“… I’m just saying that it can happen.” Tania pouted heavily as the group wandered through the aisles weaved between many stands and offers near the entrance. Many parts of the convention were still hard at work, places like the indie creator hall were still near empty as their owners were still trickling in to set their stands up while the gaming hall was still completely closed off due to some final technical tests.
Tania had managed to calm herself down after the convenient distraction at the ticket scan and decided to just go for broke. Sure, she was a fan of Gao Mako. And now she was actually arguing with Sarah and even Elise about a certain constant in her streaming persona.
“Coming across one cheesy glitch after the other? Yeah, no. I’m pretty sure she’s got it at least partially scripted.” Elise shook her head in denial. “Sorry, but she’s far too consistent for her own good to seem legitimate.”
“I can’t even replicate half of them…” Luna added with a cute grumble, the small girl having finally overcome her shyness and had happily joined the conversation. Of course, she hadn’t revealed she was the eldritch VTuber August 7 but that didn’t stop her from mentioning she liked to test out glitches in her free time.
“Exactly! Half of them are so insanely specific, no way she finds them nearly every stream!” Elise declared confidently.
Tania grumbled unkind words under her breath, in part also fuelled by her envy for the other girl’s small, stack figure.
“Yeah, it’s a bit difficult too unbelievable. But I like her reactions, they always feel genuine. And you have to admit it’s pretty fun to believe the myth of a literal Game Shark.” Sarah sheepishly admitted, earning a look of pained betrayal from Tania.
And while Tania despaired at her failure to convince even one of her biggest fans of Gao Mako - Her! - being absolutely and genuinely unscripted, Jake, Natalie and Daniel had their own talk to the side. Natalie and Jake had started going regularly to the gym over the last few months and it showed.
“Yeah, I’ve been trying to get more exercise, too. But things never really worked out with… all the stuff going on. “ Daniel said, wiggling one hand vaguely.
“Heh, you mean you’re lazy~” Natalie smirked. “We’ve got just as much if not more to do than you.”
“You are all doing the scheduling together, I’m lucky when I can wrangle Tania into my planning.” Daniel deadpanned.
“Three. You mean three. Maria’s like anti-planning made real.” Jake chuckled, glancing over to the girl in question as she flitted between the conversations and whatever caught her eyes in that moment, the small, impish girl was far too hyper to stand still. Or even just walk at leisurely pace.
———
“So, this is an Anime Convention, huh…?” Felicia Zaunder mumbled quietly to herself as she looked around the crowd of vibrantly and exotically dressed people. She felt completely out of place just as awkward as he was fascinated by it all. Really, she hadn’t planned to actually come here herself but then her dad had apparently decided that she was too secluded for her own good and ambushed her the evening before.
Cheerfully he declared she was free for the next two days and then had her older sister Irene ceremoniously hand her a ticket for the convention that he had bought nearly three months ago.
“I had no doubt this curious event of colourful people would fascinate you! Of course I got you tickets!” He had said as if it should’ve been the most obvious thing in the world. And then had wandered off without another word, leaving her with her older sister.
And now here she was, gazing over at the massive queue of people waiting to get their tickets while she could just walk inside, because her dad knew her better than she did herself. Or knew her and actually kept up with what was going on around Cap Flortia in contrast to herself.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“…now, where should I look around?” Felicia mumbled as she looked through the convention’s small program booklet her sister had handed her with a playful wink this morning.
———
The convention hall had become much more lively as more and more people managed to pass the trial of the endless queue. Where before only a low buzz of chatter had echoed through the air it was now starting to become noisy from all the talk and pervasive the patter of footsteps. And above it all the speakers had started to fill the air with background music from a variety of both games and anime.
With the rise of activity the various stands and halls had started to open up as well and the group of eight had decided to split up as they all had different interests they wanted to follow up on.
“Let’s meet back up at the Cosplay Contest, ‘kay?” Natalie winked with a wide grin as she skipped backwards after Maria in whatever random direction the smaller girl decided to wander off to. The invitation was also directed at Sarah and Elise.
With her leave, the rest of the group split away as well. Jake and Luna wanted to enjoy a nice date together and there was supposed to be a jungle garden build up at the back of the convention hall, with vines to swing on, slides to go down with, a quick course on climbing and various other fun activities on offer.
Sarah and Elise had plans to take part in the Rune Rebel Fighting Game Tournament, Elise a self-declared ace at the game, and they stil had to get registered. Sadly the schedule meant that they wouldn’t really have much time to really wander around the con while tournament took place. A small failure on the organisers part, a tragedy for Sarah as she mourned for the time she couldn’t use to bankrupt herself via overpriced plushies and a massive relief for Elise. It was an exhaustive job keeping Sarah’s plushie addiction in check.
And Daniel and Tania were eager to explore around the indie stands and just take in the sights, Tania was also determined to find the Blaze Vermillion cosplayer again before going back to the hotel. But even if that failed, there were still a ton of other amazing cosplayers all around.
“It was nice talking with you.” Luna turned to Sarah and Elise with a shy smile.
“Have fun.” Elise smirked after her, tipping the white, blue striped fox mask she had gleefully bought and now wore slanted to the side of her head. “We’ve got a Tournament to get to.”
“Cheer us on! Because we’re gonna take the trophy home!” Sarah declared with a cocky smile, puffing out her chest.
“And my name’ll be on the plaque~” Elise added with a mischievous grin.
“No way!” Sarah narrowed her eyes, arms crossing an X in denial.
Tania smiled amused as the two started bickering and turned towards Luna with a twinkle in her eyes. Before the other girl could react Tania had already glomped her tight, hugging the smaller girl like a teddy bear.
“Hehe, have fun on your date~!” The tall beanstalk laughed as she swung her around.
“Nyah! Let go…!” Luna shouted annoyed, struggling and kicking against Tania’s hold as her eyes started to whirl from all that spinning.
“Yeh, but I’m taller and you’re cute.” Tania chuffed with a catty - or rather sharky - grin.
“Muh, I hate you…” Luna grumbled dizzy and pouting as the taller girl finally deigned to set her back down. Luna glared at her annoyed, arms crossed, which only made Tania laugh much to her chagrin.
Amused, Jake and Daniel had stayed out of the girls’ way and kept their goodbye more simple. A single fist bump was more than enough.
“Good luck with the tournament!” Daniel called out with a grin. “And you make sure to keep Luna from getting stuck again!”
“Oi!” Luna squawked indignant as Jake laughed nervously.
“Heh, it’s all skill~” Elise winked confidently.
“Buy a ton of plushies in my place, okay?! Plushiessss!” Sarah cried out with crocodile tears while still smiling wide, arms thrown into the air as she was dragged along by the scruff of her blouse as Elise groaned exasperate, massaging her temples with her one free hand.
“I’ll see what I can find!” Tania called after her, an amused laugh echoing in her voice.
The six waved each other goodbye and the last they saw of each other for now was Luna turning towards her boyfriend with a haughty smirk.
“Now, turn around my carriage minion!”
“Aye aye~” Jake saluted lazily, holding back a chuckle, and with his backpack shift onto his chest she hopped onto his back. Luna punched the air with a childish grin atop her boyfriend steed and so the two rode off into the crowd since there wasn’t a sunset to be had.
Nobody even bat an eye.
———
Daniel let out a pleased breath as he and Tania wandered through the now bustling aisles of the convention. Being all together like that had been fun but also exhausting. Tania smiled at him from the side and skipped ahead, her hand slipping into his own.
“Come on, let’s check out the indie booths!” She laughed.
And with soft chuckle he let himself be pulled along.