Finally some costume updates!

Life has been rather wild for quite sometime now, but things are finally smoothing out, and I have a whole plethora of things to prattle on and on about!
First and foremost, costume and convention updates.  We had originally planned on attending InvaderCon, but SADC is holding an event again this year at KawaKon and I felt more compelled to attend a con closer to home then drive all the way to Atlanta for a weekend, no matter how much I love Invader Zim.  That and it is my cosplay group, they do get some precedence.  So my regrets, apologies, and all that but unless I fall into a large sum of money the Victorian/Steampunk Gaz and Professor Membrane will be put on an indefinite hiatus.  But as we will be attending KawaKon again this year we have some new costumes floating around as possibilities.
Unlike last year we're planning on attending for only two of the three days.  From what we noticed last year the Sunday of the convention is mainly a pick up and go home day, so in all truth theirs no need for us to be there.  So you'll be able to find us there Friday and Saturday till sometime late when we decide to drive home.  Friday night is the SADC event, or at least it was last year, and as they always have the rave Sat night it stands to reason.  The theme for this year is "Ciel and Cain's Victorian Social Ball" based off Godchild and Black Butler.  Personally I'm unfamiliar with both but cest la vie I'll give it a shot.  I get to make whatever I want for DragonCon ne?  So in the spirit of the ball I've offered to be Prince Soma and Pip is slated for Lau.  With Lau their isn't much option costume wise, red or black trim is all the variance I've seen when I've googled it, however with Soma I'm going to have a couple options.  The two pictures I've found of Soma are first, followed by Lau. 

The costume on its own is a challenge, an interesting challenge to me.  First and foremost, look at my Revy costume. 

Notice anything?  How about how pale I am?  Now scroll back up and look at Soma.  Personally I have no interest in a tanning bed, I don't tan even with routine use.  I've tried sunless tanners in the past, and I have disliked them.  They smell, they smear on my clothes and all around look bad.  Not only that I don't want to be that brown for my regular life (it would look beyond fake if I did) so that leaves me in an interesting place.  How to make myself that brown for the night, but be able to go back to work Monday and be my usual self.  I may have a solution.  When I was working on my Poison Ivy costume I wanted to paint myself green, or just make my skin have a greenish hue.  When I was looking for ways to do this I ran across a Starfire someone had done and the girl had the perfect orange glow to be Starfire, and she was even nice enough to explain how she did it.  Using Mehron's body paint she mixed it with lotion and slathered it all over.  Now I tried this with the green and it didn't do bad but it wasn't as flawless as I'd liked.  But Mehron sells that stuff in about every color imaginable.  So I'm tempted to buy another bottle or two (I'm eying the Light Egyptian, Amber Tan, or Rich Topaz) and see how well that would work.  It depends on which costume I decide to make.  If its the dark one then that and some good bronzer would pretty much do me cause all that's showing is my face and hands.  But if I do the white then it will have to work because so much more of me is showing.  Of course as much as I like the white I'm not sure how to do it.  I mean crossplaying in and of itself poses new challenges, but to have an open top?  Oy.  That will take some researching and trial and error I'm sure.  But for whatever reason I think I'm more drawn to the white.  *shrug* we'll see. 
As for whatever else I'll wear to KawaKon, I'm still very much up in the air.  I may not make anything else, I may wear Revy or V or something again.  I've toyed around with the idea of Sango from InuYasha, but only if Pip agrees to be Miroku.  Re-L from Ergo Proxy maybe a winner, the costume isn't to wild but she doesn't have may 'action' type shots so that takes the fun out of the photoshoot.  I've pondered on Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop, but not sure I want latex shorts.  Then I went to Batwoman and Black Cat.  But I know I lack the chest to do Black Cat justice and as much as I like Batwoman I'm just not feeling it for that con.  So anyone's ideas or opinions are welcome. 
As for as DragonCon goes, I already have one costume lined up for that as well.  We have a group doing the 'Defenders of Enchanted Realms' artwork.  I'm Belle.  Here's a link to the first and second picture that was done for her, its not my art so I don't want to repost.  And I have a more definate set of costume prospects for that. 

Ghost.  

Yea its been eating away at me to make it.  So she's very much on the top of the list.  Other then that Madame Mirage or Masquerade are sitting pretty high on the list.  I'll keep you posted though, its still quite awhile away. 
Now on to other non costume related things.  I've got my own place, finally.  Well I say my own, Pip and I have our own place.  We're still trying to get everything set up the way we want but its getting there.  Theirs a lot of stuff we're going to need though.  So costumes, travel, hotels, are going to probably going to take a bit of a hit.  On the upside if I'm only making a few a year I'll have more time to fuss with them and make them perfect.  Or so I'm trying to convince myself.

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I think I have a problem...

This is probably going to sound very strange to .... well all of you but its something that's bothering me and I feel the need to air it.  For those of you who follow my twitter then you know I just cancelled my WoW account about an hour ago.  Now I did it because Blizzard (in my eyes) has screwed up the game to the point I will no longer enjoy it the way I had. 
The other side of that is I already miss my girls.  I miss Sybila's brashness (and come on she was my first toon who's swapped servers for me, and had a name change, the girls been put though a lot.) I miss Euriela's resourcefulness.  And even Raistlyn's arrogance.  I know they are simply 'toons' but I spent a lot of hours with them doing things in the world, and I got attached.  They have been my way to unwind after a hectic day for going on three years now.  I feel kinda lost, like I have this little void.  I know its stupid, and trust me I'm debating if I even want to post this but they were mine and Blizz did to them what Spielberg did to Indiana Jones. 
I know a lot of people never got that attached to their toon, they were simply a vessel to get them into raids, they don't care what they looked like or what their gear looked like.  It was all about the spec and the GS.  I'm not that way.  Those were little avatars for me to run around Azaroth, not just minions.  I mean I even miss my hunter's pet!  (If you knew how long it took me to tame the little bugger then you'd understand.)  I guess part of that is Blizz has quit catering to the players like me who are attached to their toons, want them to be unique in the world, and don't really care as much about raiding and end game stuff as they do the quest to get there.  Their is a reason why I only had a handful of mains, I took my time leveling.  I tried to level each toon in a different zone so I could see other places besides what I knew would shoot me to 80 the fastest.  Seems to me they are going the way of Aion, wanting everyone to look the same, and be speced the same.  I can tell you that my mage's spec would probably not have worked for many other people, but it did for me, I learned the in's and out's of a fire mage and I could seriously lay the hurt on someone if I wanted.  But now you won't get the opportunity to play with your spec and really learn the class, all you have to do is google 'mage spec' and you'll be handed the golden spec of which to do the most dps.  That's not fun to me, I don't like people telling me I'm speced wrong, if they give me the chance I promise I can surprise you.  I don't want to play a game with everyone the same, I like being unique.  I loved when they added the Barber so that I could change hairstyles.  And I think all of my main's went though 3 or 4 hairstyles before I found the one that fit their personality.  *sniff* I suppose I'll always have the fic Pip and I were working on to remember them in their prime.  I suppose this means no more Guild Weekends, and no more questing with my IRL friends...
Star Wars, you're my only hope.

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I live!

Seems like my last post started this way, but apologies for the lack of updating, hopefully I can get myself back into the habit.  Life has been … hectic to put it mildly.

First and foremost I feel like I need to apologize for something else, unfortunately life got in the way and it became unfeasible for me to attend Dragon*Con.  I feel rather bad, guilty to be exact.  I had told a lot of people that I would be there and I feel like I flaked out.  But I was having a severe eczema problem so I would have been probably as un-photogenic as I’ve ever been, my costume that was to debut was not as far along as it needed to be.  Part of that was due to the medication I was taking to try and help my skin which made me very tired, part of that was due to the hours I was working.  Another thing that didn’t aid in our trip was the vehicle we were going to be taking was having a/c problems and I dunno about you, but I had no desire to drive 10+ hours in September weather with no a/c.  Especially to Georgia.  We could have possibly rented something but I know I didn’t really have the spare cash to do that so in the end we opted to stay home and let me get some more R&R in and just enjoy the time off together.  Again I feel terrible I was unable to make it and feel kinda like a failure but theirs nothing that I know to do but apologize and hope that next year we’ll not have any hiccups and we’ll be able to attend without my skin throwing a fit and with a vehicle that won’t double as an oven.  So that said, lets move on to less depressing things.

I suppose I should talk about OMGCon as that’s the last thing I attended.  It was fun, overall.  We weren’t planning on any meet ups or photoshoots with other people which was sorta a bummer but also gave us the time to do some other shoots of our own.  The first would be the more unusual Seras I wore.  Pip opted (at the last minute, at the hotel) to not wear his Pip costume.  (*laughs* that sounds so awkward) so I grabbed his hat and scarf, and went as “Captain Seras” kinda a hybrid idea.  I mean she did eat him and then bring him back later… seems logical that she’d take on a few of his quirks.  Here’s where the photo’s begin.  I still have probably 20 or 30 to edit but hopefully I’ll have them done before the end of the year.

The second day I debuted Revy.  Now I was very self conscious in this costume.  Not because it’s revealing (though I did wish I had heels to make my legs look a little nicer) it was my skin.  I’ve been able to photoshop most the redness out, but I felt it was very noticeable.  And such I had to really concentrate and rely on Pip for pointers for tweaks to my pose.   I still have a LOT of Revy pictures to work on, and as she doesn’t have nearly as many pictures as my Seras I’ll probably work on hers first.  You can take a look at this page if you’re interested in the ones I’ve managed to get uploaded. 

But I did say life has been hectic, here’s a quick rundown.  Two of my close friends got married about a month after OMGCon.  Since Pip was a member of the wedding party I became the photographer, it was a fun role reversal, and an exercise on how hard it is to get a ninja on camera.  I did manage to get some really neat shots, and that’s part of why I don’t have my OMGCon pictures up, I had to get those done and uploaded first.  If you’re interested click on the link to my flickr.  I think it’s the most recent set I’ve created. 

Outside of that, I’ve been working… a lot.  Lots of drama there (as usual).  But drumroll please!  Pip and I are getting an apt!  *squee*  We have one that we looked at the other day that I really like, and another that’s not sending me but it did have a massive living room which did kinda make up for some of the other things I didn’t like.  So I’ll post which we get but cross your fingers for us that its our first pick!  The best part of this will mean I can work on my costumes anytime, currently our spare bedroom doubles as my dad’s room some nights (when Mum is up at 4 am for work you’d sleep in another room too) so I can’t sit up till the sun comes up working on this and that.  That and I’ll finally get to use my dishes, decorate my own place, and best of all get to annoy the holy shit out of Pip whenever I please.  ^_^

On a completely un-related note, I have been working rather hard on one of my fiction pieces.  Not fan fiction for once, one totally in my head.  Unfortunately I don’t have anything really up and available for people to read just yet, I’m still mapping out a lot of things and learning the world.  Yes I know I have to ‘learn’ the world that I made up.  Its not quite that simple.  I see it, I understand it, but even then I don’t always explain so that other people can.  Pip has been privy to a lot of the stuff I’ve read and that’s one thing he’s pointed out, is the world feels small and that he doesn’t understand what drives my main character.  When in fact the world is rather massive and her motives, while not just one thing, should be fairly clear.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get a sample up sometime soon, actually I think I’ll go see if I can find anything that’s been edited and post it.  …

Alright here we go, for those of you who have never had the opportunity to meet his character you can read a bit about here on my fictionpress page.  For those of you who’ve met Camina, well, enjoy.

“    It took hardly a conscious thought to extinguish the flickering candles in the tent.  The guards that had been stationed out front yet remained but were glamored, both would venomously deny seeing the black wraith enter their commanders quarters, and neither would hear the ensuing conversation.  The Paladin’s themselves were hard to glamor, their unyielding faith made fudging fact difficult but fortunately for me, the bulk of the armies they lead lacked that blind of a devotion.
    The tent was large, it was three tents really, interconnected.  High Doyen Daryun’s war room, study, and sleeping quarters.  Of course the leader of the Eshire division of Royal Paladin’s would not fall easily into my influence, but I did not go to harm charm him.  I wanted to meet my enemy, for once this one was competent.  Most tried to use their numbers or their faith as their primary weapon, and we’d developed strategies to deal with their feeble attacks however they came.  But Daryun was smart positioning all of his troops in a perfect formation.  For once my men had been forced to rely on their demonic nature to survive the fight, not waltz though it as we usually did.
    My eyes could see in the void I’d created.  Maps and parchments laid haphazardly across the main table, part of me wanted to pause and take in my enemies tactics, but I wanted the challenge of a fair fight.  To my left I could hear the High Doyens steady breathing.  He was still asleep.  I could kill him where he laid, but that would be no more honorable then killing an infant.
“High Doyen, please wake, we have some things I wish to discuss.” He started awake, grabbing a crossbow and aiming it at the entryway, at me.  He was dead on, if he released the arrow then it would hit me, strange how accurate it was as I knew full well he couldn’t see.
“Who’s there?”
“We have yet to have a proper introduction High Doyen.”  I let the candles light slowly begin to return to their former glow.  Not so much so his eyes could slowly adjust, but for mine.  “Please put the weapon down.”
“How did you get in here?”
“Well I walked by your guards of course... Don’t bother yelling, I’ve gone to some length to ensure our privacy.”
“What do you want?”
“Just a conversation, nothing more.”
“Who are you?”
“I suppose an introduction is in order as I do know of you but not vice versa.  My name is Camina Wistar, daughter of his highness Casimir Wistar, King of Pulsia.  I am his heir and his equal.  He has charged me with the leading of the campaign against the Paladins.”
“Their is no way that a woman, that your a ...”
“Not human?” I smiled.  “I get that a lot.  We come in all sizes and colors High Doyen.  My flesh is meant to mimic the most desirable traits in your kind.  Others are modeled after animals and plants still others seem to have no similarity to anything.”
“You cannot be the one I saw today.  You’re a woman.”
“For us gender does not play the role it does among your kind.  A lioness is at its most fierce when its protecting its cubs.”  He started seeming to take in the information.  “Please, get dressed, let us talk.”
“And why would I want to talk to you?”
“Wouldn't you like to pick the brain of your enemy?”
“Why are you doing this?  What are you up to devil?”
“My reasons are my own High Doyen, but if I didn’t come here to talk look at it this way, I could have killed you in your sleep.”  His eyes narrowed, hearing the challenge.  “I’ll be in the other room.”

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