Con Stupidity

My group and I went to Colossalcon last month and we pretty much planned to cosplay from Voltron: Legendary Defender all weekend plus some back up costumes. My group consisted of My hubby as Shiro, BIL was Keith, My BFF was Lotor, and I was a fem Lance. If I had a quarter for every time we were bothered by Klance shippers, we would be going to this con free of our own money.

Some of them just made dumb eye rolling worthy comments while one group really PISSED. US. OFF.

We were told to die, that we’re pedophiles, that Klance is Canon therefore we are invalid, the Keith cosplayer slap my butt when we were at the water park because it was funny and canon (which it isn’t). My poor husband and brother-in-law were harassed because Sheith is “incestuous” and Klance is Canon King and their Lance cosplayers went and kissed my brother-in-law without his consent. My BFF was being harassed because Lotor preys on Lance in the fandom and because he’s cosplaying as a master manipulator therefore my bff was a master manipulator. All three of them were told to stay away from me because lol Klance is Canon. At one point that same Keith cosplayer came up to me and pointed their fake knife at me. We were all peeved. The Lance who kissed my brother-in-law had the nerve to be offended when he was angry and told the cosplayer off. That Lance cosplayer even went below the belt to say my brother-in-law was homophobic and transphobic. Fun Fact: My brother-in-law is a Post Op transgender man who is engaged to another man!

As we were headed to our room to go change out of our swimsuits and into our BNHA costumes, a couple people stopped us for photos. Not a minute went by and we got photobombed by that same Voltron group who bothered us at the water park. Two groped my breasts, one groped my husband’s crotch, another LICKED my bff’s face, and (surprise, surprise!) that Lance cosplayer kissed my brother-in-law on the mouth. All the while a the Pidge in their group laughed and egged them on. The people who asked for the photo were disgusted, WE were disgusted, and by standers not involved were disgusted. One thing led to another and the photogs and the Voltron group were fighting over which ship is better: Sheith or Klance. My group took that opportunity to cheese it! Like Fuck this shit I’m out! We ran away from them faster than Usain Bolt on Cocaine. After we got changed we told staff that we were being harassed by a voltron group. Turns out we weren’t the only Voltron group who were harassed by them!

These people who run this shit show just keep getting worse every year. I asked a question--could my partner come in and help me set up and then leave. I have a disability and carrying things on my own is a problem. I bought her a con badge, but since it was a “second artist” I did not have a “helper.” I was told no, the “main artist” of the table would have to help me set up. I didn’t know this person. I just paid the full cost of the table so s/he would share with me. Because CM is so stupid, people get the tables and then essentially “resell” them by getting “second artists” to pay the entire table and even some of their travel expenses.

Anyway, I showed up with my partner to set up and the staff were really rude and unhelpful. They refused to let my partner come in, set up, and leave. They wouldn’t help either. They were rude and told me if I “didn’t like the rules, I would lose my badge.”

One: Just a warning, while there isn’t anything too bad in here (nothing like rape, or inappropriate touching.) I want it to be clear that there are some touchy subjects.

Two: Not every adult at a Con is a predator I’ve met some wonderful adults at cons, and disgusting monsters should not take away their credibility.

Okay so, I went to a small local con in my state. My state is Alaska (aka: very rural) so naturally we don’t have a lot of conventions. And every year among the 2-3 conventions I am able to attend here, there is Senshicon. I was 14 when this happened. To set up the stage, my friend (let’s call her Darla because I don’t want to give out real names), and I were a part of this conventions cosplay chess, and with one of Darlas friends went to pick up our badges a day early after the final cosplay chess practice. There we met (I am not using a fake name because people deserve to know at the least his first name) Dakota. Now Dakota was one of the guys we had in Cosplay chess, he was 21-23 I believe, and was a homestuck cosplayer. While in line we talked a bit, and I agreed to fill in the role of Kankri, as their original one had dropped out. (Also sorry for the footnotes but this is not an attack on the homestuck community or the comic, please separate them from this monster.) And after I agree my friend Darla is glaring at me, and whispers to me, “you know he got banned from Yuki-fest right?” Now mind you I hadn’t gone to this years Yuki-fest, and had no idea who this man was, or what Darla was talking about. But low and behold, the man was banned for inappropriate conduct with minors. This included kissing a 13 year old, and while waiting in line Darla noticed he’d been checking out our 12 year old companion (both of these people one of Darlas friends) on the lips. He was a legal adult at this time. Now I assure my friend that it’s fine, as there was to be other people on the panel I doubted anything would happen, but my naivety got the best of me in this situation.

Now I was generally a pretty safe person, I wouldn’t have just willingly been left alone in a room with him, and suspected nothing would happen, which thankfully was right. (bless the lord for cellphones) walk home to our hotels, get stuff ready, fall asleep, and we head to the con. Fast forward a few hours of walking, and purchasing things from vendors, and it’s almost time for the panel. I go up to the group (who has my costume because I didn’t come prepared with one and only had black dress pants) and ask about the sweater, and horns. They say it’s at the hotel, and then Dakota begins to set out, expecting me to follow. Originally I thought Sarah (someone I also knew from cosplay chess who was a doll and bought me over watch prints) was coming with, but by the time I realized she was not coming, my little brain decided it was too late to back out, and began to panic. Bad move, I know. Immediately I’m texting Darla who is waiting for the arrival of her friend, and I am panicking, and Darla is back, I get on the phone with her as i stall. (Mind you me and Charles were doing some sort of square dance routine where I’d move away, and he’d move closer. While I know isn’t confirmation of malicious intent, my panicking mind did interpret it that way.) So I keep Darla updated, we go into the hotel room, and I immediately lock myself in the bathroom. Only opening the door to get the sweater, before closing and locking it as fast as possible again. And out of now where Darla brings this fucking party of people, one of them had a baby with them. It was the ultimate relief. On the way back Darla walked with me, where he continued to add a cherry on top of the pie and insult a close cosplay friend of ours.

Thanks we missed you too!

Hello, first time submitter here! This story is way back when Super Danganronpa 2 was still huge, I think around 2014?

My friends and I were all super into this game from the translations online, and decided to join this big group of cosplayers for a photoshoot. I was dressed as the bunny teacher Monomi for reference. When we got to the shoot, most of everyone was already there. We decided to do a small shoot of just the SDR2 characters together since they were already all there.

A few people came up to take pictures besides our official cameraman. One of those guys instantly starts focusing on the Hiyoko of our group, not getting pics of anyone else there. For context, this character looks like a younger kid while still being in high school. The character is also supposed to be really mean and sadistic, but the cosplayer herself was a little shy.

The guy taking her picture starts asking if this character is really shy and cutesy, and we all laugh and say, “Oh no, she actually really mean!” After that he walked away, no other pictures or sticking around for the actual photoshoot.

Be forwarned, this tale is a long one. Sorry if this story is all over the place. If any readers recognize these people, do not go after them. Real names will not be used in this story, so we’ll call these “Hetalians” in question:

*”Ludwig”, a young woman who Oliver had/has feelings for.

*”Oliver”, the star of this tale, and the ringleader of a cosplay group.

*”Matthew”, the oldest member of the cosplay group, and the only other male besides me. We were very briefly a thing.

*”Feli”, me, the one who had to put up with all this. I’m autistic, and have some sensory issues; I also don’t usually catch typical “cues” right away.

*”Francis”, and “Kiku”, two of Oliver’s sympathizers, friends, and members of her group.

*”Tino”, a Finland cosplayer who honestly was kind of bossy.

I first met these Hetalians when I first started out cosplaying. It was the Saturday of a certain con that I met Ludwig, who, while an attractive woman, I only saw as a friend (remember this as we go on).

We chatted on Tumblr for awhile, and one day she asked if I was going to the Hetalia Day meetup that year. Not knowing about it until then, I said yes! Because of course I wanted to expand my circle of friends, and if these would-be friends have the same interests as me, then that makes it a hundred times easier.

So the day of the meetup came, and so far, everything was fine. Ludwig came about an hour after I did, and unbeknownst to me, and brought a friend of hers along. This is how I met Oliver.

(Quick side note before we continue: I’m the type of person, who even non-romantically, if I’m comfortable enough with a person, I hug, hold hands, etc. willingly, as I otherwise don’t particularly care to touch other people.)

So Ludwig and I head from one pavilion to the other (the meetup was at a rather large park), and as we’re walking, holding hands as we do, we suddenly hear this girl yell at us, and despite being nearly a foot shorter than me (I’m 5’7”, she was like 4’8”, I think?) nearly pulled me to the ground, with such force that I nearly did lose my balance! Now I’m not the assertive type at all, nor did I really understand at the time why Oliver did that to begin with, so I back off a little for the time being.

In fact, I nearly forget about the incident until almost a year later, when Oliver volunteered to pick me up to take me to A-Fest, since I couldn’t (and still can’t OTL) drive, and get me to my hotel. We have somewhat of a decent conversation on the way there. Mostly about other cons we’ve been to previously. Oliver also brought up about Ludwig and how “she was the best thing to ever happen to [her]”. And suddenly her behavior at the meetup made sense to me. Or, it sort of did, I would end up needing a few more hints that came when we picked up Ludwig so we could all go get our badges together, and so I could get checked into the hotel I was staying at.

So among all other things I had with me, a video camera was one of them, because I wanted to (and would still like to) try out the whole “vloging” thing. As soon as Ludwig is in the shot, however, Oliver snaps at me saying “Don’t film my woman!”

I was taken aback, because since when was she your woman? It was established prior to picking her up that Ludwig is only interested in men (cis men, specifically), and that she already had a boyfriend. And there was certainly no polygamy involved. Yet, this whole thing was still going over my head.

Anyway, I get checked in, and even though I booked the hotel room, Tino, who I was unfortunately rooming with, starts acting like she’s the boss. She snapped at me when I didn’t look her in the eyes, even though that’s something I’m not comfortable with (eye contact is very distracting to me), she wouldn’t let me go to sleep until four in the morning, and that was only because I had started shaking and crying from behind so sleep deprived. And because she prioritized con so much, she barely let me eat, or bathe, or brush my teeth. Except maybe one time each, each day? If even that? And despite bringing four characters to cosplay, she only allowed me to wear one! One character, two outfits, the whole con! And she forced me to go to the rave with her; I don’t go to raves, or as I like to call them “sensory overload imminent”, so just imagine how well that went…

There was an incident where I had accidentally left my video camera and my mom’s camera that I was borrowing at the Hetalia photo shoot location; I did get them back a day later (thank you whoever dropped them off at lost and found!), but at the time, I was really upset about it, and Tino wouldn’t let me go look for them, and I ended up having a meltdown because of that, and from being bossed around, and from being so sleep deprived. Did she care? Only because she wanted to get back to con going! Hell, a random passerby was more concerned than she was!

Neglecting her health bit her in the ass on the last day of con, however, as she caught con plague. I don’t wanna say that she had it coming, but she did. And when my shenanigans with her ended, in came Matthew.

Now, at this point, I barely knew him from online, along with past cons and meet ups, but I soon found myself spending Saturdays with him. From there, we became fast friends over the course of a year. He got me into a few other anime titles as well, yet when I tried to get him into my favorite games (since I do mostly prefer video games over anime), he wouldn’t have any of it. He even called Kirby “a video game for babies” once when I wore my Kirby t-shirt!

(Also, funny thing: even though he’s older than me, and owns every Nintendo console, he can’t get the Koopalings’ namesakes correct! That’s like, Nintendo 101 stuff, too!)

Despite this, I somehow managed to develop feelings for him (and I still don’t know why). We went on, maybe three dates at most, before calling it quits.

And Matthew, if you are reading this: Yes, I will admit I was very immature then. I will also admit that arousal is an emotion that I am not 100% familiar with. It was a very confusing mess I should have left you out of. In those regards, I apologize for giving you any unnecessary stress. That is all I will apologize for.

While that whole tangent with Matthew was going on, Oliver decided to start an Another Color Hetalia (better known as 2P) cosplay group, and roped as many of us in as possible. Even though I was assigned a character, I never even got around to starting on the costume, which was for the better really.

It was during this, I learned once and for all that Oliver thought I was trying to steal Ludwig. At Hetalia Day 2014, we were all there, but when I went up to Ludwig to try and say hello to her, some other Hetalians, who I presume were some of Oliver’s cronies, stopped me from going up to her.

“I just want to say ‘hi’!” I said.

“Are you sure about that, Feli?” one of them asked. I just walked away totally confused, wondering what I said or did. I reached two conclusions after the meetup:

1. Oliver must not really like me that much. 2. She thinks I’m trying to steal away Ludwig, even though I have no reason to.

I unfriend her online not long after, but I was still a part of the cosplay group. For some reason.

Anyway, in November that year, there was yet another cosplay meet up I wanted to go to. However, there was no way I could get there myself, as my mom, who would normally take me to these things, would be working on that day. So I ask Francis if she, or anyone else going, could come and get me that day. I ask her at least twice, and she completely ignored me. The day of the meetup comes and goes, and I end up missing it. I told Francis it was mean of her to ignore me, and some friend she was to just forget about one of her friends (in summary; I forget the exact words I used), and unfriended her.

The next day, Oliver messaged me, telling to “say [I’m] sorry to Francis.”…Except Francis was the one at fault, not me?? I never apologize, since she deserved what I said.

One day on Facebook, our cosplay group (yes, I was still somehow a member!) was debating on having an Ask-a-2P Panel, and which con to have it at (since each of our 2015 con schedules were different all around). The main concern was having everyone at the same place at the same time. I took this problem seriously, and decided to make a suggestion.

Now, you know how in theater, every actor has an understudy (aka, a ‘back-up’ actor of sorts to practice alongside the main actor, in the case they need to fill in)? I thought, since Hetalia is a popular cosplay, especially this AU in particular, finding understudies wouldn’t be a problem at all. Plus, it would guarantee we would always have a complete set! That’s how I made sense of it.

Now, I didn’t expect everyone to agree, but it was still an idea worth keeping in mind, at least. Evidently, Oliver didn’t think so. She snapped at me for even thinking of such an idea and was all “don’t ever say again!” and I’m like Bitch, chill out. It was just a suggestion!

I forget about the incident for awhile until 2015, and Ikkicon both come along. I’m waiting in line with Matthew for our badges, when he says it.

“Feli, apologize to Oliver when you see her. ‘Cause that wasn’t cool. This panel/group is like her baby!”

Oh my lord. It was just a freaking suggestion. It didn’t help I was already irritable with other things going on during that time. Now they are going to dump this on me, too? It took all my self control not to snap!

And after that con, I finally ended up leaving the cosplay group. Not because I hadn’t started on my costume, or because of my con schedule, but because I disagreed with Kiku on a headcanon.

Yeah.

Because I didn’t agree with everyone else on some stupid headcanon, nearly everyone in the chat (sans anyone who was offline at the time) gained up on me until I finally snapped at them, told them off, and left. I got one last message from Oliver, but didn’t bother reading it. I blocked her, Francis, Kiku, and Ludwig on Facebook.

Think that’s the last of it? Think again!

Fast forward to A-Fest 2015. I’m having second thoughts about going because of last time. Matthew insisted I come anyway (mostly since I was rooming with him, and owed my share). Now prior to this, I was 90% sure he said he was going to come get me on his way to con. So imagine my shock when he says he will not be picking me up, but is picking up Oliver. I tell him off, decide I’m not going to con. But a mutual friend says they can come get me. I reluctantly, and regretfully, agree.

I end up spending little to no time at the con itself. Matthew got con plague on the first day (haha!). Half the time, I debated whether or not to call my mom to come get me and take me home!

After that con, I find out from Matthew that Oliver “has nothing against me” (as if!) and “wanted to talk to me during A-Fest” (yeah, right!). Unfortunately for her, I want nothing to do with her, or the fandom for that matter, anymore.

just in time for con season. have some stuff that’s been submitted since we went dark.

Conventions are not babysitters for your children. No, random congoers do not want to babysit your child for an undetermined amount of time while you go off and do something else. No, con staff (who are not part of the daycare management or any other child care services) do not want to watch your child nor are they able to. A convention is not a place for your child to just roam around willy-nilly.

Your child could get hurt by either another child who was let loose by their parents, by an adult, or in general any accident that happened. Yes, this includes at conventions such as Babscon, Bronycon, etc. Any convention is not automatically safe for children. Even at conventions revolving around things such as MLP are not giant daycares for your kids.

It is also illegal to randomly leave your child somewhere. It is called child endangerment for anyone who doesn’t know. Most, if not all conventions have rules regarding minors and many state that any minor under the age of 13 - 16 cannot walk around without a parent / guardian. Even though they may not get into any trouble, whether it be being “caught” by con-patrol without their parents or otherwise, it is still a rule and it is there for a good reason.

Yes, even though this is a “family friendly” convention and has programming + things to do for kids, there are still mostly adults here. Yes, your kid may see a skimpy outfit, or hear some swearing, or in general hear or see things that aren’t entirely kid friendly. No, the people are not breaking the rules or intentionally trying to corrupt your kid, they’re just trying to have a good time. Unless they’re actually breaking convention, federal, state, or local rules, no they are not doing anything wrong. If your child is absolutely too young to hear / see this, maybe it’s better to not bring them to the convention or go to a convention that has stricter rules on what is or isn’t allowed. This isn’t hate towards you or your kid but just the truth.

Also, if a child comes to you and says that someone has been following them, trying to grab them, feeling unsafe, etc. it is against federal law and against many state laws to not call the police or get authorities involved. No, it doesn’t matter if you want to “protect their privacy”. No, it doesn’t matter if you “are afraid of the police”. No, it doesn’t matter if you “want them to make a decision for themselves and respect that”. Whatever you reason for not getting the police / authorities involved, it is illegal. It is illegal for the same reason that it is illegal for teachers to not report signs of abuse, even if the kid asks them not to. Even though you are not a teacher or an official mandated reporter, it’s still illegal. If you don’t want to be directly involved, at least take the kids to con patrol or the hotel staff and inform them what is happening.