After a long night of hanging out with your friends, playing a wholesome game of D&D, you head home. Tonight was such a fun night! I should do this more often, you think to yourself. 

It’s not a long drive back to your apartment, but the wind has a bit of an eerie chill to it, and in the distance, a stray dog howls. Was it a wolf… Nah, that’s ridiculous… 

As you are driving along, you notice that the mist has set in something fierce. You look around, and suddenly, you don’t recognize any of the surroundings. WTF?! Nothing is familiar and all of the buildings, even the local WaWa, are nowhere in sight. 

All of a sudden… 

BOOM. CHUUUUUUUGNNAAAHHHTHNDDDD!

Oh, no. 
Was that the tire? 
Crappppp.

You manage to find the side of the road and pull off. Yep. Your tire is not only flat, but it’s also shredded to bits, and your tire rim is noticeably bent. What did I hit?

After assessing the situation, you reach for your phone – no signal. Typical. And then you sit, waiting hopefully that some random passerby will assist you. At least they could help take you to the store. The store can’t be that far away… can it? It seems like hours pass. You go to turn your car back on… and… nothing. WHAT?! To add to the frustration mounting in your chest, you look to your phone – and after playing solitaire for the last however long – you come to find out that your battery life is at 1%.

Enough is enough. You make the rational adult decision to brave the chill and the mist and trace your steps back to your friend’s house. You grab your bag, your almost-dead phone, and lock the car up to begin your trek. Give me strength, Master Baggins.

Not five minutes into walking back the way you came you, see a fell light in the distance. It doesn’t look like a pair of headlights. It’s too blue and almost flickers for it to be a sign or street light. What is it?!

Undeterred, you continue, heading towards your friend’s house… and towards the weird light that is growing ever closer. 

Wait… is that… a person? You squint your eyes. A faint silhouette of a person comes into view. What is that? A lantern… heh, that’s a bit old school. At least they can help point me in the right direction. 

You close the distance between you and this mysterious person until you’re no more than two yards away. Is their hair glowing? Something is off…

“Are you lost?” a soft voice speaks from the form in front of you. “Come. I will help you back to town. It’s not safe wandering through this mist. Wicked things live in the mist.” 

Heh, that’s a bit dark. Everything in your gut is throwing red flags – but you need to get some help, and this person IS willing to help you back into town. Safety in numbers, so they say, and you did hear some howls in the distance. 

The person turns around, beckoning you to follow them through the mist – back into town. Not much in the way of small talk, she tells you her name is Willough and that she lives not too far away as well. 

Minutes seem like hours… How far did I drive out of town? More mist. More howls in the darkness. And Willough, with her glowing hair – as fluffy as a dandelion – is always a few steps ahead so you can’t get a good look at her face. 

How much further?! You think to yourself…

“We’re almost there. Don’t worry, dearie,” she replies. HOW DID SHE KNOW WHAT I WAS ASKING?! That set you back—more red flags and wobbles from your gut. Your feet grow tired and sore. Your eyes begin to droop… exhaustion takes hold.

She points to a stump. “Take a rest for a few minutes and catch your breath. We’re only a few minutes away from your friend’s house.” You agree, begrudgingly, yet never take your eye off of her silhouette. You notice something odd… she isn’t walking on the ground. It looks like walking when you’re further away, but she’s walking on air just above the ground. NO! Stupid, sleepy brain playing tricks on you. 

You close your eyes, collect your thoughts, and breathe. Almost there. I’m almost there.

Silence. Darkness. You nod off for what seems like a second. 

Just before you wake up, you hear an eerie chuckle… “you’re welcome, dearie…” 

HOOOONK! You are jerked awake to the blaring sound of a car horn… and daylight. Bright, intense daylight. What the hell!?

You find yourself in the middle of the road, right in front of your friend’s house. Your friend runs out – clearly panicked – and asks, “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! WE’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU FOR MONTHS?!” 

Ushered inside, you tell them about the mysterious Willough, your car, and ask how can it have been months since you just left their house that evening. 

They fill you in, tell you that your car was found – and impounded, but everyone thought you were kidnapped – or worse. 

How had it been so long?

… and once more, you hear an eerie chuckle in the back of your head. 

/fin.

Greetings, fellow travelers and dah’lings, to the FOURTH look for the #13DoH2020! Today, I am bringing you my version of the Will-o-the-Wisp – a character from folklore and myth. 

Will-o-the-Wisps, technically called Ignus Fatuus (/pausing for brief chuckles from the peanut gallery), are sometimes known as tricksters and impish sprites who lead lost travelers astray or abduct them completely. They go by several names; hinkypunks, friar’s lanterns, or jack-o-lanterns… and have been mentioned in folklore across the globe any time there are mysterious blue-green lights caused in nature. One of the scientific causes for the lights result from oxidation and ignition of gasses (phosphine, diphosphine, and methane – specifically) due to the decomposition of organic material – most commonly witnessed in swampy or marshlands. Literal swamp gas, dah’lings!

I wanted to personify the lights and the mischievous nature of the Will-o-the-wisp, and here we are. I really, really like how the look turned out – especially with the addition of the wig. 

Speaking of the wig – if you’d like to know how I styled and “created” the floofy addition to my costume – come join us over on Patreon! There is an exclusive tutorial over there as well as some helpful gravity-defying, wig-styling tips and tricks. 

The dress was another clearance find at Target from the Ava+Viv brand. Thank god for cottage-core trends and their impact on fashion. Originally the dress was a dusty pink – and pink is the devil, bobby bouchee. So, I dyed the dress using a random concoction of Rit fabric dye (using some dark green, taupe, and lemon yellow, specifically) to match the wig. 

Back to the wig, it is from Epic Cosplay Wigs in style Apollo. I love this wig style so much that I have it in about 21 different colors. Seriously. Unfortunately, the color of wig that I chose for this look was discontinued – it was the Sage Green variant – but you can dye a white wig to match if you wanted to. Hey Epic Cosplay Wigs, if you’re reading this, could you please bring back that color option – it’s the best. For those of my dah’lings from TikTok, you might recognize it as the main wig that I wear for Professor Endas. 

Random randoms aside and back to the look… 

Again, I love how this look turned out – and I’ll have you know that I recorded a TON of tik-toks in character that I’ll push out over the next few days. But for now, it’s back to the cadaver slab to create some more characters for the #13DoH2020. 

If you noticed that I missed a few days, you’re not wrong – I got some stomach bug coupled with spoonie complications, which completely threw off my schedule, WHICH IS OKAY! To be honest, I’m still not back to 100%, and whenever I get sick, it takes longer for me to recover… but I’m going to try my best. Currently, I’m working from bed today, so – there’s that. 

Life happens, and this year I am not going to beat myself up if I don’t get all thirteen looks out. 🙂 I will continue to keep on, keeping on, and rather than rush to put out content that I’m not happy with, I’m going to do my own thing and put out content that makes me proud. Thanks for coming to my ted talk! 

If you have any other questions about this look, feel free to toss them down in the comments below and I’d be more than happy to answer them. Oh! And if you haven’t yet, please take a moment to go enter the mysterious #13DoH2020giveaway that I have going on from now until Halloween. Click the photo below and it will take you to it!