Adania: Origins

Once upon a time, in a snowy midwestern college town, a teenage girl was wandering around after school, possibly semi-stalking a classmate that she had a bit of a crush on who may have worked at a local game arcade & pool hall. Said venue was just down the block from a comics store that, while interesting, was not very welcoming to young women...but the pinball arcade, on the other hand, had a delightfully respectful and safe (if often shirtless) middle-aged tech guy (who may have felt mildly protective of such an innocent young thing) who encouraged her to watch and ask questions while he fixed games. And even more luck for her empty teenage pockets, he would sometimes leave a few credits on those machines and invite her to "check if that's working now." Quickly she was hooked, and first found herself using any extra lunch money to play The Addams Family, (as it was the best value - in spite of no ball save - at 3 games for a dollar) and later expanding to several other DMDs (she learned to love older games later). This arrangement peaked the month ToTAN came out, when the tech invited her to stay locked in as he closed the arcade for the night, playing on freeplay for hours on a brand new table. (I love the lightning!)
Thus began Adania's interest in pinball, which has pretty much only waxed over the years, other than a few-year waning when she first moved to Japan which was at that time still a pinball desert poisoned by the pungent stench of pachinko parlors. Three months too late to rescue her from this desert, The Silver Ball Planet opened in Osaka only after she had already left Japan.

She finally realized the depth of her love for pinball when she noticed for the Nth time that she had played her forearms quite sore upon returning to her hometown arcade during periodic visits to the US, making up for pinless months in a matter of hours. Having realized this love, it will be unlikely for her to move anywhere without pinball again. Ever. Someday perhaps she might even own a table or five... but first she'll have to settle on living in one country for longer than a few months!