“Run that by me again, please,” Eva told Min. “And maybe explain more about, uh, all of it.”
They stood against a wall in one of the main corridors in the Dragon wing, clusters of cosplayers drifting past like stately parade floats, pausing occasionally to pose for pictures. Sue could hardly keep her mouth closed, oohing and aahing at everyone, especially the ones with mechanical parts.
“Okay,” Min said, tugging on her blue pigtail braid with her free hand. “So even though this place is super huge, it gets full really fast, and some of the rooms are bigger or nicer than others, or have better tech.”
“Right,” Eva said. “Got it.”
An eerily beautiful man with silver hair and one enormous black wing, an absurdly large holo-sword in his hand, stopped in front of Pink. “Your costume is amazing,” he said.
“I’m not wearing a costume,” Pink replied. Her braids were pulled back in a thick ponytail, and she’d worn a green-and-black jacket over her spacesuit. Perfectly normal clothes for her. The only thing remotely costume-like, to Eva’s mind, was Pink’s eye patch; she’d worn her nice one, black with a gold crescent moon that almost looked like a simple line drawing of a closed eye.
The man shrugged and moved on. Pink glanced at Eva with a raised eyebrow, and Eva wagged her head noncommittally and returned her attention to Min.
“There are a lot of different groups running events here,” Min continued, “and they all have to book space in advance, which is super hard because, like, there’s so many of them? And some of them have really famous guests, but some don’t, and sometimes there’s overlap in the fandoms?”
“I think I’m following so far,” Eva said.
Another beautiful man, this one with long white hair and a floor-length fur stole over one shoulder, approached Pink. “I love your costume,” he said. “Could I take a picture with you?”
“Sorry, it’s not a costume,” Pink said.
“Oh, my error,” the man replied. “Nice eye patch.”
Pink flashed him a close-lipped smile and he moved on.
Min bit her lip pensively. “So, like, the groups form factions, so they can get access to better spaces and hotel block pricing? But they don’t always get along with each other. Sometimes it’s the people in charge and sometimes it’s the fans, but they’ll have these alliances that last for a while and then break up because of infighting.”
“Qué relajo,” Eva said. “It’s like diplomacy for geeks.”
A pair of teenagers in spacesuits walked past, took one look at Pink, and squealed simultaneously. After some excited but inaudible chatter between them, they ran off, wearing identical expressions of people on a mission. Pink’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“So the reason the event listings and panel locations keep changing . . .” Eva said, prompting Min to continue.
“Right,” Min said. “So even if it’s all negotiated in advance, stuff falls apart at the last minute. Like right now, the fantasy furries are fighting the sci-fi furries, and they’re both mad at the equestrian furries, and there was a fantasy medievalist coalition but they split because the reenactors decided they didn’t want elves on their costuming panels, and the manga and comic groups are back together so they took over a prime chunk of ballroom space to make their own artists’ alley, and the biggest military sci-fi group is having this huge thing over one fandom taking up too much space because their soldiers are, like, literally enormous compared to everyone else—”
“And you lost me,” Eva said. “The point is, it’s hard to know what the fuck was happening when Josh passed through here.”
“Yeah, basically,” Min said. “Whatever was on the schedule might have changed at the last minute, and might not have been updated in the official comms channels.”
The teenagers in spacesuits returned, their eyes practically sparkling with excitement. They’d brought an entire additional squad of other people in spacesuits, some of them wearing jackets like Pink’s but in different colors, some wearing helmets with different symbols on them—flowers, hearts, leaves, coins, and other shapes Eva couldn’t identify. One of the teens had apparently been appointed as speaker, because they approached Pink while the others held back, giggling.
“Will you take a picture with us, Lady Masamune?” they asked, bowing politely. “Please? So we can have the whole group!”
Pink looked at them, then at Eva, who couldn’t keep from grinning. With a sigh, Pink nodded.
“Fine,” Pink said. “What do you want me to do?”
“You can stand next to Kojuro,” they said, pointing at one of the others, who waved excitedly.
The crowds parted around them as they set up their picture, all the people posing in what were presumably ways appropriate to their characters. Pink stood there, hand on her hip, as Kojuro flung a leg dramatically in front of her.
“Say ‘samurai’!” the speaker yelled.
“Samurai!” they all answered in unison, except Pink, who maintained her usual amused smirk.
“Everyone give me your comms codes,” the speaker said. “I’ll send you the holos.”
Pink raised a hand as she walked back to Eva. “I’m good, thanks. Enjoy yourselves.”
The teenagers loitered a little longer, chattering excitedly amongst themselves. “Look at Masamune,” one of them said. “So stoic. She really knows her character.”
“I love the eye patch,” another said. “So subtle.”
Eva laughed. “I can’t believe you went along with that.”
Pink shrugged. “It made them happy,” she said. “Sometimes you gotta do nice shit for no reason.”
Eva returned her attention to the task at hand. “Sorry, Sue,” she said. “Looks like this might be a dead end. Hopefully my mom will have another lead for us.”
Sue’s expression fell, even as her gaze kept getting drawn back to the parade of costumes. “At least we got to have a little fun,” she said, sounding guilty and sad at once. “Maybe we can go through the dealer’s room before we leave. Just for a little while.”
“Or we can ask Leroy?” Min said suddenly.
Eva’s brow furrowed. “Leroy? Is he here?”
Min nodded. “There’s a big Crash Sisters thing going on right now. And unless the old event data is totally wrong, he was here six months ago.”
A shiver went up Eva’s spine. “He was on Medoral, too. That’s a hell of a coincidence.”
Pink nodded, crossing her arms. “It might be nothing, but it’s worth asking. And it would be nice to see him again.”
It really would, Eva thought. She hadn’t gotten the chance, not after her old boss Tito Santiago had jammed her into that cryostasis pod for The Fridge. By the time she got out a year later, Leroy was well and truly gone, a big holovid star touring the universe to see all his adoring fans. He was housed in a special enclave, a sprawling series of themed sets in which different members of the standard roster would fight depending on the prevailing narrative of the season. Between battles, they were sequestered in a small central bunker, where their interpersonal conflicts and training montages could be captured in High Octane Total Experience Memory SensationTM. Subscriptions were available from several q-net streaming services or individual episodes could be purchased as desired.