#at awesome con 2015

[cinnamonroll-anon]

Hello! Can you do a request, Platonic or Friendship of Transformers (Prime, RID 2015, Animated, and others) Autobot kids, of your choice, w/ Reader as a Bot (or Animatronic) who's based on Daycare attendant (Sun/Moon/Eclipse) from Fnaf?

(if its okay add a reactions of the Autobots on Platonic relationship or Friendship between Autobots' kids and Daycare attendant! Reader?)

(Thank you and Hope you doing well!)

A/n: I'm having a wonderful day anon and i hope you do as well! Decided to add everyone's reaction so it's a big post! (I literally love sun and moon, the silly jester's)

Warnings: Fluff, Platonic Care, Friendship/ Guardian Care, Angst

Tfp:

Jack

He was more amazed by your design, how gracefully you moved compared to the other bots

You often would invite him to join you into some activities but he'd brush it off saying that he was too old for that kinda stuff (but you did make it look fun)

Then there was your moon form, the switch from you bubbly and exciting personality to a more docile yet protective one was quite baffling to him (also talk about a makeover)

Poor him if you hear about a messed up sleep schedule from being a teenager. Even his mom hasn't been able to get him to bed (he was obviously grumpy about it, but deep down was moved by your care for him.)

When he meets eclipse when he's in danger he feels so shocked but safe. What happened to you?

Has seen and understood the protection protocols you have and just how much you care about their safety.

Miko

Definitely still rebellious. If you think she called people her parents as an insult you definitely fit the parental role in her life.

She was at first very outspoken about not wanting you watching over them. (Babysitting her)

And when she tried to show you heavy metal by playing it, you happily supported her by playing a tiny xylophone. (You were trying your best but being excessively loud wasn't your deal)

You'd try to give her the space she needed but you obviously cared about her.

She did think your moon form was awesome. (Especially when she heard about you protection protocols)

You were unsuccessful to get her to sleep at reasonable hours but she ended up growing fond of you. You actually cared and supported her while her parents wanted her to be perfect. And you liked her the way she was.

Would more often than not join the activities you had planned out for them, learning that you were actually loads of fun behind your safety protocols (and human care files)

When she meets eclipse she thinks you're so cool! Yeah kick the cons ass! Definitely tells you that you're like a weapon which makes you feel bad, you worked so hard making sure that would never happen again. She clarifies that she just thinks that you being able to fight makes you awesome in her eyes.

Raf

Beyond delighted to meet you! Most bots are busy and don't often have time to chat but you're more than happy to talk to your hearts content with him

He allows your personality to shine, letting you both make fun activities and just hanging out with you

Definitely sees you as a Guardian because his family often overlooks him/ pressures him. But you can give him your undivided attention and compassion. He is still a growing boy

Is practically beaming when he sees your Moon form! "How did you do that!?"

Sometimes he overworks himself on what he's doing and you can always persuade him to rest

You can tell him stories and even play from your built in music box. You definitely help him feel safe and rest easy.

Definitely shows you morning cartoons and you sit happily with him and watch him. He also teaches you about videogames.

When he meets eclipse he's honestly worried about you but also sees that you're not some defenseless bot and you're willing to risk spark and limb to keep them all safe

Optimus

He knew a bit about your past and he trusts you with the kids. He has no problem believing that you excel at entertaining and protecting them

He knows about your protective protocols and about eclipse and how that came to be

You were a caregiver on cybertron, watching over new bots and keeping them happy and healthy. You took absolute happiness in caring and playing with them, until the war. He knows how you tragically lost all of those under your care, seeing them all perish without being able to stop anything

He knows how that affected you eventually causing a split in your personality. Eclipse was more or less who you were, sun and moon were what you were left with after all the heartbreak.

He's seen how despite not wanting to be on the battlefield, you can definitely kick ass. Seeing you attack ferociously almost in a rampage when he first met you on cybertron

He treats you with much respect and feels easy around you. With how serious the war has been having you around is like a breath of fresh air

Ratchet

Man is a doctor, not a babysitter and he appreciates you

Hes always on edge and his patience is thin so he could never properly take care of the kids, even if he's grown on them (with some favoritism to raf)

At first he didn't really think you had it in you to be an Autobot or watching over the kids but you've shown him just how much you're capable of your work

You can work with the kids, having so much patience and just care for them. He realizes your strength and grows to truly appreciate the care you put into them

He definitely notices when you sometimes grow anxious around the kids but you prioritize them.

He doesn't know why until he asks optimus. His view on you definitely changes, he wonders if you see pieces of the young bots under your care in the kids

Arcee

Definitely didn't believe in your capabilities in fighting until there came a moment when the kids were in danger. You turned into eclipse, swiftly taking care of the problem before frantically checking over the kids

She was FLABBERGASTED. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN KICK ASS, YOU'RE A BABYSITTER??

She finds it funny when Jack comes and complains about your caring nature to her. She cares about him and also nags him, so she bonds with you over that care

Asks more about eclipse while all you can do is politely decline answering her questions. Its a sore spot for you and eclipse is strange to you

She also asks about your past and relates to you. She also had to deal with grief over the war, and she sympathizes with you. She stops pushing for answers and understands what you do and who you are better

Definitely happy to have you stay in base watching over the kids if an emergency happens. She trusts you and is grateful for you.

She finds your music box relaxing.

Bumblebee

He loves your personality, he's always happy to see you. But he's even happier to participate in your activities.

He also has fun watching over the kids but you do a stellar job!

He thinks it's cute how you take care of the kids, you just radiate lively energy

Then he sees your moon form and he's pleasantly surprised by the shift. Especially if the kids are staying over for the night. The way you carry yourself with serenity and care is so different but wonderful.

You often ask for them to keep quiet if the kids are sleeping.

He's heard about eclipse but hasn't met them yet.

Bulkhead

He's just happy that someone more careful with their feet are taking care of the kids

Hes a big guy with great strength. He tries to be gentle but he can fail, so having you watch over the kids is like taking a sigh if relief.

He may find your switching from sun to moon a bit uncanny but he just doesn't know how to interact with you. (He's nervous and doesn't truly understand how it works)

Sees you try to take care of miko and sometimes apologies for her, even when you told him that this reaction is natural in growing kids

He often overlooks your activities because he doesn't want to accidentally break anything you've set up.

Learns about your past and can't help but feel bad for you. The war has harmed alot of people but how could it rip such a vibrant bot like you.

Happy to have someone that knows what they're doing taking care of the kids.

Tfa:

Sari

She enjoys your company when she's more younger. She's always wanted to hangout with the bots more but sometimes she has to sit out certain missions. Luckily you're there to watch over her.

She definitely is happy that you actually know how to take care of humans and understand them. (You downloaded your information)

She was happy to count on you when her father was missing. You definitely made it easier for her and she appreciates you.

When she turns into a teenager that's where some changes happen. She thinks you might watch over her as babysitting and she can take care of herself!

She also puts a bit of a front with your moon form. She's not a little kid and she can stay up longer. (In her opinion, she tends to knockout early thanks to you)

She adores how your personality changes like the sun and the moon.

They day she saw you turn into eclipse she was shocked. "YOU KEPT A SECRET THIS BIG FROM ME???"

She'd love to see eclipse more often but usually gets told to not push it.

Optimus

Doesn't fully understand humans or taking care of younger ones. He does end up learning by asking Sari and you. He picks up some stuff pretty quickly

He doesn't understand why you were added onto their team from the beginning. They were maintenance bots and you were??? Well, not that.

Your long limbs did prove to be helpful on more than one occasion and you were quite flexible.

He met eclipse when you had saved Sari from getting taken by the Cons. You singlehandedly scared them off and he was frozen in place. You were so quick and fierce getting her back and away from them, yet so gentle at handling her and looking her over for any injuries. He couldn't quite process it for a minute.

He asked you about eclipse and you nervously told him that it was something of mindset that combined both your personalities and it only ever appeared on cybertron. He respected your boundaries and made sure to remember them.

He feels relaxed around your moon form, but your footsteps are so light he forgets that you can still be walking around. (Has to listen closely to pick up on your bells)

Ratchet

At first he was deeply annoyed by you. Especially when you were Sun. He thought he had gotten another energetic and unruly young bot that he'd have to watch over like bumblebee.

Then when you all arrived on earth he saw just how patient you are. You would answer Saris questions, keep her entertained and safe.

He was also caught off guard by your moon form. He's grown more used to your Sun form and gets a bit spooked out at first. He ends up liking how you remind them to rest and just how calm you are. What freaks him out more is when you play your music box.

When he saw eclipse he was more cautious and even a bit frightened at what had just happened. He knew that your personalities weren't a common occurrence, not even on Cybertron, especially when it appeared in a time of high stress.

He became more fascinated in wether eclipse was some way you coped with emergencies or as a fight or flight response. He definitely thought it was a fight response on how you maneuvered yourself against the cons to get Sari back.

He was worried about leaving Sari in your care after that, scared that you could potentially hurt her.

He did some digging through the ship and learned about your past. You were tasked to look after young bots, not necessarily a teacher. He learned that you've been around from before the war and how you were sent to evacuate the young ones to an area away from the fighting only for the Cons to lay siege on the area, thinking it was an Autobot hideout.

He saw that you were basically rehabilitated after being eclipse for so long, but you couldn't go back to your original job because of it.

He saw that you truly cared about Sari and you would protect her and he trusted you again. He just hoped that reverting to eclipse didn't cause any psychological episodes on you. It's hard to read you when you always act like everything is okay.

Prowl

He didn't think much of you like Ratchet. Already having a taste of another energetic personality (bumblebee) he wasn't exactly excited to work with you.

When you had arrived on earth, much like him, you were curious and open about this planet to the point of downloading just about any information you could find.

Then he saw you watching over Sari and learned that you were also observant and clever. You were sometimes able to get Sari to do things that she would refuse to do (like sleeping early)

He sometimes talks to you about his observations, seeing how you light up and are interested in mundane things like nature with him.

Then he sees your moon from and he greatly enjoys your company. You're much more relaxed and quiet, you seem more docile. Some night he enjoys quietly talking to you.

And then theres eclipse. He didn't even know you could fight. Despite his initial shock his gut feeling tells him to trust you. Especially when you held Sari and were practically all over her asking if she was scared and if she was hurt.

He did want to talk more about eclipse, he knew you would get a bit uncomfortable, but he reasoned that getting better control of eclipse could prove more helpful for you. Eventually he'd get eclipse to come out again, making sure to help you grow accustomed to them.

He learned that Eclipse was more silent and more alert, almost on guard. He'd end up talking to you getting told small bits of your past but he was okay with it. He's more happy that you don't pose a threat to yourself and others

Bumblebee

He got along with you! You were so much fun and so active! You weren't reckless like he was but he still enjoyed time with you.

And going to earth didn't change much, except he thinks you became a bit of a buzz kill. It was mostly because he always let Sari tag along and you didn't want her to get hurt.

He knows it comes from a good place at heart but he feels like you nag him a bit.

He wasn't too fond of your moon form. You were quite and usually wanted to talk in a hushed tone (because you had already put Sari to sleep)

He gets to learn more about humans when you and Sari are talking or making a fun activity together. He often joins in on the fun (usually to escape s boring task)

When he met your eclipse form he was bewildered and awkward honestly. "So we're not going to talk about your crazy orange side?"

More blunt about the subject, he wanted answers! But luckily ratchet just told him that when you were ready you'd explain it.

Bulkhead

He definitely gets along really well with you. You tend to keep things safe and fun, and he appreciates it

He has grown used to seeing you watch over Sari but he also gets his time to spend with her

You have both actually bonded over art! He makes paintings while you tend to draw adorable stick figures, that you sometimes deck out with glitter glue. Everytime you show him your work he's always positive about it.

As well as bumblebee he's liked you before landing on earth.

At first your moon form caught him off guard, especially when you'd walk around ay night, but he's used to it now.

When he saw Eclipse he was taken aback and frightened. It looked like you but it wasn't quite you. You were defensive and just worried about Sari.

He kept a close eye on the two of you for a while, trying to ease his own nerves.

He confronts you about it, bringing it up gently and you tell him that it's complicated but you didn't intend on scaring anyone. He doesn't judge you and is just happy to have you back.

RID 2015:

Russle

He was at first trying to be distant from you. To be fair he saw you like a babysitter and he was trying to act more mature.

He at first would be dismissive at first at your attempts to befriend him but he'd eventually give in with some pressure from his dad.

Eventually he'd find the activities you set up to be actually fun, heck, even his dad would take part in them with him and they'd have a great bonding experience

He'd find your sun colors to be bright but not too oversaturated. You reminded him of a carnival.

When he met your moon form one of the Decepticons managed to break free from his pod at night. Russell was taking a walk with his father and they were about to be trampled until you practically flung the Decepticon away.

And that's when he looked up and saw you. You were so different like this, you changed color and personality, at first he called out to you nervously not sure if you were alright. Luckily after dealing with the Decepticon you leaned down and comforted the two (his dad practically froze on instinct)

Then after getting used to your moon form, being more quiet and peaceful he met your eclipse from. This was probably his favorite form of yours because you were still fun but you were more relaxed

He enjoyed introducing you to new things on earth and answering your questions, you were just so wholesome and excited about it.

Overall he enjoys the time he spends with you, well except when they leave him out of missions and leave him in your care (he's just salty he doesn't get included)

Bumblebee

Was concerned when you had also traveled the space bridge with them. Him and strongarm were at least police, sideswipe got dragged along, but you weren't exactly what he'd call cut out for the job.

He struggled to understand where you fit in, sure you had juvenile tendencies but you weren't a handful to deal with like sideswipe. You also tended to follow along but not all to the book like strongarm. You were like your own middle space. When you first arrived on earth you were definitely spending more time looking around and learning about the planet.

He grew fond of your personality, you were optimistic and energetic, which is why it surprised him to see your moon form. Sure you saved Russell from getting stomped but you also took down a whole con. Alone.

He was curious about your moon form, noticing how quieter you were, especially your footsteps, it was harder to hear where you were if it weren't from the bells decorating you.

He overall tried talking to you about it, in which you assured him that this was just how you were, but you didn't think you'd change while on earth. Speaking of changes when you turned into eclipse he thought you broke or something.

It was a high stress situation and you weren't taking it too well but he was walking you through it (to the best of his ability) until he saw you change. In this form you were more grounded and put together and you ended up helping alot like this.

He enjoys watching you interact with Russel and the others, reminds him of when he didn't have the responsibility of a leader. That and too often humored him more than the others. He knows he doesn't have to worry too much about you (especially seeing how capable you were at handling yourself) but sometimes worries when you change between forms. He wonders if it's painful for you.

Strongarm

She was definitely more harsh on you when you first met. As far as she was concerned you were just a civilian that got dragged into this mess, but she didn't dislike you as much as she did with sideswipe.

She thought you were gullible and slowing them down until she realized how crafty you were. She often watched how you partook in "arts and crafts" while watching over Russel but didn't bother to think how clever you were (at least in the situations you were actually in)

She grew more fond of you, especially after you got lost in the forest trying to find her and sideswipe after they had another disagreement. After they both cooled down and returned to base they realized that you've still been gone and it was already nightfall.

Eventually she went out to look for you but was shocked when she found you. You looked different, she almost confused you for a con in the dark. She noticed the change in your body language and voice, you sounded more quiet. You told her to keep your little change a secret and she did.

She honestly prefers your sun to your moon form. You were always cheerful and lively that seeing you so docile and quiet made her nervous. That and when she saw the way you had practically flipped a con like it was nothing.

When she met your eclipse form she approached you with more curiosity, asking if you were feeling well. You explained that you were okay but your heightened stress would often have you revert back to this.

She's understanding of your personalities and has enjoyed having you as her friend, especially when you talk to her about something new from earth.

Sideswipe

Oh boy where to begin. He didn't mind your presence but didn't seem interested to get to know you. He was all about action but he knew you weren't a total buzzkill.

After a while you ended up becoming his voice of reason, like a friend that was watching out over him and Russel if they were getting into more dangerous activities.

He enjoyed hanging out with you a ton, finding himself participating in any activities you were doing with Russel and Denny. He warmed up to you easily with your enthusiasm yet caring personality.

His jaw practically hit the floor when he saw your moon from, the way you threw that Decepticon like they were nothing had him flabbergasted. "Since when can you do that!?"

He was freaked out at first but then was practically beaming at how awesome you were. He found your moon form more calming to be around especially at night. He was more than happy to give your form a chance but he also wanted you to take down more cons (he wanted to see you go berserk again)

Then he saw your eclipse form and he couldn't decide how he was feeling about you, on one hand, this was another one of your surprises but on the other you were more sure of yourself and also helping out more in this form.

He's happy to call you his friend, especially when he convinces you to do something reckless with him. bumblebee always scolds him for being a bad influence, but in his opinion a little fun never hurt anyone.

Grimlock

When he first saw you he thought you were funny looking, in a good way! He loved the way your personality reflected the way you looked. You were like a little sun!

He was definitely 100% on board with anything you wanted to do. You always made up new ways to have fun. He did feel bad about arts and crafts though, he wasn't too careful and he'd more often than that break his creation, but you always comforted him and encouraged him forward.

The night the con had escaped its pod he practically had a heart attack as he saw you charge at the con, before sighing in relief when you successfully knocked them out. He was cheering loudly for you as you were attacking the con, telling you to go all out.

Other than that he liked your moon form, not only were you great at fighting but you became more caring and calm. He was actually the one that discovered your music box and at night would often ask for you to play it. (It helps him relax a lot, especially because it's also with you)

This man was so shocked seeing your eclipse form. He would often joke around with you about how you kept it a secret. You were amazing in your eclipse form, you kept your knowledge and strength in fighting but you were also a great teammate, he'd love to go on missions more with you.

He's honestly a sweetheart with you and gets along well with any form you're in.

Fixit

He was more amazed at your appearance. He wasn't used to seeing many bots but you were so different and stylized.

You were more understanding with his glitching, more often than not laughing to yourself at his mix up. You also were happy to befriend him more than the others. He believed it was because you didn't have much experience seeing a minicon.

Then he saw your moon from and was practically gushing at you. He had never seen another bot do whatever you just did! The personality changes gave it away that you were different from any regular bot.

He ended up trying to do some research, it's not that you were a different bot entirely. His conclusions led him to believe that something in your past caused this spilt in your personality.

He felt more safe around you whenever you stayed behind to look after the base when bumblebee had left for a mission, trusting that your moon side could protect them.

When he saw eclipse he was practically speechless. It made him ask all sorts of questions on why you were like this. You ended up being a bit vulnerable and explaining that you weren't sure why you were made like this and that you were sorry if this all made him upset.

He reassured you that he didn't think any less of you because of it, he actually compared it to his glitching. It wasn't regular but it made you both unique.

He's very warm and friendly towards you, he likes having you around, especially when you include him in whatever you're working on. He always ends up having a blast and he feels lucky to have a friend like you!

back

[aston1sh1ng]

Ant-Man Security Solutions as a concept makes me immensely happy. Scott, reformed ex-con, recruiting a whole other string of ex-cons to stop current convicts, villains, common thieves and hackers from stealing your shit? Yeah, that's awesome. Best MCU company ever. Sorry Stark Industries, we may be financially decaying and might not have lasted beyond 2015 but we slay over here in our little van.

[signor-signor]

June 27, 2023 - 7 Years Later

And now a TED Talk-type presentation (a DET Discussion) by Lord Hater.

Attention, fans of Wander Over Yonder (and Lord Hater, #1 superstar), I'm reaching out to you today to give you the current status of our show and explain why you need to pull yourselves together and pull your own weight in acknowledging the show's need for one more season! For those who are completely clueless, Wander Over Yonder is a sci-fi comedy cartoon show created by veteran cartoonist Craig McCracken, and it debuted in 2013 on Disney Channel before being moved to Disney XD. It ran for two seasons, but one more season was planned and probably primed for production.

Seven years ago, the second season showcasing our lives came to an end, in which I single-handedly stopped Lord Dominator, who, by the way, nearly destroyed the entire galaxy and spurned my affections for her. HOWEVER, because of the uncalled-for cancellation that was decided by the "higher up bosses of bosses of bosses," the majority of the world keeps calling this event the... ssseries... finale... oh, it's painful to call it that... and frankly, I'm really, really sick of it. So let me tell you this...

Our show is NOT dead! It's just left in limbo! Two seasons were NOT enough! The End of the Galaxy is NOT the true series finale and I have the information to prove it!

As you can plainly see, the people who worked on our show NEVER planned on stopping after two seasons. The show itself even has some details pertaining to the plans for our third season, which was pitched back in early 2015.

For instance, in The Waste of Time, there were two images that briefly appeared during the final time travel sequence: one of an orbble-powered ship called the Star Nomad, where, according to Craig McCracken, I'd have to bunk with Wander (shudder), another is one of what fans are speculating to be me in a past life as a space ape. I can see the resemblance, but the facts remain to be known and proven true. Nevertheless, neither of them appeared anywhere else in the first season or the second.

Another telltale sign of our show's unfinished business is the absence of the other villains, including Emperor Awesome. Last time I saw them on the show, they were still on Suburbon V; oddly, they never reappeared when Dominator seemingly destroyed every planet except the one Wander and Sylvia found. As a result, after I defeated Dominator, I was unable to brag about it to the villains!

(EMPEROR AWESOME (off stage): Dude, just because I wasn't in that episode doesn't mean I don't know what happened!)

Anyway, another reason our show is not finished is this: In Craig's Tumblr post announcing that gropforsaken cancellation and concession, he told the readers, and I quote, "We had plans for new characters, the return of old characters, and even a bit of backstory!" Back in 2015 at Comic-Con, just a couple of weeks before our second season premiered, he confirmed he had an origin story planned out for me; the second season only revealed that Major Threat's evil deeds inspired me to take up villainy, but no origin story explaining how I, Lord Hater, came to be!

(MAJOR THREAT (off stage): I'd sure love to hear all about it, man, but for reasons beyond my understanding, we have to keep it in the vault until the big cheese himself gives Craig the okay.)

Yes, Jeff, I get it. Just so you know, you were planned to be a recurring character. Now, in the case of the new characters, I heard they would include a team of space cops called Star Forcement Forcen Force.

(COMMANDER PEEPERS (off stage): It's Star Force Enforcement Force, sir.)

Whatever. Apparently, these new characters were set to be introduced in the third season we were denied years ago, and because we don't have that third season, they have to hide themselves under question marked sheets and we're not able to say their names, like [NAME REDACTED], [NAME REDACTED], or [NAME REDACTED]. AAHH! It's so annoying!

And don't get me started on how Craig ended his post with some of the words from a song Wander sang to cheer me up, or rather, reignite my ire. Believe me when I say his post will ignite your ire when you read all the way to the end, unless, of course, you're a hardcore fan of some overrated show that gets so much attention. I'm talkin' to you, blue cat boy.

Moving right along, in the finale of one of Disney's underappreciated shows, Future-Worm, the titular invertibrate and his companion Danny warped to various universes, including the alternate version of the one in which our show takes place. And guess what they saw when they arrived in it... Wander and Sylvia aboard the Star Nomad! Remember when I said I'd have to share a room with Wander on the ship? This is the very ship, the same one you saw in The Waste of Time, and if there's something I know about it, it's that it started out as a regular airship seen in The Secret Planet, and Wander and Sylvia would use it as their new mode of transportation to bring any refugees remaining on the planet I saved back to their home planets. You know, the planets I wanted to conquer as soon as I saved the galaxy. The point is, this ship was planned to play a BIG role in Season 3, and while I'm thankful for not bunking with Wander at this time, I'm still determined to know more about it.

(WANDER (off stage): Hey, Hater, if you wanna know more about the Star Nomad, you can join me at Underappreciated Cartoons Anonymous and Fyootch and I will be more than happy to tell you all about it.)

No thank you, and I'm still not your buddy. Oh, that's another reason our show's not finished: Wander has not yet befriended me. Even if he did, I'd still keep my distance from him, but I digress.

Now, what else is there? Waste of Time images... absence of other villains... origin story... new characters... Future-Worm cameo... Oh yes.

Fans, I have saved the most obvious reason for the show's total lack of closure for last... A DOWNED SPACE CAPSULE WITH GREEN LIGHTNING AND MONKEY-LIKE SCREECHING FADING INTO MY EVIL LAUGHTER! Words alone cannot describe how serious this is for a show that got canceled prematurely. If you look up "cliffhanger" in the dictionary, there would be a picture of that space capsule. To add insult to injury, Disney kept shunning us and continued to show more love for that strange Oregon town show, which the Internet never seems to stop talking about even though it already ended perfectly, and that anime-influenced show about a naïve princess with a powerful, cutesy-wutesy wand that got not three seasons, but FOUR seasons! Honest to Grop, I'm really fed up with their popularity. They ALWAYS outrank us!

(Clears throat) Thankfully, the SaveWOY campaign was flourishing since the day Craig made that dreadful announcement, but as the years went by, most supporters simply gave up and moved on, almost as if they were telling us that we can't reason with those "higher up bosses of bosses of bosses." It’s pathetic. You know what I say to that? Giving up is quitting, and quitters never win! Don't make those bosses think they were in the right when they canceled the show. Not doing anything gives them the impression that you're giving in to their demands. If a show has more to tell, THEY should be giving in to YOUR demands. And if you dare to discourage the curious fans from fighting for a proper conclusion, consider yourself likely to be struck by lightning.

Don't forget, our show is currently accessible on Hulu and Disney+, but with Disney being focused on the present, the future, and the shows that are hard to surpass in popularity, like that one about the school girls and cold-blooded critters and that one show about a Hispanic girl in a fantasy world, saving the show has become more impossible than difficult. Seriously, what has an entertainment conglomerate got against shows with guys as main protagonists? What does it have against a show that doesn’t feature Earth? And for that matter, why is it still not swayed by the SaveWOY campaign? How are they not comprehending what the fans have been trying to communicate on social media? We’re in the 21st century, for crying out loud!

After seven grueling years, the SaveWOY campaign's efforts to save the show have been absolutely futile, leaving the public perpetually in the dark about the plans for Season 3. That's why I, Lord Hater, propose we start up an entirely new campaign where fans old and new come together to meet a common goal: FinishWOY! Instead of begging Disney to bring back the show, we can make it our mission to collect the missing details, put the pieces together, and create that third season in the cheapest format possible! In doing so, we can spare Disney the trouble of getting the crew back together and spending tons of money to make it. At this time, Craig is back at his alma mater working on that Powerpuffed Girls revival and the Foster’s preschool retooling for Imaginated Friends, and he said that "movement, music, and McBrayer” would do our show’s third season justice. However, in these difficult economic times when he can't be bothered to spill the beans, the crew is already scattered, most of the world fails to acknowledge our existence, and the bosses don't give a zbornak’s pajamas about the show's unfinished business, it's probably best if we make it ourselves, and if it has to be relegated to web comic form, I'm willing to take it as it is!

In conclusion, if a show is suggested to be incomplete, it would be totally foolish to say it ended and even more foolish to leave it ignored. If you do that, you push it further into obscurity and let it bite the dust. If that third season bites the dust, everything planned for it bites the dust as well... my origin story... that orbble ship... Star Forks and Forks Galore... and most important... MY CHANCE TO CONQUER THE REBORN GALAXY! Yes, we may be lucky enough to have two seasons and that instance where I defeated Dominator and won, but it’s hard to be happy about it when there is CLEARLY a space primate in peril! There are people who know all that was planned for Season 3, but they pledged to never share everything they know about it to anyone in any instance for any reason, whether that’d be their children, their neighbors, or at a convention center. Now, if you want to see me back in action, stop lamenting on "what could have been" and start ruminating on "what there could be." Why wait for Disney to make Season 3 a reality when you fans can simply do it yourselves? You don’t need their permission. Nothing's gonna stop you. You've probably watched Seasons 1 and 2 multiple times, and we have just enough information to get an idea of what might happen, so make that third season and the show will be revived, at least in your imagination. Or if the bosses finally decide to revive the show themselves for one more season, that would be a miracle. Either way, this wrong is still waiting to be righted, and I’m not gonna wait another seven years for that to happen. Tag and support "Finish Wander Over Yonder" and I shall resume upholding my reputation as THE GREATEST IN ALL THE GALAXY! Hater out!

That’s right, FinishWOY is a brand new campaign where we fans get the facts we have about Season 3 (SFEF, “Monkeyboy,” the Star Nomad, etcetera) and figure out the overall plot. It’s just like Team Sea3on, who are responsible for giving Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) the third season it was never given back in the ‘90s, but the animation is totally optional.

Mind you, this is entirely a suggestion. If you endorse the idea, though, then welcome to the club!

[nancydrewwouldnever]

The Receipts: The Supermoon of Doom (Sept 2015)

So, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to just leap into the messy active part of the Chris/Jenny timeline in 2016 without first looking through what came before it. Namely, the weird overlapping with Minka’s last go-around in 2015. So, here it is, the beginning of it: September 2015!

September 2 – Chris attended the premiere of Before We Go at the Arclight Theater in Los Angeles.  He looked hot in that Italian suit, but his sad eyes said all that needed to be said about what he now felt about his first directing venture.

THE LAST ‘MINKA DAY’

Sept 5 – Chris and Minka are papped walking her dogs outside her house in WeHo

Later that day, Chris hosted a Labor Day Weekend BBQ at his L.A. house. Minka attended. She stayed at his house that weekend. At some point, one of her friends visited and took a pic in the famous backyard.

Sept 11-13 – Las Vegas (?)

Sept 13 – Chris makes a pair of tweets showing he had been in Las Vegas over the weekend. It Is unknown if Minka was with him. (This timing lines up with other trips taken to Vegas at the same time of year to celebrate the birthdays of both Scott and Tara.)

Sept 14 – Chris appears on ‘The Talk’ to promo Before We Go

Sept 17 – Chris appears at a Fila event in Shanghai, China, with Scott and Guillermo accompanying him

Sept 25-26 – Chris attends the Salt Lake City Comic Con, his first convention appearance. He and Hayley Atwell spend the weekend being awesome together.

Sept 27 – Gifted begins pre-production and rehearsals in Savannah, GA

For those who don’t remember their astronomical events, this day was also a supermoon event. Jenny went wild with the tweets because of it.

JS tweets from Sept 27th:

And the deleted third one I don't have a screencap of: "What if my pussy vibes so hard w the SUPERMOON that is grabs my heart & they dance out of my underpants & across the dinner table & into the sea"

So, whatever else was happening, the supermoon had Jenny really preoccupied with her pussy. Good to know.

Sept 28 – Jenny makes an IG repost of bts Gifted rehearsals

And that's September 2015!

[achillean-knight]

Soooo tragically I am too shy and insecure to show off my full Michael cosplay :'D

Though what I will say, is Comic Con was fuckin' AWESOME!!!! Basically 5+ months preparing in advance really saved my ass. Months of saving my money and working on my mask paid off SO much!

I bought so much from artist alley with money I worked hard saving up (not giving into temptations to buy Deltarune/Undertale merch from fangamer was hard tho but I persevered!)

And people wanted photos?!? LIKE THAT THREW ME OFF SO MUCH????

I wasn't wearing my mask the whole time BC its... Comic con, it's gonna be stuffy, so I saved it until AFTER I splurged on artist alley art, and folks wanted pictures 😭 bro there were so many FNAF cosplayers and they were so enthusiastic to get photos and talk. I'm a very shy person so thank you to my bestie who was with me who did the majority of the talking (she had the sickest puppet cosplay ever btw)

But yeah, I was so happy to see how many kids were in FNAF cosplay aswell as folks my age ;w; as a veteran FNAF enjoyer (if you count 2015) I was just so happy to see kids enjoy what I loved when I was their age, aswell as adults still partaking in this specific fandom :'D

Overall it was such a blast. I'm soooo cosplaying Mettaton for next year, BC of Undertale's 10th anniversary (it'll probably be relatively populated like this year with FNAF cosplays BC of the anniversary) so yayay!!!

[dndhistory]

129. Lawrence Schick - A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords (1981)

In one of those moments of serendipity or kismet or what have you, I happen to get to this at exactly the same time as I am reading the 2015 Out of the Abyss 5E Adventure. I had no idea how connected these two were but they are indeed. In both cases your party wakes up in an underground prison and has to escape to the surface while bereft of equipment. Also Myconids are a big thing in both adventures, in fact our fungal friends first show up in this adventure, complete with all the strange spores they use to communicate or induce hallucinations and so on.

 This is the culmination of the A series of modules (even if we would still have to wait a couple of months for A2 to come out) and was originally the final module at Gen Con XIII, as such it's a pretty awesome final set. If the previous A1 and A3 were pretty light on story and wonder, being not much more than a hack and slash, A4 seems like a lot of fun, from strange creatures to the challenge of finishing the dungeon with little equipment, the excitement of periodical earthquakes and the culmination in a volcanic eruption while the PCs try to escape the island, add up to a truly fun adventure. 

[doitinanotherlanguage]

July 2023 Wrap-up: 1960s

(You can read more about the challenge on my post introducing the challenge. Basically, Reading Through the Decades is a year-long reading challenge where we read books - and explore other media - from the 1900s to the 2020s, decade-by-decade.)

Super late with the July wrap-up, but here it is at last!

What I Enjoyed This Month

📖 Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967), Joan Lindsay -> In 1900, a group of female students at an Australian girls' boarding school vanish at Hanging Rock while on a Valentine's Day picnic, causing varying effects on the school and local community. -> I watched the fantastic, queer 2018 mini-series (starring Natalie Dormer!) earlier this year and absolutely fell in love! So I knew I had to read the original novel as soon as possible. Since the book is written in the 60s, I decided to read it this month. I might prefer the mini-series (because in it, the themes of queerness are much more explicit and central) but the novel definitely holds its own, too.

🎬 Flickorna (1968; The Girls), dir. Mai Zetterling -> A feminist reinvention of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes: Three actresses prepare to go on the road in a theater production of the classic play about women and war. As the women re-assess and deal with the problems in their respective private lives, they recognize the parallels with the play and begin to realize that it is serious - even tragic - after all. -> Very 60s, very awesome. I love watching older movies that centre women and feminist themes. This is definitely a very inventive and experimental - even surrealist - film.

📖 SCUM Manifesto (1967), Valerie Solanas -> A radical feminist manifesto that argues that men have ruined the world, which women have to fix by forming SCUM, an organization dedicated to overthrowing society and eliminating the male sex. The manifesto was little-known until Solanas attempted to murder Andy Warhol in 1968. -> I don't really know what to say about this. Mostly, the manifesto is filled with absurd bullshit - I don't fuck with violence, I emphatically don't think killing is the solution to anything, and radical feminism is definitely not the brand of feminism for me. That said, the manifesto is also hilarious as fuck: the manifesto totally flips the age-old "women are inferior" dynamic from Western, patriarchal philosophy and theory around, so yielding the manifesto up to an interpretation as a delicious satire. (Unfortunately, it seems that Solanas did not write the manifesto for irony and satire's sake.)

🎬 Victim (1961), dir. Basil Dearden -> A British neo-noir suspense film about a closeted lawyer who risks his career to bring a blackmailer to justice. The film is credited as being the first British film to explicitly name homosexuality and deal with it sympathetically. -> I am not the biggest neo-noir fan, but I very much enjoyed this one. I love a good queer classic!

🎬 Midnight Cowboy (1969), dir. John Schlesinger -> A naive hustler travels from Texas to New York City to seek personal fortune, in the process befriending a scrounging, sleazy small-time con man with big dreams. -> Another queer(?) classic! Idk, I really like watching movies about drifters and down-on-their-luck people struggling onwards in life and maybe finding some modicum of companionship in each other.

🎬 Stonewall (1995), dir. Nigel Finch -> A historical comedy-drama film that gives a fictionalized account of the weeks leading up to the Stonewall riots, a seminal event in the modern American gay rights movement. The main story follows a cross-dressing sex worker who meets a young gay man, freshly arrived in NYC. -> There was a horribly disappointing Stonewall movie made more recently in 2015 - forget about that shit and watch this one instead! This film actually centres cross-dressers, trans women, and queer politics while also incorporating humour, a love story, and several lip-synch numbers!

[toppickspavilion]

Bernard Hill: Titanic and Lord of the Rings actor dies

On-screen character Bernard Slope, best known for parts in Titanic and Ruler of the Rings, has kicked the bucket matured 79.

He played Captain Edward Smith in the 1997 Oscar-winning film and Ruler Théoden in the Master of the Rings.

His breakout part was in 1982 BBC TV dramatization Boys from the Blackstuff, where he depicted Yosser Hughes, a character who battled - and frequently fizzled - to adapt with unemployment in Liverpool.

He passed on early on Sunday morning, his specialist Lou Coulson confirmed.

With him at the time were his fiancee Alison and his child Gabriel.

Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, the performing artists who played the hobbits Frodo, Sam, Cheerful and Pippin in the Ruler of the Rings set of three, paid tribute to their co-star at Comedian Con in Liverpool.

Astin started by saying: "We adore him. He was courageous, he was clever, he was rough, he was irritable, he was beautiful."

Boyd described observing the set of three with Monaghan, saying: "I do not think anybody talked Tolkien's words as awesome as Bernard did. He would break my heart. He will be exclusively missed."

Alan Bleasdale, who composed Boys from the Blackstuff, said Hill's passing was a "extraordinary misfortune and too a incredible surprise".

"It was an astounding, mesmeric execution - Bernard gave everything to that and you can see it in all the scenes. He got to be Yosser Hughes."

Alan Bleasdale: 'I was frantic to work with him'

He included: "I was frantic to work with him. Everything he did - his entire strategy for working, the way in which he worked and his execution was everything that you seem ever wish for.

"You continuously felt that Bernard would live until the end of time. He had a extraordinary quality, physically and of personality."

TCD/Alamy Bernard Slope in Ruler of the RingsTCD/Alamy

In full stream as Ruler Théoden in the Master of the Rings

Getty Pictures Bernard Slope as Captain Edward James Smith in TitanicGetty Images

As Captain Edward James Smith in Titanic

Hill, who was from Manchester and lived in Suffolk, was due to return to TV screens in arrangement two of The Responder, a BBC dramatization featuring Martin Freeman, which starts airing on Sunday.

Lindsay Salt, chief of BBC Show, paid tribute to him, saying: "Bernard Slope bursted a path over the screen, and his long-lasting career filled with famous and exceptional parts is a confirmation to his extraordinary talent."

"From Boys from the Blackstuff, to Wolf Corridor, The Responder, and numerous more, we feel really regarded to have worked with Bernard at the BBC. Our contemplations are with his adored ones at this pitiful time."

In Boys from the Blackstuff, Slope drew laud for his abrasive depiction of Yosser Hughes, an strongly character who argued "Gizza [allow us a] work" as he looked for work.

That appear won a Bafta for best show arrangement in 1983, and in 2000 it was positioned seventh on a British Film Founded list of the best TV appears ever made.

Bernard Slope as Yosser Hughes in Boys From The Blackstuff

Yosser Hughes, played by Bernard Slope, was one of the most vital characters in 1982's Boys From The Blackstuff

Another of Hill's important BBC TV exhibitions came in the 2015 show arrangement Wolf Corridor, adjusted from Hilary Mantel's book around the court of Henry VIII. Slope depicted the Duke of Norfolk - an uncle of Anne Boleyn and an foe of Cardinal Wolsey.

In Dwindle Jackson's epic set of three The Master of the Rings, Slope joined the cast for the moment film, 2002's The Two Towers, and returned to the establishment for 2003's The Return Of The Lord, which picked up 11 Oscars.

Other parts in Hill's decades-long career included the 1976 BBC TV arrangement I, Claudius, an appearance in 1982's Gandhi, Shirley Valentine in 1989, The Scorpion Ruler in 2002 and 2008 Tom Journey film Valkyrie.

He was implied to be at Comedian Con Liverpool on Saturday, but had to cancel at the final diminutive, the tradition said in a post on X. As news of his passing broke, the coordinators said on the stage they were "shattered" at Hill's passing, and wished his family a "parcel of strength".

Scottish artist Barbara Dickson moreover paid tribute on X, saying he had been a "truly sublime actor".

She included: "It was a benefit to have crossed ways with him. Tear Benny x."

[siverwrites]

Yuletide Letter 2023

Ao3: Siver

Thank you so much for taking this on! Here there are some general prompt details if you want them and if you already have some idea of your own, awesome. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

None of my requests require every requested character

Prompts from past letters are up for grabs too where applicable: https://siverwrites.tumblr.com/letters

Treats are welcome!

Requested Fandoms:

Ghost Trick

Final Fantasy VI

King's Quest VI

The Legend of Heroes: Crossbell arc

General Likes:

fluff, hurt/comfort, comfort, mutual care and support

family found or otherwise, bonding, cuddling/hugs/holding, banter, emotional bonding, loyalty, slice of life

sickfic, angst with a happy or at least bittersweet end

supernatural stuff, mystery, adventure, worldbuilding, creepy or unsettling atmospheres

fandom fusions, pre-canon, post-canon, missing scenes, reunited characters

General DNW:

NSFW, non-con, dub-con, incest, underage relationships, unrequested shipping (except those ships listed as liked or background canonical pairings), infidelity

explicit gore

real world modern mundane AUs (eg. coffee shop, college, high-school etc)

terminal illness, permanent-death of requested characters

2nd person pov

–

Ghost Trick

Alma

Cabanela

Jowd

Pigeon Man

Alma/Jowd/Cabanela are the OT3 of my heart but I’m perfectly happy with gen fic for them too with bestest friend Cabanela to Alma/Jowd. I’m also happy to see something focused on only one or two of them–I only ask that if there’s a ship situation between 2/3 it’s simply because that’s where the focus lies. No infidelity.

I’m a big fan of hurt/comfort and the more tenderness on the comfort end the better. However you can’t go wrong with pure fluff either.

I’d be interested in any mix here with Pigeon Man. I’m always a sucker for Pigeon Man and Cabanela during their year working together or any other time like meeting again for the first time in the new timeline! But, Jowd and PM have a history and Alma and PM are a very rare combo I'd love to see more of, or any other combo or subset of these four characters.

I'm a big sucker for Ch. 9 and Ch. 15 always. Anything in there is good stuff.

Big sucker for the year Cabanela and Pigeon Man worked together on Jowd’s case or any point in those five years for just Cabanela.

A case Alma somehow ends up involved in?

Navigating Jowd's whole deal in the early days of having dragged the truth out of him

Jowd knowings things he shouldn't and having to avoid accidentally slipping up but Alma and Cabanela are sharp

Other characters are welcome to make appearances if needed! I love the cast wholeheartedly.

-

Final Fantasy VI

Celes

Edgar

Sabin

I'm quite partial to the World of Ruin explorations as there is a lot of space for character interaction there. Lots to consider in how they're dealing with it and coping and looking for hope and finding each other...

Some general ideas:

Sabin and/or Celes trying to deal with "Gerad" or the aftermath

The trip in Figaro Castle to Kohlingen. It's been saved! Sabin and Edgar are home; Celes not so much but there's some comfort to be found?

Sabin and Celes trip along the Serpent's trench before or after Mobliz, or more during that first visit to Mobliz

Post-game what are they doing? Well, Sabin and Edgar presumably went to Figaro. What about Celes? Maybe they invited her to stay for a bit while she decides what to do with herself?

-

King's Quest VI

Alexander

Cassima

Captain Saladin

Rotten Tomato

Fandom Specific DNW: King's Quest 2015

I played KQ VI for the first time early this year and was completely charmed by it. While I'd like the focus to be on KQVI things I'm good with pulling in details from the other games in the original series too. Just nothing specific to the 2015 reboot please as I've never played or seen it.

I found Alexander quite endearing. I was really interested in Cassima and while she's stuck in the damsel in distress role she felt less like one--she was ready to take action and just needed that opportunity, and was so protective and dedicated to her home.

Saladin could be interesting from a conflicted loyalty to the crown perspective. It's tough being a guard dog!

Rotten Tomato... sometimes you just gotta have fun. He was an entertaining grump nyehh.

Some general ideas:

Even with the genie's help, I'm sure there are still things to take care of after the mess Alhazred left. Or go with the worse ending and Alexander and Cassima having to deal with the fall-out of that.

Exploration of Cassima before Alexander arrives? She's pretty trapped but bound to be something there... Does she managed to communicate anything with Saladin? Does Alhazred just keep wrecking things?

Alexander and Cassima having an adventure after the end possibly tying into that first point but with the land of the green isles anything could go! Maybe they come across Rotten Tomato again and need his help with something.

Cassima doings and thoughts while Alexander is doing his thing in game

-

Crossbell

Alex Dudley

Elie MacDowell

KeA

Lloyd Bannings

Randy Orlando

Sergei Lou

Tio Plato

Zeit

Fandom Specific DNW: Spoilers for Reverie or Daybreak, shipping between any of the characters listed here - gen only, please!

I love the found family feels among the SSS, Dudley yanked in too. Any combination of characters is welcome here.

Tio and Randy sibling like relationship and some shared similarities in childhood trauma

Sergei and Dudley working together in the past or present or just a little break. Totally not getting attached to the SSS

KeA winning over Dudley because none can resist her

Anything relating to KeA's powers. Explore them!

SSS family time

[makuta-tobi]

I'm excited for ECCC but I'm worried about choosing cosplays. This year was the first 3 day con I'd been to since...2015? Maybe 16? Okay yeah my Kuronekocon badge says 2016, ANYWAYS, it was wild to pick multiple cosplays again but what am I gonna do this year...

I mentioned it before, but I would LOVE to do Palamedes Sextus because he's the easiest Locked Tomb character I could do, BUT, without someone cosplaying Camilla with me, I'd look more like Milo Thatch from Atlantis, so I can't do that one solo. So what else do I bring??

Presumably Brandee and I will do a couple cosplay as long as she gets a Lumine cosplay made, and I'm CLEARLY bringing the Bot, but what's third?? I could try and do Venom again and actually bring the makeup this time to fuck myself up, or if the Toku group is there I could do GokaiRed again, but I'm not sure

Realistically I'll have to wait until the con gets closer and the schedule gets posted to make educated decisions but even still. I just...I hope I get to see people again. I met some really awesome people last year and was too shy to interact much but if I see them again maybe I'll 👉👈

[the-firebird69]

Have a few questions about firepower balance and yeah the max have a lot of it but they wasted a lot of people trying to go after Tommy f and they have to now try and get their ships going and people are going to go after their ships a lot of people and a lot more lot especially on Australia and they do know where they are and this process is beginning right now.

And yes our daughter and son want to know about his growth maybe our daughter she wants to do the Comic-Con routine and other stuff and he'll start looking better and yeah he wants to drive right now on purpose not on purpose no. But he's supposed to get bigger sooner then we are saying we'll see some signs I bet he is eating about the nuts so it's not exactly from that and he is looking a little bit more physique orientated but that's from working out but he says it looks different and it does a teeny bit so we are going to start working but the dates we gave out are real but really their conjecture and you can't recall when he stops taking this medicine it seems like it's all going to happen all at the same time but the growth factor won't kick in one is encapsulated zyprexa the other is the fact that fat and preservatives are around risperdal and the Prilosec. But that tissue is wet he says yeah it's true calcium is somewhat dry it's really wet a bit.

There are a couple things you have to remember One is titration You want to go in the body It is actually changing its chemical composition and that is about 70 to 80% of it but a lot of it went in and it was too much he was expelling a lot so I'm about 5% was retained but that's about loading it over time and it gets a full load that was in there last month it's working its way out slowly and it would be awesome into just break its bonds early they were making medicine in 2015 and 14 it was lazy that's when it started the other one no he's slowing down on it. And yeah 2014 I believe we stopped the the first house and then started up in 8-year dose and stopped at about 8 years ago it would yeah it's just like preserves or the human body but certain chemicals can be preserved and that's true but in this case it's not the preservatives he's using would not do it and they would have to be in conjunction with something any kind of hinting to that it would deserve what it's in and that would be the fat. And he is losing that and that's what's making the muscles look bigger and the start earlier. What we say is when he has his muscles like a big getting bigger like that in a way it is the sign that he's going to start growing again and it's all over his body and his back is starting now and it's getting bigger I was going to work.. solely failure dates are real and the preservatives I'm pretty sure don't do anything and he says it's probably not it's like a special stasis for each chemical which is true gasoline has a certain chemical you use and oil you use a different one to keep it good and probably sick has one and Cypress and he did not ingest that much or any really and even in that kind of a solution they probably wouldn't work much because of other stuff that it would break down the preservative even in the lipoma yes we looked at it and the reason we don't mind is because of these days it goes from the inside out it takes years and he's going to grow out then he's going to grow up and he'll grow out then up and the body is fighting it in the bones get a chance after the body is muscular so you can see it is kind of an interesting experience.

One more thing about it is he's not really a toy there's a lot of people who think and say a lot of ridiculous things but it's going to be an interesting time. We were saying June 15th but we were saying April 15th and it's 2 months later it hasn't really started too much.

There are a few more months coming and that's before the medicine which is all that's in an airtight container eventually the air becomes benign it's like a vacuum and only a certain amount of it we bought so he just sits there in the lymphoma is different but there's a lot of it the truth is it might be several months we have people working at it testing it they're not real happy about it but they do and looks like it's still coming out it's a bunch of me too much so he's trying to rack his brain but it's really hard to say

Thor Freya

When is 8 years ago that's what he wants to know

Hera

And 10 years

Zues

Good

Olympus

[kmze]

I think people were mad about the Paris con last year was because he was so rude to the fans. When fans say Caroline is better suited with Stefan he straight up said to them “No, she is not” which is ???? And the fact that Paul immediately left the convention even tho he still has a schedule for autographs and photo op just to have dinner with his friend which is so unprofessional meanwhile Ian stayed until 9pm I think finishing every autos and photo ops. lol so many fans were disappointed with Paul’s attitude last year tbh

That Paris con tweets actors' con opinions like they are some news bulletin.Also I feel like whoever manages that account is a troll.Because they tweeted that 'forced' comment with a gif of Steroline wedding kiss almost implying they got married.NOW DEAL WITH IT.

Right two here about the Paris con it just feels like something is always going on with that one and it's never good. Which is funny because there was one they did in 2015 after S6 that was awesome but maybe that was a different company (I have no idea how this all really works). I don't think I've seen the "no she is not" video unless it's the one I've seen and I just couldn't tell what he said (unless subtitles are added I have no idea what's being said in these videos) but I did think he was a bit rude to them. I'm sure he's sick of the same questions over and over but like then don't go! I absolutely felt that tweet was intentional, I saw it too, and I saw a few people who quote tweeted said the same intentionally stirring the pot. I did not know about the leaving a con like that although I do remember seeing an uproar about him last year with people who had been his fans for a long time saying they were done with him.

[membracid]

2018 Annual Report

For the last 6 years I’ve been writing a personal annual report. It’s a useful way to evaluate what I did, and a lot of times a year that feels like a failure looks better when I take a longer view.

This will also include some 2017 stuff, since I completely skipped even trying to write a report last year. If you look at these reports over time, you’ll see a pattern: my health has steadily declined since I started working at Purdue. 

I really love what I do there (see adorable photo above), but it’s not much of a surprise that it’s a physically demanding job with a lot of stress associated with it. And as I’ve devoted more and more of my life to this job -- so that I have health insurance, which is REALLY important as you will see below -- the rest of my life has shrunk.

My first year running Bug Bowl in 2015, I had what I thought was a stroke. I’m in charge of a massive outreach event for >30K people, and I’m a part-time employee. Seems reasonable that I might over do it.

I stopped writing for WIRED in 2016, because I didn’t have the time or energy to keep it up. In late April (right after Bug Bowl) I discovered lesions on my spinal cord were the reason I was having trouble walking.

 I turned down most speaking invites in 2017, because I didn’t have the time or energy to travel. I’m pretty sure I had more health things going on, but because I was still paying off my 2016 health bills, I didn’t go to the doctor.  I did still do three awesome things:

I attended SciFoo in August at Google Headquarters

I was a visiting scientist at DragonCon in September

I got to hang out with Mary Roach for a day in December.

I think the big thing I realized in 2017 is that I don’t have do do everything myself. Other people can go hang out at Google or take over my work at Sci Fi Cons. Bug outreach will be more sustainable long term, if more people are doing it.

So 2018. Well.

This year I decided to try to run a crowdfunding campaign for Bug Bowl, since a lot of our equipment was over 20 years old.  The video helps show the scale of Bug Bowl:

Success! Thanks to my many online friends, and community members, we did fund repairs. (you can still make a tax deductible contribution here). THANK YOU!

In 2018, in addition to the successful crowdfunding, I also:

Had a paper accepted to Annals of the Entomological Society of America, and I’m co-author on another that’s been submitted to American Entomologist. 

Did a super fun training for librarians about how science news gets made and covered 

Collaborated with Indiana Humanities on a bee project

Survived 4,800 girl scouts

Had someone in a position of authority at Purdue text me a penis photo

Did a bunch of media interviews, including this one which is about native bees, I SWEAR

My advice to anyone considering a crowdfunding campaign is: don’t. It’s a huge amount of effort. And I was an idiot to take it on during the busiest part of my year. Which is probably why this year’s crop of central nervous system lesions were in my brain, and I finally got my official diagnosis: MS.

I’ve suspected it for quite a while, but it’s only this year I’ve started talking about it. And seriously, folks. Please. Please don’t make your first response to someone telling you they have MS be “Oh, my [aunt/mother-in-law/nephew] had that and they died.”

This is not a fatal disease. It is a pain-in-the-ass disease, and yeah it will get worse over time. I’m gonna die, but so are you. We all will die. “Multiple sclerosis is seldom fatal and life expectancy is shortened by only a few months.”

If you look back at everything I’ve accomplished in the last 15 years: I did that with untreated MS. It’s a pretty decent list of accomplishments for anyone. 

[mirika]

In June 2023 I went to the first edition of the summer variant of Dutch Comic Con. They moved it from May to June and it was terrible as it was WAY too hot to function, it was the first time I didn't even go in cosplay. Either way, I always post, so here goes.

I went for a whole weekend with my bestie Eneath, which was fantastic, because we could go by car instead of train. It was a delight. However, the weather was not great.

I do not have a lot to report though; I did not take any photos with other cosplay, also due to being insecure about not being IN cosplay myself. On day 1 I did visit with hobbit vibes in mind, and on day 2 I went more casual than I had ever been at a Comic Con I think? I don't actually remember how I went.

I did take some pics though!

These are some dice I bought! Tiny dice because they are CUTE as hell, dark glittery dice because they are COOL as hell, and a box of d10s in ace colours (in my opinion) because I thought it was awesome except I did not realize they were just d10s, rofl! All good though, just a bummer as I thought it was a whole set.

I went absolutely insane with finances this time around though. I bought a fan with my favourite Genshin Impact character on it, literally using the element anemo to cool myself down... a bunch of Digimon stuff that I can build and some TCG, and on my bag you can see a geo vision from Genshin Impact. The vision is actually why I made a new friend at my local grocery store, he recognized it from the game and now we chat on occasion LOL. Also a bottle of mead, sadly apple cinnamon, because they had no cherry cinnamon.

A bunch of artist alley merch as well. As always, love me some Miraculous Ladybug. I also got two fake Pokémon cards, gorgeous Ninetales, my favourite Pokémon... a sticker of The Last of Us, my favouritest game ever, and some Genshin Impact stickers... now also including Kaveh, another character I really like.

Also... gosh I love this so much, look:

Ellie and Joel figurines! Also a Kazuha waterprint art below it rofl. I ended up not liking the fanart as much so I kinda forgot I owned it.

And uh, super random but I fucking loved that they introduced an onigiri stand and I am *starts foaming*

The one on the far right was vegan, the two on the left are tuna. I had to try both, haha.

Last but definitely not least, they had a little Lord of the Rings thingamajig that we visited, where you walked a little bit through the journey. I remember being at the verge of tears somehow because I felt overwhelmed, but I'm a pro at holding in emotions sometimes. Here is the pics I took. Let me test this new feature, if it sucks I will edit the post.

They should all be clickable for bigger. We'll see.

That is all I have to report on this Comic Con. The next post will be absolutely epicly, because it was a huge staple in my life and it still brings me emotions. Thank you for reading!

— DCC - 2023 - no real cosplay WDCC - 2022 - scuffed Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) DCC - 2022 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) / scuffed Ellie (The Last of Us) RCC 2020 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) WDCC 2019 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) / Mimi (Digimon) ACC 2019 - no report, little happened

DCC 2019 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) / Mimi (Digimon) DCC 2018 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) ACC 2018 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) DCC 2018 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) RCC 2018 - Mimi (Digimon) WDCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon) ACC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon) DCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon) RCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon) ACC 2016 - Hook (Once Upon A Time) DCC 2016 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) DCC 2015 - Sunday - Hobbit (Lord of the Rings) DCC 2015 - Saturday - Ellie (The Last of Us)

[aci32]

WACKEN OPEN AIR 2023 PART I!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey ladies and germs, here's my 8th review/annual summer festival blog, Wacken Open Air!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was my 8th time going to the holy land and 2nd consecutive year going to the holy land in the post covid era and I have to say, this was definitely an extraordinary Wacken given how the weather absolutely sucked this year round compared to last year, since last year was hot and dusty most of the time but only rained enough to wash away the dust. This year round it was persistent rain and mud, and the mud was so bad for a lot of cars, tractors had to get called in with winches to tow the cars out of the mud as the tractors themselves have tires that are equipped for the quicksand-esque mud, ill highlight I never saw that in 2015, 2016, and 2017, so this was new to me. Plus the other thing that was new was the organizers having to reduce the crowd from 85,000 to 50,000 due to the persistent heavy rain and mud making a large swathe of campgrounds unusable, so this was another thing I don't recall seeing in 2015, yet I thought 2015 was worse, but in this case 2023 Wacken was a mix of 2005, 2012, and 2015, but chock full of steroids. It was also my first Wacken Open Air on a heavy heart since I was still reeling from the death of my friend Elouise 3 weeks earlier at the time I entered Wacken on the Monday, so I dedicated Wacken and my Euro Trip to her as knowing her it's what she would've wanted since she had a zest for travel, food, and music. This was also the first Wacken I went to where it's gone from being a 3 day festival to a 4 day festival. I also dedicated Wacken and my trip to Walter Froebrich as well since he had died back in November and his death was still fresh on my mind.

Let's begin the festivities!

I got to Esther's place the day before Monday after I left Brussels to change trains in Cologne and then get to Hamburg, and then book myself a train going to Itzehoe, in which I got there at a reasonable time. I was then picked up at Itzehoe Hauptbahnhof by Esther's neighbour, in which Esther and I would go to her neighbours place for coffee and cake. Bibi and Dan came to hang out at Esther's place for a bit, and when we all got the news we had to be at Edeka at 5 in the morning, Esther and I made an agreement to pull an all nighter and I just thought to myself "Fuck it, I'm not gonna let all nighter induced fatigue get me down" and it was an hour earlier compared to last year when all of us had to be down by 6. Bibi, Esther, Dan and I also partook in giving passing cars the horns who were going to Wacken, and the drivers would honk back and give the horns back in kind, which I thought was awesome. I did enjoy Esther's delicious Chili Con Carne for a 2nd consecutive year and as well the gathering at her place was smaller and quieter with just Esther, Elke and I.

Monday July 31st: Elke, Esther and I go to Edeka and it was once again a reunion of the other Crüe members in Rabih, Ian, Sandy and her bf Max Rohrbeck, Krücky, Kutscher, Diana, Mischa and as well meeting Mischa's gf (however her name is spelt) seeing Spike for the first time in half a decade albeit this time with me having slimmed down, Sarah, Bas and Boudewijn, Aurora, Håvard, and meeting Aurora and Håvard's friend Jenny, and meeting Ian's friend from the Volunteer state aka Tennessee, Steven or his real name being Sven, and as well to see Janis a 2nd time, even though he and I hung out in Berlin on my 3rd night there after I had supper with my friend Christian, and it was a nice reunion and a great way to catch up with the lot. After waiting for a good while, we finally got the go ahead to go to Rendsburger and set up camp, which we all did and thank you Elke for the spare tent. Since we all arrived early, I had to wait awhile for merch to open and get my locker, so I took a nice long nap as all nighter induced fatigue finally caught up with me. After I woke up, I got myself a t-shirt and skipped the hoodie because A. Hoodies are pricey and B. My dresser drawers are running low on space from the Wacken hoodies I bought in the past, so I have to be mindful of the space. After I got my shirt, I got my locker and put away my passport and valuables and returned to camp. Later in the day, Andreas and his brother arrived, so it was nice to see them and further later on that day, got to sample the first half of Bas' southern BBQ themed cooking in spare ribs, which were absolutely tasty, so thank you Bas for the delicious food. Late afternoon to early in the evening, the Aussies finally arrived after dealing with so much travel, bus, and weather related horseshit, so got to have a brief reunion with Nikki once again, great to see Capsy for the first time in 4 years, had a nice reunion with Jason and met his girlfriend Jaz, and after a half decade absence, finally got to see Laura again as well. When nightfall entered, it became on and off torrential downpours, but eventually it calmed down at midnight or after midnight. It was also at this time I went with Esther down to Rendsburger and after having a couple shots of Scotch and a couple beers, I drank a couple more shots this time of Jägermeister with Kai and his friends, then a few mins later tried Mexicana's, which is the German version of a Bloody Mary and those hit the spot. Also met an Aussie named Dave Prentice or he told us to call him by his surname since theres a lot of Daves down under. Then after hanging out at the Rendsburger tent and having a couple more shots and smoking a couple of joints with Esther, I retreated back to my own tent and went to sleep.

Tuesday August 1st: I woke up early but that was because Mother Nature called me and I had to answer her, so I then retreated back to my tent and slept some more and didn't get out of my tent until noon since the rain and mud made me feel rather lethargic. I was nursing a wee hangover in the form of a dull headache, but it was manageable. I don't remember much happening on the Tuesday aside from meeting more Aussies in Jake and Amanda, and having the second half of Bas' southern BBQ themed cooking in the form of having Pulled Pork, which was tasty, so once again thank you Bas for more awesome food. I also now remember Tuesday was the day that the organizers had to cut off the amount of people and cars coming in since the capacity had been up to 50,000, and fellow Crüe member Connel became an unfortunate victim of the 35,000 to be told not to enter the holy land, which was a bummer among all of us. Then a few joints smoked with Esther and Max Neukirch later, I went to sleep.

Wednesday August 2nd: The day when the bands could finally play, although it took a long ass while for the Gates to open, and during that time of waiting was when the fish people game was happening near our camp. When I finally entered the gates, there was the Lemmy parade with a big rig/lorry blasting it's airhorn and having the snaggletooth artwork on the grill as it lead the charge. After the parade was done, I could finally walk to the Louder stage.

First band I saw after that long delay was Skew Siskin. I'd never heard this band before but from what I saw they weren't too shabby, and they did a cover of 3 Motörhead songs in Iron Fist, Stay Clean, and No Class. Apparently, Skew Siskin and Motörhead toured a bunch of times back in the day, so that explains them paying tribute to Lemmy.

After Skew Siskin it was time for NERVOSA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was my 2nd time catching this all female death/thrash band as I saw them last May as direct support for Destruction and I remember they were awesome but they had a different lineup at the time as it was ¼ Brazil 🇧🇷 for guitarist and sole founding member Prika Amaral and ¾ Mediterranean Europe: Greece 🇬🇷 for drummer Eleni Nota, Italy 🇮🇹 for bassist Mia Wallace, and Spain 🇪🇸 for frontwoman Diva Satanica. This time around it's ¼ Brazil 🇧🇷 in which Prika Amaral is doing both guitar and vocals, ½ Greek 🇬🇷 for guitarist Helena Kotina and bassist Hel Pyre, and ¼ Bulgaria 🇧🇬 with drummer Mihaela Naydonova. I'll also say Prika Amaral's vocals were nothing short of awesome. When she would speak in between songs she thanked all of us for coming to watch Nervosa's set and acknowledging we all went through hell with the rain and mud, she also spoke about mental illness and depression going on in the world, etc. The thing that was a letdown was Nervosa had to cut their set short so I blame Skew Siskin for going on first, shit weather, and supreme disorganization and lack of communication from the organizers. Here's what Nervosa's setlist looked like:

Seed of Death(Live premiere)Play Video

Perpetual ChaosPlay Video

Death!Play Video

Masked BetrayerPlay Video

Kill the SilencePlay Video

Kings of DominationPlay Video

Endless AmbitionPlay Video

Under Ruins

After Nervosa were finished, I then advanced towards the infield where the Faster and Harder stages met, and once the Gates were opened at the request of Thomas Jensen, everyone started advancing to the stage, I was under the impression Holy Moses were going to play the Faster Stage but lo and behold they didn't, instead it was time for Skindred. I never got into this band a lot when I was growing up but from what I saw live they had a great live performance. Frontman Benji Webbe knows how to fire up the crowd with his energy and his antics. In between songs he got all of us to raise the bird finger and say "Fuck you Clifford" in reference to Benji's older brother Clifford for chastising Benji as Benji wanted to be a singer in a metal band. Only song I'm familiar with is Nobody since it has the chorus of "Nobody gets out alive".

After Skindred got finished, I took a long break and hung out at my locker, and after my break I returned to the Headbangers Stage and got to see PENTAGRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was my first time seeing them and I'm not familiar with their studio material, but I did like their live show especially with Bobby Liebling's onstage antics of him making funny faces during the guitar solos and as well in between songs the crowd chanting "Bobby, Bobby" he shook his ass in front of the crowd to pantomime the chant. He also was asking the crowd what type of world we are living in and then kicked into the song "Dying World". I'll also highlight that off the stage, Bobby Liebling is a troubled man due to his past history of drug abuse mainly with crack and heroin and as well having an assault against a vulnerable person conviction and serving a year and a half in prison for assaulting his 87 year old Mother 6 years ago. Pentagram certainly did provide a nice closing night to the Wednesday and here's what their setlist looked like:

Death RowPlay Video

All Your SinsPlay Video

Review Your ChoicesPlay Video

The GhoulPlay Video

Sign of the Wolf (Pentagram) / SinisterPlay Video

Be ForewarnedPlay Video

When the Screams ComePlay Video

Dying WorldPlay Video

Devil's PlaygroundPlay Video

RelentlessPlay Video

Broken VowsPlay Video

Relentless (Reprise)Play Video

Last Days HerePlay Video

WartimePlay Video

Forever My QueenPlay Video

20 Buck Spin(Snippet)

After Pentagram I bumped into Nikki, Rabih, and Capsy and we all saw the drones displaying Doro's logo, and as well drones making Lemmy's face and as well the Ace of Spades to further memorialize Lemmy. We then got some food and I returned to camp and went to sleep for the night.

Thursday August 3rd:

I once again got out of my tent late morning early afternoon, and don't remember much in the socializing thing as there was lots going on, except for getting a Hot Dog with Lena before I ventured out into the infield and it definitely came in handy as I needed fuel to last me for the day.

I get into the infield and I saw Uriah Heep playing some of their last songs and I remember they sounded great. They played 4 years ago, but the infield was packed to the brim and I was busy watching Primordial, so it was no big loss.

After Uriah Heep it was time for: "Icey water on my hands" who? "Hearts on Fire, Hearts on Fire, Burning Burning with desire" what? "Let the Hammer... FALL" one more time? HAMMERFALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was my 6th time seeing them, 3rd time seeing them play Wacken, and first time seeing them twice in a year. These lads are always a treat to see live, for me at least as their shows are not only energetic and electric, but Joacim Cans is a joker in between songs as he said "If you raise your hand in school, you don't speak. But if you raise it at a metal show, you make as much fucking noise as possibe" and the crowd did just that. Also when Joacim was introducing the band and after he introduced Frederik Larsson he said to him in a calm and funnier tone of what Gordon Ramsay screams at chefs fucking up on Hells Kitchen "Now fuck off". Here's their setlist:

Intro

BrotherhoodPlay Video

Any Means NecessaryPlay Video

The Metal AgePlay Video

Hammer of DawnPlay Video

Blood BoundPlay Video

RenegadePlay Video

Venerate MePlay Video

Last Man StandingPlay Video

Hero's Return / On the Edge of Honour / Riders of the Storm / Crimson ThunderPlay Video

Let the Hammer FallPlay Video

Glory to the BravePlay Video

(We Make) Sweden RockPlay Video

Encore:

Hammer HighPlay Video

Hearts on FirePlay Video

Dreams Come True

End of Part I, stay tuned for Part II that will involve Kreator, Helloween, Megadeth, Maiden, Wardruna, etc

[simul16]

The Newbie Guide to GenCon -- Stolen and Updated!

But then start all the other questions. Questions that start “it’s my first time going to GenCon… “ and end with “… HELP!” And I’ve noticed it’s sort of the vogue for bloggers to waste a week writing a “Guide to Surviving GenCon” every f$&%ing year. I was going to do something actually useful about narration and running games and s$&%. But no, people are DEMANDING I write this crap instead. So you get this. See, the thing is, all the GenCon advice out there doesn’t really tell you everything you absolutely NEED to know. It’s all these thousand word, top-ten-list style bits of bulls$&%. Me, I’m going to give it to you straight. I’m going to tell you about experiencing GenCon for the first time along with some awesome tips.

- The Angry GM (Scott Rehm), "How to Even GenCon: The Complete Noob Guide"

Gen Con is just around the corner. And as is traditional for this time of year, places are putting together 'guides' for how to enjoy Gen Con, even if you're attending for the very first time. Sadly, though, most of those guide are pretty lame, as the Angry GM notes above. So what to do?

Well, the Angry GM's own guide from 2015 is still fairly good, so I thought I'd just link to that. Except as I read through it, I realized that the guide definitely could use some updates and clarifications, because (shockingly) the guide as originally written by Angry is long on his perspective, and short on others' perspectives (the section on etiquette notwithstanding). So I thought I'd provide a service and update Angry's classic Gen Con guide for newbies, updating it for the (almost) post-COVID era.

So let's roll!

Okay, let’s talk quickly about WHY you’re going to GenCon. Because the biggest mistake I made the first year was not knowing why the hell I was going. And most people don’t. They are going just to go. Here’s the deal. GenCon is big. You just won’t believe how awesomely, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. You might think your local gaming convention in the basement of one hotel is big, but that’s just peanuts to GenCon. Listen… Every f$&%ing fandom imaginable is at GenCon, including weird crazy-a$& s$&% you’ve never heard of like SuperWhoLock. There’s RPGs, card games, board games, video games, war games, and LARPs. There’s video games, consoles, PC games, MMORPGS, MOBAS, MUCKs, indie games, all that s$&%.

That last sentence is actually a bit of a reach. If you're going to Gen Con with the idea that you're going to get the same sort of video-game experience you'd get at PAX, then you're going to be disappointed. You can find video games at Gen Con, if you look hard enough, but not a lot, certainly not compared to the board games, TTRPGs, and other games that are there.

But the larger point kind of still stands -- there's a lot to do at Gen Con, and why you want to go is important. For the reason why that's important...

So, why are you going. What do you want to focus your time on? You don’t have to devote all your time to your focus, but it’s a good fallback to have. When you don’t have anything to do and you find yourself lost, you can fall back on “well, I meant to come here and play plenty of RPGs, let me check the schedule and see if there are any games coming up.”

That's solid advice. You can go with the idea that you want to soak in as much of the Gen Con ambiance as you can, but it's good to have an idea of the main 'big thing' you want out of Gen Con and be able to use that as a fallback in case you find yourself awash in options that all seem really cool and you're at the risk of analysis paralysis.

To Angry's advice, I'd add just one thing: try to find one thing, an event, a panel, something, that you wouldn't otherwise consider doing if it was just something a bunch of your buddies back home decided to do. Find the one weird thing that you can only do at Gen Con and do that thing. Even if you don't end up liking it all that much, you'll have a story worth sharing (and you don't have to do that thing again next year if you really didn't care for it all that much -- you'll be able to find other things).

In case you have never been to GenCon or any other large convention before, here’s how GenCon actually works. Your badge gets you into the convention itself. That lets you walk around and enter the big public spaces. And that’s about all it does. Anything else you want to do generally requires you to register and have a ticket. There are whole bunches of official events scheduled. Everything from seminars to games to moving showings to dances to knitting classes. Every f$&%ing thing imaginable. Each event has a certain number of tickets available. If you buy a ticket to that event (which might be free or it might cost anywhere from $2 to $20), you can attend that event. At the event, your ticket will be collected and you will get to be in the event. IN THEORY. See, there’s a few things that f$&% with that system. First, you’ve got generic tickets. Generic tickets are wildcards. They cost $2 apiece and you can use them in a couple of different ways. Many events that don’t have a set number of seats ONLY ACCEPT GENERIC TICKETS as buy-in. If you want to play an official D&D game, for example, or play in one of the Magic: the Gathering tournaments, you need to bring generic tickets to cover the cost of the event.

That last bit is no longer really true. In the past, it was easier for event organizers with large number of events to just rent space in Gen Con and only take generic tickets rather than list out all the events they planned to run, but that's not really true anymore. Pastimes, the main orgnaizer for Magic events at Gen Con, have 456 different ticketed events in the online event catalog, while Baldman Games, who runs the official sanctioned D&D events that make use of the current Organized Play system for D&D 5e have 155 different ticketed D&D events. They will still accept generic tickets, if there is space to allow generic ticketholders into the event, but they will all prioritize actual ticketholders.

As far as I can tell, the two reasons for this are:

Gen Con has upped their administrative game, making it easier for these large event organizers to submit their events, and

The benefits of actual ticketed events outweigh simply accepting generics only.

What do I mean by the benefits of ticketing? Say you're Pastimes, and you check the online event catalog a month prior to Gen Con and notice that not only have none of your scheduled 8-player Commander drafts sold out, but most aren't even half sold, while your Pauper win-a-box tournaments have been sold out since the week of event registration. You can make the decision to cancel some of those Commander drafts, knowing that most of the players affected by those cancellations should be able to pick up seats in other still not sold-out drafts, and instead schedule more Pauper win-a-box tournaments which people actually want to play in. This is a great tool for organizers, and they have embraced it; as a result, generics are significantly less important than they used to be.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea to have some generic tickets available, on the off-chance you find an event in the catalog and can't get ahold of an actual ticket. You can definitely get into some events, even 'sold out' events, using generics (mainly if other ticketed players don't show up). But since generics can't be refunded -- only returned for system credit -- it's not very helpful to buy $30, $40, or $50 in generic tickets on your first trip and find out you only end up using less than $10 worth. You can always buy more generics if you really feel you're running low.

I'm skipping the entire 'Knowing Your Way Around' section, because it's still largely accurate.

Don’t touch anyone with permission.

The 'General Etiquette' section is very good, but this should clearly read, "Don't touch anyone without permission."

Putting that crap aside, this is the big one: Indy loves GenCon. The businesses love GenCon. Partly because they bring a huge amount of money into the city and partly because Indy thinks geeks are really nice, harmless, friendly, happy people. It’s true. Ask them. They all say the same thing. They love us. They love us more than the sports fans. Don’t f$&% that up. It’s actually kind of nice that the whole city basically becomes Geek Valhalla for four days and you can run a Dungeon World game in a hotel bar for three hours and no one looks askance at you. It’s neat that you can dress up like Slave Leia and still get served in a restaurant without anything thinking it is remotely weird. It is nice to have people genuinely think you’re a good person because you’re a geek. And you know why that works? Because most of the people who go to GenCon are actually nice, friendly, happy people just having a good time. If you like that experience, deserve that experience. You be nice too. You’re an ambassador for GenCon when you’re at GenCon. It’s part of the price of GenCon. Accept that. Oh, side note: lots of business try to get into the spirit of GenCon by changing their menus or offering special geek-themed stuff like a burger called The Desolation of Smaug or a cocktail called The Winter Soldier. It’s kind of cool. And some restaurants really go overboard. But… they only do that for like five days out of the entire year and most of the staff aren’t geeks. So a lot of those words are gibberish. I’ve seen geeks get annoyed with wait staff who have to confirm which burger the Eye of Sauron actually is. And that pisses me off. Don’t do that. The servers are working their a$&es off to make you feel comfortable by trying to celebrate your subculture. Cut them some f$&%ing slack.

I've copied this entire section because it suggests a point that it doesn't make -- the businesses in downtown Indy will say they love Gen Con -- especially places like restaurants that are busy pretty much the entire weekend. This doesn't mean that everyone working for those businesses loves Gen Con or even tolerates it very well; if you worked in a downtown where two days out of the year you could count on needing 45 minutes to get lunch or an hour to drive out of downtown at the end of the day, I'm sure you'd be a bit irritated as well.

And, despite how much the folks whose jobs it is to be nice to you want to be nice to you, they only have so much energy and stamina; don't just cut them some slack if they don't know the geeky names for their menu items, also don't actively be a jerk by complaining that a restaurant ran out of 'the only entree I'd eat in this restaurant' on Saturday night, or by showing up at 11:55 on Friday night when the kitchen closes at midnight demanding to be served.

In spite of capitalism, being treated nicely at Gen Con isn't a right -- it's a privilege, and one you should help maintain for all other attendees.

'Your Gen Con Bag' is excellent advice. No notes.

And here’s where I can give you an expert pro-tip. If you fly in, you will need a taxi to take you to the city from the airport. And you want to do two things. One, tip that cabbie extremely well. Like $5 to $10 well. Two, get that cabbie’s card. That cabbie is now yours. They will prioritize you. And, most importantly, they will prioritize your trip back to the airport on Sunday or Monday, provided you call about 30 minutes ahead. Keep tipping that cabbie a buck or two per trip, but if you don’t have extra change and you skip a tip, that cabbie will be okay with it. Because that cabbie is yours. You bought them.

I do have some notes on this paragraph, though:

$5 to $10 isn't really all that great a tip for an airport-to-downtown taxi ride (or vice versa), and cab fares have also gone up since Angry wrote his original piece. Expect to pay $40 or more for a cab ride to or from the airport; if the fare is slightly over $40, paying $60 and having the cabbie keep the change will have the desired effect. However,

The one time you really don't need to take a cab is from the airport to the convention center. There are shuttles that go past all the major downtown hotels surrounding the convention center, there is a bus line that goes directly into downtown and drops off right in front of the ICC, and there are other rental options. One year I went with a friend, we made acquaintances of a number of folks on the plane with us, and we all decided to go in together and rented a limo to take us into downtown. It might be more expensive now, but it worked out to about $10 per person then, so may still be worth looking into if you have a big enough group.

With that said, if you are not at a 'connected hotel' and need the option to cab back and forth from the ICC to your hotel, getting a cabbie you can call repeatedly over the weekend and who knows you tip well is an excellent option.

In general, any event is skippable. And if people know they can show up with generics and take your seat, that doesn’t have to be a problem. But still, show a little bit of restraint. Don’t sign up for things if there’s only a slim chance you’ll go. In that case, the proper thing is for you to show up with the generics and try to get an open seat. Just know that, just because you have a ticket for an event doesn’t mean you are bound to that event.

This is probably the thing I most disagree with in Angry's guide, and I'll illustrate why with an anecdote.

My wife and I met Irish folk dancing at a pub, and when we noticed there was a Sunday morning Irish folk dance event at GenCon where we could get the last two available tickets, we were pumped to go. We got up early Sunday, raced to the event, and then sat for 25 minutes as literally none of the other ticketholders showed up. Since most Irish folk dances require more than one couple, the organizer really had no choice but to cancel the event, and though we were able to get the cost of those tickets refunded, it didn't make up for the lost time, the inability to get into a replacement event, and the simple crushing disappointment at not getting to do an event we had our hearts set on.

Obviously, there are limits. If you are actually sick, then don't go to the event. But if you find yourself filling up your schedule with events you're not excited about, and you start skipping them, maybe turn the other tickets you're not excited about back in. Gen Con is huge, but that doesn't mean every event at Gen Con is huge. Otherwise, if you have a ticket for an event, make more than a minimal effort to get to that event. If you really don't want to be there, and you can see there are others there with generics who are happy to take your place, then go ahead and let them. But at least in this case, you're doing the polite thing and helping to ensure that the event still gets to happen for the people who want it.

Most of the advice in 'The Dealers Hall' is good, but...

And now comes some stuff about money. Look, lots of geeks deal in plastic rather than cash. And most booths can take credit/debit cards. But you’re best off using cash for several reasons. First of all, like flea markets, convention dealer halls are notorious dens of identity theft. And it’s easy to lose sight of your card as the staffer walks over to run the transaction through the dealie. I am not kidding about this one. It’s becoming a HUGE problem. Second of all, if you have a set amount of cash to spend, you won’t overspend and then discover you can’t afford a meal or a cab fare later. Third of all, the dealers prefer cash for a variety of reasons. In fact, if you pay cash and have exact change (and often, they will round off prices to make that EASY), the dealers will usually cheer you on. Seriously, there is an Exact Change Cheer many dealers do. It’s kind of neat. In fact, in general, even if it is not your normal habit, you should deal in cash. Cash makes it easier for cabs, to split checks in restaurants, to leave tips, to use vending machines, and so on. Get in the habit of pulling cash out for the day’s activities. If you budget well, you can actually leave your plastic safely in your hotel room safe.

The world has changed since 2015, and this entire block of advice is simply wrong:

Most places who do business in the dealer hall have adapted to e-commerce and now make use of Square or similar card-readers that are portable and will read chip cards without you ever having to let go of your card. In this environment, the odds of identity theft are virtually zero. If a vendor is small enough that they do need to take and swipe your card on something, they'll likely also be small enough that you can see them do that, and if you can't, feel free to refuse to use your card for that purchase. It won't be common.

Budgeting is a good thing, but you should be able to set a budget without carrying around large quantities of cash. Not to mention that carrying large quantities of cash is a great way to lose all that cash if you get your pocket picked or otherwise lose track of your wallet. Not saying it's common, but it is a danger.

Dealers do not necessarily prefer cash. There are some vendors who will actually refuse to take cash (this is actually getting fairly common in Artists Alley, since purchases tend to be large there), since keeping track of cash is a hassle and a headache, and electronic payments don't just walk away during the close of business.

The world, including Gen Con, has grown accustomed to dealing with electronic payments. Take advantage of that where you can to keep your own finances safe.

First of all, try to eat three meals a day and try to eat them at the same time every day.

Good luck with that. Not saying it's bad advice, but unless you're doing something like a full day of D&D where meal breaks have been worked into the schedule for the DMs, you probably are on your own for figuring out when your schedule allows you a meal break. Gen Con as a whole does not set aside any blocks of time where 'everybody' goes and gets a meal. If you're putting together an eclectic schedule of events, you're almost certainly going to end up with eclectic mealtimes as a result.

Breakfast is the hardest meal to find at GenCon.

This is true, but breakfast is also the easiest meal to work around, since you can eat it before, on the way to, or even during your first event (depending on the event). If you're flying in, you can certainly fit granola bars or breakfast bars or some other shelf-stable, high-energy option in your baggage. If you're driving, you have even more room to plan out meals and snacks, such as the classic PB&J. If you're addicted to your morning coffee, though, then I feel for you, because short of bringing your own coffeemaker (or using whatever is in the hotel/your room), there's few good alternatives.

Honestly, coffee is the biggest damned problem at the whole convention.

True.

Stay away from the food courts and vending machines inside the ICC. They are expensive, slow, crowded, and they serve s$&% food.

In a pinch, you can probably survive a hot dog from one of the ICC food vendors, but unless you are a young person with an iron stomach, you don't want to make the ICC food vendors a habit.

Last point, because it's not one that was a 'thing' back in 2015: do not harass, belittle, or even comment on other people at your events or in public spaces that choose to wear masks during Gen Con.

With all that said, if this is your first Gen Con, here's hoping you have a great time!