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Elysium Ruins – 4058 [Alrest Time]

            “Masterpon, I have located perfect rest stop!” Poppi hovered above a small oasis; gesturing excitedly towards Tora and the other members of the impromptu ‘settlement team’. “Poppi will begin shelter generation procedure!” The artificial blade toppled over a dead tree. “Lean-to complete!”

            “Whatsa matter with sleeping in one of the vacant buildings?” Pandoria stepped into a decrepit building only a few meters away. “Back me up, Zeke! I really wanna sleep on a bed or an approximation of one.”

            “Chums, given Nia’s strange behavior, I do advise we sleep indoors!” Zeke knocked on the support pillar for the building. “Solid as an oak.” Within a few moments, the entire structure came down. Without a word, Pandoria shook off the debris as she made her way over to the tree. “On second thought, Poppi’s contribution does offer strategic advantages.”

            “Of course it is! Tora make Poppi special and able to endure! Not like whoever make the old buildings!” The Nopon struck a triumphant pose that the ‘Best Girl Fan’ top undercut slightly. He noticed Nia giving him an odd look even compared to Nia’s usual disapproval of the shirt. “Meh? Why Nia staring so long?”

            Nia looked away in embarrassment. “It’s nothing! I’m just waiting for this new status ailment to wear off!” Nia repeated her reasoning for why she hadn’t been able to summon any of her blades since the group split up. “Weird new monsters here have different effects! What’s to say Nullify Blade isn’t one of those effects?”

            “It’s just weird that ya can’t even have the blade appear outta combat.” Pandoria grabbed a flower at random that she chucked towards Nia. “See if this works!”

            “Oi! You can’t do that!” Nia dodged the dirt clod projectile almost as if in combat. “Infighting is only going to make your bad luck come back.”

            “Masterpon, Rex and Morag are returning!” Poppi flew towards the returning party composed of Rex, Pyra, Morag, Brighid and a second Nia? “Error! Multiple Nia’s detected!” Poppi’s error message grabbed everyone’s attention.

            The second Nia assumed Blade form next to Rex. “Rex, we’ve been through this before.” ‘Nia’ panicked as she began to run towards ruins in the far distance. A well-positioned anchor shot closed the distance quickly. “We’ll show you what happens when we catch you impersonating me again, Definian!” A single blade strike was all it took to reveal that ‘Nia’ was an anthro wolf masquerading.

            Zey woke up in a cold sweat in their bed. Frantically taking two pills from a nearby prescription bottle brought some relief from the recurring Nia dreams.

Greater London Area, UK – Present Day

            Zey rolled out of bed to discover that subconscious shapeshifting resulted in transforming the bed into a glorified Nia kigurumi. “The Butterfly Syndrome is getting worse.” A standard ‘form reversion’ spell returned the bed to its original form. Most shapeshifters tended to go through a fixation period during their initial experimenting or childhood. Regardless of the ‘how’, Zey knew that their desire to be Nia ran deeper than any recurring desire.

    Zey wrote down the incident inside of an Aegis-themed ‘Nia journal’ that catalogued the instances. Zey’s doctor, some Yank shapeshifter form-locked into a video game character, had theorized that distractions and new forms could potentially mitigate the syndrome’s effects. Flipping through the older entries brought up the time Zey Nia’d at a CATS screening in a cinema. “It’s probably best for me not to risk another jellicle cats incident.” An extended shower brought Zey no closer to thinking of an adequate form of escapism. If anything, the drenched fur invited temptation to summon Adenine for an impromptu dry cleaning. “On second thought, air drying would be best.” Zey slotted their wallet into their personal ‘hammerspace’ zone and left the flat.

    Birds chirped outside to herald the pre-Spring period that still inexplicably had deep winter chills every other day. Zey pulled out a white scarf as per the unstated rule of fur characters’ sole winter wear being a scarf. City life has its limitations, but it’s better to pay taxes than lose almost a quarter of a year in hibernation. Besides, Zey’s den had Netflix and hot water while most dens didn’t. Amongst the mishmash of people in parkas and shorts were a few people in colorful costumes. Curious, Zey snuck up to the group to get a closer look. “Awfully late for Halloween, don’t you think?” Shingeki no Kyojin costumes were close enough to ‘horror’ to pass for the UK variant of the celebration.

    A woman dressed as Annie Leonhart scoffed at Zey’s assertion. “I woulda expected the fursuiter to know about the con.” She began to scroll through social media posts on her phone. “Hange, you like weird stuff, dontcha? Fill the Sonic character in or whatever.”

    ‘Hange’ recognized Zey immediately. “Zey, it’s you!” She swapped her cosplay glasses for her usual pair worn during work. “I’m Patty from Accounts Management at the insurance place. Are you heading to London Anime and Game Xpo, too?” Patty, ‘Annie’ and a Sasha Braus cosplayer crossed their arms in a pattern of X’s. “Sasha, this is my former fur coworker I was telling you about!”

    ‘Sasha’ poked Zey’s belly rather bluntly. “Woah, I didn’t think that Hawkmoth employees could afford ‘Real Skin’ fursuits.” She moved her hands towards Zey’s neck, assuming the ‘furs’ were simply people in costumes. “Please let me try the headpiece on.” Zey instinctively jerked back from the ‘handsy’ woman. “Come on, it would only be for a minute!”

    “It’s not a costume and neither are my coworker’s bodies.” Zey presented their driver’s license as proof that the fur wasn’t for show. Sasha looked over the ID, compared the photo to the wolf standing across from her and slowly returned the card. Zey slid the card back into hammerspace. “I can’t say that I’ve heard of LAGX before.”

    “It’s a replacement for a ‘disgraced Royal’ event.” Annie looked up from her phone briefly. “A bit slap-dashed, but who am I to object to a £15K group cosplay prize pool?”

    “The food is free, too!” Sasha salivated. “At least the high society stuff is until they run out.”

    Free food? The prospect of encountering other furs? What wasn’t there at the convention! Zey’s eagerness quickly dissipated because of a potential risk factor. “There won’t be any Xenoblade Chronicles 2 cosplayers, right? I’m attempting to keep my mind off one of the characters.”

    “Xenoblade 2 is old news, wolfie.” Annie shrugged. “We’re going to the group entrance down that way.” She pointed towards the left. “If you wanna walk in without registering in a group, go that way to the ‘individuals’ line.” Zey now clearly saw a line to their right a few blocks down. “We’ll wave to you from the group winner stage.” Zey’s fear of missing out led the wolf to getting in line behind the one committed Daleks in Manhattan fan in the entire world.

    Patty slapped Annie on the back. “Xenoblade 2 is more popular than ever after the Smash inclusion. Why did you lie to them like that?”

    “I thought it was funny.” Annie watched Zey stuck between a human Dalek and someone cosplaying as the ‘tile lady’ from Love and Monsters. “I’m just acting the part of my character.” She stuffed a lollipop into her mouth. “Besides, we got the competition in the bag.”

Two Hours of Queuing Later

            “…and that’s why I think Trial of a Timelord is the best arc in the classic series.” The man in front of Zey talked the entire time. Zey’s eyes would have rolled backwards if not for the sporadic pace of line movement requiring partial attention. “Many people or, in your case, wolves insist that the Sylvester McCoy era was darker to course correct. My thought is that the change in writers accounted for…” A volunteer handing an event badge to the man finally shut him up. “Thanks for listening and search for my Podcast ‘Sympathy for the Master’ on iTunes.” A flood of fans in tweed jackets and fezzes dragged the human Dalek cosplayer into the dark depths of a Bigheads fan panel.

            Zey’s processing for an event badge proved far less harrowing. Showing ID and declaring ‘no dimensional travel’ bypassed the more intense screening process. A poster on the wall showed a ‘No’ sign over a stick-figure next to minimalist versions of the TARDIS and a Stargate. “The tachyon particle scans confirm you’re telling the truth.” A male event employee handed over a convention badge. “Enjoy the convention.”

            “Out of curiosity, have there been a lot of interdimensional visitors?” Zey joked uneasily to cover for their own dabbling in interdimensional travel.

            “It’s mostly to keep characters from simply showing up in our dimension to cheat in the costume.” The employee shrugged. “Plus, it gives us an excuse to exclude the French.”

    Event decorations were sparse and closer to a BBC period drama than the contradicting brutalism with commercialist aesthetics of American pop culture conventions. A multitude of sights and sounds put Zey at ease knowing that they could find a multitude of distraction possibilities. Alas, spotting familiar red hair out of the corner of their eye made Zey realize something rather grim. There were six Pyra’s, three Mythra’s, a Poppi QT and even a Boreas cosplayer all within sight. Despite the Boreas only wearing bodypaint, he had the most accurate costume.

            A Pyra and Mythra pair approached Zey, mistaking their frantic looking around as shyness. “That’s a very nice wolf costume.” Pyra engaged in an inviting way. “There’s no need to be shy around us! People will probably want photos of your next level fursuit, anyway!” She positioned a selfie stick, done up like the Aegis Sword, in a shot to include her and Zey. “Mythra, get behind our wolf friend and squeeze into the shot!”

            “Gladly. I’ve wanted to see one of these ‘real furs’ in the wild all season.” Mytha pressed her chest over Zey’s head to get the ‘fan favored’ assets in shot. She could tell from Zey’s shaking that requesting this treatment otherwise would prove too embarrassing. “3, 2, 1. Cheesecake!” The resulting flash from the cell phone camera obscured Mythra’s vision long enough that she thought Zey took a feel. “Hey! We did the positioning to make sure no pervo shots end up on-line!” Her jaw dropped upon realizing there was a perfect Nia between the two of them. “Where did the wolf go?”

            Pyra flipped through the selection of photos taken in rapid succession that showed Zey’s sequential transformation into Nia. “Mythra, the wolf is this Nia.” She abruptly tugged off her own cosplay wig to reveal blonde hair underneath. She removed one of her gloves for further confirmation that her costume wasn’t fused to her. “I was afraid that I transformed, too.”

            “Nya?” Zey-Nia looked at her gloved hands in horror. “No, anything apart from this!” Not wanting to make a scene, Zey-Nia knew that she would need distance from the Pyra and Mythra combo. Signs pointing towards the closest bathroom offered the closest oasis. Locking herself in the first open stall she could find, Zey-Nia sat down on the toilet to perform breathing exercises. “I’m more than just one character; I’m many.” Saying the line in Nia’s voice undercut the effectiveness significantly. “I won’t let a desire define me. I’m in control… I’m the driver, not the passenger.” Whoever wrote this bloody script never thought of the possibility that ‘driver’ might be tied to a form. “I’m in charge here!” She defiantly placed her hands on her hips. “No one says or does anything to my body apart from me!”

            Gradually, the Zey-Nia balance shifted back in the wolf’s favor. They relaxed in a state of tranquility until someone knocked on the stall door. “It’s not your personal flat in there! Open up!” Bloody hell, a Nia cosplayer was provoking Nia through an absolute butchering of her voice. What type of smeghead would do a stereotypical Irish accent for Nia? She’s so clearly Welsh, ya ignorant bastard! Zey stood up, unevenly reverting, to confront the sin against Nia’s everywhere. “Now you open the door…” She looked up at Zey in horror. “What type of sick bastard goes as the Wanted Poster art Nia?” Zey, asserting dominance, stormed out of the bathroom before anyone could question the ‘how’s and why’s’.

            Elsewhere, a duo cosplaying as Morag and Brighid sat on a bench waiting for the third member to arrive. Morag, clearly on edge, meticulously checked the stitching on her sleeves as a distraction. Brighid, in contrast, seemed completely chill. She pulled down one of her implied ‘flaming hair’ accessories to use it as a vape. “She’ll show up, sis.” She exhaled the smoke into Morag’s face. “You don’t need to be even more tightly wound than usual to be in-character.”

            “This is the third delay to her arrival today.” Morag tensed her fingers. “First you said her train was delayed, next it was an issue at the bus terminal and now you say that she hasn’t even left her house. I put too much effort into my costume for your druggie friend to stink it all up!”

            Brighid spotted a security guard approaching in the wake of Morag uttering the term ‘druggie’. “What she meant to say was that my friend is a thuggie. Isn’t that right, sis?” She did a combination side hug/headlock to obscure her sister’s mouth. “It’s her first convention and she hasn’t been out of the house in months. You know how kids are.” The security guard walked away, seemingly appeased. Once the coast was clear, Brighid released her sister. “Don’t forget I’m your ride out of here. That is unless you WANT mum to find out why her fabrics and other materials keep going missing. I might blab it all in police custody if I was caught, Mary.”

            “Bridget, please don’t make threats like that. You know that she wants one of us ‘respectable’.” Morag nursed her sore neck. “If we brought Katherine with us as Pandoria, we wouldn’t have needed to invite Grey!”

            “Grey does whatever she needs to win while Katie does everything to get another meal. If ya want to make a debut on a scene, you need the drive…” Brighid’s checked her notifications. “Shit, Grey’s in jail again. What are we going to do, diver?”

            “The term is ‘driver’, Brighid.” Morag turned away from her sister in a desperate attempt to avoid screaming. Even if Katie took a taxi to the convention, nothing short of a Cinderella tailor miracle would work now. Plus, the judges would be on their toes for ‘shapeshifting makeovers’ and eager to disqualify. All of the effort circled down the drain because of an unreliable smoggie. “Unless we can recruit someone here already in a costume, we might as well head home.” She removed her elaborate hat, a perfect microcosm for her efforts, regretting the countless hours wasted to match the colors and materials down to a 400% upscale of the in-game assets. “You can pawn my sewing machine once we’re back to buy whatever you want.”

            “Jeez, you want this that bad?” Brighid looked around for a reference she understood among the countless dorks. She whistled to a pair of blokes dressed as Charlie and Pim. “Hey, make my sister smile!”

            “What’s wrong, soldier girl?” Pim leaned to the side making sure that Morag wasn’t wearing a ‘frowning friends’ armband or something worse. “Do you want to talk about it?” Morag shook her head. “Charlie, any ideas?”

            “It doesn’t take an astronaut to see they need a third person to raise them up.” Charlie pulled up an imageboard thread on his phone. “No way, there’s a Nia catfight in the West Corridor.”

            “There is?” Morag pulled her hat back on. “Come on, Brighid!” A massive smile formed on her face. “We need to find a Nia!” She dragged Brighid towards the alleged catfight location.

            Zey checked their reflection in a section of mirrored glass to confirm total reversion. Now that they were in ‘the clear’, the distraction efforts could resume. The vendor hall offered a pop culture cornucopia ranging from walls of Funko Pops to the inexplicable weapons replica seller who oozed shadiness. A magic-themed stall grabbed Zey’s attention thanks to Luna Nova Magical Academy likenesses. Memories of time in the guise of Akko flooded back into Zey’s immediate thoughts. Making the robes on-site wouldn’t be too difficult to do.

            “See anything you want?” An Akko cosplayer emerged from under the stall’s table. “Oh, you’re going to want the non-chafing robes!” Akko bumped her head against the table. “Diosir Sorware!” Akko’s wand flourished made the pain go away. She placed the purple robes on the table for Zey to consider. “The robe is £60 on its own and £75 if you also want the wand.”

            “How much would a Shiny Chariot outfit cost?” Zey imagined that an Akko would offer that as a top shelf option. “She’s my favorite character in the series apart from you, Akko-chan.”

            “I’m doing this booth in order to fund my own Shiny Chariot costume.” Akko pointed towards a crayon drawing showing the progress towards a very expensive costume. “I’m the Akko-iest Akko there has ever been!” Akko rode out on a generic Roomba clone from Amazon.co.uk. “I have a Sucy at Tesco getting some snacks.” A fellow fan should be delighted at the chance to transform into one of her classmates! “Be my Diana and we can share the Shiny Chariot outfit!” She aimed a wand towards Zey. “Metamorphie Faciesse!” The actual animation for Akko’s attack, occurring at 24 fps, proved slow enough for Zey to dodge the attack. The stray transformation spell caused a stack of Funko Pops to become a Diana statue.

            “Now things are getting interesting!” An Eda the Owl Lady cosplayer from another stall injected herself into the battle. “If we’re going to be flinging spells around, I’m going to take advantage.” She grabbed Zey by the right arm. “We’ll get a skull and, voila, instant ‘alternate universe’ King! Luz can stop hounding the guys in the mascot costumes.” She paused to consider the word choice. “Hounding isn’t a racial slur to your kind, right?”

            “It isn’t, but I’m not going with either of you.” Zey felt their other arm tugged in the opposite direction. Great, Zey was now stuck between two fandoms each wanting them for different reasons. What next? An animatronic and Sonic fan character pulling at the legs? If Zey had access to Nia’s blades, no one would dare lay a finger… No, that type of thinking was the problem! Luz and Sucy showed up to back their respective side in the argument. Running low on options, Zey opted for the crazy option of jerking hard on Eda’s arm.

            Eda’s forearm flew across Zey’s chest, impacting Akko in the process. The witchling’s opposing grip on Zey lost all force in the confusion of a detached limb. “Her arm came off! Her arm came off!” Sucy picked up the detached limb, curious to replicate the effect for her own creepy dabbling. The limb crawled back to Eda on its own. Akko couldn’t believe Luz’s lack of reaction. “Why aren’t you shocked?”

            “She just does that from time to time.” Luz slotted Eda’s arm back into place. “Is that a robe from Miniature Mage Academy?” Her curiosity to try the robe brought the fight to an abrupt conclusion. Sides shared information about witch academia long enough that no one noticed Zey walk into the closest panel. Surely, things couldn’t be any worse in the panel room, right?

            Morag finished an impromptu interrogation of the fifth consecutive Nia from the alleged catfight. She didn’t know if the costume gave her the confidence to enact the inquisitor role or solely the adrenaline. Regardless, the testimonies together suggested the presence of a ‘secret Nia’ among the crowd unwilling to show herself for whatever reason. “You’re free to go, Nia.” She dismissed the other cosplayer from the small corner in the lobby area. Eager to get away quickly, the Nia dashed away fast enough to not notice her event map drop from her leather pouch.

            “Yoink!” Brighid scooped up the dropped loot to check for any financial information. Alas, it was merely a map the Nia printed out from a fansite that summarized the various panels. Multiple red circles in colored pencil encircled a single name. “Who or what is Catrin-Mai Huw?” She handed the paper over to Morag. “Is that an underground K-Pop group or a bad Scrabble hand?”

            “Of course, that’s where they’d all be heading!” Morag facepalmed, much to Brighid’s confusion. “She’s Nia’s English voice actress! Our mystery Nia is practically guaranteed to be there!” Morag looked up towards the temporary numbers on the walls designating the general panel areas. “If we run through the Panel in Room 28 and pull a right, we’ll be only a few meters away from Room 3.”

Meanwhile, in Room 3…

            Zey fixated on watching the door they entered through that they failed to notice the hordes of Xeno-Universe fans walking in the other entrances by the dozens. Dim lighting conditions almost made Zey blend into the dark if not for the varying quality of LED lights attached to various cosplayers. A KOS-MOS proved so bright that Zey’s eyes averted towards the stage where several unassuming people sat. An illuminated sign clearly stated that anyone asking about Xenoblade Chronicles 3 would be escorted out immediately. Zey slowly surveyed the room to discover the overwhelming amount of Xenoblade Chronicles fans and, in particular, all of the Nia’s.

            “Thank you all for coming to this unique opportunity since our dub is the English speaking world’s standard.” The panel’s master of ceremonies began. “Unlike the American panels you’ve all probably watched on Youtube, I won’t shill my personal podcast or Raid Shadow Legends.” Audience laughter led into cheers. “I must emphasize that nothing will be announced or confirmed today. Isn’t that right, Mario?” A spotlight focused on a person wearing the ‘perfect Mario’ mascot outfit watching from the far corner. A POW blocked marked ‘EUCD’ [European Copyright Directive] rested in Mario’s hands primed for use. “Having given thanks to the Nintendo of Europe overlords, let’s introduce the voice actresses! I see a lot of Nia’s in the audience.” The light switched to focusing on a dark-haired voice actress. “Do you have anything special to say to them, Ms. Huw?”

            Catrin crossed her arms and scowled to get back into the role. “Here I come, ready or Gormotti!” Her exaggerated cat hiss noise made the audience hype build. “It’s humbling to see so many kittens based on my performance.” She peered across the crowd taking in all of the driver and blade costumes. “Why is there one of me dressed in Rex’s salvager suit? I wouldn’t be caught dead in such an antique! Get out.” Her tone was playful enough to not make the ‘diss’ malicious.

            “She’s bloody perfect.” Zey fell in love with the ‘prime’ Nia all over again. She put in the little touches that only the truest fans would notice even during other actor’s segments. Not even an impromptu ‘Pyra Vs. Poppi’ version of ‘Girl Power-Off’ on stage deterred Zey’s focus from Catrin’s total commitment to character. She even flailed her legs in-tune to the acappella version of the incidental dance music. Bizarrely, despite maximum Nia exposure, a sense of stage fright kept the subconscious shifting from happening. How would ‘prime’ Nia react if the proportions were off or, even worse, thought that shapeshifting was cheating? Zey lifted up the scarf to cover their mouth in slight embarrassment. Under normal circumstances, this shock would cure the problem, right? You’re reading an Emily Rees story; a swerve is guaranteed just like the pop culture references.

            “Give it up for Ms. Li and Ms. Bennett’s performance!” The panel head walked offstage towards the center of the room carrying the main microphone. “We will now be taking questions…” Almost everyone in the audience stood up. “that don’t spoil Xenoblade 3…” Several people sat back down. “or pertain to ship fics.” Everyone apart from Zey sat down in their section. “Let’s start with the wolf! Do you have anything to ask the panel?” He shoved the microphone towards Zey’s muzzle. “Don’t be shy!”

            “Hi, I’m Zeydaan or Zey for short. I want to ask...” Zey mumbled during the process of taking hold of the microphone. “I wanted to ask Nia about the voice acting process.” Ms. Huw stared directly at Zey for the first time. Their tail wagged in such a way that a Rainbow Dash cosplayer screamed ‘wing boner’. “That is if she’ll have my question.”

            “You’re certainly bold enough to not wear pants or a skirt in public. Ask away!” Catrin put on the full Nia accent even for the disarming joke. “Let me preempt other questions through saying that ‘gamer foam’ for your walls won’t land you a job in the industry. You’re better off getting a pop filter, ya wannabes.” Poppi’s voice actress playfully covered Catrin’s mic. “Pop filter; not Poppi!”

            Zey lit up almost imagining the exact characters on stage waiting on the question. “Very funny, Poppi.” Zey unintentionally parroted Catrin’s tone to continue the little sketch unfolding before the crowd. “When you’re in the booth, do they give you a general synopsis for context in the script or are you kept in the dark?” By now people found it strange that either Zey could perform a flawless Nia voice OR postmodernist ventriloquism. “Did you know that I…” Zey corrected from the self-insertion as Nia. “about what happened to Nia in Elpys?”

            “If you keep up the quality impression, I might be out of a job.” Catrin took a drink from a water bottle. “Sometimes. It depends on what the director needs in a given session. Random ‘grunts and screams’ day is always a chore.”

            Within the crowd, the Nia’s lamented the attention Zey got from ‘mama cat’ so much that Morag overheard. Through the process of elimination, the wolf somehow had to be the mystery Nia. “If I found a quick kigu maker, we could improvise something.” She pretended that the comment was in regard to an issue within her costume rather than encasing Zey. Once Zey’s back-and-forth with Ms. Huw concluded, Zey made their way towards the room exit. “Brighid, keep the audience distracted. I have a wolf to catch.” Morag briskly walked in the general direction Zey fled.
            Brighid stood up to request the microphone. Taking major inspiration from the nerd next to her, she asked the cast a very pressing question. “Yes, I was wondering if Blades could beat a bunch of Bionicles in a fight.” She could kiss her ‘cool girl’ card away for this. “Malos is a lot like a Piraka.”