I was running out of time to create my Anime Expo cosplays (one week before con!) And I knew I wanted to do something challenging but manageable. I remembered that Monster Musume has a bunch of characters with unique features, so I latched on to Miia as my one week challenge!
Bringing it to life was comprised of running around in a panicked frenzy, hoping it would all turn out. I trekked to a faraway discount fabric outlet because I knew I would need a LOT of fabric. The tail from waist to tip is 17 feet long! Constructing it involved tediously repetitive sewing and hot glueing to make the whole tail look uniform and reptillian. I was relieved to finish it on time with a day to spare!
Wearing it to the convention was a whole new nightmare. Not only was it the busiest day Anime Expo had ever seen, but my mobility was extremely limited. Shuffling at a snail’s pace through packed hallways had me sweating and exhausted before I even made it to my destination (the most popular photo of this cosplay was taken just after bunny-hopping up a long staircase!)
When I finally arrived, I was completely overwhelmed with the response I got. I have cosplayed a lot over the last decade, but nothing I’ve done has been as popular as Miia! I’m so thankful for all the encouraging comments both in person and online that made this project worth it.
— @NikkiMoxxi
Snake girls are p. great
@collapsedsquid @xhxhxhx I went to reply to this thread, but when I opened up my draft it was already filled with this discourse from the future.Contra @fakecollapsedsquid2066’s post regarding the high-end prosthetics industry, @mecha-cyborg-xhxhxhx2066’s quick assessment is largely correct.
The development of the high-end monstergirl, monsterboy, and sex-variant full prosthetic bodies does ultimately result in lower costs for the standard bodies purchased by the middle class and for accessories and general implants available under the North American Cybernetics Subsidy Program. The key here is that these benefits are from the mass production models, and not the custom individual models, such as the gold-plated mecha scorpion body built for Ivanka Trump III.
For the custom models, they just use more material, but for the mass production models, the increase in power requirements and weight requires research into battery and materials technology which eventually filters down into the mainline models.
For example, the DSI6 Fault-Tolerant Power Control System in my body (even though I know neither of you guys have it because I’m way more paranoid than either of you) is actually a derivative of the DSI5X originally developed for the high margin DS-56 Rachnera Special, which was high margin, certainly, but sold 10,000 units, in order to increase its operational time from 76 hours to one week without violating the nuclear materials refined arms control act.
Likewise, the Modular Limb System now so commonly used by firefighters and other emergency personnel on more-or-less standard humanoid bodies was originally developed for the Broseidon Systems T-209, which as anyone on this website will remind you, is widely considered incredibly fetishistic and “deeply unnatural”!
Now of course, a lot of this could maybe come from military research, and there’s some argument whether the wealthy rebuilding themselves as fetishized versions of mythological creatures is really a good use of resources, but honestly I doubt that without it we get the same rate of progress.