I've been playing video games and watching anime for most of my life, but somehow I never quite made it to an anime convention. Finally I decided to go to Anime Detour 2006. At first I figured I'd go in my Devil May Cry 3 T-shirt, but two weeks before the convention I had this radical idea to make a Vergil costume. Now, the obvious question here is... if I love Dante, why would I dress up as Vergil? Two reasons: 1) I truly do love his coat, it's probably my favorite outfit in all of anime/games, and 2) I wanted to find a Dante, and kiss him... as his twin brother Vergil.

So I went to a store and bought 6 feet of blue, orange, and yellow material. Then I realized it wouldn't be enough and the orange was the wrong color so I went back the next day and got 9 more feet of blue, orange, and yellow material plus foam, buttons, and white fabric paint. Anyway, $200 later I had (much more than) enough materials to do my Vergil coat!! It took some pretty complicated mental acrobatics to design because Vergil's coat HAS NO SEAMS besides the yellow stripes and at his shoulders. I worked on it 6-14 hours a day on top of a full time job, getting 2-4 hours of sleep most of the nights and stabbing my sore fingers to blood with needles while hand-sewing the entire thing through material that bent a sewing machine needle. After much frustration and trial and error I got it done the night before the convention!

Sure the wig was a disaster, but you should've seen it before I gave it a haircut and glued it down with gel! Lets just say I was Vergil in the rain after a bad perm, shall we? Good...

Off to the convention!! I drove around the parking lot for at least 15 minutes trying to find a spot. Saw another Vergil walking around, screamed "DAMN YOU, VERGIL!!" in my car just because he was another Vergil and he looked decent. He later stuck his tongue out at me. (Vergil and I had a nice in-depth discussion about making our coats later on... we cool) Went inside, got my little blue nametag that I wrote "Vergil" on. Now to find some Dantes!

Ahh... the hazards of being Vergil. Girls jumping me from behind, people taking pictures. Fun fun. And then I saw him. Hands down The best Dante at the convention. Nay, the best Dante I had ever seen... period! DMC3 Dante! Nipplewarmer trenchcoat Dante! And all I could say to him was "...c-can I take your picture?" And I did. Luckily, my friend Ashvolt had a merchant booth set up a few feet away and offered to take pictures of us together. And Dante was like "lets have a back to back shot!" And we did. And here's me looking confused and terrified because I had no idea how in the world I would go about asking him to do a... errm... frontal shot.

So I chickened out and Dante went on his merry way followed by throngs of fangirls, and Ashvolt and I went on our own way with my head in utter chaos. There were too many pretty people around me, too much anime merchandice wherever I turned, too much nifty Japanese food, and all I could think about was how that was definitely the best Dante at the convention, how a chance this perfect would never come again, and how my elaborate plan, my sleepless nights, and my bloody fingers have all been in vain because I didn't have the guts to approach him. The room was spinning around me and I couldn't take it anymore!

"Okay," I said to Ashvolt, "Here's the plan... Next time we see Dante, you come up to him and say you like yaoi (if you don't know what that is, I dare you to image google it), and since he's Dante and I'm conveniently Vergil, you want a picture of us kissing!"

She was more than happy to agree.

"A-and I'm not saying this is going to happen... just if we happen to see him, y'know? We won't go looking for him or anything..."

She raised an eyebrow.

So we keep wandering around and lo and behold there he was again. It was a secluded corridor, the lighting was just right, there were very few people around, it couldn't be more perfect! I sighed, did a 180 degree turn and started walking the other way. Ashvolt grabbed me by my arm and literally dragged me back. Before I knew it we were face to face with Dante and she started her speech.

"Hi... we have sort of a weird request for you..."

Dante listened.

"See, I'm a yaoi fan and... seeing as how you're Dante... and my friend here is Vergil... I was wondering if..."

Dante didn't get it.

"I mean... you're Dante... and she's Vergil... so..... *suggestive hand motions*"

I don't think Dante wanted to get it.

"Sooo... ummm......" she stammered because half-naked DMC3 Dante in the nipplewarmer outfit was PRETTY DAMN INTIMIDATING.

By now Dante was staring at us like we're crazy - which we were, but that's besides the point.

I couldn't handle the awkward tension and blurted out: "I think she wants me to kiss you."

Dante paused, then pointed to the side and said, "You gotta ask her."

HER?? $%#&!! Well, I guess that's one way to find out someone's taken... In all our excitement we failed to notice his girlfriend standing nearby. Nevertheless, hoping against hope, we turned pleadingly to ask her permission.

She seemed rightly flabbergasted at first, but finally said, "Ugh, I can't believe how I put up with crazy fangirls at conventions... fine... fine you can kiss him."

I couldn't believe it but there it was: the perfect shot of the perfect Dante in perfect lighting at the perfect time all perfectly legitimized by the girlfriend. May the powers that be eternally bless her for it!

One of the proudest moments of my life, I kid you not. I framed it. ^_^

And here's Ashvolt's version of the story!

DISCLAIMER: if either of you don't want the pics or the entry up here, please contact me and I will take it down!!


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