The Cosplay Son

There was once a man named Steve who had a son, Mike. Mike was very into cosplaying, or wearing costumes of his favorite video game characters and meeting others like him. Steve did not understand this, nor did he want to. He stayed as far away from Mike's cosplaying as he physically could.

One day, Mike was getting into his costume, with the help of his mother, to go to a convention when his father came downstairs. It had been a particularly hard week on Steve and he was none too pleased to see his son dressed like he was. He became irate with his wife about how she enabled this weirdness in their son and eventually slammed a book on the table to express his frustration. Steve's wife took this as a cue to leave, and hurriedly took Mike to his convention.

After cooling down a little bit, Steve realized he had made a mistake and was determined to apologize for it. He knew where the convention was taking place and drove there himself. When he got to the convention hall, he spoke with the man in charge, Dan, and asked to be pointed towards where his son would be so that he could apologize. The man did not like how little Steve cared for this pastime, and agreed only to help him if he could pick his son from other cosplayers three times in a row.

Mike saw his father talking and, knowing that this is often a tactic Dan likes to use, sent his father some texts informing him of secret signals so that his father could pick him out of the line-up. The first time, Mike would turn his head to the right. The second, Mike would hold part of his costume at an odd angle. The third time, Mike would stand on one foot.

Dan brought Steve in front of a group of cosplayers. Initially, Steve was stunned. He had occasionally seen his son getting dressed for these events, but he was not prepared for what stood before him. There were twenty people dressed as all manner of things. There were soldiers, animals, creatures Steve couldn't even begin to describe, and even people dressed as inanimate objects. This was truly a world beyond Steve's comprehension.

After the initial shock, Steve remembered what he was supposed to be doing and began searching for someone looking to the right. Eventually he saw someone doing that and pointed him out to Dan. Not wanting Steve to have any unfair advantages at his next guesses, he made Steve turn around while he assembled several people cosplaying the same character as Mike. When Steve looked again, he was concerned by how similar everyone looked. He began to despair that he wouldn't find his son when he remembered to look for his sign. One of the soldiers was holding their gun at an odd angle, so Steve pointed at him.

As the coplayers were preparing his final attempt, Steve began to feel confident. He could do this. When he turned around to look for his signal, his spirits dropped. One person was standing on one leg, but another, having to use the bathroom, was also standing on one foot. Not being able to distinguish the two cosplayers, Steve made a guess and chose incorrectly. The man in charge then kicked him out of the convention hall, from which he was thenceforth banned from entering.

Author's Note: This story started as "The Piqued Buffalo-Wife" from the marriage tales readings which focused on the Blackfoot Confederacy. This was a group of four bands of natives that inhabited mostly modern day Canada and parts of Montana. They were largely nomadic, following the bison they hunted in order to survive. In the original story, the man impregnates a buffalo, who gives birth to a son, who eventually finds his dad. The dad then meets his son's mom, who becomes human. They all live together until the dad hits his wife with a stick and she takes her son to live as buffalo with other buffalo. The man then visits the herd of buffalo where his family has run off to in an attempt to get them back. The leader of the pack does not want to let it be so easy, and makes him pick his son out of a line up three times. The plot is then very similar to what happens in my version. The key difference lies in what happens after the incorrect guess. The rest of the buffalo stampede the man and he gets pulverized into dust. His family misses him, however, so a kind wizard reincarnates him so that they can live happily ever after. I wasn't very much of a fan of the death and magic bit, so I changed that to be a little more reasonable for my story. I hope you enjoyed it!

Bibliography: Tales of the North by Stith Thompson Link

This is the costume I imagined for Mike. Link