It's Not Cosplay
"Woooow…."
Sihyeon parted her lips, eyes going wide in a way that felt almost out of character.
Though calling it out of character was probably wrong. If anything, the way she looked right now was far more like an actual child than usual — and it suited her.
The only real oddity was that I was doing pretty much the same thing. I'd been standing there with my mouth hanging open in a daze before I finally came to my senses and snapped it shut.
We'd arrived early on purpose. Online advice said the roads would be a nightmare if we timed it for the start of the match, so we'd planned to get there ahead of time, grab a meal, and look around a bit.
Looking around might not be an option.
Even for someone like me — not easily impressed by much of anything — the stadium we'd arrived at was enough to leave me speechless.
A massive hemispherical dome, planted right in the heart of Seoul, blending into the surrounding cityscape with a kind of understated grandeur. A few dense stands of pine trees rose around it, and the whole effect somehow called to mind the Colosseum where gladiators once fought to the death. Whoever had first designed the location and exterior of this place must have had a romantic streak.
But that wasn't the only thing that had me stunned.
Abyss Dome Stadium No. 1
Abyss Dome Stadium?
They'd put "Abyss" right in the name. Did that mean this entire building had been constructed specifically for watching Abyss matches live?
If this is Dome Stadium No. 1… does that mean there's a No. 2 and a No. 3?
There were more dedicated facilities like this?
Just how thoroughly had this world been rewritten?
At first I'd figured the game had gone from a neighborhood corner store to something like a mid-sized franchise supermarket. But the deeper I dug, the bigger the scale got — and this was well past supermarket territory.
Still, it was a good thing. Sihyeon's eyes were sparkling with genuine interest at a building she'd never seen anything like, and even if I was still a little dazed, I was enjoying myself too.
The match started at five in the afternoon. It was barely past one right now.
We'd just finished lunch at a nearby restaurant. This was a neighborhood I'd never set foot in, and I hadn't given a single thought to where we'd eat — but Sihyeon had already researched the local food spots ahead of time. Thanks to her, we'd managed a solid meal. Afterward we'd thought about heading into the stadium itself, only to be told entry wasn't open yet, so we'd started wandering the surrounding area instead.
"I know that one. His name's Jerome, right?"
Sihyeon pointed at an elderly character with a scar near his eye, saying she'd seen him in one of her uncle's edited videos.
Even so — pointing at a grandfather figure and calling him "that one"? Jerome's lore age was well past sixty.
The Confucian dragon inside me twitched for a moment, but I let it go. He was just a character, after all, and for her age Sihyeon was already far more polite than most kids her age.
We were making our way through everything from the stadium entrance to the connected block complexes, taking it all in one piece at a time.
Abyss Dome Stadium No. 1. True to the name, the surrounding area had been meticulously themed to match. There was Jerome the old knight, mace and shield in hand exactly as he appeared in-game, and from there a whole line of exhibits modeled after various characters.
A hero who'd once graced the login screen. A dragon that had appeared in a cinematic trailer. Even the well-liked director who'd been handling the game's direction since the early days — Oh Hong-gyun himself.
Sihyeon tilted her head in front of the director's statue, which was frozen mid-thumbs-up, as if to ask what on earth this was doing here. Passersby kept glancing at the unexpected statue of some random middle-aged man the same way she had, and that alone was a solid comedy beat.
We kept walking, and at the far end I spotted a familiar silhouette.
A pure-white woman with hair as snowy as fresh powder.
Not default-skin Camilla — this was the Snow Queen Camilla version. As the most recently released skin, the sculpture must have been installed not long ago; its surface gleamed noticeably brighter than everything we'd passed so far.
The original costume's midriff-baring top had been the only piece swapped out for a bulkier sweater with more fabric. An unavoidable choice given how many kids came through a place like this, though I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. Still, it looked pretty in its own wintery way.
"I thought so last time too, but you look exactly like her, Unnie."
Sihyeon nodded as she said it, already familiar with the fact through Jaejun. She'd been pretty shocked at first by how identical I looked to the game character. Even now she wasn't entirely unfazed — she kept glancing back and forth between Camilla and me with a look of open fascination.
Then came photo time. Sihyeon had already taken pictures with every character statue except Oh Hong-gyun's, and there was no way she was going to walk past a Camilla this pretty without stopping.
"This one, you take with me, Unnie."
"Huh? Me?"
The difference from before was that this time she was pulling me into it.
Truth be told, I wasn't much of a photo person. I didn't photograph particularly well, and for that reason the results never seemed worth the effort. More than anything, there had never been anyone to take pictures with — or anyone to share the memories with afterward.
Since becoming this body, I'd found myself looking in mirrors more often, and taking pictures after putting on new clothes. But taking a photo with someone else? That was a first.
Having spent the whole day only photographing Sihyeon, her suggestion caught me off guard — though some part of me was quietly drawn to it. Of course it was. This was Camilla.
Just a sculpture, sure. But Camilla was still Camilla. And a fairly high-quality one at that. Walking past something like this without a photo would have felt like a waste. If I'd come alone, I definitely would have taken one.
Operating on that logic, I let myself be half-dragged along by Sihyeon's hand with a reluctant little "uhh—" and took my place beside Camilla.
Snow Queen Camilla in the middle, Sihyeon and me flanking her on either side.
"But… who's going to take the picture like this…?"
"We'll just ask someone walking by. Hold on a sec."
And with that, Sihyeon grabbed my phone and trotted off, only to come back towing a decent-looking young man. He arrived with an awkward smile, still half-caught in Sihyeon's grip — then caught sight of my face and nearly jumped out of his skin. The moment Sihyeon struck a pose, though, he raised the phone and started shooting.
A few shutter clicks later, and the not-insignificant crowd in the exhibition area had started to take notice.
"That one's Camilla over there. Let's go get a picture too."
"Whoa, is she cosplaying Camilla? The quality is insane."
"Oppa, where were you just looking? Be honest. I saw your eyes go sideways."
A guy was looking back and forth between my face and my hair, openly impressed — clearly mistaking me for a professional cosplayer. It wasn't an unreasonable assumption; actual cosplayers were scattered around the venue here and there. And aside from the outfit, my appearance was a perfect match for Camilla.
I also caught a woman staring blankly at me before pinching her boyfriend's side, and a group that looked like students approaching with excited faces.
Just as the attention was starting to pile up and I was about to finish the shoot and get out of there—
"Excuse me, would you mind taking a photo with us?"
A group was walking straight toward me, their costumes elaborate enough to stand out even at a glance.
"We're doing cinematic cosplay… and we were just wishing we had a Camilla."
"Wow, is that hair not a wig? You actually bleached it? And your eyes are huge — you're a perfect Camilla."
They were cosplaying the various heroes from the cinematic trailer. Lenok the black undertaker with a greatsword on his back, Theodora in full armor looking full of energy, Dan the assassin with a dagger, and so on — all the leads who appeared alongside Camilla in the cinematic. And of the whole group, not a single one was dressed as Camilla. What were the odds?
Whether they actually operated as a team or not, five of them came swarming toward me at once. With all those sparkling eyes and eager greetings, I couldn't exactly say I wasn't cosplaying. But joining their group for photos felt like a lot of pressure too.
"Ah, I came with my little sister, and she's pretty tired right now—"
I tried to use Sihyeon as a polite exit — only to look beside me and find her gone. When I turned my head, there she was a short distance ahead, watching me with an amused little smile. A truly, truly sharp kid.
"Unnie! Go take pictures with everyone! You have to get one on your phone too!"
Whatever happened to the polite speech she normally used — she was calling out in the bright, cheerful voice of a kid her age. The group closed in with broad grins.
"Your sister said it's fine, right? Just one shot, okay?"
"Nice, nice. Should we do another one with a group pose?"
"Do you know the Camilla cinematic pose? Oh, you're good at that."
After that, we took a ridiculous number of photos. And for some reason, I found myself putting real effort into the poses.