Right, whichever one of you lot nicked my camera, send it back right now, or I'm siccing Kaitlyn on you.
With that out of the way... thanks once again to KittyEden for organising the trip! I mean, it was still a bit obnoxious asking us all to come to Australia, but at least I didn't have as bad a trip as Desdendelle. I didn't even know there were direct flights from Israel to Antarctica...
I'm seriously disappointed in the lot of you, by the way: not one of you thought to bring any sandwiches to the PGs. Is it any wonder PoorCynic nearly dropped us down the Marianas Trench? We were all nearly starving! And it's not like you can just reach out and catch some fish to eat yes I'm looking at you Darkotas.
(Confession time: it wasn't just the shark. Nesh didn't manage to get a picture of the Colossal Squid... which is probably a good thing. Nightmare fuel, I'm telling you.)
I still think it's hilarious that we all forgot the tents. I know sonofheaven176, World-Jumper, and Tira were all adamant that they were going to bring them – what happened, guys? Were you too distracted by dramaticsoprano's Interpretive Departure Dance to pack them? Seriously. But props to Silenthunder for the marquee, and to doctorlit for the spare sleeping bags.
The ISH virus... yikes. Hieronymus was particularly hard hit – that German accent didn't do him any favours, remember Kaitlyn deciding he had a mutation called 'the ICH strain'? I was impressed by radioactiveSue's attempts to communicate in ISHMorse code – it's just a shame only AdmiralSakai understood! I admit that watching radioactiveSue getting more and more angry with AdmiralSakai's mistranslations was hilarious, though.
Fred! Fred was awesome. Kitty, please tell me you left him a laptop and the Board's address – he totally need to join the PPC. Though admittedly the part where he pushed the van across two miles of dunes, not so cool.
The night was... um... let's go with 'interesting'. Apologies if Kaitlyn and I kept anyone awake! ^~ Sometimes there's nothing for it but a game of Midnight Munchkin. (Was quite surprised no-one tried to join in, though – did you maybe think we were up to something else?) As for Scapegrace's 'eldrich ritual'... okay, in spite of your 'vows of eternal secrecy on pain of' whatever, I have to tell you that Voyd someone I won't name talked. And yes, I admit that it all sounds very impressive... until I realised the whole thing was a colossal pun about dunes in June. Not very subtle, Scape. (Apparently Omega really got into it, though...)
Breakfast was really lovely (if cold!). I'm sorry Kaitlyn and I sparked the 'everyone vanish into the dunes' debacle – sorry, Edhelistar, hope you like Pretoria!
Rock-Paper-Scissors was heaps of fun. I beat DawnFire with a well-timed Overhand Meteorite, and managed to block SeaTurtle's Origami Throw with a Edward Reversal, but ultimately lost to Ekyl's Million Dollars. I admit that seeing him win the entire contest with a Rocks Fall, Everybody Dies made me feel a bit better.
I enjoyed the little bit of Darkotas' Rettop Yrrah I ended up taking part in; in retrospect I shouldn't have picked Dumbledore! I mean, it would've been all right if we'd got back further than Sirius' death – incredibly well acted by Sergio and Calista, by the way – but the Golden Trio's 'little accident'... yes, I know it wasn't your fault, firemagic, but it did rather make playing on impossible.
The talent show... oh, the talent show. Best acts, for my money, were Seafarer's 'Les Mis in a minute', and Iximaz and Darkotas' 'instant tumbleweed bunkbed' – though the latter, admittedly, mostly for the looks on their faces when they fell through! Apologies to anyone who was looking forward to my promised Lay of Leithian two-person play – TheShyIon backed out at the last minute (yes, I know you had your reasons), and I couldn't bully Kaitlyn into taking her place. Shame – she would've made a wonderful Luthien.
I'm, er, not really sure what was going on with Lady Liberty – Pretzel, why did you think that was a good idea? For that matter, I'm not sure how you managed to fit her in the van – never mind 'bigger on the inside', she shouldn't have gone through the doors! Oh, wait – didn't domirossi say something about finding Fred some company? I'm not sure the elephant wanted a statue, mate! (Also, was anyone else totally freaked out by waking up to see the giant silhouette framed against the sun? Anyone besides Voyd, obviously, we all know how you felt.)
You've covered the play and the sand-sculptures very well (but unaccountably didn't mention Superfluity's hundred-odd tiny sand orcs – is that possibly because of the way you sat on them, Kitty?), so I'll skip straight to the last day – and the excuses.
No, I'm not going to blame the Agents' loss on KandleKitty – I know quite a few people did, but while letting Iximaz into our camp because 'I thought she was on our team' was pretty egregious, it was far from the only disastrous mishap. Scapegrace's half-mile tumble down the dune, anyone? Desdendelle's 'camouflage' that consisted of a handful of sand in his hair? Neshomeh's attempt to dual-wield longbows?
So what was the problem? It wasn't my leadership – well, I hope it wasn't my leadership. Personally, I suspect Darkotas and Iximaz of tampering with the Agents' water supply – I definitely detected a trace of cactus in there. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. (Also, 'stop complaining'? As if!)
Not that I'm complaining about cactus juice in general, mark you. It went very well with the closing meal – and massive huge thanks to Seychelles and Silenthunder for all the effort they put into that. It was ridiculously nice.
(I'd like to emphasise that it was entirely Phobos' fault you got left behind. He managed to abandon Voyd in Sri Lanka on the way back, too! Also, the ScarfBlanket? Definitely not me this time. Honest)
Overall, it was a fantastic, awesome time, and I'm already looking forward to next year. Big thumbs up all round, and Matt Cipher – 'Clock down on Napoleon!' ^~
But I'm not joking about the camera.
((Heaps of fun again, Kitty – thanks! If it helps, pretty sure this was more worthwhile than French... ^_^))
hS
