Work Text:
cosplay - supernatural AU - inspired by song lyrics
Matt wasn’t sure that he had ever felt more out of depth in his entire life. He had agreed to MC a local, but also very big, cosplay contest at a famous con so that he could repay a favor that a friend of his had given him years ago. He wasn’t entirely sure what he had signed up for when he had given his affirmation months ago, and he had subsequently forgotten to ask in the following weeks. Showing up to the con had been a reminder of the entire other worlds that existed outside of his own sphere. Some things were the same as what he had seen: people fawning over the famous actors and singers that had come to the event, weird hairstyles and outfits, and overpriced bullshit sold by the venue so that people could have a decent drink of water.
It was just the type of people that the fans were obsessing over and the types of outfits that they were wearing that threw him off. Instead of the spiked hair that he was used to from the more alt scene, the hair here was styled with bright colors that shone strangely under the fluorescent lights of the convention hall and were styled in ways that basically defied gravity. The clothing wasn’t a series of jeans, basketball shorts, and t-shirts with varying levels of profanity and puns. Instead, it was costumes in every shade and color under the sun with varying amounts of the body exposed and some structures that made Matt turn and stare at them as he walked by.
He was able to recognize some of the characters that people were dressing up as, of course. It had amused him to see a couple of the characters in a game that he had recently played, as well as a whole circle of Spider-Men that were pointing at each other on the concrete entrance of the center. A lot of the characters looked like they had come from some weird anime that he had never bothered to watch because he had viewed himself as being above it for a long time.
He was able to overhear some of the panels and discussions that were going on as the leader of the cosplay contest led him through the throngs of people on the second day of the convention. Some of the things that they were talking about went right over his head, but he had taken enough classes in college to identify when they were breaking down the themes and metaphors that some of the media held. He tried to keep the names of shows and games and manga and books floating around in his head while he followed after the short woman. He wanted to go home and check some of it out, it sounded like something that could keep him entertained during the long stretches of nothing during tour.
They stopped when they got to a room where another member of the convection staff was standing. The two had a short interaction before the woman leading Matt around opened the door and gestured for him to go through. Once he had, he stepped into a space that was very clearly meant for staff meetings and not for the general public. A table was set up with boxes full of those badges that people had been wearing, though he was only able to tell that because of the lanyards that were spilling out of one of them, and walkie-talkies. Next to them was a half demolished box of donuts and some water bottles.
Despite the fact that he thought the room was meant for staff, there were three people sitting next to each other. There was a woman and two men, at least from the first glance. The woman had long black hair and was wearing a white button down with straps over her arms paired with some black pants, a wig resting over one of her knees. The first man had blue skin that stopped around his wrists and likely continued when he was actually wearing the gloves in his hands, and an outfit that shimmered with iridescent scales. The one that really caught Matt’s eye was the third person, who was far more handsome than he had any reason to be.
He had gray hair that was layered in a way that the wigs in the main hall hadn’t been, though his beard and eyebrows made it clear that it wasn’t his normal appearance either. He had a gray button down that strained over his biceps and pecs in a way that made Matt’s mouth water, not that he would admit that to anyone. When the man turned his head towards the duo that had just entered, it was revealed that his eyes were falsely red. It was alluring in a way that dangerous things were and also so unnerving that Matt found himself listing backwards slightly.
“Hey, how’s it going, guys?” the woman that had brought him through the convention greeted the people gathered in the chairs with a comfortable familiarity. “Sorry it took us so long to get back, I had to detour so that I could deal with a problem in the game’s room. We should be good to do the basic explanation of what we’re doing for the competition.”
“Sounds great! Is he a judge?” the woman asked as she pointed a hand towards Matt.
“Nope, MC,” Matt gave them an admittedly awkward smile. He wished that he was half as natural as they all seemed to be with each other. Maybe the costumes that they wore gave them courage and bravery or whatever the fuck a person needed to act like they weren’t the most awkward rapper to ever perform.
“Sweet, man. Yung Gravy, right?” the man with the red eyes asked. He had a weird way of speaking that dragged Matt in even deeper than he had been before. He could feel his heart hammering up in his throat and swallowed harshly to try and maintain any composure that he might have had while he nodded his head in affirmation to the man’s question. “I’ve heard some of your music before, even played it on stream. Dope as shit.”
“Thanks, baby,” Matt chuckled. It was so much easier to default back into the Yung Gravy swagger than it was to pretend to be an actual human that could function correctly. “Gonna be performing a couple of fun songs that I filked for when y’all are deciding the winners of this competition.”
“Right, about that,” the worker that had brought him through the con nodded. “Introductions first, since you guys are going to be sharing a stage. Everyone, this is Matthew. We’ll be introducing him as Yung Gravy and having him perform some of his songs that he was kind of enough to add some jokes about cosplay to. Matt, this is StellaChu, Will Neff, and bbno$.”
He knew that it was important that he knew all their names for when he brought them out onto the stage for when they did the judging thing, but he couldn’t help but let his mind wander off into another vein entirely. He turned towards the man with red eyes and chuckled, “Funny, you got my favorite pet name as your online name.”
“Oh, dude. I totally thought that you already knew who I was and that was why you called me that,” bbno$ laughed as he tossed his head back. He jerked forward and ran his gloved hand underneath one of the straps that was bringing attention to the vast expanse of muscle that made up his chest. “You can call me Alex, if you want. Just gotta introduce me by my screenname or people aren’t going to know who I am.”
“All you gotta do is flash those tiddies, dude,” Will cackled from his seat.
“Guys, Sarah is trying to get us back on track. Quick, before she makes a video calling us out for being idiot Twitch streamers that don’t know how to judge a cosplay contest,” Stella joked in turn.
“First of all, rude,” Sarah huffed.
“Can’t be rude if it’s true,” Alex teased.
“It can be, and shut up,” Sarah then moved a box of badges to the side so that she could pick up some papers that Matt hadn’t seen until just then. “Because I’m not incompetent, I have a list of the rules that a contestant had to agree to before they entered, a rubrick, and the timeslots that you should be coming to judge for. Matt, I have a list of names that I want you to practice pronouncing. If you have trouble then you can go to Stella or Alex, if you go to Will then he will lead you in the wrong direction and make you say it incorrectly.”
Matt looked wide-eyed down at the paper that had just been handed to him. She had at least printed a phonetic pronunciation next to each of the names that he was going to have to say, but that did little to settle the anxiety that was beginning to grow in his chest. There were a hundred or so contestants with their personal handle, character name, and the media that the show was from. Some of them were in plain English (he had also spied a couple in Spanish thanks to their proximity to LA) and he would be able to pronounce those with only the typical stuttering. The ones that were in Japanese were going to be a bit more of a struggle, though.
He sat down in one of the free chairs and began to glance over the paper while Sarah spoke to the three judges to answer their questions and reiterate the rules they had to follow out loud. It had been about ten minutes before her walkie-talkie buzzed on her hip and she had to go help some of the other staff. Will and Stella sparked up a conversation about the contestants that they were excited to judge again while Alex leaned as far back in his chair as he could.
“If you need help with any of that stuff, you can come and ask me. Stella’s a little intense sometimes if you’re not really into the fandom side of things. I know that music and cosplay don’t really go together all that much. This your first time at a convention?”
Matt gave a nod and could already tell that his face had morphed into that wet-dog look that he always got when he was overwhelmed. He wished that he could use that expression to his advantage, but it always snuck up on him instead. “You familiar with the music scene? I know you stream but I don’t want anything but HasanAbi from time to time.”
Alex smiled wide, “Yeah, Hasan is great. He and Will have a podcast together, but Will doesn’t show up on his stream very often because he’s not into the political hate that Hasan can handle. I did music for a while and still dabble every now and again. I wanted to stay independent so that I didn’t get fucked over and streaming became something I could do during the pandemic. Just started doing more streaming and less music, I guess.”
“Your music under the same name as your streaming?” Matt pulled his phone from his pocket and navigated to his SoundCloud app.
“Yeah. Don’t bother to listen to it, dude,” Alex shook his head. “Some of the songs are decent but most of it is me mumbling over a beat one of my friends from the ‘couv made.”
Matt assured him that it couldn’t be nearly as bad as the first album that he had made and popped one of his airpods in so that he could listen to the music while they chatted. He only turned it off when it was time for them to talk about the name pronunciation, which he was grateful for help for. He tried his best to focus on the slow enunciation of the words with Alex’s warmth melting into him when the other man moved to a chair closer to him. Though, he had to admit that it was also hard to focus when Alex left to go catch a panel and the warmth was gone.