The following story is for the 2019 Literotica Geek Pride Story Event. Just short bit of fun at a convention with a bit of a bidding war. Hope you all enjoy!
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Anthony made his living as a freelance writer. This was both a blessing and a curse for him. He got to talk about all his favorite stuff, but the pay was not always the best. His primary focus was on all things geek culture. Mainstream news outlets came to him when they needed someone to talk about the next comic book movie, explain the newest gaming trends, or go to a convention. He occasionally wrote for the more geekier hardcore websites but the competition there was harsh.
The assignment at this time was covering a local convention that did a little bit of everything from Anime, Video Games and even Comics. All three things were personal specialties for Anthony. The outlet that gave him this job was a local newspaper outlet, they arranged for him to moderate a panel with voice actors, an interview with a local developer showing off a new game, and a pass to an after party. The convention was all weekend so being a local himself was excellent. It meant no need for him to book a room at a hotel. He could just catch a late bus or train home. These types of gigs usually meant sleeping in dingy hotel rooms or sharing a room with other people.
"So where to first?" Asked Mike, the photographer for the paper. He was a tall guy in his late fifties and stood way out among the crowd of twenty and thirty-year-olds.
"Well my panel is not until later this afternoon," Anthony told him. "And my interview is tomorrow. I was going to go check out the floor and see what new stuff is here this year. Last year I wasn't here as press, so no one really gave me any scoops."
"Cool, man," Mike said adjusting his gear. "I will follow your lead."
"Ok but I do have a recommendation for you first," Anthony said and pointed to the crowd of people waiting for the public doors to open. "We can meet up in like an hour, but you're going to want to stand at that door over there for a while."
"Why is that?" Mike asked scratching his head.
"That is the door of the cosplayers," Anthony explained. "This show is having a huge cosplayer contest later today. You stand over there, and you will get plenty of people lining up for photos. I know the paper would love photos of that for the online edition."
"Cool, Anthony, but I am not going to know what half these people are dressed as anymore. People dressed as Spiderman and Wonder Woman, sure. Some of the more new stuff, I got no idea."
"I hear you man," Anthony replied patting the older man on the shoulder. "Even I don't know all the new characters and games. I will go over your photos with you tonight at dinner to identify those you don't know."
"Phil said you were a pro," Mike said grinning. "Phil wasn't lying."
"Eh," Anthony said shrugging. "Us freelancers gotta stick together. You go get lined up, text me when you're done."
Mike gave him a thumbs up and ran off to the door Anthony had pointed out. Thank God, Anthony thought to himself. Mike seemed like a nice guy, but Anthony had a plan for the show floor this morning. Screw looking at new games, comics, and whatnot. He needs to find the vendors booth before the show began.
Anthony bolted as soon as Mike stopped looking at him. He flashed his press pass to security and dashed as fast as he could to the far end of the convention center. The only way down to show floor was an escalator, which seemed to be crawling. Anthony looked for the particular vendor he wanted to shop with today. No sign of them could be seen as he rode down.
The convention center began to get noisy as he heard the doors open at a far off distance. That would keep Mike busy while Anthony looked for a specific item.
It took him way longer than he expected, but the vendor he was searching for was placed way out of the way near some bathrooms.
"I am looking for "James,"" Anthony asked the tall, overweight thick-bearded guy behind the counter.
"You got him," he replied in a deep thick voice.
"I am Anthony," Anthony said offering the man his hand. "We spoke via email."
"Oh, you are the dude I beat out for that cel," James said looking Anthony up and down. Anthony wasn't a bad looking guy, slightly above average. At this time he was wearing a nice pair of jeans, a dress shirt with a tie, and a casual dress coat, the kind with elbow patches. Among the usual attendees, he looked very different.
"Yeah," Anthony told him. "You beat me fair and square on eBay, but you told me you were selling the animation cel here at the convention."
"I am," James said and dug through the box in front of him. "Fan of Dragon's Lair?"
"Not a good game," Anthony said smiling. "But I have a lot of fond memories of it. The local 7/11 had a cabinet for most of my childhood. I even bought it from them when they were getting rid of it."
"Very cool," James said placing the animation cel in question on the counter. "I was worried that you would be one of those pervy weirdos considering the art of this cel."
"Ha," Anthony said as he looked over the cel.
Dragon's Lair was an older arcade game from 1983. Instead of moving a sprite around on the screen, the game was all animated like a cartoon. You played Dirk a knight trying to rescue Princess Daphne from a castle run by an evil dragon. The game would light up objects, doors and bad guys and you the player would push the corresponding buttons to make Dirk fight his way through to save the princess. It was really just a giant game of memory with a cartoon backdrop. The whole game was animated by Don Bluth, who did several Disney animated films and moved on to his own stuff like All Dogs Go to Heaven and An American Tail.
This particular animation cell was of a deleted clip of Princess Daphne. She is draped over a pile of gold in her slightly risque lingerie outfit that barely hides anything to the viewer. The pose was very sexual and left little to the imagination in spite of the clothing. It had been removed from the game in fear of parents reaction to the scene.
"Is five hundred still your asking price?" Anthony asked.
"Yup," he replied. "I got to make a little bit of money on this sale."
Anthony pulled out his wallet and placed the cash on the counter. James looked approvingly and passed him the cel.
"Do you need a receipt?" James asked putting the money in the register.
"Nah," Anthony said and put the cell in a folder and slipped it into his laptop bag. "Pleasure doing business with you." Then he walked away to go find Mike.
Seconds after Anthony walked away from the vendor, a pretty blonde in skin tight light blue leotard speed past him towards James. She carried a white plastic gun in one hand and had big glowing pink LEDs sewn into the back of the leotard. Anthony took a second to watch her run by and identify the costume as Samus the space bounty Hunter out of her suit from the Nintendo game Metroid. She went above and beyond with the LEDs Anthony thought, and she was definitely curvy enough to pull off the leotard. He had seen a few girls that were not, and it wasn't pretty.
Anthony sent Mike a message and told him he was on his way back. He figured he and Mike could catch back up and go see the other part of the show floor together.
Moments after he hit send, the blonde in the Samus costume sped past him again. She looped around and stopped in front of him. With no place to go Anthony stood there as she panted to catch her breath. Her hand was up she waved her finger at Anthony indicating, give me a second.
When her breathing normalized, she spoke. "That dick head says he sold you a Daphne animation cell."
"Yeah he did," he replied.
The blonde looked about to be in her early to mid-twenties, and her hair looked like it wasn't a wig. She was adorable and slightly taller than Anthony. That would have made her five seven or five eight. He was kinda surprised she even knew what Dragon's Lair was, to be honest. The game came out the year he was born, so most people were surprised he knew much about it himself.
"I got four hundred bucks right here," she said rifling through her bag on her hip.
"Not interested," Anthony told her straight out. "I paid more than that anyways."
"Really?" She asked, and her face started turning red. "Then you paid too much."
"It wasn't about the money," he explained. "I love the game, and the cell is a piece of history."
"What if I could get you seven hundred by tonight?" She asked.
"You can't offer me enough money to give it up," he said honestly.
As Samus began to respond a dozen convention attendees passed and started hollering at her. "Can we get a picture? Your costume is awesome!"
Torn between her conversation with Anthony and the new found fans she looked away for on a second. That was all the time Anthony to scurry away. He literally double-timed his speed in hopes of getting to Mike so they could disappear on the show floor. He feared that this chick would be after him again.
Mike seemed surprised when Anthony showed up so quickly. He was still photographing cosplayers as they entered the convention center. The number cosplayers coming through the door was beginning to wain.
"Almost done here?" Anthony asked while still watching for Samus.
"Sure man," Mike said. "You look kinda startled?"
Anthony explained how he went to buy the animation cell and how that girl in the Samus costume seemed to not be taking the hint he didn't want to sell it.
"Hahahaha," Mike laughed. "Let me get this straight, so you have a cute girl stalking you for something you bought, and that's a bad thing?"
"I didn't say she was cute?" Anthony said.
"Well, I only saw one Samus costume come through the door this morning. She was pretty hot in those blue tights."
"How do you know who Samus is?" Anthony asked surprised.
"I have kids man," he explained grinning. "I have played Smash Bros."
"Can we get out of here?" Anthony finally remarked.
"Your the boss," Mike commented, and the left for the show floor.
For the next few hours, the two of them saw tons of stuff, talked to various people and crammed as much as they could before Anthony's panel. Mike was pretty happy to have Anthony with him. Anthony introduced him to several prominent people in several different areas of the show.
The panel went well too. Or at least it did until the questions portion. Anthony guided a chat among four voice actors who did video games, anime, and kids cartoons. He had met them all before and done this sort of thing a few times. With about five to ten minutes left in the panel, a mic went around to have fans as the actors' questions.
