Podrace PODRACE: Zugga's Challenge in Mon Gazza! (Open to Spectators and Gamblers)

[Jax Thio]

( Cotan Sar'andor is tied with Kal for fifth place but I placed Kal on the scoreboard because the sum of his first two legs were higher than Cotan's.)

The crowd were whipped into a frenzy when they saw Hilal take the lead accelerating out of the caged corkscrews. "It's Vizla!" Tosco Rod yelled out his booming voice just as excited as the crowd were. "Amazing! One minute she was in danger and now not she's back on course but she has the lead! " Many people were on the edge of their seats, faces glued onto the screen. "The race is still too close call!" Tosco Rod said. "Hilal may have the slim lead but Tris and Slider are not far behind! The rest though! Well let's hope they finish the race!"

The screen changed and it displayed the map of the track. "Last lap!" Tosco Rod said. "Who amongst the top three will finish first place?! Ladies and gentlemen! Fasten your seat belts we are in for one epic finish!"

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

He came out of the corkscrews going fairly slowly, having been unwilling to push it particularly hard through those tight turns. Once he was on the straight path right afterwards, though, about to accelerate, he was surprised to find his throttle open of its own accord, sending him rocketing ahead to keep pace with Kal. He hadn't been expecting the nudge from Asha at all...and he doubted she'd expected to give him so much of one.

"Alright," he growled to himself, wrestling his podracer through a turn tight and fast enough that he nearly ended up turned a full ninety degrees on his side, "Time to finish this. Can't let the kid beat me without a fight." He almost felt like he was turning into a younger Jorus talking about Kal that way.

Of course, he hadn't expected that one of his three engines would give out on him entirely after the sudden boost. Sithspit. At least he'd finish.

Asha Vynea Kal Jax Thio

 

[Ardon]

Kark it, sure enough there went his spot. Yeah Kirk had lost his spot, but it didn't matter who you passed, if more people passed you. He lagged behind barely keeping up, though he at least wasn't too far behind 5th, he felt leagues behind any spot that mattered. He tried to put everything into throttle, it wouldn't matter how hard it was to turn, just shove it!

That wasn't enough, the pod just couldn't keep up and seemed to only barely recognize the push. He didn't know if it just hadn't been warm enough, maybe he should have been pushing it hard the whole way through. Maybe he was just too careful, but he could tell right now that he just wasn't going to reach that finish line before the three leaders would.

He'd lost, but he'd at least learned something. When it comes to pod-racing, taking risks was all you could do if you wanted to win.

Spoiler: OOC

 

[Kal]

Some might have been annoyed to have one's inebriated mechanic miss the mark a bit, but Kal could honestly say he did not mind. He was doing this for the experience and the chaotic surge of engine power sure was notable.

He did want to beat Cotan, however. If he was lucky, the engine would keep up its roaring success until he was past the finish line, preferably without exploding. If he was less so he might still beat the Je'daii Master, given the fact that the old man's engines seemed to be giving out one by one. With gleeful indifference, he pushed the throttle all the way down...

... only for one of the engines to catch fire. Even burning and stuttering, it was still faster than Cotan, however!

<Your first podrace too, Cotan? It's pretty fun!> Leave it to the Shadow to be blasé about health and safety.

Muk Moadda | Cotan Sar'andor | Asha Vynea​

 

[Takumi Tikotzki]

Spectators: Pod racing

Tags: Cyran Vaas
Planet: //
Location: Mon Gaza Speedway
Role: Spectator
Clothes: red poncho and some clothes under it(no helmet)
Gear: IB-94 blaster pistole | a few thermal detonators | force pike

Takumi looked up towards the monitors to watch the show, with his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Right" Takumi gave this some thought and listened to Cyran, as he talked about who he would choose. Takumi nodded quickly and smiled brightly. "Thought you'd never ask. The bet is on. I'll bet on the turtle guy. Slider is his name I think" he put out his hand, so both could shake their hand on the bet, therefore it must be kept. Like a gentleman promise or some kind. It would make the whole thing legit. To trash-talk a little, Takumi added "I'll be buying some new gear with those thousand credits mate" He was pretty sure of himself, and the skills of Slider. He looked like a good driver, so therefore Takumi made a good decision with taking him.


​

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[Cotan Sar'andor]

<Your first podrace too, Cotan? It's pretty fun!> Leave it to the Shadow to be blasé about health and safety.

"Second," he replied curtly, glancing over at Kal. "Haven't pulled this thing out to use in ages, so I'm a bit surprised it still worked." Other than the one engine that had just sputtered and died; still, that was why he had three on there. "Wasn't willing to push it too hard and have Asha have to watch me be smeared against the track. Speaking of..." He turned more fully to Kal, a mildly disapproving expression on his face.

"You drive like a poorly-programmed droid. Not enough thought towards self-preservation. If you decide to keep at this and get a pod with faster engines, you ought to try and act a bit more mortal. Too many others find out you aren't and you might have to wait out the next century or two in the Nether before trying to mess around here again." A pause, as he looked over at the shadow's engines.

"Also, turn that damn thing off before it explodes, Kal."

Kal Asha Vynea

 

[Slider]

MON GAZZA, ZUGGA CHALLENGE
PODRACER: THE WHEELHOUSE
ROLL 4: SEE BELOW​

Slider had been so laser-focused on inching past Tris in the corkscrew, he hadn't noticed Hilal Vizsla shoot past the both of them, the spunky Mandalorian enjoying a sudden burst of speed. Slider clicked his tongue, shaking his head. He needed to focus on the entire race, not just one racer.

Still, this was what the sport was all about. Unpredictability. The fact that anything could happen was what kept the spectators spectating, and the racers racing. It was certainly what kept Slider coming back behind the engines.

Which was why, on the final leg of the race, Slider leaned into his seat, pushing the controls as quick as they could go. The moving parts of the monobike sparked and sputtered, trying to keep up with his need for speed. It and it's rider tore across the open ground of the Skakoan planet, rocketing across the finish line a few g's over comfort.

Whoever finished first, Slider had likely achieved a few personal bests today.

 

[Holly Starstorm]

Holly was supposed to be getting some quotes for the recap that would appear on the holo news after the race was over. So far she had not been able to speak to the drivers but perhaps if any survived she could speak to them after.

For now she was working her way through the crew members. Her Personal Media Assistant was flying around taking NOT LIVE shots so they could be edited for the news package.

She spotted one of the crew members ( Jax Thio ) and began her pitch.

“Excuse me, I am Holly Starstorm representing HoloNet News. Would you like to tell us what you think your racers odds of winning is?”

 

[Jax Thio]

Location: Zugga Challenge
Equipment: Attire, Jax's Prosthetic Arm, Jax's Second Lightsaber, Promise Ring to Jairdain
Tag: Holly Starstorm , Valery Noble

The race was getting intense yet Jax saw Valery Noble falling behind. The Jedi Master gritted his teeth as he saw the race unfold, to think he was one of the people who helped get Zugga's Challenge up and running. He decided to take some time off from Podracing a bit to guide Valery in her Podrace. She was excited albeit reluctant to get into Podracing preferring Swoop Bikes, but Jax managed to encourage to expand. In exchange, he promised Val that he would take up Swoop Bikes again.

BB-12 seemed excited with helping Valery as well judging by how he was constantly speaking to Val on the radio. "Hey BB," Jax said looking at a blonde newsreporter who was approaching them. "We got company."

<Tell her to leave!> BB-12 beeped. <We got to help Valery here!>

The woman who introduced herself as Holly began to ask Jax what he felt his chances of winning were. "Uhhh," Jax said staring at the media assistant. "Hi Holly well right now Valery is in a tight place but she is positioning herself for a chance to win. We're going to continue to watch her and her Pod make sure she finishes the race safely."

<I'm not going to answer any questions ya damn reporter!> BB-12 whirred. <So don't even ask!>

"Apologies for my Droid!" Jax chuckled kicking BB against the wall. <Hey watch it buster!> BB-12 beeped.

 

[Holly Starstorm]

“Did you get that?”

She asked her media assistant droid which beeped confirmation.

“Do you have any sponsors you need to worry about in case of a loss?”

Holly ignored the rude droid. As a reporter she was used to people hating the press! It was all part of the job.

Jax Thio

 

[Dani Stellaris]

This was not working out how she wanted. Maybe it wasn't that anything was special about her, or when she focused too hard, things were going awry. When she just acted, it worked a bit better. The sputtering in the engine. She was losing power, but right here? She wasn't thinking of how to fix it. But then her headset opened up and she smirked, hearing Kaul's voice.

"Ease? Sure…." She pulled back on the throttle and let it get a little bit of a breath. She could hear the engine starting to make a more clean sound. She had flooded it.

Feth, pods were tricky.

Shaking her head she was knowing Kaul wasn't going to let her live this down. Grabbing the throttle again, she pushed it, slowly, as she came out of the corkscrew. "That worked a charm, Kaul." She saida s she was continuing, out of the corkscrew. And down a straight.

Crane up ahead, but she was nearing the finish line, it was just a matter of not taking up the tail end of this race from everyone. Time to move.

 

[Kal]

Kal successfully finished the race, though he was hardly the first through. In fact, he was far enough back that he had not yet seen who had won, though Slider had seemed particularly promising in his humble opinion.

Smiling at Cotan from within the burning podracer, he seemed entirely unbothered by the fire.

"Eh, no biggie." Typing out a quick message on a wrist link, he let the Mon Calamari from which he had bought the vehicle know he was free to collect and salvage the podracer - assuming he could put out the fire before it exploded.

"Fake IDs are easy, not that I even bothered in this case. This chap..." He tapped the chest of his human sleeve, a clone that had never hosted even a shred of self-awareness. "... is registered as Norman Hum'an of Coruscant." Behind him, the engines were put out by fire-extinguisher droids - looks like it was his shady seller/mechanic's lucky day!

"What, are you worried I'll attract the spirit police for excessive mortality?"

Cotan Sar'andor | Asha Vynea | Muk Moadda​

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"You know I'm not the only person in the galaxy who knows how to make swords that actually harm spirits and shadows like you, right?" Cotan asked, one eyebrow raised. "People get bothered when you mess with their entertainment. It's why they hate seeing droids doing podracing or swoop races. Droids never have much to worry about, so they don't fly in as entertaining a manner. They see a spirit's been doing it with the fakest fake ID I've ever heard, they might just try to find somebody who knows how to destroy the spirit, thinking they're entitled to revenge just because their bloodsport wasn't done right, just because the person in the pod didn't look scared enough."

He shrugged.

"People are weird. Now, c'mon kid, let's go find Asha so she can tell me how happy she is that I'm okay."

Kal Asha Vynea

 

[Asha Sar'andor]

Oh, Asha was beyond ecstatic to see the both of them as they made their approach, though naturally given the very nature of Kal's existence it was Cotan that she ran toward. She'd never actually been concerned that Kal might die doing this pretty foolish sport, but Cotie? Oh... He was just flesh and bone!​

​

She wrapped him up in her embrace, uncaring for the dust and grease, and grit that likely covered him from the track, and just squeezed as though her very life depended on it.​

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Cotan Sar'andor Kal ​

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"Like that, Kal."

Kal Asha Vynea

 

[Tris]

Something scraped against his racer and the display began to beep and flash wildly. He was losing speed! The turtle zipped on ahead and the rest of the pack was catching him.

"C'mon, c'mon!" His fist slammed against the display again and again as his chances for a third win in a row vanished before his eyes.

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Location: Mon Gazza​

Valery: Appearance​

Support: Jax Thio ​

Roll: (6 (3 after reroll) | GA discord ​

​

Even though the fourth leg of the race was largely straight, with just the end going into some bends, Valery had lost a lot of the momentum from the start of the race. She wasn't performing poorly but she quickly realized that this wasn't going to be the race where she'd end up on the podium.​

​

She still gave it her all though, but despite Jax trying to help her catch up to some of the other racers, she watched the distance between herself and them only grow more.​

​

This wasn't my race.​

​

With a smirk on her face from the sheer excitement of racing, she crossed the finish line knowing she hadn't done too well, but it was still quite a fun experience. Perhaps she would be back in a podracer again soon.​

​

 

[Aculia Voland]

Aculia wasn’t a particular fan of most races in and of themselves, since they usually involved rather boring things like rules, regulations, and the limit on the amount of leverage one could bet on them. She was taking a break from her usual work for the Elysium Empire to observe this race in particular, and so far she was liking what she had seen. Perhaps she would participate in a race? After all, she did have the backing of Mandal-Elysium Arms, and a dedicated podracer could sell well to the right clients.

She had decided this time to take on an interesting, lottery ticket kind of gamble from one of the assorted local criminal syndicates. She had placed a blind bet on the top three winners and if they all came in the correct order, she could fifty times her initial investment. She had not bet too much, knowing the odds weren’t really with her, merely to see if it was something that was popular to perhaps organize one in the Empire. And it seemed that it was-after all, what else was one going to spend their money on in this dustbowl of a planet?

The question is, would she be lucky?

 

[Hilal Vizsla]

(OOC: Rolled a 20 AGAIN!)

Current outfit

Hilal's Podracer


Hilal continued to accelerate aware of the fact that all of her engines would overheat and catch fire again but the young woman so close to the finish line. She couldn't give up now, she couldn't slow down not with Slider starting to catch up. "Not this time!" Hilal prepared for another thrust would it blow up her Pod? Perhaps but with the finish line in sight, the choice was clear. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Hilal smiled to herself as she picked up speed. With a press of a button, Hilal went even faster up to 710 mph alerts were blaring all over Hilal's cockpit flames started to emerge from all four of the pods but she ignored them.

"A Mandalorian must be strong," Hilal said closing her eyes. "I want to make them proud!"

And with that, the flaming Podracer crossed the finish line.

 

[Kirk Korrado]

He'd officially slipped from the top 5. At this rate he wasn't sure whether that was better for him or worse. On the one hand, credits were nice, really solved all his problems. On the other hand he began to imagine his face plastered on a final leaderboard, alerting every thug who was after him to his location. He sensed a phantom pain in his knees at the mere thought.

Whatever, he could figure that all out later. Somehow, in his first podrace with a real piece of bantha under his seat, he'd survived to the end. He liked it to stay that way. Maybe podracing wasn't as cuttthroat as the editing droids made it looked or the tabloids hyped it up to be. That was fine by Ol' Kirk, who tore off down the final stretch at a decent speed.

Maybe he could make this after all....