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 Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 8:05 am
The Space Cauldron a. Take the steeper, uphill gravel trail toward the mountains!It becomes increasingly clear that this portion of the trail is meant for extreme, regular riders [natives] of this planet, and was not originally intended to become a part of this course. It continues to get steeper and steeper, the gravel devolves into little more than broken rocks, making tires slip and grind and you push yourself further and further up. Just as you begin to hit the toughest part, you hear the strain make itself known on your bike! If you chose option a. Socialization in response to prompt 1. the starting gun:Something has gone wrong! The chain has come off your gears, setting you in a tumble back down the hill, a screw has come loose, your breaks have given out. Some sort of mechanical error has now over-taxed your bike, and you are out. Time to walk it back down the incline to that last check point! If you chose option b. Preparation in response to prompt 1. the starting gun:Gritting your teeth, you power through the small stretch of painful biking and hit the top of the summit, triumphant! Feel free to exchange a high five with your hard-working competitors and enjoy the ride down the slope. b. Head downhill on a dirt path toward the forest! Forget those suckers punishing themselves with the incline! You join the pack heading down through the fields, and are free to coast or pedal fast, depending on your nature. Within an hour, though, as you ride through the soft, rarely used dirt road, you notice dark, angry clouds over head, sitting far too low to effect that mountain path. Whoops. The summer thunderstorm is typical of this diverse ecosystem and quickly soaks the fields, turning the path and everything nearby into deep, sticky mud! You find your tires slowing, slowing... Until you are stuck in it!Oh no! If you chose option a. Socialization in response to prompt 1. the starting gun:As your competitors free themselves through various means, one finds a path that is more rock than dirt, and therefore able to be ridden upon. Rather than riding off, however, they find their way to you and help free you from the mud! It's a good thing you're so charismatic! Back on the road again, there is no time to spare, and you'd best get on your way! If you chose option b. Preparation in response to prompt 1. the starting gun:Watching as the laughing, fun-loving knights from earlier hoist their sociable friends and rivals from the mud, it takes you a few moments to realize that no one thought to come free you. Fortunately enough, the rain has stopped, and you can see 'roadside assistance' coming from up the hill you coasted down. By the time they reach you, however, there is no hope of catching up to the others. You are out. Guess you can't prepare for everything! PROMPT THREE - BACK TO BASICS Regardless of whether you took the high or the low road, if you made it through, you can now see the end of the detour, as well as the other remaining riders! Those on the summit are breezing their way down a path toward a paved road where the detours meet, and those from the mud fields are dredging their way along! Soon enough, you reach 'camp,' a place filled with music, food and drink, and mechanics, and another choice! Do You
a. stick around for an hour or more and eat, drink, relax and take a break? You just did some hard riding!
b. grab a bottle of water and a snack and leave! If everyone's sitting here, you can take the lead! There'll be another camp up the course, after all! You will have approximately 8 hours to respond to this prompt.. There will be no late entrants. Please post by 6:00PM CST [4:00PM PST/7:00PM EST]. If you are OUT, feel free to post a final response as an exit! If you are out because you did not respond to the prompt in time, feel free to assume you made one of the "wrong" choices. From here on out, if you will NOT be online in time to post a response to a prompt, you may CHOOSE BLINDLY by indicating in your current post if you would like to choose A or B in advance, as time between prompts will grow shorter and shorter. You may only do this TWICE.Participating Characters - Those that are still in the game are bolded:Sessrumnir of Jupiter
Valhalla of Jupiter
Shallot of EarthCarwyn of Venus Nakhti of Uranus
Aria of Cosmos
Alkanet of Pluto
Elis of Jupiter
Väinämöinen of CosmosIseult of Earth Simonides of Mercury Roarke of PlutoGlendalough of Earth Keelut of Polaris Solveig of Jupiter
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 12:52 pm
b. grab a bottle of water and a snack and leave! If everyone's sitting here, you can take the lead! There'll be another camp up the course, after all!
Sessrumnir Squire of Jupiter was having a wonderful time! He loved the challenge of the great outdoors, and cycling reminded him a lot of how his life used to be on Earth, before being stuck with his nose in books and maps, learning about philosophy and politics. The weather got pretty extreme on Jupiter, so a random rainstorm didn't surprise him in the least! He was used to hurricane-like storms all the time on his planet!
And so, instead of hanging around and wasting time, he figured this would be a good opportunity to take the lead. He grabbed some water and a snack and kept on the trail, waving so-long to the suckers who decided to stay behind.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 12:57 pm
a. stick around for an hour or more and eat, drink, relax and take a break? You just did some hard riding!
Although it was a rough climb, Valhalla Knight of Jupiter was confident in his choice. He was able to muscle his way up the hill and his coast back down was all worth it. It didn't seem as though either path had been quicker than the other, as he soon saw others who had gone the other way catching up.
Several were stopping and others kept going. There would be plenty of time to catch up in this race, as it was far from over. Valhalla took the time to rest and recuperate. Besides, the others would wear themselves out soon and would probably have to stop up ahead, or just get too worn out to keep up later on.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 1:01 pm
a. stick around for an hour or more and eat, drink, relax and take a break? You just did some hard riding!
A sudden rainstorm wasn’t so shocking to Elis, who experienced similar occurrences on Jupiter on a day to day basis. Maybe he got stuck in the mud for a bit, but one of his competitors was actually nice enough to come help him out, so there was that. It seemed being friendly was good for something after all!
As he came to the next stop he once again was unable to decide what he wanted to do. Should he keep going? Should he stay? What if he got too far behind and wasn’t able to catch up later? Or what if he kept going and something happened further down the road and no one was there to help him next time!
His grumbling stomach made the decision before him. He might be lanky, but he was still used to eating a lot over the course of the day. This race was going to kill him if he wasn’t able to eat regularly. Not to mention, he didn’t want to get too dehydrated!
And so it was that the page of Jupiter decided to stick around for some food and drink. Maybe taking a nice break would help get his energy back up, too.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 1:27 pm
a. stick around for an hour or more and eat, drink, relax and take a break? You just did some hard riding!
It was as Shalott expected. The uphill path was hard but since she'd taken the time to make sure all her equipment was in top condition she powered through the hard ride and broke through to the other side. As she cruised down the other side at a more leisurely pace she saw a camp ahead and smiled. There we go.
She leaned her bike against a tree and stopped, grabbing a water bottle and a snack and stretching her muscles to keep them supple but not strained. She'd just done some very hard riding after all and knew better than to press her luck. She could spare an hour to rest herself and go back onto the course rested and refreshed for the next leg of their journey.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 1:36 pm
a. stick around for an hour or more and eat, drink, relax and take a break? You just did some hard riding!
Huu... that was really some hard riding that Aria just did. Though she was in it to win it, she knew that it might be better in the long run to take a small break after such a hard ride. Get some water and food in her, stretch a bit, and she'll be on her way to the finish line.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 2:01 pm
a. stick around for an hour or more and eat, drink, relax and take a break? You just did some hard riding!
It wasn't easy for Väinämöinen to get his bike to the top but somehow he managed to do it. Going down wasn't easy either for the Cosmos page who hadn't used to control the bike. In one point he even made a little jump, thanks to a rock that happened to get in his way and send him in the air for a moment. Lady Luck was on his side though and he landed safely and managed to not damage his bike.
When he managed to get on camp, he was exhausted. He went and searched the refreshment table after catching breath. On his way, he noticed her team mate, beautiful page Aria. It took a bit courage from him but finally he took a seat close to her.
"You did well, star maiden," he said shyly after long moment of embarrased playing his his white beard and hair.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 2:39 pm
a. stick around for an hour or more and eat, drink, relax and take a break? You just did some hard riding!
This event was shaping up to be one trial after the other, first with the detour and then with the sudden rainstorm. Roarke's optimistic outlook may have been dampened if it wasn't for the friends she had made at the starting line hauling her out of the mud-traps. How clever they were, to find that sturdier path! Or perhaps lucky, but, as a Pluto page, she didn't like to attribute results to such a fickle quality -- so 'clever' it was.
Some of the hardier cyclists were already prepping their bikes and wills for the next leg of the race. Roarke decided to wait awhile longer to regain her strength, knock a bit of the caked mud off of herself... and thank all of the friendly knights, of course!
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 2:41 pm
a. stick around for an hour or more and eat, drink, relax and take a break? You just did some hard riding!
Alkanet had muddled through the mud and gotten on his way. It was slow going, he hadn't expected the mud and rain, but when he reached the stop he decided to stay a while. Food and drink sounded good, and his stomach told him that both were needed. He might as well try to socialize while he ate and drank, it was why he was here and involved in this whole thing anyway and he was going to take advantage of these games. Alkanet was planning to.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 4:06 pm
The Space Cauldron a. stick around for an hour or more and eat, drink, relax and take a break? You just did some hard riding!It becomes increasingly clear that this portion of the trail is meant for extreme, regular riders [natives] of this planet, and was not originally intended to become a part of this course. It continues to get steeper and steeper, the gravel devolves into little more than broken rocks, making tires slip and grind and you push yourself further and further up. Just as you begin to hit the toughest part, you hear the strain make itself known on your bike! b. grab a bottle of water and a snack and leave! If everyone's sitting here, you can take the lead! There'll be another camp up the course, after all! In your haste to get ahead, you neglect to have your bike checked out by the mechanic, like those that stuck around! Within a half hour, you realize your bicycle has become too damaged to continue, and end up walking it back to the camp. Flat tires, missing screws, bend frames, the poor thing is out of commission... And so are you. PROMPT FOUR - JUST AROUND THE RIVERBEND! It's time to go! The pack leaves the camp and begins the next, long treck of their ride along a paved road that eventually becomes hard-packed dirt. Within hours, the path moves under the treeline and intersects with a trail that runs along a river! The river itself appears relatively shallow, perhaps up to the average person's hips, though higher for the short and lower for the tall. The water doesn't seem to be moving too quickly, and in the heat of midday, it looks terribly pleasant. The path winds from north to south, and if you look, you can see a bridge just within sight to the south, that leads to another, slightly overgrown path, and a sign pointing north that says "Maintained Bridge Route - 48km". Do You
a. Turn left and follow the path north toward the bridge referenced by the sign.
b. Hoist your bike on your shoulders like a super star and wade across the river.
c. Turn right and follow the path south toward the bridge within sight. You will have approximately 8 hours to respond to this prompt.. There will be no late entrants. Please post by 1:59AM CST [11:59PM PST/2:59AM EST]. If you are OUT, feel free to post a final response as an exit! If you are out because you did not respond to the prompt in time, feel free to assume you made one of the "wrong" choices. From here on out, if you will NOT be online in time to post a response to a prompt, you may CHOOSE BLINDLY by indicating in your current post if you would like to choose A or B in advance, as time between prompts will grow shorter and shorter. You may only do this TWICE.Participating Characters - Those that are still in the game are bolded:Sessrumnir of Jupiter Valhalla of Jupiter
Shallot of EarthCarwyn of Venus Nakhti of Uranus Aria of Cosmos
Alkanet of Pluto
Elis of Jupiter
Väinämöinen of CosmosIseult of Earth Simonides of Mercury Roarke of PlutoGlendalough of Earth Keelut of Polaris Solveig of Jupiter
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 5:00 pm
a. Turn left and follow the path north toward the bridge referenced by the sign.
As desperately as Aria would like to tread that river or go through the overgrown path, she was well aware that her bike, and perhaps her muscles, just couldn't take that much strain.
That river.. was pretty tempting though. Still, there was no use in her slipping on a rock and drowning.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 6:01 pm
Sessrumnir laughed to himself as he felt his tires starting to give. It figured that would be his luck. Just because he didn't want to take a break! No matter, he would have more fun on the sidelines. Hey! It wasn't like he didn't try! He'd tried plenty. Jupiter couldn't be mad at him for that, right?
And so, no longer able to race, the Squire from Jupiter sat down on a fallen log on the side of the road and took the time to enjoy his water and snack he'd grabbed, giving thumbs up and waves of encouragement to everyone on their way passed him.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 6:06 pm
c. Turn right and follow the path south toward the bridge within sight.
Elis didn’t think he wanted to take his chances in the river. It seemed shallow enough, but he also didn’t trust himself to actually wade across it with any sort of speed or skill, as refreshing as it might look upon sight. Taking a bridge seemed to be the safer option, though he wasn’t too keen on riding toward another bridge he couldn’t yet see when there was one directly in sight. The path beyond it might seem a bit overgrown, but he’d made his way through the forest well enough before!
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 6:13 pm
c. Turn right and follow the path south toward the bridge within sight.
"Maintained Bridge Route..."
Valhalla frowned at the sign and the number indicating how far away this supposed bridge was. Of course, if there happened to be another detour once he got there saying to go south, he was going to be pretty pissed.
This world was unpredictable, and he couldn't tell if these event organizers were screwing with them on purpose, or if they really couldn't be assed enough to keep their paths maintained...
The water looked fairly calm, but wading across would take too much time, and he wasn't all that thrilled about getting soaking wet.
The bridge to the south he could see, as opposed to this mystery bridge that may or may not be useable.
Weighing the choices, Valhalla made his way south. If it ended up being a sucky bridge and he ended up falling in the water, then he would just wade to the other side...
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