007 - Welcome to VoidCon!

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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.

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Comments

II. How to Waste a Million Hours of Your Life - The Holo-Arcade

[blue_eyed_obsession]

A.

[Look- when Seto Kaiba first saw the joke-of-a-mascot on the signs with those butchered phrases, he wasn't impressed. Still, he aimed in that direction since it was a requirement for one of the stamps. When he first caught a glance of the holographic displays he stopped dead in his tracks looking up in wide-eyed astonishment. Now- this... this was something he could get into. He mildly questioned whether the void had borrowed this sort of tech from him, but decided not to quibble over it. If these were holograms, then what was to prevent his own devices from functioning?

It was a good thing he rarely left his duel disk at 'home' since he didn't exactly trust the security... anywhere, so he had it with him to test. Temporarily stepping away from the gaming setup, he reached out to turn his gadget on.]

All right- you've been idle for too long. [Dubious that this would work but not showing it in his grandiose phrasing and gestures. Swiping a card from his deck in one fluid motion he declared the following with such gusto that .. this just had work]

Hear my call, Emerge! Blue-Eyes White Dragon!

[Slotting the card onto the field he heard something he hadn't in forever. The pleasant sound of the duel disk registering the card and interpreting the data. Then without further ado in a display of blinding light, a massive dragon came roaring into view, flexing it's mighty wings. A peel of laughter fell from Kaiba's lips that only grew in volume until he got it out of his system, his eyes wild with this discovery]

AT LAST!

B.

[Several minutes later... Kaiba has called back his great beast and is engaged in the video game, he'd always preferred something more immersive. The way that the genres kept altering was a bit of a learning curve that was frustrating at first but he soon realized that it just added to the challenge. He'll show this system that he can adapt readily to it, and he's not above trying out various skill sets to get there.. in fact, that seems to be all apart of the game.

There's a strategy to it, which he appreciates. When the terrain shifts to after the previous level, he hits the randomizer to see what abilities he'll get use of next]

B

[forwearemany]

(This random exchange might be ... more than a little disorienting.

Consider: The speed and precision of a computer in comparison to a human brain. The errorless perfection in its calculations, its memories. A mind that lives in the fractions between fractions of seconds, where everything is known and quantified down to the hundreth decimal.

The ... world ... s l o w s.

You can see the way a water droplet bounces back up briefly when it hits a surface, the way flesh ripples with abrupt contact. Like a slow motion camera, all the little blink of an eye movements that fill the world are now visible. Mind and body are strangely disconnected: as part of the physical world movement and response times remain slow, it is only the mind that experiences this acceleration.

But that is not the only change. Pain, tiredness, hunger, and all the little sensations associated with them vanish abruptly. Strength increases, as does durability, to the extent that falling hundreds of feet would do little damage.

There is, however, a drawback: Geth thrive on companionship, on connection. The absence of it feels like the absence of oxygen, like the dread silence of a forest stalked by a deadly predator. Geth need other geth, but there are no other Geth. Hope you were feeling like hanging out and making some friends Kaiba, because it's gonna be unpleasant to be alone.)

(Meanwhile, Legion is now suffering from extreme lag.)

B...ullet Hell

[bridge_princess]

[When he hit that randomizer, the powers cycled and cycled until they came to rest on something called Danmaku. Congratulations, Kaiba. Welcome to bullet hell. And there, across a wide, ornate bridge hovering over dakness as far as the eye could see was his boss.

Parsee.

She didn't look like she was especially happy right now. She was seething with various green energies, flowing outwards in little fluttering lights. Unlike he current powers, in the game she looked very much like her normal self. She grunted and looked over at him.]

You'll forgive me if I don't feel like going easy on you. Dodge the bullets, shoot me with your spell cards, use the bombs sparingly if it gets too tight. I need to get it out of my system.