The Cosplayer question panel

I walked out onto the stage, over to my guests table. The attendants had been so friendly to me, some fans waving and asking for pictures on my way here. Now I was sitting in my seat for the cosplayer question panel, just on the other side of the curtain that separated the audience from me.

Is it wrong… for me to be totally, absolutely, completely loving all this attention??

I squirmed a little in my seat, squeaking just ever so slightly from the sound of my latex wrapped thighs moving against its leather. People being excited to see me, being treated like I was important, being seen as inspiring along with being perceived as a beautiful woman… it was such a dangerous combination for me.

I just… I feel so unbelievably good. And all the kinky, slutty stuff I’ve been getting up to with Rachel too. Is it wrong for me to be having this much fun? Wrong for me to be enjoying myself this much??

“Hey! It’s you… maybe it’s my lucky day, if you’re beside me.”

My weird, pleasurable, roiling thoughts of enjoyment over my situation were interrupted my a cute voice, as I turned to find a big surprise sitting right next to me.

“Oh, oh my God. You’re that Ganyu cosplayer from earlier!”

“In the flesh!”

Ganyu laughed along, seeming to find my surprise just as cute as I was finding her.

“And if you’re in this panel, it must mean you’re a big cosplayer too!”

“Yeah, well…”

Her bottom lip stuck out, quivering in a pout before she continued:

“… I’m a little sad you didn’t recognize me earlier, actually.”

A strange guilt stung me, although for the life of me I didn’t really know why. I wasn’t overly well versed on the popular cosplayers in the area anyway, not recognizing Heather when I’d first seen her either, despite her evidently being somewhat famous. As for Heather’s memories, she’d been so busy moving to this city, starting University, and getting into all sorts of shenanigans with Rachel she hadn’t even been paying that much attention to the scene either.

“Ahh! Oh, ehm, I’m sorry…”

Ganyu let that sorrowful, awkward pause linger for just a moment, before breaking it with a laugh.

“Ahahah, no, I should be the one apologizing. I might be getting a little popular as a cosplayer now, but thinking everyone is going to recognize me would be so arrogant! I’m Liz, by the way.”

“Oh phew, wow, you really had me going there. I’m Heather! Although, I guess since you came to my meet and greet, you already knew that. It’s going to be a relief calling you by your real name instead of just Ganyu in my internal monologue.”

Liz just laughed harder at that.

“No, no, it’s okay! Call me Ganyu if you want. She’s really cool anyway.”

Now both of us were laughing, although I liked to think I was more just caught up in Liz’s charm rather than acknowledging her cheap pun.

“So, Liz, how long have you been cosplaying?”

“Oh, not long really. Only a couple of years. I actually only moved here recently, for college. I’m from Hong Kong, started cosplaying in my last few years of high school. Things took off, and I was making enough money to study abroad. I kinda fancied the adventure of a life on the other side of the world, at least for a little time.”

“Well, it’s really nice to meet you. Ohh, hey, we should trade details!”

“Sure, I’d love that!”

I passed Heather’s phone to Liz, as she passed hers, and we added each other on everything.

“Maybe we’ll become really close…”

Liz had a shy smile as she said that, a certain dreamy look on her face.

“Pssst, hey, ladies. The panel is about to start!”

A curt warning from an attendant at the side let us know the curtain was going to open, so we straightened up in our seats. I squinted just a little as the light from the rest of the auditorium rushed in.

Wow… there’s so many people here.

I probably shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was, considering how many had come to my meet and greet, but there really was a lot of people here.

Well, I suppose they are here to see all of us.

Glancing past Liz, I could see some other cosplayers with smiles on their faces for the crowd. The presenter of the panel was introducing us all, and opening the stage up to questions from the crowd, but I was busy trying to find one person in particular. In the back, near the corner, I found him. I could feel the edges of my lips curl up into an evil grin, as underneath the table my fingers closed around the controller of the vibrator.

“Oh, ohh, I’ve got a question for Heather. Heather, big fan by the way, what’s the cosplay you were most excited to wear?”

I shook my head a little, startled at getting a question so soon.

It seems my vengeance will have to wait…

It almost looked like “Gareth” breathed a sigh of relief there, although he should have realized that this was just a temporary salvation.

“Ohh, ehmm, you know it’s probably this one. I know I’ve worn a lot of cosplays, but I’ve really wanted to be Zero Two for the longest time. Ever since I watched Darling in the Franxx, she was so captivating for me… so confident, cool, sexy. I really loved her assertiveness, and the way she didn’t take other people’s criticisms too seriously, she just did what she wanted.

I guess she was the opposite of me. You wouldn’t necessarily know this, but I haven’t always been so confident. Maybe if you watched my early streams you’d see I was a lot less at ease… so I grew into it. But yeah… I guess I was much shyer.

Seeing someone like Zero Two, wanting to be her so badly, it felt so impossible… so I guess now that I am her, at least in cosplay, it feels really fulfilling! Plus, this outfit is so scandalous, like, a tight red latex bodysuit? So shiny too… it’s the kind of clothing that’s immediately captivating. Well, that felt impossible for me too, once. But really wearing it, becoming your desire, it’s so empowering and fun! And, well. Zero Two is one of the classic characters all cosplayers eventually do, so I was glad I could get to show you my version of her too.”

Members of the audience were nodding, appreciating such a genuine answer. The guy who’d asked the question had a big smile too… but on the stage I was blushing a little. I’d tried to make it seem like an answer from Heather, mentioning her nerves in her early streams, but really it was an answer that’d just as much come from me.

I’d remembered watching Darling in the Franxx, feeling so confused about Zero Two. I’d thought it was just attraction, just that I wanted her romantically and sexually. A lot of anime fans felt that way about their “waifus”, and even if the concept of wanting an anime character like that was silly, it was fun and (mainly) harmless, so why not? But my feelings were a little deeper than that, maybe a little more twisted. It wasn’t just that I wanted her, it was more like I wanted to be her.

But that was impossible for a guy, impossible for me. Just another desire to forget about, to repress. There was plenty more fun to have in life, even if you don’t do everything your confused, messy little heart might like. But now, full of the evil power of the skinwalker, I’d realized this deeply suppressed dream. I’d become the anime girl I craved, and even more real, become the gorgeous cosplay girl who could be any character she pleased.

Maybe this was part of the reason Candida had turned me? She’d said that skinwalkers were guided by instinct, desire, something primal deep down that couldn’t be controlled entirely by the rational mind. Maybe she knew that these desires in me, so strange, so repressed, would synthesize all too well with the darker nature and compulsive power of the skinwalker? Maybe she knew I would go further than the average person when these opportunities came to me…

“Liz, Liz, so how are you finding…”

The next question seemed to filter out, as I focused on Gareth in the audience. Enough personal reflection, it was time for bizarre, public sexual lewdness. I pressed the button that activated the vibrator. Realistically, Gareth was far away from me, but I found that even from this distance my enhanced sight could focus on him well. I could see him spasm just a little, the shock of the sensation being hard to hide, before he tried to act as if it wasn’t happening.

He was seated, so didn’t have to worry about falling down the way I had during the meet and greet. Even so, as he crossed his legs, and squirmed on the chair, I knew the vibrator was playing havoc on “his” insides.

Interesting… so, even while wrapped in a man’s skin, totally male externally and theoretically, I’d imagine, able to live a man’s life forever, the goth girl filling inside still remains female, and susceptible to female pleasure…

I could feel myself getting wet again, the power I held over Rachel in Gareth giving me a certain glorious, petty high. The idea too, of a woman finding a man’s discarded skinsuit, one some skinwalker had created and then left lying around, was filling me with arousal. I imagined her climbing inside, marveling at how it changed her. Feeling that utterly organic, wet heat of its interior, and gasping as she observed her now totally male body.

Peeling apart the suit again, finding she can open it herself whereas an outsider might not necessarily be able to. Sitting, all male from the neck down, with her real female head on top. Before deciding to slip inside again, live as this skin she’d found, take his identity. Having casual sex with women, growing addicted to a man’s pleasure, impregnating a sweetheart and raising a family as the Dad.

Gosh… I’m getting distracted by such a kinky fantasy. I’m sure something like that’s happened, both ways of the gender spectrum. I wonder if I gave Jimmy a girl’s skin, could he wear her forever, get pregnant as her, carry a child and be a mother, all from just wearing a skinsuit I created? Maybe in another life I would have found that out…?

I’d let go of the vibrator button for a while there, and Gareth was getting his breath back. He almost looked a little sweaty, although I had no doubt I would too if I was experiencing the crazy, surreal gender bender pleasure Rachel no doubt was inside of his skinsuit. Liz was coming to the end of her question, which made me think…