Honestly, I’m not even quite sure how to approach this post. This long weekend was one of the coolest experiences of my life. Something like 120 fans gathered together at a hotel in a tiny town in the UK, at least half in cosplay, at least 80% of them (and probably a lot more) falling into the queer, gender-whatever, and/or neurodivergent camps. It was the most welcoming and wholesome and affirming environment I’ve ever been privileged to be part of.

Origins: The Ineffable Con was started back in 2019 and has been run most years since. One of the original founders (Rachel) joined forces with an attendee (Bethany) to run the second con and all those since. In true fandom fashion, the two got married a few years back, with a GO-themed wedding. They are the OG GO Ineffable Pair (excluding Aziracrow, obviously), and they handle this con with buckets of love. TIC is not only a fandom convention, but a fundraiser for Alzheimer’s Research UK in memory of Terry Pratchett (over £70k since it began!). All profits go towards the foundation, and there are auctions and raffles and donations to help out.

Discovery: Since I’m apparently going back in time here, let me drift back to autumn of 2024. I have no idea how I stumbled upon the info for TIC. Probably a tumblr post I’d seen somewhere. I’d never heard of it and had no idea that something like this existed (though ironically, I’d heard about Bethany and Rachel and their IRL Fanfiction Marriage years before, long before I was in the fandom). I came across TIC and immediately texted Rainstorm. We were not dating at that point, but we were flirting, and we were also really good friends who had a strong fandom connection. Neither of us had any idea how quickly the con would sell out, and we decided to go ahead and book tickets right away. The description of the hotel rooms said that the beds were “small double beds” and you shouldn’t book to share unless you were in a relationship or “very close friends.” We decided to share anyway**, and it became a joke between us: #there was only one bed #because it was cheaper #mainly 🤣 I have no idea how we managed to get tickets. I must have heard about the con right as tickets went on sale and we just happened to get in. It was sold out only a couple days later (and re: TIC7 in Aug 2026, the con was sold out within like half an hour…)

Cosplay: Not having a clue what this con would be like, we decided to go in very simple cosplay. We chose to dress as 90s femme Aziracrow. Rainstorm went in a kilt, boots marked up with white-out Anarchy and snake symbols, a dog collar, and a scissor-cut t-shirt that said “Made in Hell” that we randomly found in a mall in Germany, ha! I was dressed in a beige-and-cream sundress with a pale blue polo shirt and bowtie, as well as lacy socks with bows and brown-and-cream penny loafers. There were all sorts of fun cosplays there, from intricately designed and handmade gowns to folks dressed as cars and cottages. Rainstorm and I didn’t enter the cosplay competition because the entries had to be in before we had our costumes together, plus we were going cosplay-light, but we did participate in the fashion show. All the cosplayers got to show off their outfits, as well as act out their parts, first by walking down the center aisle of the conference room, then posing for photos, then walking back. I kept my walk prim and proper Az, while Rainstorm loped around me in customary Crowley fashion until we got to the front of the room. At that point, I crooked a finger in their collar and pulled them in for a kiss (it’s a strongly held belief in much of the fandom post-S2 that Az is in charge), and then I held out an arm for them to take so I could primly walk them back out of the room. Our little act was a hit.

Some of my favorites from the cosplay fashion show:

• the person who dressed as Muriel in the white constable outfit and who was adopted by another Aziracrow pair
• the woman who crocheted her own set of wings (and while she didn’t do it for the fashion show, on other days, she dressed as Harriet Dowling and wore an “antichrist on board” sticker as she was pregnant)
• the person who dressed as David Tennant from Staged
• the person who dressed as Bildad the Shuite and acted out the goat-to-crow miracle
• Ruby’s semi strip tease (jacket tossed off, trouser leg raised to show sock garters) as Tartziraphale
• the Merlotl, complete with tangerines and moving parts in her costume
• the guy who dressed as a disapproving Mr Brown complete with binder full of photos of inappropriate Christmas light decorations

Honestly, the rest of this post is probably going to be very random rambles. There was just SO MUCH packed into those days.

On the way out to the con, we met up with other fans taking the tube to Maidenhead, and one of them happened to be someone who had read/commented-on some of my fics in the past – I recognized their avatar because they had stickers of it all over their suitcase!

There was an icebreaker involving a sticker book hunt with artwork from people around the world. Rainstorm discovered a fellow fan that was from Cologne through this sticker hunt. And hunts were the theme – there was even a little hidden duck game with hundreds of angel and demon ducks distributed around the hotel/convention center. Then other people brought tiny ducks and other gifts to distribute, from bracelets with show phrases on them to stickers to fidget-sneks to cross-stitch art to snackies. Everyone was so generous! We hadn’t realized this was a thing but we had brought stickers, including a large roll of queer hearts in various flag colors for people to take and stick on their nametags.

Let’s see. Things at this con: A giant plush snake people could wrap up with or sit on. Rainbow wings to take pictures in front of. Zines from former years and this year with fic and art contributions. A giant room dedicated to quiet time, from games to crafts to work on the Big Art project where everyone colored a different part of a mosaic image. An escape room. A burlesque evening show that sadly was not set up in a way that was visible beyond a the first few rows of chairs, so Rainstorm and I couldn’t see a thing (especially with their visual disability). A magic show with a hired magician over dinner one night. A recording studio where a bunch of us got to record parts for podfics (that was super nerve-wracking, but I did it!).

Classes: There were a large variety of different workshops and classes on offer. We split our time between the ones we found interesting and alone time to keep from being overstimulated. (Honestly, that was one of the best things about this con – the number of ways it was set up to help neurospicy folks stay regulated. Not only was there a quiet room to hang out in all day every day, there were plenty of designated spaces where people could just hang out away from events, or they could go back to their rooms, and no one judged anyone for needing their rest.) Some of our classes were hands on (a photography class, a painting workshop, a “draw silly” workshop), some were educational (religious symbolism centered around eating and food in the series, discussion with the comic artist about her process illustrating the GN, etc), some were silly group activities (like kink bingo). One afternoon, a bunch of us were taught how to do the group dance from the “Jane Austen-esque” ball that Az hosts in S2. !!! And on the last day, a “Reptile Encounters” group was brought in and a conference room designated for them. We got to meet, hold, touch, and learn about many different kinds of snakes and other reptiles.

The big surprise of the con was that Rob Wilkins showed up at lunch one day. No one was expecting it, and ripples of intrigue went through the cafeteria as people caught sight of him. He’s the producer of GO and one of its biggest advocates, apparently having been a big fan since long before the TV show started. He’s known online for making Aziraphale and Crowley kiss whenever he gets his hands on versions of them (dolls, keychains, pins, etc). It makes a huge difference when the people involved in the production are fandom-enthusiastic about it. Rob is in fandom spaces just like all the rest of us are, which made him super relatable. And while he couldn’t tell us much about the upcoming season, he made a few statements that basically confirmed that S3 would be out before TIC7 happened in 2026. (Of course, we all know now that it will come out May 13th, hurrah! Exactly 100 days before TIC7!)

Very few of the folks at con were ones I knew before arriving – just a few I’d met in the week leading up, and then a couple others I already knew through the fandom. Mostly, I was meeting new people, and yet it never felt awkward or weird. All of us were allowed to be as autistic as we wanted, as excited as we wanted, as silly as we wanted. And afterwards, having met so many people, I began to recognize all their names on the TIC Discord server (that I had avoided due to it being overwhelming when I didn’t know anyone, and which I’m now an active part of!).

All in all, it was such an amazing experience, and I cannot wait to go back this year!! We got sooooo lucky with the tickets, barely making it before they ran out, but Rainstorm, CS, and I will all be there next August, woohoo!

**The “small double bed” was TINY. More like a twin sized bed, only barely bigger. It was also rather old and uncomfortable. Did that keep us from booking a shared room again in 2026? Nah.