Cosplay Catastrophe and Reset, Followed by the Concussion of the Century (Anime Expo 2017)

”Tis the season of unexpected happenings!! I’m honestly excited, all things considered. I mean, perception is 9/10th, right? Well, maybe not, but I’ve found my bright side.

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I’ll begin not with what happened first, but what happened most recently… One of our presumed conference compatriots (not Chronic, but rather “he-who-as-of-yet-must-not-be-named”) won a bad concussion playing basketball on a trip back home to visit family, the severity of which dictates mandatory rest for an entire month. I don’t know what his conference status is, but it isn’t looking good, so we’re assuming until otherwise stated that Chronic and I are once again tag teaming AX2017. I feel very bad for our anonymous once-adventurer, as I think he’d finally made the jump to buy his plane ride and I know he’s purchased many concert tickets. (He’s very much into JPop.) I reached out, but he doesn’t seem to be in much of a chatty place right now, understandibly. Poor guy. 😦 😦

I dunno when we’ll know more on that end, but rather than confirm anything, I’m just going to let him come to me with updates as he is ready. He’s older than us and has wanted to go to AX even longer than we have, so this blow isn’t fun, and we are all just glad it didn’t mess up his scholasic plans (which, in the seminary, is so easy to do).

But maybe he’ll be up and at ‘um; you just never know, right? It’s at the end of his convalescent period; things are going to be dicey. Well save his spot and cross our fingers for him!

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Before this came about, my costumer skipped town the day they were supposed so send my costume! No, no, I’m not kidding!

I can’t sew a costume of the quality I crave; I don’t own a machine, and my hand stitching is limited to doll clothes. Two months out I commissioned this woman on Etsy to make my costume. I knew she was… frankly a diva… based on confrontations documented between herself and other clients, but her work was fabulous and I figured, hey, it’s one transaction and I’ll get alterations done locally if necessary, so no harm no foul. I trusted this woman, worked with her, treated her professionally (and kindly as one should)…

Well, a week before my costume was supposed to ship, this woman sends me an Etsy message saying that she’s closing her store because of a bad experience. What could be that wrong, I wondered, and I checked her reviews. Sure enough, she’s arguing no holds barred with a woman for whom she made a costume. The reviewer left 3/5 stars, and the costumer was just NOT HAVING that kind of criticism? Anyway, the costumer is on the attack, and this time she’s apparently decided to close her store. Over a three/five star review no less. Truly.

She says she’ll still be sending my costume on Friday, gives me a tracking number, and provides her contact information. Very well, that’s her prerogative; I appreciate she’s finishing my costume as agreed upon well over a month ago, and I’ll send her a kind email back. But noooo~~~~, this woman cannot be trusted, because the day my costume is supposed to be sent out, we get an email from Etsy very late that night announcing that her store has not only been closed but deleted, that I’ve been given a refund through PayPal, and that she “contacted the buyer” (me!) letting me know this. Guess what! NO SHE DIDN’T!

I try contacting her through the phone number she gave me only to find it disconnected. And then I sat there stuck, ready to scream or cry, because I carefully planned all this out in advance, and now, I think, it’s too late for a backup plan. Goodbye Tohru. My potentially once in a lifetime trip isn’t complete without cosplay. I’m such a goob. It’s a first world problem but I was so upset after trusting her and spending all this time/money.

What’s a girl to do? Well, I’ll tell you what she’s not to do: give up!

Before ever deciding on Tohru, I considered cosplaying as Yuri Cross from Vampire Knight. Tohru worked out better because my hair is long (whereas human Yuki’s is short) and my eyes are blue, but I still hold a very, very special place in my heart for Vampire Knight. (I discuss this awesome show here.)

In desperation and on a whim, I searched the internet for someone making custom Yuki cosplay. As luck would have it, I found what I was looking for, but they’re overseas, and even through I payed for rush shipping, the odds of my costume making it here in time aren’t guaranteed…

Anyway, I’ll leave this here for now, but you should know the plans have changed.

As it looks right now, it’s Chronic and I against the world and Shoujo cosplaying as Yuri Cross (vampire version) as shown below. ❤

Time to get color contacts in which I’ll see a bit blurry! (But I think I’m getting black boots over dark dark brown because I found some at HotTopic and I’ll wear them again. Does that ruin the cosplay?) My sweet husband is going to 3D print the charm for my Yuki necklace so we can make it ourselves (and I’ll keep it forever and wear it a lot not only because it’s cool but because Husband made it!!). I don’t know that I need fake bangs because human hair will never look as piecey as anime hair so that’s not expected like it would be for human Yuki!! I’m excited!! (My hair isn’t quite long enough, but it was still a little short for Tohru, too, so I don’t think it will matter.)

Your throughts? Black boots okay? I HOPE MY UNIFORM COMES IN!!

God bless you!

Shoujo