(no subject) Convention Report for the Eastern Avenue (Shadowfox-memorial) Game Festival
October 10th, 2010
Current Mood:sad sad
First day of convention. I wore a grey pinstriped 3-piece suit (that I bought, once upon a time, in a thrift store, and never wear.) I was late getting there (partly because I had extra layers to put on but mostly because I missed an exit and wound up having to drive to the next town and turn around.) Didn't matter. I had no players. but that didn't matter- I played Marvel Heroscape with friends and that was fun.
Ran Mutants & Masterminds for three people, although I had to ask two of them if they wanted to so the first could have something to play. borrowed a sourcebook from one of them to use npc stats from. Still, it went well. beginning, middle, and end and everything.
CF and CW bought me dinner at the diner down the street from the Veterans Memorial Hall. nice of them. good meal. No players for Fudge Rifts. I played in Thymewind's Gamma World game (the new, just-out version of the rules, which aren't bad, actually. ditto Heroscape.) and that was fun.
Of the various people that I invited, recruited, or told about convention, none of them showed today, and only one is coming tomorrow. Even the coworker who was scheduled to run a game flaked out with one day's notice, telling me yesterday that he couldn't think of a storyline for a game. (Among seasoned GMs, this is known as a 'lame-ass excuse'. Thymewind and I had a story idea he could've used before sundown that day. Maybe he wouldn't care for "The Antichrist tricks/coerces virtuous characters like Francis Mulcahey into bringing him the Holy Grail so he can drink out of it to attain messianic powers." but the point is, less than 24 hours. )
Things were wrapping up for the day from 9:30 on, and the organizers were counting the till to see if they were going to make enough money to cover the cost of renting the space (unlikely). The Tall Man handed them two twenties as a donation to help out. The Tall Man had shown up in an actual suit, not as a costume. Shortly thereafter, MA jokingly asked if I was working for the Tall Man, since we were dressed the same. This apparently bruised Tall's ego, because he proceeded to make a bunch of comments about how shabby my clothing was, how my shoes were falling apart instead of shiny and polished (his were gleaming, as I only noticed once the topic came up), and how my suit was too small, and 'did I mug a midget on the way in here' and so on. MA and the other macho-male geek toy-using-soldiers teased along playfully. Then, immediately thereafter, it was time for everyone to go home. ...and I'm left, feeling lousy and unlovely even in a suit, feeling like even in a place theoretically full of only freaks and mostly old friends... even among freaks, I'm less cool than the other freaks. like I had a delicious, expensive meal, but desert was manure; like junior high never really ends; and wondering why I worried for months and sweated getting all this ready when all that really matters is the attitude of the people involved.

Remember that online dating site I mentioned in 'Cupid's Minions' (Weds, June 15, 2009)? Yes, well, they finally found a woman I couldn't refuse. She's my age, not geographically close but at least in this time zone in this country, a non-smoking, non-drinking Christian, with a fondness for comicbooks (especially Superman) and gothic horror (especially vampires); a would-be Lois Lane looking for a Clark Kent-wannabe, preferably one who doesn't mind if she goes on about Bela Lugosi or the Cullens. (Y'know, I could use some more learning about Bela Lugosi, anyway. :) ) For now, we'll call her 'DPG', for 'the Daily Planet Girl'. I succumbed. I joined up with the Geeque du Soleil. I tried. We'll see what it gets me.
Admittedly, this dating site (styled as a community, albeit a gated community, in this case, probably a Stargated community) seems cooler from inside the velvet ropes than it does from the outside, and I could easily rationalize $10 a month as the Price of the Beers you drink while at Cheers, doozering up some geek-culture info-content to try to convince the regulars that I'm cool enough to date... but we all know there's plenty of other places I could spend that time and energy with an equal or greater chance of winning friends and influencing people. (Note to self: fanfiction.net, Strange Horizons, the local interdenominational network of faith-based charities.)
Please note: I could've given her an lj codename like 'Lois' or 'Chloe', but I'm only two letters in on the preliminary, 'friends-first' stage, and stalled out at that...Expectations should not be that high. You could mow the grass with these expectations.