Cosplay: Unity, The Story of Us

Me: Yes, it's another festival event. Before discussing it, I'd like to prompt a related discussion. What do you think of when you hear the word "unity"?

Ash: Me and Pikachu! We always need to be together, don't we?

Pikachu: Pika pika chu! ["You got that!"]

Goh: For me, I think of capturing Pokémon to complete a set, like all the Bug Pokémon in Kanto, or all the colors of Flabébé. Yeah! That works, doesn't it?

Me: All good answers. So, "unity" becomes the theme for this "festival" event, to which I'm sending Ash, this time with just your classic Kanto/Johto outfit.

Ash: Nice!

Me: But you'll see, it will apparently be familiar.

Ash: Oh! It's part of Community Base Party!

Me: Yeah, you immediately recognized. And since I sent you there a few times with your Hoenn outfit, I thought you'd like a change instead.

Goh: You think it's fine after what happened last time?

Me: Well, last time, the event seemed to run fine and all the controversy wasn't related to the actual execution. They do mean well, unlike some people. So I say it's fine.

Ash: What do you want me to do?

Me: For this one, I have to say that I can only put you in the character parade, since I'm not ready to put you in the singing competition.

Goh: Are you still a little worried about what happened last time? Ash still did great back then. Don't worry about it and just move on.

Pikachu: Pi. Pika chu. ["Yeah. It's fine."]

Me: Well, it's a little bit of that, but there's been a couple of sad unrelated personal happenings, so I'm not able to prepare Ash as well as he should.

Ash: That's OK. We can tackle it next time!

Me: Next week, in fact. I've already scheduled it. Anyway, we'll just deal with this for now.

Goh: How was it? Crowded as usual?

Ash: As usual.

Me: Some things don't seem to change. But maybe a few things did?

Ash: The stage was back to the back end, and there were a few booths with food, drinks, and goodies.

Goh: That's nice. At least they know how to cater now.

Me: I know I couldn't get you to participate, but how was the singing competition?

Ash: A few sounded really good! But maybe others sang slightly off... or too short?

Me: Typical problems, but that means the ones that sang really good deserved it. Now, how was the character parade for you?

Ash: I think I did great! But I saw the judges and I know one of them.

Me: Oh... wait. I'm sorry to say that because of that, I can already assure you that you can't win something from this one. So I guess I've set you up for nothing.

Goh: That's a bummer. What will you do now?

Ash: I still want to sing something! 

Me: Tell you what. A friend hinted about karaoke, so you can go with my friend and sing your heart out for me. You can get some "unity" spirit there too. We'll deal with Community Base Party again if another edition comes up.

Ash: I guess that's fine.

Pikachu: Pi pika. ["It will do."]

Goh: I got the schedule, and it seems you would miss a performance, games, awarding, and the closing for the things afterwards.

Me: I got the intel from a friend. The performance is of an old band that... seems to have not taken new steps, so not much missed there. Games are MC games - something to fill time - and the rest is obvious.

Goh: So, I guess the event's just fine.  

Me: It seems so, even though a lot more can be improved. Again, next time we should be able to deal with it more properly, and the organizers should be able to do the same.

Ash: Hey, maybe that's another "unity"!

Pikachu: Chu, pika chu! ["Yes, seems so!"]

Me: It's definitely a spirit that can be realized in many forms, even a festival event like this one.

One year ago: Let's Talk About Challenges in Connecting

Two years ago: Making the Case for Open-World

Three years ago: Possibility of a "Basic League"?

Four years ago: Beta Testing

Five years ago: Taking the Go Train

Six years ago: Worldly Inspirations for a Small World