Summer Shenanigans, Wednesday, August 7, 2024

[sith_happened]

Well, the pond was green. Melted crayon green, not pond scum green. Anakin--who had spent entirely too much time watching the Olympics the past few weeks--could work with this! Everyone knew how to kayak, right?

But there was also new food in town, so there would be an eating contest, too. Because balance was important.

"Hello, Fandom, and welcome to Chicago!" he boomed through the megaphone. "Listen for your names!"

He was feeling indulgent today, so the list of voluntolds was relatively short (and the shirts were great):

Steve M
Don
Raiden
Eleanor
Vi
Steve R
Kamala
Stewart
Lydia
Kitty

Comments

Arrive and Mingle!

[sith_happened]

Don't drink the pond.

Voluntolds, Come on Dooooown!

[sith_happened]

Get your amazing t-shirt!

Re: Voluntolds, Come on Dooooown!

[giveittoyoursister]

The shirts were not hideous. Was Anakin feeling okay?

Re: Voluntolds, Come on Dooooown!

[x_wondrous_x]

To be completely honest, Stewart was mostly just offended by how inoffensive this shirt actually was.

What was even the point?

Re: Voluntolds, Come on Dooooown!

[slothbabyproductions]

"Oooo! This is nice," Kamala said modeling her t-shirt. "This is almost normal!"

Re: Voluntolds, Come on Dooooown!

[throughaphase]

"I'm keeping this one," Kitty announced, pulling it on.

Re: Voluntolds, Come on Dooooown!

[what_big_teeth]

Maybe it was just paranoia on Eleanor's part, but she couldn't help feeling like a t-shirt this normal just meant that what they were in for today was going to be the worst yet.

She would be pleasantly surprised, of course, but right now? After getting comfortable in her shirt today, she was just eying that green pond a little suspiciously.

Play Games!

[sith_happened]

Oh boy.

Kayaking!

[sith_happened]

There are ten kayaks! They somehow fit in this pond! Don't overthink it! Race from one side of the pond to the other in the lanes Anakin has marked out for you.

RNG says it goes: Steve R
Kamala
Eleanor
Vi
Steve M
Raiden
Kitty
Stewart
Lydia
Don

Re: Kayaking!

[giveittoyoursister]

Considering Vi had never been near a kayak before, she was feeling pretty good about where she'd ended up.

Re: Kayaking!

[slothbabyproductions]

Look the best performance Kamala had ever done before coming to Fandom was falling in the Hudson River twice. So her in a kayak coming in after CAPTAIN FREAKING AMERICA?

She was over the moon.

Re: Kayaking!

[throughaphase]

Kitty had never done this. In fact she'd worried about the health of kayakers who got splashed with water from the Chicago River. But this was probably fine!

She wasn't as fast as she wanted to be, since she was not the family member who was great at boats.

Re: Kayaking!

[heroic_jawline]

Kayaking was so fun! Steve wondered, as he cruised to victory, if he could get Tony to try this out too. His husband certainly had the arm strength for it...

Re: Kayaking!

[what_big_teeth]

Don't overthink it was exactly Eleanor's mantra as she settled into her kayak and considered the goal and her middling sort of skill at this sort of thing.

But she kept herself focused, and when she realized that she wasn't actually trailing that far behind Kamala, that just gave her that little extra push she needed to really keep striving forward. Not really to beat her or anything, but it would be kind of nice, she thought, if they managed to pull through somewhat close together.

She hadn't even realized until she hit the shore again and turned to see so many other kayaks in the water behind her that this strategy had somehow worked incredibly well.

Re: Kayaking!

[carbsliftthespirit]

Squeezing Raiden's outsize self into the kayak probably took the longest, if he was honest. He had a lot of leg and that was a little boat, okay? And then, well, it had been a long time since he'd paddled anything but he made it happen.

Re: Kayaking!

[ifwebeworthy]

Don did not have the faintest clue what he was doing here and Thor's admonitions to hurry up because they were being beaten by Steve Rogers were not, in fact, helpful. His attempts to copy what he saw other people doing went, uh, poorly. At one point he flipped his kayak and ended up with a mouthful of extremely green pond.

It was fine. Everything was fine.

Re: Kayaking!

[heroic_jawline]

"Are you alright?" Steve called from where he was coming back from winning. (Damn supersoldier super-everything.)

Re: Kayaking!

[ifwebeworthy]

"Oh, yeah," Don sputtered as he struggled to literally right his ship. "Doing great."

He absolutely was not.

Re: Kayaking!

[heroic_jawline]

Steve slid into the water and swam over to help a little more. "Don't drink this stuff," he teased.

Re: Kayaking!

[ifwebeworthy]

"Trying not to," Don assured him, accompanied by a bit more flailing. "I don't want to know what can make water this color."

Re: Kayaking!

[heroic_jawline]

"Me either," Steve said, holding out a hand in case Don needed it.

Re: Kayaking!

[mustbeawitch]

Lydia also hadn't the faintest idea what she was doing here, but after a quick consultation with YouTube she thought she understood enough to at least get across the pond, and though it might have been a struggle, she made it! And without the dunking poor Dr. Blake had endured.

Hot Dog Eating Contest!

[sith_happened]

And this competition is stacked. Eat as many fully loaded Chicago-style hot dogs (an all-beef hot dog with yellow mustard, pickle relish that matches the pond, chopped onion, two tomato wedges, a dill pickle spear, 2 sport peppers, and a dash of celery salt on a poppy seed bun) as you can in three minutes!

RNG knows what's up:
Raiden
Steve R
Eleanor
Steve M
Vi
Kitty
Kamala
Don
Lydia

Re: Hot Dog Eating Contest!

[giveittoyoursister]

The spirit was willing, but the competition was, well...

Vi still managed to put away a scary number of hot-dogs.

Re: Hot Dog Eating Contest!

[slothbabyproductions]

Okay, Kamala would have done well but she had several questions about the hot dogs before they would go near her mouth.

Look a girl had to look out for her health and heritage.

Re: Hot Dog Eating Contest!

[throughaphase]

"This feels really unfair with the toppings," Kitty announced, starting on the first hot dog.

What else was unfair: She was trying to get Portillo's later, come on.

Re: Hot Dog Eating Contest!

[what_big_teeth]

This definitely wasn't the first eating contest at one of these things, and, just like that pie eating contest, Eleanor had no desire to really show off what she could do in this respect.

And even with deliberately not just inhaling everything like she knew she could and trying to eat like a normal person...

Sigh.

Those hot dogs were really good, though.

Re: Hot Dog Eating Contest!

[x_wondrous_x]

And Stewart was promptly, clearly, disqualified from this event when he sat down with a smirk and produced a bottle of ketchup from his overalls and smugly plopped it on the table.

Re: Hot Dog Eating Contest!

[heroic_jawline]

It wasn't often that Steve lost a food eating competition, but he had to respect Raiden's hustle here.

Re: Hot Dog Eating Contest!

[carbsliftthespirit]

This had never been going to end any other way. Those poor hot dogs never stood a chance. Onlookers might be traumatized.

Raiden, meanwhile, was looking around for more hot dogs.

Re: Hot Dog Eating Contest!

[ifwebeworthy]

After his mouthful of pond water, Don's stomach wasn't feeling so great, and he had never understood why Chicago did this to poor innocent hot dogs, but, uh, he tried?

Re: Hot Dog Eating Contest!

[mustbeawitch]

"What on Earth?" Lydia wondered aloud when faced with the hot dogs. She poked one warily. She gave it a thorough visual inspection and a sniff. Finally, she took a rather delicate bite that was full of sport pepper and thus too much for her delicate nineteenth century English taste buds, and declared, "Oh. Oh, no, I'm afraid not," and set it back down.

Call it a forfeit.

Calling Dibs on Parking!

[sith_happened]

Consider it a spin on musical chairs. Everyone has a folding chair. Race across the grass to the other side where--gasp--only four parking spaces are available. First four to get there, unfold their chairs and sit in the spaces win! Everyone else has to look on the next block too bad for you is out.

RNG says our four winners are:
Kitty
Vi
Steve M
Kamala

Re: Calling Dibs on Parking!

[giveittoyoursister]

Turns out that Vi experiences in eating then bolting stood her in good stead here.

Re: Calling Dibs on Parking!

[slothbabyproductions]

Kamala sat in her chair in disbelief. And threw her arms up in victory.

Re: Calling Dibs on Parking!

[throughaphase]

Kitty hadn't had to call dibs on scars in her time here. However she was real practiced at getting to things before her kid could do this was a cinch.

OOC

[sith_happened]

Thanks to Natalie for the assistance!