Maybe it'll help take my mind off things if I yap about the design process for my #outglutmasquerade costume. So, I come from a particularly backwater part of paradox space. I'm from AN Earth, but my species is pretty much only found here or on other backwater Earths like it. If I accurately call myself a "monster," 99% of this website will go "what the fuck are you talking about." In fact, the overwhelming majority of this site's monster representation consists of alternate versions of me specifically. So the question arises: If seeing a mere glimpse of my actual skin, or for that matter what my legs look like, immediately doxxes me, how do I approach a masquerade? Simple. Cover everything, but have just enough of the ILLUSION of exposed skin to function as a distraction. If I were to rock up to the ballroom wearing, say, a full suit of armor, then (ignoring the fact that I'd be extremely uncomfortable with it) the entire crowd would immediately notice that I was concealing literally everything, and would place me into the spotlight. But since I visually appeared to be a very fancy troll with exposed shoulders, I was able to blend in without fielding too many questions. As far as I'm aware only two people actually clocked me???? So this approach was a lot more successful than I intended, evidently. The innermost layer of the outfit is a grey skinsuit, of the type worn by kigurumi cosplayers. The skinsuit covers everything the clothing itself doesn't; which is to say, an outside observer will see grey-skinned neck and shoulders, and will never think to wonder if I'm wearing horn caps over my natural antlers. A thick dress is visually striking, sure, but also conceals my tail and reaches down to the floor so nobody notices my legs. On the second day, when I had to make modifications anyway so that I could eat and drink, I also implemented trousers with a shit ton of petticoats so that I wouldn't immediately give the game away if I made flashy leg movements in a dance. This brings me to the theme. "Time paradox" can be interpreted as just seeming anachronistic by being there, or it can be interpreted as having elements from conflicting eras in the design itself. My design checks both boxes. But it can ALSO be interpreted as portraying a character who is themself a time paradox. So the moment I heard the theme, I knew I had to play the role of Yakumo Yukari. Yukari is one of the central characters of the Touhou series. She was originally a psychology major from a post-apocalyptic future named "Maribel Hearn," before her emerging youkai abilities caused her to slip back in time, where she became one of the Sages that founded Gensokyo. In her main series appearances, she's contemporary with her matesprit's ancestor, and once put said ancestor's dreamself in a Situation for mildly annoying her. This seemed a perfect fit. The name I went by, "Dr. Latency," is the pseudonym under which Yukari published the titular Dr. Latency's Freak Report, which laid out her attitude towards violating the laws of physics for fun as "quantum phenomena too small to be seen by the eye observe the same type of existence as youkai." I referred to myself as a Schrödinger's bakeneko once or twice: this is a direct quote from the album. I was aiming for a character of "just youkai enough that the name Merry no longer applies, but early enough in her evolution that she can't be called Yukari yet." This in-between state formed the basis for my design: I wore her signature hat (the ribbon was introduced in her Merry phase) and the parasol she uses as Yukari, but the body of the outfit was a 12-hitoe with the sleeves cut off, representing the idea of being visibly out of step with broader society. The 12-hitoe's belt is also replaced with a modern western belt, complementing the dress shirt and necktie I wore as the inner layer. (If I'd had more time, I'd have adorned the necktie with the bagua trigrams on Yukari's tabard from Imperishable Night, but I only had three days to prepare so I had to settle for solid color.) The opera gloves are tastefully western (and also have modern belts) so I was able to have the design itself convey the fusion of western and eastern elements, fitting for a character who's strongly implied to originate from Lafcadio Hearn's homeland of Ireland. The name Dr. Latency was itself selected for her by her matesprit Renko on the grounds of being androgynous and equally western and eastern, a line that I could not stop myself from making a habit of repeating. (Honestly, I'm surprised the Yukari bit didn't out me instantly. I have public posts referring to my life as a "necrofantasia" and talk about my Light-based teleportation as "gapping.") The mask covered my entire face and had an expression engraved into it, which was meant to be interpreted as a noh mask. I couldn't use an actual noh mask because those are designed to fit human/trollian faces but I did what I could to make sure it still scanned as one in context. The wig is styled after how Merry appears on the various album covers, but in black instead of gold to blend in better. For the horn caps, I needed something that could fit over my cross-shaped antlers, and I eventually settled on giving her most of an infinity symbol, as a really lame pun on the fact that "infinite" (無限) and "dream" (夢幻) are pronounced the same. I had a lot of fun preparing this costume and even more playing this role. I'll be sure to see you around the next time the masquerade runs.
very cool.