While Kat's Klub was the main site for the comic convention this year, mostly to make room for the "UFC-A" fight between Hyun and Maxwell Musclemann and to also take into account the loss of vendors that had come down as a result of the Covid 19 Pandemic, that didn't mean it was the only site involved with the convention. There was also the Meat Market, which in its own way was determined to get in on some aspects of the convention, particularly as Animalia sought to take some advantage of things reopening. The city and Lyre did more to try and mandate things like masks and so on, but there were still some underlying worries about finances and things that still pushed opening things up. And that set things up for the Meat Market to play to its own costume contest, one that was a bit more risque than the one at Kat's Klub.
There it was expected that costumes would be more "scandalous" than what would be normal in a costume competition. By rule there couldn't be any real nudity, but unlike the main competition where showing a lot of skin or fur or feathers could be a penalty, that wouldn't be as much of an issue at the Meat Market. It also gave some of the present competitors the ability to look into some of the comic heroes and heroines that were already in attire that would have been borderline scandalous if seen in real life. In this there were more that were here dressed characters that seemed to have their adventures in various forms of lingerie rather than a standard sort of comic book costume, and this meant that there were a few variations on Marvel's Emma Frost that were present. But some simply turned to a more revealing variation of the standard costume or things like that.
Some of the contestants were Humans and even Lyre residents, which showed on how much Animalia had had an effect on the neighboring town over the years, but most of the contestants were Animalians that lived in the area. A good bit of this was to be expected, given some of the things in the bigger picture, but even still, it was something to be expected. Part of the expectation was that with some of the summer tourist rush that Animalia and Lyre had enjoyed since Animalia came into existence would include adults and college students that would also wish to be in the more adult costume contest and it would work out fine. But Covid 19 had killed a lot of the summer tourist rush. Some did come, but not as many as was normal, and this left a lot of the contest to those that were already residents of Animalia and Lyre.
And among them was Shyra. Typically a lot of her work at the Meat Market did relate to the club's "normal" performances and in this she wasn't necessarily shy about those sorts of things. Her own case of Regressive Hypersexuality Disorder was one of those potential points of issue that had made her more willing to work there after her conversion, but thanks to counseling and time spent learning from the Mariana family, she'd not only gotten that under control. She'd also picked up some ideas and interests that had come from discussions with Jessica and Roger. At the time, Shyra had thought she was training Jessica to seduce Roger, but at times Shyra found herself learning about some of Jessica's other interests... and that lead to Shyra's choice of costume for the contest, a more risque form of Sailor Moon's costume.
Jessica wasn't as into it as she had been into some other things, but there was some nostalgia that Jessica had shared in some of their conversations that Shyra had picked up on. Shyra grew even more curious when she learned that one of the Japanese to English "dubs" of the series had the main character's name be Bunni rather than what it was in the other "dubs" or in the original series. That was enough for Shyra to get some interest in the design as part of the more adult costume contest and something that would ultimately be rather fun. From there, Shyra reworked the design. The skirt, which seemed rather short to begin with was shortened further, and thus enabled Shyra to essentially flash the matching blue panties she wore underneath. The neckline was lowered to just below her breasts, displaying how the Rabbit Animalian had a far more ample chest than the anime/manga character and with the red bow coming up onto her breasts from below rather than covering them entirely and with the sort of "sailor cape" forming the neckline. The boots weren't much more than a heavy red garter that Shyra ultimately cut open at the bottom to keep her feet from overheating. The hardest thing was trying to copy the hair style, but Shyra managed.
"Well... I must say you put on a very good display for the contest," one the judges commented and glanced over to see some of the small crowd of guests that were allowed in to view the contest or participate in it, "It would almost as if you've done things like this before..."
"The costume part... no," Shyra admitted, "and honestly... not so much the acting either... but I have been good about putting on a good show."
"And your choice in the character again?" a different judge asked.
"Supposedly one of the translations had the main character's name be Bunni," Shyra said, "so why not have a "bunny" looking for love dress up as the heroine fighting for love... and I think I look good, too."
A few whistles from elsewhere in the room was enough to assure Shyra that there were those that agreed and to a degree, Shyra felt fairly confident. Most of the other contestants had come up with slightly modified pieces of lingerie or swimsuits that were all designed show stuff off. It worked, but wasn't necessarily always original. Only a small handful had anything that was more original and in that, Shyra liked her odds of winning. Though at the same time, Shyra was also quite fine with not winning, as it had actually been a bit more fun than she expected.
"And it would appear you've won a few fans over," the first judge commented, "congratulations."
Shyra only smiled at that, as it was some praise and despite all the bigger things going on, it was a moment that seemed positive. To a certain extent, having things be positive counted for more to Shyra than anything else.