WorldCon, the World Science Fiction Convention, is kind of a big deal for the Shadow Family. Not just because we’re big fans of the genre (Shadow Jack and I met in an internet chat room devoted to SF), but because it’s held in a different location every year and it gives us an excuse to travel a bit. It’s also a big deal for me because I am in love with the Masquerade.

Masquerade one of the big events at every WorldCon. It’s primarily a costume contest, but most entrants also perform a skit of some sort. The workmanship on many of the costumes is astonishing, particularly in the Master category (this site displays some of the costumes from the last several conventions, although the photos aren’t large enough to show some of the more intricate details).

When we attended the 2005 convention in Glasgow, Shadaughter and I decided to participate in the Masquerade. This worked out well for us because I like to make costumes and she’s a big ol’ ham. She was a cheerleader in high school at the time,* and she was also a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer,** so she requested a Vampire Cheerleader costume.

We won in the Best Presentation category, and to our delight her performance turned up on YouTube a few months after the convention. So if you’ve ever wondered what a vampire would cheer about, here you go:

(The sound isn’t precisely synched with her movements, which I guess is an artifact of the video transfer.)

There are a couple of still photos of her outfit in the costume.org gallery here. Remind me to tell you some time about frenziedly trying to dye her hair black with Manic Panic in a backstage restroom five minutes before she was due to go on. Next time we enter, I’m bringing Valium.

*Yeah. She’s a cheerleader and pink is her favorite color. The apple couldn’t have fallen any further from the tree if it was rocket-propelled.

**Okay, maybe it didn’t fall that far.