Continuing in our onward journey to have an awesome year, I’ve made sure to leap into any opportunity to do something worth remembering with at least affection if not glee. Today was a perfect opportunity. I work in a library when I’m not writing, so it was a bit of a no-brainer to do something for World Book Day 2015.
The lesser-spotted cosplaying assistant library manager
Lady P has already made waves with her Daenerys Targaryen cosplay, which she plans to bring to May’s MCM in London, so this was a perfect opportunity to give the costume a test run. Knowing that Demonic had some LARP gear available, I prevailed on him to lend me some armour, so that I could make a passable claim to be Ser Barristan Selmy, her trusted military adviser. (Oh, okay, I could have done with a wig perhaps, or dyed my hair, but I was having fun, not trying to infiltrate a convention.)
It was great fun – we had people give us all sorts of strange looks, mostly people who don’t have school-age kids and that was part of the joy of the day. There was something very British about the way people wanted to ask what the hell was going on but coped by not acknowledging our garb in any way. I particularly enjoyed greeting some people who were teetering on the edge with an innocent “What?” and pretending that they were the ones strangely dressed, not us.
We had a window display and arranged a fancy dress story time, and made a point of tweeting on the library’s account about it all, with a series of photos. The local paper got wind of it (oh okay, we called them a couple of days ago) and sent a photographer round, and then somehow our pictures got noticed by a national newspaper. Suddenly we were appearing alongside a round-up of teachers for World Book Day celebrations – which was odd, but rather gratifying.
A Khaleesi and her tribute
To round it all off, we decided to treat ourselves to a quick drink at our favourite local coffee – and we’ve had an ongoing conversation with the corporate twitter account about Lady P’s cosplay, so when we mentioned our plans they offered a free coffee. When we got there, they had decorated one of the blackboards in her honour – so we just had to pose. Can’t wait to see the other pictures they took.
By the time Lady M joined us, we felt a little bit mobbed by staff and other customers (in a good way), and conversations have been had about Lady P’s availability to cosplay at future events at the coffee house – so a bit of a result for her there too!
So all in all, a good day!
