Only a couple of hours remained until the airport bus was due to arrive, so we put our time to good use. First we dyed Kerry's hair red with some one-night mousse I had inadvertently dropped into my suitcase. Unfortunately I had lost the instructions, so we guessed a lot. I later discovered that we were not supposed to wash the mousse out afterwards, which perhaps explains why it did not have much effect. At around this time Kerry's sister Paula arrived. She thought we were weird. We concurred.

Next it was time for Fun With PIs. We had four Scullys, a Mulder, a flashlight, some orange tic-tacs and the Severed Club and Shipper Bow and Arrows (copyright Aderyn 2000) in our arsenal, so we had lots of fun creating compromising poses and wasting film on them. One pose, made especially for Loa, involved Scully aiming Mulder's flashlight in the direction of his behind. (Well, we thought it was funny.) At one point during the posing process, one of the precious arrows fell through a gap in the dock. Panicked, I raced down to retrieve it before the dogs did, realising too late that the ground was full of burrs and my feet were bare. But I would endure far more pain than that for the sake of the Severed weapons. Yes siree.

Our final task was to make Marathon T-shirts. Clever Gem had made some iron-on logos for us, and we'd all brought white shirts along. Our quote for the back was "Quit staring at me. I'm fine", which we all applauded as eminently appropriate. I managed to fork up a portion of my T-shirt, but the others turned out beautifully. <snerk>

Paula then came in useful as a photographer, as we all donned our shirts and posed for photos. I realised in horror that I was wearing a black bra and had not packed another, but then decided that its authenticism was applaudable - I'm sure the smirking of the others was a sign of jealousy. At my <cough> inspired suggestion we included our PIs in the photos, first stuffing them down our shirts, then down our pants. We later found the photos somewhat hard to explain to our families.

After Gem and I had posed with BadBlood!ScullyontheTV to ascertain who was the better Scullyclone (a demand of Aderyn's) we were set to go. After being held at Club-point, Rose promised to join the Severed. We all hugged Kerry and promised to do it again sometime. Then our hostess watched as her comrades disappeared into the distance. Well, she watched for a little while, anyway.

Nothing very exciting happened on the bus, except that we managed to freak out the other passenger. But that's all in a day's work. The poor man is probably scarred for life, but that's his problem.

Oh! Waaaaait a second. Something did happen on the bus, come to think of it. It crashed. When we arrived at the airport, the bus stopped to drop off the thoroughly disturbed other passenger, and then began to back up in order to get out of the space...but unfortunately, the driver forgot to check for cars behind us. Kaboom. The driver of the car was not happy. I think he may have said some naughty words. And when he demanded to see our bus driver's license, the poor man turned out not to have one. Well. We considered ourselves lucky to have made it that far alive, and then briefly considered sueing for emotional distress (plus I was sure I felt some whiplash coming on), but being the benevolent Scullyists we are, we decided to forgive our poor incompetent driver. We even smiled at him as we disembarked. And that thwack I gave him with The Club did not hurt him much, whatever the others have to say about it.

And then it was time to say goodbye to our tequila-bottle-smashing Rosey Posey. <sob> As she hopped into her parents' car, clad in the marathon t-shirt, Gem and I had the distinct feeling that our suitability as acquaintances for young Rose was being questioned. Mission accomplished.

On the plane home, Gem and I decided to lash out and buy alcohol. One very small bottle of white wine cost five dollars. But what the hell. We had been specifically targeted by the flight attendant as passengers who apparently needed it, so we felt very special. And I did not get drunk. I trip over my own feet all the time.

In Sydney it was time to say goodbye to Gem, but not before she and her father hauled me over to the other side of the airport to catch my connecting flight. Looking bemusedly at the two girls running ahead of him, Gem's father commented that we had the same colour hair. Yeah, baybee. ScullyRed forever. (Note: Mine's natural. Neener.)

Upon reaching the gate with thirty seconds to spare, I hugged Gem goodbye and sadly boarded the plane. My wonderful weekend was over. But what a weekend it had been! It was a fabulous experience to finally meet some of my friends from the OBSSE list and watch twelve hours of Scully, while simultaneously getting to discuss the Abbey with, like, real people - and all while raising a tidy sum for the Australian chapter of NF Incorporated. Gem, Kerry and Rose are amazing people, and they still like me after meeting me, which is a nice bonus. ;) So, will there be an OzMarathon 2001? You'll just have to wait and see. :)

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