A quick detour from the convention party [FM]

It’s been a busy start to the year for me, but in all the most boring ways properly, which has meant a major dry spell too, and with no conventions early in the year I’ve been pretty fed up. However, last weekend finally marked the first event of the year, which me and a long-standing friend headed down to – meeting up for lunch, then jumping on a train and making it to the convention a couple of hours later.

The event itself takes place in a hotel, so getting from hotel room to convention was simple, and we took it easy on the Friday – no cosplay, just hanging out, catching up with some people, and having a few drinks. Although, of course, I found myself sat in the hotel bar and sneaking looks at Tinder to pass the time whenever the conversation waned.

Come Saturday, it was our first cosplay day, and for me my outfit of choice was Asuka from Evangelion’s school uniform – a red wig with unique hair clips, a white blouse with red bow, short blue skirt with straps over the shoulders, and knee-high white socks topped off with normal school-style shoes. It’s probably my current favourite outfit, so I was pretty thrilled to get to show off in it again, and was in a bright mood as I strode about and posed for photos.

A morning as a magical maid [FM]

Although I mostly enjoyed my Christmas and New Year, it was a frustrating time for me sexually, especially while my sister was clearly having a great time which only made things worse. However, over Christmas I was contacted by a photographer who lived surprisingly close to my parents looking for a very particular photo shoot with me, and given that I was perfectly placed I jumped at the chance to arrange something with him for the period between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

So, one morning I woke up a little earlier than I normally would have, grabbing some breakfast quickly, showering, then packing the outfit I’d been asked to bring into a bag and borrowing my mum’s car for the short 20 minute drive to the photographer’s house. After parking up and taking a deep breath, I grabbed my bag off the passenger’s seat and headed up the drive of the house, seeing the door opening as I walked towards it. Waiting for me was the man I’d been talking to – in his late 50s, with grey, receding hair, well-dressed in a shirt and trousers and enthusiastic in his greeting towards me.

Staying home to look out for my sister – [F] watching [FM]

Last Christmas, I had to put up with my sister incessantly going on about her boyfriend, and ultimately inviting her over while I was home, meaning that I couldn’t resist seeing what she was up to (https://old.reddit.com/r/gonewildstories/comments/7mhknu/being_a_nosy_sister_f_watching_fm/). This year, I was prepared for another festive season of my sister being insufferable about her relationship, and while I’ve had to contend with plenty of that – I had to give up the “down a Christmas drink every time my sister mentions her boyfriend” drinking game to protect my liver – something was also a little “off” about her behaviour since my arrival at the family home last week.

While she’s very open about texting and talking to her boyfriend around the house normally, this time around she was having a lot of secretive phone text chats – snatching her phone to her chest or covering it with her hand if I so much as glanced in her direction. Of course, this just made me curious (and a little worried – she is my sister after all), and so I escalated trying to sneak a glimpse of her phone, and she then escalated hiding it from me, finally getting to the point where she moaned to my parents about me and I got told to “give your sister some space”.

New cosplay, a new experience (Or: 2B or not 2B) [FM]

I’ve shared a few of my tales of cosplay photo shoots, but up to this point they’d all simply involved me and a photographer. After a lot of planning, yesterday I got to experience something different – a cosplay photo shoot featuring me and a male model with a photographer in the background.

I was first approached with the idea for the shoot by a photographer in his late 30s quite a while ago. His idea involved a cosplay that I didn’t have (but wanted), so he agreed to make purchasing the outfit part of my fee for taking part. I sought out and pointed him in the right direction to buy everything that I needed, but the wait for that to arrive wasn’t as long as the wait for him to find a suitable model and arrange cosplay for him too. After several months, finally everything came together, dates were arranged and the shoot was finalised.

A security check at the convention [FM]

It’s been a busy time for me, so I’ve only just had time to write about my latest convention experience, at my last convention of the year a couple of weeks ago. It was actually an event I’d entirely forgotten about for a while, until a friend messaged to remind me that it was on and ask if I was going. As it turns out, she had room to spare in her hotel room as nobody else she knows was going, so I took her up on her offer of sharing to make things cheap and arranged to travel over to the weekend event by train.

I arrived nice and early on the Friday – too early in fact, as my friend was held up so I had to wait what seemed like forever before she arrived to check us in, which led to a fun evening of catching up over a few drinks. While doing this, of course I couldn’t resist pulling out my phone and swiping through Tinder as is my habit these days.

Second impact at the Comic Con [FM]

After a fun and successful first day at Comic Con, I was even more excited about my second, as it gave me the chance to win a brand-new cosplay outfit that had barely arrived in time for the show.

For day two, my cosplay was Asuka from Evangelion – more specifically, her school uniform – a red wig with unique hair clips, a white blouse with red bow, short blue skirt with straps over the shoulders, and knee-high white socks topped off with normal school-style shoes (no high heels are a godsend for a long day at a convention sometimes). As cosplay goes it was easy to get into and I was more than happy with the results as I set out for the day.

As it happens, the previous evening I’d had a very surprising match on Tinder – it was someone who recognised me. I was in a bit of a fluster when he knew a couple of things about me that weren’t on my profile and started asking if I recognised him, but my worry turned to fascination when he revealed how he knew me. He’d actually met me not long after I started cosplaying many years ago – him and his group of friends ended up hanging out with my group of friends and myself at a Comic Con at the time, and they’d ended up buying us drinks before we went our separate ways.

A rocking session during Comic Con [FM]

This weekend just gone was one of the biggest of the year for me, as it was time for another major Comic Con, and to say that I was in the mood for it in every sense would be an understatement. The weekend couldn’t come quickly enough, and even the hassle of hauling bags on and off trains to head to my hotel on the Friday afternoon didn’t diminish my anticipation. Once I arrived and checked in, of course I took to Tinder while I waited for my friend and roommate for the convention to arrive, which led to a few interesting online conversations over the course of the evening.

Come the next morning, I was up bright and early to get dressed in the day’s cosplay outfit – my reliable favourite Ranka Lee from Macross Frontier, consisting of a really cute, girly top, frilly skirt and knee-high socks with red shoes featuring slightly high heels. We were at the con in time for the start of the day as the doors opened, exploring while it was still reasonably quiet, doing some shopping, catching up with friends and of course me posing for photos when I asked.

Wonderland in the kitchen… and the bedroom [FM]

After a lot of aborted attempts to find a mutual convenient time, today saw me heading to see another new photographer to film me. Thankfully he wasn’t too far away from me, but I still made an early start to shower, pack up my outfit for the shoot, and throw on some loose-fitting casual clothes before heading off and jumping on a train.

About 90 minutes later, I arrived at my destination, and on leaving the station took a taxi on the short ride to a very pleasant house in a quiet cul-de-sac. After paying my fare, I double-checked I had the right house number before nervously strolling up the driveway and ringing the bell.

Busy as a bunny girl [FM]

(Yes, the photographer let me use some audio clips of this one!)

It’s been a surprisingly busy and somewhat stressful summer for me, which hasn’t left me with a lot of spare time for… well, anything much honestly. As a result, things had also died down as far as requests from photographers went, not helped by a lack of time to travel or anything like that. However, during one brief respite I was contacted by a photographer interested in meeting me for some private video work who was also willing to travel to my area, and after numerous chats to arrange things we finally found a date and time that would work for both of us, and with everything agreed the date was set.

On the morning in question, I woke up to the usual buzz of intense nervous excitement that comes with these things – in fact, it woke me up far too early, which left me moping around the house for several hours before it was time to shower, throw my outfit for the shoot into a small bag and head not too far from home to the hotel that was to be the location for the shoot.

A very brief meet on a disappointing weekend [FM]

Last weekend was another of the year’s big anime conventions, but a weekend I was very excited for proved to be fun, but not in the ways I’m used to… Tinder was dead, and nothing of interest came along during the entire weekend, leaving me very frustrated – aside from one very brief encounter.

The opportunity presented itself on the first day of the event, and came while I was stood in a huge queue of people waiting to register and get their badge for the event. Trying my best to avoid the baking sunshine while I queued, I was already dressed up for the day as Chitoge (https://imgur.com/ww7Nzw6), wearing a blonde wig with a red ribbon in it, short-sleeved white and light blue blouse with a neck tie, short blue skirt and black thigh high socks with simple shoes. Of course, I passed the time while I was waiting with Tinder, and while matches or finding anyone interesting was sparse, my irritation at the snaking queue which seemed to be going nowhere was at least assuaged as I matched with a 60 year-old man who instantly messaged me upon matching.