Lightning Strikes the Cosplay Convention (Ea)(Com)

A commission for WildCirno

It was nearly the afternoon and outside Collette’s hotel there was a huge cosplay convention going on. Thousands of people are attending and a good number of them are in costume and having a good time.

Collette was hoping to join them, but she was still completely nervous about it. This was only the second time she’d ever been to the convention and the first time she was completely nervous and she wasn’t even wearing a costume that time.

This time she was; it was a homemade dress based on the one Lightning wore in Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns. The dress wasn’t nearly as long, fancy, or well-made as the one in the game, but she was still proud of the hard work she put into making it.

She actually made it for the last convention, but being shy and nervous, she managed to convince herself to not wear it, but while walking around the convention last time, she found a beautiful necklace that matched the costume well.

It was even better than the cheap plastic one she got online that was supposed to be from the game. Seeing it, Collette knew she had to get it, and when the next convention came around, she knew she had to wear it, along with her costume.

So here she was, standing in front of the mirror in her hotel room. The friends she came with had already left, as Collette was taking too long trying to convince herself it was okay to go out dressed like this and have fun.

Collette managed to get herself into the dress and the heels she bought with it, but she couldn’t bring herself to put the wig and necklace on. She was nearly on the verge of taking everything off and leaving the hotel room wearing an oversized hoodie.

She knew she had to do it. So mustering all her courage, she gave herself a soft slap to both her cheeks, grabbed her wallet, wig, and the necklace, and ran out the door. As soon as the door closed and locked, Collette realized she left her room key inside.

So there was no going back, not without first finding one of her friends or speaking to the person at the front desk, which made her as nervous as walking around in her costume. So she decided to go to the convention and try having fun in her costume, then maybe finding her friends.

So Collette put on her pink wig and went to stand in line at the convention in order to purchase her weekend pass. While she was in line, she remembered she still had to put her necklace on to complete her look.

She figured she might as well do it while standing in line, since she didn’t want to keep holding it and risk dropping and potentially losing it, and she was already in the rest of the costume, so a necklace wasn’t going to make her any less embarrassed or nervous.

She unclipped the ends of it and wrapped it around her neck, clipping it back together and letting it fall to her chest. Once it touched her, she felt a bit of a zap, which surprised her more than her, but she forgot all about that when she saw her reflection in the window she was next to.

The necklace looked amazing on her, though she was sure it was the necklace and that anyone would look good wearing it, but she was happy with how it looked paired with her dress. The line moved forward, and Collette found herself no longer able to look at her reflection.

Which was some bad timing, as the zap she felt before wasn’t any old ordinary zap; it was actually magic that came from the necklace she put on. As she stood in line waiting to get in, she slowly started to change.

At first she started to get taller, then her waist got thinner. By the time she was at the convention entrance and buying her ticket, her thighs and butt had started to get larger as well. Collette noticed her dress felt as though it was getting tighter, but she figured it was just her being nervous.

Collette walked around for a bit, continuing to change bit by bit, and by now her wig was starting to become her actual hair. Eventually she came across a flyer for a costume contest, and the idea sounded nice, although pretty nerve-racking.

She was going to avoid it, but a group of people walking by stopped at her and said her costume looked amazing. One of them noticed she was looking at the costume contest flyer and said she should totally join.

Collette let out a nervous laugh and said it sounded fun, but she was a bit too nervous. The guys in the group said that was a shame, but the girls all agreed Collette had to, as she looked amazing and would totally win.

Collette felt happy to get such a nice compliment, and in the end, she let the group convince her to sign up. So she went to wait in line to sign up, and as she stood there, she continued to transform more and more.

At this point, her entire body had changed; she was taller, thinner in some places, and thicker in others; her pink wig was now her real hair; and her face was starting to get more feminine while her chest started to get slightly larger.

Collette still had yet to notice anything was happening to her, and there were so many people around her that no one was really paying attention to anything that wasn’t in front of them, so even though she was changing, no one noticed.

Collette got to the registration desk and filled out the form. It was mostly questions like her name, her cosplay, what it’s from and all that. She filled it out, then went backstage to wait for her turn to get up on stage and be presented to the crowd.

Collette suddenly gulped. Now that she thought about that, standing up in front of so many people made her a bit worried. So many people staring at her, either enjoying her costume or judging her for not matching her character perfectly. It started to make her doubt doing this.

It was a good thing she was stuck in line, though, as she couldn't back out; she could only wait until it was her turn, and as the magic continued to change her. The last bit to change on her wasn’t actually her physical body, but instead the dress she wore.

It started to get longer and more elegant, nearly matching the dress it was based on in both looks and quality. It matched the shape of her new body perfectly and no longer looked like a homemade dress made by an amateur but more like an expensive dress created by a master.

Before leaving her hotel room, the dress only went to her knees; when her body changed, it barely got to her upper thighs, and now, it flowed all the way down to her ankles. As she stepped onto the stage, her transformation into Lightning in her most beautiful dress was complete.

The crowd was left in awe, unable to say a word as she stood before them, which made Collette think they hated it, at least until the announcer spoke up and said her costume was one of the most amazing he’d ever seen.

The crowd then began to cheer, with some saying she looked amazing and others just screaming Lightning. Collette, feeling a bit more confident thanks to being well received by the crowd, did a few poses, one of which caused her to move her necklace the wrong way and it unclipped.

She didn’t notice it and continued to pose until her time was up, which was when she left the stage so the next person could go. As soon as she was off the stage, a ton of people with cameras asked her if they could take pictures, which Collette said yes to.

She then found herself standing in front of a random background to help make the photos look nicer, and she did a few more poses for the cameras. She then asked to see how they came out, and when one of them showed Collette, she was in awe and unable to speak, just like the crowd was.

She had no idea what happened to her, but she no longer looked like herself; instead, she looked exactly like Lightning, which was crazy amazing but also super confusing. Such a thing shouldn’t be possible, at least she used to think so.

After the people with the cameras let her go, one of the stage managers came to Collette and gave her back her necklace, saying it fell off during the event. Collette thanked her for returning it, then she ran out of there to find the nearest reflective surface.

That happened to be in the next room, which was the changing room the convention had set up for those who were attending without a hotel room to change in. Collette walked inside and went to the first free mirror she could find.

She couldn't believe how amazing she and her dress had become. She looked as though Lightning jumped right out of the game. Of course there were several differences with her costume. One thing that really stood out was her necklace; she needed to put it back on.

She clipped it on, and unlike the first time, there was no zap; it just sat beautifully on her chest. Collette smiled at herself and got all warm inside. For the first time, she wasn’t nervous about the convention and was actually really excited.

She wanted to show off her costume now, as she felt so amazing and pretty in it. The first set of people she needs to show it off to is her friends, as she needs to convince them that it’s actually her. Hopefully they’ll believe her even though saying she randomly turned into Lightning at a convention was the craziest thing they’d likely ever hear.