Subject: Why do people call you Flash??
The way it happened was this:
Way back in 1984, around June of that year, I was living in Lake Orion, Michigan, (that's pronouced "ory-on" by the locals, not "OH-ryan" like the constellation) and was visiting a friend who had a younger brother around 10 or so, his name was JJ.He had bought a big handful of tiny plastic spaceships, something like 15 cents a piece or so, and they were lying on the coffee table in the living room. When my friend left to go get ready, I picked up a couple of the ships and started playing with them. There was one I was especially fond of, that looked like a Flash Gordon-style spaceship, and I was whooshing it around the table when her brother JJ came in and joined me. ("Evil Baron JJ, holding sway over the galactic rim with an ironclad fist!") We had a space battle that I was 'narrating" as it went along. My friend came in saw us playing on the floor, shrugged, and joined in. ("New Character Enter: The vaguely attractive Carla" ) She kept attempting to overbalance the combat, finish it up, so we could get going... After a collision she said something like "There, your ship's blown up, let's go!" and I said "You can't kill me, I'm Flash Fiasco, Space Explorer! I always survive to the next episode!"I didn't think much of it then, but when we arrived at the theatre (going to see Ghostbusters for about the Nth time) She explained to the group that we were late because "Flash here... had a space battle to finish up.." Thus a nickname was born.
Later additions over time were:
The Vaguely Attractive Carla
The Sufficiently Intelligent Dr.Zaron
The Un-erringly direct Navigator Bunny
Buzz, my first officer
RU-B2DY (Ruby Tuesday) the logistics and transportation robot Kitty Korners; the Shuttle Pilot
Engineer Slotty
Snnnnnnaakke; the helmsman and comedic foil.Some fan fiction was written, and Navigator Bunny appeared in my computer game, "Beyond the Twilight Vale."
Much fun was had by all, but after I moved back to Indiana, my nickname stuck.