[Event] Ring Race

“Gather around, gather around!” The Ringmaster called, ushering those nearby to come closer to him so he could give instructions as to what was happening. 

This Lunar Festival had rolled into town lately as the meteor shower went on outside, taking over what used to be a massive museum. Different parts of the festival were set up in different parts of the museum. In the natural history section there was entertainment and shows of skill, while here in the aerospace area it was fun and games. The colorful setup full of various carnival games and the gamemasters working them, contrasted with the worn out, abandoned look of the interior of the museum. The exhibits, everything from small artifacts to entire air and spacecraft, were still all in their original places which meant the gamemasters had to get creative with where they set up, which could be in the walkway, tucked into an exhibit, or taken over a craft. The Ringmaster currently was drawing attention to a sort of ring game geared towards flyers. It was kind of the opposite of the standard ring toss game where you had to toss a ring onto a peg or bottle..this ring game would have flyers in the air, navigating the cluttered ceiling space of the aerospace museum, and they would collect rings from hooks as they flew from one end of the aerospace wing to the other and then back. Intermittently there would be rings tossed up from volunteers that could gain them bonus points. Obviously the most points won the bigger prize. It was a fun game that wouldn't last the longest and took a while to set up each time, so he tried to let everyone get in on it at the same time that he could. 

Among a growing flock of Tropeonathus was Coronado, bright red, brindled and covered in other stripey markings. He has a strange sort of armored helmet on top of his head made naturally from the exoskeleton mutation. Near him gathered Uzuragi, a bright blue Tropeonathus with a combination of fawn, sunspots and hood standing out against the lighter unders. Tough competition. Another strong contender next to Coronado was going to be Nerodia, a bright pink with darker bands and flowering midline. The assorted other Tropeonathus included at least four others, starting with one that looked like burned toast with a soft dappled midline broken by brindle and backed by sable. There was one that was a soft cover combined with dark pinstripe with blue streaking on a dark collar. Another a green with piebald and black rosettes, and then a final Tropeo with a soft warm ripple with merle and dalmatian. It was going to be a crowded course. 

The Ringmaster had the Tropeo's all gather around near a nice open space in the middle of the hall. This space had a fake airport crafted into the tile of the floor, which offered a display for kids when not in use for toy planes and other events of long past. It gave them the room they needed to take off. Though…they would need to take off one at a time. 

He would explain how the course would be flown, it starting at the tile airport on the floor and then going on a counter-clockwise course, the aerospace wing of the museum being circular, with a middle section which was where they were currently. They would start at the entrance like one would do when visiting and then they would fly through the birth of flight exhibit, followed by the First World War, then the Golden Age, World War II, the jet age and lastly space. Once reaching the entrance again they would fly back into the center area and land back on this tile runway where their rings would be counted. Each exhibit has 10 rings, with two volunteers per exhibit throwing rings up into the air to catch. He would have everyone line up at the end of the tile runway, and then would wave a green flag to send them off. 

At the waving it didn't take long for everyone to scramble into the air one by one and start making their climb to a comfortable level…as comfortable as you can be flying inside a human building with things everywhere. 

For the Tropeos it was cramped, Coronado didn't doubt that someone was probably going to fly into something or someone but for now he focused on what was ahead. To get to the entrance they all had to go through a doorway, folding their wings in and making themselves smaller for a brief second as they did so. Coronado emerged out the other side and into the entrance of the museum, cranking a left to dodge out of the way of the 1903 Wright Flyer replica that was hanging from the ceiling to greet people. He next had to go through another doorway, losing position to the burnt toast Tropeo and Uzuragi as he set up to do so. These doorways were natural bottlenecks, and already the piebald Tropeo and the blue streaked Tropeo almost ran into each other in the entrance to the Birth of Flight exhibit as they tried to beat each other to the doorway and instead ended up having to share it. Nerodia was behind them, watching the whole thing and stuck between gasping in worry at the two of them or laughing at their already getting into trouble. It was going to be a tough race. Behind her was the warmly colored merle Tropeo, making it through the doorway and trying to catch up. 

Once into the Birth of Flight exhibit they had to fly under the replica of the Leonardo da Vinci Flying Machine and maneuver between a replica of an early balloon and manned kite. The burnt toast Tropeo managed to pass through without issues, staying low enough to dodge the larger objects themselves without worrying about the wires suspending them in the air. Uzuragi followed behind and lowered down to duck under a replica of a Lilienthal glider, the dusty, feather-tips fluttering a bit as she passed close by the contraption.  

Behind Uzuragi is Coronado and he catches something they apparently didn’t see, on the other side of the Lilienthal Glider, between it and some sort of weird box kite looking thing (a replica of the Santos-Dumont 14-bis) was a ring suspended from the rafters. Coronado makes a split-second decision and tries to cut a tight weave, first to the right to dodge the Lilienthal Glider, then to the left to try to dodge the 14-bis and grab the ring. He misses the ring, but now he’s set up on the outside of the leader’s flight paths to their right. His movements also tipped off the flyers behind him and now that the Piebald Tropeo had managed to squeeze out in front of the blue streaked one it took advantage of Coronado’s tip to fly an easier line and snatch the ring with no effort. The path it took now took them behind Coronado on that line which gave a little more room for the blue streaked one to take the route on the left. As the blue streaked one did they took notice of something further left that the leaders had blown by- someone throwing a ring. Quickly they course corrected and hugged the left side of the exhibit, careful of wires as they’d snatch the tossed ring from the air. Behind them Nerodia wasn’t having the same luck seeing a missed ring or someone tossing, she was almost tail end charlie and that didn’t bring as many opportunities except for watching the leaders to scavenge what they miss. Thankfully each section had ten rings minimum and they did end up missing another ring.. She found it suspended under the replica of the replica of the Curtiss-designed Junebug, the biplane’s 42 and a half foot wingspan spreading out to be just just barely longer than Nerodia’s at a glance. She ducked low and swooped to snatch the ring, climbing back up easily as she lead the way for the merle Tropeo who chose to go left and follow the left path. They were focused on trying to catch her, not so much pick up rings just yet.

Up ahead of them the burnt toast Tropeo was still leading the pack by the time they got towards the other end of the exhibit, taking opportunity to snatch up a ring that was hanging above the Bleriot XI sitting on the ground collecting dust. The burnt toast tropeo would be the first one through the doorway with Uzuragi following close by. In the time it took for the merle Tropeo to get to the Lilienthal Glider Uzuragi had already snatched up 2 more rings, one had been tossed up from one of the volunteers and another one she had snatched from next to a Chanute 1896 glider replica. Through the doorway was easy and then came Coronado behind her, he lucked out and had managed to snatch a ring from near the final aircraft of the  Birth of Flight exhibit, a replica of Glenn Curtiss’ Model E Flying Boat.  Behind Coronado was the Piebald Tropeo who was managing to hold their lead against the blue streaked one behind them, though they were getting closer and closer getting to the end of the exhibit. The Piebald Tropeo had managed to snatch up 2 more rings themselves, being quite good at what they were doing. The blue streaked one had managed to snag another. Then there was Nerodia, who would manage to keep the last rings from falling into the grasp of the Merle tropeo behind her. As she was bust grabbing the final ring however the merle tropeo would take advantage and dive low, getting below her and passing her. They would get through the doorway with no problem, and she would bring up the rear into the next exhibit.

This dance of Tropeos and rings would go on further, progressing exhibit after exhibit, from the busy and intricately posed First World War collection, into the calmer and more static Golden Age displays, then flying into the brutal era of the Second World War and transitioning from that into the fast, flashy and streamlined era of the Jet Age and finally Coronado, leading with rings, would follow Uzuragi into the whimsical Age of Space exhibit with its contraptions . Nerodia would end up bringing up 5th by the time the Troepos rounded their way back into the middle area of the museum where they would land one by one on the tile airport built into the floor and then count their rings up with the Ringmaster and Coronado would get his prize…not food, not a trophy, not nesting materials or anything… but..

A silly little teddy bear with a flight jacket, cap, goggles, and a cute little white scarf that somehow hasn’t been ruined by being abandoned.