New Year's Challenge 2008

[robkelk]

Bill Martin has posted the New Year's Challenges for this year. (Edit: here's the thread.)
I'm copying them here in case anyone else wants to play (as an omake entry, since the challenges are now revealed), and so I have them for easy reference. My story will be posted later in this thread, once it's written...
First, re-introducing my three-character "Team Lovely But Dangerous":
* Yomiko Readman, R.O.D. the TV (one month after end of series)
* Chisame Hasegawa, Negima manga (current continuity - chapter 198)
* Sakura Kinomoto, Card Captor Sakura (one month after end of second movie)

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Easy Challenge - This year, the planners behind last year's New Year Con have beefed up security, but at the expense of the entertainment budget. The troupe they planned to bring in for the debut of the LAAM (the Live-Action Anime Musical) was more than they could afford, and since it's been hyped that it will be the first LAAM at NYC, you and your teammates have been requested to fill in. You may choose to do any anime that isn't already a musical (which is the majority of them).

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And here I thought "current manga Chiu-chan" was going to be a liability, not an asset...

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Medium Challenge - You have recieved a summons to a group meeting of all the challenge entrants. The meeting shall take place in Colorado, and will consist of a whitewater rafting trip. You can choose to summon your team beforehand for the travel there, or you can wait and summon your team once there. Due to the quantum mechanics of the summon device, your success or failure will not affect or be affected by other challenge entrants failures or successes. As you and your team journey down the river, you hear an explosion, and once you and your team reach where the rocks have blocked the river, you'll journey over a waterfall where...
You and your three teammates, on a routine New Year's Challenge, get caught by the greatest time window ever known. Hastened by the rapids, it'll transport you over a thousand feet below, to the Land of the Lost (lost, lost lost), to the Land of the Lost (lost, lost lost).
You'll be living in the Rick, Will, and Holly Marshall era of the Land of the Lost in terms of foes, terrain, and puzzles to solve, but with the modern understanding of dinosaurs (a la Jurassic Park). You'll enter just after the moons have aligned, so unless you've got great puzzle solvers on your team, you're going to have to wait it out 3 years for the time-travel pylon to get you out of there. You will not be in the Land of the Lost with the Marshalls, the Porters, or any other challenge entrant.

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I'm not a big Sid and Marty Krofft fan, but I know a bit about this series... I don't expect to "win" this one.

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Hard Challenge - On New Year's Day, a meteor crashed to earth. This is not out of the ordinary, however what was on it is. Some interstellar spores came down with it, and these spores are highly contagious. Infected sentient lifeforms first show a glowing red hue over their entire body as a sign of infection. Next, comes an overwhelming urge to attack and maim others, but not kill them, and shows no sign of preference for the victim to be infected or uninfected. Upon uninfected individuals coming into contact with an infected individual, infection is almost instantaneous. Infected individuals retain their speech and reasoning capabilities, and have shown abilities to wait for the right time to rush a barricade. The spores themselves are extremely resistant to heat, radiation, and pressure as they've survived a star going supernova to send the meteor our direction. Alloys similar to electrum can contain the spores and shield individuals. You and your team will find out about the crash, and the crazy happenings within 12-24 hours of the event, and it will be up to you to deal with it. Partial wins to those who can contain contamination so that a cure may eventually be found. Full wins will go to those who can, after containment is done, can figure out a way to cure the infected souls.

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Again, I don't expect to pull this one off. Containment is a snap; curing the victims isn't.
My current plan is to tackle these in the order Easy-Hard-Medium, since it looks like that's the easiest way to keep a continuity going...
-Rob Kelk
"Actually, my goal is to write neat stories. The money just makes it possible for me to write them faster and then buy neat toys."
Ryk E. Spoor, 7 November 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012