Alex stared at the mirror, trying to size up his potential cosplay.

I think having my hair like this should work. And I think that plucking my eyebrows helped. I should probably watch some makeup tutorials though.

Anime Expo was next week, and he had some friends visiting from Northern California to attend. Last year, at his friend Jazz’s suggestion, he had thrown together a last-minute cosplay and kind of regretted it. People didn’t even seem to realize he was in costume, and he felt vaguely embarrassed comparing his low-effort exercise shorts and black jersey, with the number 10 taped on, to all the professional-looking and polished cosplayers rocking skin-tight outfits or giant foam swords. He didn’t even have a wig or anything, figuring his messy auburn-ish hair was close enough to the character’s orange.

This year, though, he’d been planning this for months. He already bought all the necessary props on Amazon and Ali Express, except for some mild hot-gluing to assemble the skull hairpin.

Jazz kept suggesting that he crossplay--apparently she was into some League of Legends streamers who did that or something--and she insisted that with his skinny body type, almost neck-length hair, and smooth and hairless complexion, that he would make a great girl. He had decided to ALMOST, but not quite, take her suggestion.

I mean, technically Ruka is a boy. Well, in the main timeline at least. So it’s TECHNICALLY not crossplaying.

He adjusted the black wig for one last check before packing stuff away into the box under his bed. He had a vague paranoia his mom would walk in on him and think he was a weirdo, even though she was usually pretty cool about things. Even though she was technically Japanese (well, second generation), she didn’t know anything about anime beyond knowing that Pikachu was a Pokemon, or what Totoro looked like.

He briefly wondered if he should have snapped a pic to send to Jazz, before deciding it would be funnier to surprise her the day of.

Alex fidgeted and checked his phone once again. This IS where they had agreed to meet, right? The street corner near the LA Convention Center really smelled like piss and he was getting tired of waiting for Jazz to show up. He shouldn’t be surprised though, she was late to everything, especially if she was doing makeup beforehand.

FINALLY, he saw Jazz, her boyfriend Connor, and her girlfriend Alicia approaching (look, these were San Francisco Bay Area techies, where every other person lives with a polycule with multiple partners).

Jazz was wearing a gakuran and an over-the-top spiky wig. He wasn’t actually sure off the top of his head what anime that was from, although probably some battle shonen he hadn’t gotten around to watching. And it looked like Connor was doing Sebastian from Black Butler, AGAIN, while Licia had a pretty decent Aqua from Konosuba.

The three of them exchanged hugs before heading towards the con. As per usual, it was really hot out and layered, dark costumes weren’t helping. That was part of why Alex hadn’t actually changed into his outfit yet, even though he had already done the (minor) makeup beforehand. That, and he didn’t want to weird out his mom, or have his sister call him a weeb again. Weebs really were the most oppressed minority.

“No costume? You said you actually had something planned this year” Jazz scolded.

“Just wait a little, jeez. It’s in my bag, I’m just waiting until we get into the center and then I’m gonna find a bathroom and change.”

After waiting in line for a while--but not THAT long, compared to the schmucks who hadn’t preordered tickets--they finally got into the blessed air conditioning paradise of the con proper. A giant cardboard display advertised some new microtransaction-filled fantasy gacha game, screens played trailers for upcoming seasons, and cosplayers of all shapes, sizes, and quality milled around. After agreeing they’d meet by the artists’ alley--Jazz wanted to buy some pins from some webcomic artist--Alex ducked into the nearest men’s room to change.

He decided to check that he hadn’t sweated his makeup off or anything. While he was checking in the mirror, some random guy walked into the bathroom, did a double take, and then briefly walked back out before re-entering. Weird.

Anyway, it looked like the makeup was fine. It was basically just mascara, lip gloss, and blush anyway, because he didn’t really know how to do anything more ambitious, plus his skin generally looked fine as is. He stared at his eyebrows for a moment, wondering if he had overdone it with the plucking. Like, after Anime Expo was over, it was just going to look weird, especially when it was growing back in. But then he remembered his embarrassment at his half-assed cosplay last year and decided it was probably fine.

With a bit of difficulty, he changed in one of the stalls, managing to pull the kinda tight red pants up one leg and then the other while trying to stand on one leg at a time. After adding the black camisole and shirt, he headed back to the sinks and put on the wig cap and wig.

Heading to the artists alley, he felt a weird combination of embarrassment and pride. A few people stopped him to say they liked his cosplay, and one guy even took a photo. Definitely a different experience than last year, even if he wasn’t as flashy as some of the other cosplayers.

He found Jazz midway through buying a giant, stuffed pink bear with X’s for eyes. After grabbing it, she turned and finally noticed Alex.

“Whoa! Nice job, dude. No offense but that’s way better than last year’s.”

The group wandered around for a while looking at different stalls. Alex was almost tempted to buy some posters, but they were awfully expensive and he didn’t even know where he would put them. Then they split up, with Jazz and Licia heading to a panel with some voice actors, and Connor attending a workshop on making realistic prop weapons. Alex decided to go check out the tabletop gaming area. He hadn’t played Dungeons and Dragons for a while--the group he was hypothetically in hadn’t managed to meet for like a month--and just in case he had brought a prebuilt character sheet in the side pocket of his messenger bag.

He ended up joining a short fifth edition oneshot, with a group of four dudes who all already seemed to know each other. The Dungeon Master was a friendly, lanky guy named Stephen, who shook Alex’s hand when introducing himself.

One of the other players, Thom, was kind of being a creep and kept having his rogue uncomfortably hit on Alex’s female warlock.

“You want me to hit you with an eldritch blast, dude? It’s a cantrip, so I can go all day.”

Thom tried to wink, although his other eye didn’t actually close all the way. “Oh, and I bet you can go all night too.”

“Knock it off,” Stephen said. He turned to Alex. “Sorry about that, Thom has no clue how to behave around women. THIS is probably why we never have any female players.”

Uhhhh. Did Stephen mean my CHARACTER is female? Eh, maybe he just misspoke? I mean, it would be one thing to use female pronouns if I was dressed up as a girl, but technically I’m not even.

Alex’s train of thought was interrupted by an orc attacking the party, and he forgot about the subject in the ensuing heat of battle.

After the game was over, Stephen hung back. “Hey, so do you live in the area?”

“Yeah! Well, in the suburbs, like the South Bay, but it’s not that far. Depending on traffic.”

“Oh cool, I live in Culver City, south of Santa Monica. I might actually be trying to get a Pathfinder campaign going soon, if you’d be interested? We can exchange phone numbers or whatever. Don’t worry, Thom isn’t invited.”

“Sure, sounds cool! Uh, you can send me the details later. Do you have Facebook or Discord or anything.”

“Nah, I usually just prefer texting. Here, let me just enter my number, that’ll be easier.”

Awesome! I might actually get to play on a regularly basis.

After meeting up with Jazz et al again, wandering around some more, watching some trailers, and getting hot dogs from one of the food trucks parked outside, it was getting late enough that the crowds were beginning to disperse.

“Hey, Alex, you wanna come back to the hotel with us? We’re having a lowkey room party, just us and some people I know from back when I volunteered. Don’t worry, I promise they’re all cool.” Jazz winked exaggeratedly.

“Uh, sure. I can get changed at the room, right? Just wanna get it over with before I head home, plus it’s getting kinda sweaty in these pants.”

“Of course you can, sweaty.”

Alex groaned at the pun. Why were like 90% of his friend group bisexuals who loved terrible puns?