Not Technically Crossplay
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 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 NorCal 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 LoL 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.

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.

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 fantasy gatcha 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 AX 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 D&D 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 5E oneshot, with a group of four dudes who all already seemed to know each other. The DM 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? 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. 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?

***

Alex was glad to change out of his “casual Ruka” cosplay and into his regular clothes. The pants he got online were kind of a cheap material, mostly polyester, and sweat had been building up in them all day. He gave his face a quick rinse and used a little of the deodorant he kept in his bag.

As promised, the party was pretty lowkey. A few of Jazz’s con friends had shown up--including Stephen, who apparently helped with logistics for the tabletop gaming area--and some more were on the way. Alex got kind of awkward around large groups, especially if it was loud, so he was glad it wasn’t that kind of party.

Jazz had the She-Ra reboot kinda vaguely playing in the background, while people sat on the bed or couch and chatted. He ended up mostly talking to Stephen about D&D/Pathfinder. Apparently the plan for the potential Pathfinder game was to have a custom setting, with a tidally locked planet where one side was always night and the other always day.

The conversation had kind of petered out, with Stephen not wanting to say too much in case of potential spoilers, when three new people arrived. Alex’s gaze was instantly drawn to one of the newcomers, a girl with short spiky hair and a nose stud.

“Hey, this is Allie, Christine, aaand Max.” Jazz gestured to the three.

So she’s named Allie. Cute name.

He wasn’t sure why he was being so weird about this. Usually, he didn’t really feel crushes or whatever much at all, and had wondered if he was asexual or something. But, admittedly with no real basis, he just felt like this girl was really cute and also just cool.

He heaved himself off the hotel room sofa, telling Stephen he wanted to go introduce himself to Jazz’s friends, and awkwardly walked over. Allie looked over at his approach and smiled, and he felt his heart twinge.

“Hey, I’m Allie.” She offered her hand in a handshake, which he gingerly took.

“Uh, hi, I’m Alex. So, uh, how do you know Jazz?”

“Oh, we went to high school together. Although I guess we didn’t really actually start hanging out until after we graduated. You?”

“Yeah, we both went to Berkeley. It’s kind of funny actually, I majored in Computer Science and only met Jazz because of a mutual friend--Connor, he’s here, actually--who wanted to set up D&D, but I’ve kept in touch with her way more than anyone who was actually in my dorm or in my major lol. She took, like, so many humanities classes and I was always really impressed. I don’t think I could ever get myself to read that much Marx.”

Allie laughed. “God, or like Freud or Lacan. Disgusting. One time I had to read Wittgenstein for an art history class and I had absolutely zero idea what he was talking about. He kept saying ‘thingness’ like it meant something and I don’t even know.”

They ended up talking for a while about college classes they had had. Apparently, Allie had gone to community college for two years before transferring to a small liberal arts school and getting a degree in Art. He kind of admired that, just going for a major you were passionate about rather than trying to just go where the money was. Not that he hated CS or anything, but there was definitely an aspect of it where he wanted to be able to save up enough to get his own place. Then he wouldn’t have to do stuff like awkwardly changing in public bathrooms.

“Oh, so what do you do now?”

“Uhh… I work for a tech company, basically. It’s pretty boring but it pays well. I never know how to explain what I actually do to people though. Like, basically I’m on a team that handles data ingestion and does stuff like cleaning it up and de-duplicating it so then other teams can use it down the line.”

“Oh wow, fancy. Dang, you must be smart. I just work at GameStop. Honestly, I wish I could do art full time but it’s just so hard to break into.”

“Yeahh, that’s kind of what I hear from artist friends. Worst comes to worst, you could always do furry commissions?”

He really liked hearing Allie laugh, especially when he knew he was the one responsible.

“Hey,” Allie said. “It’s been great talking to you, but if it’s alright I think I’m gonna go mingle, try and meet more of Jazz’s friends.”

“Oh yeah, that’s fine, of course.” Secretly, Alex was kind of disappointed. If he had the choice he would’ve been happy to just keep talking to this girl all night.

For once, he worked up the courage to ask. “Hey, do you have, like, a Facebook or Discord or anything? Just because, like, you seem cool and maybe we could hang out sometime?”

“Oh, sure! It’s Allison Memelord on Facebook. Not my real last name obv, but I have some annoying relatives I’d rather avoid.”

As Allie wandered off, Alex quickly tapped into Facebook and sent a friend request. He was gratified a few minutes later when his vodka tonic sipping was interrupted by a ping as she accepted. It looked like her profile was mostly vaguely socialist memes or posts about art, anime, or video games. Pretty normal stuff for a friend of Jazz’s.

Alex knew he was a lightweight, and just the one vodka tonic was pretty much enough to put him into a weird haze. He ended up crashing on the bed for a while, just staring at the ceiling and listening to other people talk. Licia came by and asked if he was okay before he waved her off. She said to call if he needed anything, like a glass of water or an aspirin.

After a while--he really wasn’t sure exactly how long--he started to feel more normal and sat back up. The room had kind of cleared out as a bunch of people had gone out onto the balcony to smoke weed, even though there were pretty clear NO SMOKING signs on the door. He ended up talking to Connor for a while about JRPGs, while occasionally glancing over wondering when Allie was going to come back inside.

After everyone had finally trickled back in, Jazz got up in front of the TV and announced that they were going to do karaoke, and that participation was mandatory. The music started to a combined chorus of boos and groans, and Alex sighed internally when Jazz pulled up someone else to go first.

He ended up deciding to go with “Total Eclipse of the Heart”--super cheesy, obviously, but honestly kind of a bop. And pretty much within his admittedly limited singing range. Sometimes he vaguely practiced singing higher, trying to keep up with Freddy Mercury and stuff, but usually he didn’t want to go too loud because he was embarrassed his parents would hear. Another reason to get his own place.

The performance went pretty okay, with people enthusiastically clapping and cheering at the end. Jazz slapped him on the back and said, “I’m really happy to kind of see you getting out of your shell a little!” Do I usually have a shell? I mean, being nervous around people isn’t the same thing as a shell. That sounds like I’m hiding or something.

After several hours of karaoke, Alex felt fully sobered up, and figured it was late enough that he should probably start heading home. He said bye to everyone, giving one-armed hugs to the people he had met earlier like Stephen and Allie, and then called a Lyft home.

Even though it was kind of late when he finally got back to his room and collapsed in bed, he spent another half an hour with his nightly ritual of checking if any manga he liked had updated--he read kind of a lot of yaoi and yuri and gender bending stuff, but it wasn’t THAT weird for a straight guy--before plugging his phone in and going to sleep.

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