Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Cosplay at a Convention

   By Emi Tsuruta

   Note: this is one in a series of posts about my life.  If you'd like to
know more about my friends and me, drop by my home page at:
http://www.asstr.org/~emitsuruta/

   One day, my friend Satomi and I were having lunch in the cafeteria on
campus.  We were just sitting there, eating and chatting, the same as
always, when Satomi glanced over my shoulder, and suddenly brightened up. I
turned around looking to see what had caught her eye.  She seemed to be
looking at this guy with deep soulful eyes heading our way.  Sure enough,
he waved to Satomi, and she flashed him this big smile, and waved back.

   "Hey!  Who's that?" I asked.

   "Who?" she answered, playing dumb.  I nodded towards the handsome guy
she'd just said hi to.

   "Oh him.  It's no one.  He's just in one of my classes."

   I knew there had to be more to the story than that, but for some reason,
Satomi seemed reluctant to tell me.  I watched him as he wended his way
through the cafeteri, and soon realized that the girl behind him was
following him around.  'Is that his girlfriend?' I wondered.  Maybe that's
why Satomi doesn't want to talk about it.

   "He must have a name," I insisted.  His hair kind of stuck up at a
strange angle, but it gave him a unique look, and his eyes were dreamy.

   "Adam," she whispered, looking down at her plate now.  Before I could
ask more, Satomi got up, and walked away, tray in hand.

   "Hey, where are you going?" I called after her.

   "Lunch is almost over," she noted, nodding towards the clock.  "We have
to get to class."

   She was right of course, but I was still curious about this guy.  Satomi
is usually so shy, so how did the two of them even know each other?

   Anyway, I got up, put away my tray, and came back for my stuff.  Satomi
was half way across the cafe by then, in a rush all of a sudden.

   "I'll call you later," I yelled after her, as she stalked off.  I headed
to class myself, still wondering about the guy, but eventually, I managed
to settled down, and concentrate on the class.  Afterwards though, I gave
Satomi a call.

   "I have to go to the museum," she told me.  "There's an exhibit my
anthro prof asked us to check out." The museum is right on campus, but I
hadn't really spent much time there.

   "Do they have Halloween costumes in the gift shop?" I asked.  Halloween
was coming up, and a few people had asked me if I was going to one of the
Halloween parties.

   "I don't know.  Maybe."

   "Oh OK.  How about I meet you at the gift shop?  In an hour or so?"

   "Yeah, sure."

   I stopped in a few places along the way, but when I got closer to the
museum, I saw Adam again.  There was no sign of his 'girlfriend' this time.
He went into the building next door to the museum.  I wondered if I should
follow him in to see what he was up to, but I should probably find Satomi
first.  He is cute though, my type.

   I went into the museum, and found the gift shop.  It wasn't that large,
but it was packed with all kinds of stuff.  The shopkeeper looked to be
Japanese, a smartly dressed older man with a hint of grey in his trendy
beard.  He smiled when he saw me, probably recognizing me as a fellow
Japanese, and motioned for me to go ahead, and look around.

   I found their clothing section near the back, next to what looked like a
change room.  They had lots of museumy-type outfits - cowboys and Indians,
union and confederate soldiers, Egyptian pharaohs, that sort of stuff. 
They did have an Indian dress sort of like Pocahontas wore, but most of the
women's outfits weren't that sexy.  They didn't seem to be Halloween
costumes at all, but more like uniforms made for the wax figures in the
museum.

   I finally spotted Satomi outside.  She'd bumped into Adam too, and was
chatting away with him in the entrance to the shop.  I waved to her, but
she was too engrossed in conversation to notice.  Ah well.  I guess I
should try to find a costume anyway.

   They did have a nice pair of thong sandals, but what would go with that?
There was a lot of indian stuff - cowhide vests, deer-skin loincloths and
feather head dresses.  I wonder if I can put together something with these.

   I signaled to the shopkeeper that I wanted to use the change room, and
he motioned for me to go ahead.  I brought the sandals, grabbed a top and a
loincloth, and disappeared off into the back.  After pulling the curtain
shut, I stripped out of my clothes, trying to figure out how to put this
stuff on.  There was a strip of cowhide at the side of the loincloth that
you use to tie it on.  My undies were going to show, so I ended up taking
them off.  I was trying to focus on dressing, but I was getting a bit
excited from stripping naked on campus.

   I finally got the loincloth on.  At the front and the back, there were
flaps made of grey and white fur - plush and fuzzy - that felt nice on my
bare skin.  It was completely open at the sides though leaving my hips and
backside pretty much exposed.

   The 'top' I'd grabbed wasn't much better.  It wasn't even a top at all,
more like a bib or a collar made of deep red cloth that just barely covered
my shoulders and breasts.  It was completely backless with just the strap
around my neck there to hold it up.

   I knew I shouldn't go out dressed like this, but I was kind of curious
as to how I looked.  There was no mirror in the change room, so I pushed
back the curtain, and peered out.  Satomi was still chatting away with
Adam. I wonder - should I go out, and show them?  Satomi always complains
whenever I prance around half naked, but I didn't think Adam would mind. 
It would be fun to see how he would react.  Getting up my nerve, I came
out, and padded over their way, getting a bit of a thrill from walking
around with so little on.  It was pretty exciting.

   I didn't get as much of a reaction as I'd hoped.  Satomi ignored me, and
Adam just glanced at me for a split second, before turning back to Satomi.

   "Are you going to the party at the James?" Adam asked Satomi, in his
husky voice.  For whatever reason, he seemed more interested in her than
silly old me.  Turning to the side, I leaned forward to look at the head
dressed on the shelves.  My top swung forward letting them see my bare
breasts.  Adam didn't notice, but one of the boys outside saw me, and came
rushing into the shop!

   "Emi!  Is that you?"

   Embarrassed, I straightened up, flattening my little nothing of a top
over my breasts.  The boy was Kazuki, one of the guys I know from the
Japanese Students Union.  He stared down in wonder at my bare backside, and
when I tried to fix my loincloth, I think I might have given him a peek at
my pussy.  Whoops!

   "What a coincidence!" Kazuki grinned.  "Imagine meeting you here!"
Kazuki is a nice enough guy I guess, but up until then, I'd mainly thought
of him as an anime nerd.  He seemed pretty thrilled to see me though,
especially the way I was dressed.

   "Oh Kazuki.  Wha-wha-what are you doing here?" I stammered all flustered
now at having gotten caught like this.  He looked as pleased as punch, and
even Adam was watching now, finally noticing my exposed skin.

   "I was just on my way to the library, but I'm glad I bumped into you. 
Would you like a job?"

   I felt nervous with the two of them staring at me, but my ears perked up
when he said 'job.' I had been looking for extra work.

   "Job?  What kind of job?" I asked.

   "There's a comics convention coming up, and I was wondering if you could
work our table with us."

   I'd never been to a comics convention before, and had only the vaguest
of ideas of what goes on.

   "Um, what would I have to do?" I asked.

   "Have you met Masa?  He and I rent a table at these conventions, and
sell manga and anime DVD's.  A lot of the other booths have girls working
them - cosplayers - and they kind of steal our business.  If we had you
though...  I mean, man, we'd clean up for sure," he grinned, nodding
towards my body.

   "Cosplayers?  Oh no, I'm not...," I rushed to correct him.  Worried by
the way he was gawking at me, I felt for my loin cloth.  Somehow it had
gotten twisted off to the side, leaving my backside exposed.  I hadn't
really meant to show Kazuki my bottom, so I quickly turned to face him,
patting my butt cheeks in embarrassment.  I peered back at Adam.  He was
still talking with Satomi, trying not to stare at me.  Actually, I wouldn't
have minded so much if Adam wanted to check me out, so I was a bit
frustrated that he wasn't looking.

   "You could wear that," Kazuki offered, grinning from ear to ear.

   "This?  No, this isn't mine.  I was just trying it on," I explained.  I
pawed at the back flap, trying to get it to lie flat, but Adam was staring
even more deliberately now, so I don't think it was working.  I could feel
the air swirling all around my behind giving me goosebumps all over.

   "You look gorgeous," Kazuki beamed.  "I can buy it for you if you'd
like."

   "Um, no, thanks," I demurred, a bit out of my head with embarrassment. I
glanced back at Adam again, but he was trying not to look at me, so I
turned tail, and ran before anyone else came.

   "Hey, wait," Kazuki called after me.  "You could wear something else
then.  We have tons of costumes at the comics store."

   Really not thinking straight, I stopped to ask,

   "What kind of costumes?" Unfortunately, all this fiddling with my
loincloth was causing the bows on the waist ties to come loose.

   "Bat girl bikinis, super girl bikinis," he rhymed off, staring down
intently at my ass as the loincloth unravelled.

   "Anything else?" I gasped, just barely managing to catch the loincloth
before it fell.  Kazuki was so transfixed by my ass he was barely even
listening anymore.

   "Um, what?" he gaped.  I think Adam must have left, because I couldn't
see him anymore.

   "Anyway, it doesn't matter.  We can talk about it some other time."

   I scurried into the change booth, and quickly pulled the curtain closed,
breathing heavily.  What on earth did I go, and do that for?  I barely even
knew Kazuki, and now he probably thinks I'm some kind of nympho prancing
around half-naked out here for all to see.  Anyway, I'd better get out of
this, and go set the record straight.

   I took the loincloth off, and hung it on a hook, peeking out past the
curtain making sure that Kazuki hadn't followed me back here.  It looked
like he had gone to the front to talk to Satomi, so that was a relief.  I
was having a hard time calming down though after that.  My hello kitty was
purring, and I wanted so much to have sex.

   Anyway, I finally got back dressed, and came out to find Kazuki and
Satomi.  Satomi seemed none the wiser.  Kazuki was telling her about the
convention.  I tried to wriggle out of working, but he was pretty
insistent. He said I could just wear a schoolgirl uniform if that was
easier.  Anyway, I told him I'd think about it, and we headed out.

   That night though, when I got home, I found myself musing about this
convention.  I could wear my schoolgirl uniform, he'd said.  I guess that
wouldn't be so bad.  I didn't have it with me in the States, but perhaps I
could find something similar online.  Our school's was a bit old-fashioned
- Prussian blue with two white stripes on the sleeves and on the hem of the
flare skirt.  Our scarf was red, but maybe if I could find a blue scarf and
a grey collar, that would look conservative enough.

   I looked on the web.  There were quite a few white sailor blouses, but
the navy ones tended to be longer, not like a cosplayer wears.  Oh well. 
If I can't find one in time, I'll just tell Kazuki that I can't do it. 
There are other jobs I can do.

   Over the next few days, I trawled the web some more.  I did finally find
a uniform that might work.  The sleeves on the blouse were a bit longer
than my old one, and there were no stripes on the skirt, but otherwise it
was a pretty close match.  On a whim, I went ahead, and ordered one.  I
wasn't sure if it would arrive in time, but a few days before the
convention, it came in the mail.

   Kazuki called me around then.  I felt embarrassed about what had
happened at the gift shop, but he was pretty nice about the whole thing,
saying I didn't have to do anything I didn't want to.  I finally told him
yes.

   The convention was held in a big hotel downtown.  When the day came, I
headed down dressed in my street clothes, but packed my uniform in my
backpack.

   The hotel was gorgeous.  The lobby's ceiling was incredibly high.  There
were paper chandeliers and a luxurious red and brown color scheme.  There
were even escalators to take us down to the basement.  Kazuki gave me a
frilly wristband, so security would let me back into the hall.

   Both Kazuki and Masa seemed so pleased that I'd come.  Apparently, it's
some kind of big thing to have a girl on your team.

   In the ball room where the convention was held, there were all these
long tables set up in the middle and along the edges.  The other vendors
seemed cool enough, dressed neatly, not as geeky as I had pictured.

   There were a few other women there: dojinshi artists, cosplay models,
sales assistants.  I said hi to the Chinese girls who worked next to us. 
They had on these incredibly long wigs sort of like Rapunzel.  One girl,
Sue, was supposed to be a maid, and the other looked like one of Santa's
elves I guess.  The other girls were wearing uniforms based on anime
heroines or western superheroes.

   It all looked peaceful enough, and the people seemed friendly.  I
eventually decided it would be safe to change.  I went back up to the front
desk, and asked where the ladies room was, and they directed me up the
escalator to the second floor.  It was really quiet up there.

   The color of my schoolgirl uniform was really dark, almost black more
than navy, but it felt crisp and new.  Once I'd got it on, I came out to
check myself in the mirror.  You could see my bare thighs, tummy and
bellybutton, but it wasn't all that indecent.  I guess it'll be alright

   Once I finished changing, I went back down, and showed Kazuki and Masa.

   "Yeah.  Nice.  You look great," Kazuki smiled.  Masa looked happy too,
but he didn' say much.  I was actually a bit worried, because my uniform
was nowhere near as flashy as what some of the other girls were wearing,
but Kazuki and Masa didn't seem worried.

   Eventually, the convention started, and they let all the customers in.
People just kind of wander around, but sometimes a whole bunch of people
would congregate at one table.

   I tried to be friendly whenever someone came to our table, but most guys
were pretty shy.  They'd come up, and leaf through the bins of comics, only
sneaking the occasional peek at me.  I'd smile sweetly at them, but most of
them would look away, flustered.

   A bit bored, I started talking to Sue, the Chinese maid girl at the next
table.  She was an anime fan, and had designed her costume herself.  It did
look kind of home-made, but it must have taken forever to make, and showed
off her shoulders to nice effect.  She didn't seem embarrassed about it at
all.  She seemed proud actually of not only her costume, but her body too.
She seemed pretty cool.

   Kazuki kept counting the money in the till.  I felt a bit guilty.  They
had agreed to pay me a decent amount, so I wanted to earn my keep.  They
were both really polite though, not saying anything to me about it.

   Masa was acting weird actually.  He kept peering over at me and
blushing. He was so shy.  It was nice that he liked me, but I hadn't really
talked to him at all.

   Kazuki started reminiscing about other conventions.

   "Do you remember that girl in her underwear?" he beamed, talking more to
Masa than me.

   "What?  She was there panties and a bra?" I asked, surprised.

   "No, not exactly.  I think she was wearing a skirt at first, but took it
off later.  Here.  I think I have a picture." Kazuki found a pic on his
smartphone.  The girl was definitely Japanese, some kind of model I guess,
and there she was in a white sailor blouse, running shoes, and these
incredibly tiny little panties.  "If you could do something like that...,"
he mused.  I glanced over at Masa, but he just blushed even more.

   I looked down at my skirt, trying to remember what kind of panties I had
on.  Some of them the weave is so loose they are almost see-through, but I
was pretty sure these panties were a heavier silky material.  I definitely
hadn't planned on showing them to anyone when I got dressed that morning.
As far as I could remember, these ones were fairly low rise bikini panties.
They are nice and cool in the warm weather, but they hung fairly low on my
hips, so you could see a bit of the crack of my ass at the top.

   I looked back at Kazuki, but he had turned away to deal with some
customers.  It was kind of a crazy idea taking off my skirt, but then again
there was Sue in her shoulder-less maid uniform, some girl in a tank tee,
and other girls in pretty revealing costumes.  I didn't exactly stand out
the way I was dressed.

   I actually wanted to talk with Kazuki some more about it, but he was
avoiding my gaze.  Instead of taking off my skirt, maybe I could just pull
the hem up to give them a peek at my panties.  That wouldn't be quite so
embarrassing, but it might get a rise out of some of them.

   I wandered off to the side to hide from the crowd.  I lifted up my skirt
peeking down at my panties, and sure enough, they were the sparkly white
low rise ones.  Shoot!  If I'd known this would happen, I would have
brought a more decent pair.

   I slid my fingers in to the waistband of my skirt, and undid the hook at
the side.  I could resize the waistband.  I pulled the skirt up, and did it
up a bit tighter.  Some guys were watching me, but I just ignored them, and
tried to act normal.

   After I'd raised the waist, the hem hung loose at the back just barely
covering my bottom.  I was a bit worried, but I stood up, pushing the hem
down at the back.  Kazuki peered over at me, a bit surprised that I'd
actually raised my skirt for them.  He'd seen me fooling around half naked
at the gift shop, so I don't know why he was so surprised.  I guess he
still thought of me as a good girl.

   I went back to dealing with our customers, but now some of the guys
behind me were staring at my ass.  I tried to ignore them, but it was kind
of embarrassing.  I began to wonder I'd pulled the skirt up too far, but
when I went to fix it, Kazuki motioned for me to leave it.

   "It's okay, Emi!  Don't worry.  You look fine."

   I wasn't so sure about that, but in any case, we did seem to be getting
more business.  Guys would come, leaf through the bins, and then sneak a
peek.  I was actually pretty surprised that such a small thing would make a
difference.

   Feeling a bit nervously, I pressed my crotch against the table.  Sue
looked over at me, but she just smiled, used to dressing sexy.

   Masa leaned over, and whispered something to Kazuki.

   "What?" I asked.

   "No...  Masa was just saying that you are a very beautiful woman,"
Kazuki said.  I looked at Masa, even more surprised.  I wasn't sure how to
respond.

   "Um, thanks, I guess."

   After a while, the crowd kind of died down, as people went off to see
the TV stars in the other room.  Business slowed, and I tried to think of
some way I could help.

   At a table on the other side, there was a cute girl - maybe Japanese -
with a green wig on.  She was dressed all in white - white lace up boots, a
white mini-dress and white panties.  She had beautiful features and creamy
white thighs, but her eyes were so dark, evil-looking.  She kept looking
over at me, but not in a friendly way.  I think she thought that I was her
rival somehow.  Now that business was dying down, she was looking for
someone to blame, and seemed to think I had something to do with it.

   I got kind of tired of her icy stares.  It kind of spurred me on though
to up the ante myself.  I undid my skirt again, and folded the waistband
over on itself again.  There was kind of a limit with this skirt though. 
I'd folded it so many times that it was starting to look all bulky.  I
glanced over at the green-haired girl.  You could see her panties clear
enough.  Still feeling nervous, I push the skirt down my thighs, and took
it all the way off.

   Kazuki looked even more surprised, and innocent Masa was going into
convulsions to see his precious little angel - me that is - tarting myself
up this way.  Sue gave me a smile of approval.

   Self-conscious, I kept adjusting my panties, trying to pull them down
over my butt cheeks.  That wouldn't work, so I tried pulling up the
waistband instead to hide the crack of my butt.  These panties were pretty
mini though, so nothing seemed to work.  I finally just let them be.

   One problem was that there was a photographer there that day.  I think
he was over in the other room, but after I took off my skirt, someone went,
and got him.  He motioned that he wanted to take my picture.  I invited Sue
and the Chinese elf girl to get in on the shots.

   Sue was trying to act all sultry blowing kisses for the camera, and
doing all these sexy poses.  The camera guy eventually thanked us, and
wandered off, but soon he was behind me snapping shots of my pantyclad ass.
Sue came over, and pulled my waistband open, so the photographer could take
a shot of my behind.  I was kind of shocked, but the guys were all laughing
and clapping, so I let her do it.  Sue made like she was going to her own
panties down, but at least she had a dress on so that wasn't so bad.  The
photographer told her to pull my panties down again, and at first I kind of
let him take a bunch of shots of my ass, but soon, a whole bunch of people
came back in from the other room.  Sue didn't notice at first, so she kept
on pulling until practically my whole rump was exposed, but soon I elbowed
her to get her to stop.  That was kind of embarrassing getting caught half
naked by all those people.

   There were a lot of people at our table now.  One guy even asked for my
phone number.  I was so surprised.  He seemed nice enough, but there were
so many people there it was hard to do much.

   The show kind of wound down late in the afternoon.  Sue and I exchanged
numbers, and promised to keep in touch.  Kazuki wanted to organize some
kind of photo shoot at their store, but I told him maybe some other time.
Masa looked really sad, when I pulled my skirt back on, and headed upstairs
to get changed.  Anyway, it was an interesting experience.

   Emi Tsuruta
http://www.asstr.org/~emitsuruta/