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“Do you think I should go for a full fursuit or just a cute mask and some fluffy ears?” Stelle asked, looking up from her phone. She and Firefly were sitting on the couch, next to each other.
Firefly tilted her head, “how would you even get a fursuit in this short amount of time?”
“Well I know a guy who knows a guy who knows-”
“Alright, alright. Let's just go for the masks.” Firefly giggled, “it’s a Halloween event with kids, not a convention.”
“So for cosplay I should consider it, got it.” Stelle made a note on her phone, grinning.
“If you can survive the summer heat dressed like that?”
“Ok so maybe not a full fursuit at all.” Stelle edited the note on her phone, a hint of sadness in her voice. She really wanted to try dressing up in one at least once. And hey, cosplaying the Baseball Raccoon seemed like the best moment for that.
“Still surprised we even get the Planarcadia cartoons here.” Firefly added, browsing through her phone as well. “Although still a bit confused why we're so behind with the release of the episodes.”
“Licensing issues, probably?” Stelle tilted her head, “either that or our tv channels are really that bad.” She shrugged. “It took them an eternity to get Duck Detective completed.”
“Don't remind me! We watched that one episode that ended in a cliffhanger and then got hit with episode one again.” Firefly laughed. “Honestly, I wonder if the kids will get my costume.”
“Oh, since Fluffy Fyrefly is not yet on tv?”
“They barely started teasing the whole mech arc. It's going to take a while until the reveal even happens”. Firefly sighed, “kids will look at me and be just ‘oh, what's this, never heard of it!’”
“The curse of liking a newer character. Surely some had spent enough time on the Internet to be interested in the Fyrefly.” She nodded and leaned on her girlfriend, “It’s enough for you to be around the Protagonist for them to know your importance.”
“I suppose my fear is people thinking she's my original character. You know, hearing that ‘oh I’m Firefly, cosplaying Fyrefly’ would raise some eyebrows.” She sighed, “especially when her story is so interesting.”
“Well, you’re also interesting so maybe just seeing you so hyped about the character will make the kids actually check it.” She grinned, ruffling Firefly’s hair. “Wanna work on those masks?”
“Do we even have the required materials?"
“Ok, fine, a quick shopping trip and then we work on things.”
“When I said that I wanted to make a mask…” Stelle leaned back on her chair, sighing, “I wasn't expecting this sort of glue mess.”
“It's fun!” Firefly waved her hand that was holding the scissor, “and it's not that difficult to fix if something goes badly.”
“Yeah but I have an entire layer of glue on my hands. At this point it feels like a weird second layer of skin.”
“Maybe we should have gotten colored glue…” Firefly mused, giggling.
“I’m not painting my skin with markers in the bathtub. I have heard the horror stories!!” Stelle stuck her tongue out.
“I’m not even surprised you’ve read OutsideTravelers.”
Stelle shrugged, “Don't cite the old texts, I was there when they were written!” She booped Firefly’s nose. “Never thought you’d know so much about online stuff.”
Firefly rolled her eyes, “I was a boy with too much free time and who hated soccer. Of course I was mostly online.” She laughed in response.
“It does sound like Wolfie would get you into video gam- fuck, got glue on my pants.” Stelle groaned, picking up some wet tissues in an attempt to wipe it.
“Not only video games. She even made me my first social media accounts.” Firefly got up to try and clean the mess Stelle had made. Thankfully nothing spilled on the in-progress Raccoon mask. “You know, it's funny.”
“My ability to make a mess out of everything?” Stelle grinned, now glueless.
“Oh, no, just.” Firefly looked at the Fyrefly mask she finished, “I picked the name Firefly for those accounts. Mostly because I liked bugs and I thought they were pretty cute.”
“And then you used that name for real.” Stelle shook her head, “can't believe Wolfie didn't teach you internet safety. You never use your real name on them!”
Firefly groaned, playfully punching Stelle in the shoulder, “the name change happened after the accounts were created! I’ll have you know, my fandom accounts are not called Firefly.”
“Ok Fyrefly_lover_619.” Stelle stuck her tongue out.
Firefly shrugged, “see, clearly not my name.” She giggled, picking up some of the fake fur they bought. “You want to make a tail out of this?”
“That was the plan, yes! Got the wire for it too.” Stelle got up, grabbing the materials from the bag next to them and placing them on the table. “I guess wrapping some thread around the wire to make it thicker would make sense?”
“Yarn might be the better choice.” Firefly picked up a ball of yarn from her old crochet project and threw it at Stelle. She immediately caught it, “use that!”
“But it's your gray yarn! What if you're making me another plushie?” Stelle’s eyes grew wide.
“Do… Do you want me to make you another plushie?” Firefly tilted her head, confused.
“Well, I love my little Baseball Raccoon on the desk. Maybe I should make you a little Fyrefly instead.” Stelle nodded, “yeah that sounds like a plan, we can make them kiss too!”
“I mean, I don't really…” Firefly looked away. Stelle could notice a hint of redness around the tip of her ears. She had her hair in a ponytail, completely revealing them.
“Embarrassed about me bringing up your ships?” Stelle tilted her head.
“Look, it's a bit weird to have your fan content brought up in public!” She immediately slapped her face. “Not embarrassed fully, just not expecting. I guess it's more ‘I’m used to text about them and not talk out loud about it’. Does it make sense?”
“I get it.” Stelle giggled, “all good, I just find it cute how fired up you’ve got about it.” She winked, picking up the Fyrefly mask, “and you also made this look pretty close to the character.”
“Thank you! Now to make yours look better.” She booped Stelle’s nose in response, imitating the gesture she did not that long ago.
“Come on, it’s gonna take a few days at least for that to look like a proper mask.” Stelle groaned, “it feels I have two left hands instead of a right and left one.”
“That’s why I’m here to help~” Firefly giggled, moving herself to sit down next to Stelle. “How about you make the tail, then?”
“Hmm, does Fyrefly have a tail?” Stelle asked, picking up the yarn. “You know, you could have a lightbulb as a tail.”
“I was thinking more of a bell?” Firefly giggled. “It’s going to be a problem if I bump into someone and”- Firefly clapped her hands - “there goes the lightbulb!”
“Ok yeah with all the kids around,” she picked up the wire as she was staring at a picture of a raccoon tail on her phone, “wait, would the tail be straight up or…?”
“You were saying something right before?” Firefly elbowed her, “finish your ideas!”
“Ok well, just that with all the kids around, better be safe than sorry.” Stelle squinted, “that does look like a straight tail, right?”
Firefly opened up a picture of the actual character, “yeah, the tail looks straight to me.”
“Cool, cool, that should be easier to make.” Stelle nodded, “So I dress in gray, you dress in…” She continued, stealing a glance at Firefly. She seemed concentrated in pouring just the right amount of glue on the mask, to then put the patch of fur she wanted to place.
Stelle smiled to herself, seeing that her girlfriend hadn't even heard her. She’d just see the outfit when they’re trying them again.
“I can’t believe I’ve let myself be convinced by you!” Firefly replied, holding her skirt for her dear life as another gust of wind started blowing.
“But you look adorable!!” Stelle shouted over the loud wind.
She wasn’t wrong. Firefly was wearing a short white skirt with a teal blouse over it. On her skirt’s belt she had tied a little bell which was ringing very strongly in the wind. She had her hair down, with a small bow on top of her headband to look like small antennae. As a necklace, she had a piece of merchandise which looked exactly like the transformer the character was using for her mecha.
Stelle on the other note just settled on some body-tight shorts, gray in color. On top she had a long black shirt with a gray hoodie. She couldn’t be bothered to go for something with “horizontal lines” to imitate the fur pattern. Just something in the colors of the guy was more than enough in her book. She had the tail attached to her pants. A headband with some ears, namely just some fur glued on cardboard, was sitting on the top of her head. They’ve made the ears with some fur that was left around, since they completely forgot about that part of the character. The Baseball Raccoon mask was covering her face, but still not hiding that her eyes were checking just how up Firefly’s skirt was going.
Thankfully, they reached the school’s gym not long after. It was overfilled with kids of different ages, but each and everyone of them had a cute outfit on. An entire class was wearing witches outfits, pretending to cast spells at everyone who was passing them. Based on how they looked, all of them had them based on a cartoon show that just started airing on tv, the one with the lesbian witches… or at least that was the only thing Stelle knew about the show. Fanart was cute.
A kid pulled Stelle’s tail in an attempt to grab her attention. She turned around, picked the 9-year old up, giving him a spin and placed him back on the ground. The kid had a superhero outfit.
“Next time just pull my jacket, ok?” She petted the kid’s head.
“Whoa you really are the Baseball Raccoon!” The kid looked around Stelle, “wait, where’s the baseball bat?”
Stelle shrugged, glancing at Firefly. They uh, both forgot about that part of the costume, “well, security didn’t let me with weapons. So I just have to use my claws in case someone attacks this place. Or maybe just my muscles!” She winked and flexed her arm.
“Holy! You’re actually dressed as the Raccoon!” Another girl joined the boy. The girl was dressed as a cat, with a cute black dress.
“But of course. This gym needed a Galactic hero, didn’t it.” She winked at the kids, enjoying the attention her little outfit was getting.
“Wait…” A teenager walked towards Stelle, looking past her shoulder. “Are you paired with the Fyrefly?” The girl asked, sparkles appearing in her eyes.
Stelle took the opportunity to wrap her hand around Firefly’s waist, bringing her closer to her. Placing a small kiss on her cheek, she could hear the teenage girl squeal at the gesture. Firefly was giggling in response. The small children went away, clearly not in the mood to see adults this close together.
“That’s her. The Fyrefly in person.” Stelle grinned at the audience.
“Oh my god I did not think I would encounter someone dressing up like one of my favorite characters. Especially at a Halloween party at my school!” Stelle noticed a few pins on the bag that the girl had on her shoulder, each of them having a flag for her identity. While she was dressed in a more ‘goth girl’ outfit, the pins were a nice splash of color. “Fyrefly’s character arc is very important to me and it even led to me discovering a few parts of myself!” The teenager was jumping in place, before briefly stopping. “Wait.” She squinted, looking closer at Stelle.
Stelle looked away, scratching the back of her neck. The teenager in front of her was someone she was teaching PE this year. She knew that she’d been trying a new name and Stelle made sure to have her around the other girls as well. However, even if they had some queer discussions during PE breaks, it still felt a bit awkward to have one of her kids actually hyping her outfit like that. She was used to the younger ones, but the teenagers were hard to impress, especially during classes.
“Teacher Stelle?!” The teenager asked, looking straight at the Raccoon.
“Caught red handed. Or should I say… gray handed?” She finger gunned the girl, before letting out a hearty laugh. “You caught me, I’m a big Raccoon fan.”
“I can’t believe you have a cool partner that knows about Fyrefly.” The teenage girl blurted out, looking at Firefly.
“I got her into the show.” Firefly flashed a smug expression, placing her hand over the merch necklace she had.
“So you’ve watched all the episodes that have aired so far?!” She asked, clasping Firefly’s hand. Firefly glanced at Stelle, confused. She gave her a quick thumbs up, letting go of her waist.
“Yes, I’ve watched all of them.” Firefly nodded.
“How about I let the two of you talk about your favorite show…” Stelle placed a hand on Firefly’s back, smiling, “while I go entertain some kids.”
“Alright, alright.” Firefly giggled, “make sure you don’t drop any of them?”
“Come on, the Baseball Raccoon is not that weak.” Stelle winked.
She walked away, seeing Firefly getting caught in discussion with the teenage girl. Not long after, a small group of same aged people joined them as well, each of them having a mask looking like one of the characters in the show. The cast was huge and, taking in consideration the episodes she hadn’t seen yet, she had no idea who most of them were. But Firefly knew and she looked very happy around same-minded people, even if they were younger than her.
Stelle got thrown out of her day-dreaming by yet another kid pulling at her tail. She turned around, seeing the kid dash towards four others. She cleared her throat, imitating a slightly annoyed tone and started chasing the laughing group of children.