fandomhigh | Try Not to Die, Monday, May 18, 2020

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Try Not to Die, Monday, May 18, 2020

"Welcome back," Anakin said. "Today we are going to Kazakhstan, a country I'm not entirely sure I'm pronouncing right. It's kind of near Russia if that helps anyone?"

He pointed in a general way at the map and might've end up on Kyrgystan. Oops.

"Just like last week, you will have three different tasks to complete," he said, "but today we're start with a new and exciting competition! The first person to finish the challenge gets to skip the other two tasks and procede right to the end."

Because the challenge was...not delightful.

He clapped his hands together. "Welcome to Almaty! Try not to die."

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Perhaps with a bad feeling about the initial challenge?

Astrid Magnussen

Tisarwat

Julius

Ino (Iris) Yamanaka

Alara Kitan

Grog Strongjaw

Nell Ingram

Beaker

Welcome to Alasha, a traditional Kazakh restaurant!

Will you be asked to eat something gross? Yes, yes you will! In order to receive the fast forward, you must eat a serving of kurduk, or cooked sheep fat.

OR, you can hard-pass and move right along to the second challenge.

[OOC: The RNG declares Grog the winner! Everyone else can try it and fail or not try at all as you desire!]

Edited 2020-05-18 13:53 (UTC)

Look, Grog had grown up eating whatever he and his clan could hunt--this was not the weirdest thing he'd ever put in his mouth.

Honestly? Astrid wasn't even that interested in a fast forward for the class, but she was genuinely interested in at least trying the food.

It couldn't be that much worse than the McDonald's she'd had for lunch yesterday, really, when you got right down it it.

After she tried it, it was pretty clear she wasn't getting the fast pass anyway, but when in Rome...or, in this case, Kazahkstan...

Nell had eaten worse. Or maybe not. Nope. This was bad.

You're maybe gonna wish you'd tried harder on the sheep fat thing. You are at Alel Agro Chicken Factory and must search through 30,000 chickens for one of 11 golden eggs, which will be traded in for your next clue.

[OOC: RNG says:
1. Ino (Iris) Yamanaka
2. Tisarwat
3. Beaker
4. Alara Kitan
5. Owen Corley
6. Duke Crocker
7. Astrid Magnussen
8. Julius Heartstriker
9. Juillenne Milone (and Camden)
10. Nell Ingram
11. Alexis Rose]

Edited 2020-05-18 13:57 (UTC)

So one of the problems of being a dragon in a person suit? Animals could tell. And animals generally did not like being in close proximity with apex predators.

It was hard enough trying to search through 30,000 panicking chickens. It got even worse when some of those chickens decided to attack first.

Yeah, Julius was going to go down in a hail of feathers and angry squawking. It was luck alone that had him eventually finding a golden egg, while trying to keep the chickens off without hurting any of them.

Well.

That was hard?

Sorry, everyone, but Iris sauntered out of there after checking her very first chicken, golden egg in hand.

And whistling just to add insult to injury. Sure, it was all just luck but she was glad it was on her side today!

Alara was actually a bit surprised that it didn’t take her that long to find the golden egg.

It did take a few attempts but at least she didn’t have to search through all those chickens to do so.

Astrid might have been a little better at this if she hadn't been so concerned with being polite to the chickens at first, but, once she realized that the chickens had no intention of being polite to her, all bets were off, and there might have been at least one threat of turning their feathers into a multi-media art piece if they weren't careful!

Turns out Nell had missed the chickens she'd had at home. She got a little distracted. Oops.

Beaker was friends with chickens, which was not normally something that came in handy, but today really was.

A quick conversation and Beaker was on his way!

In Play Like Mad, you travel to the State Museum of National Musical Instruments). There, you would learn to play a traditional folk tune on the dombra, a traditional lute-like instrument. They you have to go to a park and perform for locals to earn tips totalling 200₸ (approximately US$1.50) to receive your next clue.

In Act Like Fools, you make your way to the Almaty State Puppet Theater, where they had to put on a two-person cow costume (with a helpfully NPC-able local guide who will not give you decent directions) and then travel across town to a milk stand to drink a glass of milk.

At the bottom of the glass was the name of their next destination, the Zelyoniy Bazaar, where they had to find the meat section to receive their final clue.

[OOC: RNG says:
1. Ino (Iris) Yamanaka
2. Duke Crocker
3. Nell Ingram
4. Alexis Rose]
5. Owen Corley
6. Juillenne Milone (and Camden)
7. Astrid Magnussen
8. Julius Heartstriker
9. Alara Kitan
10. Tisarwat
11. Beaker]

Edited 2020-05-18 14:07 (UTC)

With his clothing ravaged by angry chickens, Julius figured that the cow costume was a better option than the instrument. He was pretty sure that anyone spotting him would immediately turn around to avoid the weirdo and that didn't even take the whole 'didn't know how to play any instruments' into account.

He had also, unfortunately, overestimated 1) how easy the costume would be, 2) how much English the guide spoke, and 3) how excited the guide would be to get into a costume with a guy covered in chicken feathers and spirits knew what else.

So yeah. This was also gonna take awhile.

Yeahno, Iris wasn't wearing a cow suit with a random stranger basically ever, so she headed off to learn a song on an instrument she'd never played before.

Given that a) she had a massive time lead and that b) it was easy enough to memorize the song without having to actually understand how to play anything but that song...

Then, given that she was a pretty woman with a friendly smile, well, it really didn't take long to earn the minimum she needed to move on...

This was way better than last time!

Alara thought that learning to play an instrument sounded like the better option, even though she’d never really tried to play an instrument before despite her parents attempts to get her to try.

It turned out to be harder than it looked and it took her quite a while to learn to play the tune. At least the actual performing part and getting the tips went much smoother.

Astrid was absolutely torn, because, on the one hand, she loved native instruments and museums, and on the other hand, she almost felt obligated to do anything involving puppets...

...but museums would always win out. Sorry, puppets! The playing for an audience part wasn't exactly her favorite, but she'd done performances before, you just had to get your way through it and hopefully either people would tip her out of pity or at least because she was pretty (as much as she'd rather not that be the case, she was also not an idiot when it came to that sort of thing, either).

Nell was no musician, so she decided to be part of a cow. It wasn't as hard as she'd thought it would be. And the fresh milk was good! Another thing she'd missed.

It turns that when you are a very, very short Muppet, it's difficult to navigate anywhere, and the second half of his cow was in hysterics laughing. Beaker finally gave up, went back and tried the other detour.

He wasn't much better at playing a dombra (he was a few fingers short) and giant googly eyes were not working in his favor the way the cute girls in his class could work.

So he was out there on that square for a while. Like, a whiiiile.

Your final clue tells you to find Anakin at the Old Square--a kilometer and a half walk from the Puppet Museum and a five minute drive from the Zelyoniy Bazaar--or a ten minute walk, if the cab drivers won't take you in the cow costume that you have to check in wearing.

The cab did not take, him, no. So instead he had to walk, at a human pace, his heightened sense of smell having a field day with the smell of 30,000 chickens inside the enclosed cow costume.

Sigh.

Edited 2020-05-18 16:11 (UTC)

All good things had to come to an end and, really, eventually she was just going to realize that cabbies could never, ever be trusted...

(Okay, she knew that, but she rather enjoyed the random detours?)

But... hey, she still got there with only two other folks there ahead of her.

"I declare that a victory," Iris decided.

It took Alara a lot longer than she would have liked but it turned out she wasn’t very good at explaining where she needed to go to her driver.

After a few false starts, she eventually got to the right place.

Well, really, since Grog technically already won this thing with the first challenge, it was't really a competition anymore and Astrid wasnt' really a competing sort, anyway, so she decided that, since she was in a new city she might not get the chance to visit again for a while, she'd skip the cab, take a walk, and enjoy the sights.

Which meant she was last getting back to the check-in spot, sure, but she'd had a rich cultural experience and managed to not die, so that was pretty good, she felt, in the long run.

Grog had found a place selling some warm potato thing that was getting the taste of plain fat out of his mouth, and he had some extra for when other people showed up too.

The cab driver took pity on the tiny girl with the shy smile and drove her in despite the cow costume.

"Meep meep meep MEEP," Beaker said, stomping up and all but throwing the dombra at Anakin's head.

Results are:

1. Grog Strongjaw
2. Nell Ingram
3. Ino (Iris) Yamanaka
4. Owen Corley
5. Tisarwat
6. Juillenne Milone (and Camden)
7. Julius Heartstriker
8. Duke Crocker
9. Alara Kitan
10. Alexis Rose
11. Beaker
12. Astrid Magnussen

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Try Not to Die, Monday, May 18, 2020

Sign in 5/18

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Fast Forward!

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Roadblock: Don't Chicken Out!

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Detour: Play Like Mad or Act Like Fools

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Check In!

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OOC