Cosplay picspam
The fourth and final picspam I promised. This one is much more storytelling than pictures, because there’s not as many pictures (most were on the other camera), and it’s really the story of the adventure that is best.
All good things must end, and even the not so good things. While we had a lot of fun playing pirate in the afternoons, a week of trying to deal with my mother’s stuff and her very difficult husband was finally over. Saturday had finally arrived, and we were headed back home.
We had driven to Tampa, Florida and were flying back to Denver, Colorado. I arrived in Florida with one suitcase, half of which was filled with the Jack costume. Packing up to leave, with all the stuff of my mom’s that I was taking back, I had three suitcases and a carryon (which was insanely heavy since it had both my DJ’s Locker rock and the Jar of (Florida) Dirt. Things being very tight in the luggage-space department, I commented to my travelling companion captwillturner that I was going to save space in my bags and wear my Sparrow boots on the plane trip home. Being as they started life as a pair of Dockers, they are super comfy and would be good for travelling.
She said that one can’t go wearing pirate boots and mundane clothes, and jokingly suggested that we travel the whole trip back as pirates. Much discussion ensued, and we decided that we had to top the last bit of massive silliness, where another friend (a guy this time!) and I went skiing dressed as Jack and Lizzie in November 2006. (That in itself is a whole other long story.)
We had to be smart about all this, as we would have to clear security. We got there nearly three hours early. Obviously, beards were out, as there was no way we’d have passed an ID check. My wig and all its bling would never make it through a metal detector, so it was stuck in my carryon. We also had our belts in our bags, and removed our boots long before making it to the machines. It’s kind surreal, seeing a laptop and Jack’s boots sharing one of those grey X-ray bins. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
To add to the complications, I was travelling with my Queen Anne flintlock, which is a functional reproduction. It’s pretty darn close to Jack’s gun, so I *had* to use it for the beach photos rather than the plastic one I generally prefer to carry. Flintlocks and other historical weapons are not considered firearms under federal law (unless used in the commission of a crime) but under an X-ray, they look very much like standard firearms so I had to declare it as being in my checked baggage. I got the little firearm taggie on my bag that earned me an extra TSA screening, and got to escort my bag and a TSA officer to the TSA area where they X-rayed my bag right in front of me. They were a little testy that it wasn’t in a locked gun case, but with all the people who come to Tampa for the many piratical events there, it happens a lot more than you’d think. They were a bit amused by how we were dressed, so we told them we were travelling as pirates on a dare. Life was good, and the two pirate women headed off to security.
Standing in line for security we heard quite a few whispered comments about how we were dressed, even though it was as barebones Jack and Will you could get. We’re talking shirt, breeches, boots, and sashes. No belts, no accessories except the lace on my wrist. Getting to the metal detectors, the TSA guys took one look at my vest with all its’ metal buttons and our large sashes and told us they had to come off too. So, we ended up having to get dressed after sticking our computers back in our bags.
However, from that point, we were home free to be silly, and headed to the nearest ladies room to finish getting dressed and apply beards. We’re getting faster at this… total prep time was less than 10 minutes. And this was with my taking time to draw on the majority of my facial hair, as it’s a lot more comfy than spirit gum. (I have a full set of beard/mustache and just a set of braids for when I choose to draw on the beard.)
We were walking around for less than a minute before we were stopped for photos. People throughout the food court area whipped out camera phones. As many times as I heard “OMGILOVEJONNYDEPPINEEDTOGETAPICTUREWITHYOU” I have to pity the man and understand why he tries to disguise himself out in public. Either there’s a lot fewer Orlando Bloom fans out there, of they’re a lot less nutty, since Will wasn’t mobbed. She was OK with that. She took pics for people with their camera phones.
It was late afternoon and so we were a bit hungry, but knowing there’s snackies on the plane (we flew Frontier, which is the last awesome airline and give you a snack and a whole can of soda) we opted for smoothies.
Just chillin’, yo!
We did get a few questions, and we told people it was a dare (leaving out the particulars) but being Tampa, people weren’t really all that surprised. Pirates are a part of our history, after all. They were more impressed with how good we looked.
Photos walking to our gate…
How pirates waste time waiting for a delayed flight…
Mmmm.... Smoothies...
Self portrait while on the phone with the usual Jack Sparrow of our group, who we missed a lot this trip, so she could feel included.
I’ll be happy to return to being our Beckett once home. Believe it or not, the white wig is much more comfortable than the dreadlocks.
We did make a bunch of kids really smile though. There was one family who stopped us for pics who had spent a week at Disney and somehow managed to keep missing Jack’s show out in front of PotC. The kids were thrilled to have Captain Sparrow practically come to them, as we were waiting for the same flight. They didn’t seem to care that despite my best attempts, I can’t sound like him. (Accent and mannerisms are right, but there’s no hiding my voice.) Will weenied out of talking to the kids even though she can copy the voice a lot better than I ever could. Probably just as well... one of them just stared at the scar peeping out through the top of her shirt, kind of freaked out. Makes sense, it freaks me out sometimes.
In case there were any doubters left that we were out in public, here’s a pic with our plane right after it pulled up to the gate.
Boarding went uneventfully, and I have to credit the crew… other than a few widened eyes when we boarded they were perfectly professional. Our seatmates had a ton of fun with us (we were across an aisle from each other) and we managed to settle into our seats with minimal fussing.
The flight to Denver itself was probably the worst I’d ever taken. First off, trying to use an airplane bathroom in all that costuming is a nightmare. Secondly, it was the most turbulent flight I’d ever taken in my entire life. You know the type of flight that they never turn off the “fasten seatbelt” sign because it’s so bouncy? Yeah, it was one of those. Add to that my monthly visitor decided to start so I wasn’t feeling my best. I’ve never been airsick in my entire life, until that flight. Fortunately Captain Sparrow made it to the bathroom first. Smoothies have the strangest texture the second time you experience them. Will then proceeded to tease me mercilessly about being seasick once I no longer looked green. But being so bouncy we couldn’t sew, read, or do much of anything, so we entertained ourselves looking at our beach pics on the tiny camera screen until batteries ran out. Will played more Gameboy and I attempted to sleep. I’ve never been so glad to arrive at DIA as I was that night.
By this time it was 8 pm in Denver and the airport wasn’t as full as it could be. You can see from the moving walkway how relatively empty it is.
Getting our bags at the baggage claim wasn’t as eventful as most everyone on our flight was used to us by now, but some of the little kids from Tampa came up to say goodbye as our ride pulled up to the curb to take us home. They were super cute.
A late night dinner at Village in with friends (who didn’t even blink when they showed up at the table and we were still in costume) and we headed home to sleep. An adventurous trip.
So, that’s the last of my cosplay pics until we have reason to dress up again. Hope I didn’t bore anyone to tears!
And a final bit…
Here’s a pic of us as our mundane selves, showing progress thus far on the Pirate King costume. Taken with a tripod at 11pm with only streetlights for illumination, this is when we crossed the state border and stopped at the Florida welcome center. We really are girls, I promise!
I'm not sure how we're going to top this adventure next time.
All good things must end, and even the not so good things. While we had a lot of fun playing pirate in the afternoons, a week of trying to deal with my mother’s stuff and her very difficult husband was finally over. Saturday had finally arrived, and we were headed back home.
We had driven to Tampa, Florida and were flying back to Denver, Colorado. I arrived in Florida with one suitcase, half of which was filled with the Jack costume. Packing up to leave, with all the stuff of my mom’s that I was taking back, I had three suitcases and a carryon (which was insanely heavy since it had both my DJ’s Locker rock and the Jar of (Florida) Dirt. Things being very tight in the luggage-space department, I commented to my travelling companion captwillturner that I was going to save space in my bags and wear my Sparrow boots on the plane trip home. Being as they started life as a pair of Dockers, they are super comfy and would be good for travelling.
She said that one can’t go wearing pirate boots and mundane clothes, and jokingly suggested that we travel the whole trip back as pirates. Much discussion ensued, and we decided that we had to top the last bit of massive silliness, where another friend (a guy this time!) and I went skiing dressed as Jack and Lizzie in November 2006. (That in itself is a whole other long story.)
We had to be smart about all this, as we would have to clear security. We got there nearly three hours early. Obviously, beards were out, as there was no way we’d have passed an ID check. My wig and all its bling would never make it through a metal detector, so it was stuck in my carryon. We also had our belts in our bags, and removed our boots long before making it to the machines. It’s kind surreal, seeing a laptop and Jack’s boots sharing one of those grey X-ray bins. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
To add to the complications, I was travelling with my Queen Anne flintlock, which is a functional reproduction. It’s pretty darn close to Jack’s gun, so I *had* to use it for the beach photos rather than the plastic one I generally prefer to carry. Flintlocks and other historical weapons are not considered firearms under federal law (unless used in the commission of a crime) but under an X-ray, they look very much like standard firearms so I had to declare it as being in my checked baggage. I got the little firearm taggie on my bag that earned me an extra TSA screening, and got to escort my bag and a TSA officer to the TSA area where they X-rayed my bag right in front of me. They were a little testy that it wasn’t in a locked gun case, but with all the people who come to Tampa for the many piratical events there, it happens a lot more than you’d think. They were a bit amused by how we were dressed, so we told them we were travelling as pirates on a dare. Life was good, and the two pirate women headed off to security.
Standing in line for security we heard quite a few whispered comments about how we were dressed, even though it was as barebones Jack and Will you could get. We’re talking shirt, breeches, boots, and sashes. No belts, no accessories except the lace on my wrist. Getting to the metal detectors, the TSA guys took one look at my vest with all its’ metal buttons and our large sashes and told us they had to come off too. So, we ended up having to get dressed after sticking our computers back in our bags.
However, from that point, we were home free to be silly, and headed to the nearest ladies room to finish getting dressed and apply beards. We’re getting faster at this… total prep time was less than 10 minutes. And this was with my taking time to draw on the majority of my facial hair, as it’s a lot more comfy than spirit gum. (I have a full set of beard/mustache and just a set of braids for when I choose to draw on the beard.)
We were walking around for less than a minute before we were stopped for photos. People throughout the food court area whipped out camera phones. As many times as I heard “OMGILOVEJONNYDEPPINEEDTOGETAPICTUREWITHYOU” I have to pity the man and understand why he tries to disguise himself out in public. Either there’s a lot fewer Orlando Bloom fans out there, of they’re a lot less nutty, since Will wasn’t mobbed. She was OK with that. She took pics for people with their camera phones.
It was late afternoon and so we were a bit hungry, but knowing there’s snackies on the plane (we flew Frontier, which is the last awesome airline and give you a snack and a whole can of soda) we opted for smoothies.
Just chillin’, yo!
We did get a few questions, and we told people it was a dare (leaving out the particulars) but being Tampa, people weren’t really all that surprised. Pirates are a part of our history, after all. They were more impressed with how good we looked.
Photos walking to our gate…
How pirates waste time waiting for a delayed flight…
Mmmm.... Smoothies...
Self portrait while on the phone with the usual Jack Sparrow of our group, who we missed a lot this trip, so she could feel included.
I’ll be happy to return to being our Beckett once home. Believe it or not, the white wig is much more comfortable than the dreadlocks.
We did make a bunch of kids really smile though. There was one family who stopped us for pics who had spent a week at Disney and somehow managed to keep missing Jack’s show out in front of PotC. The kids were thrilled to have Captain Sparrow practically come to them, as we were waiting for the same flight. They didn’t seem to care that despite my best attempts, I can’t sound like him. (Accent and mannerisms are right, but there’s no hiding my voice.) Will weenied out of talking to the kids even though she can copy the voice a lot better than I ever could. Probably just as well... one of them just stared at the scar peeping out through the top of her shirt, kind of freaked out. Makes sense, it freaks me out sometimes.
In case there were any doubters left that we were out in public, here’s a pic with our plane right after it pulled up to the gate.
Boarding went uneventfully, and I have to credit the crew… other than a few widened eyes when we boarded they were perfectly professional. Our seatmates had a ton of fun with us (we were across an aisle from each other) and we managed to settle into our seats with minimal fussing.
The flight to Denver itself was probably the worst I’d ever taken. First off, trying to use an airplane bathroom in all that costuming is a nightmare. Secondly, it was the most turbulent flight I’d ever taken in my entire life. You know the type of flight that they never turn off the “fasten seatbelt” sign because it’s so bouncy? Yeah, it was one of those. Add to that my monthly visitor decided to start so I wasn’t feeling my best. I’ve never been airsick in my entire life, until that flight. Fortunately Captain Sparrow made it to the bathroom first. Smoothies have the strangest texture the second time you experience them. Will then proceeded to tease me mercilessly about being seasick once I no longer looked green. But being so bouncy we couldn’t sew, read, or do much of anything, so we entertained ourselves looking at our beach pics on the tiny camera screen until batteries ran out. Will played more Gameboy and I attempted to sleep. I’ve never been so glad to arrive at DIA as I was that night.
By this time it was 8 pm in Denver and the airport wasn’t as full as it could be. You can see from the moving walkway how relatively empty it is.
Getting our bags at the baggage claim wasn’t as eventful as most everyone on our flight was used to us by now, but some of the little kids from Tampa came up to say goodbye as our ride pulled up to the curb to take us home. They were super cute.
A late night dinner at Village in with friends (who didn’t even blink when they showed up at the table and we were still in costume) and we headed home to sleep. An adventurous trip.
So, that’s the last of my cosplay pics until we have reason to dress up again. Hope I didn’t bore anyone to tears!
And a final bit…
Here’s a pic of us as our mundane selves, showing progress thus far on the Pirate King costume. Taken with a tripod at 11pm with only streetlights for illumination, this is when we crossed the state border and stopped at the Florida welcome center. We really are girls, I promise!
I'm not sure how we're going to top this adventure next time.