Balina!! @Balina@cybre.space

I think I'm finally getting settled into Mastodon enough to put up a proper introduction and start getting my profile together. That means introductions are in order.

I usually present myself online as Balina Mahigan, a weird furry lady with a flair for making things overly complicated, and an obsession with tracking down alternate-reality versions of herself.

(Reference images provided by @SunsetAria on Birdsite)

Now that I've got everyone together, I'm posting the whole group cosplay as a set.
Ashley Ramirez as @moricalliope@twitter.com 💀
Balina Mahigan as @ourokronii@twitter.com ⏳
Charlotte Burton as @gawrgura@twitter.com 🔱
Dahlia Verrick as @tsukumosana@twitter.com 🪐

🎨: A+C: @RoxannaRachnid
🎨: B+D: @Ficus

I've said before that Ouro Kronii is the closest to a Balina you can get without actually being me, which means the head moof, narcissist that she is, probably fangirls her as hard as I do. This is why I wanted to do the whole set of costumes in the first place!

🎨: @Ficus

We haven't seen Charlotte in a while. She's still very busy, but she got in on the Hololive group costume bit I'm running this year, dressing as Gawr Gura!

She has trouble admitting it, but if she was given the choice, she'd much rather be small and cute.

🎨: @RoxannaRachnid

Now, I know what you're thinking. A succubus, dressing up as a succubus sounds *really* lazy, and you're right.

But also, I think I can pull it off better than most~

A stunning piece from @SunsetAria@twitter.com's currently-going stream. Stop by in a bit and get yourself a cool costume!

https://picarto.tv/AmberArts

Nobody asked, but the actual reason is because I find the *act of growing* to be the most important part, rather than the parts afterwards, so it's important that Balina be "normal"-sized by default.

Ridiculactation means that her chest size is whatever the picture requires, tho. Dahlia, too, though she tends to look really good a few sizes larger than reasonable, so she does it a lot.

Signs I need to try harder:

Like many of my characters, Dr Briar has some difficulty buying clothes off of the rack.
Also like many of my characters, her own rack is only part of the problem. A Howie coat is supposed to button on the side, but nobody makes them for shortstacks!
🎨: @Draekos

This is itself following a theme I'm slowly building of my BTI crew dressed up as Hololive characters. There's a third one pending, but here's a piece from last year of Dahlia dressing up as the late, great Tsukomo Sana that @Ficus did for me:

"Pardon me, but could I convince you to R.I.P.?"

Resident demon-touched mouse Ashley dressed up as Mori Calliope; a stunning piece that @RoxannaRachnid did on one of her Saturday streams.

Roxie does commission streams twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I am biased, obviously, but I cannot recommend her enough. Check her out at https://www.picarto.tv/RoxannaRachnid and tell her Balina sent you.

Cross-stitch and embroidery are not the same thing, but sometimes you get an idea so wild you have no choice but to dive into it. This is going to be a monstrous labor of love. Or a labor of monstrous love. We'll see.

...There's supposed to be 1 more skein, but the craft store only had 27 of the 28 flavors I need.

Finished the third one in this kit. Still enjoying myself, still learning as I go. I complain a lot about how almost every set of embroidery patterns is just flowers, but on the flip side: flowers pretty.

Already picked up another kit for more practice, and learning new stitches for it. Plus picked up some scrap cloth to fiddle with slash use up some of the leftover floss.

It feels a little silly to realize how much of this was me brute-forcing the last few patterns, honestly; the heart on that gray cloth was simply the realization that I could do a quick stitch for the outline, then do a satin stitch over top of it. Way easier than trying to stay on painted lines!

Yesterday was rough. Today, both of these wonderful little creatures showed up at the same time, despite both hailing from overseas. I choose to believe they heard how badly I needed them.