Only here could you see the Abominable Snowman walking hand-in-hand with a Wood Nymph. Steve Batson, on the other hand, wore khaki pants, a button-down shirt, and a navy sport coat. As he strolled down the convention center hallway occasionally weaving through the clustered crowds that were milling about on the dark and geometrically-patterned hotel-grade carpet, he considered the ironic fact that almost any other day of the year he would fit right in here, but, presently, he felt entirely out of place.
Among the bustling throng with whom he co-occupied the hotel's convention center, the vast majority were either elaborately costumed men and women coalesced into pairs or small groups, or they were nerdy young men and women clad in Johnny Cash casual (i.e. jeans and T-shirt – all black.) The juxtaposition of the futuristically costumed characters and the mundane beige and burgundy décor of the hotel's conference center created a kind of cognitive dissonance – making one reflect upon what it would be like if superheroes attended conferences like insurance salesmen or auto parts distributers.
Every Labor Day weekend for the past four years Batson had driven from Huntsville, Alabama - where he was, quite literally, a NASA rocket scientist (more properly a Junior Propulsion Engineer)- to Atlanta for the annual Dragon Con convention. Dragon Con was a massive comic book, science fiction, and fantasy assemblage that attracted swarms of fans of Star Trek, Star Wars, and the like, but it also brought out everybody within a hundred mile radius, and in some cases vastly further, who liked to play dress-up as a favorite superhero or science-fiction series character. Hulks, She-Hulks, Batmen, CatWomen, Captain Kirks, and Uhuras were all out in force; as were many lesser known characters.
Steve liked sci-fi and had had a comic book collection from about first grade through high school, but, in recent years, the large number of girls in costume, many of whom had exhibitionist streaks, were a bigger attraction. While one might have expected such a geek jamboree to be almost devoid of females, nothing could have been further from the truth.
The costumed women ran the gamut, and included young, mature, buxom, petite, athletic, blonds, brunettes, and redheads and everything in-between. They portray old favorites like WonderWoman, Princess Leia (most often in her skimpy slave garb), Lara Croft, and Poison Ivy, as well as obscure characters like Orion Slave Girl, Starfire, and Leeloo. More often than not these characters seemed to be of the scantily- and/or tightly- clad varieties. There were always a surprising number of svelte gorgeous young women – who one wouldn't expect to give a nerd the time of day- in attendance, and, if your preferences ran in other directions, there would almost certainly be someone to meet your fancy. Perhaps in an era in which Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were running the world, women were beginning to look at nerds in a different light... or maybe these girls just got their freaks on by being ogled and made the subject of fantasy. While Batson, as a bit of a nerd himself, would have preferred the former, he was willing to accept the latter.
Batson ambled aimlessly around the convention center snapping photos here and there as a subject would strike his fancy. The high-end clunky black SLR camera that hung from his neck on a thick embroidered strap, along with a kit of readily interchangeable lens to meet a range of photographic needs, served him well in this voyeuristic endeavor. Besides taking good pictures, the rig seemed to result in many of the young ladies posing for him because they assumed he was either a photo-journalist or one of the event photographers. Batson was as surprised as anyone how uninhibited the various heroines and villains were to strike a pose when they saw his lens pointing in their direction.
The mindset was not unlike that seen at Harajuku in Tokyo where, on Sunday afternoons, college girls dressed in various colorful anime get-ups and gathered on the wide sidewalk of the road that crossed over the train tracks from the station toward the Meiji shrine. Those girls, too, were happy to let anyone and everyone take pictures of them before they headed back to their dormitories and the mundane existence they lived out in the alter ego that was their real life. Batson had been to Japan a couple times for technical conferences, and always made it a point to visit Harajuku.
Consulting his program, Batson noted that a signing by one of the artists of his favorite comic book, Martian Manhunter, was due to begin and he wanted to get an autograph. Unfortunately, the signing was taking place in one of the smaller breakout rooms, and he couldn't seem to find it.
He saw a girl standing off to the side of the hallway, ostensibly either people-watching or waiting for someone. Given her elaborate costume, he figured she might be in-the-know about the event. Furthermore, given the provocative nature of her costume and the fetching features of the young woman, he figured that his need for directions would provide the perfect pretext to approach a girl that he doubted he would have the nerve to approach out of the blue.
Steve suspected that she was a little younger than he, and that, if she went to college, she was probably a junior or senior. The girl had short auburn hair that was cut longer in the front than the back such that the arcs of hair bracketed her cherubic face, but the back of her neck was exposed below the neatly rounded hairline. It was an apropos hairstyle for the event at hand because it had a futuristic look to it and was a feminine rather than boyish short hairstyle.
The girl was portraying some kind of slave girl. Her midriff was exposed, and her top consisted of a metal mesh bikini-top behind which there was a shear material that was probably intended to keep the sensitive parts of her breast from grating on the cold rough steel. At least Batson suspected that because it didn't do much to reduce the degree to which the costume was revealing. The material was not entirely opaque and the outline of her areola showed through. She wore pasties over her nipples either to reduce the potential for hassle or chaffing (he knew not which). The bottom was also metal and consisted of two pieces. A front and a back piece were attached with a chain. As an item of metalwork it was impressive in that graceful curves had been molded into it with the front portion having a gentle "V" at the crotch joint, and the back consisted of two form-fitting rounded buttocks. It was meant to look like some type of chastity belt, but the fact that it was entirely split up the sides didn't leave one to hold out much hope that it would offer defense of the girl's virtue. There was a minimal cotton undergarment to mitigate the effect of exposure to steel. The costume was topped off with a leather collar around her neck that had a steel D-ring through it that would allow for the attachment of a leash.
The girl had a pretty face with full lips, reddened cheeks, and a button of a nose. Her body was graceful curved in what might be described as a voluptuous way. She had probably been described in less charitable terms on occasion by the supermodel worshippers, but she looked about like the models that Manet had painted. Steve found her attractive, and well within the range that he would call "doable."
"Excuse me, could you tell me where the Stonebrook room is? I can't seem to find it." Steve forced himself to look her in the eye after he realized that he had been looking at her cleavage when she looked up at him.
"Yes, Master. I would be happy to take you there." The girl said in a pleasant tone with just a touch of a southern drawl discernable that indicated she was from the region and a transplanted northerner.
"Thanks a lot. I didn't mean to put you to all that trouble." Steve did his best not to show a reaction to the word "Master" in the girl's reply. He had had an impulse to laugh out loud about how seriously people took the role-playing, but he figured that maybe it was just a Freudian slip, or, maybe, she was an employee and had to stay in character and be helpful as part of her job. At any rate, he did not want to be rude.
