AGDQ2025 adventures from Riekelt
Sunday, travelday
Travel was okay. I decided to book an early morning flight, leave the door at 09:00, fly at 13:05. I arrive at ~15:00 in the US. After customs I got asked in for a secondary inspection. Apparantly, if you fly in with airline A and go back with airline B, they don't see that and think "oh he's planning on staying". I did notice that every worker on the (Philly) airport was a big asshole (Amsterdam they were nice), didn't want to be there and reacting it on the passengers. The 1 nice guy however was the secondary inspection guy. He was so nice, making a, for some people, scary scenario more pleasant, talking fun about NL, weird stuff etc. He was surprised I was so well prepared with stuff, spoke about what GDQ is, etc. I wasn't nervous at all, even if I had "the skin colour". He sent me off towards my next plane.
Some noticeable things were that I had a big bleeding out of my finger during bagage control. Had to wait until I was done and having blood on everything before they finally gave me a blister.
Paying in the US
This is an ongoing thing throughout my whole journey. I have a bank card (Maestro, some sort of debit card that isn't a 16-number card, but rather uses SWIFT). I couldn't pay anywhere with it. Only could pay at an ATM, and a single store where I could insert my card and insert a number. But hardly, tap to pay didn't work.
I fortunately had a virtual Revolut mastercard where I could tap-to-pay at all the other places, so I wasn't totally helpless. But would have been nice if my bank didn't fib about me being able to pay anywhere.
Found this out at Philly, where I did get free food from Qdoba because of this.
Both flights I had a window seat (first flight I watched Deadpool vs Wolverine, Fast & Furious, and Pursuit of Happyness). Second flight was a smaller plane, I was seated all the way in the back and was the only one without someone next to me. Can't complain.
After some payment stress at the bus ticket machine not accepting any bills or my bankcard, I remembered I pre-downloaded the app and with the virtual creditcard, I could get the ticket right on time.
Rijiku greeted me in the hall, and got me up to the hotel room.
Monday, first day
Got my badge, got a private tour being a runner. Then went in the stream room and saw a whole gang along the wall making pictures. Recognizing some people, I noticed they were zelda runners, and quickly photobombed joined the Wind Waker/whole Zelda crew.
Furthermore got to speak with Shasta/Gymnast who surprisingly recognized me from years ago. Got some breakfast/tour of where to get food and hung for a bit.
Afterwards found the SpeedDocs crew who were playing windswept and joined them for a bit. Shout outs to CJ/CC/Dayman/Quo/GaffeyTaffy/Potato/Tomatoanus/Partly/and such.
Then went over to surprise the GTA crew I actually went to GDQ, and hung out with them a bit. Board game(Fort)/Arbys/watched Rigi's Red Dead run. And ended the day off with playing Secret Hitler with the SpeedDocs crew.
Tuesday, the sickness
Went to the casual gaming room and after doing some archipelago asyncs, got some food with some of the PS Nation.
It has been really cold, and actually snowing on and off (leaving a nice white bed of snow every morning). But I inhalated so much cold at one point, that I got sick fast. Directly after brunch, I went to the gaming room and met with Joester and rijiku to do a playthrough of my game, explaining some stuff. I noticed my voice was not as well.
Afterwards I went up to the hotel room and sleep it off a bit more after a bad night, and... it didn't improve. It's only got better today (monday) while typing this at the airport.
Because I was bedridden most of the time, the highlights were few: Met up with the hero with his 2 dogs, and then met up with the GTA gang again. Ben was stressing about his game not working on the computers, spoke with Flajj/KZ_Frew about stuff, whilst Josh/Liv/Jake/Poker/Gaël playing a "quick game of Root".
Before you ask, my symtoms were fatigue due to not sleeping, and loss of voice. While not even close to Covid symtoms, I did get ripped off buying 2 tests, but 1 came negative. You're all good.
Wednesday, Tropical Freeze
In terms of food, I ate 1 stroopwafel and 2 small pieces of KFC in the evening, this is how sick I've gotten.
Started the day with completing my archipelago games of TWW and KH2. Then played some Hollow Knight Randomizer, where 2 people randomly set down and spoke to me about it. One person from World 9 and 1 who found a lot of Hollow Knight glitches. I never caught your name, I'm sorry! I'll find out tho!
After going back to bed for a bit, I met up with Spikevegeta who was practicing Tropical Freeze, and the other commentators Keiper and Ghostkumo also appeared.
During the Green Room (room you go to 45m before your run to get everything ready), we got the idea to do a donation incentive for rapping the DK Rap. Me without a voice: Lmao that's terrible.
The run itself was amazing and am happy I was a part of it, with Skybilz also on the couch donation reading. Unfortunately, I had like 4 sentences in, partly due to me having no voice, but MOSTLY because Keiper and Spike are such a golden combo. I don't blame them, but I did sense the style of commentary wasn't informational/educational, but entertaining. And they nailed it.
If you read this Keiper/Spike, I am not salty at all. I loved being a part of it, even for how minute it was :p. Yall rock.
The DK Rap wasn't a good idea for someone without a good voice. But afterwards I went with Flajjin_Lounge to the GTA AirBNB, to do karaoke. I only sang 4 songs due to voice/energy, but this was also not a good idea. I'd like to extend my sincere apologies to Amy Lee for totally messing up "Bring me to Life". During "Supermassive Black Hole", Liv actually looked like she was about to laugh, because I just couldn't sing, no air out of my throat.
Thursday, Mystery Tournament
I met up with Vahisht this day, and got some food/stuff at a 7/11 since I knew I wanted actual drinkable water, other than the waste they had coming out of the faucets. Afterwards, went back to bed, and woke up just before 16:00 for the mystery tournament. I won 1, which was Jigsaw Puzzle against Gabriel Kelso. Somehow, he was 0.5 seconds faster, but I guess the game had hidden scoring systems. Then lost to PMCTrilogy in Digimon Rumble. Close match, can't be mad.
Then lost again to Snow_Flake in a breakout game. This didn't feel too much like skill, but whatever, I was out of the game. Stayed until Gooby (who was actually #winning almost) was out, and went to Primanti Bros for some local food. Afterwards played some more bad PS games with Val/Whitepaaws/Dylwingo/WedSR and watched more Secret Hitler with the SpeedDocs crew.
Important: I bought sleeping pills, these helped mme actually get sleep from this point on.
Friday, Tasselfoot
This is the day that Tasselfoot, really good buddy of mine, came into town. We went for a quick bite (and drink) to Sly Fox across the street, played some arcade, and afterwards I was obligated to watch Great British Benjamin English Ben to do his absolutely... something run of GTA: Tightened Vice. Afterwards stayed around to watch the NWC championship race, Mystery Tournament and Tetris TGM with Tass. Meeting with his buddy and went out to dinner afterwards.
Went to bed early for my run being at what I thought was 06:15, but it was 07:15 instead.
Seeing the state of my voice, I did mention to Joester that he might have to carry the conversation.
Saturday, runday
Woke up early, and got ready when Poker was about to get ready for his Gothic run. I was placed in the green room during, and noticed my voice wasn't healed, but it's not the absolute worst.
The run went great. Only big thing that went wrong was fast white, but ending with a 56:xx is definitely good. Joester did great on comms, I also joined but my handicap in speaking did decrease how much I wanted/could have said. Had to cough a few times to get a clear voice again.
The donations were all lovely to heaer from my friends. I've read the tracker afterwards, to read the ones that weren't read out from people I recognized. Also happy that at this early morning, the Playstation Nation was sitting in the crowd. I didn't imagine people would sit there at ass o clock, I get it. But yeah, friendship is a great thing.
Rest of the day, did more arcade with Tass, I went to bed, remember watching more runs, food with SpeedDocs guys, and watching the ending of GDQ from the hotel room with Kylie, one of the other roommates I hadn't mentioned. (The final one being Steven).
Sunday, Bluesday
This day is relatively short, I immediately packed up my bags, went outside to hang with people leaving. Got a care package with beer/chicken/bars from Chibicarrera, had fun talks with LunaticJ (spoke with him earlier, also someone who recognized me weirdly. Have I said how I obviously know some people, but random "bigger" people in the scene knowing me is still a wow feeling).
After most people left, I went to my other hotel, dropped off stuff, regrouped myself, and went to climb the incline of town to have somewhat of a walk.
After another dinner walk, I decided to bingewatch Lincoln Lawyer and finish all the beer... But I only could finish 1 and almost fell asleep. Oh well, must have needed it.
