A Tale Of Woe.

A Tale of Woe - by Drunkencat.
(Warning: This story contains elements of Real Life that people may find disturbing.)

I don't live in the city. I don't even live near a city, at least not anymore, so every so often on a Friday night I get the chance to go the the big city (Sydney) and stay for a day or two with family.

Of course family is great but everyone knows the real reason I'm there is VF, and last Friday night was no different. This particular Friday was important as not only was I going to go to the arcade to get some much needed human competition, I was going to finally get my hands on VF Evo for the PS2. Infact I had it all planned out. My brother-in-law owns a PS2, so I would bring my SC2 arcade stick down, buy a copy of Evo, and hope that no one would be wanting the TV for the time I was staying there. Perfect.

So I arrived in Sydney, and after a small delay I had Evo in my hands. I put it in my travel bag without another thought and proceeded to continue my merry way through the day. Because I wanted to go to the arcade I couldn't take my bulky travel bag with me, especially since it had clothes, arcade stick and a copy of Evo that was less that 12 hours old. Of course my sister being generous decided that when she took a taxi from the hotel where my parents were staying that she would take my bag back with her, and then I would wander back there after I had finished my fun at the arcade.

I eventually walked into the arcade and did what I do very well - lose many consecutive rounds at VF. After 6 or 7 matches (I lost count) my game started to pick up and with the help of another player I managed to get some wins and generally have a pretty good time. I was glad that I was able to get into my game before I had to leave. A quick trip back to my sister's place, climb the stairs, knock on the door, she answers, but then something happens. She suddenly has a look of shock on her face as she remembers that she had something important to do - take my bag out of the taxi as she got out. Oh yes. My bag containing my imported soul calibur 2 stick, a copy of Evo that's not a day old (and not been in a PS2), a magazine and some clothes are taking a trip around Sydney in the back of a taxi. What adventure!

I remained calm and cool. After all these things happen. Then because the hotel ordered the taxi and because they pride themselves on being efficient, they chased it up themselves. Although the situation seemed quite bad I did admire the hotels efforts, even if, for now, they weren't successful.

So now I'm back home. My PS2 looks slightly lonely without an arcade stick accompanying it, and I'm not playing VF Evo. The hotel did put a tag on the bag, so hopefully someone will have the insight to return it to the hotel. I have only just gotten back home, so I remain optimistic. I think there is a lesson here, and that lesson is don't put all your eggs in one basket, or all your VF related stuff in one travel bag.

Oh and always check the back of your taxi - there may be a new copy of evo waiting for you. /versus/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

OK, first of all, i have to offer my condolences. That is one of the shittiest things i've ever heard happen to anyone (with respect to videogaming, that is).

Second, i hope your bag turns up. I've had lost bags before, and regardless of what's in them, they don't really tend to surface. Not to dash your hopes or anything... maybe things work different there than here in the states. Hell, in the US, integrity is almost a character flaw - no offense to any of my countrymen. Maybe Australians have a better sense of what's just.

 

Well, if it makes you feel any better.

I screwed my back up on Friday somehow... not sure how. I had some errands to run, so I dropped by the arcade to play some Evo. I used my only 100-yen coin. So, needing some change, I threw a 10,000 yen note in the machine... that's all I had. Grabbed the 10 100-yen coins and totally forgot about the rest.

Of course, it wasn't there when I went back. Total stupidity on my part... this is the 2nd time this has happened at Gigo... the first time I got the money back though.

 

For my honeymoon, they lost the bags at one of the layover points and could not get them shipped to us for the entire two week trip. They claimed not to find them and didn't respond to anything we asked/begged/demanded. We were pleasantly surprised to have them turn up at the same layover point on the return trip, they came running after us minutes before boarding for home.

So uh, keep hope alive or whatever.

 

You could have spiced your story up a little bit for that full movie effect. A love interest perhaps, and a slow motion fight scene with panning cameras.