In the Month of April in the Year 2000 A.D., I had the pleasure of attending Operation Ozmarathon, during which the Severed contingent of Australia teamed up to scare the bejeezus out of another person. We're such kind, nurturing folk.
The flight from my home-city Adelaide to the only-city-that-other-countries-have-heard-of Sydney was unremarkable. But when I reached Sydney it was time to meet Gem, long-time pal and severed member. We had previously worked out that we were both Scullyclones, so it seemed a relatively simple matter to locate her at the boarding gate for Brisbane. Eventually I just started looking intently at everyone until they twitched.
I boarded the next plane without finding Gem. She'd fixed it with the airline that we would sit together, so I was not too worried about losing her. After a few minutes passed I began to panic. When that stage passed, I started to calmly formulate a plan of action on the chance that she didn't show. However, barely five minutes after I'd boarded the plane, I saw a petite redhead coming down the aisle towards me. She looked at me funny and grinned. I hoped to hell it was Gem, otherwise I'd have good reason to be frightened. However, when I observed her footwear, all doubts were laid to rest. "Yellow shoes!" I cried. "Purple bag!" she responded, pointing at my purse in glee. We had contact.
No sooner had Gem informed me that she was not a good flyer, than the lights suddenly failed. We sat in darkness until another power source was tapped into, and contributed to the apprehensive mood of the other passengers by loudly speculating about what would happen if the event recurred while in the air. We later learned that there had been men running around underneath the plane with flashlights and a hose. Safety first for good ol' Ansett Australia.
During the flight we amused ourselves by playing with our PIs and trying to wound one another with the Severed weapons. When we were too overcome with our injuries to continue, we began chatting with a small urchin who was sitting across the aisle and doing her best to make her parents' lives hell (we of course felt an immediate bond of kinship with her). She and Gem discovered a common interest in their worship of "The Lion King", and I spent a lot of time laughing at this bewitching infant. Eventually she turned to me, bemused, and demanded to know why I was giggling so excessively. Well really.
Luckily, we arrived in Brisbane without bits of the plane falling off. It turned out that we'd just missed a bus to the transit centre, so we killed time by hanging around in the shops and buying overpriced stuff for the severed parcel. We also spied a photo machine, discussed our budgets, decided that we couldn't afford it, then simultaneously made a beeline for the machine. We are now the proud owners of gorgeous, absolutely useless stickers featuring two little redheads, looking startlingly alike. Kewl.
The journey to the transit centre was marked by me glancing out the bus window, eyeing a beautiful silver car, observing the two nice-looking young men riding in it, noticing that the hand of one nice-looking young man was moving over a vital area of the other nice-looking young man, then ducking my head as one of them caught my eye. Another Skull Stupidity Moment occurred when, after approximately five minutes of travel, the bus stopped, and I commented on the brevity of the journey. Gem informed me very gently that we'd just reached the International Terminal. Hey, gimme a break, I'm from Adelaide.
After arriving in Brisbane city and trekking our way up to the youth hostel, Gem and I decided to hit the town. All the cinemas were closed, even though it wasn't yet eleven, but we eventually found the casino. We worried briefly about being admitted, since we were both a) still dressed in ultra-casual travel clothes, and b) small. But nobody gave us a second glance. After Gem had patiently explained the rules of roulette to me, I decided to give it a go and won twelve dollars. Neener.
Before we went to bed that night, I discovered that my PI had lost an arm. The poor thing must have thought she was Krycek. I whined. Fortunately, however, the weapons (carefully wrapped in tissues for the journey) were intact. Muahahaha.
a) Gem is a bitch
b) Skull is a self-obsessed ghoul
c) Must be an X-File
d) All of the above
