The Triforce

It always surprises me a little when people are so taken aback at my nerdiness. I don't know what vibe I give off but apparently gamer and nerd aren't part of it.

There was a couple up at my counter. They wanted to sign up for our membership, which requires an email. I hate it when people spell it, I have a touch of dyslexia, and the letters jumble impossibly in my head. So he begins to spell his email and I ask him politely to say each letter slowly. He repeats himself. Normally when someone goes to the trouble of spelling it, it's because it's a random series of letters or a particular way of spelling a name. But when I looked at what he'd spelled it was "Optimus." I looked at him almost offended, "Didn't you think I'd know who Optimus Prime is?" He looked surprised then embarrassed and said he supposed not.

Another guy was blown away that I recognized the Triforce tattoo on his hand. When I saw it I grinned, "Is that the Triforce?" He looked startled and admitted it was. I wondered aloud that he had them all filled in rather than picking either courage, wisdom, or power.

 He stared at me, and then asked if I'd played Ocarina of Time. "Of course I have. Who hasn't played that?" Evidentially every female he knew. He said there was a line about getting to keep the whole Triforce if the world was in balance. He stayed and chatted with me for a while. I asked if he'd played Skyward Sword yet, since I enjoyed it a lot. He said he couldn't and showed me that he only had one arm. Like a stellar human being, I said that sucked because he couldn't play any of the Wii games. He gave me an odd look and said, "For other reasons too."

 I blushed and launched into talking about how fun the Wii U was, since he said he could use the controls. After gushing about the Nintendo Land mechanics for the Luigi's Mansion mini game I stopped and said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I must be boring you." He had been listening intently, but I didn't want to monopolize the conversation. After a beat he stuttered, "No, you're not boring me! I guess I should go though." He told me his name and we shook hands.

For some reason, I knew immediately after the interaction that he'd be posting a Missed Connection on Craigslist. He expressed interest by saying I was the only genetically female person who had correctly identified his tattoo. I got back to him saying that I was stoked with having met him, and wanted to get a coffee, but was sadly attracted to women. He never got back to me. This Halloween I really want to be Sheik if I can throw together a passable cosplay, and I keep imagining that he's going to choose the day I wear it to work to come back in, and it's going to be all sorts of hilariously awkward.