For four days, I've traveled.
Down walkways packed with color.
T'was worth the aching feet.

Footsteps thumping
colors flashing
streams of stomping feet.
Not quite a mob
but no ones strolling,
and no ones' more than grumpy.

We're all wide-eyed,
staring outward
at the swarming crowd.

Within this masquerade
you may find the familiar faces
of people you've never met,
or those of strangers
who you'll be friends with from now on.

What'll you find
​at the convention this year?

The key specter, Telemanen, walks through worlds
trailing the sounds of chimes behind it.

It has no will to be silent
though it rarely uses words.
For it is chained to its loneliness and hope.

Draped in innumerable metal links,
the keys it seeks have become its armor
its lips and teeth.

Each discarded piece of manmade metal
may hold the power to send it home,
to a world that's remained hidden for millennia.
So with every footfall
its choice is clear.
To collect every key that falls in its path
and use them to cross the dimensional barriers.

One day
it will find its way to the sweet embrace of home.
Nothing will halt this task.

On days where my self-confidence is low,
I wish wearing a sword belt would become socially acceptable again.

Nothing would make me feel more like an epic badass
then having a sword on one hip
and a dagger on the other.

I wouldn't have to pull either from their sheaths,
twirl them around
or be threatening.

No, just being able to carry around physical proof to myself
that I am strong, sharp, and willing to lunge through the air at a moment's notice
would be enough.

The weight of blades
within reach
and within sight
to show myself that i am just as powerful
as I've always imagined myself to be.

So is permission to wear my swords around
in public without a fuss being made
​so much to ask?

So. Many. Cosplays!
Armor and weapons and props,
I must see them all!

Nerd population,
condensed into just one space.
Hey, do you cosplay?

Imagination lets you believe the unbelievable,
and find the hidden reaches of your mind,
where only you can go.
Your imagination frees you from your boring, everyday life,
and takes you to a place where anything can happen.
In your imagination, you can play any role you want.
You can be a pirate, a spy, an astronaut, and a ninja, or all of that at once!
You can be anything you can think of,
and no one can tell you that you don't exist.