After a hasty retreat to the hotel (and the application of a little aloe vera just to be safe), Jeff, Al, and Gordo set off for Pai Con. Standing in line at the main entrance, Gordo ran his eyes across the horde of RPOT (Raspberry Pie Omoshiroi Tomodachi) cosplayers. A surprising number of them were female.

“Man, I feel like we’re dorks coming here by ourselves.”

Al and Jeff cocked their heads at Gordo’s seemingly unfounded declaration. What was he on about now? Besides, they weren’t at the con by themselves, they had each other. They couldn’t have possibly been dorks. Al echoed this sentiment.

“Dude, what? We’re here in a group cosplay! That, like, automatically disqualifies us from being dorks.”

Gordo mused further:

“No no, I mean, the cosplays are fresh, don’t get me wrong. If we had an Orange and a Yellow, I think we’d easily be one of the top 5 group cosplays at the con, but we don’t HAVE an Orange or Yellow, you know?”

Jeff already knew where this was headed.

“Girls. Just say it dude, we’re here without any girls.”

“Hey now, that’s not true! I mean, Jeff’s got his special lady right on his arm!”

Al, his face in a grin that couldn’t be described as anything less than thoroughly sarcastic, slowly cast his eyes towards Jeff’s body pillow.

“Hey, don’t be raggin’ on my piece man.”

The “piece” in question was a custom made body pillow of Orange from RPOT. They were available in specialty shops in Japan, but given the exorbitant price of importing to The States, most hardcore fans (Jeff included) found it cheaper to commission custom pillows from a maker in the US.

“You’re just jealous. Besides, what do any of the girls at this con have that this baby doesn’t?”

He couldn’t have honestly convinced them with that line. Jeff couldn’t even convince himself. Maybe he was a dork. Or maybe just a weeb.