Embrace Your Geekiness: Tales of a Geek

In celebration of Embrace Your Geekiness day, a few Geek Lyfe writers took time out of their busy video game schedule to write about their favorite geeky moments!

Spocktopus

Hello everyone and a happy Embrace Your Geek Day to you! 😀
For my geeky moment I’d like to share with you the tale of my very first Star Trek convention! Suprsingly I am a fairly new Trekkie (lol)! I had been raised around quite a bit of sci-fi movies and anime, so I at least knew the basic lore and the show’s cultural importance. However, my love and knowledge of Star Trek was only skin deep.

This definitely changed when I went to 2013’s Emerald City Comic Con. I was most excited to see Patrick Stewart’s panel because who wouldn’ be excited to see Pofessor X? My family and I sat down in the grand hall and waited for his Q&A. Most of the questions were a mix of X-Men, American Dad, Shakespeare and of course Stark Trek TNG. I didn’t really know about Patrick’s work as Jean Luc Picard but one man’s story at the Q&A really hit me.

One of the last stories was about how a man was able to bond with his physicist father over Star Trek TNG, especially the episode “The Inner Light”. Now if you guys know about Trek you know how wonderful and important that episode is. I listened to the man’s story and was interested in the show that meant so much to so many people. As soon as I got home I started watching Star Trek TOS and was hooked. Two months later I had blown through Star Trek TOS and TNG and was on my way to Deep Space Nine. By the end of the year I had a Star Trek/Futurama tattoo across my shoulder and was planning on attending my first Star Trek convention. My sister and I were huge Trekkies and even hand made our own uniforms! We went to the the con and had a blast at the panels and got to meet one of our heros, William Shatner!! He was really nice actually! Our costumes even made it on the local news!

-The Sassy Goblin and I as both versions of Marlena Moreau from the TOS episode “Mirror Mirror” smile emoticon
We had a great time and were surrounded by the nicest people we had ever met. I guess the moral of this story is that it is NEVER too late to join a fandom. Also watch Star Trek. XD

Powerforce

Hey everyone! Happy Embrace Your Geekiness Day!

Today, I’m going to share with you the experience that came with my first World of Warcraft t-shrits. The year was 2008, I was a senior in high school. I had been playing WoW for almost a year and half, needless to say, it had consumed my life. With the exception of my guildies, I had been playing alone at the time. Then, one fateful day, a fellow guild member told me about a website where I could buy a WoW t-shirt! I ordered one for the two in-game factions, Horde and Alliance.

When I received my shirts, I immediately equipped the Horde shirt and went to the movies with my friends. I was waiting in a seemingly endless line to get my drink when all of sudden, someone behind me whispered, “Your kind isn’t welcome here.” I turned to find a manager staring back at me. I stood, in absolute shock, until he opened his mouth again to elaborate, “No Horde allowed here, this is an Alliance movie theater.” I freaked out for nothing! The manager was merely joking and soon complimented my shirt. I had no idea that a fellow WoW player would approach me just because of my shirt.

When school finally came around on Monday, it was time to wear the Alliance shirt. The moment I arrived on campus, I was approached by a fellow classmate that I had never talked to. Quickly I found out that he also played WoW and was playing Alliance. By the end of the day, I realized I had been surrounded by other WoW players without knowing it! The experience was eye-opening and it taught me that, by simply wearing a t-shirt of your favorite fandom presents the opportunity to meet fellow geeks of similar interests.

Darth Mexican

Hello fellow Geek Lyfers! Stay awhile and listen!

My most cherished geek memory is the night friends and I gathered together for a Dungeons and Dragons session that started at 7pm on a regular Saturday night. What made this night far more special than any other was the fact that I, the Dungeon Master,  promised my friends the most epic session they had ever played. Dice, Vanilla Coke, Puffy Cheetos, Pencils, Character Sheets, Painted Miniatures, and Recently Purchased Dungeon tiles littered the table as we all began our adventure so bright eyed and optimistic. I introduced them to a character they had never met, in a tavern of course, who offered them rewards beyond their wildest dreams at the price of escorting him to an island unknown to most. Naturally, they accepted.

The heroes rode a ship and sailed the high seas, fighting sea monsters, pirates, and even mother nature herself. They landed on the island curious and filled of wonder as they split up and searched the area for pieces of a broken key that unlocked the dungeon that their quest giver yearned to explore. After a few hours they gathered what they needed and unlocked the door that previously blocked them from their wealth. Just like the island, the dungeon was laced with traps aimed to end their lives. They survived everything by skill and luck, while still having time to steal a magical hat that grew a moustache on the user/push others into acid pits. At the end of their journey they reached their just rewards: a room brimming with treasure and magical items.

The players cheered at the top of their lungs with cries of victory and gave one another high fives. This ended when the quest giver informed them that they are the owners of the gold but could never leave and then sealed them in the room. To make matters worse, the curse of the dungeon caused the island to erupt in lava. While locked in the room the players cursed my name and used every strategy available to them to break free but in the end, they understood there was no way out.

In their despair, during their final moments a player had an idea just crazy enough to work. Pieces of an evil god were placed in the room to be destroyed with the heroes. Shifting their focus, they used their remaining resources to transplant the limbs of this evil god onto one of the players. They all asked me question after question about the rules of this procedure, debated if a fate where they all died would be best then unleashing an evil god onto the world. My dear friends who were so unique and accomplished in their normal lives immersed themselves into my world so deeply that they confused reality with fiction. They were able to break free of the prison, kill the original quest giver and break off their adventuring group due to the choices certain characters had made. At the end of the session we all were emotionally drained, yet admitted to having far more fun than almost every other night of our lives before leaving one another at 7am in the morning.

It was at that moment I realized that my writing was good enough that people could buy into it with such conviction. For the first time in my life I realized I was not without talent and could entertain others with fiction.

Cinester

My favorite geek memory takes me all the way back to the 90s. The Pokemon trading card game just arrived in the United States and needless to say me and my pals were stoked. We went to the mall where the entire shopping center had been taken over by Pokemania. The line we were in stretched out the entire length of the mall and I was at the tail end; I didn’t care. Next to me wasa vehicle dressed as Pikachu and I was surrounded by kids just like me. By the time we got into the store Babbages, I went up to the counter and purchased my first pack of cards. I didn’t even wait to leave the store to open it. Much to my surprise the very first card I saw was holographic. A holographic Chansey. Now Chansey isn’t the coolest Pokemon but to me at the time, I felt like I struck gold. I still remember that day as if it were yesterday.

Madam Geek

Hello fellow geeks! In celebration of Embrace Your Geek Day, I’m here to tell you all the tale of my first time cosplaying at a convention. Ever since I decided that I was going to dress up as a beloved character, it has always been Link from the Legend of Zelda series. However, I was too stubborn to just buy a costume online. I wanted to fabricate it myself! One moment, I was as excited as Link in a pottery shop and the next, reality hit. I had no idea how to make a costume. With the exception of making a few pillows, the practice of sewing clothing was entirely new. Not to mention terrifying.

Luckily, I possessed a shield already that made me feel like the hero of Hyrule. After about as many attempts as I put into the water temple on Ocarina of Time, I finally finished my tunic as well as my hat and they fit to my liking. Gathering some generic tights, boots and various other accessories with small adjustments made wrapping up this costume fairly easy. Just like that, the day of Phoenix Comicon had arrived.

With my tunic and boots equipped, while carrying my shield, my adventure had begun. However, the moment I stepped out of my car, it hit me like the moment a ReDead (zombie) lays eyes on you. Absolute terror had shaken me. The act of dressing up as a male character while wearing makeup, and no wig could be considered a cosplay sin by some critics. Was my costume even good enough? Or did I look like a sack of potatoes in a green pillow case? The numerous years of reading comment after comment written by trolls on the internet hit me like a ton of deku seeds. I seriously considered going home and changing into normal clothes.

Then the wise words of Link rang through my mind. “Hyaaaah! Huuuahhhh!” He’s right! This was no way for a hero to act! I pressed on, through the worry and anxiety. Though the looks left and right as I walked to registration almost made me ‘save and quit’, my journey did not end there. Soon after I walked through the doors, a fellow convention goer approached me and showered me with so much praise. They even asked for a picture. My worry melted away and I couldn’t believe that I almost let the negativity that exists on the internet ruin everything. As the day went on, more and more people stepped forward to express how much they loved and appreciated my costume. It was such a heartwarming experience and I’ll never forget my first time cosplaying.

 

 

These were just some of our favorite moments, what is your favorite geeky memory? 😀 Let us know!