im an #oldhead and was there during its prime 2013-2014

and one of the (not truly worst, but pretty cringy) experiences was at a convention.

i (an aranea cosplayer) was just chillen, walking around by myself and looking for the homestucks, and a gamzee cosplayer suddenly showed up and walked along side me, with a tavros and I think a sollux. he started chatting me up, being over familiar. I got along with him until he hugged me randomly between conversation. which is a big fuck no. i didn't really know how to react so i was like "oh... oh okay!"

He kept following me around with a group of other people he was with. I learned they were all in their early-mid 20s and I was only 14. I didn't think it was wrong at the time because age differences were kinda a nonissue in fandom spaces back then. there were NO boundaries lol. But when they invited me back to their hotel for food, I knew I just had to get the fuck out of there lol. I made friends with a very kind davesprite and godtier dave within my age group who saw the awkwardness and helped slowly inch me out of there. The touchy shit was not a surprise to me. this was before con rules about touching were really enforced? homestucks were pretty huggy and *glompy* back then, even when they just first meet. It's all fun and fine until... you're being touched by a gamzee.

Later I made friends with a godtier vriska cosplayer, she was sorta very vriska-esque in the sense that she was a social butterfly but very demanding of peoples attention, and a little rude. So I'm mingling, chatting with her and other people. One minute I look away and the next minute, she's furiously making out with a random tavros cosplayer causing a crowd of more cosplayers to form around them. i guess to replicate that one panel, you know the one. it was very awkward. and also disgusting? the paint was smearing....

much later, it was time for photo shoots. many of us were strangers but we liked to pose with each other. I ended up posing with a random Jake,(cuz aranea/jake whatever) it was brief and he was nice(AND THIS TIME HE ACTUALLY ASKED PERMISSION TO PUT HIS ARM AROUND MY WAIST) afterwards I went back to watch the rest of the shoot and ANOTHER fucking gamzee B LINED to me to put his arm around me asking what I was doing. he smelled very bad. I went home after that because I think I'd had enough.

during that time, people were very in and out of role play within the con. there was this kankri who was acting like kankri, cringy but most people tolerated it cuz they were also children. and eridans were acting the way you'd expect. Its like how kids liked to larp warrior cats or some shit. except it was for a relatively niche web comic (though i'd argue its even more niche now) a lot of us were just excited teenagers who just wanted to feel immersed in their fave media. I was very shy so I rarely spoke, but I did ultimately have a fantastic time there. also towards the end my horns broke. and also towards the end me and a dave did the harlem shake.