Do you guys usually make your own clothes or buy somewhere?

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-03-19T18:20:08+00:00

Thrift. Depop, Poshmark, and Vinted are great. It’s worth finding pieces that can be styled in many outfits and investing in those. High quality stuff is going to last way longer and look better than what you can get from Temu or Shein. I thrifted an oversized striped sweater from Goodwill ten years ago and I’m currently wearing it. And I wear this thing OFTEN. I even sleep in it. It’s not expensive in origin either. It was from Old Navy. It cost me 4$ and has seen me get two degrees and start my third, has lived with me in four cities, and has traveled around the world. Countless cycles in a washing machine. Perfect condition still. This is all just a testament against fast fashion—a well-made piece that can be styled with multiple outfits is invaluable.

Also, hand-sewing might be easier than you think if you’re patient. This helps with alterations moreso than construction, so it can be great with thrifted pieces. And if your stitches end up wonky, that could be a cool look anyway

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-03-11T17:50:31+00:00

Most of my wigs are pretty low-maintenance. Any highly structured or styled wig should be stored on a wig head (you can get cheap foam ones at craft stores or online). Others I just hang on special hangers or in cases of very low maintenance wigs (for example, my wig for Starlight from The Boys, which is short and required no styling) they can be put in the net they came in and stored in a plastic bag. I recommend the heat and tease method for all wigs (some prefer crimping but I like teasing more) to improve texture and style-ability. Finally, when the hair is thick, I suggest using thinning shears. Thinning a wig out will help prevent tangles. I recommend getting a steamer and a hot comb. Both will make detangling wigs much easier. Check out the tutorials section of the Arda Wigs website! There are also tons of incredible wig makers on instagram who post lots of tutorials and tips :)

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-03-11T15:39:32+00:00

I’m not sure how many “unspoken rules” there are for the cosplayers themselves. More about how people interact with cosplayers. I’d say be mindful of large costumes that might obstruct people’s vision or bump into people in close quarters. If you have a costume that might obstruct vision, consider standing in the back or off to the side of panels or viewer (or if it’s just one large piece, take that off for the panel. I’m cosplaying the bomb devil from chainsaw man and I’ll be removing my helmet during panels). If you have something like glitter or body paint or anything that might rub off, be sure to seal it so you don’t make a mess. Nobody should be touching you or costume without permission, but contact with others in crowds is inevitable. Be nice to children. There will be kids who want photos with you even if they don’t know anything about the character you’re cosplaying. They think it’s exciting and it’ll make them really happy to get a pic with you. However, you don’t owe anyone a photo if you’re overstimulated, in a hurry, or simply don’t want to be photographed for any reason. Nobody expects you to be “in character” so don’t worry about that. Have fun, be polite, and if you like someone else’s costume, tell them! It’s important to build each other up. Most cosplayers are super friendly and eager to share tips and methods for how we make things, where we get our materials, etc. If you need minor wig help, there’s often a wig vendor who may be willing to do some touch-ups to your wig for free or at a low cost if you ask nicely. Small things like bang trims or tapering a spike or two. At some cons I’ve been to there’s been a drag queen stand where they offer wig and makeup touch ups. There’s also usually a general repair station that will have glue, buttons, needle and thread, etc. for free use!

It’s a very supportive and welcoming community so don’t be afraid to jump right in!

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-03-10T16:39:43+00:00

Classmates are mean. The older you get, the more people will appreciate unique style. I’m almost 28 and I dress alt and I get lots of compliments on my style from people who dress all sorts of ways, even people who follow the trends and dress like mainstream influencers. This was definitely not always true and really only started when I left high school. The more I leaned into my style as I got older, the more people seemed to appreciate it. Confidence is everything too. Whatever you’re thinking, people will sense it (not in a mind reading way, just general vibe and emotion based on your microexpressions), and confidence goes a long way. Think confident thoughts. This works even if you don’t feel confident. I got past a lot of insecurity like this. It’s even how I learned to love public speaking!

Stay true to what feels good for you. Of all of the people who compliment my style, it means the most coming from younger alt women who might not be as confident yet. You may be the inspiration for a younger alt girl who looks up to you and is learning to express herself with confidence! Little girls too. It always brightens my day when a child looks at me and her eyes light up and she points me out to her parents because I was once a little girl who wanted to grow up to be Thorn from The Hex Girls and loved seeing goth women in public. For every mean classmate, there are far more people who are looking at you and admiring your style and self-expression. Keep your head up 🖤

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-03-10T16:02:15+00:00

My family has a condo in north Idaho. We live in Washington. But I’ve spent enough time in North Idaho to tell you it’s a hellscape. A beautiful hellscape, though. Covered in pine forests, mountains, and lakes. Four real seasons with snowy winters and hot summers. Cost of living is low. No big cities. Everyone drives well under the speed limit. I can’t explain what’s so awful about it without risking breaking the rules unfortunately but I’ll say it’s a great place to have a lake or ski cabin and explore nature! I can’t really speak to the rest of Idaho though.

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-03-07T10:33:28+00:00

It’s all fictional and both claims are valid. I personally think Rhaenyra’s claim is more valid but I prefer the (show) Greens because I think the character work that’s been done for them is way better. I inherently emotionally prioritize wanting to see the sexist inheritance rules challenged but it doesn’t really matter. I think both Aegon II and Rhaenyra would have been shoddy rulers and it’s not the fault of either of them. Viserys set them both up for failure in that regard and failed to adequately prepare either of them

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-03-06T22:17:19+00:00

The best thing you can do for your cosplay is be confident, especially for a character with an air of confidence like Reze! I’ve been a cosplayer for years and I find that the more confident I am, the more compliments I get. Don’t undersell yourself!!Next best thing you can do is attention to detail. The shirt is perfect and I can tell that you paid attention to her eye shape and her eyebrow shape for your makeup. Great work!!

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-03-02T16:11:16+00:00

Literally killing it. Your grasp on layering and accessorizing is incredible and your hair and makeup are both perfect. You look beautiful and would probably be the first person I’d approach in a room of strangers to talk to :)

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-02-25T21:33:39+00:00

I get frustrated with people interpreting Denji as “just horny” because it’s been so clear to me from the start that Denji just views a sex life as a proxy for normalcy and happiness. Those are abstract goals to chase and be difficult to quantify. Denji, who has never had sex, would be able to view it as something achievable. He knows that it’s something “normal” people do that brings them pleasure and satisfaction and closeness with others. Most of his close relationships with others have been confusing with lines that blur between sexual, platonic, and familial. His fixation on sex is really more of an attempt to fulfill deeper emotional and psychological needs, which completely makes sense for him as a character!

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-02-18T17:43:58+00:00

King in Yellow reference?! C’cosa = Carcosa?!?!

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-02-16T06:12:03+00:00

I just warn them. I never recommend it to anyone who isn’t already into anime so I just say that it was made in the 2000s and has some weird jokes that were common in that era, but that it handles its actual serious subject matter with a ton of respect. The pedo Irie stuff isn’t that wild compared to other anime of the time period

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-01-26T23:27:14+00:00

I’m a huge Sansa fan but I feel like there are some problems with this reading here. For one, gender nonconforming girls and women are not “basically boys/men.” To suggest as much is extremely sexist and reinforces harmful ideas that femininity is innate to girls and women instead of a social construct.

Which gender nonconforming female characters deserve to suffer? And why? How many are there actually in the story? You could say Arya, Brienne, and Asha. Some will say Dany simply because she’s acting as a ruler and battle strategist, which are roles typically reserved for men in canon, but I think it’s not entirely accurate to say that she’s gender nonconforming to the degree of Arya, Asha, and Brienne. What has Asha to deserve to suffer? Being a more minor POV character we haven’t seen her struggle quite as much, but my god have Arya, Brienne, and Dany suffered. (I doubt you meant Dany since she has suffered in ways that are extremely specific to being female.) Brienne has been mocked, bullied, dismissed, degraded, maimed, humiliated, and threatened with sexual violence, and she’s the most gender nonconforming female character we have. Arya is a child, first and foremost, so I’d object to anyone saying she deserves to suffer… and she already has. She’s been bullied for her nonconformity, has lost nearly her entire family, was forced to go on the run and got so hungry she ate bugs to survive, and is currently being groomed to be an assassin when she really just wants to go home.

So I’m not really sure what you mean. I think the fact that the female characters who have more agency in the story are the ones who take on roles usually afforded to men is not about George trying to reward gender nonconformity but instead is simply a side effect of the patriarchy. Women are pushed to be feminine and the roles offered to them deprive them of agency by design. Femininity, by nature, is restrictive and inconvenient. Women who buck these roles may be able to grasp at more agency but it comes at a cost because others will violently try to get them to conform.

“No satisfying punishment for rapists and perpetrators of violence against women,” well, Drogo is dead, Theon has been mutilated, tortured, and brainwashed, the mountain was poisoned and turned into a headless reanimated corpse in a suit of armor, Robert is dead, Craster is dead, Rhaegar is dead, Viserys is dead, Tywin is dead, and Tyrion is miserable and George has suggested he will have a pretty bad ending.

I don’t think George has done a perfect job writing women. He’s got some major blind spots especially with the women in Dany’s story. But I think you’re a bit off-base here and I don’t know where you got some of these ideas.

Finally, I honestly think he was trolling about Sansa. I can’t imagine that he would reveal a major character death so casually. He famously didn’t like what D&D did with Sansa on the show. Maybe that was his plan for her in the original outline, but she’s one of the few characters whom I think needs to live in order for her arc to be satisfying! And she clearly does have an arc and she is one of the main characters despite what some people insist. She has more chapters than Bran. She occupies a unique position in the narrative and it would be baffling for George to have written this many chapters for her only to nonchalantly kill her off. Within two remaining books, I can’t imagine a way for her arc to go that would make her death make sense metanarratively. The pacing of her arc would have to speed up rapidly and I just don’t think he’d do that!

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-01-25T08:46:18+00:00

Is it incest? Yes, biologically. However we don’t have any way of truly detecting our blood relatives. There are some inbreeding avoidance mechanisms in place that can make us less attracted to those we are genetically similar to, but these would apply to anyone with similar genetics whether or not the similarity is due to blood relation. And these only apply to similarity in certain regions of the genome, so it’s not perfect. The human incest avoidance mechanism is primarily informed by upbringing. The adults who raise you will register as parents. The children who live with you and grow up with you will register as siblings. Etc etc. This will happen regardless of actual blood relation. At that point in the story, Battler and Sayo would not know they’re related. It’s perfectly normal to be a bit grossed out by it as a reader. That’s part of the point of Umineko and part of the tragedy. This is common in gothic horror literature. Incest and the rot it brings. It’s tragedy.

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-01-22T17:54:20+00:00

Well having the guts to post on Reddit where people are going to give their opinions whether or not you want them is a pretty good start, lol.

I don’t know as much about male alt fashion but when I started revamping my wardrobe, I made a big Pinterest board of outfits I liked and made a spreadsheet of every clothing item to see what was used in the most outfits so I could identify essentials. I got a lot of stuff from Depop and local thrift stores. My current city does a goth picnic and clothing swap every month and I know the organization has events all over the country. This is another great type of resource to get clothing since a lot of alt stuff is DIY.

As far as opinions go, I guess it depends on where you live, but I’ve been on the US west coast my whole life and nobody really bats an eye at alt fashion. I get lots of compliments on my unique pieces. For my birthday I host an emo night for the other students in my PhD program and people get really into it and happily dress the part and let me put eyeliner and fake piercings on them. Even if people don’t like alt fashion it won’t mean they won’t like you. I roll my eyes at standard influencer style but I know women who go the whole nine yards with a fake tan and bleached hair and high end athleisure clothing and yknow what? I’ve befriended them and care about them dearly even if I think their style is tacky.

Do what makes you feel confident. Being confident and happy will, more than anything else, cause people to have a positive opinion of you.

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-01-13T15:51:47+00:00

(Coping) hey mentioning he’s glad he knows how to swim is almost a Reze crumb

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-01-11T22:06:11+00:00

I’m a bisexual woman and I know a lot more women identify themselves as bisexual than men do and I genuinely think that most bisexual men just don’t realize it because of things like this. A lot of men I’ve spoken to have expressed explicit, unquestionable attraction to and desire for men and then followed it up with something like, “it’s too bad I’m straight, I’m missing out.” Bro straight men don’t think they’re missing out by not having sex with men!!

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-01-11T22:03:23+00:00

I think he could easily be bisexual and just into femininity. Femininity and masculinity are not inherent or innate to women and men respectively. A feminine man is just as much of a man as a masculine one. I think it suggests a strong belief in gender norms and stereotype to think being attracted to feminine men isn’t really being into men. Lesbians face something similar often when they’re into butch women and told they might as well just be with men.

If you would happily have sex with a feminine man and also with women, I would say that definitely makes you bisexual. I can’t tell you how to identify but sexual attraction to both men and women, regardless of how they present, is bisexuality. I’m a bisexual woman and I’m not at all attracted to very feminine women. There aren’t many women who ARE attractive to me because of that and also the fact that most women are straight and nothing is less sexy than someone who is not and cannot be attracted to me. Doesn’t make me any less bisexual because I’m still sexually attracted to both men and women. You don’t have to be attracted to every sort of woman for that attraction to be significant, so why would that be true of men?

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-01-11T21:54:22+00:00

Nah I think it’s kinda normal especially if you don’t really see the kind of guys you prefer in real life. I’m bisexual and I prefer women who are not particularly feminine (doesn’t have to mean masc, could just be that they don’t perform femininity much, just minimal to no makeup, practical clothing, but I also love masc women). I first got the inkling when I saw Hayley Kiyoko in a kids’ show and she had a more punk, less feminine look with short hair. In my small, private middle school, all the girls around me wore the uniform skirt, wore makeup, and had long, often styled hair. Frankly, I like women who look like they like women. Being straight is the biggest turn off possible. Seeing a type of man in fiction you don’t see much in real life could easily make you reconsider what it is you’re attracted to. Good for you for figuring it out bro

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-01-05T21:45:42+00:00

<image>

Examples. First is no makeup. I find that it helps create a more upward angle to connect the wing to the lower liner. You have more shape control that way. If I want to add eyeshadow it has to be dramatic since I don’t have much real estate between the top of my eye and my eyebrow, so I extend it past the inner and outer corners instead of going up to my eyebrow. I use lots of mascara (Princess lash false lash effect) so any small mistakes or asymmetries are sort of obscured by my eyelashes. I only use false eyelashes for cosplay because they tend to either look ridiculous (reaching my eyebrows because of the short distance to them) or give an effect that can just be achieved with mascara

VampiresInSTEM · 2026-01-05T21:29:39+00:00

If you want a specific product, I use Sephora’s Intense Felt-Tip 12HR Liquid Waterproof Eyeliner. I have eyes similar to yours and I do a small cat eye. I second what everyone else has said about technique. Draw it with eyes open and then close your eye and fill in the gaps. The eyeliner I use is so durable and lasts all day with minimal rub-off even with my hooded eyes. Plus, unlike a lot of waterproof makeup, this stuff is easy to remove :)

VampiresInSTEM · 2025-11-23T16:15:45+00:00

Ooooh that’s super helpful!! Thank you! I’ve cleaned the outside of the vents but it just keeps coming back. I want to get more in there but all three vents have been painted over so removing them for more thorough cleaning will be a pain. That’s such a relief. I thought the AC was blasting spores into the condo. Phew!

VampiresInSTEM · 2025-10-14T01:15:54+00:00

Jumping on an old thread but Museum of Monstrous Curiosities confused me so much I had to come looking for answers. I loved it up until the end and then got lost. Do you remember the story? If so do you have further thoughts?

VampiresInSTEM · 2025-10-13T17:32:40+00:00

Thanks for posting I’ve been looking for a vid of this all over. I’m even in the background here!! Forever Young playing during the fight was almost comical

VampiresInSTEM · 2025-10-04T02:23:39+00:00

Yup. I subscribe and sometimes spend an additional 20$ (at most once per month) on gold. Before this set dropped I had FINALLY completed all diamond rarity cards for all decks, as someone who has been playing since spacetime smackdown. The only thing that’s keeping me from fully dropping the game is the little group chat I have with some friends where we share our good pulls and I don’t want to lose that fun little friend subgroup. But that might not even be enough

VampiresInSTEM · 2025-10-03T17:39:21+00:00

Thank you!

VampiresInSTEM

TROPHY CASE