flight home to Chicago (and work 9 am tomorrow- yay 😑) but I’ve been sidetracked and tired so I’m overdue for some day posts for you guys, so consider this my weekend post for Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Probably doing paragraphs so it’ll post on tumblr mobile without fighting me too much.

Hopefully I remember enough details about Friday lol but I guess we’ll find out now. So I woke up at 7 like every morning and got ready for work. I was a little anxious about court based on what’s been going on but things were for the most part ok (I just had to remind one of the lawyers the reason I hadn’t looked over the folders were because they were in her possession, lol). Came back from work and got to work on my projects, it was the last day for the lawyer that lives right by me and is going to another firm so they ordered us lunch from that one Mexican place that’s like the fucking best and we all just talked about how much we loved their food the whole time lol so that was good. I did my normal crappy work until 3 at which point I was peacing out early to make sure we got to the airport in time for our flight. So I ubered home from there, changed and grabbed my bags, then ubered to pick up Jess and then head to the airport. We ended up getting to the gate with plenty of time to spare (because we had planned ahead accordingly) so we got food from this sit down Italian place which was perfect because I got to use it to spam my small group group chat with pictures of italian food because I’m rallying for us to go to an actual italian place sometime soon lol. The food sadly wasn’t quite as good as expected but was still fine.

Finished up there and headed back to the gate, not long after boarded the plane and took off. I always do the sudoku puzzle in the back of the inflight magazine while on a flight and after looking over my shoulder trying to point out places where 4’s would go Jess just got out her own magazine and tried to do it and subsequently got very frustrated that it wasn’t as easy as it looked, lol. So I did the two puzzles they had, then went back to reading the fanfic I had on my phone. The flight at that point ended up getting fairly turbulent which was somewhat anxiety inducing for some of us but of course we landed safe and sound. We got off the plane and figured out how the airport did it’s ride service before taking a Lyft (the pick up places for lyft and Uber were apparently different and we were in the lyft pick up place) back to our Airbnb, which upon getting to the street the driver was like “well I can’t see any of the numbers on the houses” and proceeded to just drop us off in the middle of the street. Well then. Remember it’s like 12:30 am lol. But we figured out which house was the right one then I had to pull out the guide for checking in which was getting the keys from the lock box and then getting into the place, which we eventually figured out lol and got to our room, at which point we basically just dropped our stuff and went to bed because we were mad tired lol.

The con opened at 10 and I wanted to shower (since I hadn’t the night before) in the morning so Jess set an alarm for 8:45. Got up when it went off and I just like, had a chill for some reason that was annoyingly with me like the whole day but was very apparent while I was trying to shower and get ready. But we managed, finished all that good stuff (I was doing Catwoman because it was easy and comfortable) and ubered to the con place which was thankfully very close by (we do this thing where Jess is like “did you get the Airbnb close to the airport or close to the convention?” and I’m like “?? Isn’t guess we’ll see maybe neither!!” Lol because it’s usually somewhat of a compromise between the two but this one ended up being nice and close to the place) where we joined a giant outdoor line to get in which of course was just not moving and then when it started went rather slowly. It wasn’t laid out all that well so we had to find out way around a bit at first.

Couldn’t find any coffee, which was kinda ridiculous because the place was called the Dunkin’ Donuts center (we did eventually find one Dunkin’ Donuts in the building, so Jess and I had to just buy cokes and drink them for caffeine lol. So we grabbed those and some sort of breakfasty food item before hitting up the show floor. Basically the show floor was its own thing attached to the photo op area, then there was a room with the like. B-List” celebrities (which was still some like, fairly major people, they just had a LOT of guests) then over like a connected portion of it where they actually play the sports ball (I think they did basketball and hockey, we concluded) was the major celebrities. So we went through the show floor and checked things out, then went to the smaller celeb room, where Katrina Law was, and we were planning on meeting her on Sunday for photos and such but she didn’t have a line at the moment (the set up of that particular room was REALLY bad) so we went and said hi to her for a bit, then eventually checked out the big celebrities which took a while for us to figure out how to actually get to where they were. So the people I actually cared about in this room were Kiefer Sutherland and Tom Felton, both of which has gigantic lines when we got there. I had a photo op with Kiefer later and was planning on hitting up his line after for an autograph. But nobody in that room was doing selfies (officially at least) and of course Tom’s autograph was a lot of money so I moved to kinda being meh on whether I actually ended up meeting him or not.

At this point I think we returned to the show floor where we hung out for a bit before getting up to try to wait for our photo op but there was a bit of a crowd in the area of people waiting to go back that they eventually just made disperse entirely so we kinda hung out around that area until we were called. I was going for Kiefer and Jess was getting a photo with Hayden Christensen, of Star Wars fame of course, which both happened to be around the same time. So once we got back there my line moved pretty quickly, Jess ended up being stuck there a little longer though. But yeah, it was the same photo people from last week’s con so we’re used to their deal, came in and fangirled to myself a little that he was RIGHT THERE and then of course inched closer as people got through, when it came to it he shook my hand and I said my name, took the photo just kinda generic nice pose, then as I was leaving I was like “I’ll be back for an autograph later!” to which he just kinda laughed and said okay.

We were planning on going to a panel that started not long afterwards featuring Katrina Law, Emma Dumont, and Elizabeth Henstridge (from Shield, who was new to me) and needed to get lunch at some point so I grabbed some food and we ate it as we made our way to the line to get in the panel. Ended up getting pretty good seats. The panel was great, they were all hilarious and totally upfront about everything. Jess asked the whole “what emojis would you use to describe your character and yourselves” and I was typing furiously the whole time in order to be able to tweet all the right emojis correctly for them lol. It was great because Emma asked Jess if she was cosplaying Jessica Jones which was what had been happening all day because she was wearing a black leather jacket, jeans, and black boots, but was not actually trying to cosplay her and was planning on another outfit she ended up forgetting an aspect of, but she said yes anyway, then later on in the panel Emma was like “I’m always just wearing my clothes and people are like ‘are you cosplaying Jessica Jones?’ and I just say yes even though I’m not” at which point we all laughed very hard because that’s literally what just happened. The rest of the panel was fun, Katrina Law had some very funny moments about reading in the Arrow script where out of nowhere Ra’s is like “no, they’re actually going to get married” and she just died laughing because she was like “the Olicity’s are gonna be so mad” and really that’s the best motivation to do anything in life.

So that was fun, and after that we went back over to the big celeb room to see how things were looking, with the hope that Kiefer’s line wouldn’t be too bad and I could get my photo op signed. There were only a handful of people in his line when we got there but he was also very obviously not at the table lol, so we investigated and asked if we knew when he was gonna be back and they were like “5 minutes” at which point we were like well that’s probably not true but it’s worth getting in line anyway so we did and maybe like 40 minutes later he showed up? Still much much better than like 2 1/2 hours in line lol so I was satisfied.

Now I guess I should talk about how much I love him to fully explain this story. Since it was a con and they were marketing towards what people would know him from there was a lot of like photos and stuff he was in when he was younger, none of which I’d ever seen or really had any idea existed, and some of those photos were rather entertaining. Back to the point though, I loved 24 back in the day like super hardcore, we were diehard fans for multiple seasons and like, I adored that show lol. If any of you remember my post from last weekend when I met Annie Wersching and how much I loved her, this is like that except so much more because this is the MAN who was the center of it all and damn I love him so much. Of course it’s been years since that has aired and he has in fact moved on, and I most definitely started watching Designated Survivor for him because I loved him so much. If you’re not familiar with the concept of the show it’s like when there’s a state of the union speech or something where all the members of the congress and cabinet and president are all in one place there’s like one person removed at a different location in case something should happen to all of the people at that location, which of course begs the question what on earth would happen if that were the case?? And that’s where the show picks up, with him being a minor member of the cabinet, secretary of housing or something along those lines but not like a politician really and he gets selected to be the person not at the state of the union and then of course there’s a horrific massive terrorist attack where they blow up the capitol building and suddenly the president, his entire cabinet, and the entirety of congress (apparently, anyway, but that’s another story) are all gone and this guy is now being sworn in as president. So I mean it’s pretty wild. But like, ugh he’s so great at it, and it frequently makes me frustrated that we’re in our current presidential reality because Tom Kirkman dammit is a fucking fantastic president and why can’t we just have him??? It’s not fair. So I was pretty amped to meet him.

So we get up there and he makes some comment about me being back with my cat ears lol and we talked and I said how much I loved the two shows and how happy I was that designated survivor got picked up by Netflix for a third season after it’s apparent cancellation because I really loved him in that show and wasn’t ready to say goodbye to it today and then he told me I made his day and was really happy and then when we were leaving he was like “see ya Rach” and I just died entirely I was deceased lol like this was so wild I couldn’t handle it. So I was sufficiently amped up after that lol. We were pretty much done after that so we were gonna get dinner and we were looking for a place on google maps and such and we wanted to see if we could make it to a store or some sort that had baby clothing to get a present for Katrina which hadn’t occurred to us until we arrived at the con and somebody else had done so for some reason lol. So I found a Cheesecake Factory next to some stores and y’all now how we feel about the Cheesecake Factory lol so we ubered over there and had to wait a bit but that was fine because after a crazy day just sitting was relaxing enough lol. So we were typical and ordered the same things we always get lol and then for dessert we both got the pumpkin cheesecake because it’s PUMPKIN time of course lol so that was lovely.

Once we finished there we walked down the road a bit to see what our options were and ended up going into an Old Navy to find their baby clothes section and like, this is why we don’t go to stores with baby clothes in them regularly because we both just like, died, looking at the clothing that was too fucking cute. We ended up finding these really cute little kitty shoes and got two kitty themed shirts to go with it and another shirt that had unicorns on it because we know how Katrina feels about unicorns haha and then got an adorable bunny gift bag by the register to give it to her in. So we were very happy with our purchases. We got an Uber back to the Airbnb that smelled very strongly of axe and I was like ?? lol and when we got back Jess showered and when she got out I brushed my teeth and it was like 8:30 but I was like I’m fucking tired I’m going to bed now lol and I was cold all fucking day like I said so I literally slept in my leather jacket because I didn’t want to take it off 😂😂😂 oh I didn’t explain the whole bedding situation from the night before, oh that was a trip unto itself, let me recount that so you can all appreciate what was happening here.

So if you read this blog at all you probably know that I’m allergic to polyester and can often recognize it on sight because at this point I know what it looks like. So we get to the room and there’s like a folded blanket at the foot of the bed that’s polyester and I’m just like whatever that doesn’t bug me but then once we pulled back the comforter there was a matching blanket and seat set that, I fucking kid you not, were all made out of polyester. And like, I’d never even seen polyester sheets up to this point so this was a totally new situation, and it was the blanket the sheets and the pillowcases so I was like welp I’m fucked and my original idea was to use my designated bath towel as a buffer where my skin would otherwise come into contact with the polyester but that didn’t work very well, at which point we turned the lights back on and took the non-polyester comforter from the top of the bed and just basically wrapped myself in it (like a burrito) and Jess got the rest of the blankets and that worked out fairly well lol so that was that adventure.

Anyway, Saturday night I fell asleep fairly quickly and woke up Sunday morning to my alarm at 9 and started getting ready for day two of the con. I was doing white canary Sara for the day since Katrina was there and we’d be seeing her. So I got into all my gear for that trying to be as careful as I could with my prized possession White Canary jacket signed by Caity Lotz (which was her idea, not mine, just saying). Lol. Since we were more familiar with the venue and their general lack of suitable food (that’s con food for ya) we ubered to a Starbucks that was down the block from the con center to get food and caffeine before going to the con. They somehow ended up being out of butter croissants but offered these honey pistachio ones they’re having now which was actually like super good??? I was kinda doubtful because even though I do like pistachios I’m still not a huge nut person but there ended up being fairly little of actual pistachio on it haha and was just in generally really good! So that was cool. Our goals for the day were pretty much the female actors from the panel the day prior, who were all in the smaller room so we headed up there and hit up Emma Dumont’s table first. If you weren’t around in April to read about our HVFF Chicago interaction with her basically neither of us were particularly attached to her but were going to get an autograph as a surprise for a friend’s birthday and she ended up being like the loveliest person ever so much so that we both got more into The Gifted and into her because it was basically the most personable celebrity interaction I’ve ever had like, it’s hard to explain how awesome she is haha she just is. She didn’t have a line at the time so that helped let us kinda hang out with her a bit longer than we typically would if there was a line (not that that seemed to bother her last time). So of course the first thing that came up was that Jess was cosplaying Lorna (her character from The Gifted) and then the whole Jessica Jones thing from the panel which she thought was fucking hilarious and then proceeded to tell us a story about being mistaken for Krysten Ritter as a Marvel person lol. And she was just continually awesome and hilarious. We ended up getting into a bit of a discussion re HVFF San Jose and how they had apparently been declining Marvel guests and she was like “I was trying so hard, like I came early and stayed late...” and like it made me so angry that anyone would be so rude to her like that after she had been so lovely to everyone so now I’m low key gonna run a Twitter campaign to make HVFF invite Marvel guests to their cons because that’s super shitty of them and they shouldn’t be treating people like that (I’m thinking like #twobrandsonefandom or something corny like that) so yeah that’s what’s happening there lol.

Once we left her table we ran into friends so we talked to them for a bit before going over to Elizabeth Henstridge’s table. Now I’ve seen precisely one episode of Shield so I don’t really know who she is other than from the panel the day before (well, that and certain stories Jess has told me.....) but the interaction was nice enough, she was lovely and British so that was all good. Katrina hadn’t been there initially but walked in after we had finished at Elizabeth Henstridge’s table just a few down from her so we got in the small line that has accumulated for her (again, the layout of this room was super shitty and not at all favorable for actually building lines) and got to her rather quickly, we gave her the baby clothes and she freaked out and loved them so we took a picture with her with them (even though we hadn’t technically paid for a picture 🤷🏻‍♀️) but Katrina was great as always and she was so excited like this is going to be the most well-dressed baby haha it’s gonna be great. It occurred to me that if we had had hindsight we should’ve gotten her a shirt similar to the one Annie Wersching had been wearing last week when she was Very Pregnant and her shirt said “future marvel superhero” with an arrow down pointing at her stomach so if we got Katrina one that said DC and then a baby outfit that said “future DC superhero” for when she’s born we probably would’ve won the internet, but alas, we missed this opportunity sadly. But after that we exited that room and got drinks quickly because my throat was being super dry and my credit card got declined which was like ??? but I figured it was probably a travel issue that’s happened a few times before so I didn’t think anything of it and just paid in cash and used my debit card for the rest of the day. We then hit up the show floor for a bit and weaves through all of it but were pretty much done there. We decided to go elsewhere for lunch then come back (though at this point I was like in all honestly we’re probably not gonna end up coming back). Jess was having a very bad allergy day probably due to something at the Airbnb, either pet related or some toiletry product (damn travel sized shampoos) and it was getting bad so we needed to obtain allergy medication so we got directions to the nearest CVS which required going through the hotel the con center was attached to over to a mall that had a CVS, so that was kinda confusing but we made it over and bought some Claritin D that would hopefully be helpful. Since we were at a mall at this point we went up to the food court to get some food there and ended up at a Johnny Rockets because shakes.

K so just for context I’m now in an Uber on the way home so a lot has happened since I started typing this lol. But yeah, Johnny Rockets was good of course and then we decided as I expected to not bother going back to the con and instead walked around the mall for a bit hitting up our typical shops (which are like, hot topic, h&m, forever 21 and some comic store lol) before ubering back to the Airbnb where we had left our bags to change and grab them before heading to the airport. Got to the airport, security was fine even though their stupid scanner hates me, but we got to our gate with time to spare. We were at the end of the hall in a fairly deserted spot and there was a guy like laying down on the floor with his shoes off and like we didn’t think anything of it because hey people in airports are tired and sometimes need naps. But then a security guy came over and was like radioing “we found him” and tried to gently wake him up and was like “we were looking for you, your wife’s here and she’s very worried about you and was about to cry” and I was like well shit now I feel bad that I didn’t like go tell somebody he was there haha but like I didn’t really think anything of it. So they got a wheelchair for him and wheeled him out of there. At some point I got some food from down in the terminal and we waited until our flight was boarding, once we were on it I listened to the legends podcast episode that dropped today and when I finished that I started writing this.

Short summary on what has happened since, we had initially had a very short layover that Jess was (rightfully) anxious about but our second flight ended up getting delayed so that wasn’t an issue. But they didn’t have like an open gate for some reason so we had to deplane and get in a bus that drove us to the terminal, then to get to our next gate we had to get on another bus to a different terminal before finally reaching our gate, so that was a bit of an adventure, and I mean if our flight hadn’t gotten delayed we almost definitely would’ve missed our connection under those circumstances and that would’ve been bad for everyone so I’m glad that didn’t happen. I grabbed a water and a small fruit cup from the store before sitting for a bit then boarding the plane, at which point I started typing this again and did so through the end of the plane ride, where we got off and went to the ride share pick up spy and for some reason two Ubers canceled on us so I was like fuck it I’m using lyft which ended up being like $8 cheaper but for some reason took like three tries to go through and then it looked like the driver wasn’t moving but eventually he did and we went outside to meet him, got in and started driving home, at which point I started typing this again and I’m still on my way home now. I took my pills on the plane this time so hopefully I won’t have to much of an issue falling asleep because I have to be up at 7 for work like have to have to can’t slack off and call in sick HAVE TO so I need to get as much sleep as possible. But yeah, that’s been this weekend up to this moment, pretty wild. We’re not quite home yet but I think I’m ready to sign off here, so I’ll talk to you guys soon. Goodnight peeps. Have as best of a Monday as Mondays can be.

[twentysomethinginorlando]

MegaCon Part Two: Meet Your Heroes

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MegaCon Part Two: Meet Your Heroes

Memorial Day decided it wanted to be even busier than usual this year. Rather spending my Thursday night finishing my cosplay preparations, I found myself at a movie in full pirate garb with my friends before our trip to MegaCon on Friday. You can read about this, and the morning’s adventures in MegaCon Part One: But First, Cosplay.

Thankfully, it didn’t take me too much longer to find the most important booth at MegaCon: Karen Hallion’s. If you’re not familiar with her work, Miss Hallion does amazing art. She is most famous for her crossover art with Disney characters and Doctor Who, but she does so much more than that. Lately she’s developed an original character named Celara that I really like. My favorite part of her is this cute little orange fox/cat/critter sidekick who reminds me of a cross between Duffy and my cat. I can’t wait to see what kind of adventures the little guy goes on. I’ve met Miss Hallion at the last two MegaCons. She’s just the nicest person and takes time with everyone even though her booth is always slammed. The best part is I somehow manage not to turn to Jell-O when I talk to her. I picked up a print of Celara and the TARDIS. I was torn between that one and the Hamilton one, but that’s just because the little fox looks so darn cute in his outfit. I like Hamilton but I’m much more a Whovian. I asked her if the fox has a name yet, and she told me the two she’s debating between but she’s stuck because she wants it to be just perfect.

I completely understand. This blog had a whole lot of titles before I settled on this one.

As I was finishing talking to Miss Hallion and putting my print away, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around expecting it to be someone asking for a photo and there was a guy with a microphone asking if he could interview me. Okay. That’s different. Well, why not.

He asked me about why I was Korra with a keyblade, and then he asked me about how I felt about the lesbian undertone of the ending of the series. I might have slightly bitten his head off without meaning to when I corrected him that Korra and Asami are bisexual, not lesbians. I get really angry about that. I also talked about how annoyed I am that is literally all anyone wants to talk about now that it ended that way. The show stood on its own well before that final scene.

Frozen Gaming interviewing me.

I think my aggressiveness sort of scared him and the interview ended quickly. At least I think it did. Apparently I do better when you put a camera in my face than I do when trying to talk to celebrities. The guy with the camera man was dressed as Ash from Pokémon and he apologized for their ambushing me, and gave me a card with their YouTube information. Their name is Frozen Gaming and much like me, I think they’re just starting out and I wish them luck.

You can see the interview here, but they cut most of it. Warning: Some of the language in the video is NSFW.

The new print wouldn’t fit in the bag with the first two prints, so I stopped at a random booth to see if they had a bag. They did, and she was very nice, and I wound up buying three postcard prints from her. Pikachu and Barry Allen for me, the Punisher for Jay.

We wandered the floor until a little after two when I was starting to get over whelmed with the crowds. I have worked in one of the world’s busiest theme parks and yet MegaCon phases me, because that makes sense. We headed back to the food area to find a place to sit for a bit and I rechecked the schedule. I had forgotten about the Improvengers show and now it was too late to line up. There were only two other panels I wanted to see: the Hillywood Show and James Marsters’. Sadly they were within half an hour of each other, and James Marsters obviously won.

I wasn’t sure what the line would be like for his panel, but I remember how crazy the Firefly panel lines were two years prior so we went ahead upstairs to line up. Basically this meant we got to camp on the floor for a while and rest and recharge, and look at our phones for the first time all day. I reached out to a couple of friends I knew were there, but hadn’t seen yet, and we agreed to meet after the panel. I had also been looking for a particular booth all day in Artist Alley and hadn’t seen it, so I went to their Facebook to ask the booth number.

While we were waiting, I saw a Black Widow and Star Lord walk by with their own keyblades, and I had to chase after them to get a photo. I didn’t want to interrupt them before they got in line, and we got some nice person in line to take photos on both Black Widow’s and my phones. We compared construction techniques, and I have a few ideas I want to steal to improve mine in the future.

Kingdom Hearts crossovers are popular this year!

They let us into the room around 3:30, and, boy, do I like walking around a keyblade on my shoulder. It makes it really hard for people to move past you. Having an intimidating pirate next to you also helps. We wound up in the second row after the VIP section and I left the keyblade across our laps until the row was filled. We talked through what all we still wanted to do before we left and made a list so we wouldn’t miss anything.

The panel actually started exactly on time to my surprise. I thought he might be late again. They played a highlight reel of his many roles over the years, and I was extremely disappointed the shot of him jumping on top of the coffin in “Once More, With Feeling” was not in there. The host welcomed him out and went over the rules for questions. Before he took the first question, James asked everyone in the audience to put their hands in their air and “scream like your team won the thing”.

Someone asked about a charity he just won an award for, and he talked about CASA, which is an association that helps foster children. Someone asked about how he got into acting, and apparently when he was fourth grade he played Eeyore in a school play. The live action Winnie the Pooh film Disney is doing got brought up and now someone would want him to do Eeyore’s voice. His response was absolutely perfect, in the exact voice, “Oh, Pooh.” Now I will be heartbroken if anyone but James Marsters plays Eeyore. He was asked about his work on the audio books of the Dresden Files, which Jay tried to explain to me and I quickly shushed him. I have never gotten around to reading them, but I know about them. “I have no idea why Jim Butcher picked me. No idea whatsoever.” He was asked about the hardest episode he had to shoot on Buffy, and he talked about how difficult the bathroom scene was, and the toll it took on him. “It put me in therapy. Which actually turned out to be a good thing because I’m much happier now.” He talked about where that story line came from, and the struggle and triumph of Spike gaining his soul. He talked about some of the struggles of going from stage acting to film, and “trying not to lie to the audience”.

Someone asked about his role on Torchwood. He had been on tour with his band, Ghost of the Robot, and his road show manager refused to go out to dinner with him because Doctor Who was on. So they ordered room service and watched it in her room, and within fifteen minutes he was hooked. He went down to his agent’s room and asked him to try to get him a role on Doctor Who. Russel T. Davies said no, but they had a perfect role for him on Torchwood, and they had been looking for someone to fill it. He also talked about being interviewed by the BBC for the homophobic backlash against Torchwood, and his response was apparently, “We’ve got a backlash!? That’s great!”

He was asked his favorite role he had ever played. Without hesitation he said, “Spike. Absolutely Spike. If you asked me to pick between Hamlet and Spike, and Joss is good but Shakespeare’s just a little bit better, sorry Joss, but I’d pick Spike. Absolutely.” Then my favorite question was about his favorite episode, because it turns out we have this in common.

Apparently the cast was very nervous about the musical because they thought Joss was “flushing the show”, but they decided to do the best they could anyway and hope it didn’t suck. Well, it certainly doesn’t suck. It’s my favorite episode of anything that has ever happened.

He also loved killing the Anointed One.

The time was up far too quickly, but I’m so happy this was the one panel I made time for. Three years ago, I had never seen Buffy. Then I didn’t understand why Spike was so popular when he was such a bad guy, then I was cheering as he and Buffy kissed at the end of “Once More, With Feeling”. His line to Buffy at the end of the series about how he loves her was one of my favorite quotes long before I ever saw the show, and I was so beyond happy it was his line.

We filed out of the panel and I stopped for a picture with a spot-on Buffy cosplayer before we went to find my friend Kimberly. Sadly she was in the South Concourse and I was in the North, but she was leaving soon and I was determined to find her. Tradition must be upheld and I have pictures with her at every MegaCon.

It thankfully didn’t take us too long to get across the building and I found her as Black Widow with our friend Mihn as Chirrut. I finally got to introduce Jay to her and we talked for a few minutes before we headed back to the floor. It was already five and we still had several things to cross off our list.

Our first stop was the Hillywood Show table. I had been putting this off because I wanted to meet them, but didn’t know what to say. They’re two sisters who do parodies, and while they aren’t the only reason I started making them myself, they definitely influenced me. Going up and telling them that would be awkward though, and probably giving them too much credit. So I decided I would just ask for a photo, because then I could meet them and it wouldn’t be weird, right?

Wrong.

The only way to get a photo was to buy something, which is fine except they only had merchandise from their three latest parodies: Sherlock, Supernatural and Suicide Squad. Three fandoms I am not a part of to begin with, and I like their older parodies better. I told them as much when they asked which was my favorite, “Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2.” “Oh but that one’s so old!” Long story short, I wasn’t getting a photo without paying ten dollars and it just wasn’t worth what I make an hour to me. Not when I just wanted to talk to them for a moment. Lesson learned, never meet your heroes. (Well, sometimes. Miss Hallion and Robby Cook were great!) I tried not to tear up when I walked away. It wasn’t that upsetting, it was just a very long day without a lot of sleep and it hurt my feelings a little.

Author Nick Braker.

Our next destination was the booth whose number I had to track down on Facebook. Nick A. Braker is a science-fiction writer from my hometown, and his son Chris was one of my best friends in college. Last year I’d been posting on Twitter about heading to MegaCon and he’d texted me I should go see his parents. Well I did, and then I had dinner at their house when I was home for my birthday last year, so I wanted to go say hi.

He’s one heck of a writer. He’s turned out three books in a very short time and he’s got two more coming. If everything goes according to plan, I’ll hopefully be venturing back into video production to produce some book trailers for him.

Now all we had to do was find the three booths we wanted to buy things from and we could leave. This should have been simple. It was not.

I wanted to find Brandon Kenney’s booth so I could buy his Lilo and Stitch Splash Mountain print and the booth with the Disney Parks style buttons. Jay wanted to find the independent fairy tale comic so he could get the preview issue. After wandering in circles through the aisles for twenty minutes with no luck, I went back to Karen Hallion’s booth because I knew I could find her. She collaborates with Mr. Kenney on occasion so I knew she would know where his booth was and her sister and business manager gave me directions. Miss Hallion happened to be standing in front of his booth when I got there, and I said, “Oh, I could have just followed you!” I couldn’t decide if I wanted the big or small Splash print, and Jay told me to just get the big one. I also picked up the pack of three Stitch stickers he had.

We resumed our wandering and I still had the change in my hand, which proved dangerous as I impulse bought a big Pikachu sticker for my bullet journal. Well, at least it has a purpose.

I straight up lucked into finding the Disney Parks buttons booth. I even followed him on Instagram earlier in the day and wasn’t smart enough to look there to see if he had his booth number posted. They were two for five so I picked Gaston and BB-8. I could have happily bought them all, and some of his prints, but I was trying not to go overboard. The artist’s name is Joey Quintin and he had a series of Disney characters dressed as cast members that was just fantastic. I asked him why Anna got to be a Skipper, and admittedly his reasons were good. He asked who I would want to see. “I don’t know, but I am a Skipper so I’m a little picky!” “That’s fair.”

Jay was ready to give up on finding the independent comic booth, but I was determined. It was the only thing he had really wanted all day, and it did look extremely cool. One of the main characters was the son of the Big Bad Wolf and he was on the cover with a brunette Aurora. We thought we knew the general area and we knew they had black and white sketches hanging on either side of the booth, but of course after a while everything just blends together. We went in circle after circle, and I must have passed the Brakers ten times now that I knew where they were. I was getting increasingly frustrated, but I do not give up easily. The warning message played that the show floor would be closing in half an hour, so we were almost out of time. Neither of us had been smart enough to take a picture of the booth or the name of the comic to look in the program.

ARGH.

Hero Cats!

I got distracted by the Hero Cats booth and wound up buying a comic and a button, but it’s literally about cats saving the world so I feel like that was another good impulse buy.

After about fifteen more minutes of circling, I finally spotted the booth and raced over to them. “Oh thank goodness.” The artist had returned and I honestly think we confused him and the nice woman we’d spoken to earlier, but I was so out of breath.

They had two comic options, the normal one which was one out of five hundred, or the variant which was one out of a hundred. The normal was $10, and the variant was, well Jay heard $50 and I heard $15 and I don’t which one of us was right because I bought the normal one. It came with a free black and white print, but of course the one Jay wanted wasn’t actually a print.

It was an original sketch. He offered to make a print of it and we could pick it up at a future con, but I elected to take the Beast print home and buy a second comic in the future. The series is titled The Chronicles of Zelaria: Dynasty of Darkness and Jay now owns #106 out of five hundred of the preview issue. I haven’t looked at it much yet, but I am already looking forward to seeing more after the description the author gave us while we were there.

We could finally head out, and began the long trek back to the car. I had tried to be good about switching which shoulder I carried the keyblade on throughout the day, but my back was aching. Jay’s pirate boots were killing him, and we were very happy to start stripping off the outer layers of our cosplays. I hadn’t realized how little my vest breathed until I took it off.

I hadn’t wanted to try to carry Duffy and the keyblade so he had to stay in the car. He didn’t seem too mad at me thankfully, I did let him watch Pirates the night before.

MegaCon is absolutely one of my favorite things about living in Orlando. I’m a little sad I didn’t get to go more days, there were other celebrities I would have liked to see like the Flash stars and Stan Lee. I’ve seen Stan Lee twice before, and he’s wonderful but this is his final Florida appearance. Getting off work on a holiday weekend is just too difficult in the hospitality industry, but I’ll be there at least one day next year. I never plan on missing it.

A pretty good haul!

Cost: A one day ticket purchased in advance was $41 after tax. The four day option I was looking at previously was $99 before tax. My portion of the photo op was $35. I probably spent close to $40 on cosplay supplies, and another $30 towards the keyblade, but a good chunk of that was the jigsaw which we won’t have to purchase again. I came home with a little less than half of my original spending cash. Parking was $15.

Duration: All day, whether you go for one or four.

Value: Absolutely worth it. Can’t wait to see who they announce for next year.

Add Ons: There are VIP ticket options, autographs and photos. The prices change from year to year based on what guests are attending.