On FlameCon, the Intergalactic Exchange Program, and Meeting Someone New

I know, I know, absolute word salad of a title. But this last weekend, a friend and I attended FlameCon - New York City's only (that I know of) LGBT+ comic/movie/TV/video game/overall geekery convention. And for a smaller sized two-day convention, a lot happened, including...

• My friend Lily and I went as Amilyn Holdo from "Star Wars" and Starfleet Academy Saavik from "Star Trek" (based on the Starfleet Academy uniforms from the Kelvin timeline) and made many references to an "Intergalactic Exchange Program" (also Amilyn and Saavik are both lesbians and you cannot convince me otherwise.)
• I met my favourite webcomic artist of all time, and she was so nice to me! I was a little (okay, a LOT) nervous because I've met other webcomic artists in the past who were not so warm and cordial. But Megan Rose Gedris, I'm pleased to report, was genuinely kind and inspiring. Plus the glitter in her updo looked SO GOOD.
• I made tentative plans to maaaaaaybe attend a Star Trek convention in the near future. More on that (if it ends up happening) in the future.
• I met someone new...

They are not pictured in this photo, I just wanted to show off our intergalactic exchange program.

If I know my audience (and I do know some of you irl), it's that last point that a lot of you will inevitably be curious about.

There's honestly not much to tell (yet) but here's the main breakdown of how we met...

At the con itself, there was a lesbian/sapphic meetup, which of course Amilyn and Saavik (and the sapphic cosplayers portraying them - aka us) had to go check out. And in that room full of women and women-aligned folk who loved women and other women-aligned folk, the conversation soon turned to lesbians' seeming inability to ask women out or even flirt with them.

And then I remembered the "Useless Lesbian" cards Sarah made me a few months back:

This is the front. The back has my photo and a little blurb about me

I figured that if anyone would appreciate these cards, it would be this group of people, so of course I handed out the few I happened to have in the bottom of my bag. Much to my surprise, though, far from just getting laughs (though I got plenty of those), I actually was approached by someone and asked for my phone number. This was surprising for many reasons, not least of which that I was in full Vulcan make-up, with the upturned eyebrows and the pointed ears and everything.

But I gave it, and we began texting back and forth. And then we went on our first date a few nights ago. And it... it went really well! Though I hesitate to put a label on this just yet, and though we're really just taking it kind of slow for now, I really like them. I think we're really compatible.

And I'm genuinely surprised that it worked out the way it did. I haven't had much luck when actively seeking out dates, either online or out in places like Stonewall. I'm still working through a plethora of self esteem issues that make me hesitate to talk to people the way I wish I could. A couple months ago I had a minor flirtation with someone but it never extended past that.

But this is different, somehow. It just feels a lot more natural. And it just kind of... happened, without me really looking that hard for it.

I'm really really looking forward to seeing where this goes. Our second date is next weekend (I wish it could be sooner but I have a lot to take care of this weekend, but at least we text every evening) and so far it's going great. I like them a lot. I think meeting them was the best thing that happened at FlameCon.

Con season isn't over yet! I will be attending NYCC as Dr McCoy, and possibly Northeast Trek Con in Albany (not sure yet if I wanna do that as Saavik or McCoy)

Dif-tor heh smusma! (That's "Live Long and Prosper" in Vulcan!)

-Nym