"Wow, what a fantastic cosplay! Give it up for a superb Gundam suit, everyone. Alright, next up we have...Nori, with his cosplay of Gobuta from 'That Time I Reincarnated as a Slime'! Give it up for Nori!"

This was the moment that the young Japanese Sable had been waiting for since the start of the con. It had taken weeks of begging to get his parents to agree to take him, moreso when he showed them what he wanted to cosplay as-- they had refused outright at first, but they eventually warmed up to the idea...so long as they were allowed to chaperone him around the con. Well, they couldn't escort him now.

Sucking in a breath, the light grey furred sable stepped out onto the stage, and the clapping of the crowd made him briefly falter. He did, admittedly, suffer from a little big of stage fright, but he swallowed his nerves and strode across the stage, feeling both kind of confident as well as a bit embarrassed. Gobuta was a notable character from the popular light novel, as well as the manga and anime adaptations, but he was often well-clothed...well, except for the introductory arc to the series. In those early segments, Gobuta was just a simple goblin character, with very little to him...so, in the same fashion, Nori had fell in love with his carefree nature.

"Wow!" The woman on stage beamed over at the boy as he approached and the crowd politely continued to clap until the 10-year-old came to a stop in the middle of the stage beside the woman. For a moment he turned on the spot so everyone could see his cosplay-- intro-arc Gobuta only wore a set of dirty cloth shorts, and Nori wore the same, along with a fake crop of purple-ish hair and a comically large fake nose on the end of his snout. He swung a large, clearly very light sack over his shoulders that was tied at the front around his bare chest, and he padded around without shoes nor socks, true to the cosplay as he could muster. The only outlier was the belt; he had to wear it around the waist in order to have a large crude club be strapped there, made of foam, naturally.

"You look great, Nori!" The presenter of the show laughed at his outfit. "You're adorable! Where are you from?"

"Oh, I'm from Salinas." The Sable smiled up at him and then looked out at the crowd. The women looked surprised.

"You don't come from Japan?" She sounded surprised and tried to word it nicely, but she was clearly curious. It wasn't anything that the boy hadn't heard before-- everyone had the same question, considering he was a Japanese Sable. Technically speaking, he was Asian.

"My parents moved here when I was really tiny." He grinned up at her and she seemed pretty satisfied with his response, and a few collective crooning sounds from the crowd beyond made Nori feel a bit embarrassed-- he knew they thought he was cute.

"Wow! So what made you pick this particular cosplay?" She asked. The answer, of course, was obvious.

"I like the character a lot, and, um," The Sable babbled. "And I think he's really cool, how he's short but he's really strong. I want to be really strong one day too."

His response ushered another wave of murmuring approval from the crowd beyond and the woman raised herself up to speak into the microphone, applauding his effort and coaxing the crowd into another round of applause. They clapped for the boy, and a giddy twisting sensation of glee spiralled in the cub's stomach as he waved. The woman put a hand on his shoulder and pointed him where to go, and he followed her instructions, heading across the stage to the opposite end that he had appeared from. There, a number of staff members awaited him to tell him where to go next. 

The first pointed him down a small brick corridor that supposedly led towards the seat she had been facing before, and he believed it-- as he walked, there was a right turn that revealed a long, quiet brick corridor with a few doors on the left hand side. Nori guessed that, if he just walked to the end, his parents would be waiting for him. That's the 10-year-old thought, anyway; he briskly made his way down, adjusting the lightweight, stuffing-filled sack on his back as he went.

Nori didn't walk for long before he inevitably got distracted, and he paused outside an open door on the left hand side to gawk at a figure beyond, half-clad in cosplay of his own. It seemed like the room was relatively private, intended for cosplayers to dress and undress out of their costumes before going on and off stage, from what Nori guessed...all that was in there was a metal rack, a couple of chairs, and a vanity table and a big, bright mirror.

"Wow!" Nori exclaimed aloud, and the man who was dressing jumped, taken by surprised-- he'd had his back to the boy and hadn't even noticed him standing there. He was a incredibly well-maintained canine, with an athletic, trimmed form and short, dark fur. The only thing he was wearing was a set of tight-fitting pants that accentuated his every curve, and the legs of the pants went as far down at his ankles and wrapped around his feet, pinched between his middle two toes. As he stepped and turned, the clack of wood against concrete signalled he was wearing sandals, and in his hands he carried a heavy, shaggy boar head that Nori recognised immediately.

"Are you cosplaying Inosuke?" He asked, eagerly stepped into the room with little to no regard for stranger danger, and the canine faltered for a moment as he took the boy in, before he grinned from cheek to cheek.

"Yeah," His voice was pretty deep for a young adult. "You're...cosplaying Gobuta, right? That's real cool, kid."

"Thanks!" Nori beamed, his tail swishing back and forth behind him, and his gaze instinctively travelled down. He circled around the man to analyse his cosplay and the canine just stood there awkwardly, watching him as he went.

"Curious, aren't you?" The man awkwardly laughed and Nori paused to stare up at him. At his chuckle, the boy smiled sheepishly, squirming on the spot.

"I wanted to cosplay Inosuke, but I couldn't figure out how to, um..." He trailed off for a moment, before finding the confidence to speak. "The pants were really tight and my parents said people could see my peepee and it was wrong."

"O-Oh," The canine faltered and covered his mouth for a moment, taken by surprise. "Uh, well...if you want my advice, you just have to tuck it in and wrap it up real tight."

"Wrap it up?" The Sable tilted his head to the side, clearly not understanding. "Can you show me?"

"Ask your parents," The canine wanted out of that conversation before it got any worse. "I've got to get on stage, and I'm sure they're looking for you, right?"

"Oh! Yeah!" Nori startled and then reached down into his pocket. "Um, mister, can I take a picture with you?"

"Sure." The canine grabbed the head and quickly lifted it to put it over his head, before he popped a squat and got down to the cub's eye level. The Japanese Sable pulled a phone from his pocket and switched on the camera, turning it to selfie mode so that he could hold it up and get them both in view. The cub stuck out his tongue and the canine made signs with his hands, striking something akin to a pose. The Sable took a couple of pictures and then turned to the man, stepping back and formally bowing to him, like a Japanese student might.

"Thanks mister! Bye!" Nori bounced to the door and waved, before he disappeared out of sight and made his way back down the hallway, heading in the direction of his parents...hopefully. The canine stepped out towards the doorway and watched him go, shaking his head, before he turned and walked in the opposite direction to head towards the stage. He knew he was going to be up there soon.

Maybe he'd see the kid again...there was a few days of the con left, after all!