fandomhigh | Summer Shenanigans, Wednesday, June 8, 2022

There was a definite smell of grease in the air along the beach that should worry anyone who'd every experienced one of Anakin's Wednesdays before, and that was only if they didn't notice the enormous, greased-up pole resting between two wooden scaffolds about ten feet above the water.

Or the greased-up pigs in a pen.

Or the greased-up flag pole.

Anakin liked a theme, that's what we're saying here.

"Today is all about adaptation!" Anakin yelled into the bullhorn when everyone had arrived. "Your teams have to attempt--individually--get get across the pole in the water and then up the flag pole. Your times, should anyone complete these tasks--will be added together, along with your efforts in the pairs greased pig collecting competition. Fastest team wins."

Who took Anakin to a county fair. Really.

"Listen for your names! There will be five teams of six and you may not use any special powers to assist yourself or your teammates. This is all physical prowess and mental stamina."

TEAM PRAISE THE LARD
Steve M
Aphra
Scott
Graham
Kennedy
Sakaki

TEAM HOT WIENERS
Isabela
Duke
Stark
Steph
Gray
Annie

TEAM TAKE ME TO THE FAIR
Vi
Libby
Will
Jo
Miguel
Hannibal

TEAM FUNNEL CLOUDS AND FUNNEL CAKES
Goose
Buck
Alexis
Lana
Travis
Jon

TEAM BUSTING BALLS
Rey
Belle
Beaker
Wanda
Steve R
Liz

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kennedy & Sakaki; Gray & Annie; Miguel & Hannibal; Travis & Jon; Steve R. & Liz! Last one in is...still chasing a greased pig. Sorry.

RNG says Gray and Annie take it!

Travis looked at the pigs.

"That man is a sadist. Plain and simple."

"The trick is to give it a reason to come to you," Jon offered. "Unfortunately, the only thing I have on me is grease, and I would rather not be eaten."

"Uh. Yeah. Me neither." Travis boggled at Jon faintly. He looked like he might collapse at any moment from heat stroke. Or an OD. Or both. "Aren't you supposed to do, like. Pig calls or something?"

Hey, Jon was not on drugs! Though the heat wasn't doing him any favours, it was true.

He thought about it, then blinked and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Would you like to know how to summon a pig in Minecraft? I can tell you all about that, but I doubt it would help."

Sometimes the Eye was less than helpful.

"This is hilarious," Kennedy noted, "but also so, so weird."

"Right," Steve said, staring at the pig. "I've never done this."

Liz was also staring at the pig and wishing she had a lot more energy but the last two activities had worn her out, “this is new for me as well,” she admitted.

"So how are you at, um, wrestling livestock?"

Very normal question, Steve.

“It didn’t really come up in my former job, wrestled with a lot of demons though …” Liz paused, “literally not figuratively,” she clarified even though she supposed for her it counted as both.

"I've punched Hitler more than 200 times," Steve said a little dryly, then got a speculative look in his eyes.

Steve. Steven. Do not punch a pig.

Liz blinked, tilting her head slightly, “haven’t heard that one before,” she admitted.

She saw the look in his eye, “do you think punching a pig would work?”

Liz don’t encourage him.

"Well, what's the worst that could happen?"

So many, many things, Steve.

Liz was never ever going to mention this to Steven, she had a feeling punching pigs was probably not a good conversation to have with a vegan.

Also she was rather tired and didn’t really have any other ideas so she nodded, “well we could always try and see what happens? Worst case would be we have to come up with a new plan right?”

Steve's first line of inquiry tended to be "can I punch it" and then advance from there.

"Exactly. You call it's attention and I'll try to nab it?"

After spending the last decade working with Hellboy, Liz could definitely appreciate plans being formed around ‘can I punch it?’

“Okay well I can definitely try,” Liz nodded, then didn’t realise how she was going to do that without her powers, “do you think it’s cheating if I use fire to get its attention?” she asked and then quickly added, “I mean I’m a pyrokinetic,” she explained, “I don’t go around lighting fires or anything like that,” at least not deliberately like most people back home thought.

"Please don't light a pig on fire," Steve said with a grin. "That's probably much worse than punching one."

“Oh I wouldn’t light it on fire,” Liz assured him, “just get its attention,” at least she hoped anyway.

"Being on fire would definitely focus its attention, though," Steve teased.

Re: Round Three

flamesburned - 2022-06-09 20:10 (UTC) - Expand

Okay. So. Annie kind of had a little bit of a leg up here -- she herself had certainly never chased a greased pig, but she had grown up somewhere rural enough to have county fairs, and she'd seen this done before.

"I think the trick is to keep from scaring it," she offered softly to Gray, watching the pig carefully.

Also, probably a total abandonment of their dignity.

Edited 2022-06-08 16:14 (UTC)

Gray yawned and shook his head to clear it before telling her, "I'm really sneaky. We can probably use that."

Sleep now, Sloth told him.

Not now, Gray protested. This nice lady is counting on me! Miraculously, Sloth subsided...for the time being.

"I can distract it if you wanna try sneaking up on it," Annie offered, seizing upon that with a slight smile. "And uh -- I'm really strong. So once we've caught the pig, I can totally help keep the little guy subdued."

"I'm really strong, too!" Gray told her. "And I don't know about you, but I can't turn it off so it's not like it counts as a superpower, right?" This might actually work!

"Okay, so what if I go around that way behind it?" he suggested, indicating his plan by pointing. "And you...keep its attention." How did you keep a pig's attention?

Edited 2022-06-08 18:00 (UTC)

"I can grab it if I can get it." Miguel showed his talons off.

Hannibal shrugged. "I won't stop you."