[center][h3]Minigame Roulette - Connected Climbing Chaos[/h3]
Level 8 Goldlewis (69/80) Level 7 Sandalphon (28/70)
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1493[/center]

When the race began, Goldlewis and Sandalphon were of like mind. They stepped back to let the younger and more sprightly competitors charge forward, then set off through the wintry penguin village at the rear of the pack. Pairs like the thieves and Roland/Falcon scrambled up the first little cliff face at a breakneck pace, followed quickly by Junior/Pit and Blazermate/Bowser once those duos sorted themselves out. Goldlewis exchanged a knowing glance with Primrose, whose team had taken a similarly patient tact, while he cast a scathing look at Midna/Roxas, who’d instantly given up on any pretenses of fairness in favor of cheating. “Y’all got no shame?” he questioned, shaking his head. Ganondorf/Geralt would have gotten the same treatment if the warlord’s scheme worked out, but his plan fell flat, forcing the two to proceed normally. They quickly passed Sectonia, whose burdensome and inanimate partner slowed her down a good deal, as well as Rika/Kamek. While Goldlewis was well past his prime, he was no frail old man, and come hell or high water he’d give a good account of himself here today.

Following just after Zenkichi and Primrose, he and Sandalphon took each challenge methodically. The archangel timed each and every jump, even the easy ones, with mechanical consistency and precision in her typical deadpan voice. It came as something of a surprise that Goldlewis could jump higher than she could, even with his double jump disabled, but Sandalphon could slow her own fall and turned out to be so light that Goldlewis could pull her after him with ease. Once they crested the first cliff, they paused to watch other pairs slinging across -or falling into- the first pit, more than one of them demonstrating the ban on movement abilities. Since their large size meant the two took up a lot of space, they didn’t bother jostling for position, but hung back and learned from the others’ mistakes. “Slow and steady wins the race, as they say,” Sandalphon remarked.

Goldlewis chuckled. “The sayin’ that came to my mind was ‘monkey see, monkey do’.” He watched other teams flying ahead, in some cases literally. Already he could see which way the wind was blowing. “We might have a tough time winnin’ this.”

“Then I suppose we’ll have to settle for ‘every dog has his day’,” Sandalphon replied. “Still, let us do all that we can.” 

With the crowd thinned, the two got their chance. They jumped to the platform and Goldlewis sat down, ready to serve as the anchor. Sandalphon dropped down and began to swing, building up momentum, then gave a comically stoic countdown as she whirled around in a loop-de-loop. “One. Two. Three.”

Goldlewis barreled forward, and together the two soared over the first gap. As he slid to a stop in the snow, he pumped his fist. “Alright, one down! That was fun, eh Sandy?”

Judging by the spirals in her eyes, Sandalphon was a little dizzy, but she quickly blinked them away. “Indeed.”

The unlikely pair pushed forward, following in their comrades’ footsteps. They worked their way across more tandem jumps, taking them in anything but quick succession, then performed another swing. This time, while Sandalphon could reach the ledge, Goldlewis fell short. Despite her best attempt to brace herself, he dragged her down immediately, and both fell a short way to some planks below. Goldlewis landed on his feet, relieved that Ballyhoo’s comments about fall damage held water, then caught Sandalphon in his arms. “You okay?” Her pupils looked like exclamation marks, but otherwise she seemed unruffled. She nodded, and he set her down, breathing a sigh of relief. “Well, that ain’t good,” he muttered, looking up. “Maybe if I did the swingin’ this time?”

Sandalphon thought it over as the two climbed back up. Even with her above-average size, the weight difference between her and Goldlewis was substantial, to say the least. The man was simply a behemoth. Normally she wouldn’t even consider supporting his weight, but if the strain couldn’t actually injure her, it was worth a try. “That’s our only option,” she decided, kneeling down in the middle of the platform. “I recommend jumping off the back to start your swing with momentum, instead of dropping like I did earlier.”

“Good call. Count me out.” On the count of three, Goldlewis jumped and swung. When his full weight hit her Sandalphon’s pupils turned into skulls, but as he arced forward she rose and jumped. Together they flew through the air, and once the veteran landed he pulled her up like a bucket from a well. “Nice goin’,” he told her, clapping a hand on her shoulder. “You good to move on?”

She nodded, and the two set off. By now Zenkichi and Primrose had left them behind, passing Bowser and Blazermate in the process, but it would still take some doing to catch up to those two. That left just Kamek and Rika down below. While not exactly happy with second to last, Sandalphon ignored the big picture in favor of each obstacle before her. When faced with the first overhang, she understood the intention at a glance–and that she would need to support Goldlewis yet again. He went first, allowing the archangel to swing up to the boards on the other side, and once she braced herself Goldlewis let go. Thankfully he possessed the sheer strength to haul himself up by climbing the rope, since it took everything Sandalphon had just to hold steady. Even then it wasn’t enough, as her own strength gave out before her partner could reach her. She tumbled off the planks, and the two plummeted through the ice-lined pit into a big pile of snow. Goldlewis just lay there for a moment, exhaling. “Dahh, hogwash.”

The snowdrift nearby, aglow beneath a conspicuous halo that floated over it, stirred before Sandalphon popped her head out. “My sincere apologies,” she murmured, her pupils shaped like stress marks. “I didn’t realize my weakness would be such a severe liability.”

Her contrition changed the veteran’s attitude instantly, and he sat up. “Nah, don’t sweat it none. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?” He narrowed his eyes. If he hadn’t left his coffin in the lobby, it might have come in handy, but right now he lacked both it and all the items that the UMA within could provide. For a brief moment he recalled his stunt with Roland in Port Meridian, but even if that would meaningfully increase his chances of winning it didn’t justify hitting a nice lady. “Up an’ at ‘em,” he declared, getting to his feet. “We’ll think of somethin’.”

Luckily it took only a few jumps and one swing to get back to the spot where they fell. “Once you’re up there, try stickin’ them gloves to the wall,” Goldlewis suggested. “If they can hold me, and you can’t get hurt, they oughta hold us both.” He turned out to be correct, and by trusting in the gloves rather than her own strength, Sandalphon held out long enough for Goldlewis to haul himself up. After adding that move to their playbook, the two pushed passed a second underhang, more jumps, and a team swing, only to reach a [url=https://i.imgur.com/Sdrznas.png]daunting obstacle[/url]. Looking down, Sandalphon could see that the penalty for a fall here would be rough, but not calamitous. Still, the two were already far behind, with only echoed voices from above indicating the presence of competitors.

The archangel steeled herself. “Let us begin.”

Unfortunately, the duo ended up falling twice, once when Sandalphon’s attempted slow-fall from the first overhang led to Goldlewis falling behind her, and once when he missed the jump to the second and dragged an unready archangel along with him. The two climbed and trudged back up from each fall, slower each time. “Nothin’ to it but to do it,” Goldlewis insisted. Even if this was all futile, his pride would not allow him to back down until he’d overcome this hurdle. Sandalphon, impressed by his determination, renewed her efforts. On the third attempt, the two finally made it, hauling themselves up to a little snowfield where a penguin sat by a campfire and spilled blood had frozen into a dastardly ice slick.

They took it slowly, but even then, Goldlewis slipped and fell on his butt right at the end. “Ahh, alright,” he half-laughed, half-gasped. He scooted off the ice to sit cross-legged by the fire. Sandalphon joined him without protest. “Mind if we join you?” he asked the penguin. It shook its head, and the two settled down for a break. Goldlewis chuckled. “We barely got anywhere.”

“Every victory is worth celebrating,” Sandalphon said softly.

Maybe they’d push on in a few minutes, or maybe the race would already be over by then. For now, they sat amidst gentle snowfall beneath lovely purple skies, in peaceful calm.