Phantasmoon Games Winner's Traces: Arcadia Variations

Phantasmoon Games Winner's Traces: Arcadia Variations

It's that time of year again... the Phantasmoon Games! Eight Supplicants take turns performing miracles, using fun and spectacles to grab everyone's attention in Planarcadia all for a chance to meet the Aeon and gain the power of Elation for one minute. Truth be told, most people have zero "experience" being a god. Even an Aeon's power isn't a fix-all. Knowing how to use it is an art form unique to Aha. When people get that one minute of power, their imaginations usually run wild in the worst ways, turning Planarcadia upside down. This article focuses on the folks who weren't exactly geniuses and the chaos they unleashed. Since time in the World in Canvas doesn't match up with the real world, we'll be using the Arcadian Calendar to track these Traces. Sleep is Priceless Word has it that back in 2145 AE, when the winner of that year's Phantasmoon Games was announced, "The Carefree" was busy taking a nap. Aha actually went to her apartment and shook her awake themselves. "Wakey wakey! The sun's out, why are you still sleeping?" "LIAR! It's pitch black out!" Ever since then, day and night across the planet have been completely out of sync. As for the winner's house, it stayed stuck in eternal night. During the Canvas Age, the world got even more jumbled during the shift toward Duomension. This directly caused today's Planarcadia to have broad daylight at one end of a street and total darkness at the other. The Jelly Lover In 2147 AE, "Jelly Fever" swept through the ancient civilization of Benzaitengoku. People were convinced that eating jelly could make you healthier, live longer, and even help you become an Emanator of Elation. When those Phantasmoon Games wrapped up, a giant jelly planet appeared in Ahatopia's orbit. In just one minute, it shrank so fast that Ahatopia's gravity snatched it up, turning it into a "Jelly Island." Scholars think the winner used their one minute of Elation power to create that planet just for fun. Some say fragments of it are still floating around, waiting for anyone brave enough to take a bite. But honestly, you'd need the power of an Emanator just to finish the whole thing. Whatever In 1506 of the Arcadian Calendar, a winner named Erwin couldn't decide what to do with his power of Elation. He just said two words: "Whatever." During that minute, probability went out the window. One second you're walking on bricks, the next they're leaves. Honey, lilies, furbos, and dancing towels just started appearing in the dark. Telephone poles grew legs and ran off, and every door became a portal to a random spot in the World in Canvas that kept changing. When the minute was up, the World in Canvas was a total mess. Fortunately, because of how that world works, few really got hurt. Even so, everyone voted to make Erwin do a whole year of community service as a penalty. Ad Space for Rent In 2156 AE, the winner, "Digital Maven," decided to rent out their power of Elation. During that one minute, this is what happened in Planarcadia: • All four-leaf clovers turned into three-leaf ones. • All cockroaches now snore while they sleep. • Babies are now born with random hair colors. • A real estate developer's buildings all floated up into the sky, tripling the land value. However, since there were no stairs, the owners had to find their own way up to the sky. • Everyone became flexible enough to touch their toes (apparently, that wasn't a thing before). • Mosquitoes were wiped out — but only a specific subspecies in Ahatopia. Guess the winner should've brushed up on their biology. • A random Popuali person got exiled to another planet. • The "Chopstick Killer" was resurrected, said one last thing, and then went right back to being dead. Apparently, he had more items on his list, but one minute just wasn't long enough to get through it all. A Strange Rumor They say one winner actually tried to kill the Aeon of Elation. Aha just laughed and said, "The Aeon of Elation? But that's you!" And that was the last anyone ever saw of him. The God of Cakes At the dawn of 2157 AE, every cake in Planarcadia suddenly gained the ability to speak (the ones baked within a single system hour, as anything longer presumably "kills" them). They would boast about their ingredients and flavors, then flash a sugary grin while begging to be eaten, all while reciting pre-programmed sales pitches. The Department of Aberration Defense spent months on a cake-culling crusade, eventually using "cake genetics" to ensure no more "sponges" would start speaking. Interestingly, the winner of that year's Phantasmoon Games flatly denied being the "baker" behind it. Phantasmoon Games history is littered with such ridiculous tales, far too many to count. But whether you're a Supplicant or just an average bystander, we're all chasing the same thing: Elation... or maybe just a bit of happiness. At least, that's the idea.