Cosplay Party at Cofix! Part I

Well, I have finally regenerated enough to type about what happened in Salonika (although I seem to have acquired a bit of a sore throat while waiting for the train back home – oh well). As with everything, it is better to start at the beginning. In the beginning… there was a humble photographer called Speedgrapher, who could not decide if he had time enough to go to Salonika and shoot at the local Cosplay Party, organized by Somnium in Tenebris and Mona Risa. However, that same photographer decide that he would, just the day before and met with his first challenge: no booking tickets on the eve; you have to buy everything and anything 2 days prior, so morning waky-waky it was. I woke up at 7:00 and had purchased my ticket by 9:00. The train would leave at 13:21, so I had some time to kill.

I went downtown and took care of some things (among which was buying Berserk vol. 2; to accompany me on the 5-hour transit), then headed to the nearest internet café to write the previous update. It turns out, I acted correctly, because Somnium had sent me her contact info in a MySpace message, which meant I would not be searching blindly for the locale described in the flyer (what can I say? – I have not been to Salonika often enough). After loitering sufficiently, I went back to the station (Larissa Station, for those reading locally or traveling to and from Greece by train). Sure as daylight, the 13:21 Intercity train was there and…

…full of smoke for some reason. There was no way a human being could survive in what had become a miniature gas chamber, so we waited around 15 minutes until the atmosphere was breathable again. Finally, we settled down inside to our allocated seats and the journey could begin. I had brought quite some things along to read (among which, the aforementioned manga, the, nearly finished, last volume of “Eberron: The Dreaming Dark”, a detective story titled “Bother Grimm” by Craig Russel and my pride and joy: “Cthulhu Fhtagn, Baby and Other Cosmic Insolence” by Will Ludwigsen. I was nearly through one third of the manga and roughly 20 minutes into the transit, when the smell of something decidedly burnt hit my (and the rest of the passengers’) nostrils. The passengers started to get agitated, some women started to come dangerously close to hysterical fits of panic and no one seemed to be too keen to appear and inform us.

Looking out the window, I (as well as the rest), saw a thick, billowing cloud of white something. Some thought (or hoped) it would be mist but mist, as I know (Environmental Physics 101), does not suddenly appear out of nowhere and the train was not going nearly so fast as to have encountered it without warning. Ergo, it was smoke; that was when I lost all interest in the matter, as well as comments and cries of: “are we on fire?” “the engine must have caught fire” “I have respiratory problems – I might die” and “why isn’t anyone making an announcement”. Now, before you go throwing all sorts of hurtful comments and objects my way, let me explain; the sort of smoke we saw was cloudy, snow-white and easily mistaken for thick mist, so it could only mean one thing: burnt oil. It is the kind of thing that happens to your car when it has an oil leak or simply, if you throw oil (room temp or lower) on a hot surface, such as the metal of a train engine’s machine. So I calmly kept reading my manga until someone decided to fix the damn thing and tell us what was going on. Sure enough, someone DID come and some ladies with a… ehem… vicious disposition started yelling at him, though obviously he was just a conductor, not a mechanic or a driver. After THAT theatre of the insane ended, the train took off anew, with only the back engine running and the speakers dully assured us that we were in no danger. “Hoorah” for the conclusion gentlemen.

The rest of the trip was uneventful as grassy farmlands gave way to snowy vistas, high on the mountains and finally, after roughly 6 hours, we reached Salonika Station (the normal transit is 5 hours). I had phoned Somnium just before getting off the train and at around 20:00 I found a cab and managed to reach Cofix 15-30 minutes before the event was scheduled, chancing upon the two lead ladies dressed as maids, getting frantically ready for the DJing and wall projections. Not having gone there before, I explored a little, took a look at George Bogiatzidis’s works from “A Kingdom in Pieces” as well as the bar’s own decorations.

As the clock struck 21:00, the scene was all set and J-pop started playing from the speakers, welcoming the revelers. As the night wore on, Cofix was drowned in voices talking otaku culture and Japanese popular culture in general, as well as people wanting to display their work at making costumes.

The interesting part of the story is told in pictures, in 2 parts. Enjoy!

Somnium & Mona Risa as Maids.
Hmmmm...

Neko-faced Schoolgirl...

...dangerous schoolgirl!

An Original Outfit. (I do not know
what style this is - enlighten me!)

Maids ARE supposed to serve things.
Yum!

Battle Royal Reenactment?!

Naruto Enthusiast no Ichiban as
Deidara from Akatsuki Organization
in Naruto. (Thanks to Demi-chan for
the help!)

Somnium-chan's turn at
justifying her outfit.

"My Little China Girl"
as Bob Dylan would put it...

...with Misa Amane from Death Note.

Lollipop, Lollipop, Lo-Lo
Lo-Loli Girl! (Actually
there is a bunny handbag on
her left side, though you cannot
see it here)

Misa Amane just learned Near
is upstairs...

...and she doesn't seem to be able
to get over it...

Pink-haired Goth-Loli.
Wicked stare Astarte-chan!

No, Kakashi! The other eye,
the other... AAARGH!

"Misa's here? I'll make a note..." said the
evil genius.

Naruto Enthusiast no Niban, again
from Akatsuki Organization.

Roronoa Zoro from One Piece has himself a fan!

When Loli meets Konoha Shinobi
then...?

Zoro-kun, you are way outgunned!

Even goth cowgirls get the blues but
not here and not tonight.

Stay tuned for the second part, soon at a theatre near you - err... Ah, whatever!

Speedgrapher