I found myself yet again, rocketing through the nearly empty city streets.

3am ticked by quietly, bringing me ever closer to morning.

My celicas gauges cast a light blue glow over the interior.

Between the fog and the torrential rain it felt like I was living a movie.

Sliding around corners, feeling the rear of the car break free of its grip on the tar.

The deep growl of the air intake forcing more air into the engine as the RPMs were driven higher and higher.

Its a type of calm, that not many people feel.

Atleast not this way.

This whole not sleeping thing is really messing with me. Staying up most of the night, and sleeping through a good part of the day..

It isolates you in a way.

I dont speak much about the events of Otakon.. which bothers me, I really should because it changed everything.

So i guess ill start at the beginning.

I heard about a Legend of Zelda photoshoot from a few other LoZ cosplayers, and I decided to check it out.

Sadly it was outside, in the tremendous heat... 104 degrees.

My wonderflex was softening, I was dehydrating a lot faster than I had anticipated.

I was about to leave the shoot to go find some shade and water, when I felt a hand press against my arm. A bright eyed LOZ cosplayer smileing from ear to ear "you look thirsty" and offered me a half frozen water.

I knew who she was.

And to my surprise she knew who I was. Not just my cosplay name, but my real name.

We talked a lot.

Between the photos and after.

She was bombed by people wanting photos.

It felt like watching a celebrity get mobbed by the paparazzi

and i was stuck in the middle of it.

She whispered during a photo together that she wanted to see me, outside of here, where she could escape the photos.

I nodded and behind my shield she put her phone in my hand and asked for my number.


When my phone buzzed later that night at 2:30am, with the text "meet me at the harbor in 15min" ... I was a little stunned.

No longer in my heavy gear I found myself feeling free as my feet swung over the edge of the pier.

That cool ocean breeze. It was nice actually being able to feel it, instead of being completely covered in gear.

Hours prior to this I had sat on this same pier with Deadpool and Psylocke, half buzzed mildly sunburnt, it seemed like a perfect ending to a perfect day... but now my evening was about to get even better.

People were scattered about, a few drunken cosplayers were trudging along in costumes back to their hotels.

I could see her coming, from the direction of the con running her hand along the granite fixtures that are scattered all over the harbor.

She sat next to me, hair pulled back into a messy ponytail, and sporting a green LoZ sweatshirt, looking up at the stars she said "do you think it will ever get old? That it will lose its magic?"

We sat on the pier for hours, we traded stories about cosplay, our families, friends, life, until the sun started to rise.

It was refreshing talking to a cosplayer who has "been there", that understood a lot of the same things ive delt with both in the cosplay world and out of it.

When those first rays of orange and gold hit the water, in a unspoken way we knew it was time to go.

I slipped back into my hotel room, everyone was still passed out. Im pretty sure none of them knew I left.

It was a humbling experience and on nights like last night, it helps me level out.