Personal stuff time!

Last night—29 February (leap day)—I proposed to my partner Derek via a game of Team Fortress 2.

Some back story: A few months ago, I decided that I might propose to Derek, and so I spoke to a friend about it and he encouraged me to go ahead with it. I was just going to book a restaurant, and get down on bended knee and stuff, but my friend pointed out that an item—the Something Special for Someone Special—had been slipped into the Christmas update. From all available information at the time, this item was uncraftable, so I did what any girl would: I emailed Gabe Newell.

A few weeks later I received an email from Eric Smith at Valve Software, advising that they were “working on it”, and on Valentine’s Day, I received another email and the ring.

So, how to give him this ring? A friend of mine—one of the administrators for games.on.net—suggested I could do it on a private TF2 server, and set one up.

On the day, I told Derek to meet me at a café near my work, and we connected to the Internode wireless hotspot there, and then to our private server, which was filled with all our TF2-playing friends and family. We played for a while, and then I tried to initiate a Trade request. Which he rejected. Repeatedly.

“Accept my trade!”

“No!”

“Accept my trade, bitch!”

“No! Stop it! I’m trying to cap!”

“FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF”

*set Derek (spy) on fire (I’m pyro, obviously)*

“NOW YOU’RE DEAD! ACCEPT MY TRADE WHILE YOU’RE IN SPAWN DAMMIT!”

“FIIIIIIIIINE”

Followed by an extended period of silence while he accepted the trade, and realised what he’d just been traded. As the screen displayed “Something Special for Someone Special” to the server, I made sure to speak into the mic:

“Derek, you don’t need to answer right now, but…”

*at this point I got down on bended knee*

“…will you marry me?”

More extended silence. It’s pretty rare to see Derek speechless. I told him we were about to go to a restaurant (Sosta Argentinean Restaurant) and we can talk things over there, and then we disconnected from the server (before he properly accepted the ring).

At the restaurant, about an hour later, he said yes… and recorded it on his phone. :) The game-play footage should be recorded too and is being edited. I’m told it is pretty funny.

So yeah, we’re getting married! Oh, and later (when we got home from the restaurant and a show at the Adelaide Fringe), he accepted the ring properly. :D Later tonight Derek and I are going to write a thank you note to Eric Smith and Valve Software.

====

EDIT: One of my friends has made a video of the server coming to a standstill, and also Derek saying yes at the restaurant.

Some of the audio is cut off but it’s basically this:

Me: “You don’t have answer right now, but”

Me: “Derek, will you marry me?”



*server comes to a standstill*

*incredibly awkward silence*

*gunfire and sentry noises*



Derek: “So we’re going to talk at the restaurant”

Derek: “I wasn’t expecting this”

Derek: “Wahhh!”



Me: “I love you, Derek!”

Derek: “I love you too dear!”

Paul: “I LOVE YOU BOTH!”



Me: “We’re going to disconnect now and we’ll see you at the rest… at… we’ll go to the restaurant. Enjoy the game. Bye!”

EDIT EDIT: And a polished video from my friend Paul (hugepedlar, the guy who went “I LOVE YOU BOTH” of the proposal.