My story begins as most do these days, me being full of anxiety. This anxiety was due to the fear of being pushed out of my comfort level to do something I have only dreamt of. Cosplaying.
Cosplaying was something I tried to do as a small child, mind you it was not something I did well at all. My first cosplay was Lawliet from Death Note with my messy emo hair, a mass amount of eyeliner on my lower lid and a grey shirt because I didn't have a white one.
This was the first time that I would have been able to do it in many years and the need to improve and impress my best friend's friends was important to me. I found out about this convention a total of two days before it happened, giving me zero time to prepare with work being such a big part of my life. I had to find a character and quick. A character that was popular yet easy for my baby face self to pull off. They had to be a cute character yet have an edge to them because I was still an emo at heart afterall.
I scrolled through many characters and came across Izuku Midorya from My Hero Academia and then it hit me. I currently had green hair all I would have to do is find some work boots, paint them red and draw some freckles on my face which would be easy enough to do on the train.
Fast forward a day later and there I was on my bathroom floor hand painting these ugly as hell shoes bright red because I didn't think of using spray paint. The paint was all over me, all over the floor and I was at the point of deciding on not going when I got a message from my beautiful best friend telling me how excited his friends were to meet me. With a tear in my eye I shuffled up my sleeves awkwardly, so I wouldn't get even more paint on me, and continued to paint. Of course when the shoes were finished I had to find a ridiculously large white shirt to paint 'T-Shirt' in Japanese on to it in dollar store black.
It looked horrible now that I look back at it but at the time I thought it looked amazing. Something no one else had done before.
The morning of the convention I was awake by five am and out the door by six am. I have no clue why I was up so early I could have easily been asleep for another half hour at least, all I had to do was put the clothes on and grab my bag of makeup to do on the train but I guess the nerves and need to be prepared got the best of me.
The train ride was slow but thankfully Mitch was there to listen to music with earphones and pretend to sleep while I decided that putting a sparkly fake bruise on my face would be an *amazing* touch for Deku. I wish that he had told me to stop because it was not worth the trouble that I went through. The whole preparation on the train and just the effort to find our way to the actual convention was not worth it if I'm being honest. Google got us lost. I urge you not to trust Google maps, that damn thing got me so lost. It sent me in the wrong direction for a good forty minutes! But little did I know that Mitch and I would meet one of our best friends to this day at the con and that would truly make it worth the effort and blisters that I was suffering from.
When we arrived at the con I had to pause before we went and met his friends, I need some good old nicotine. (This is not me encouraging it, actually I'm far from encouraging it. Don't get addicted like I am kiddos.)
A deep few inhales and I was ready to hit the wall of cosplayers that were bound to be outside. Bracing myself I walked side by side with Mitch to greet his friends. One was dressed as Rose Quartz and I was in awe. They were so good and here I was looking like a gremlin. But they were insanely kind to me and we chatted as we got our arm bands to prove that we were allowed in to the venue. It was amazing. Soon after Mitch's other friend met up with us and they got the first hand experience of watching me run and slide up to a Garnet cosplayer and awkwardly ask for a photo. It is hilarious to even look back on to this day because at this point in my life I have been in the roll of the Garnet cosplayer and seeing these people slide up and awkwardly ask for photos is endearing. I'm getting off topic aren't I? Well let's get back to the past.
After greeting and checking out some of the stores, from the corner of my eye I spot a girl with half white and half red hair. It was a Todoroki cosplayer! I was buzzing with anticipation. I had to go and meet them and ask for a photo no matter what. I flung the bag that the staff had given me in to the arms of Mitch and sprinted. Yes sprinted, towards this cosplayer shouting, "Todoroki!" At the top of my lungs. I really needed to get their attention.
They turned to the sound of my voice to see me, smiling like an idiot, running towards them only to skid to a halt and ask for a selfie. They were incredibly kind and indulged me. The photo was nothing to be proud of, if anything it remains my worst taken selfie ever but the joy of being able to take that photo with them was indescribable. Smiling I parted ways with them and gushed about them to anyone who would listen, which let's be honest was just Mitch.
After looking at the fanart I saw that there was a Meetup happening for the My Hero cosplayers and I thought, screw it I'm dressed up I might as well go join them. The first person there to interact with me was a lovely Toga cosplayer who made all her props from scratch. I got a few photos with her and then out of the corner of my eye who do I spot coming up? The fem Todoroki cosplayer from before. I gestured for them to come and stand beside me and they did with no hesitation, asking how my time there was going. We were quickly told to pose for a few photos then the Meetup was disbanded in under 10 minutes, which I now know is a short time for a meet up.
The Fem Todoroki cosplayer, who's name I now knew to be Emily, looked to be a little lost and I asked her if she was here with friends or if they just weren't cosplaying. She told me that she had not come with mates just by herself. I was gobsmacked. Come here alone? Was she okay? Did she need friends? I would be her friend! That last sentence was exactly what I said to her when I invited her to join us for the rest of the con. She eagerly accepted our invitation and joined us in our browsing.
Many hours were spent together looking at the same thing over again, as well as the two lovely people I was with indulging me in my addiction. We learnt a lot about eachother that day but nothing as much as we would know about eachother as we do today.
And that my dear readers is how I met one of my best friends Average.Cosplay before she was Average.Cosplay
