I like the Aquarius Hair Piece.^^ The last outfit is so pretty.

I also remember sending a check so many years ago! It was to Amber. I wish I could remember what I purchased. So grateful for online banking now.

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We're actually skipping a page in my vault because that has some items I want to show HAs for, and a discussion on EPICon that I just have not had the energy to type up all week.

So instead, jumping to a page where I don't have anything to say. Good items!

I got . Thank you. :)

I got Thank you!!!

I also got . Thank you!

Still skipping ahead because I still don't have that post made up yet. I'll get to it eventually!

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I had fun with these!

I'm happy I was on for this one-got a WL item!! Thank you!

I was lucky this time around! I got 3 wishlist items. :)

Thank you so much!!

Congrats on your new items!

Thanks so much! :)

Missed it by a few minutes and DC got cleared out!

A second drop today because I finally had the energy to do my big write up!

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Ah, EPICon.

Starting August 15, 2010 with a teasing release of a free gift lanyard, a site event that never quite hit reoccurring event, but also didn’t reach the intricacy of a site plot.

EPICon I think was my favorite of the three competitive but repetitive styles of events while I was active. It was a themed restock war, but it also was just a restock war. Join a team, buy items as fast as you can from certain shops, done. Restock wars happened a few times, but I think I only really participated during EPICon, just because it didn’t hold my attention otherwise. The other type of event like this was the reading drive, which was similar to a restock war in that you were buying books, but then you could only submit one of each kind. These events heavily relied on being able to spend a significant amount of time on the site in order to gain points.

There was a twist introduced of being able to ‘steal’ a certain item from the other team that changed each day, so that was fun.

Were you team Manwar or team Nico? I was team Manwar, which surprises me now because I was NOT into d&d at the time. Maybe it was just that I was (and am) fairly meh about video games? If this had hit around 2018 or so, it would have caught me right when I was into watching speedruns, so perhaps I would have joined team Nico then. (edit to cough)

This also introduced the Cosplay Contest!! I’m very sad that none of the images are still loading, but remember when I said I would show you my shitty Batman? Here it is! This was my entry for the 2013 cosplay contest. Would you BELIEVE that I didn’t win? Shocking, I know. I actually still had my zapper skin at the time, hence the vaguely blue mouth. And for the record? I have this saved as ‘worldsshittiestbatman’. I hadn’t joined in 2010 because of, well, THAT, but then when it was time for 2010 voting it was made clear that any votes you got would go to your score, so I though maybe I could get pity points in 2013. I don’t remember if I did.

Also exciting was that after over a week of just restock war, this was the official release of Mazes and Mahars as well as Omen Raiders. I will still play Mazes occasionally when I’m on. It’s a bit of strategy and a lot of luck (though allegedly there’s also a lot of glitches in the game?). I lose more often than I win, but it’s still a fun way to pass a chunk of time. I have no recollection of Omen Raiders, and it looks like the game isn’t even available now, so no clue if it was any good.

Ah booo. September 1st was the announcement of the cosplay winner, but the images are long gone, as well as the user. Well, a 12ish years later congratulations to spasmodically who cosplayed Princess Jasmine. There was a page of other winners as well, but again, page no longer exists. Checking the news comments, there are a lot of complaints that many of the winners people didn’t even have a chance to see when voting. I only vaguely remember how the voting worked, but it does ring a bell that it was a limited structure and very easy to only see a small chunk of the HAs.

It’s interesting to me to see what has survived a news trawl, and what has vanished.

I was part of the 2010 winning team, which was very exciting at the time! I have no idea how many points I’d earned. I know I had all of the wearable prize items, but unsure if I bought them all through the shop or if I had to purchase from other users. (hey remember where I edited to cough up where I said what team I was? GUESS WHO HAS NO MEMORY. According to the trophy on my profile, which is very trustworthy, I got 1,000 points for team Nico. IN MY DEFENSE IT WAS OVER 12 YEARS AGO.)

EPICon 2013 was teased a full month earlier, July 12, 2013. This was done a bit differently. Instead of being a restock war, it was an incentive to play the site games, being able to gain points from playing and more points from winning. In my opinion, this was much more engaging than just restocking, plus I think there was a limit on the number of points you could get, so it wasn’t a requirement to have to spend tons of time on the site.

This was also the introduction of Subeku! Other featured games were Stealth Bomber, Seashell Spotter, Ziara Raceway, Divine Discs, The Bug Game, Tubular Tiles, Burrero Basket Bonanza, Net Gain, Balloon Sweeper, Memory, Caliph’s Tomb, Flight Simulator, Cybill Sledding, Saheric Slide, Mystic Spindles, and finally Mazes and Mahars. However, I’m not sure if any of those were new, or if it was just bringing interest to already existing games. Divine Discs we know came from the Saherimos plot. Tubular Tiles seems to have been new...and also no longer existing. There’s a bit about launching the full game of Mazes, so I wonder if it had been unavailable from 2010 until 2013.

There were also battle challengers for 2013! It didn’t award points, but instead each challenger had their own special loot. I remember really appreciating this, as it meant that you didn’t have to be a trained battler to get EPICon points.

This time the cosplay winner was fantasyrogue (another user gone) as Vincent Van Gogh!

AAAH!!! This page is still working!!! Feel free to check out the cosplayers here! https://subeta.net/contest/epicontest.php?page=gallery

I got a 4.7% rating for my terrible Batman. HOW? I guess I did get those pity votes after all! Sadly, I don’t think a cosplay contest could happen now, unless Cws were explicitly banned. Otherwise I feel like that could make it far too easy. Oh, maybe not! Poking through these entries, I see ones that are listed as CW entries, meaning that they were considered a separate category! That was a smart way to do it. Also holy crap CWs existed back in 2013???? I 100% think of them as a much ‘newer’ part of the site – ‘newer’ in context of me basically leaving in 2016.

While the 2010 EPICon was overall more engaging because of the bickering between Nico and Manwar (in HA form on the forums, no less!), the 2013 EPICon was, in my opinion, the better event. Having the challenges of multiple games led to something new to do every day, and stuff that could be done in the span of an hour or so. It was more user friendly, even if less ‘story’ driven.

HEY GUESS WHAT. After all that I’m still going to talk about items too! There was a short period of time when speech bubbles were a big trend on HAs. Silly and fun! ❤❤❤❤❤ This one throws me off so much, because I thought it was named for a user, but they got rid of the items named explicitly for users, but it still seems like it’s named for a user? So this was 100% just for . For those who weren’t here, Ariel was a HUGE Pete fan. I’m not sure if she still is or not, but I know she’s still around! I could have sworn this became a trunk, but no, it’s just a full set item! Which I used a few times. You know, I think I’m getting it confused with the popstar trunk. Oh, and if you’re wondering why the stockings are over the skirt in the first HA? This was a world before layering existed and you just had to luck into things being where you wanted them. I’ve got a whole big post about that planned for the eventual Ooh La Layers. (also I can’t believe I used the squeaky bunny of doom in three of these! To be fair, I used it a TON)

, aw, she's cute!

You receive Emo Bubble Laugh!

TY!~~

I got a lanyard in your honor since epicon was so exciting to you. :P

Your batman wasn't that bad. I decided to look mine up, WOW. HAHA. I actually thought I'd done pretty good.

That was the Grand High witch from the movie "The Witches".

Thank you for the walk down memory lane. I know I was here and that I actively played but so many of these things you mention I only vaguely remember.

Thanks for the second drop! And thanks for sharing your EPICon memories...I wish they would have another one. I was team Nico. I'm proud my Harley Quinn got 23.69% of the vote. x)

Got three of the Emo Bubbles from my WL and a few other things. Thank you! :)

Once again, I missed the party ><