The Costume Party: Hu Tao and Qiqi (Early Access)(Com) (Patreon)

A commission for Last_of_workers

Kristin was sewing the last bits of fabric on the Qiqi costume she was helping her niece Penelope make, while she was sitting next to her brushing out the wigs that go to both their costumes. They were jamming to music as they worked when suddenly Kristin got a text.

She picked up her phone and looked at it. There were some ramblings from Turner about his rival, but the important bit was that he was throwing a party and everyone was invited. Kristin was excited and knew Penelope would love it since she’s been obsessed with Genshin Impact lately.

Kristin looked at Penelope and told her about the party and asked if she’d like that. Her face lit up and she was as excited as Kristin suspected. Kristin looked at her phone and texted Penelope’s mother to let her know about the costume party.

Kristin got the okay from Penelope’s mother and the two began to finish up making Penelope’s Qiqi costume so it would be ready to go. By the time the party came around, Kristin was so happy with how amazing Penelope looked in her costume.

They arrived at the party to see half the guests had already arrived. Beckham was sitting on the couch playing Genshin on Truner’s television while Cohen was chatting with Ariel and the like, and Jenna and Imani were posing in the corner.

Turner greeted them and looked at Penelope. He greeted her and complimented her on her amazing costume. She got really happy and thanked him, and then said that really his costume was good as well, and he looked cute.

Turner thanked her as well and told Penelope and Kristin there was soda and chips everywhere, and if those were to their liking he had water, juice, pretzels, and candy as well. Penelope cheered and ran into his house. Kristin thanked him and chased after Penelope.

Penelope ran into the kitchen and Kristin followed her to make sure she didn’t get in trouble, but she often forgets her niece isn't a troublemaker like she was at that age. Despite a bowl of candy and all the soda she could drink Penelope grabbed the pretzels and juice.

Kristin tells Penelope if she needs her to come to get her as she was going to talk to everyone, then afterward they could play Genshin. She also told Penelope that everyone here was friendly and would love to talk to her about the game, so feel free to talk to them.

Penelope nodded and stuffed her face with pretzels. Kristin walked back to the living room to see Turner walking inside with Itzel who was dressed as Nahida. She was clearly too shy to walk inside, and Kristin didn’t want to overwhelm her, so she went to speak with the others.

After about an hour, everyone was chilling around in the living room playing genshin together in different groups. Kristin and Penelope were groped with Cohen and Willow, and the group was just doing boss battles to spend their daily resin.

That’s when a bright light blinded all of them. No one could see for a minute, and when the light passed everyone looked up from their games confused. Everyone was wondering what happened when suddenly Ariel's prop ruin mech started moving on its own.

Ariel who was being picked up by the prop asked what was going on as everyone watched her former wheelchair prop mech come to life as a real mech. Turner had come running in from the kitchen and looked just as confused as everyone else.

Then Beckham let out a high-pitched and extremely girlish yell. Everyone looked over to find that a real Paimon floating where Beckham had been. Kristin knew this was a bit serious, but she couldn’t help but find it funny that Beckham was so tiny now.

She made a joke about Beckham being real emergency food now, which triggered her, and she started to shake her tiny fist at her. After that everyone calmed down, it was clear everyone had turned into a real version of their costume.

Everyone was asking how it was possible and Turner remembered the light, she then explained how she watched it come from another house and after it hit they all changed. Several people from the group were happy with the change, while others were wondering how to change back.

Everyone decided to take a few minutes to look over their changes and then group back up to figure out what to do. Kristin took Penelope up to a bedroom for a bit of privacy. She wanted to make sure she was alright before checking herself out.

So she picked Penelope up and placed her on the bed and asked her how she was feeling. Penelope held her stomach and Kristin got worried, but then Penelope revealed she ate all the pretzels and her tummy wasn’t happy.

Kristin let out a sigh, one of relief that her niece wasn’t actually hurt. She then inspected her. She tugged on what was formerly her wig but now was her real blue hair. Penelope said ouch and then seemed confused.

She asked why that hurt. Kristin then realized she didn’t even notice the change. So she explained using herself as an example. She showed Penelope that her wig was now real and her body had changed somehow to match the character she was dressed as.

Penelope seemed to understand and walked over to the mirror to look at herself. She seemed excited about it saying she was even cuter than she was before, but then suddenly stopped and looked at Kristin.

She asked if she was a zombie now. Kristin was taken aback but then remembered that Qiqi was a zombie and if Penelope was a real version of her, then it was likely that she was. Kristin said that seemed to be the case, but she didn’t really know much about what was going on.

Again Penelope didn’t seem bothered, and her good mood kept Kristin from being upset or worried about her own transformation. So the two of them decided to head back to the party and see how the others were doing.

The group was sitting around talking about their bodies. Then someone accidently discovered they had their character's real abilities by shooting into the air. Everyone was amazed by that and quickly tried to use their own abilities.

Kristin and Penelope tried it out together in the corner. Kristen was able to conjure fire, while Penelope was able to freeze things. They were both able to summon weapons as well, with Penelope summoning the Sacrificial Sword and Kristin summoning the Staff of Homa.

Penelope was so excited and wanted to play fight. Kristin was a bit concerned about fighting with weapons, but Penelope was going to do it with or without her, so she might as well be the one with her to make sure she didn’t get hurt.

After a night of everyone testing out their powers and doing a bit of training. Kristin and Penelope said goodbye to everyone and headed back to Kristin's house. Penelope ended up staying the night at her house and in the morning her mother came to pick her up.

Penelope’s mother grabbed her and asked her if she was okay. Kristin had texted her about what had happened, and with the news showing many different cases of the strange phenomenon that happened, she knew Kristin was joking.

She was just glad her daughter was wearing the costume of a small cute girl, and not one of the many monstrous minions running around, or even a regular monster costume like a ghost. The city was overrun with those at the moment, luckily someone was dressed up as a ghostbuster.

After hugging Penelope, her mother stood up and looked at Kristin. She didn’t even recognize her sister anymore. She asked Kristin if she was okay. Kristin looked down at herself and said yeah, for the most part, she wasn't really affected.

She was still a girl, very cute, and had powers, when paired with becoming one of her favorite characters she was actually quite happy with her transformation. All she was really concerned with was Penelope who was quite young and turned into a character that wouldn’t actually age.

Penelope’s mother agreed and said that the government and more importantly the department she worked at was working on providing care and help to those affected. She was actually planning on bringing Penelope right over, and she minted Kristin's joint hem just to be sure they were okay.

On the drive over Kristen got a text from Turner. He said his rival Alek was to blame. Apparently, one of his guests was a witch and had cursed everyone to turn them into real versions of their costumes and then vanished leaving them all stuck.

Kristin shared that with her sister, who said she’d tell her boss so they could look into it, then Kristin looked over at Penelope who was happily creating snowflakes with her powers. Kristin smiled, she knew they’d be okay, even if things were going to be a bit more interesting from now on.

Kristin looked out the car window. She wondered what life was going to be like for them from now on. Penelope would still go to school, and Krisitn would likely have to go back to work. So life would probably be the same unless she looked for a new job that could use her powers. Perhaps she’ll ask her cosplay group when they meet up again after settling into their new bodies.