[X] Visser Three is an important Yeerk commander and the only Andalite Controller. He's recently acquired a portal key to the extremely dangerous Quor'toth, and wants to go on safari to acquire powerful new morphs. Buffy's invited, along with anyone she wants to bring that she either thinks might survive or wouldn't mind dying very much. There might be some ancient treasures too; she and her people can have their pick if they find anything.
The OOC hilarity of bringing Rachel along on this trip is just too good to pass up
[x] Pan has announced that he's holding a brand new Olympic games, which will feature a lot of wild events much better than the old boring ones were. It'll be an occasion for an epic party, and the prizes for the winners will be simply divine! Buffy will be eligible for some of the events, while others might be more appropriate for other people in her employ.
[X] Visser Three is an important Yeerk commander and the only Andalite Controller. He's recently acquired a portal key to the extremely dangerous Quor'toth, and wants to go on safari to acquire powerful new morphs. Buffy's invited, along with anyone she wants to bring that she either thinks might survive or wouldn't mind dying very much. There might be some ancient treasures too; she and her people can have their pick if they find anything.
I really think people are sleeping on going to L.A. We could stand to make a lot of connections there (and as we saw before, having those political levers to pull on can actually be really handy), and while it helps out Wolfram & Hart, it does so by rescuing a bunch of people, many of whom are likely innocent, unlike helping Viser three gain more power so the Yeerks can subjugate more people. And I just don't really like Pan and his brand of chaoticness.
Plus, if we're on a mission to help rescue people, we're certain to run into Angel and his crew, which sounds like a blast.
I really think people are sleeping on going to L.A. We could stand to make a lot of connections there (and as we saw before, having those political levers to pull on can actually be really handy), and while it helps out Wolfram & Hart, it does so by rescuing a bunch of people, many of whom are likely innocent, unlike helping Viser three gain more power so the Yeerks can subjugate more people. And I just don't really like Pan and his brand of chaoticness.
Plus, if we're on a mission to help rescue people, we're certain to run into Angel and his crew, which sounds like a blast.
[x] Pan has announced that he's holding a brand new Olympic games, which will feature a lot of wild events much better than the old boring ones were. It'll be an occasion for an epic party, and the prizes for the winners will be simply divine! Buffy will be eligible for some of the events, while others might be more appropriate for other people in her employ.
On average? No, but there's probably a couple of them at least that don't deserve this. Most people don't know of them as anything more than an expensive law firm. And even if all of them were bad, only about half the victims were their clients; there's still other people to help.
Also, stating that wolfram and hart are our enemy is false. They were a minor nuisance to us before we made a deal with them and they now pay us a significant portion of the city's income. Please don't spread misinformation.
[X] Visser Three is an important Yeerk commander and the only Andalite Controller. He's recently acquired a portal key to the extremely dangerous Quor'toth, and wants to go on safari to acquire powerful new morphs. Buffy's invited, along with anyone she wants to bring that she either thinks might survive or wouldn't mind dying very much. There might be some ancient treasures too; she and her people can have their pick if they find anything.
Not too enthused about any of them, but fleshing out Animorphs is always fun.
I'd be fine with either of the others winning but this looks like it will be maximum FUN!
[x] Pan has announced that he's holding a brand new Olympic games, which will feature a lot of wild events much better than the old boring ones were. It'll be an occasion for an epic party, and the prizes for the winners will be simply divine! Buffy will be eligible for some of the events, while others might be more appropriate for other people in her employ.
On average? No, but there's probably a couple of them at least that don't deserve this. Most people don't know of them as anything more than an expensive law firm. And even if all of them were bad, only about half the victims were their clients; there's still other people to help.
Also, stating that wolfram and hart are our enemy is false. They were a minor nuisance to us before we made a deal with them and they now pay us a significant portion of the city's income. Please don't spread misinformation.
The local LA Branch is not a physical threat to us. They are a finacial and legal threat, our rampage was because they looked like they would help our rival for mayor win the race after all, and even just the collected physical forces of their puppets on this world are enough to beat us frankly. Let alone if they bring in their actual military like their demon legions or just throw a tantrum and drag all of SUnnydale into a Helldimension where they can act directly as a trio. WR&H have made a cost benefit analysis that fighting us is not worth the effort. Not that we actually stand a chance of beating them properly.
[X] There's been a series of troubling disappearances of important and powerful people in LA, and among them about half are Wolfram and Hart clients. Holland Manners would be happy to invite Buffy and her people into the city to solve the problem, and he's even willing to give them a sizable reward if they succeed.
Let alone if they bring in their actual military like their demon legions or just throw a tantrum and drag all of SUnnydale into a Helldimension where they can act directly as a trio. WR&H have made a cost benefit analysis that fighting us is not worth the effort. Not that we actually stand a chance of beating them properly.
So? I never said anything about that. I pointed out that they haven't opposed us significantly before or at all since we set up our deal. Ergo, they are not our enemy. The fact that they could beat us doesn't have anything to do with that; at most, it implies we should try and strengthen ties to them to keep relations going smoothly between our groups for both our benefits.
[X] Visser Three is an important Yeerk commander and the only Andalite Controller. He's recently acquired a portal key to the extremely dangerous Quor'toth, and wants to go on safari to acquire powerful new morphs. Buffy's invited, along with anyone she wants to bring that she either thinks might survive or wouldn't mind dying very much. There might be some ancient treasures too; she and her people can have their pick if they find anything.
There will be no sudden death. This is because the vote is decided, and may the Old Ones create mercy only to forsake it from our souls.
Adhoc vote count started by DeAnno on Jan 30, 2022 at 9:45 PM, finished with 23 posts and 17 votes.
[X] Visser Three is an important Yeerk commander and the only Andalite Controller. He's recently acquired a portal key to the extremely dangerous Quor'toth, and wants to go on safari to acquire powerful new morphs. Buffy's invited, along with anyone she wants to bring that she either thinks might survive or wouldn't mind dying very much. There might be some ancient treasures too; she and her people can have their pick if they find anything.
[x] Pan has announced that he's holding a brand new Olympic games, which will feature a lot of wild events much better than the old boring ones were. It'll be an occasion for an epic party, and the prizes for the winners will be simply divine! Buffy will be eligible for some of the events, while others might be more appropriate for other people in her employ.
[X] There's been a series of troubling disappearances of important and powerful people in LA, and among them about half are Wolfram and Hart clients. Holland Manners would be happy to invite Buffy and her people into the city to solve the problem, and he's even willing to give them a sizable reward if they succeed.
Pan's olympic games and Yeerk's mystery adventure are combined into an unholy union, ain't they?
Praised be DeAnno!
What could possibly go wrong?
I'm brimming with anticipation. Best of both worlds here we come!
"Our ranged weapons for middle schoolers program has been a mixed bag so far. On the one hand, there were no complications with busing and morale among the test subjects was high. Sadly the smaller children have very weak muscles and were bad at throwing things, but there could be more success this week with archery! We're going to try to mix in some crossbows." Anya finished her delivery with major pep. She always loved the city council meetings.
"Is that safe?" Larry Truman worried. "Track and field's one thing, but crossbows sound like a lawsuit waiting to happen to me."
Anthony Gervais snorted, "Back in my day we went hunting coyote all the time, out in the desert. Every boy had a rifle! Still got mine."
"We have firearms scheduled for next week," Anya said. "Then we want to split them into groups, depending on what they're least bad at."
"It's not the '40s anymore, Tony," Larry said, then looked at Anya. "Or the 1400s."
"You don't have to worry about the legal stuff," she explained. "We got their parents to sign waivers, cunningly worked into the permission slips."
"Tort law can be complicated," he replied. "A waiver's not worth the paper it's printed on if the offender's wreckless about the wrong thing."
"But that's a judgment call, right?" Anya said. "We have the judges. Problem solved."
"I suppose that's true," he conceded. "But irrespective of that, I'm not sure how I'd feel if someone got hurt."
"Can we get additional supervision, especially for the guns?" Buffy said. "SDCW or police."
"That could work," Anya said. "The day shift's usually pretty calm. I'll twist Xander's arm a little."
"We'll continue with it then, at least for now." Buffy decided.
She'd had time to think about the idea since she'd run into the practice while finding Amanda last week. There was a time not too long ago when she thought that it'd be better if everyone normal was kept far out of that sort of thing, but things had changed on Graduation day, and they didn't show encouraging signs of changing back. Overall, it was better if the kids could defend themselves, at least a little bit.
"Next on the agenda is the movie industry, you had something Juan?" Anya said, looking at him expectantly. She'd taken over organizing these meetings after Vanessa had gotten vamped and fled the city.
He'd been quiet and reserved during the previous topic, but now he was bursting with excitement, "I am glad to announce that I have seduced Courtney Solomon to Sunnydale. We will have Dungeons and Dragons!"
"Hopefully without actual dragons?" Buffy half-said, half-asked.
"No, no, I would never be so bold," he said quickly. "Or even know how in the first place. But I did show him Lights in the Sky, and intimated that Mr. Levinson would be available to work should he bring filming here. Post production is not quite complete of course, but the effects are obviously very impressive. The otherworldly feel, practical effects the actors can see, the lure of an artisanal process, all were things he coveted."
"So he knows about the voodoo and the whim-wham?" Carl Gervais quipped. As usual, Anthony's nephew was sitting in on the meeting.
Cortez moved his hands and waved his fingers in a conciliatory gesture. "I may have been less than completely explicit about that. But I have no doubts that he will 'roll with it', as you say. The conditions for filming here are simply too advantageous to pass up."
"As long as we can get him to sign first," Larry said in a joking tone. "Do you want me to spruce up what we were working on earlier for this?"
"Yes, that would be wonderful," Cortez confirmed.
"What sort of money are we looking at here?" Anya asked. "Andrew's always talking about this Dungeons and Dragons thing, is it big?"
"It's big budget, absolutely," Cortez said. "Tens of millions. But more than that, it'll be another feather in our caps if it is a success."
"I'll settle for not getting another dragon in my cap," Buffy said. "Need anything else for this?"
"I have the first pass of likely sets, as well as some descriptions he might be looking for in casting." Cortez passed a couple stapled packets across the desk.
Anya took the casting packet and started looking through it, "A lot of these seem like they're based on real demons. I'll see what I can do."
"They'd all be safe, yes?" Cortez asked.
"There's safe and there's safe," Anya shrugged. "And then there's also really not safe. But we can work on it, I have some ideas already."
"I'll run these locations by Giles," Buffy said. He'd been doing a lot of that lately. "That reminds me, Carl, he said all those properties you gave me are clear, as far as he knows."
"I'll be damned. I guess this spike is for real then," he said, then he turned to his uncle. "We should probably start buying ourselves."
"Don't count your chickens before you broil the eggs," Anthony replied.
Property values had been rising in Sunnydale all summer, but there had been a big buying spree in the past couple weeks. A lot of previously derelict places were being bought up, but most of them weren't being moved into yet. Real estate speculation wasn't something that'd ever happened in Sunnydale before, so they'd looked into the locations to make sure there wasn't some shadowy evil ritual happening instead.
"I'm still a little worried about it, so be honest," Larry said. "I'm no developer, but I've been looking into it too. Those are Oxnard prices, aren't they?"
"Even higher in some cases, if you consider the condition of the properties," Carl confirmed.
"I love our town as much as anyone, but, well…" Larry trailed off.
"Just because it's not for something specific doesn't mean the action isn't supernaturally motivated," Anya said. "People in the community know Buffy's starting to mix things up economically, she's active in a way Wilkins wasn't. It means trouble, but it could also mean opportunities. MRD, the Rat Nobles, our 'special effects,'" she gestured at Cortez, "They're all reasons to be here, if you're brave enough."
"But do random billionaires know about all this?" Buffy asked. "CyberWillow, who did you trace those upscale residential buys to again?"
"A David Nabbit, 27, current residence Los Angeles," CyberWillow responded. "A software engineering tycoon, net worth approximately 2.3 billion dollars. No records of prior supernatural involvement."
"Perhaps he's just following the wave," Cortez said. "Or he could've heard some positive rumors. People whisper about Sunnydale in Los Angeles, even those not in the know."
"It seems an opportune time to mention that the new buyers may not be informed about the tax credit," CyberWillow continued.
One of the more recent ideas they'd had was incentivizing people to buy security cameras with a credit against their property tax. The high crime rate already made them more common in Sunnydale, and they'd been scattering webcams in key areas too, but CyberWillow could always use more eyes.
"Sure eager about that, aren't ya?" Anthony said, flipping his radio onto the desk and looking at it suspiciously, as if he could stare the AI down.
"I simply want to improve efficiency," she said. "And besides, it's only fair to give all our residents and investors the same opportunity."
The spat was broken up by the door to the conference room softly opening to reveal Cynthia with a drinks tray. "Refreshments?"
Buffy had seen (slightly) less of Cynthia in the past week than usual, and she was a little embarrassed not to have seen that coming. First, she got told that Wilkins was sort-of-not-quite-dead. Then, barely a week later, whoops, he's totally-all-the-way-deader-than-dead again. The scoobies had known him as a dangerous adversary, but to Cynthia, he was her old boss.
And it wasn't hard to guess that she had a way of getting attached to her job. And her boss. It was probably that personality quirk that got her hired in the first place.
Not that Buffy was freaking about Cynthia's current loyalties. Even if there had been anything to worry about, there definitely wasn't anymore. And her record over the past few months had been super-spotless. But at the same time it was really obvious she might want at least the normal usual amount of personal time to sort out her feelings. Like, the time you get working a 40 hour week instead of however much it was Cynthia usually worked.
She was still meaning to talk to her about it sometime, but it would be majorly awkward.
"And your hot cocoa, Ms. Summers," Cynthia interrupted her guilty musings with a tasty treat, and Buffy took a greedy sip.
"I love how you do it with the milk!" she said.
"Of course," she said smoothly. "And for Mr. Gervais, coffee with extra cream and sugar, I bel-
"You guys will never believe what happened!" Andrew entered, slamming both doors open in his excitement as he gestured wildly. Larry startled at the commotion, spilling some of his own coffee before realizing they weren't under attack.
"It better not be about Star Wars this time," Anya muttered.
Andrew ignored the jibe and went on, "The Olympics are happening! And it's gonna be huge!"
"Aren't those in Sydney?" Buffy asked. "And also a year from now?"
"Those are just the Earth Olympics, they barely even count," Andrew said. "Pan declared he's hosting his Olympics in seven days!"
"That's not that big a deal," Anya said dismissively. "He does that like once a decade. It's mostly just an excuse for people to show up and party. And we've all already seen the lows of Pan partying. Everyone cheats at all the events, and then they all cheat on their girlfriends too. The only redeeming quality to be had is all the vengeance that happens after."
"Not this time!" Andrew said. "This one's the real deal. He's offering a bunch of big prizes, and he even said if anyone does any dimension invading when it's happening, he would help wreak vengeance upon the perpetrators!"
"Well, that's uncharacteristically responsible of him," Anya said. "But still-"
Andrew didn't even let her get her next argument out, "And then D'Hoffryn backed it up!"
"What? No way!"
"Yes way!"
The rest of the city council was pretty bamboozled by this development, but Buffy was sure she remembered something from one of too many briefings on interdimensional politics she'd had to endure. "Isn't he like the head vengeance demon guy?"
"He's the most powerful being in the Alpha Quadrant!" Andrew said. "But he never throws his weight around like this."
"Especially for a degenerate like Pan," Anya grumped. Buffy guessed she was still annoyed about the thing with her and Xander and the Pan dancing over the summer, and that was very fair. "What are these prizes anyway? There has to be some reason D'Hoffryn is doing this."
"I don't know yet, I just heard this like fourthand or something, but it's probably spreading like wildfire," Andrew said. "I'm gonna do some more summoning now, come down if you want to find out."
Anya followed him without a word, leaving Buffy to the rest of the confused City Council.
As Andrew prepared the next summon, he mentioned that normally he would fish around for more rumors first; it was only polite, as Pan's actual people were likely to be extremely busy right now. But Buffy being here personally changed that, because apparently she was Important with the capital 'I'. She still wasn't totally used to that, but at least it felt more natural from a demony politics angle than a normal American one.
"I have the equivalent of their phone number from before, so this is going to be real simple," Andrew said. "Just repeat it after me so they know it's you asking." Then he started:
"From the most magnificent menagerie a prophet I call, to carry the delightful dream den of the revel to all!"
She'd been ready so she was pretty sure she managed to repeat it word for word. Then Andrew said the next line:
"To the king of the satyrs, eloping-
He was interrupted by a sharp peal of stringed music, and a rather big satyr appeared in the circle, flower petals showering down around him. He was almost seven feet tall, but somehow still looked spritely.
"I bid you most sincere greetings from my lord Pan, and my personal delight to be in so august a presence," he announced.
It was a far cry from the snootiness she'd gotten from the satyr leader a few months ago, but this definitely wasn't the same guy, so maybe it had just been him. She thought she recognized this one as one of his minions from that confrontation, but she hadn't seen a lot of satyrs either so it was hard to be sure.
"So what's the story with these Olympics?" Anya asked aggressively, spending no time on niceties. "D'Hoffryn never cared about them before, why should he now?"
The satyr's expression faded just a bit, but he otherwise kept his composure. "Pan's newest Olympics are to be tests not only of strength and skill, but also splendor and wit, wisdom and artistry. They shall be the pinnacle of competition and showmanship! While his lofty standards exceeded them in past ages, only a fool could fail to recognize their potential in this edition."
"Because I'm sure that this time Pan actually had a bunch of good ideas, as opposed to all the other times," Anya said sarcastically.
Buffy sensed it was time to smooth things over. "Maybe it has something to do with this mysterious prize we've been hearing about?"
The satyr's eyes lit up again now that he'd been given a hook. "The Lady doesn't miss a trick. In the past, participation has been mediocre at best, so in his wisdom Pan now appeals to the baser natures of those far and wide. He has collected many trinkets and trifles over his many more days, and much of them shall be on offer to the winners."
"There were prizes even before though," Andrew said. "C'mon, you don't need to hold out on us. I know there's something huge."
The big satyr gave a small smile. "The truest prize on offer, to be assigned the court that wins most contests overall, is in a sense, many prizes all in one."
"Like a grab bag?" Anya asked.
"Or a transformer?" Andrew wondered.
"Maybe it's a gift card?" Buffy tried.
"Nay, nay, and nay," he laughed in a weirdly high tinkly way. "The prize is a key. Can you guess to where?"
"A new house?"
"Wait, is it a key to a transformer?
"I feel like this is a riddle," Buffy said.
"The Lady proves her cleverness again!" the satyr said happily, then started riddling again. "Some keys open the way into places, and some keys make things go. This is a little of both, but not quite either."
"This might be even more annoying than the kissing thing."
"It couldn't be a transformer cyber key could it?"
Buffy felt more confused than she did when she started, and was pretty sure the satyr was pandering to her. She was a person that got pandered to now. It paradoxically made her more determined to decode whatever he was hinting at for real, instead of just being given the answer with a pat on the head.
She started speculating, "Maybe it's a key that gets you out of somewhere? Like a prison? But if it's supposed to make things go, it has to be more, like, automatic or flashy. Like it does something."
"So close, and yet… " the satyr sounded impressed, but who knew if that was just acting.
"Based on available indices of magical items, my understanding of Achaean cultural trends, knowledge of important features of the Alpha Quadrant, and your microexpressions during this interaction, I posit a 97.9% chance that the grand prize is a portal key which allows not only generalized entrance to, but more importantly exit from, the Quor'toth," CyberWillow stated out of nowhere.
The satyr was momentarily shocked into silence before looking around to find the source of the voice. "I must admit you are correct."
"That's CyberWillow for you," Buffy said, feeling slightly disappointed. Not that she was going to get it, but still. "And this key thing is so important why?"
"The Quor'toth is the darkest of dark worlds," Andrew intoned. "Difficult enough to enter, and almost impossible to escape. At least normally."
"It's full of ridiculously dangerous demons," Anya said. "And political prisoners, sort of. But they mostly die pretty fast."
"And the lost treasures of a forgotten age!" Andrew said.
"And probably lots of treasure," Anya admitted. "I'll admit it's a really good prize. Some factions will want to rescue people inside, and wouldn't trust anyone else to do it. Some factions will want to not rescue people inside, and wouldn't trust anyone else to keep them locked up. And everyone else will be in it for the loot. Whoever wins, there's definitely going to be grudges after."
Looting a whole dimension full of ancient treasure did sound pretty tempting to Buffy, especially if all that was guarding it was some speculatively dangerous demons. The budget never seemed to do anything but grow. Winning could be hard against other dimensions with billions of demons, but if she could just win a ton of events herself maybe it'd be possible?
"What are the rules of this exactly?" she asked. "Can anyone just show up and join?"
The satyr made a wishy-washy motion with his hands. "A team must consist of no more than seven bodies and no more than fourteen minds. All powers of note are afforded one at liberty, but to take more than one serving at the table a fee must be paid." He noticed Buffy's slightly puzzled expression and regrouped. "Your domain of course is among the powers of note."
"What about the other countries?" she asked. "Earth countries, I mean. Like Russia, and China, and the Ukraine? Are you going to send invitations to them?"
The satyr snorted. "Afforded to powers of note, not petty municipalities. Supposing they found their way, they could pay it, but 'tis likely their gold would be thrown away."
"The Initiative's not a common kind of thing, at least not one that I know about," Anya said. "Most world governments don't really do that at all on an official level, they won't be informed, and everyone would laugh at them if they showed up with seven normal humans and thought they could win more than a couple medals."
"Aye. Though the human physique has certain upsides," and at this there was a saliticious ogle at Anya, who rolled her eyes in response, "Many events are quite demanding."
Buffy was tempted to snap at him not to be gross, but satyrs were gonna satyr. And she still needed to figure out how hard she could cheat everything. "How many events are there? Do they all happen at once?"
"Aha! I see your intent," he chuckled. "Greater beings such as yourself are tightly limited in their actions, to preserve variety. Surely, you shant be denied a chance to flaunt, but the same few winners for each event would be a bore, no?"
"So there are what, like, weight classes?" Buffy continued. Even if she was banned from a bunch of events, there was still Rachel.
"A couple for the high, and a couple for the low. Most for the middle," he said.
"But what counts as high and low?" she replied.
"'Tis for the judges to decide," he said. "But it be a loose condition."
"Greater being isn't a term used lightly," Andrew said. "Middling and up gods, plus really powerful mantles like the Mok'tagar Great Ones."
"Nobody would've been putting you in that category a year ago," Anya added.
"Be wary of getting caught up in the physical," the satyr cautioned. "Variety is the spice of victory."
"What are the exact physical constraints of the playing area?" CyberWillow asked. "In terms of available magicks, effects, and so on?"
"Oh!" The satyr's eyes lit up in recognition, though he still wasn't sure where to look for her. "I must enquire, but fair soothsayer, are you by chance the miss who played the music three moons hence?"
Her voice was echoing from all their radios at once, so his confusion was pretty understandable, "Technically, yes, though it is likely from context that you are instead referring to my programmer. I am a general artificial intelligence running on a framework of electromagnetic circuitry."
The satyr blinked slowly.
"Her mind lives in a bunch of big blinking boxes that go brrr," Buffy summarized.
"But yet, I may still be able to compete," she said. "I have access to a body that works by similar principles, and it would be in my power to maintain control even over a dimensional divide."
"I see," he still seemed confused now, but also impressed. "While the typical state of the Revel is one of purity, Pan takes exception for this special occasion. By his leave almost any energy or power shall have dominion at the Games."
"How generous," Buffy said. She knew both CyberWillow and Willow could control the Willowbot. Did the two minds thing mean they could both count as one person? It'd be a big advantage if so.
"How many events are there going to be this time?" Andrew asked excitedly. "Usually there are 77, but if this is a special edition…"
"Aye, there will be twice that at least," the satyr agreed enthusiastically. "The list still grows at the behest of the judges."
"And just who are these judges? How do we know they're so great" Anya asked.
"Why the most Potent Pan, of course, is the first. The second, his most Esthetic Echo. And the third, you will surely be quite enamored with, Anyanka: it is the Devious D'Hoffryn himself, Lord of Arashmahaar."
Vote: Pan's Olympics are in a week, and Sunnydale needs to settle on a team of seven participants. You don't have to worry too much about home defense, first because even though it's supposed to last a while, there will theoretically be transportation and communication available back and forth from Pan's dimension to Sunnydale during. And second because of the interdict against interdimensional invasion, which would certainly apply to Adam at this point.
You don't have a full list of the events, but there will be a lot, and they will mostly be strange and have twists. A few of them will be all-comers, and a few of them will be only for the particularly unpowerful (basically, normal humans and similar), so most teams will include one of each if they can, and fill the other team slots out without regard for those events. For your consideration, here are thirty already named events, but remember, there will be many more.
Deeper Magic
Improvised Theater
Improvised Improvised Theater Judging
Drunken Seduction
Dance Battle
Dance Fighting
Trivia Archery
The Grand Hexathlon
Outrageous Props
Goat Entrail Reading
Egg Throwing
Bog Snorkeling
Cheese Rolling
Extreme Laundry
Prisoner's Stripping
Marathon Gossip
Shallower Magic
Puns and Knives
The Panda Hunt
Judge Discombobulation
Debate and Torture
Couples' Coupling
Underwater Basket Weaving
Antique Abuse
Strategic Musical Direction
Drugged Theater
Uppers and Downers
Surrogate Combat
Lucid Dreaming
Duels of Insult
Voting for the team (as well as any other special considerations you might come up with) will be by plan. I've listed some likely suspects below, but you can try to write-in other people that you think you could get to show up. Remember though, interdimensional allies will mostly be on their own teams instead.
Buffy Summers: She'll be banned from most events due to her power, but in the events she can compete in she expects to be a physical ringer. It'd be pretty crazy not to include her, especially because you don't have anyone else that even counts as a "Greater Being."
The Willowbot: Due to the interesting phrasing in the rules, the Willowbot counts as one contestant, and CyberWillow and Willow will be able to alternately control it from back in Sunnydale. This is likely to be another huge advantage for your team, especially since the both of them will be able to be guarding Sunnydale at the same time.
Anya Jenkins: She's a normal human at the moment, but she's gotten good at quite a large variety of stuff over her thousand plus years. Besides, with D'Hoffryn judging, her personal knowledge and political connections will probably be a huge deal.
Andrew Wells: He's really excited for the Olympics, and he's got his share of political connections too. The seven-body rule prohibits him from summoning hordes of demons for most events, but there will be a couple with special themes and affordances for that sort of thing.
Rachel Berenson: She's only been a slayer for a week, but she's still way stronger than most demons, and she has experience at amateur gymnastics besides. She should be ideal for anything that's mostly physical.
Harmony Kendall: Vampires are looked down on by most other demons, but Harmony's already stronger than the average minion, and her undead traits might give her advantages in some events. It's a rare chance for her to get safe sun too, so she'd be really excited to go.
Jonathan Levinson: Though he's physically kind of pathetic, his powerful illusion magic might be unrivaled in the Alpha Quadrant, at least among anyone that isn't a 'Greater Being.' His stealth abilities could be useful, but it's more likely that he'll come in handy for his experience with special effects.
Cynthia Danvers: Though only human (as far as Buffy knows), Cynthia's very physically fit, and in her specific areas of specialty she could give anyone a run for their money. Getting out of the city and doing something different might be good for her as well.
Cordelia Chase: Scarred Truths (her new movie) will wrap filming just in time, if you want to bring her along. With years of cheerleading experience, she's especially athletic for a human, but what you really might want her for is her acting experience, considering Pan's portfolio.
Skip: The friendly armored mercenary demon could probably be persuaded to join your team. He'd need to be given a share of the prizes, but he'd be a pretty useful player: not only is he able to outfight even Rachel, at least for now, but he's got lots of political connections and experience too.
Walgo: Who's this? Buffy's vulture demon landlord found out about this somehow, and volunteered himself for your team! Why would you want him? Well, aside from being a pretty clever guy in general, he can fly.
Write-Ins: Someone from Los Angeles that you think would be interested? An old rival that stumbles back onto the scene? A crossover character that isn't even from this fandom? You can try whatever you want, but be careful what you wish for.
[] Drusilla's Plan
-[] Buffy Summers
-[] Harmony Kendall
-[] Drusilla the Mad
-[] William the Bloody
-[] Vanessa Waters
-[] Miss Edith
-[] and Angel, she supposes (who she is still very cross with)
Warning: This is Successor's tourney arc. It may be both terrible and great.
I think Anya would be a good candidate for all of these.
[X] Just a dash of Dru
-[X] Buffy Summers
-[X] Harmony Kendall
-[X] Anya Jenkins
-[X] Willowbot
-[X] Rachel Berenson
-[X] Cordelia Chase
-[X] William the Bloody
There are a lot of acting-related challenges, which makes Cordelia an interesting option, there's magic for the Willows to do and there are physical challenges that Rachel could do quite well in, if they are not for Buffy's weight-class.
Harm would be great at both marathon and gossip, no matter if that's actually both or just one of them.
And honestly, I just kinda want Spike here because it would be funny and he'd be good at a lot of it and he might do it for fun and prices. Though I'm kinda lost what happened to him in this Season 4, if he got chipped or tried for the Gem of Amara, since I've read a bit of Buffy fanfiction recently and can't keep it straight with this and canonical events.
He got the gem and fought Faith with it while Buffy was stuck in mokland. Faith broke the gem and left us with the pieces of it, and Spike got away with our office manager that he turned into a vampire.
I like almost all of your team lineup, but I do think I'd dump Spike for Jonathon. He is good at other magic and really helps double down on the performance side of things. Cordelia does the acting, Jonathon handles special effects, and Cyberwillow deals with the sound effects. Meanwhile Buffy and Rachel deal with pretty much anything physical and Anya takes assorted stuff she became good at over her centuries of life.
Harmony is admittedly there mainly to add her presence to scenes.
EDIT: Tossing in a vote for I want to win just as safety against Drusilla.
[x] I Want to Win
-[X] Buffy Summers
-[X] Harmony Kendall
-[X] Anya Jenkins
-[X] Willowbot
-[X] Andrew Wells
-[X] Skip
-[X] Jonathon Levinson
Ok so I think Skip is a better actor than Cordelia. Also he is a better combat than Rachel. Andrew while not the best combat has a lot of connections and is described as being a good fit for certain events. Johnathnon is one of the best illusionist in the Alpha Quardrant. Anya because she knows her boss and several demons. Harmony is coming just for the gossip marathon. Buffy because she will win any event she can participate in.
