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

Indigo, Open

[indigloaming]

1. Stamps

Well, this is... something. Even with her strong spirit of exploration, the native painters pressing papers into her hands, begging for autographs, is a little much. Still, she doesn't have the heart to just refuse the cute little things, and it eventually gets her a stamp, anyway. She looks down at the card warily, not sure if this 'prize' is necessarily a good thing, but again, the spirit of exploration calls to her.

Surveying the rest of the goals, 'Eat the BBQ' is simple enough; as a Novakid, BBQ is in her blood plasma, and she thinks she remembers where the food stalls in this place are. After getting some for herself (and watching a Novakid eat can be a strange, even disturbing, experience if you've never seen it before; she clearly doesn't have a mouth, but bite-sized pieces of meat disappear when she raises it to the lower half of her face anyway) she wraps up a few more pieces in foil to keep them warm and goes to explore the convention some more. If she meets anyone who needs the BBQ stamp, she can share her leftovers, and maybe arrange something for this 'wear someone else's clothes' goal....

2. Games

Indigo doesn't think she has any abilities that could be considered 'powers', but to her delight, all of her tech works within the VR booth -- including her rifle. She's eager to use it, going after any combat games that allow the use of ranged weapons and setting impressive scores.

The game might have some other ideas, considering the abilities of her tech and her natural capabilities as a Novakid to be 'powers' for the sake of swapping. Would you like to use her spike sphere and double jump in a platforming game? What about her Novakid marksmanship in a shooting game? Let's hope you don't receive her glow in a horror game about hiding from monsters....

3. Fanart

Her good luck couldn't last forever, as Indigo comes upon a poster-sized artwork of herself, dressed in a somewhat skimpy 'cavewoman' outfit that is familiar to her if not anyone else in the Void, and arranged in a submissive, 'sexy' pose. She makes a terrified squeak as she stumbles backward from what she's seen, and the plasma of her face begins to glow even brighter in her version of a blush. Novakid are pretty hard to miss normally, but as bright as she's glowing in her embarrassment, it's like a beacon.

She backs onto a nearby bench, plopping down on it and trying to hide her face in her hands, softly moaning a meek 'Noooooo'. She hasn't even thought of the possibility of someone else seeing this poster, or Heaven forbid, even 'buying' it....