Pokémon

Anyone in the world will be able to recognize the famous game: Pokémon. A game based on creatures that are unique with abilities to fight others in battles! LarpLikeRae was never one for the big franchise or game, but within time finally caved in to make their very own Pokémon cosplay they hold dear to their heart!

When given a theme, LarpLikeRae took it upon themselves to show off their strengths in cosplay and do what they love most... armor.

Vaporeon

"I will make the story very short, even though it is a very long one. Ever since I was little I was never really into Pokémon. I remember my sister (Mo she/her) was more into it with the cards but that’s about it. We weren’t really into it as much as other kids were granted my sister was 7 years older than I was so she was able to do more big kid stuff than I was. Because I was never into Pokémon, I never fancied to do anything Pokémon related. When I turned 18 and became an adult to venture off into my own world of anime and Cosplay, I never really grasped the concept of Pokémon, and had no idea where to start. I didn't know what it was other than cute, weird creatures, and capturing them in balls while fighting other people. That was about as much as I knew, and I intended to keep it that way until 2024 came around and I was invited to be a judge for LVL-UP expo Las Vegas. Now being a judge is a very big deal at this convention and apparently it takes a lot of hard work to get in and I was personally invited by Jez Roth, an absolute beautiful soul! I freaking love him, his personality is flawless and he is such a kind and sweet person. When I first got invited to be a judge, one of the first messages that we had all received was that the judges as well as people on the staff team for the cosplay competition were all going to be matching in Pokémon themed outfits. I didn’t know much about Pokémon like mentioned before, but I wanted to be able to participate because if I didn’t participate, I would definitely be Standing out compared to everyone else. I had debated whether I wanted to do a Viking version of Flareon or a Viking version of Vaporion. I love the version of a Vaporeon solely because of the scales and being able to bring that cosplay to life/have a lot of people recognize the character due to the headpiece. However, if I ended up doing Flareon, I knew a lot of people would not know who I actually was Cosplaying as because there’s no distinct features other than actual art of the character. You can’t really pinpoint any other aspects unless it’s a different Pokémon or different eeveelution. So I decided to go with Vaporeon mainly because I wanted to be more recognizable and a little petty. Pettiness because back in 2022 I had made a Sirius cosplay from 'My Hero Academia' and took it to two separate conventions back to back (one in Portland, Oregon named Kumoricon and one in Tucson, Arizona named Connichiwa). I wore the same Cosplay as Sirius and so many people kept on calling me Vaporeon... granted I knew that they probably did not know who Sirius was or what she looked like, but I was really heartbroken mainly because I felt like I failed at making Sirius. People thought that I looked like another character and I thought I failed completely because I looked like someone else. It was really hard on me and I got really distraught while not liking the cosplay after a while, but after some time with processing everything, I have grown to live and love my Sirius Cosplay. No matter if people thought it was Vaporeon or not. I loved it because it was a character that I was personally attached to and no matter what others thought of it I still made her cosplay for a reason, and I was still passionate enough to make it. Two years later in 2024 whenever I heard that LVL-UP wanted me to be a judge like said before, I decided Vaporeon was going to be the best bet because people highly compared me and one of my other Cosplays to Vaporeon, so I wanted to show up and show off that if I WANTED to do a Vaporeon cosplay I will definitely make it more noticeable and work a lot harder on it. So I put my entire budussy into this Cosplay. I spent about three days making scales and luckily, Cloud was kind enough to help me make these scales all from scratch out of EVA foam clay. I got done with this Cosplay the night before the convention and was able to pack in the suitcase very carefully. I was judging the cosplay contest the entire time so I didn’t have enough time to go explore or go meet people in this cosplay (which I’m perfectly fine with) so whenever I did get about a 40 minute break to go run around and visit with people I was stopped constantly by people wanting to take photos as well as talk to me in this Cosplay! I was nearly late for pre-judging again because I was stopped so many times. Since I was constantly working this convention with this Cosplay I wasn’t ever able to get photos until about three months later when I was able to make content and finally take photos of this Cosplay. Thanks to Pete (petemecozziphotography) he was able to take this Cosplay to the next level with his photography and being able to do a photo shoot with me. I love working with Pete because our sessions go by super fast, he always claims that whenever we do a Photoshoot together it’s always "less talking" because I’m constantly moving and he’s constantly taking photos. Half the time he will crack a joke where I smile in my pose and majority of that time, that smiling photo is the one that I choose the most. I love this Cosplay so much and I’m happy to bring it for a subscription box and exclusive content for our July 2024 websites theme."