[EVENT] THE SHANGPAR RACE

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: January 20th to January 24th
Location: Various.
Situation: It’s time for the Shangpar Race!
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

The day is here, the day is here, the day is here! Though not every shop is closed and not every kedan is on the streets, it’s a near thing. The race is slated to begin early in the morning, and the city rises for the occasion. Shops open late and workplaces allow for a late start to the day to give everyone an opportunity to watch the starting festivities.

It begins with something almost like a parade. The riders -- there are fifty-five of them, thanks to negotiations during the forum -- are escorted from the shangpari holding pens to the starting line just outside the city, using the most circuitous route available in order to take the riders through every sector.

The starting-line is located just outside a set of the city’s gates, while the finishing-line is at the set on the opposite end. It leads off away from the city, traversing through several of the shell’s terrains, from burgeoning woodland, across a ‘river’, to an area of wasteland leading into mountains, and then down to the shores of the shell’s edge.

While the usual daily processes continue during the race, there are runners at supply checkpoints who, thanks to the efforts of Stark Industries and a handful of Foreigners, are able to report the race statistics via audio directly to the consoles. Groups of children hired as criers run from place to place without access to consoles to carry those reports to the rest of the city. In this time the kedan already begin preparations for the feast which follows it, regardless of who the actual winner might be.

The winners begin trickling in on day four to a crowd already prepared. Thanks to the runners, the residents of Keeliai already know who’s in the lead and when, roughly, they will arrive.

---

LINKS
Parade | Betting booths | Starting line | Finish line | Feast

OOC
In the related forum thread the family leaders were open to the idea of Foreigners participating in the race as long as they possessed no abilities that would provide an unfair advantage and were able to front the cost of 500 juulan. If your character has no such abilities and would have wanted to participate, and you feel you have reasoning for their being able to finance their entry, please PM the mod journal so we can work out the details.

No Foreigner who enters will be able to OOCly apply to win the race -- this event is about the cultural experience, not the winning or losing! More details regarding the race are available on the itinerary here.

Please also do remember that IC actions will have IC consequences. This is a huge, huge cultural event for the kedan; disrupting it in any way will cause a negative reaction. That's not to say don't do it -- but do be prepared for the consequences.

Comments

[theideaguy]

Sokka ponders a bit about the crown, and he can definitely understand why it means a lot to him. "Well, I mean, sure, I can probably help out with that and all," Sokka says with hesitation. "I'd say it's no big deal because the people here won't really treat him any different just because he's got a crown over his head, but I'd want to get Boomerang back if I pawned him off, too."

But still, there's things Sokka could have told him that would be beneficial. "If only I'd known, I would have helped him prepare for this thing. I mean, does Zuko even know how to survive out there in the cold for however long this takes?!"

[raavashing]

There was a snort of amusement from Wan at the question. Sokka was joking, right?

...right?

"He said he once spent time in the arctic with Aang, before they were friends, and that he could handle this kind of winter weather," Wan assured Sokka as best he could just in case the guy wasn't joking. "And I don't think he was worried about anyone treating him differently over the crown. It just seems very personal and valuable to him. Like boomerang is to you, I guess. So, being able to buy it back for him if he doesn't place well... I want to do that if I can. Thank you for offering to help. I appreciate it."

He moved to head for the back of the crowd, "If you have any ideas for how to get the money together on short notice if it's needed, I'm all ears."

[theideaguy]

"Uh yeah, I was kind of there for that one," Sokka says with a bit of a snarky attitude. "Zuko runs off with Aang into the blizzard without thinking of how he's actually going to escape or outrun us, and the best he can do is dig in and find shelter, utterly unable to get away... until Katara and I catch up to him and capture him. Some great survival skills there." All of that is said with an extremely casual nonchalance, as if it wasn't really a shock that it turned out that way. "Though I will give him credit where credit is due; at least he didn't die out in the snow."

But from the sounds of it, Zuko would be out in the cold a little bit longer than that stint. Hopefully the conditions won't be worse.

"Hey, if I had some amazing get-rich-quick scheme in my head, do you think I'd honestly not be going around using it right now?"

[raavashing]

Sokka had a point on two fronts, still, Wan knew Zuko was capable of handling himself and if anything happened, well... he hadn't told Zuko, but Mula was tailing them. Just in case.

"Well, maybe you just haven't thought of any because you haven't had anyone willing to do it with you. It's a lot harder to get what you want when you're the only one person working the crowd."

Which was why Wan used to stick to stealing bags of food from people like the Chous instead of trying anything in crowds.

[theideaguy]

"Well, Toph was our get-rich-quick schemer, really," Sokka admits rather readily. "I mean, I might have been the one with all the plans, but she was the one that could really stick it everyone else. But it also helped because she was blind, so people underestimated her way too easily!"

But he nods a bit before continuing on. "It is easier to work crowds as a team though. Don't let them see you coming. But if we were to do that, we'd have to be extra careful. I don't think it's going to be a good thing to get on the bad side of the kedan... or the gangs."

[raavashing]

Wan let out a laugh. It was long and very heartfelt, and it ended with: "Sokka, you're a great friend."

Well, no. It didn't end there. Because Wan couldn't stop laughing. It was too hard to stop. Everytime he wanted to say something, the laughter just came back in force. He had to wait it out so he could actually keep talking.

"I wasn't actually thinking of pick-pocketing in this case," he finally managed. "But I'm glad you're willing to go that far."

[theideaguy]

For a good long moment, Sokka is horribly, horribly confused. It wasn't... that funny. Sokka was actually being rather serious, and suddenly now Wan thinks he's hilarious? How does that work.

"Thanks?" he offers half-heartedly as Wan just doubles over with laughing, waiting for the more serious explanation.

But when it finally does, Sokka suddenly gets it, and he just nods once—raising his head and then lowering it far down, as if realising that he had completely missed the point—before peering up at Wan. "Well I mean, how else would someone pull off a get-rich-quick scheme? I mean, we did have Toph fake getting run over by a carriage, and then I posed as a Fire Nation police officer, and they bribed me to overlook the incident, but that's kind of the same thing, really."

[raavashing]

"I was thinking a street show or something," Wan answered. "Playing the drums and dancing, or a puppet show or... you know, things that are better with a group. It's still working a crowd."

After a moment though, "Who's Toph?"

[theideaguy]

"Toph was on the original Team Avatar," he says, though there's that weird pause before he realises who he was talking to. "I mean, Aang's Team Avatar. She was our earthbender. And metalbender. And she was only what, 13 years old? If you ever meet her, don't listen to her bragging about being 'the greatest earthbender of all time.' She was good, but..." He just leaves that hanging.

"As far as a street show..." Sokka just mulls on that. What would he even do for that?

[raavashing]

"Metalbender?" Wan stopped in his tracks, eyes wide. "She can bend metal? That's amazing."

[theideaguy]

"Yeah, she figured out how to do it all by herself," Sokka says. He's actually very happy for Toph because it has gotten them out of so many jams. "She says it's just like earthbending really, but... you know, I wouldn't know."

[raavashing]

"I've never even thought about trying to bend metal. It's not earth. It's not stone, you know," he said, feeling like a whole new world of possibilities was open to him now. "I wonder if I could do it."

[theideaguy]

Sokka shrugs a bit at that. "Well, Toph says it's like earth. Something about a lot of little pieces of earth being inside the metal or something. I really didn't pay attention though." Not really important to him at the time. "You could always try."

[raavashing]

Wan grinned, "Yeah! I could! Oh! is your boomerang made of metal?"

[theideaguy]

Sokka takes his boomerang out of its sleeve and shows it to Wan. "Of course it is. Perfect Water Tribe crafts... man... shhhhhhare you going to bend Boomerang?!"

[raavashing]

"Could I try?" He was practically bouncing on his toes in excitement.

[theideaguy]

"Only if you can bend it back! Boomerangs are carefully balanced so that they come back!"

For a brief moment, Sokka is look around everywhere for some other piece of metal to bend that isn't his boomerang. But unfortunately, they're out in public, and that's... not as easy to just... find easily.

So finally, and with intense regret, he offers it.

[raavashing]

Wan really wanted to take the boomerang, but he didn't know that he could put it back just right if he did bend it. He didn't know anything about boomerang balance and he knew Sokka was very attached to the weapon.

He held up a hand, "Don't worry about it. I can find some metal to practice on later. It's not important right here and now. But thank you."

[theideaguy]

There's actually a sense of relief as Wan eventually declines Sokka's not quite non-offer to borrow said boomerang. It was important to him, after all. "Thanks. This was given to be by my dad before he left the Water Tribe to go fight the Fire Nation to try to end the Hundred Year War," he explains. "It was all I ever had to remind me of him for the few years while he was away from the tribe, and so I'd practised with it every day while he was gone. Granted, I've seen him since, thankfully, but at the moment I don't know where he is, if he managed to escape capture or even alive, so... I keep it with me in hopes it'll bring me back to him."

He looks up to Wan and smiles wanly. "We can find some other metal for you to practise on after the races start though."