Shifter Ascendant

I was at the Y over a year ago when this happened, but it took a while for me to remember to describe it.

It was in the evening after I had finished a workout and I was on my way out the door. There was this young guy, and a young girl, both reasonably attractive and both manning the front desk at the Y. On my way out I said good night and they said good night and then the girl asked me a question. They were playing some trivia game, it seemed, and had a disagreement. She asked me if Flash Gordon and The Flash were the same person or different. I didn't even blink, or think about it, "Different people," I said.

Then the guy, who seemed kind of excitable, said to the girl "But he doesn't know! He's just guessing!" I suppose he was in the Single Person camp and didn't like hearing a dissenting voice.

Unfortunately for him, and also unbeknownst, he was talking to an uber-geek. And, even worse, he had just challenged my geek-ness. I didn't know?!? Excuse me?? About two comic book characters?? Before I could even think about it my wounded geek pride lashed out and I said, firmly "One guy goes around in space ships and fights Ming the Merciless. The other guy wears red tights with little lightning bolts on his head to fight crime. They're different guys." And I walked off, secure in my ascendency, imagining the stunned looks on their faces behind my back as they took in the awesomeness of my comic book trivia mastery.

It was only, oh, 10 minutes later that I realized I had just lost any cool points I had ever, ever had at the Y with my burst of nerdy superiority. Indeed, my chances of scoring a date with some young attractive female Y employee who would have otherwise been blind to my marital status, middle age, lack of hair, and over abundance of sweat glands had in fact just been shattered by my display. But by god, it was worth it. Yes, it was worth it.

Different guys. End of story.