Fire Emblem!Con (aka Tekko 2018)

Just got back from Pittrsburgh and I had a fantastic weekend at Tekko!

We all know at this point how obsessed i am with Fire Emblem, so when I saw an instagram post by CarletteCosplay that they were doing FE7 stuff at Tekko, I immediately hopped on that train.  Little did I know at that point that I also knew almost everyone else in the group. It was several weeks later (and two days before leaving for the con) that I was still trying to figure out what all to take with me, and discussing prospects with Marjolycookie and finally decided to just make this Tekko Fire Emblem!Con.

Friday was Innes, because I am so pleased with how this cosplay turned out that I just want to wear it all the time. And his underneath bits are comfortable enough to travel in. I was super lucky too, because I arrived in just enough time to get a great parking spot in the close cheap lot just before it filled up. Also it was 60* out so I could just put my costume on in the parking lot, without having to wiggle into things in my car.

The friend I was staying with in Pittsburgh was actually staffing the con, so I even got a free badge, which was awesome. And I immediately saw Big O Cosplayers as soon as I got out of the badge line.

After fangirling at them for a bit, I finally made it up to the con, and found a bunch of friends. I was pretty impressed that there were some people who actually recognized Innes. There were definitely a few people who asked for photos who were like "I don't know who this is but it's pretty awesome," which frankly is one of the best compliments as a cosplayer because you know it's sincere. They're not asking for a photo because they appreciate the character so much as they appreciate the cosplay itself.

There was a second, smaller convention going on concurrently in the other part of the convention center, and it was actually a yarn/fiber arts/craft show.... which was perfect to go along with Tekko. The knitters/crafters were definitely entertained by all of the costumes, and a bunch of the con-goers went over to check out all of the yarn and other cool stuff at the crafting expo. My friend and I went over and checked it out, and I got lots of compliments and questions from the folks running the different booths. I also discovered a needle felting booth called GoingGnome which had awesome stuff, including a Smaug and the entire crew of Dwarves (plus Gandalf & Bilbo) from The Hobbit. They were doing needle felting classes where you could make a gnome. Unfortunately they didn't have any openings left for Friday, so I signed up for Saturday instead.

After hanging out at the con for a while, my friend and I decided to head home and order some dinner from an asian noodle place (which was soooooo good) and watch Thor: Ragnarok... which of course we fell asleep halfway through.

Saturday morning I decided it was far too appropriate not to go back to the yarn festival as anyone other than Yarne, so I suited up in my fur loincloth and we headed back downtown.

My friend staffing had to be there at 8.... and literally no one who did not work at the convention center was around. So I hung out and played Heroes for a bit while people started slowly trickling in. Allison was the first to find me, dressed at Kylo, and we hung out and chatted for a while. Another Kylo cosplayer wandered past and recognized me, telling me his girlfriend loved the character and was cosplaying Grima!Robin. So they came back by later and we got this gem together.

I was also amazed to meet an Athena cosplayer, PhantasmagoriaCosplay, while I was hanging out there.

There was an FE photoshoot at noon, so I went to that. It wasn't huge but it was still fun. It was about 90% Awakening, and 80% of that was all Robin (and a Morgan who pretended to be Robin for a couple photos).

After the shoot it was time to change for our FE7 meetup. We had all 3 lords, plus Florina, Ninian, Nils, Guy (obviously), and eventually we even had a Rath! And because we're all ridiculous we had 5 disguises to play with too. If you're unfamiliar.... this actually happens in the game:

I'm stupidly excited to see photos from this. We all froze our asses off (Except Hector and his stupid sweater and armor and stuff), but it was totally worth it.

When it got to be evening again, we went back and ate at a little restaurant that;s close to my friend's house... that I can't remember the name of, but it was delicious and food coma-inducing. Nevertheless we went back and actually managed to finish Thor before passing out for the night.

Sunday was Ranulf, since he's comfy and pretty easy, besides all of the stupid wrappy bits that all of the Laguz (except Naesala because he's too fabulous for that) seem to have. I spent 20 minutes wandering around the outside of the Westin trying to figure out how to get to the Starbucks, but eventually managed to get some breakfast/coffee. When I got back to the convention center I was immediately recognized/photographed, which was pretty cool. And then at last all my friend arrived in their rainbow of FE4 outfits.

I've never played this game, so I don't know any of the characters besides Sigurd and Dierdre in the middle (thank you Heroes), but this still made me so happy. And what was even more miraculous was that while we were all standing around, a Lyon materialized out of the Aether.

Well, I couldn't well pass up the chance to get photos with him since I had Innes in the car, so I went and changed.

It was pretty great, because anyone who had already seen me that morning immediately went "wtf?" when they saw I had changed costumes, because who the hell does multiple cosplays on a Sunday. Clearly only this guy, and only when hypermotivated lol.

Well, that was Tekko, and it'll be a while before I have any more con stuff, which is probably a good thing because I have a bunch of commissions that I need to be working on. But I will definitely share photos from out FE7 shoot once we start getting them back.

The Gentle Saint

It's throwback thursday again and this week I wanted to show off yet another of my many Fire Emblem cosplays. While I love this character a great deal, I will admit that a big motivation to cosplay him was the fact that I could use my own hair. Yes, I'm referring to the ginger priest: Rhys.

Rhys, like many of the character in the Tellius series, shows up in both games, so it was a tough decision figuring out which version I wanted to do. While Path of Radiance was the stronger game, I really liked the details in his outfit in Radiant Dawn, so in the end I went with that (it's the same dilemma I had with Haar... at least the Laguz all dress exactly the same in both games).

Besides being able to use my own ginger locks for this cosplay, I also had a friend who wanted to cosplay as Soren so I decided Rhys would make a nice character to do alongside her, as a black and a white mage, essentially. Yes, I know Ike would ahve been better but I had (and still have) no intention of making Ike, desipte how much I love him. I mean, maybe if he got a seasonal costume in Heroes I'd consider it... but that's beside the point. Rhys also marks the first magic user in my FE repertoire, so that was pretty nice too.

The best things was not really needing to do much propwork, as most of the costume is fabric. I did make a tome and a staff, but both were fairly simple. I don't really have any progress photos or anything, because I made this a loooong time ago, but I do have some silly photos from my first Tekko, as well as my more recent wearing of him at Ohayo a few years ago.

There was a Laura, which was super unexpected. So we of course had to take a photo of us beating each other with our staves, because they added that pointless mechanic in RD.

Soren needed some healing after getting looked at by a myrmidon.

At Ohayo, I made friends with this fantastic Mia. Once again it was a miracle that I actually had a coordinating character I didn't come with.

She even swept me off my feet!

And since I made an actual Rexaura tome, I had to cast it at least once. This is probably my favorite photo of this cosplay :-D

And that's that! It's kinda ironic that a cosplay that has relatively simple props became the poster child for my prop listing on Etsy.

To Wing, Brothers!

Ok, I apologize for using part of his dumbest quote, but pirate birb is pirate birb. This throwback thursday is all about the rough-and-tumble hawk king of Phoenecis, Tibarn!

Tibarn is one of my first legitimate cosplays. I wore him to my first ever convention back in 2009. Considering I hardly knew what I was doing in those days, and I had only learned to sew a year or so prior, it's amazing how well this turned out, and how well it's held up over the years.

Obviously there are lots of things I'd do differently if i were to make it over again (not that I will ever make it over again), like using different fabric for almost all of it, and stitching the designs into the coat rather than painting them.

I also have much better methods for achieving the wrappings on my arms than actually wrapping strips of fabric around my arms...

One thing I definitely wouldn't change would be my wings. I like how lightweight and unobtrusive they are. They're also very easy to repair if anything happens to them, and I still have a bunch of leftover feathers from the project nearly a decade later (I may have bought just a bit more than I needed). The first time i wore him I actually had a bunch of people compliment me on them, and ask if they could touch them, since they're rather fuzzy and are just as soft as they look. It was great to get that reaction at my first even convention!

I WILL RIP YOUR WINGS OFF AND FEED THEM TO YOU, RAVEN KING

My dream came true at Youma 2016 when we got a full bird council together. We got some awesome photos by Justin Pineda and Robert Tate.

Leanne and Reyson (right) are Trimeriad Cosplay

The most miraculous part is that we had a second Reyson just appear out of nowhere! And now we're friends and have gotten to cosplay together more, which has been awesome. We also had another 1/5 Laguz present for the shoot. We only had half a beorc, so there was minimal representation on the human side of things.

I really do love everything about this cosplay and want to wear him all the time ^_^