RS_Games 2016 Reveals Party!!!
A gust of freezing wind greeted the Mods as Sirius and Remus rushed through the door. November was always chilly, but somehow the outside air felt unconscionably cold in the warm foyer. From deeper inside the hall, past the thick double doors, came the sounds of a party already in progress.
“Sorry, we’re late, loves,” said Remus. He glanced toward his boyfriend before flashing the Mods an apologetic smile. “Padfoot lost track of time while doing his hair.”
“Obviously, it was worth it,” laughed Sirius, shaking out his wind-blown locks. “Seriously, though, that’s not why we’re late.”
Remus sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose between his finger and his thumb. “Really, Pads, there’s no need to --”
“He lost the map!” Sirius interrupted brightly. “Moony the Cartographer lost the map, so we got hopelessly confused and didn’t know where we were and --”
“I didn’t precisely lose it,” snapped Remus in mock-annoyance. “It blew away in the wind because you were already late and speeding. The chances you take with our lives on that blasted motorbike! Someday I’m quite sure we’ll --”
“... not be late to the party,” finished Sirius. He gave his lover a small peck on the cheek.
Remus looked mollified.
“Well then, welcome!” said brighty18, as Remus, Sirius, and the Mods exchanged hugs.
“You all look great,” Sirius said.
“Yes,” agreed Remus.
whitestar looked anxiously toward the doors. The volume of the party was only increasing. “We need to get moving,” she said firmly.
“Yes,” agreed pica_scribit with barely concealed glee. “We all want to find out who created what, don’t we?”
“And who won!” added whitestar.
“So, now that we’re all in the right place and the right time, are we all ready to go in?” asked cackling_madly.
“Almost,” Sirius answered. “I just need to check my hair again. Can’t take any chances, you know.”
Without asking, he reached into brighty18’s handbag and began rifling around.
“You seem the sort to carry a mirror,” he muttered when she gave him a quizzical look.
“YOU LOOK FINE!” chorused Remus and all four mods.
“Let’s go! We have statistics to get to!” cried pica_scribit.
cackling_madly pushed opened the door, and the six entered a candlelit ballroom, brimming with flowers, balloons, and streamers. An excited hush fell over the glittering crowd as they caught sight of the two guests of honor, followed by a burst of applause.
“Welcome!” shouted Sirius.
“Why are you welcoming them, when they were here before you?” Remus stage-whispered. “Do you not understand the workings of time and place?”
The audience laughed, but soon settled down, eager to get on with the announcements.
“This was an interesting year, to say the least,” began Remus. “We started with eighty-four participants from at least twenty countries and twenty-one US states.”
“Five Canadian provinces, too,” broke in Sirius with a smile at cackling_madly, who returned the grin broadly.
“But,” continued Remus with a cockily-raised eyebrow, “by Games’ end, we had thirty people on Team Place and nineteen on Team Time.”
The crowd muttered restlessly
“It’s okay. Dropouts happen,” brighty18 said kindly. “It’s nothing unusual.”
“And there were plenty of Pinch Hits,” added pica_scribit.
“So we got creative,” said whitestar.
“Very creative!” Sirius confirmed. “In fact, this year, for the first time in Games history, three wonderful, unselfish members of one Team -- Team Place -- donated four Pinch Hits to the other Team. They believed in the Games, and in fairness, so they worked selflessly for the greater good!”
“So let’s hear it for museinabsentia, adistantsun, and little_werewolf!” cried Remus, to thunderous applause.
“But who won?” called out a participant. “Who gets the Puppyshipper Gold?”
“Yeah, about that...” began Remus. “If there is one thing I love about the RS Games, it’s that, unlike a Slytherin v. Gryffindor Quidditch match, there is a great sense of fairness, friendship, and good-natured rivalry.”
“Hear, hear!” agreed Sirius.
Remus cleared his throat and continued, “So this year the Mods thought long and hard about fairness. They tallied the votes, and tallied them again. They looked at the kudos and comments and hits on AO3. They thought about the rules they’d explained at the outset of the Games, and the strange, uneven circumstances of the Teams. They discussed --”
“Sweet Merlin, did they actually do anything or just sit around mulling?” Sirius interrupted.
Remus rolled his eyes, clearly accustomed to such outbursts. “Yes. In fact, they did. After much consideration they decided on --”
“A TIE!” Sirius hollered.
The crowd gasped, then erupted in cheers.
“Wait, wait, let me explain,” cried Remus over the thunderous applause, raising his hands for quiet. “If they’d gone by the traditional points system as explained in the official rules, Team Place would have taken it with 542.277 points to Team Time’s 456.525. They worked hard. They kept it together. They had an extra week’s worth of stories and art. Hell, even without Pinch Hits, they had enough Team members to carry it off and even had enough spare Pinch Hits to donate some. Team Place was organized, dependable, and gracious. They all would have made excellent Prefects, I am sure.”
Cheers and applause for Team Place echoed around the ballroom.
“Buuuuuuut,” said Sirius, “those Remus-like rule-followers were not the only ones in the Games. Team Time worked their butts off - though I see many of you still have yours, and very nice ones, at that.” Sirius winked at the members who snickered and giggled. “Their works were very well-received by the readers and voters. In fact, if one averaged the scores, Team Time would have won with an average score of 18.261 to 18.076. That’s out of a possible 20 points, mind you. They also had more hits and kudos on AO3, though the hits-to-kudos ratio was very close: 14.16 for Team Place and 13.84 for Team Time. If it were merely about the voice of the people, Team Time would be our winners!”
The audience broke into applause and cheering once more.
“So Team Place takes it on points!” declared Remus.
“And Team Time takes it averaged scores!” added Sirius.
Hoots, hollers, and cheers echoed through the ballroom. Sirius and Remus waved their wands, and the candles lifted into the air. The ceiling vanished and a star-filled sky took its place. The Mods hugged each other for a job well-done, and accepted champagne from the house-elf walking around with a silver tray laden with flutes of bubbly.
“This reminds me of Christmas at Hogwarts,” said Remus, a wistful smile on his face.
“That it does love,” Sirius replied taking Remus’s hand and giving it a squeeze, oblivious to the Mods listening in to their conversation. He gave Remus a nudge.
“What?” asked Remus.
“Do you think anyone would miss us if we slipped out for a bit?” A smile danced around Sirius’s lips.
“Why?”
“Do you remember seeing that broom closet on our way in? I want to … check it out.” Sirius waggled his eyebrows.
Remus laughed. “Lead the way. I don’t think you’ll get lost looking for it.”
Sirius grinned. “Nope. My sense of direction is, as always, impeccable.”
“You got us lost on our way here!”
“I didn’t, you did!
The Mods watched the pair leave the ballroom, still bickering.
“May they never change,” said whitestar.
“Cheers to that,” said brighty18.
The Mods raised their glasses in a salute.
★ ★ ★
Yes, you are ALL winners. Each and every one of you! This year, you created some truly marvelous pieces of art and writing -- pieces that are still being read, reviewed, and talked about on AO3, and will probably continue to do so for a long time. This was a very different year, and we did our best to make sure things came out as fair as possible.
Congrats to Team Time! Congrats to Team Place! Team Time’s First Place awards can be found HERE, beginning on page 1. Team Place’s First Place awards can be found in the same place, beginning on page 2, HERE.
And we can’t forget about theSpecial Awards*!
The Tardis Award for Crossing Team Lines goes to:
abyss_valkyrie
adistantsun
edgewareroad
little_werewolf
museinabsentia (from both Team Time and Team Place!)
The GPS Award for Solid Support and Saving the Day goes to:
abyss_valkyrie
luminousgloom
mutuisanimis
nerak_rose
philiatran
pommedeplume
ruinsplume
And last, but definitely NOT least, we want to thank all the readers, commenters and voters who supported the Games this year, as well as those of you who have been supporting the Games for years! Without your support and encouragement the Games wouldn’t be possible. The Mods and participants deeply appreciate you being there for all of us!
The Eternity Award for the Non-Participant Who Really Participated goes to:
bookgrrrl2006
gi f
katy425444
lyra_nimloth
mommyconk
remuslives23
rissabby
slumpybearblynn
sub_etheric
*All the Special Awards can be found HERE.
From this point on, your works are yours to post anywhere and everywhere you wish. They will shortly be officially transferred to those of you who have AO3 accounts. You are welcome to change any headers, tags, text, or notes from that time forward, though we do hope that you will keep them in the RS Games 2016 AO3 collection. For those who do not have AO3 accounts, your name and a link will be provided in the notes for your work. If you have a preferred link, please let us know!
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, you can always email them to the Mods at rs_games1@yahoo.com, or message us on tumblr @rs-games.