lostcarnival | ⇨ SPACE OLYMPICS

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⇨ SPACE OLYMPICS

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 30 - Day 44
Where: The carnival, Zargon, and Olympic Spaceship
What: Things return back to normal as the carnival performs for aliens of all sorts at the Space Olympics. Or at least, as normal as it can be when you've got an underfunded and falling-apart spaceship hovering over a deadly planet.
Warnings: Sports and people's inability to do them.

REACH FOR THE STARS↴

At first glance, the Space Olympics seem marvelous. Aliens from all over the universe, of all shapes and sizes have joined together in an intergalactic display of teamwork and sportmanship. What could be more inspiring than that? It's only when you hang around for a bit that you notice things aren't exactly in tip-top shape.

► OLYMPIC SPACESHIP: This is where most of the events are held. It's a massive spaceship spanning hundreds of miles and consisting of multiple floors. Teleportation discs and space public transport can take you anywhere on the spaceship in a blink of an eye. It has almost every amenity an athlete can think of: multiple gyms, practice arenas, saunas, etc. Likewise, there are plenty of things for civilians and spectators: merchandise stands, shopping malls, grocery stores, and television screens everywhere so people can watch the event. Shuttles to and from Zargon arrive on a regular basis.

► ZARGON: Facility wise, Zargon itself is less impressive than Olympic Spaceship. The carnival and the athlete's village comprise most of the habitable areas. Both are concealed underneath a large biodome, the main thing making the area livable. Enterprising Zargonites have set up stands that let people explore outside of the biodome. Rent a spacesuit and you too can enjoy Zargon's natural wonders, such as the distant red plateaus and the stunning solar winds. Just try and stay away from the toxic mold, naturally occurring pockets of hallucinogenic gas, and ten foot tall Zargon Death Flytrap.

► 1980s TRAINING MONTAGE: Since carnival members can only attempt to medal in one event, why not try different sports to see what that one event is? There's equipment for all sorts of sports: gymnastics, swimming, biathalon, snowboarding, etc. They've even somehow brought space horses up here for Space Dressage! There's also equipment for sports that carnival members might not have even known existed: Space Gymkata, Space Pooh Sticks, Space Limbo Skating, etc. The sky's the limit!

► A BIT OF A BUDGET SNAFU: The Space Olympics is kind of falling apart. After performance week, the carnival is drafted to help out and keep the Space Olympics running as smoothly as possible. This means fixing buildings, breaking up fights, helping in the kitchen, trying to sell merch, etc. If there's a feasible problem, the carnival members will be drafted to help fix it. The biggest problem of all is the multiple mechanical failures: artificial gravity stops working, temperatures on the ship rapidly shift from hot to cold, and the snow machines for Space Slopestyle won't turn off.

► PERFORMANCE: Performance week will start early this stop, to try and get everyone back into the swing of things after the chaos of Wismuth. Athletes from the village roam the carnival, taking in the sights and sounds. A lot of them haven't ever seen anything like the magic of the carnival and it's workers and will proceed to ask question after question about how all of this works: turns out that sci-fi and fantasy don't crossover as much as one would think. Still, don't be alarmed when you turn the corner and there's a Hutt trying his hand at test your strength.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Could he take the chance that he'd lose to her in his condition after having lost in the Space Olympics? ~~Or would they be interrupted by a Space Invasion??~~

"The hot springs. I can't believe you didn't mention that there was one here, y'know. I had to hear about it from someone else talkin' about it on the radio!" No, she can completely believe that Yukio wouldn't mention it to her. There were lots of things Yukio didn't tell her. But maybe she could convince him to take a soak.

"I don't recall you asking me for a tour." Yukio says. But the bow goes into its holster, strapped to his back and out of the way as he starts walking.

"That kinda thing is important ta tell people about!" Because hot springs are the best?? Yukio, get your priorities straight!!

But sure, since he's going to just go along and take her without complaining about having to do it, she'll follow him. Fine by her. She'll just drag him into one of the springs when they got there.

Hot springs don't really interest Yukio enough to put them on a list of important things to tell people about without any prompting. They're there, and if he has time one of these days he might go check them out more casually.

"Have you had a chance to explore much of the area yet?" Yukio has, a bit. He doesn't have a supplies store to rely on here, and he's had to gather all his own plants.

HOT SPRINGS, YUKIO. The only way this could be better is if there was a masseuse or a spa there with the springs.

"Eh, a little." In spite of what Yukio might think of her work ethic most days, Shura was just serious enough to have scoped out the general area. She couldn't really do her job if she wasn't generally familiar with the grounds. But the lake and past that had been left alone just because she hadn't known that wonderful things were hidden there. " But that stuff in Wismuth happened, y'know?"

Wismuth. Yukio... doesn't want to deal with anything that happened there, with any kind of fallout. He's felt more stable since leaving there, more like he can keep a handle on everything, but he doesn't want to dredge things up.

"Hopefully this stop won't cause anyone as many problems as Wismuth did." Is what he settles on, as he keeps walking.

"Wouldn't that be nice, not havin' anythin' blow up on us?" Mayb get a bit of that vacation Rin tried to describe this place as. "Heard you were able to help out in durin' that fight with those powers. Eh, but I ain't gonna miss that little familiar of yours." Shura suspects that Yukio isn't completely comfortable with the subject. Shura's going to mention it anyway.

"I did what I could," Yukio says, and he knows it wasn't enough. He couldn't be on the offensive with his healing powers, and he ultimately wound up not being very useful at all.

"I wouldn't have minded keeping it around. It would have come in handy in the medical tent."

What, was he mad that he wasn't one of the big heroes? That was all just a pain in the rear to deal with. Besides, hadn't he wanted to do all that doctor stuff for a reason? Healing someone was right up his alley. He even had a bedside manner that was than Shiro's.

Though coming from Shura that doesn't say a lot.

"What, you get fond of him or somethin'?"

"Having a familiar that could share regeneration powers with anyone it wanted to would be useful." He might have been a little bit fond of the creature.

"Ah, so that's what he was for." She hadn't seen exactly what happened back then, surrounded by the crowd as he was. "Then that guy really did suit ya. Seriously, I don't know why I'm surprised." Of course. Of course it would be something like that. Well, whatever. The little guy wasn't there with them anymore, but maybe that was for the best.

"I would have preferred offensive abilities, but I can't deny it suited me." But... that's not why Shura's here.

"Did you really come here to talk about my familiar?"

"I can always show you how to handle a sword, nya~" She only says because she figures he'll refuse automatically. One student is trouble enough for her.

"But really, it's like you suspect somethin'! I just got off my shift an' saw you. If you're gonna be trainin' that hard, then you ought to go soak in the springs with me. It'll help with the soreness, you know." She's dragging him to the hot springs with her purely for altruistic reasons, of course. And that's only mostly a lie!

"Of course I suspect something. You're always suspicious." He says, but his hand goes and rubs at the ache in his shoulder anyway. He's tired, and sore, and a trip to the hot springs would feel nice if he didn't have to be constantly on edge around Shura.

And of course she's teasing him about not being a Knight, but... he has time here. He has more time than he really knows what to do with, without high school and cram school and missions.

"I have time to learn how to use a sword, if you're actually offering."

He knows she isn't, but now the idea's in his head.

Wait, what?

She really is expecting him to fuss and refuse her little offer, so she doesn't have a quick retort for him. Was he being serious, like for real serious? It definitely catches her off guard, enough that she comes to a stop.

"Oho! I didn't know you got over your fear of sharp objects, Wimpy! You always liked your gun better than anythin' else put in front of ya." Teasing comes naturally. What was she going to do if he was serious? "You really must be bored if you're even half-serious about sayin' that."

Catching Shura off guard is always satisfying, and he keeps walking even as he hears her come to a stop.

"I've been working on memorization for Aria, why not train for Knight as well? Since I'm already certified in Dragoon and Doctor, that would bring me up to four meisters." All the meisters he can get, since no amount of training can qualify someone for Tamer.

He ignored that comment about sharp objects, since he... hasn't, really. Training with his throwing knife has helped, some, but he doesn't exactly want to handle a full-sized sword, or get into sword fights.

Was this a good thing? Shura doesn't quite know. If Yukio was training to obtain aria and knight meisters, than was he still considering defecting? Or was this all part of his manic quest for strength?

"Ain't you ambitious!" She's still in a bit of a shock, but she won't let Yukio leave her behind. She won't rush to catch up with him, but slightly lengthens her stride to make up some of the distance. But really, teach Yukio? If Shiro could see them now, he'd probably be laughing. "If you're really that set on learnin', I guess I could show ya a few things."

For all that she wanted him to take a break and had absolutely no interest in teaching, Shura knows when to take advantage of an opportunity when it showed itself. And even if he wasn't just calling her bluff to mess with her, he didn't have much room to back down from his bluff if he wasn't serious.

"I promise I'll be a faster learner than my brother." Not that that's hard.

Really, Yukio? Really? "He ain't doin' too bad in his lessons, y'know." Well enough that Shura had been completely comfortable with the thought of leaving him without a teacher. But this wasn't about Rin and his progress.

"It ain't like I'm gonna be showin' you the same stuff, so don't starting judgin' yourself off of him, anyway." He shouldn't be doing that anyway. But really, now she had to come up with some kind of lesson plan for Yukio... Well, she'd worry about that later.

Yukio's always judging himself in comparison to Rin. He needs a baseline to compare himself to, someone he can surpass. And if not Rin, then everyone else. He's going to be better than Rin, better than Shura. He needs to be stronger, strong enough that no one will worry about him and he won't need to worry about his ability to protect anyone else. It's his responsibility.

Heart, skill, body, and not bottling up your emotions, Four-eyes.

But she's already lectured him once about this, and for right now she will let the matter alone. There were more important things to think about, like a hot spring. Eventually, probably after some more bickering, but maybe there's a bit of quiet between them on the way up, they'll reach their destination. And Shura looks entirely too happy to be there.

"Nyaho~! That Ringmaster can't be too bad if she's givin' us somethin' like this~" And she's immediately going to stick her hand in the water of one of the pools to test the temperature. She's going to claim the one that feels the hottest for herself.

That wasn't exactly what Yukio was expecting Shura to say. Not that bad? What did Shura think she was getting herself into here?

"What did you contract for, Shura-san?"

Ah. Yes. That. Shura freezes for a second, feeling a vague sense of something that might have been embarrassment in a normal person who experienced things like shame. She wipes her damp hand on her shorts as she rises back to her feet. Well, it wasn't like it was going to hurt her pride if he knew.

"Ah, I 'parently caught the climax of some show while I was lookin' around." Honestly, Yukio should suspect that she probably wasn't here of her own free will. "I knew I was caught up in something, but I didn't realize how tricky she was until it was too late."

He was hoping it wasn't something stupid, but he's not surprised that Shura got caught doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing.

"You and my brother both..." he shakes his head. He's judging you, Shura. "I was able to contract in exchange for something I wanted, though I won't know if the Ringmaster will be able to fufil her side of the contract until I go home."

She was doing recon!! Totally different than getting mad at some of the games!! And beside, when isn't he judging her for something or other.

"It ain't like I wasn't in the middle of somethin' back home, y'know! I thought it was a illusion or somethin'." Of course he's judging her, but really! In the middle of the damn Gehenna Gate coming down, Yukio in holding and Lightning missing... At least she's fairly confident that Rin was somewhere safe for the time being.

But his contract with the Ringmaster--he had mentioned it before. "You said it was somethin' to prevent possession, right?"

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