User:Slythgeek
| Name/s: | slythgeek, SuperGeekGirl, CobraShipper |
| Fandom/s: | Metal Gear, Harry Potter, The Wild Wild West, Doctor Who, Firefly, Ghostbusters, Burn Notice, The Dark Tower, James Bond, Lost |
| You can find me at: | Slythgeek's tumblr
CobraShipper on fanfiction.net |
| On Fanlore: | My contributions / email me |
A costumer, writer, and convention chair, Slythgeek has made her fannish stomping ground the Greater St. Louis, Missouri area.
Besides being the chair of several conventions, she is the PR officer of the Greater St. Louis Ghostbusters and a member of the St. Louis Costumers Guild.
Fannish History
Slythgeek was born Katrina Johnson in Springfield, Ohio. She grew up in rural Ohio, far from any fannish activities, though she and her friends wrote a Star Wars LARP when she was twelve. She spent most of her school years loving dinosaurs and, by association, dragons. Slythgeek's family ingrained in her a deep love of history and anthropology, bringing her up in a house exactly 150 years older than her. She was costuming as soon as she learned how to tie a few rags together and call herself "Cinderella".
In 1999, she discovered both Harry Potter and "Weird Al" Yankovic which finally replaced (or rather, augmented) dinosaurs as her main obsession. She would finally meet Weird Al (and touch his glorious hair) in 2004 just before graduating high school. Even today, she can tell you his shoe size, height, and exact time of birth.
When she was in high school, Slythgeek got a job at COSI, a science museum in Columbus, Ohio, as an actor. COSI's staff was populated with colorful characters who dragged her to her first convention in 2003 - Marcon. Slythgeek so loved Marcon that she continued to go back each year, even after moving to St. Louis for college.
Slythgeek began sharing her fan fiction online while in high school, using the names Zelda, NKVDNatasha, and SuperGeekGirl. She and her best friend Agent Orange wrote two Harry Potter fics that are now gone to the oblivion of the internet - Harry Potter and the Lost Prophecy and The Hagrid-Dobby Love Connexion. Slythgeek also wrote fic for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Jurassic Park.
In college, despite having watched very little anime, Slythgeek found herself president of the Webster University Anime Society and quickly turned the club's attention away from watching anime once a month to planning themed events. While president, she organized a zombie-themed protest, Ouran-style host parties, a Final Fantasy festival, and finally an anime convention which she chaired for her last two years in college. She was also an officer in Potterheads Anonymous, a Harry Potter club, and wrote a Hogwarts-themed murder mystery game that was played by over 50 students one dark evening in 2007.
In 2008, she married her college sweetheart, a rather foppish fellow fan who bore a striking resemblance to Weird Al. Their wedding, which took place on the pirate ship stage at the Greater St. Louis Renaissance Festival grounds, was featured by Offbeat Bride. Around the same time, Slythgeek had a falling out with several of the staff members of Anime St. Louis, the convention she had been chairing, which led to her starting Kawa Kon.
Kawa Kon drew inspiration from Marcon, her first and favorite convention. She invited members of the St. Louis Costumers Guild, of which she and Mikhail had been members for two years, to join the staff. The resulting convention retained a focus on Japanese culture with a mish-mash of other highly interactive programming. The theme changes each year, and in 2012, Kawa Kon introduced programming tracks a la Dragon*Con. Slythgeek currently runs the Potterverse Track which will be expanded into a British Invasion Track for 2013.
Since 2006, Slythgeek has been hosting panels on at conventions across the Midwest. Her panels on costuming, writing, and various media franchises usually combine an audio-visual presentation with interactive discussions or games. Most infamously, she hosted the yaoi panel at Naka-Kon for three years.
In 2009, Slythgeek and her husband created Bishie Con, a yaoi and slash convention geared toward female fans. After an initial loss, Bishie Con took off in its second year, but Slythgeek found herself in a quandary - she wanted to put more energy and money toward costuming and traveling and less toward conventions. When she tried to say she wasn't running Bishie Con for a third year, the fans begged for her to continue the convention. She attempted a compromise - a 17-hour event with four programming rooms and an art show. It was poorly attended. Slythgeek plans to roll her Bishie Con ideas into a track of slash programming at the local relaxacon.
Having been a Harry Potter fan for twelve years, Slythgeek wanted to give St. Louis a small Harry Potter convention the weekend of the final movie release. While a string of bad luck made the convention barely break even, 24 Hours of Potter was still considered one of the best Harry Potter-themed events St. Louis has seen.
Since 2009, Slythgeek's main fandom has been the Metal Gear series of video games. Having cosplayed her favorite character (The Boss) in every version of her costume, Slythgeek turned her attention to fic again. She spun the insanely long and as yet unfinished epic The Joy of Battle: Historical Espionage Action and wrote several short fics for the series. In November 2011, she hosted the first Metal Gear convention, called Escape from Outer Heaven. On deviantART, she runs the Joy-Sorrow-FC (Joy and Sorrow Fan Club) for fans of her favorite pairing.
Only recently, after spending the past five years surrounded by Whovians in the Costumers Guild, Slythgeek resolved to spend and evening watching Doctor Who. She was hooked immediately and has already begun making Doctor Who costumes.
Current Favorites
While Slythgeek is still active in Metal Gear fandom, writing fic and organizing meetups at conventions, she is finding herself drawn deeper into Doctor Who fandom.
The fandoms she is currently trying to drag all of her friends into include: Metal Gear, Doctor Who, The Wild Wild West, Firefly, Ghostbusters, and Burn Notice.
She enjoys slash and other sorts of character shipping but tends to avoid shipping wars because they take the fun out it. Her favorite pairings include: Joy/Sorrow from Metal Gear, Snake/Otacon from Metal Gear, Sirius/Remus from Harry Potter, Doctor/Master from Doctor Who (especially Five/Ainley), Ben/Locke from Lost, and Jim/Artie from The Wild Wild West.
On Fanlore
Slythgeek joined Fanlore because she loves the history of her own subculture and wants to contribute to its preservation.
She plans to work on costuming-related pages as well as pages pertaining to Metal Gear fandom.