/ot/ - off-topic

Not quite a horror story, but it could have turned into one.

When I was a little, teenage weeb and actively cosplaying subpar costumes, I happened to make a "friend" who was in their upper twenties. I was kind of oblivious to the fact they were creeping on me; I got wrapped up in con feelings of "we all love anime despite our differences!!1" and didn't think much of age differences. But we became facebook friends, he would seek me out at conventions I was at to take a picture of me and then leave me alone. He was never overtly off putting, just sort of quiet.

It wasn't until a few years after we lost touch that I realized how unsettling it was that a nearly 30 year-old man was very apt about getting pictures of a young-looking 16-18 year-old girl on a rather consistent basis.

>>120949
Just think of what he did with your pictures.

>>120949
i had a similar experience at the only con i ever cosplayed at. my friend invited me to a con last minute and i decided to throw together a quick cosplay from an anime i liked for fun. the outfit was picrelated without the prop and i was 15 at the time. throughout the day i was approached multiple times by older men (late 20s to mid 30s) and asked if they could take my picture, which i posed for and didnt really mind until afterwards when they asked "so, what character are you supposed to be?" which really caught me off guard because i assumed they were taking my picture because they were fans of the anime. something about that still creeps me the hell out to this day and i never cosplayed again kek

>>120949
>>172189
I can't believe 30 year old guys want to fuck teenage girls, what creeps!

>>120949
Doesn't cosplay in general have a pretty bad reputation, as a social scene I mean. My understanding is there's a lot of cheating, a lot of drugs at the 'raves', a lot of promiscuous sex and so on. I remember some anon telling me the CA scene was full of people into weirdo shit like polyamory, and that female cosplayers have a reputation of being quite easy.

>>172360
It was fine before the internet attention whoring became a huge thing over social media. Conventions used to have more people going to them because of their interests in whatever specific niche thing it was for and it wasn't a big deal to wear a homemade costume mom and dad helped make. Now it's only about big film or game companies advertising, people looking good for their patreon account or guys seeking out easy women to fuck. It's not just the cosplayers who turned it into shit since so many men are willing to go to any convention with the assumption they can find someone to have sex with.

Someone Yuri on Ice cosplayers stole and harassed a vendor this weekend

http://giphy.com/gifs/l0MYyQe3D3zWKJEVq

>>172680
Who are they? I tried to do some searching/reverse image searched the gif but nothing came up.

>>172745
http://victuuri.tumblr.com/

From cgl, she claims the vendor sexually harassed her lol

>>172680
This is the very last thing I will say about the Con Alt Delete drama. After this I won’t be answering any questions whatsoever about it because this’ll answer a good majority of questions. under a cut so my normal followers don’t have to see this shit ass drama:

1. First of all, stop acting like I’m going by some fake name. I go by both Sycamore AND Vanessa. Sycamore is my nickname.

2. Before anything else, here’s an update on the situation because i’m sure all the people on facebook are dying for this. On Saturday, me and my friend went to talk to Con Ops. They told us they would get the security footage from Jayce (the vendor). After the masquerade where we performed, they pulled us aside and talked to us again after having reviewed it. Not only did they find us NOT STEALING, because we fucking didn’t lmao, but they issued a warning to Jayce for claiming we were stealing when that wasn’t true. My friend and I left the con early on Sunday out of our own accord (also our masq performance was over, and that’s what we mainly wanted to do.) None of us were interested in stealing anything from Jayce’s booth. It’s pretty funny how Jayce cut off the gif right before it shows us just straight up walking away, lol!

3. All of us have really good relationships with a lot of Midwestern vendors. We’ve all been going to cons for years and have bought hundreds of dollars worth of merch. None of collect plushies and have no reason to even want any. When we got to Jayce’s booth, we were just there tossing around the little plushies cause that’s where the free spot was, other people were checking out other parts of his booth. All of us mainly collect figures and artist alley stuff.

4. Now for the full story. My friend (who will remain unnamed, even though I’m sure all of fb already knows who she is) had a relationship with Jayce for a little while in which he literally led her on until she put out for him. As soon as that happened, he broke off their relationship immediately, leaving her feeling used. THE VERY NEXT DAY, he was flirting with me, and had been for a while, even AFTER I told him I wasn’t attracted to men, and had told him about being attracted to women. He continued to be unable to take a hint. After both me and a friend talked about this in a cosplay group a few months ago, another one of our friends came out and said that some time ago, Jayce had forced himself on her in an attempt to kiss her and she had to shove him away, and then he played it off as a joke. And the kicker is that after all this, Jayce contacted my first friend and asked if she was at Daisho Con last month. She replied, saying that if she saw him, she would hurt him, after which he said “come at me” lmfao. Sounds like an invitation to me. But also, what people aren’t considering is that: these are my friends, how am I supposed to feel? Consider what you would do if this happened to your own friends. I love them. Anything that happens to them makes me overprotective and angry. That’s what happened. In a fit of petty anger, we knocked over the box and messed with the plushies. Was it the most adult thing to do? Of course not. We all regret that we did it, but once again, it was a spur of the moment thing.

5. I kept Jayce as a friend on facebook as a favor to my friend, because she wanted to see if he would talk shit about her and he has her blocked, so she can’t access his page. I’m not sure why people are using this as any kind of evidence LMAO some of y’all have some questionable people added and no one says shit about that.

6. Me and my friend(s) have gotten numerous threats on facebook, instagram, and here on tumblr. I don’t particularly mind, but I really want to ask people to back off my friend. She’s going through an extremely tough time with her family and is horribly strained as a result of this. Please just leave her alone.

7. None of this had to be a big deal. If we had been caught stealing, we’d be blacklisted from cons, possibly arrested. Since that didn’t happen, and all we did was mess with that vendor a little, it didn’t have to get blown out of proportion.

8. It’s truly funny to me how people are so willing to believe some random cishet dude with a bad history as opposed to a bunch of girls and LGBT people who have been having to defend themselves all fucking weekend and have been troubled by this guy for so long. Even the girls who work his stand know how he is.

9. We aren’t denying we knocked some shit around, but what we will say is that we aren’t thieves, and that we truly do regret it. In hindsight we could have just ignored him. But you can’t erase the past so it is what it is. The reaction has been severely overblown considering we are very respectful congoers when it comes to dealing with people who deserve respect, which is a majority of the people we interact with, of course.

10. Lastly, if you have any doubts about what I’ve said, feel free to contact the Con Alt Delete staff or any of our other friends who weren’t even at that con. I’ve been complaining to friends who don’t even live in Illinois about him for months. This isn’t some shit any of us made up on the fly. Jayce has been a problem in my friend group for way longer than one weekend.

>>172868
Maybe this will teach you to act your fucking age, Vanessa.

>>172868
no amount of lmaos and text can justify you acted like a child. there could have been any numerous ways of dealing with sexual harassment. but you chose to be a shady fuck and now you have to deal with it.

>>172868
Being a woman/LGBT somehow lends an excuse to your childish behavior? Yeah, all right.

If this Jayce has been such a thorn in your and your friends collective sides, why not drop him, full stop? With the way you've framed your story, it looks as though you like having him around solely so you can talk shit and get brownie points for "standing up" to him.

Also, it's my friend and I.

>>172367
It is not just men, straight or not, trolling for sex at cons.

>>172868
Well shit, you didn't have to act like a child. That's what con security are there for ffs.

>>172868
You could have summed this up with "we were marginally less twatish than originally thought, but we were still twats."

>>172868
You really consider being a bunch of children and knocking shit over on purpose "defending" yourself? You sound like the type of snowflake who thinks a man can rape you by just looking at you.

Also,
>cishet

Please fucking stop.

If you want to act like a bunch of retarded entitled cunts, take it to tumblr.

>>172189
Aspiring photographers go to cons and take pics of everything for rep and networking - they don't know what 90% of their subjects are cosplaying. They just want that recognition by mooching off of whatever your character is, because they know their photo of you with their watermark on it will get shared around when they post it online. Get over yourself.

Imagine if someone cosplaying a giant mecha was this appalled at people taking a photo and then asking the cosplayer what character they were.

Unless your cosplay was actually totally shit and they had camera phones then sure yeah they're probably just fapping to it.

>>172868
You acted 5 years old. GG. No amount of "explanation uwu" and shitty tymblr terms will save your ass.

get off lolcow lmao

>>172868
tl;dr

I kind of want to go to a con because I have never been before, but I am 25.

Am I too old?

>>173240
There's people a lot older than you that go to cons. So, nah. You aren't too old.

Warning for TL;DR and date cringe–

Around 2011 I was talking to guy I met online for months via dating profile. He seemed into me, and he knew what I looked like. At the time I was overweight and was pretty self-conscious in the dating scene, I had little to no self-esteem. This guy complimented me a lot despite all that. So whenever a guy knew what I looked like and still wanted to chill it made me really giddy. Whatever, turns out we also shared common interests in anime. One day he says "Hey anon, we should go to small college con x, you can stay at my dorm if you'd like." I agree to this, the drive for me is about an hour and a half but he says I can stay in his dorm which is co-ed. Then we can go early to the con the next day. The guy seemed smart and someone I could get along with, he didn't seem neurotic and he had roommates.
Also I looked at the con's guest list and was excited to find they got the VAs from Invader Zim, which was my favorite childhood cartoon.

So the day I was due to drive in, I rushed to get my hair done at a salon after work and then tried to rush to beat heavy traffic. Didn't work.
By the time I reached the guy's campus I was really stressed out, and then I couldn't locate where his dorm was supposed to be. I wound up parking in an overflow on the outskirts and literally walked ~1.2km (in heels) with all my shit just trying to find the guy. It was hot.

I finally find him and I can tell immediately he's not impressed with me. I didn't know why at the time but it was a vibe. He was really thin, kind of a shut-in geek type who plays too much vidya. We go to dinner at his campus's dining cafeteria and I notice that he's judging every item I'm putting onto my tray. Brush it off bc I was hungry, had worked, was stressed. and hadn't eaten that day. Didn't know this was a cue for him thinking I was a fat fuck. At this point I should have realized this was a huge mistake and bailed, but I just didn't have quite enough money for a hotel and didn't want to drive all the way back home. I was determined to meet those VAs too.

We go back to his dorm and the guy actually sleeps on the floor while he offers me the bed. Which was um 'nice' I guess but also made me feel like shit since I didn't expect this whole ordeal to turn into an awkward platonic meetup. He didn't want to cuddle or be around me in any fashion. Later that night I tried to use the girl's bathroom but it was locked with a code. I really had to pee, in addition to washing my face and brushing teeth. I go back to the room to try to wake the dude to tell me the code but he acts super resentful then mumbles the code. I go back to punch in code, try multiple times, but it doesn't work. I go back to the guy again. "Um are you sure it's the right code?" "YES ANON, IT'S XXXXX." "O-ok." Go back. Nope. Not working. Try for an embarrassing 40 minutes hoping some dorm chick would come and let me in. To no avail. I didn't want to get yelled at again so I decide to go to bed with a greasy makeup face.

The next morning I tell dude to ask the girls across the way to let me into the bathroom since I had to piss badly. They do so (dude told me wrong code in fact), but my hair was already grease from coming into contact w/ makeup and just getting shit sleep in general. I looked and felt like shit, no energy. Barely wanted to go to the con. So I ask dude around 11am if he wanted to go grab lunch on our way since I was hungry.
"You're hungry? Don't you know that our bodies only feel hunger when often we just need vitamins, You should try taking supplements. You don't always need food." …..you fucking wat dude? I have no idea why he was suddenly talking to me like I was a 500 pound heifer just because I wanted a meal at a reasonable hour with a day ahead of us. We didn't even have breakfast and hadn't eaten since 6pm the night prior. So we don't get food, and walk across campus to the con. He was making me feel like absolute shit for no god damn reason at this point, but of course I had no self-esteem to just tell him to piss off.

We attend a couple panels, but nothing too interesting. I tried striking up friendly talks with the dude but he started acting really neurotic and just didn't seem to reciprocate any dialogue. He attempted to hold my hand at certain points but it just felt so insincere.
I actually made friends talking to others just bc this guy seemed to have a complex about appearing more intelligent than me. By the evening I was still hungry/thirsty and insisted we go to a roped-off dining area to eat. All I wound up grabbing was a ramune because I was afraid this autist would have something to say about my diet again. I notice as other con goers leave, they're all leaving their trays and trash and such. I thought it was the kind of area where employees come out and collect the garbage. On top of that some other people were playing tabletop games and throwing trash to side tables in general.
When I finished my ramune I asked dude if he was all set, I got up and left the ramune bottle behind. Suddenly I hear,
"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" I turn around and he's looking at me like I just stabbed a baby. "Why aren't you throwing out your bottle? Will you just leave it here!?" He shouts so loud a couple people look over. I'm turning red. "Er, everyone else is leaving trash so I just assumed I could too?" I was in shock, I've never seen someone raise such a fuss over a bottle. But he was dead serious about escorting my ramune bottle to the nearest trash can, which was located outside the roped area. So I did, but at this point I was pretty much done with him and made no effort to be nice anymore. If the bottle thing was so important to him then maybe he should've pitched it.

Finally, the evening came and it was an hour before the VA panel. I go inside the artist alley to see if I could find someone to commission a Gir picture for the VAs to sign. I find a girl who says she can have it done by the end of the panel for the signage. YES. She was great and very sweet.
I arrive at the panel and it's just like every other VA people except it was PACKED because of Invader Zim gimmicks. I think it went overtime. Towards the end of the panel everyone formed a gigantic line for signatures, so I hopped out to go pay for my commission to come back. The commission cost $19, which wasn't bad imo.

We reenter the panel auditorium and myself and autistdude are the last ones in there. NOW NOTE: Nowhere in the program nor in announcement did the staff say there was a charge for signatures. If they had announced it, autistdude would have caught that and yelled at my ass for what came next:
I introduce myself to the VAs, tell them I was a fan of their past shows. They don't say anything to me except sit and smile forcibly. So next I asked if they could all sign this picture I commissioned since it would have meant a lot.
The VAs look at me, look at each other, and then look at the con staff. Horvitz gives me a smug look and says "That's $25 for each signature."
I'm fucking crushed. I only had ~$40, which meant I could only get one person. I was practically crying. I put up with shit the entire day and the only thing I wanted to go right was this part. My voice was shaking as I told them I only had $40, nonetheless they all shrugged it off. After what Horvitz said to me, I went with Simons. They were stone cold. I said nothing and just let them take my money. I should have said SOMETHING, I should have said no. By the time I walked off the stage, the picture and the signature were all but meaningless to me, I couldn't believe they treated me that way and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't even know where that picture is now, might've tossed it.

Anyway, I know the dollar amount of signatures wasn't in the program or announced because had it been so, the autistdude would've yelled at me to prove how superior he was. He said nothing and was just as surprised as me.
Blah blah blah.
We go off to the main hall and I tell him I'm leaving and that he should go. He walks back to his dorm. I drive home in silent disappointment.
He tried being nice and contacting me like a few weeks later like nothing had happened. And then a few months later after that. I never replied, he was a cunt.

I've since grown a spine and have a stable bf to go to cons with now.

>>173246
>>173246
Hun,
You seem prettyannoying too.
>Oh I was greasy and blah blah and he didnt like it
No shit, even if you usually arent it was the first time he saw you. Of course he started to think that you are sloppy.
>others leave trash so I can too.
SNOWFLAKE SYNDROOME!

He sounded like the average autist who thought he made a friend. You sound like a snowflake cunt. The con not telling that signatures cost, shitty.

>>173255
>greasy
Which wasn't really a fault of mine seeing as though he was nasty and rude when I simply asked for the bathroom code to not turn into a human greaseball. What kind of host behaves that way?
And either way nobody should be yelling and shouting at someone they first met.
You're reaching pretty far to defend the autist camp on this one sis.

>>173246
im sorry you were treated that way anon

i relate to you on the eating thing, whenever i leave the house i avoid eating in public or hide somewhere to eat, it sucks and it hurts. im glad you're doing okay these days anon

>>173246
Holy shit, That sounds really fucking shitty anon oh man I feel so bad for past you reading that! Hope you're doing better now and fuck that guy, He was an ass.

>>173246
I felt stressed just from reading this, you poor thing anon. What an unnecessary ass that guy is.