~OriginalD

The weekend just gone has been one fulled with events of the geekish variety.

First, I went to Gen Con oz. For those that don't know, this is probably one of the biggest and nerdiest geek conventions on the face of the planet. It's where gamers, anime lovers, and sci fi/fantasy fans gather to socialise and compete in tournaments of their favourite games. It's also where they come dressed up as any number of sci fi or anime characters.

I played a card game called Killer Bunnies, wandered around a bit, had a sub-par hotdog, watched a bit of the Cosplay contest, and participated in my very first LARP.

The cosplay started off ok... well no, not really. But there was a very in-shape young lady dressed as Cortana from Halo, in a skintight body-hugging blue lycra suit that left little to the imagination. She was followed by her friend dressed as slave Leia from Star Wars, only she being young was much prettier not to mention more revealing than Cortana, understandably. They were both quite a hot little number, understandably. It went downhill from there, starting with three teenage girls playing Resident Evil heroines... and doing a song and dance routine. That lasted for 5 excruciating songs. It was painful. Then it just went on and on with a barrage of obscure music games as well as an annoying amount of pouting emo Kingdom Hearts players. I had to leave, not just because my LARP game was due to start in 5 minutes.

Said LARP game (Live Action Role Play) was awesome. I was the killer, though it was accidental and in self defense. Turned out the guy was trying to signal for help. Whoops. His dad, my uncle, wasn't doing so well with the farm as I thought. It was this whole amazingly complex, satisfyingly gritty scenario that had many shocks and twists I did not expect or even discover in my play. Take into consideration that it was my first one, so I didn't know what to expect really. But it certainly delivered, and I'll definitely go back next year just for that.

I topped this all off last night by going to a charity screening of Serenity with Melinda from uni, Samara who I knew through her, and the Brisbane Sci Fi and Fantasy crew, who were dressed as Firefly characters naturally (Samara was Kaylee), and got second place in the sunday cosplay comp for their singing of the themesong. Not bad, I must say. I suspect first might have gone to Cortana or Leia, if they came back sunday, but I didn't ask. Whoops. But it was good to see Serenity in the cinema. I missed it when it came out, but my cousin who's a mad hardcore gamer with a dwarf beard and who listens to Nine Inch Nails got me into Firefly, which I've been eternally grateful for.

So yes, my weekend kinda rocked.