Beware the lich Aveirehy. Dream thief (photos added, video)
Sunday, July 29, 2012 by: Carol Martin
Few Saultites have had the pleasure of meeting Aveirehy, a lich with green hair who steals peoples' dreams but those who have are likely to have come from the introduction with a bit more sparkle in their lives.
Literally and figuratively.
Aveirehy sprinkles magic dust (glitter) on her would-be victims and enters their minds to steal their innermost private thoughts.
She was one of about 60 people who attended and thoroughly enjoyed the third annual Anime Picnic on Topsail Island in Bellevue Park today.
Many participants cosplayed for the afternoon.
The dictionary definition of cosplay is, "A costume that imitates any character from manga, anime, tokusatsu, video games, or, less commonly, Japanese live action television shows, fantasy movies, or Japanese pop music bands."
It's definition in life is a lot bigger than that.
It refers to a subculture of people who not just dress up as a character from anime, manga, video games, fantasy/science fiction books, movies and television shows - but who also act like the characters they are dressed as.
The cosplay costumes can be as complicated as large animatronic devices worn or ridden on to as simple as some off the rack clothing picked from thrift shops.
People spend many hours and plenty of money on their passion for cosplay, too.
But today's picnic grew from the most humble and the most divine beginnings.
It started three years ago as a birthday party for Maems Fam-Ducharme.
"In elementary school I didn't know anyone who liked anime so I just sort of kept it to myself," said Fam-Ducharme. "But in high school I found my friends who also liked it and it was good to find people who liked the things I liked."
For this year's picnic, the organizer Danielle White (Fam-Ducharme's best friend) decided to open it up and create an event on Facebook.
She was almost overwhelmed by the response.
Within a few weeks the event went from eight confirmed attendees to 87.
At least 60 of those made it out to the picnic and many were meeting each other for the first time.
It was hard to tell, though.
When one young man walked over the hill to the picnic area, strangers and friends of his all shouted, "Mustang, Roy Mustang," and he raised his white-gloved hand poised to snap his fingers in a sort of salute to them.
Screams and laughter erupted from the crown of picnicking cosplayers.
Similarly, when the Mad Hatter left the picnic, he was 'glomped' (tackle-hugged) by a blonde Lust.
Even thought many of the cosplayers gathered at the park today didn't know each others' mundane names, they sure knew and loved the characters that were being cosplayed.
That affection was equally extended to 'original characters' like Aveirehy.
She evolved from a Dungeons and Dragons game character her creator plays and became real at today's picnic.
She also hopes to return for the autumn garage sale, Halloween and Christmas cosplay parties being planned by this suddenly very tight-knit and large group of Sault Ste. Marie cosplayers.
Please enjoy our original video by SooToday.com's Adam Gualtieri.
Don't forget to scroll down below it for the photo gallery.
