The Gathering: In Texas This Year

[Merc]

I think I have everyone but merc's number (Merc can you PM that to me).

Man, do you delete phone numbers after each gathering? I still have yours from way back! =p

*PMs you phone number so you stop bitching* =p

[Dracos]

Naw, I magically lose my phone though.  Or teleport through time.

You should've called and bitched me out then :3

[Merc]

I've actually changed my cellphone since then. You had a chance to defend yourself...could have claimed that you dialed and it didn't work and YOU MISSED IT! ;p

[Dracos]

Defend myself?

Is that something normal humans do?

How strange.

[Yuthirin]

Okay. I have news. Due to recent events, all of my finances for this month AND next month and probably November too have just been accounted for. I suddenly have negative money. This eats into the money I've saved to make the trip for the Gathering. All of it.

Looooooooong story short, I can no longer afford to go. I'm sorry, guys. :(

[Dracos]

Sadness :(  Stay solvent Yuth :(

[Merc]

That sucks, turtle. =/

[Merc]

Day 0 has passed! Not much happened obviously. Iddy and Hal had already met up by the time I arrived, they picked me up and we went for dinner. Afterwards a bit of New Mario Bros (or as Hal calls it, The Mushroom Murder Simulator) and then some Betrayal on House on the Hill. Iddy had just triggered the Haunt after rolling in real life exactly like he does in IRC games, when we broke for the night so Hal could pick up Drac and Brian from the airport. Iddy and I just turned in for the night... or at least I did, to recover a bit from cat allergies. Didn't seem too bad at least, and we were at Hal's for about 4 hrs.

Onward, to Day 1!


.... As soon as everyone is awake anyway.

[Iron Dragoon]

Dead.
Center.
Bullseye.

[Yuthirin]

ARG

[Merc]

Dead.
Center.
Bullseye.

...And one rogue!

[Iron Dragoon]

haha

[Halbarad]

Your avatar is even better after having seen your dogtags, Iddy.

[Brian]

Day 1:

We all properly meet.  I'd met Hal before, and he had picked Drac and I up from the airport (all the way across town), but we got to meet Iddy and Merc.  Missed breakfast, though.

After that, the group of us go for a walk in an Austin park, enjoying the brutal heat.  Got one good picture of the skyline, which I will post later, if someone doesn't beat me to it.  After that, lunch at a hawaiian-themed burger-place (not bad), where we started the trend of thinking of Yuth every time a turtle was seen or mentioned (we have pictures of that, too!).  Followed by some shopping.  At the gaming supply store, I run into a clerk who is from the exact same microtown I spent several years in during my childhood.  A bit surreal.  We then escape and retreat to the hotel, where we establish Fort Iddypendance, monopolizing on his free space to make an impromptu site for the primary activity of the trip:

Games!

I am the enemy in Betrayal at Haunted Hill, continuing my 100% being the losing team trend, until we play again, and it finally breaks.  Hooray!  Except, sorry, Merc!  Nothing personal!  We experiment with some other games briefly before calling it a night and planning the next day.

[Dracos]

Merc  got a ridiculous setup where he basically had the entire crew of his minions starting 2 movements  away from where he had to get them to win.

We somehow went from "That takes 3 rounds." to "Minimum 2 rounds to have any chance." to "I know teleport.  Magical instant victory in 2 actions." over like 7 hours of discussion where Merc got bored as hell waiting.

Then we redid the timeline so it was only 30 minutes.

This revealed that all of us were time travelers.