Terucon 2025 - "I am not crazy, my reality is just different from yours."

 Hello~!
And yes, I'm pretty damn late with this summary too, I apologize for that. Like I mentioned in my Maracon summary there has been a lot going on, especially at work. I was actually on a sick leave when I wrote most of this summary thank you wisdom tooth for breaking into seven pieces during removal, I did not appreciate :I so I basically didn't have anything but time in my hands. So yeah, it was finally time to write this!
(...and why am I always on a sick leave when I write a summary about this event, no matter its name? x"D)
((...and yes, the title of this post is a Cheshire Cat quote by Lewis Carroll since I found it very fitting.))

I attended Terucon on 26th of October 2025. The convention was held on 25th-26th but I couldn't attend it on Saturday since I was at work. However I wanted to attend at least during one day - there aren't too many conventions in the North, this one was held at Rovaniemi - and so I booked train tickets for me and Shiro Samurai for the day mentioned. 
Oh, and if anybody wonders: yes, Terucon is re-named Northern Lights Anime Party which we attended in 2024.

On Sunday we started our trip towards Rovaniemi in the morning. I had packed everything the evening before the con; didn't cosplay this time but had a nice outfit, plus I had to take a flash drive with me. You see, I had promised to host a Genshin Impact themed panel - but not just any panel, a panel combining said game and mental illnesses. More about this later.
The trip went pretty well, we just lagged and chatted until we arrived at Rovaniemi railway station. The weather looked like it could start raining soon so I decided we'd take a taxi to the event venue - and yes, this time I made sure to not to pick one of those scam taxes Rovaniemi suffers from and of which I got to suffer last year too 😑 In no time we arrived at the event venue, namely Monitoritalo Monde.

The event venue...

...and the event poster ft. mascots Rainer, Hertta and Aurora! ❤

When we - or, well, Shiro Samurai (who kindly took all the pics for this summary, thanks!) - were photographing the entrance we were approached by a woman who was wearing a security officer gear. We chatted for a while and turned out she was the mother of the main organizer and responsible for security and first aid. I had recently gotten my First Aid 1 card (which means I can do basic stuff, such as resuscitation, the Heimlich maneuver etc.) and mentioned that to her - she said she'd keep that in mind in case help was needed wasn't, luckily. 
After the brief chitchat we went inside... And were met by emptiness. It was pretty early at that point so yeah, not everybody wants to be at the con the moment the doors open (especially not on a second day) but it still took us somewhat by surprise. Luckily more people showed up later but we heard that the amount was significantly smaller than on Saturday.

Cafeteria area and the stairs to the second floor where the gaming room and the panel room were located.

General view of the lobby.

And a trusty WC I occupied almost immediately to put on my outfit and wig :'D

We had some time to look around before my panel would start (that would be around 12.30 p.m.) and so we decided to check out the Artists' Alley. This year it was located in the same big room where the stage was - and in my very honest opinion this was an improvement from last year. Of course I can't speak on behalf of the artists there (I mean, if something was going on on the stage I can only assume there were a lot of people and loud noises) but at least as a visitor I liked this change since there was a lot more space than in that narrow corridor upstairs where the Artists' Alley was located last year. I mean, that was a bit... Too compact.
In the same room there were also Pörröcon and Matsucon promotion tables and Matsukirppis (a flea market hosted by Matsucon staff) which we decided to check first. I must say we were both a bit sad when we realized there was no way we could attend any of the Pörröcon events; Akakabuton was hosted on 28th of February at Tampere but on the same day there was Sonata Arctica's concert at Kemi which we attended, and Pörröcon Royals will be hosted at Turku during the same weekend there's Kummacon at Oulu so yeah, no can do :C However it was nice to chat with the promoter! We also chatted for a while with the Matsucon people and checked the items people had brought to the flea market.

The door leading to the Artists' Alley/stage room.

Sus. Very much sus.

After this it was time to check out the Artists' Alley!
I don't think I bought anything during the first round but I chatted with many of the artists - and was incredibly happy when I saw TilliLili selling Infinity Nikki stuff! ❤ Despite its many flaws the said game has been some sort of a comfort game for me - even though I'm now starting to feel like it's time to let go because some things just can not be accepted #girlcott - and I was just happy to see art about it too. 

Artists' Alley, general view. The convention program visible on the left...

...and better in this photo! My panel was the one called "Seuraava potilas!" ("Next patient!") - or, well, that was a part of my panel's name but apparently it didn't fit in the program chart in whole.

We chatted for a good while until it was my time to head upstairs to prepare for my panel. The panel that was before mine was running a bit overtime but luckily not that much. 
What wasn't too lucky was my flash drive acting up. I had prepared the panel with LibreOffice I seriously don't have money for PowerPoint - or probably would if Microsoft didn't charge my bank account on a yearly basis and I don't even know WHICH account so I can't use the Office programs I pay for ffs and, of course, it complicated things a bit - I namely had to upload LibreOffice to the main organizer's laptop (I got a permission to that). Well, that took a while but people were understanding when I told them I had a bit of technical issues but they would be solved shortly. While LibreOffice was loading I decided to check if our friends had arrived already - and indeed, when I peeked over the railing of the stairs I saw Sallukka, Dongrieg, Pete and Joni enter the building, just in time for my panel! ❤

After a few minutes I could finally start my panel - almost on schedule, yippee! :D 

Even though it isn't visible on the photo there were surprisingly many people listening to my yapping! :'D My panel was about some Genshin Impact characters and what mental illnesses they could possibly have based on their behavior and the symptoms of certain mental illnesses - for example, in the two photos above I spoke about BPD (borderline personality disorder) and who could have it (in this case, Citlali - I mean she's the embodiment of impulsive BPD type ffs :'D). 
I have mentioned that I have been diagnosed with a few quite severe diagnoses and while I would rather not talk about them - because I consider it quite personal stuff - it would feel like lying if I hid them or the problems they cause. I also mentioned those in the beginning of the panel, just to be transparent that I wasn't there to spread the stigma or make fun about the mental illnesses I was going to speak about. I also sure hope I didn't do that, at least wasn't my intention ^^' 

The panel ended up being a bit hurried but I'm going to host this one in another convention too at some point - and I have already started to gather materials for pt. 2! Despite the topic being a bit heavy this was a nice panel to host and to be honest I enjoyed it a lot. Next time I wish to make this more interactive in some way - and no, I don't mean I would ask people to speak about their mental illnesses, I just want to spark up some discussion.
After the panel we headed back downstairs to discuss what we should do next.

The gaming room was right next to the panel room btw! ^^

At this point people were getting quite hungry; I would have wanted to stay for the gacha game panel that would have been the next panel in line but then I noticed there was some sushi in the ResQ app non-paid commercial, again and told Shiro Samurai about this. He wanted the sushi and I reserved the portion - not for myself since I'm very picky when it comes to sushi and don't want to pay if I end up not eating half of it - and in no time the said portion was fetched and we were back at the con place in no time. I ended up buying a triangle sandwich from a nearby store since I wasn't really up to eating any actual food (or well technically triangle sandwiches are food but I think you get the point what I'm trying to say here) but had to eat at least something. And I also got to try a couple of weird sushis which were surprisingly good :3

When we were eating, Joni and Pete approached us. Seemingly they had been discussing about what to do next - I mean, Terucon is a small event so there isn't as much to do as in bigger conventions (and that's perfectly okay, we need these smaller cons too! ❤) and sometimes there were moments when there wasn't that much to do. We discussed this for a while and decided to take part in a D&D session that was about to begin soon. Or, well, at first it seemed like only Shiro Samurai and Joni would play but after a while I decided to join them (Pete decided to observe our game from the table next to us).

Cards, character sheets and dices - and the dungeon we actually managed to clear in time!

When we were just about to start a French guy - whose name I still don't know - wanted to join us. Apparently he had participated to a D&D session on Saturday and got hooked :'D Can't blame him tho, this is a great way to spend time with friends! 
We started our session and at this point a round of applause to the DM is definitely in place. You see, not only had he planned a good one-shot (which was located in the Arknights universe btw!) and did a wonderful job as a DM but was also able to solve any potential... Err, unwanted situations quickly and efficiently. You see, a few times our French buddy got a bit too excited and tried to start telling what our characters should do and when. He didn't mean anything bad by it tho (and I don't think he would have done it on purpose)! It's just not very liked behavior since people often want to decide themselves what their characters do or say. But, other than that, we all had great time playing and we managed to beat the final boss, yay!

When our session was over the con was basically too - time for the last minute shopping spree which wasn't really that much of a shopping spree it was! 

I also voted for my favorite waifu. I have no idea who won tho :'D

After the gaming session - also known as after a lot of talking - it was time to drink some water too! Should remember to do so in conventions more often anyway...

After I was done with my shopping it was time for me to take off my wig and change into casual gear - it was a lot more comfortable to walk to the railway station in that since it had gotten even more windy during the day. We had to wait for a while to get into the train but after that the ride back to Kemi went smoothly - and that was the end of our short but nice trip to Terucon! ❤
I enjoyed the event a lot - even though I literally missed half of it thanks to work - and will definitely attend it in 2026 too. At the very least I'm going to host a panel there again but not gonna lie, I would like to compete in a cosplay competition again... Let's see if I have the time and money my student loan glares at me right now help to make a new costume this year! ^.^

Next post: Kemin Mangapäivä event summary! 👀

Until next time.

-Firith