Long Been Delayed Post

It was almost month ago since we went at the so-called, Open Meet.

"The night is young... and so am I..."

I forgot where I heard that... but that was what I felt when we jumped out of the bus to search for the place where the Open Meet was held. It was at the Cabana, Residencia 8888, Pearl Drive, Ortigas (I forgot if there was a moon in the skies of that night).

Faust must have a very good sense of direction and ability to follow instructions correctly that we arrived at the place whole and pretty much alive without having the trouble of asking people and getting lost and all that sh*t.

Confused and gasping for breath (oh wait... with stomachs lurching for something to digest?), we reached the condominium... We signed in, and headed towards the elevator, having pressed the wrong button, we stepped at the wrong floor but that was just fine, the venue was just one floor away...

There was a pool in front of the venue...

We blasted the door to get in. (fine, that was an exaggeration) Victor, the desk officer, greeted us. We again, signed in and of course, payed for the entrance fee... Haha...

"The OPEN MEET is an informal gathering of table top enthusiasts in order to mingle, develop and renew ties, and to try out various related hobbies that they normally don't have the time or resource to test.

Every month is a grab bag of varied offerings of Boardgames, Party Card Games, Trading / Collectible Card Games, Miniature War Games, traditional / classic Wargames and select One-Shot Role-Playing adventures courtesy of the people from the Alliance of Eclectic Gamers and Interactive Storytellers, Philboardgamers, Rolling Hills Gaming Club and Tabletopwars.com."

-Force Vector

We were introduced to the nearest table where Victor was also playing. Faust was greeted by a guy he already knew - Brel. (it was from him that Faust bought some of his games) And another guy, (am sorry I forgot his name) immediately exclaimed "You cut your hair?!". I can't help but grin with the look on his face. Well anyway, they were playing San Juan... We watched them closely for a while, observing how the game is being played.

After a few minutes, we moved around the area to observe the other players and the respective games they’re playing... the "business" (they look much like business tycoons to me) people seemed to really enjoy themselves in playing a game (I forgot the name, migod) with the LOTR characters. Then we moved again to another table, another game inspired by the LOTR characters, if I remember it right, the game is called Risk. Then we went back to the San Juan table.

We haven't even warmed our chairs, when we were called to play a game they call "The Senators" - a game with a theme of the Roman Empire. Thomas explained the game with very much enthusiasm (with the voice modulation and the like). Our co-players were Mr. Bean (forgive me, I forgot his name, I hope he won't get to read this. Haha), Wyhan (I forgot how his name is spelled), and his wife, Celeste.

The games consisted of three rounds. The only permanent thing in that game is your interest. Everyone is a rival. We played the games three times. But on the third time, Mr. Bean was the one left to us - Thomas is to play a different game, and the husband and wife had to eat - Celeste is pregnant (If she didn’t stood up, I won’t know. I was really surprised).

While we were on our third game, another business-tycoon-looking guy went to our area. Eventually, he talked to us... let me call him the "Marionette" guy. Why marionette guy? He was so tired – like a marionette – without the strings…

Oh wait, before I continue, the winners on the first game were…. Tadum tadum…. We had a triple tie! (I forgot though who we were… haha….) The second game, it was Celeste… and the third, another tie between Faust and I.

And so we roamed around again, taking glances on the games available for borrowing, Carcasonne, Incognito, and several other games in a language not English.

We were anxious about going home…(or was it just only I?) it was almost 9:00 pm.

The clock is ticking…

We were once again called to play a game named incognito. All you have to do is go on dating until you’ll be able to know the identities and numbers of the players, which happened to be Mel, John, Victor, Faust and I. You just have to be the first one to do that and you’ll win the game. I messed up the first game. Pity me. So, we played another game. Mel won! Hooray!

And so that ended it…

I asked Faust if we could already go home because it was already a quarter to 10.

“Talon na!” that was what I heard from him when we were to depart from the place. The pool seemed to have waited for us. Hahaha.

So we headed home… scurrying the streets in that still night, we rode a bus. I felt really tired but it was really worth it.

Until now, I am still wondering how we survived the night…