I do not own anything except my OCs. WARNING: Randomness, dank memes, cringe and grammar mistakes.
Chapter 129: Internet Historian Part 2
"Do you kids want to continue with the Internet Historian or watch something else?" Nova said.
"No, continue with him." Ruby said.
"Great! Who's ready to watch some degeneracy?"
"What kind of degeneracy are talking about?" Weiss said.
"Hypocritical Tumblr users and furries."
"Hypocritical?" Blake said.
"You'll see."
Video: The Failure of DashCon | The world's first Tumblr convention
[Disclaimer]
In March of 2013, a group of Tumblr users come up with a brilliant idea; DashCon. A convention specifically for, and by Tumblr users. This, is their story.
"Isn't that where the ball pit meme came from?" Nora said.
"Uh huh."
"No way."
"Ball pit?" Pyrrha said.
"You'll see."
DashCon! (wowser) Hosted in the Renaissance Convention Center in Chigago. Only $65 for the weekend. (wowser intensifies) Epic panel lineup, (wowser) Welcome to Night Vale reading. LGBTQQIP2SAA+ (amazeballs).
"What?" Weiss said.
"Is that the whole acronym?" Ren said.
"Are all those actual communities?" Jaune said.
"You say communities, people say genders, I say sexual preferences or fetishes." Nova said.
"Wait, queer? They made an insult the name of a community?" Blake said.
Massive ball pit. Steam Powered Giraffe live show. The Baker Street Babes. And friendly memes? You bet. Expect 5,000 people.
"Wow, 5000 people?" Ruby said.
We'll see you there... Whoosh! Here comes Friday, and a big, fat serving of reality. About 500 people show up at 9:00 AM, but nothing is scheduled until 1:00 PM, so people just wait around for the next 4 hours.
"They didn't plan anything until then?" Yang said.
"Only 500?" Jaune said.
Interviewer: So at what point did you decide that this is what you wanted to do with your life?
Cosplayer: I didn't, it just kind of... happened.
Interviewer: The thug life chose you?
Turns out Steam Powered Giraffe cancelled months ago.
"Months? And they didn't update anyone?" Blake said.
"I think I have an idea why." Weiss said.
Sorry, if you bought special tickets no refunds though, lol.
"And no refunds?" Pyrrha said.
"Yep. They just wanted the money."
"How can you be so sure?" Blake said.
"I'm not. It's just an hypothesis."
Check out the games room. One TV, one console. Perfect for up to 7,000 people.
"Wow, are you kidding?" Yang said.
Here's that ball pit you were looking forward to.
"*gasp* The legendary ballpit..." Nora said.
"Okay, how much money was spent for this convention?" Weiss said.
Interviewer: Free Palestine! Death to Israel! Death to Israel! Free Palestine! (laughs)
"Wait, what?!" Ruby said.
"Don't bother yourselves with this. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a thing for 70 years. I won't be surprised if they start another war. I'm just hoping Jerusalem won't be destroyed." Nova said.
Overall, it's a pretty fuckin' slow day.
"Man, this convention sucks. What will be next? They'll kick them out?" Yang said.
Interviewer: Ok, so you're dressed up as the Batman movie shooter. What made you choose this costume?
"Movie shooter?" Jaune said.
Cosplayer: Costume?...
Interviewer: Um, what made you want to dress up as the prime minister of Israel for this convention?
Satan Cosplayer: I say dress for the job you want.
They all laughed a little.
Then, by 9:00 PM, disaster strikes. The bill for the venue hasn't even been paid. The hotel wants it immediately, or the doors will be shut and the convention is over.
"They're actually going to kick them out..." Yang said.
"They didn't organize it well." Blake said.
"What happened? Did they spend it all for themselves?"
Organizer: I'm here at DashCon, where we're about to get kicked out, unless everyone in this room can accumulate $17,000.
"17000?! That's... 170000 lien?" Weiss said.
"Where are they going to find that much money?" Jaune said.
"There are not enough people. And I doubt that they have enough money." Blake said.
"I will be surprised if they did." Yang said.
Organizer: We currently have a donation button up on our website, and any little bit that, like, helps.
Crowd: Is cash accepted?
Organizer: Yeeees, we have a donation baaaaag.
Crowd: This is extortion- Yeah, this is extortion!
(Then they all do that signal from Hunger Games, I haven't watched the movie.)
"This can't be happening." Yang said and started laughing along with the others.
Someone: What if they want more money?
But, they raise the money, and the con continues.
"They did?!" Pyrrha said.
"But how are they going to enjoy the convention if they spent all their money?" Ruby said.
"Hmm... something's suspicious." Ren said.
"I believe so too. This has to be a scam." Weiss said.
Saturday. Artisans and storeholders who paid $150 each for their tables aren't selling anything because their customers just donated all of their cash. Tumblr's turned on the convention completely.
Waman: The destruction of this - CONVENTION - is dedicated to all of the women whose - BANK ACCOUNT - have been ruined and ruled by it. (Starts hitting it with a hammer) I'm tired of you stealing my - MONEY -, I'm tired of you making me - DONATE TO -!
Some of them laughed a little.
The call DashCon a scam, and try to have certain events shut down. 'Mark Does Stuff', a gay Hispanic panelist-
Mark: Hi, I'm Mark.
-is sent death threats because they think he's a STRAIGHT WHITE MALE who's mis-appropriating The Gay™ for profit.
"Death threats? Them?" Yang said.
"Aren't they supposed to be the sensitive ones?" Jaune said.
"Kill all men!" Nora said.
Pacific Rim is illegally played to an audience of 100. Tumblr sends tweets to Del Toro to get them in trouble. The Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Sing-Along is cancelled to copyright concerns. Then, the main event. As long as we get to see a live reading from Welcome To Night Vale, it'll all be OK.
"And they say that it's cancelled." Weiss said.
"What is Welcome To Night Vale? What's the book about?" Blake said.
"It's also a podcast. And I think it's very similar to Stranger Things." Nova said.
"Hmm, that sounds interesting."
(12:00)
Attendee: So, we're here for the live reading of Welcome To The Night Vale.
(12:50)
Attendee: It is 12:50 right now, and they're still not here.
"They waited for almost an hour?" Ruby said.
Organizer: Okay, so basically... Night Vale... uh... just walked.
"Whoa, really?" Yang said.
"They must've realized how bad the convention was." Blake said.
Crowd: What? WHAT? wut? watt?!
Some of them laughed a little.
"What was that "what"?" Yang said.
Organizer: We're all going to sigh together, ok?
"Excuse me? Sigh?" Weiss said.
Organizer: So 1... 2... (sighs with the crowd)
Someone: Give me back my money!
"Did they seriously sighed? Is that what they do when something doesn't go well for them? Just sigh?" Blake said.
"What is wrong with these people? I would also demand my money back." Weiss said.
Whilw everyone is still sitting in that room, waiting for the show to start, they change the rules on the website so that there are no refunds. But don't worry, there's a silver lining.
"There is?" Jaune said.
Everyone who paid extra to see Welcome To Night Vale is entitled to a FREE extra hour in the Ball Pit.
"This convention is a big failure." Yang said.
Interviewer: This is what your $17,000 went to! (Laughs)
And with that a meme is born.
(MLG BALL PIT MONTAGE)
Some of them laughed.
By the early afternoon, the vendors pack up and leave. Some shitty panels happen.
Panelist: ...the LGBTQ&A, uhh... where they gave us too small of a table and not enough chairs... (Another panelist laughs weirdly)
"Every table for you is too small." Yang said.
"Yaaang! Don't fat shame!" Ruby said.
Panelist: Pansexual, polysexual, omnisexual, fluid.
"What is she even talking about?" Jaune said.
"I wish I knew." Nova said.
Because again, they don't have any cash, they're giving out free hotel mints as prizes. Then teenage unpaid helpers, who were promised free meals, aren't given anything, and go hungry. There's a full-on organizer meltdown... (Funny crying black man meme)
Some of them laughed a little.
And Tumblr finds out that the main artwork used for the convention is in fact, stolen copyright material.
"Even the artwork! Unbelievable!" Weiss said.
By the evening, the unthinkable happens. The ball pit starts to deflate.
"Nooooooo! Not the ball pit!" Nora said.
And someone pisses in it.
"Nooooooooooo, come on!". She hen starts laughing, along with the others.
Sunday. The ball pit is taken away.
"Rest in peace, ball pit."
Also, Tumblr finds out that 'random acts', a charity that DashCon claims to be partnered with, isn't, in fact, partnered at all. Which means, by the way, they've just been pocketing the money.
"So it was a scam!" Weiss said.
"I find it difficult to believe that a community of sensitive people would do such a thing." Pyrrha said.
"What did you expect? They're all a bunch of hypocrites." Nova said.
The organizers host an official apology panel.
Organizer: Part of that is on us.
"Part of?" Blake said.
Organizer: There were a lot of... mistakes made on a lot of different people's parts. And we take full responsibility for the parts that were us.
"That's not full responsibility!" Ruby said.
Organizer: We are first-timers. But we intend to... learn from our mistakes... to make 2015 even better.
"So after all that, they want to do it next year too!" Weiss said.
Here's a quick summary of that:
(montage of the organizer saying 'like')
Chloe from Life is Strange: I gotta blame somebody. Otherwise, it's all my fault. Fuck that.
And everything is closed by 1:00 PM.
(The Aftermath)
Since DashCon, there have been many rumours online that the whole thing was an out-and-out scam. So I did some detective work to see whether it was true. I think what I've found proves that even if the staff didn't set out to scam people, they did, opportunistically, steal and lie. Prepare for some high-quality autism.
"Oh boy, my favourite!" Nora said.
DashCon had a written agreement to pay $40K, plus some change, to the Renaissance Hotel Marriott. They paid $20K before the thing began, so, they had a balance of 20K still remaining. They told the hotel that 5 to 7,000 people would be attending and could they please pay as door sales came in. As a financially risky move, the Marriott agreed verbally but not in writing. On the first day, the hotel sees at most, 1,000 people. They know that DashCon's sales are fucked, so they enfirce immediate payment as per their written contact. DashCon does not have the funds.
"What happened to the door sales?" Ruby said.
"It's still not enough." Ren said.
"Shouldn't they ask for less than 17K though?" Yang said.
And here's where it gets interesting. DashCon claims they only had $3000 in cash.
"Only?" Weiss said.
So at 9:00 PM, DashCon staff gather everyone into one room to beg for the remaining 17,000. Let's do a headcount. 33, 129, 120, maybe another 33 here in case there are people on the margin, and we'll add 10% to be generous. It's unlikely that there are more than 350 people in this room.
"How did they reach their goal then?" Jaune said.
"Didn't they also had online donations?" Blake said.
"Oh yeah."
Now we know that they reached their goal.
Organizer: We almost got shut down.
Interviewer: Really?
Organizer: Because we needed to raise $17,000.
Interviewer: Really?
Organizer: Yes.
Interviewer: That's pretty cool. Did you do it?
Organizer: We did it in under an hour.
"Under an hour?! There's no way! Something's going on." Weiss said.
"They probably got most of them by ." Jaune said.
Interviewer: Really?
Organizer: Yeah.
They received donations by and cash, but only a small fraction in cash. Let's be generous and say one tenth of the room at most. You can see people donating in the footage and it's probably much less. So, even if cash donor is giving 20 bucks, which, again, generous, that's only $700 total. Therefore, the other $16,000 or so is in electronic payments. Now, let's look at this leaked list of transactions. Hold on! They made most of their payment in cash, almost $12,000.
"How is that possible?" Yang said.
"... They lied." Ren said.
"About what?" Ruby said.
"About the money they had. Remember, they also had the door sales." Weiss said.
But they only could've got 700 from the donors, and they only had 3,000 in cash. So where did the rest of it come from? It's door sales revenue, not donations, meaning they lied about only having 3,000 dollars in the first place.
"Ha! They did lie!"
"B-but why...?"
They actually had at least 10,000. Now, here are are the transactions that come from the MasterCard. Let's take that from the total owed, and what we get is the following: In a best case scenario, of the donated $17,000, at most they spent less than $7,000 keeping the place open, they spent over $2,000 on themselves and their own accomodation, and the remaining $9,000 or so, they pocketed.
"That's very serious." Pyrrha said.
"Don't they have shame?" Blake said.
"They're Tumblr users. They don't have shame, ethics and self-dignity." Nova said.
Also, they're liars.
Organizer: 'Cause I was on stage for an hour, in front of 5,000 people. (350 people) In a room...
Interviewer: Was there 5,000 people here?
Organizer: Containing a riot.
(Footage from the riot, where they're chanting and singing 'We are the Champions')
"Wow, they're destroying everything." Blake said.
"Yep, they are the champions." Yang said.
Organizer: Back to my post!
(Interviewer cracks up)
Some of them laughed.
"The way he said it. Another victory for us!"
But there's one last thing I want to touch on. As part of the merchandising, an official DashCon DVD is listed.
"A DVD? Who would want to keep their failure in a DVD?" Weiss said.
And it's possible that a copy exists out there somewhere, and I NEED to find it. So I want to put a $100 bounty out for anyonewho might have a copy.
"Is he that serious?" Jaune said.
It doesn't need to be the physical DVD, just copy of the file itself. THE HUNT IS ON.
"So, what did you learn from this?" Nova said.
"Conventions need a lot of preparation and money?" Ruby said.
"If you're a minority, you can get away with a lot of things and not be responsible?" Yang said.
"They can get tricked easily?" Weiss said.
"There are more genders?" Jaune said.
"Ball pits are awesome." Nora said.
"Exactly. Except for the gender part. Now, let's watch the furries." Nova said.
Video: The Failure of RainFurrest
[Disclaimer]
Interviewer: Where are we?
Cosplayer: We're at RainFurrest.
Interviewer: Where are we?
Cosplayer: We're- we're at RainFurrest.
Interviewer: Yep.
In September 2015, a group of furries came together with a brilliant idea... RainFurrest.
"I'm already a little confused and a little creeped out right now." Blake said.
A convention for, and by furries. This is their story.
"Prepare for some high-quality degeneracy." Nova said.
Organizer: I'm just bringing all the dirty laundry here, so you guys are lucky, and I'm probably gonna ask you not to post that video, mister.
RainFurrest is the reverse of DashCon. Where DashCon was a disaster caused by its organizers... RainFurrest was a disaster caused by it's attendees.
(Costumes pop.)
"What were they doing, blowing on their suits?" Pyrrha said.
"Oh, you naive little... red, sorry I couldn't find anything."
"I though I was the red one." Ruby said.
"You're Shadow the Hedgehog's car. There a little fetish called inflation." Nova said.
"I'm gonna stop you there, because I don't want you to continue." Weiss said.
Organizer: I am absolutely sure there is no truth to the rumour that RainFurrest is under an evil curse. I am...
"Those costumes really are a bit disturbing." Jaune said.
Organizer: And with that, it is my pleasure to officially declare RainFurrest 2015 open! (The crowd cheers)
It all started with a talent contest... that went okay.
(Cosplayer sings Bring me to Life)
"Wow, she's good." Ruby said.
"Ruby, that's a guy." Yang said.
"Oh."
But as the night went on, some started to get absolutely trashed.
(Small montage)
"Now that was a party." Yang said.
A few hours later, the destruction had begun. Somebody had deliberately loosened the bolt on one of the toilets, so that when the next person flushed, water flooded everywhere, two and a half inches deep.
"Why would someone do this?" Pyrrha said.
An emergency plumber was quickly on the scene, but the damage was already done. Water had leaked through the floor and onto the basement servers below. Meanwhile staff and security are threatening to throw out some of the guests. They had disabled the fire alarm, so they could hotbox their room.
Furry: Oh my...
Obviously there are reasons not to do that. (Tweet of the fire department arriving at Hilton.)
Some of the facepalmed and then laughed.
Down at the hot tub, someone took all of these towels and threw them in the spa, but not before rolling up towels and stuffing them directly into the pump, causing thousands of dollars in damage. (The machine starts smoking and explodes.)
Some of them laughed.
"But why would someone do this?" Ren said.
And they stepped it up a notch from DashCon, from doing number one in the ball pit... to going number two in the swimming pool.
"Eww, noooo!" Ruby said.
"Are you serious?" Jaune said.
"Oh, for fuck's sake." Blake said.
Back at the bathroom, there were rumours that someone had drilled a glory hole into one of the stalls, although this wasn't confirmed.
"You've got to be kidding me..."
"What's a glory hole?" Ruby said.
"Please don't ask stuff you're not old enough to know." Yang said.
"I'm 16!"
But what WAS confirmed was a hall of over 2,000 nitrous oxide canisters, just laying around in rooms and hallways.
"They brought drugs too?!" Pyrrha said.
"What party would it be without drug use? Actually, what is nitrous oxide?" Nora said.
"Laughing gas." Nova said.
But that was just the start of the drug problem.
"Just the start?" Weiss said.
First, a couple of guys overindulge on mushrooms and need an ambulance, then a staff member gets arrested for sexual assault, then someone else is arrested for... regular assault. A few others drank too much and needed a second ambulance,-
"A pet ambulance!" Yang said and started laughing, along with the others.
-and on the other side of the carpark, two more people are being arrested... one for drug possession and the other for dealing.
Organizer: Drugs was the major problem.
Meanwhile, you have these guys roaming the halls.
"He's wearing diapers?!" Weiss said.
They call ot 'crinkling'... after the noise it makes when they walk around. And yes... some of these diapers are full.
"What's wrong with these people...?!"
"I hope it's also not something sexual again..." Pyrrha said.
"It is." Nova said.
"I'm so sick of their disgusting fetishes!" Weiss said.
The other guests weren't too pleased. Later on, they're just throwing food and diapers in the gardens and stairwells. They were behaving like... animals? (Get it?)
Yang started laughing.
"Yes, exactly. Animals."
Hotel staff: So one thing that's important that we ask that you guys all be really good back to the hotel. You know the elevator buttons? You really don't have to use your foot. Just letting you all know.
"I'm wondering what are their parents thinking." Jaune said.
"They probably wished they never had kids." Yang said.
A few hours later... (shows broken elevator)
Furry: PUT YOUR PANTS ON AND STOP BREAKING SHIT!
But that wasn't the end of it.
Organizer: Uhh, there was an incident... with... uhh... diapers being found on people's cars.
The hotel was left... in ruins.
SpongeBob narrator: 4 to 6 weeks later.
The Hilton submitted a letter listing all of the reasons RainFurrest would not be allowed at their venue from now on.
"Yeah, this kind of degeneracy is enough of a reason." Blake said.
The hotel damage was more than all of the other cons combined that year. But it wasn't just the damages. RainFurrest was insurwd and had over $150,000 in the bank to pay for it all.
"At least the had enough money." Ren said.
RainFurrest was just SO TOXIC, that they said "No thank you, take your money elsewhere."
"Damn, so toxic..." Yang said.
But that left them with a rather large problem... big hotel chains talk. Hilton talks to Sheraton, talks to Marriott, talks to Holiday Inn, talks to Hyatt, talks to Best Western. But there's more. Someone was sending detailed letters to nearby venues, warning them why they SHOULDN'T host the next RainFurrest. Soon, there isn't one hotel in Seattle that has a convention center willing to host them.
"Wow, really?" Jaune said.
Furry: No other hotel... this side of the state wanted to take us. From Seattle to Bellingham.
"Well boys, we did it. Degeneracy is no more." Nora said.
What's interesting is that the organizers KNEW who was sending the letters.
"They knew? And they didn't do anything?" Blake said.
Organizer: The things that were talked about in that letter, and you are pretty much the only perosn who could have known that. Uhhh... Yeah, I- in my heart of hearts I know who it is. Means, motive and opportunity abound, and it pisses me off.
"So, it was sabotage?" Ruby said.
"Seems like it." Jaune said.
In case you missed that, what he's saying is whoever sent the letters, was the same person who's putting diapers on these cars.
"A true hero." Nora said, saluting.
"I don't think he counts as a hero, but another degenerate." Weiss said.
Running low on options, they started to look further outside of thee city. They managed to find a venue in Spokane that was willing to give them a shot. But by February, none of that mattered. The diaper-wearinh saboteur had sent out another letter. And Spokane backed down.
"That guy really wants this convention to be destroyed." Yang said.
"And I'm not blaming him." Weiss said.
So RainFurrest 2016... was cancelled.
"So... does that count as victory?" Yang said.
"I think so..." Blake said.
And... that's the story of RainFurrest. So far...
"Wait, what?" Weiss said.
Unlike DashCon, RainFurrest is coming back... And RainFurrest 2017 promises to be bigger and better than ever.
Furry: LET'S GO! RF2017! THEY'RE BRINGING IT BACK! THEY'RE BRINGING IT BACK! YES! THE HILT- OH, SO MANY MEMORIES! SO MANY MEMORIES!
"He's very excited about it." Pyrrha said.
"Like Zwei when he sees us." Yang said.
Oops nevermind, as I was editing this, uhh... this happened. (shows that it's cancelled) So it's cancelled forever. Bye.
"That's a relief." Weiss said.
"People from Earth are very weird." Nora said.
And done! Like, follow, leave a review AND NOT A REQUEST, send me a PM if you want and READ THE NOVA FORCE. See you soon!