2.0 - Edited by: Rellawing, AlliterativeArts, Raleon, Trismegistus Shandy - 9/14/2020 

 

The Hermes International Conference and Convention Center was stuffed with fans more rabid than Leona. They were people with a great interest in ‘Cape and Cowl Culture.’ There were tons of cosplayers who dressed like their favorite heroes or once in a while as a villain. While they each had varying levels of interest in the culture, they all come together and enjoy each other’s company for a small slice of their lives.

 

Sarah and Leona walked into the main atrium proudly. Sarah wore a cute cat hoodie over the very same white kittie-covered swimsuit, she wore to the water park. To complete the look she donned a domino mask which matched with the white-like-the-rest skirt she wore over the suit. She found some tiger-striped leg warmers to pull over the boots she wore.

 

On the other hand, Leona had put together a decent Mistral costume and was rocking it. Quinn had colored her hair a brighter blonde with spray and sent her with plenty of backup spray bottles for touch ups. For the sake of gaining such bright-colored hair means some potential damage to your hair, particularly if you want pure white hair, which Quinn had done without fear of any natural backlash. 

 

Leona’s mostly-color-matched spandex suit did it’s best to emulate her favorite Weather Witch of the North’s look. She had gathered all the pieces of her look herself, except for her accurate hair color, of course . All in all, she was proud of her costume. When Sarah saw Leona in it, she barely recognized her.

 

“Oh damn! You’ve got a great Mistral look! I LOVE it!” A passerby enthused. “Would you mind posing for a picture there with your friend?”

 

Sarah looked uncertainly at Leona but a proud Leona posed and nodded affirmatively. “Certainly I will.” She put on airs like she thought Mistral would.

 

Sarah giggled and hopped next to Leona and took a pose of her own with her ‘paws’ up. “And I’m the Nyavenger!” Sarah cried.

 

Leona nearly fell over with how cute Sarah was. People around laughed and applauded, and the cameraman got a bloody nose, literally.

 

After they let a few shots be taken, they moved on further into the Convention without any anxiety. Everyone was happy. Leona was among the happiest until she saw a costume better than her own. She nearly fell to pieces gawking at how authentic it was, she almost thought it was the real thing. Worse than that, the woman wearing the better costume walked up to her and took her hand. “Your costume is great!”

 

Leona was stunned by it but she instantly felt better knowing the person in a better costume thought she looked like Mistral! Leona glowed and practically flew as they worked their way through the rest of the convention. The pair stayed together for the most part, even when, once in a while, they stopped to take pictures with other ‘superheroes’.To their delight, they got enough cred that they were approached to be in the costume contest later that afternoon.

 

Leona occasionally ran ahead of Sarah to do things she wanted to do, but they attended the seminars together, ones like: “Superhero morality in the modern world” and a craft seminar on creating costume pieces out from everyday materials that was kind of like a sci-fi-on-a-budget class. Though she didn’t play the game, Leona also visited a meet-and-greet for Banners of the Bold players for Sarah, but they left it fairly quickly as the nerd boys started to congregate around them.

 

Following a brief detour through the shop stands, they split up for a short time. Afterwards, they met up again at the Clocktower Cafe set up on the lower level after sampling the dealer’s room merchandise. 

 

Carrying something around the size and shape of a softball wrapped in newspaper, Sarah grinned at Leona with a kitty smile. “I got Ms. Troll a gift!” She purred, holding it out just far enough that she could snatch it back if Leona reached for it.

 

Leona’s lips twisted. “It’s Mistral, you foolish feline. Not ‘Ms. Troll’, BAKA!” Leona laughed aloud.

 

“Awww.. you wound me, Leona…” Sarah smiled playfully. “I’ll give it to you after the convention, maybe…” She teased and took another cat-like pose, one hand on her hip and the other out with her gift, clenched up like a paw. “Let’s go into the cafe nyow!” She winked.

Using the “gamma” clearance associated with their passes, they got an exclusive amazing perk. 

 

Another meet-and-greet, but this time with some of the civilians who had worked with heroes in the past. They happily shook people’s hands, got autographs and pictures with them. They decided to stay at the convention center overnight, to attend some of the darker-edged fan films. Sarah used some of the time to sleep, laying across a set of chairs pushed together, but Leona watched on into the early morning filled with a few horror spin-offs and after that she even checked out a few things that... WHATTTT???

 

And what Leona saw affected her deeply: a yuri feature which involved the heroine Trinity and Redline Racer. The yaoi special with Vanguard and Midnight Avenger made her pretty squeamish, so Leona fled the screening area. She wasn’t homophobic but it just wasn’t exciting for her.

 

The next day the convention went off pretty well. The two spent pretty much every second together. Their special passes allowed them to attend a variety of additional fun activities including a brief flight around Seaside City in an older model of the Sentinel Wing, a private aerospace transport vehicle previously used by and was donated by The Sentinels. There was even a brief lunch with the superheroes Bombshell and Dragonmage!

 

As expected, Bombshell was boisterous and greeted everyone openly while Dragonmage was polite and stayed mostly quiet. Towards the end of the meal he disappeared mysteriously as was his wont. Bombshell explained that he had to attend the ‘Vampires from Dimension X Panel’ or some such and she played it off as a joke.

 

And with that, the Convention drew to a close with the closing ceremony. Quinn picked them up and drove them home. “How’d it go? Have fun?”

 

“HECK YES! WE MET HEROES! UWAAAAA!” Leona was practically foaming at the mouth in her excitement. Quinn and Sarah both laughed.

 

“It was amazing, really… way cooler than I thought! Oh! Your gift, before I forget it… it’s in my bag and I’d have taken it home if I hadn’t repeated it a million times in my head before we left the convention, ‘Don’t forget to give Leona her gift… don’t... DON’T!’” She laughed as she fished out the newspaper wrapped object from her bag and handed it to Leona with a warm smile and a hug that Leona paid back with dividends. Caught up in the moment, they hugged as they enjoyed the ride home, and all too soon Sarah was home.

 

When Sarah was out and headed up into her home, Quinn drove off quickly, knowing her parents would come looking for her if she didn’t book it. She commented when Leona slipped into the passenger seat. “You should have copped a feel, ya know. So much platonic hugging. My backseat wasn’t intended for such saints. I mean, I’m sitting here watching you two acting like a couple out of a Disney flick.”

 

Leona blushed and fidgeted as she opened up the gift, or rather unwrapped it. In a thick glass sphere there was something really strange… it had some kind of note of authenticity with it…

Leona blinked before sighing. Sarah seemed to have fallen victim to a scammer on the dealer’s floor. She remembered there was some talk on the forums about scams involving Angel's Down. People were claiming they found ‘authentic’ feathers and sold them on the black market. This particular feather apparently worked its way onto a dealer floor at the convention. 

 

Something like this was pretty easy to fake since all you needed was some dirty pigeon feathers. It wasn’t just Sarah who fell for these scams. Any Angelic-type heroes feathers had gone for top dollar, and this was routinely discussed on the boards online.

 

Leona wondered how much Sarah had wasted on this kind of garbage.