⇨ SPACE OLYMPICS

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

[anti_nonsense]

"Gross, primitive, hostile... to put it concisely. They've developed enough to work in groups and even make simple weapons and tools, but they've never really tried to communicate with humans. They just attack us on sight." They're more of a nuisance than anything, in Rita's mind.

"... Dare I ask if you drank said potion?" Because let's be real, drinking a cursed potion is completely the sort of thing Strange could be expected to do.

[kingsroads]

He straight up drunk the potion. And Strange knows that Rita knows that he drunk said potion, so he gives her a 'you've got to be kidding me' sort of look before it shifts to something a bit sheepish.

"Were you in Alola when the freak snowstorm happened? That was my doing. Drinking the potion boosted my magic, to the point that I could summon a faerie within the carnival. I was attempting to summon the faerie that had cursed me and kidnapped Arabella but I...erm...summoned the wrong one."

Even now, that's still a bit embarrassing to admit. He'll still blame part of it on the potion itself, but Strange knows he can't blame all of it. He fucked up, he'll own up to that.

[anti_nonsense]

"That was your fault!?" Rita cries in surprise. Yeah, she remembers the snow. It was so shortly after she joined the carnival that she didn't know what to make of it and simply chalked it up to 'faerie carnival weirdness', then went back to focusing on herself, her new job, and the weird new world the carnival put her in contact with.

"Wait... what kind of faerie?" she asks after letting those facts sink in. "Were they court-affiliated?"

A freak snowstorm suggests the Winter Court, of course, but there's always the chance they were independent.

[kingsroads]

"His name was Frost. He's small, pale, winged, and a spy for the Winter Court. He's an opportunist, which is why he most likely accepted the summoning, but the Ringmaster was confused as to why he was close enough for me to summon him in the first place."

Strange is trying to sound his normal level of cocky, like the fact that he accidentally summoned the wrong faerie doesn't bother him in the slightest. However, he's jamming his hands in his pockets, frowning slightly, and trying to shift his facial expression somewhere away from regretful. This bothers him more than he wants to admit.

"Childermass and I dispelled him. And before you ask, I cannot use that method to dispel any other faerie. It only works with the terms of the summoning."

[anti_nonsense]

"A spy?" Rita furrows her brow. "The Ringmaster did mention that she was already on the Courts' bad side, even before Portland... Seems to me like his proximity might not have been a coincidence."

It's a good choice on Strange's part to clarify the conditions of the faerie's banishment, as Rita definitely would have jumped on that if she had the chance. Now, with that hope dashed before it could get too high, she turns her attention back to the main subject at hand.

"Right... anyway, sounds like that about covers Atlantis. What happened after that?"

[kingsroads]

"I agree," Strange nods. "It would be silly to think otherwise." Which means that even before Portland, before all of this nonsense, the Courts had their attention on the Ringmaster somewhat. It's...a troubling implication.

But that's enough about Atlantis. Time to continue the story.

"In Atlantis, the Ringmaster obtained a set of magical daggers. In the days between Atlantis and our next stop, the Ringmaster used the daggers to open a portal to a different realm and, for the lack of a better term, firebomb it. This was retaliation for the vampires placing the sigil in the carnival to begin with. And no, I didn't spy on that meeting," Strange quickly adds in. He's got a feeling 'how do you know' would be the next question. "The Ringmaster asked some of the carnival's magicians to help with the ritual. I'm certain you'd be included if you were here at the time."

Strange still thinks he's one of the best magicians the carnival has to offer. But Rita's up there in the top five as well.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita's shoulders stiffen and for a few seconds, she just stares. She can't make any facial expressions, but her tone probably says it all. "She what?"

Just... firebombed somebody's realm? That sounds extreme. Maybe it's a you-had-to-be-there kind of thing.

Thinking about it, though... if these vampires were anything like the fae pursuing them now, maybe it was necessary. After all, if someone could open up a portal to wherever the Rose Queen and her cohorts are now, you bet Rita would toss some fireballs in there.

She sighs, shaking her head. "...I take it that didn't exactly do the trick." Assuming the goal was to get the vampires off their backs.

[kingsroads]

Look, it was super cool and the magic was super impressive and it definitely had to be a you-had-to-be-there kind of thing. It's hard to describe magic in the first place, it's even harder to describe it when you barely know what someone's doing.

At Rita's question, however, Strange shook his head. "Our next destination was a pleasure world called the Celebration. That world was set up as an eternal party, where all of your whims were catered to. The vampires attacked the carnival during a masquerade ball, stealing the supervisors and some other carnival members away."

There was a whole host of personal drama that went on at the Celebration as well, but Strange isn't mentioning it. It's not keeping secrets! If she asked, he'd tell her, but that doesn't change the fact that he really doesn't want to tell her in the first place.

[anti_nonsense]

"A party world? Sounds like a pain... with or without the vampires," comments Rita, party pooper extraordinaire.

It's hard not to feel a vague sense of deja vu at this story, however... It sounds a bit similar to what happened in the Count's manor, with the masquerade, and people being abducted...

But while the fae are known to abduct people to enslave or torture them, these aren't fae. In fact, Rita can't say she knows much of anything about vampires, or what their nature or goals might be. Which makes her wonder... "Why take them when they could've killed them instead? Where'd they bring them?"

[kingsroads]

Jonathan 'mild alcoholic' Strange gives Rita an odd look as she disparages the Celebration. It was awesome, okay. Just ignore the vampires. And the fact that people's inhibitions got stripped away. And the fact that he ended up having a big fight with Childermass halfway through.

But they're not talking about that, are they. Nope, they're talking about vampires. "They brought them to a hell-like world, the one the Ringmaster attacked earlier. Some of the carnival members were turned into vampires themselves, while the supervisors were strung up and tortured. We staged a rescue mission and snuck in to save those captured. Once all were freed, we faced the leader of the vampires herself, a demon named Morningstar."

And here's where it gets a little anticlimactic. Strange pauses for a moment, frowns, then awkwardly continues with, "The Ringmaster ate her."

Welcome to the carnival, problems will be solved by putting them in your mouth.

[anti_nonsense]

Tortured...?

Rita feels a chill run through her body. Suddenly, it makes sense that people were unwilling to give any details about the vampire attacks.

But somehow, the next thing out of Strange's mouth manages to be even more outrageous.

"Ate her. You mean... literally?"

[kingsroads]

"Well, technically she ate Morningstar's heart but yes. Literally." Strange has plenty of theories about the transference of power between magical beings, and why she ate the heart specifically but yes, all in all it was kind of gross. And the squeamish expression on Strange's face blatantly tells Rita that he thinks it's kind of gross as well.

"After hell, the Ringmaster took us to Alola. I summoned Frost a few days in, so you didn't miss much in that location."

And there Rita has it: a cliff notes synopsis of what Strange remembers from his time in the carnival.

[anti_nonsense]

Arms folded, Rita leans back in her seat and gazes upward. She's still trying to wrap her mind around the whole eating someone's heart thing, but okay.

"Right... thanks for getting me up to speed," she says, sounding distracted. Then, with a firm tone, she tells him, "You can go now."

It's not the nicest way to dismiss someone, but he did say he wanted to visit that stupid bar tonight. No sense in keeping him while Rita runs through those facts a few more times in her head. Before he can do anything, though, she'll add, "Don't forget to lend me those written drafts."

[kingsroads]

Strange can't help but let out a short laugh at Rita's response. You can go now? Really? Is that how she's choosing to end this conversation? It's rude and obnoxious but it is intensely Rita. So, Strange shakes his head slightly as he gets up.

"I won't forget," he calls back, as he starts to walk away towards the bar. Hey, she said he could go, he's going to go get hammered. "I doubt you'd let me forget anyway."

What with her being her normal, pushy Rita self.