007 - Welcome to VoidCon!

[tabularasa_mods]

Welcome to VoidCon! Event Info ▲ Comments Is It Wrong To Pick Up Stamps In The Convention?
The registration desk for VoidCon rests at the base of Mt. Silver, looking a bit conspicuous in contrast to the natural cave entrance. Lanyard badges have been laid out across the desk, one for each person that dwells within the Void... although, some will still be unclaimed by the time the convention ends. Above the mountain rumbles a thunderstorm, granting enough power to easily keep the convention space powered for a few days. Even if you’re not interested in the convention itself, you might as well take advantage of the stable power source while it lasts.

Next to the pile of lanyards is a stack of cards, each covered with blank squares and the words “Stamp Rally” written at the top. The instructions can be found on the back, along with a list of goals and activities - not all of them make sense, but as long as you think your interpretation is correct, it seems to count. Each completed goal will be rewarded with a matching stamp, which will simply appear on the card on its own. Get six or more stamps and you get “a prize.” It's not clear what the prize is, but it must be something good, right?

The goals for each stamp are as follows, and can be completed in any order:

1. Sign your autograph on ten different surfaces.
2. Wear someone else’s clothes.
3. Hug lovable arcade mascot Potato-Cat.
4. Find yourself in Kyo’s merchandise booth.
5. Reenact the best scene in the book.
6. Win a round in the holo-arcade with another player's abilities.
7. Eat the BBQ.
8. How much is a currency? Can I have it?
9. Tweet a hash tag into the ley lines about your experience at VoidCon.
10. Share and subscribe to the most liked art piece.

Completing at least one stamp prompt will make your character eligible for the March event bonus. Please see the linked event post for details.

So I’m A Fanartist, So What?
In proper fandom-based convention fashion, a small herd of Brushboys have responded to the call for creativity and settled themselves into the convention space. Some have taken residence in their own stalls as they draw whatever (or whoever) comes to mind, but others will take a more guerilla approach to their art as they walk about in search of their newest source of inspiration - you!

Most art can be observed in the form of prints and postcards that are lying about for public viewing on occupied vendor stalls, but other Brushboys have taken some liberties with their mediums. A lucky individual may find an entire mural painted on a cave wall that’s dedicated to them, or perhaps telling the story of the relationship between them and another character.

Styles of the art vary depending on the individual who has painted their respective masterpiece, but most depictions are compliant to “canon” in terms of their content. That’s not to say that every piece is, however - canon divergence is key in fanworks. Pieces with two characters together may have never spoken a word to each other before, or perhaps the nature of their connection to each other has been grossly misinterpreted by the artist. Whatever the case, each work of art is certainly a conversation starter.

In Another World With My VR Headset
Numerous signs and posters found around the arcade direct attendees to the elaborate VR game set-up, the potato-cat mascot proclaiming in a large speech bubble that “Fun and Excitement Awaits!” followed by an odd little nonsense phrase in smaller writing that is probably meant to be motivational but either comes across as nonsense (“what did you do that did”) or simplistic (“wow!”). The posters are not particularly needed, however, as the set-up takes up a large area, and the bright lights and music likely draw more than enough attention to it.

The interactable and realistic hologram display shows a little piece of another world. It could be a room, or a city street, or a little piece of the outdoors, but every world is familiar to at least someone present. It changes by the hour, with every attendee’s world featured at least once. Each world is presented as a game, and while the game does not always appear relevant to the location it is usually at least playable, and frequently allows for two or more players to either cooperate or compete - it’s better with company! Games include rhythm games, stealth games, monster battles, fighting games, card games and more. The goal of each game will also change with the genre, so you’d best beat it quickly if you want to make any progress.

In this VR world, attendees will find that their existing powers work perfectly in-game, as though an intended feature, even if they don’t seem at all relevant to the game. Furthermore, powers can be unequipped or exchanged for someone else’s powers by accessing the menu, allowing for free experimentation and a chance to see what the neighbors are truly capable of. If you don’t have anyone to trade with, just hit the “randomize” option - you’ll be given a completely random powerset, or you’ll be randomly swapped with another nearby player. The possibilities are endless!

If you manage to reach the end of the game, you’ll be greeted with a large and flashy display of “Congratulations!” along with some virtual confetti, followed by a holographic display of everyone’s high scores… which are a bit confusing to read, since every new version of the game has a completely different scoring system and one player might go through several of these before hitting a proper “ending.” Is a smaller number or bigger number better? Why does a farming game even have a combo score? Maybe it’s best not to think about it.

back to top

Comments

VI. The Fanfics

[blue_eyed_obsession]

[There had been a selection of fanfics throughout the makeshift convention center and you know what- rather than reading any of them, Kaiba thought he knew the most appropriate way to handle them. Picking up the ones he could find, he promptly looked for the nearest trash receptacle]

What this con could use is some severe quality control...

[The ones he focused on removing, did tend to list him specifically in the description.

Just a few examples:

Title: Obliteration of Weakness
Characters featured: Many of the thieves that are no longer here, Ann Takamaki, and Seto Kaiba.
Synopsis: The Phantom thieves are up against what poses to be their greatest challenge yet! The calculating, coldhearted ceo of Kaiba Corporation aims to crush anyone who is in a position to collapse his empire built on forwarding gaming technology at all costs with a level of callousness yet unparalleled. Once the palace is located, and the calling card is sent all that's left is to storm into the elaborate complex and steal his most prized possession. There's just one little problem, could one of the thieves be having second thoughts? Find out!

[Should someone read this they will find that Kaiba's palace is apparently a massive office building to match his ego. The building is primarily in a pristine white color that would be impossible to maintain in reality, internally there are moving sidewalks, a high level of security and plenty of obstacles between the thieves and the treasure. The final battle takes place in a dueling arena and the treasure is a Blue-Eyes White Dragon card that's been torn in half. It's the 4th one ever created and by being in possession of it, Kaiba had cemented the fact that it could never be used against him. It turns out the story overall was meant as a love story, as Panther had softened on their target over time- but thanks to Kaiba not being content to lose it ends tragically, more specifically Kaiba's shadow can see the writing on the wall and destroys himself just when it looked like the pair might live happily ever after. There is much lamentation and sorrow because the author apparently thought this was edgy.]

Title: The Forgotten Fleet
Characters featured: Legion, Bowser, Turing, Kaiba, Lysandra
Synopsis: It's a space opera. A literal space opera, with interstellar conflict, in space firefights, adventure and all of the major dialogue told through rhyming verse! What more could you ask for

[The story gets a bit muddled, but the listed characters are all serving on the same ship. Yup. One ship. Not a fleet- but at least it is lost in space? Kaiba is the engineer, Lysandra is the navigator, Bowser is security, Legion is the horticulturalist, and Turing is the captain.

A cacophonous blast to the starboard thruster,
knocked out all the power this ship could muster.
Stuck adrift in the expanse of space,
this is nothing short of a regimental disgrace.

Was just a small sample of the terrible writing in included. Yes, it's that bad]

Title: Bachelor/ette Party
Characters featured: Basically anyone who was ever in the void male or female.
Synopsis: It's been almost a year and it's finally time for the happy couple to tie the knot but not without first having that last night of freedom. Renting out a casino the participants are in for a wild evening of drunken fervor, playing games and revealing secrets about one another. Who knows, by the end of it the bride and groom to be might realize they're promised to the wrong person entirely!

This one is left more open ended, and you can literally throw anyone into any role. There just had to be one of these in the mix since it is a popular theme in fanfics, plus there's a lot of random you could play with here. You want someone to jump out of a cake, lose a hand of strip poker, wake up dazed and hanging from a chandelier, what have you.]

i'm not sorry about this in the slightest

[menaretrash]

[ There's more to do here than she'd thought; while she'd originally been pretty glued to Seto's side, at some point she'd strayed off mumbling something about barbecue and crepes. It's been a hot minute since then, though, so when she finally finds her way back to her dearly beloved, she's looking a lot different than when she'd walked off. She's absolutely decked out in that stupid Kaiba Corp hoodie still that's far too large even if the size claims it's a small, and now she's managed to obtain not one, but two of those adorable little Maintenance Dragon plushies, and there may or may not be several Take Your Heart logo stickers stuck onto her back and arms. One of those dragons is certainly sporting one on his little hard hat.

She's hardly paying attention to how ridiculous she looks with a plushie under one arm, one tucked safely within the confines of delightful hoodie's pocket, looking almost alive as it peeks out from the shadows. Instead, she's peeking over Seto's shoulder before she circles around to his left, head tipping slightly. ]

What's that?

[ Unfortunately, she's plucking one out of his hands, Obliteration of Weakness, and flipping through the pages. She catches Phantom Thieves and that catches her attention, and she takes to actually.... reading this. Sorta. Her cheeks turn a bright pink after a few moments, and she flips to the end... ah, tragedy strikes. She lets out a dramatic gasp, and then snaps the work closed, quickly giving it back to him. ]

I don't like the way that one ends, we have to rewrite it!

[ ...What. ]

SHAME SHAME KNOWS YOUR NAME

[blue_eyed_obsession]

[Kaiba wasn't sure where Ann had wandered off to but he was almost grateful for her absence, since it would allot him time to dispose of this rubbish before she could see it. Or so he thought. As he toted around these works of fiction that had presumably been lovingly crafted by their authors he showed them zero respect, many of the pages were getting crumpled and creased in the process. As a reflex, he narrowed his eyes when he felt someone enter his personal bubble, but when the person spoke he resumed his usual expression.

Drawing up to a stop so he could look to her, he opened his mouth to speak but ended up saying something entirely different than what he had intended, his gaze sweeping over her]

Did one of the booths explode on you?

[Wondering briefly how she had managed to get ahold of quite so much merchandise in such a limited duration of time since he'd last seen her]

Oh these are- you don't want to read that! [Reaching out to try and snatch it back, he had to abandon the initial effort in order to stabilize the remaining fics he was trying to balance.]

Ann really.. just put it where it belongs. [Not needing to have read it to know it's terrible. This fic was actually one of the better written ones but that really wouldn't have mattered to him. Nothing he says prevents her from reading it over enough to get the jist, and her emphatic reaction has him curious.]

You're assuming an awful lot, if you think I have any idea what you're talking about. [Knowing he was going to regret this.. he looked to the title page then back to her] What was the plot?

NO REGERTS

[menaretrash]

[ Poor Kaiba, he has a lot more work to do if he thinks she hasn't seen damn near half of that fan art of his... fanfics cannot be any more damaging at this point, okay. Either way, she smiles up at him when he recognizes her, looking quite pleased with herself even as he calls her out for all of the merch she's managed to get her sticky little fingers on in such a short amount of time. ]

Nope! I just put my shopping skills to good use! Except this is better, 'cause it's all free and my credit card hasn't been entirely maxed out for the eighth or nineth time!

[ Does she pump her free hand into the air with absolute excitement over that fact? She absolutely does~! ]

Ah-ah, pretty sure I need some good reading material~ [ Too late, she's already read it, and she's horrified. She blinks back up at him, wide eyed, and she quickly shakes her head. ]

I mean, yeah, it does belong in the trash, but this one had a really crappy ending! I think, I sorta skipped to the end but it was really bad! Therefore, before we burn it, it has to be fixed.

[ Of course he hadn't bothered to read it-- ] It had to do with the Phantom Thieves infiltrating a palace, specifically yours, and I'm pretty sure I fell for you or something, and then we were going to finally defeat your shadow self and you were like 'NO!!' and you killed yourself. Somehow. I've never seen a shadow actually do that... well. Shido. But he doesn't count.

The Forgotten Fleet

[fluffyharpy]

[Lysandra had at first been a little excited to see herself in fiction. It made her feel like a celebrity. But then she actually read the space opera she had been written into. It wasn't offensive, but rather it simply read like the fanfiction equivalent of Vogan poetry.

At first, she snickered at it, then as she read more her face turned to one of sheer wonder. Mostly thinking how could someone ever put this to paper and think it was ok? She then had to ask anyone...]

Have you read this trash?

[blue_eyed_obsession]

[Conversely, Kaiba had been apprehensive from the start. This wasn't the first time he'd encountered fanfiction, and he knew how certain subjects seemed to crop up in the genre more than others. That's why he hadn't bothered to read it, and just assumed it was offensive as a default.

As he started to lower the copies he was holding into the trash, he made a horrible realization when she got his attention. Spotting the title on the one she was holding he knew he had the very same one in this stack. There are extras]

I didn't want to risk lowering my iq. [In other words, no]