⇨ New Location: SPACE OLYMPICS

[ringleaders]

PREPARATION↴ There's not much preparation to this event. At the start of Day 30, characters will wake up to find the carnival on a distant planet, underneath a biodome. In the carnival, they'll remain their normal selves but once they leave, they'll find themselves transformed into a more alien form (more details on that below!). The Ringmaster will give the carnival members a brief overview: welcome to the Space Olympics! For the first week, the Carnival will be performing for the athletes in the athlete's village. But for the second week, the carnival can actually compete in the Space Olympics. Characters can compete in one event, with the exception of Space Beer Pong. The Ringmaster is going to get that gold medal herself, dammit. SETTING↴ You stand on a distant planet Skyline of red plateaus Strange air and vegetation You're a winner! Welcome to the Space Olympics! The year is 3022. This year's host is Zargon, which is only hosting because the four previous hosts all dropped out. Still, Zargon's put lot of time and money into developing a complex perfect for the Space Olympics. Floating above the planet's atmosphere is a large spaceship turned athletic arena, obviously named Olympic Spaceship. Stadiums are on every corner, there's swimming pools every other block, and a large racetrack surrounds the city. Places in Olympic Spaceship that aren't arenas either cater to athletes (training facilities, locker rooms, medical facilities, saunas) or cater to those watching the games (concession stands, shopping malls, merch stands, quiet rooms where people can just sit down). Space public transit can get you from one end of the ship to another in mere seconds. The athlete's village is on Zargon, as well as the carnival. People can either stay at the carnival or in the athlete's village. Though Zargon doesn't have any oxygen, a combination of biodomes and terraforming technology have made it so that all athletes can breathe comfortably on Zargon, no matter what their species! Just stay inside the biodome. Space shuttles go from Olympic Spaceship to Zargon at regular ten minute intervals. Those staying in the athlete's village will get a junior suite: basically a small, hotel room type set up with queen sized bed, microwave and refrigerator, and an attached bathroom. The Ringmaster will cover minor incidentals—so keep your ass out the minibar! The Space Olympics comprises literally every sport that people can think of, both summer and winter. There's track and field, ice skating, luge, and beach volleyball, but there's also more alien sports: three dimensional chess, pod racing, space poker, mechanical bull riding but the bull's some sort of weird Doctor Who type alien, and so on and so forth. All sports inexplicably have the word 'space' in front of their name. There will be plenty of opportunities for characters to try out any kind of sport when the arena is not in session! Any fake games from character's canons will not be represented, but if you ask around you can find suspiciously similar substitutes. Want to play a game of Space Muel Donsters? How about a round of that popular card game Space Schment? PATRONS↴ ► OTHER ATHLETES: There are other athletes here of all races, species, sizes, shapes, colors, etc. Most of them get along fairly well with the carnival on the basis of friendly competition and goodwill throughout the galaxy but a few of them are a bit too competitive for their own good. Thankfully, nothing gets to Tonya Harding levels of competitive, though there is plenty of trash talk in the games themselves. ► SANDY AMBURG: He's the main coordinator of the Space Olympics and certainly isn't Andy Samburg in a dumb wig. He'll answer all your questions, direct you to wherever you need to find, and happily reassure everyone that they totally have everything under control! DANGERS↴ ► BUDGET SNAFU: The Space Olympics do not have everything under control. There was a bit of a budget snafu. As such, various events are canceled, the schedule's constantly in flux, there's not as much food as expected, and some of the buildings in the athlete's village are still under construction when people arrive. The Labor department will be conscripted to help patch up as many buildings as possible, while the Kitchen staff will be conscripted to help make do with what supplies they have to help feed the athletes. Good luck figuring out what the hell that fruit is. Some necessary goods can't be found, tempers are short, and while fighting in the athlete's village is strictly prohibited, some athletes are willing to overlook that in order to get their aggression out. Those working under the Warden & Nightrunner will be asked to help patrol the area and break up any fights they see. ► MECHANICAL FAILURES: Midway through the event, things start to break down. Members of the Carnival will be drafted to help with these mechanical failures. As they're independent athletes, there's less chance of the Space Olympic Commission getting sued by the planets! Mechanical failures can range from crawling through this ventilation shaft to unstick whatever's stuck at the end to rewiring this complex piece of future technology to good ol'fashioned elbow grease. Engineering, this is your time to shine! The rest of you...well, good luck anyway. All of the mechanical failure is noticeable, but the most annoying is the artificial gravity inducers, which break multiple times during the event. Brace yourselves cause there's no gravity. ► STRANGE AIR AND VEGETATION: Want to rent a spacesuit to explore Zargon? You can do so! Feel free to go explore outside of the biodome area! Just be careful of the man-eating plants, poisonous mold spores, and pockets of hallucinogenic gas. ► THE ALIEN HORDES: More details will be revealed near the end of the event. But basically? Aw heck, it's an alien invasion. Thanks, Sandy Amberg, you did wonderful at this. REWARDS↴ ► SPACE MERCH: Like every sporting event, there's merch to be bought, all emblazoned with the mascot of this year's Space Olympics, Johan the Athletic Porg! Buy a shirt with Johan playing basketball! Buy a mug with Johan on a sled! Who cares that Porgs technically aren't native to Zargon, they're cute and there's no way the planet's native species, the Zargon Death Flytrap, would ever make a halfway decent mascot in the first place. Unfortunately, there was an ordering snafu and the merch tables are just STACKED high with merchandise. Some sellers are still trying to actually pawn off the merch, but a few of them have resorted to just giving it away. ► YOU'RE A WINNER: Want to compete in the Space Olympics? Guess what! You can! The Ringmaster's crew has been shoved under the catch-all leftover label of Independent Athletes. If you want your character to at least make an attempt at winning a medal, there will be a way to do so. Winners actually get a physical medal and bragging rights. Losers get a consolation prize of a space gadget, the effects of which will be RNGed. Don't think this is anything cool, however, most of the space gadgets are things like 'kitchenwear' or 'outdated children's toys.' The way that medaling works is that on the event post, there will be a 'going for a medal' thread. Comment there and say whether your character is poor, good, or professional at the sport they're going for and explain how they get that ranking. We'll roll a d20 for successes: poor means you need to get a 20 in order to reach bronze. good means 18-19 for bronze, 20 for silver. Professional means 16-17 for bronze, 18-19 for silver, 20 for gold. If two people are competing in the same sport and hit the same medal tier, the higher point gets the medal or there'll be a roll-off. EXAMPLE RANKINGS: SPACE HOCKEY Poor: Person A played hockey once or twice. Good: Person B played high school hockey or regularly plays pick-up games with his friends. His team entered a few competitions and they won a few. Professional: Person C played collegiate or professional hockey. His team enters multiple competitions and they've won multiple of them. Keep in mind that it will be very hard to actually place in the Space Olympics, as characters are going up against literally the best of the best in the entire universe. Most people will probably hit 'good' level, but feel free to justify or give examples if you think your character would be 'professional.' All dice rolling will be done in a mod plurk, midway through the event. ► SPACE KNOWLEDGE: Got that pesky change that you're still getting used to? Developed a weird power that you're having trouble with? There are literally aliens of all shapes/sizes/types here at the Space Olympics. One of them can help with your new changes/provide that IC justification you need for Jim Bob to get better at fire-breathing. CHANGES↴ Coincidentally, any home planet where a player character is from are unable to participate as well due to various accounting errors. As this is the case, the Ringmaster's decided to slap a few changes on people so that they'll fit in better. Outside of the carnival grounds, all members of the carnival will be changed into aliens. Some will adopt a few superficial alien characteristics: ridged foreheads, tentacle arms, antennae, etc. Some characters will change shape entirely, looking like different aliens from fiction. These are solely physical changes and characters will NOT gain any powers of the aliens they look like. Possible species for consideration include: VULCANS: You suddenly get pointy ears and green blood! SONTARANS: You're short, brown-skinned and oddly potato shaped. EWOK: You're a short, fuzzy, teddy-bear looking creature SKRULLS: You're green, have pointed ears, large eyes, and ridges on your chin! TRIFFID: You're a tall, quadripedal, plant-like creature with a whip-like proboscis. GREEN SKINNED SPACE BABE: You're green. That's about it. FLORA COLOSSUS: You are Groot. H'LVENITE: You look like a literal squirrel. This also means that characters will be competing in the Space Olympics in their alien forms. Any alien races currently in-game are off limits (ex: nobody can be turned into a Steven Universe gem). However, you can have your character turn into a different alien from a character's canon. Characters may keep one common or uncommon change from the event. Feel free to use this post for event plotting! The game chat is also a good place to discuss potential plots. This is a player run location so setting questions should go to Kates while mod rulings go to Quix.

Comments

⇨ QUESTIONS

[ringleaders]

Setting questions go to Kates, rules questions will be answered by Quix.

setting q!

[milkruns]

I know that alien forms come with no powers, but in the specific case of Andalites, where they don't have mouths & can only communicate through thought-speak, would someone turning into an Andalite temporarily gain the ability to thought-speak or would it be handled some other way?

[soft_focus]

Alright I'm caving here-

If something Looks alien enough, and isn't something anyone in the game would immediately recognize as something other than An 'Alien', can we use that sort of thing as the transformed species?

Re: ⇨ QUESTIONS

[motivenotfound]

If you have a character who's an andalite and wants to compete in a horse sport... is that character just... is that character the horse. Do they need a rider.

Or are they considered to be riding them...self. Or.

[betheman]

I'M BACK-

When it comes to medals, how many events will people be allowed to sign on for, maximum?

...This is literally just so I know how hog-wild poor Gongenzaka's daemon will get with signing them on for shit he super won't want to do (sucks gon)

If signing under the rng rolls for One but assuming competitors could only get one consolation prize max ~bc of budget~ is good for a compromise on Marishi being a shit, I will take this immediately btw because cats being jerks is Important to me and it'll be funny watching gon lose like 5 events shush

[whattaprick]

Setting-related question! Will daemons/Pokemon/pets also transform into alien creatures upon arrival?

setting question

[dressedtothe]

Since everyone is getting transformed rather than glamoured, does that mean 9S is no longer mechanical but a squishy biological being?

[dontpokethat]

In case it comes up, would Ginko's illness cure spell help with those poisonous spores or no?

[scientificist]

Once you go to the spaceship, are you still am alien if you come back to the carnival during the event or do you transform back and forth based on location?

[kingsroads]

aaaaand gonna hit up that plotting post!

Strange, I'm still on the fence about alien-wise. the definites are he's gonna be humanoid, gonna have hands, and gonna be fuzzy but aside from that /SHRUGS. my current idea is some sort of catboy alien like Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet but with a tail b/c tails. he's definitely going to compete in Space Billiards and probably spend some time complaining how it's different from proper billiards.

Cole is definitely going to be a Dalek because I want him to try and be helpful despite the fact that he doesn't have a face, doesn't have hands, and doesn't have legs. so he's probably not going to compete in any olympic events just because homeboy doesn't have hands. who wants to help him climb stairs?

ACQUISTIONS REQUESTS

[atouts]

Same rules as before! Does your character need something for their job? Do they have a want for some very minor item (from SPAAAAACE)? I don't actually know what Team Thief & Con could possibly need to pick up from such an odd setting but hey, you never know.

Previous requests (unless denied) have been fulfilled, so go ahead and reference/use them in-game as needed.

All requests will be assumed as IC requests made directly to Childermass.

Please be aware he may deny requests based on IC actions or the item being unreasonable, require permission from a character's supervisor, or even OOC mod permission depending.

ACQUISITIONS TEAM: Similarly, feel free to handwave Childermass handing out assignments as we get requests.

SHIMA & COLE IN PARTICULAR: Cole will be thiefsitting Shima for the time being. I'll be dropping by your IC inboxes once Wismuth wraps up fully.

REQUEST LIST (do not comment to this)

[atouts]

- Space Roomba for the janitor.
- Space Telescope.... for.... also the janitor (aka it's just a telescope, but from space).
- Types of training equipment and options for non-lethal sparring for the training yard, for the Nightrider.

[spaghettimonster]

For job: Space Roomba! The Carnival could use use a Stabby.

For personal reasons: SPAAAAAAACE telescope, though how that functions differently from a nonspace telescope is something Papyrus can't begin to answer.

[worldlyafflictions]

YAY ASSIGNMENTS

Also Shima would not ask for this but I want space foam jousting sticks like these for the training grounds. What if we could steal a whole inflatable arena.

[stillwinningthehardway]

Scout would like to put in for a remote suitable for training, if they find any.

...it would really only be useful to her, lol.

PRO WRESTLING: TAG TEAM EDITION

[starseedling]

Unless I come up with something better, I'm probably going to have Steven enter for SPACE PRO WRESTLING, ideally in the tag team category.

DOES ANYONE WANT TO BE STEVEN'S PRO WRESTLING TAG TEAM PARTNER? Steven has at least a year or two of pro wrestling experience and will not let you down. Also, I plan on making the joke be that because it's Pro Wrestling, the winner of the medals are scripted anyway, because that's how Pro Wrestling works, which is absurd for an Olympic event, but here we are. At the Space Olympics.

Steven will probably make a network post asking about this. He will also help you workshop your wrestling character free of charge.

IMPORTANT: TEAM SPORTS

[reflash]

tug of war was an actual earth olympic sport ITS GOTTA BE A SPACE OLYMPIC SPORT let's build a tug of war team. yukio's going to be a part of it because he's going to be tiny and that's funny.

Re: IMPORTANT: TEAM SPORTS

[flashover]

TUG O WAR TUG O WAR!!!

PLOT WITH THE USAGI CREW WOA OH

[soft_focus]

i'm a winner....

OH BOY so for the Space Olympics I don't have anyone specific in mind to focus on (I do enjoy when my brain allows this, yes), though I DOOOOoooooo sorta want to try and do plenty with Carly in particular, as I have a point goal on her again...BUT THAT ASIDE. Not everyone really has a set Alien/set of art yet so I'll have a comment under here where I'll shove that stuff DON'T...COMMENT TO IT...PLEASE...........................

everyone had a mammoth load of plotting so they get individual comments in any case

ART COMMENT

[soft_focus]

I'M PUTTING ART HERE LATER OH GEEZE

Yuya & Syrlya

[hippocarnival]

Yuya: Is going to be some tall, tall orange lizard alien when in the olympic area. He's going to marvel at this newfound height and probably trip over a lot of things that are, in fact, no longer in his peripheral vision. He won't be doing any competitions, but he will be part of everybody's cheer squad.

OTHERWISE I'll have an open log for him once Wismuth wraps up to cover balance practice with his newfound tail, magic practice, and just general carnival shenanigans.

Syrlya: His alien form is still Undecided but it's definitely going to be fleshy so he can complain about how squishy he feels. It's so uncomfortable.

He is going to sign up for Space Fencing, probably because he got goaded by one of the other participants, which means practicing the particulars around his already existing sword skills. He'll enter at a 'good' level.

MARI MAKINAMI (ILLUMINATI)

[motivenotfound]

MARI is going to be a TEALBLOODED TROLL, and also will try to get a Space Rifle team going for the Carnival, because here at last are guns NOT made of Iron and also she likes shooting things.

Her skill level is PROFESSIONAL because She Is, Actually.

While she's not eligible for medals in them, she will also happily participate in any other team sport (including Space Poker and Space Tug Of War) if invited.

ALSO ALSO she has some minor knowledge of Actual Trolls due to her Veteran status and will happily share them with others who are Trolls, but that advice is basically "act as much like Psi DOESN'T as possible."

I actually have no idea how she's going to feel after Wismuth except Embarrassed, so this is probably going to be her attempt to be less humiliated about recent events.

FOSTER

[criticallyfucked]

Foster is an ANDALITE, which is going to vex him because the gAIT IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT, FUCK.

He's also going to be signing up for either Space Eventing (ie, the triathlon of Horse Sports) or just Dressage (this is my personal favourite sport I'm sorry everybody this is literally my Special Interest, Horse Sports) depending on who he can con into being his rider and what they want out of him.

Oh yeah: he needs a rider. Someone has to ride him. That's a thing. Don't all volunteer at once now

He'll be entering at the Good level either way, because while he's still a newbie to being a taur and therefore to all the related techniques, he's got the 'presentation' part covered. Sometimes being a melodramatic showboat asshole is convenient!

P.S.

[criticallyfucked]

As an aside, this is a weird event for him because when he was an actual child, he really wanted to be a professional athlete. A basketball player, or maybe a soccer player because soccer's an international sport. (Please imagine a ten year old telling you this, for context.)

Whether this actually comes out at all during the event is questionable, but I remembered that the point of plotting posts is to offer potential plotting hooks, so here we are!

Secret Backstory Reveal: Baby Edition.

PAPYRUS

[spaghettimonster]

Papyrus is going to be weirded the heck out by his space disguise, because normally they're glamours but this one feels real, and haven't they had enough of being changed lately?

That, and he's a hanar: everyone's favorite pink jellyfish from Mass Effect. Completely boneless, meant to live in water, dependent on antigrav devices - or blue magic, should those devices fail thanks to budget snafus and mechanical problems. Unnervingly unlike himself.

Between that weirdness, and wanting to be around when his brother's egg hatches, he's mostly sticking to the carnival.

We can arrange for specifically going on outings with people, and he'll probably venture out a bit more as the event progresses. Especially once the mechanical failures start happening. If hanar in this universe are anything like the ME ones, he's going to shockingly stand out with how he talks. That could be a fun hook for a confrontational NPC.

I'm not sure yet if he'll be able to truly compete in any of the Olympic events. Maybe Space Darts? Hanar supposedly have very good grips, but trouble handling more than a couple hundred grams of weight, and it's a very unfamiliar form. Something that takes too much coordination would be poor at best.

[kingsroads]

YESSS, I'm so happy someone's going with hanar. They're the best pink blob things.

[espigeon]

I'm honestly torn on aliens for now, I'll have to edit later. In the mean time!

Scout would usually be interested in wrestling but is taking it easy this stop.

Julien is two different aliens, one for each body. He will be participating in a sport that's two sports lumped together in a magnificent example of incompetence: Space Flighted Orienteering (for people flying on their own power) and Space Extra-Large Pigeon-oid Racing (for trained animals). A flying sport of navigation, endurance, and speed! Julien would be pro level at this, it's what he's designed for.

[whattaprick]

For the duration of the event, Lambert will be a Space Ronso, aka a Giant Blue Cat Man.

He'll be entering 'Space Schment' as an official competitor at the 'good' tier, but he will definitely be making his rounds trying all the sports he can just for the hell of it, as well as goading others into trying out things. If you need someone to give your character the extra push to do something they otherwise wouldn't -- and he literally has the ability to exert mild mental compulsion, so he can be pretty, erm, 'persuasive' -- he can be your guy!

On an acquisitions-related note, he'll be actively looking for things they can use in the training yard. If your character would make an IC suggestion for stuff, or if there's some wacky piece of equipment that can be inflicted on Lambert and whoever's with him so he can get ideas, I'm all for it. Let's jazz it with more lasers, or find something more durable than Rita's dummies!

[spaghettimonster]

Talking with Carly about puzzle-making got Papyrus all nostalgic, and he wants to inflict his designs on the obstacle course.

So he'll want to suggest things like: more flamethrowers! Swinging axes! Maybe some deadly pointy spikes! The real classics, which someone, somewhere, surely uses.

plotting for Rita

[anti_nonsense]

While out and about, Rita will be taking the form of a Novakid!

Novakid are sapient interstellar gas-bag people whose bodies are made of weird glowing plasma bound together by a metallic brand which basically replaces their face. Rita's body will be bright orange (same as her soul) while her brand will be a four-pointed star (✧). Francis, should he venture into the athlete's village, will be some kind of Novacat. Because it's cute.

Culturally, Novakid are known for being carefree, overly friendly, having short attention spans, and I guess being space cowboys. So, a whole lot of things that Rita is not.

Things Rita might be up to during this event:

- Competing in... something! Maybe Space Motocross? Space Robot Fighting? ?? Still thinking on this.
- Trying out some activities! Rita would be interested in trying games of strategy or target sports. For anything else, she might need convincing.
- Rita's just about finished writing her book about blastia, and she'd like to show some people to get their opinions!
- Taking lots of notes on what it is like to be a nonorganic life form. Are you a weird-ass alien that seems to defy everything we know about biology and logic? She might want to study you, too.
- Taking it easy around the athlete's village. She did a lot of running around and fighting in Wismuth, it's time for a break!

[hurtcomfort]

Cole's gonna be a weird fleshy squid thing stuck in a terrible metal shell, is that weird-ass enough for Rita?

ALSO, GONNA ASK THIS HERE B/C I'M LAZY, I know we mentioned Rita showing Strange her book, what would her book actually read like? obviously more science based than mr. flowery descriptions over here but is there anything else I should know about before Rita gets hit up with that critique?