DreamCon cosplay usually gets shown from the outside — a photo set, a highlight reel, someone else’s camera roll. This is the inside of it. Midori_Hana is a variety streamer on Twitch, Kick, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, and she worked DreamCon this summer in full armour: hired to cosplay Markie from the indie comic Emerald Quest, which meant ten-hour booth days in a thirteen-piece costume. I asked her about it, and she sent back answers on camera.
What follows is her, in her own words. Press play on any of them.
What she covers
- Who she is
- Why she went back
- The DreamCon cosplay: Markie from Emerald Quest
- Thirteen pieces of armour, and one velcro failure
- Walking the floor in character
- What DreamCon is actually like
- The real highlight was not a panel
- The fallen soldier, and the spider in the stall
- What RDC World built
- Why people keep coming back
- Advice for your first DreamCon cosplay
- Shout-outs
Who she is
Before the DreamCon cosplay questions start, here is her own introduction — what she streams, where, and what she does outside Twitch.
Why she went back
DreamCon was not new to her — this was her second year. She is straightforward about what pulled her back: the opportunities that were lined up to happen there, and simply knowing how much fun the first one had been. It is a useful answer, because it separates the two reasons people return to a convention. One is professional and one is not, and she had both.
The DreamCon cosplay: Markie from Emerald Quest
This was a job, not a personal pick. She was hired by Most Epic Art, the creator behind Emerald Quest, to bring Markie to the floor — you can find them at FSK Comics. Markie is a fifteen-year-old military savant: good at everything, with no explanation given for why. The youngest commander in an army, adopted by the Queen and placed on the Queen’s Guard, carrying a past the comic has not fully opened yet. Midori explains what the character means to her, and why the mystery is the part that hooked her.
Thirteen pieces of armour, and one velcro failure
More than thirteen separate pieces, and because Markie is military, it is actual armour rather than a printed bodysuit. She can get into all of it in under fifteen minutes — with the caveat that it depends entirely on whether there is air conditioning, which anyone who has worn a full build indoors will recognise immediately. The hardest part was not the armour but the wig. She makes a point of not wearing wigs when she cosplays, but this was someone else’s character, so the wig was not optional. Mid-con a velcro strap gave out and she finished the day holding a section of armour together with a clip. Nobody noticed, which she is reasonably pleased about.
Walking the floor in character
This is the most interesting answer of the twelve. She describes Midori dropping away almost immediately once the full costume is on — not as a performance she has to maintain, but as something that happens to her. She marches rather than walks. Her speaking voice shifts into a military register. Being a veteran herself, she notes, makes that a short trip. The reaction that stuck with her came from an Emerald Quest reader who spotted Markie across the floor, ran over, and wanted a photo — the character recognised as a character, by someone who already knew her.
What DreamCon is actually like
Her pitch for anyone weighing up their first DreamCon cosplay, or their first convention full stop: this is a good one to start with. She met people at DreamCon for whom it was their first con ever, and they loved it. She talks about seeing so much representation on the floor, and about the turnout roughly doubling since her first year — which she reads as the con heading somewhere good. There is far more than cosplay: a whole video game section, board games, and panels she rates as genuinely informative. She is also blunt that it is a lot at once and can be overwhelming. What sets it apart, in her view, is how organised it is — you always know where to be — and staff who were friendly and stopped what they were doing to help, which she notes is not a given at every convention she has worked.
The real highlight was not a panel
Not a panel, not a performance, not a guest. The thing that stuck was meeting people from her own community face to face — people who had been there before, during and after COVID, known entirely through a screen until that weekend. She was brought to tears more than once. The way she frames it is the part worth hearing: these were individuals who deemed her worthy of a follow, and worth hanging around for. She also spent real time in artist alley, but the community meeting is what she keeps returning to.
The fallen soldier, and the spider in the stall
Two stories, and both are better told by her. Neither is what anyone pictures when they imagine DreamCon cosplay. Working a booth means arriving before the VIP hour, which itself opens before the doors — so a ten-and-a-half hour day becomes a twelve-hour one. She eventually ducked behind her own table, propped up her sword, and went to sleep. People photographed her. The angle apparently made her look less like a tired exhibitor and more like a fallen soldier having an epic moment. Her position is that it was not sleeping, it was inner monologue time. The second story involves getting ready in a bathroom stall, the latch jamming, a full set of armour half-assembled, a spider joining her in the stall, and a queue of women outside listening to the whole thing.
What RDC World built
She has followed RDC World since the beginning and is a fan of them individually as well as as a group, which colours the whole answer. What she credits them with is not just making a space, but making an organised and uplifting one. The part she keeps coming back to is what it does to her afterwards: she leaves every year with drive. If it is not the art it is the stream, if it is not the stream it is wanting to travel somewhere and do an IRL broadcast. She argues that happens to ordinary attendees too — you leave already planning next year.
Why people keep coming back
Her answer is networking, and she means it in a specific way. DreamCon is an open door for small business owners and for anyone trying to get their art in front of people — not only illustrators, but cosplayers too. Add the draw of meeting RDC World themselves and the entertainment they bring in, and she thinks the growth sustains itself: bigger names showing their nerdy side pull a bigger crowd, and the crowd pulls people who were only passing by.
Advice for your first DreamCon cosplay
Do not overthink it, and just do you. She is firm that the costume does not need to be extravagant — putting one on at all is the achievement, and she watched people compliment each other across the floor all weekend regardless of budget. Her own starting point was a stretchy bodysuit and the declaration that she was Spider-Gwen. She knew nothing about wigs or construction, and it got a lot of praise anyway. Her advice is to start small, dress as whoever you actually want to — even a side character nobody will recognise, if the costume looks good — and only invest more once you know you enjoy it.
Shout-outs
She closes with hers, and they are worth writing down if you are new to this corner of DreamCon cosplay: Most Epic Art, the creator of Emerald Quest and of Markie; FSK Comics, for anyone who wants indie books outside Marvel and DC; RDC World, for building DreamCon; and her own community, Midori’s Gardens.
Where to find Midori_Hana
- Everything in one place — her Linktree
- Twitch
- Threads
- X
- Merch
- Business enquiries: midorihanabiz@gmail.com
Thanks to Midori for taking the time, and for sending the footage over. If you have been on the fence about DreamCon cosplay, or about going at all, twelve answers from someone who worked the floor in armour is a better guide than any highlight reel. Go follow her. And if you want the setup all of this gets edited and streamed on, that is over on my gear page.
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