Confession about one (well, two) of my costumes

[maryryanbogard]

As long as I’m telling truth, I think it’s time I confessed something about one of my costumes, specifically one of the newest ones. No, not the Glinda the Good Witch or Raggedy Ann costumes I wore for local parades or the cat kigurumi I’ve worn in parades and during “down time” at recent conventions. Last year’s Halloween costume, which I’ve since worn to several conventions and is actually part of my current active “rotation” as it were. Ostensibly, it’s a vampire, or a “Victorian vampire” if you wanted to be specific. Well, that’s not entirely true.

Short explanation: it’s really a character from a video game, an I.T. guy who also volunteers at an animal shelter. He (more or less) dresses like a Victorian vampire when he’s not at work; so when I wear that costume I’m actually a guy who is in costume himself.

More specifically: his name is Damien Bloodmarch, and he’s from a game called “Dream Daddy” that came out last summer. I had not played “Dream Daddy” (not my kind of game) at the time I made the decision to cosplay Damien, but from hearing about him/the game I felt compelled to do some further research. Reads fanfiction (prints it out, even), likes to (more or less) wear costumes, really into a hobby (flowers and the Victorian era in his case), loves animals, doesn’t really seem to care all that much who knows any of that yet is kind of embarrassed to show his “normal” side, and is old enough to have a 16 year old son? HECK YES!

So what was the problem? Well, “Dream Daddy” is in fact a dating sim; the full title is “Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator”. Specifically, the player is a widowed father (deceased partner can be a wife or a husband depending on the player’s choice) who just moved to a new town with his 17/18 year old daughter and is ready to date again with said daughter’s encouragement. As luck would have it, “you” have chosen a neighborhood with several other single dads to choose from (and they’re all gay, bisexual, or pansexual, too). (When I said “not my kind of game” I mean dating sims in general aren’t a genre I’m really into (before anyone calls me on this, “Fire Emblem: Awakening” and the “Harvest Moon” series have dating sim elements but that’s not the whole game in those cases), regardless of who dates who in those.) Let me say it: where I live is mostly conservative, so you can imagine how well a gay dating sim would go over. As for Damien himself, not only is he not straight but he happens to be a transman- made apparent when he mentions wearing a chest binder. (And yes this does open up the possibility that Damien himself gave birth to the aforementioned son.) So now not only am I dealing with the possible reactions of a conservative environment, but would friends of mine who happen to be trans (not naming any names) be offended by my normally-very-much-comfortable-as-a-female self cosplaying a trans character?

My desire to cosplay Damien was too strong to just forget about, so I decided I’d throw together the costume for Halloween, confirm who I was supposed to be to any who already recognized and just say I was a “Victorian vampire” to those who didn’t, and be done with it. (Oh, I did/do already own a binder- for my other costumes of male characters like Ron Weasley or Marauder-Era Sirius Black.) But putting the costume together took more effort and cost more money than I anticipated, so I decided it would be a recurring costume of mine after all. I even put together Damien’s work outfit (the linked image is fan art, but you get the idea). When I wore both to Anime USA that year (the first con I attended after Halloween), well, I was actually sharing a hotel room with the aforementioned friends (and told them right away what the costumes were), and they weren’t offended at all. Really, as far as that goes their opinions are the only ones that matter, so I’ll just continue to wear either version of Damien as I see fit. And now everyone (everyone who reads this blog, anyway) knows exactly who I’m supposed to be when I do.