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It was a dark and surreal morning as I stumbled out of the house to catch my bus to Escapism '09. Deja vu struck like an erratic assassin. This was pretty much how I'd started the day of the last one too. None the less I made it, eventually. Some shenanigans occurred with tickets and a scowly bus driver because all the trains were replaced by buses for some god unknown reason. What's the point of taking trains which carry hundreds of people off and replacing them with buses which carry maybe 60? It just doesn't make sense.
I digress.
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s46/Labyrinth_11/ultrajoe.jpgThe first person I met was in fact Ultrajoe. It came as somewhat of a shock. I can honestly say that I didn't expect her to look like that or to be a her at all. A reasonable presumption I felt, judging by her forum presence, but alas a wrong one. The
After the first shocking introductions, the pair of us wandered inside to find Inverse Skies. He flew in at some ungodly hour of the morning and had been loitering ever since. Some commiserations were passed in Inverse's direction for such a taxing effort. Well worth it though, I am to understand. He flies back home later tonight after an early night on the town and all the rest. Big shout out to him for the effort.
The remaining Escapists slowly trickled in. Indigo Dingo brought his Dell laptop and many jokes were made at the expense of said company. Of course Ultrajoe retained her shock value and many jaws hit the floor. Krunk retains his name as the best reaction. He simply stood and gaped for a time while the rest of us laughed ourselves silly. It was the natural running joke for the day.
We walked out for a bit to see Jim Doki as I surrendered rock candy I'd long kept safe for him. In truth it was but a bribe to get him to turn up if only briefly. It worked. I was happy.
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I arranged to meet a few other people at the Laser Tag location and we set off to catch a train to Town Hall and from there wander our way towards Darling Harbour. It was all shiny once we realised that we had people who knew where they were going. This prevented embarrassment from taking over. Both Xhumed and Illithya met us on the wooden steps to the harbour itself. They were just sitting there smoking as we wandered over for hugs and introductions.
Onward! Lasertag called us. A few escalators later we wandered our way through the bowling and mini-arcade to get to our prize. Kits were handed out, teams divided after a problem or two and we waited for more people so we could start our games. Camicazee arrived late, fashionably, and joined us in our loitering while another team showed their green faces. Then we began.
I must admit that I didn't do so well. This was only the second time I'd ever done laser tag and I was too used to aiming for people's heads to try to hit their vests instead. Had hats with little sensors been warn, I would have done so much better. A curse upon this pitiful and unrealistic technology! In addition, having to hold ones gun with both hands sucks when you're trying to keep behind cover and shoot around corners. It's quite annoying, especially when playing against a bunch of non-Escapists who will just run past behind you, continually, shooting you in the back. They didn't stop!
A pity that our Escapist face-off was so interrupted by outsiders. We trooped on. The first battle was a situation of most people finding their feet and more often than not, shooting the area around their opponents. I don't think a single person had an accuracy score above 20. Second game improved everyones performance. I think a third would have worked best but alas, money was tight and we had other commitments to attend to.
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s46/Labyrinth_11/dingo.jpgBowling came next. Having never bowled before I went quite well once the gutters were put up. Before then it was more a failed situation. By failed I mean truly atrocious. We won't go into exactly how atrocious, because I still have my pride.
After that game was done with everyone winding up in the double digits we finished our pitchers of coke and water then toddled on. I must admit it was funny to watch the clerk's reaction to being handed these massive boots by both Xhumed and I as we swapped them for shoes to play. Neither pair fit in the shoe holes properly so they were stacked beside. We were prepared and ventured out to find the fabled Pancakes On The Rocks (not on the rocks.) Such a tragedy that they had no room for a family of three ahead of us, let along our group of 11. Perhaps I should have booked that too. Ah well, something for next time then.
Lo, we loitered for a time for light conversation. An arcade and food called from the not-so-distant land of Deja vu and the Escapism returned to it's birthplace of Galaxy World and the Paddy's Markets food court. We did not have pancake aside from our own elitism but we persevered none the less. Ultrajoe found herself very excited over a chicken and mushroom pide. The rest of us ate stuff from various Asian nations. Tasty times all around. I didn't even object too much when some of my delicious juice was stolen by the ever-ninja Ultrajoe.
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s46/Labyrinth_11/cami-car-zee.jpgLITIOS [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.81217#1077135] called like a siren. The joyous memories of yesteryear returned as I sat down to shoot some overgrown spiders with an AK-47. The Escapist watched on to much laughter and cries of "WHAT THE HELL THAT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE!!!?" Frogs found them selves laid flat with the terrible vengeance of my mighty paddle. I conquered many a fearsome beast overfed on magic mushrooms. Seriously. That's the cause of all the shenanigans in the game.
I believe that Lord Krunk and Indigo Dingo took over firing once I'd died. The rest of us sat back and giggled for a time. Then it was on to more wanderings. We misplaced the Dingo, having accidentally wandered away from him without realising. A snap decision in the field by Camikaze saved us all from such a tragic loss. One of our lurker people nicked off around this point.
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s46/Labyrinth_11/Icecream.jpgCasting around for coffee resulted in casting around for ice-cream so we went to this "French Riviera" ice-creamery and bought something so ludicrously oversized that we had to have Inverse Skies scoff the last portion because the rest of us couldn't stomach any more. Every flavour in the shop was stacked up and doused liberally with nuts and chocolate sauce. Truly Ultra, if I may say so.
Alas that this was our last stop. Laden down with delicious cold treats and still joking amongst ourselves The Escapism Sydney '09 toddled back to Central station. We lost our Gothy pair en-route, to much mourning. Both Ultrajoe and I were severely distracted by the shiny shiny boots in Raben Footwear, and spent a few minutes drooling over such beauties as were constructed of stiletto heels and thigh-high PVC. 2 feet of tubular sex. They were just so very pretty you see. Central was not far from us and we wandered on further yet.
Indigo Dingo left us at the station and then it was my turn to depart along with the fabled Ultrajoe. Or Ultrajosaphine. I'm not quite sure which at present. A wonderful day with many thanks to all who came along. The rest of you missed out. I seriously suggest someone, somewhere gets up and actually organises one for where they are. It doesn't take all that much.
Tess LaCoil out.
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A final note. Sorry if you didn't appear in the pictures, I didn't take all that many that turned out okay. Perhaps next time.
