Goonstation Monthly Contest: September Edition!

[Flourish]

It's almost mid-September, and that means another edition of the Goonstation Monthly Contest! Apologies for the delay... I swear the contest won't continue to show up later and later 

Hopefully your September has been nice and not too cold or hectic (with classes starting for many, I presume). This month we're gonna do something a little different; we're gonna do a fun and cool team building activity! Literally! 

For this month's contest, you're going to need to find a team of 1-4 other people (so, five people max). Then, you're going to need to assemble ingame (discuss your plans before the round starts, or do through ingame means, obviously) and host some sort of party or excursion or really, any sort of cool or neat event or thing. Then, you're going to take a screenshot, and submit that! This idea originates from Wonk, who hosted many tea parties some time ago. 



In other words, this month's theme is a tea party that may or may not involve tea or even a party. Or it can just be fun with friends. Whichever sounds better to you. 

It's fine if your submission is spontaneous or painstakingly planned out and orchestrated, it's fine if you're best buds with your team members or merely acquaintances. The only hard guidelines are that:

• it's an image of something happening ingame (of course)
  
• it's recent (taken after this contest post)
  
• it contains all members (five max, two min) of your team (they can be human or a critter or a ghost or whatever, we just have to see them), and you make sure to list them in your submission
  
• if it contains other players who aren't part of your team, you have their permission to post it
  
• one player cannot be in multiple teams
  
• one submission per team
  

As always, there will be a top three for this contest. However, the prizes are slightly different. The top three will all have their images temporarily placed in posters ingame, but only the winning team will receive beautiful Gannets stickers (one sticker per team member). And as usual, everyone will receive their respective medals.

If you have any questions or need any clarification, let me know! And if you'd like to provide suggestions or feedback for this or future contests, please feel free to reach out! Next month we're definitely gonna do something spooky/Halloween related, but the specifics haven't been decided yet. 

Thank you for your patience and for being part of the Goonstation community! Hopefully you'll enjoy this month's contest and have a lot of fun planning it out with your space pals!

---

Question: When does this contest close?
Answer: September 25th, end of day.

Question: What if I'm shy and I don't know who to team up with?
Answer: Try approaching someone ingame and asking them if they'd like to be a team with you! Since the submission is just a screenshot, all you need is their ingame commitment for a round. There's a sticker in for them, so I'm sure most players would be happy to participate (just make sure to get their ingame name and ckey)! However, if you're planning something more elaborate, maybe approaching some super cool but also random person isn't the best way. You can also ask around on Discord, or you can ask me and I can try to team you up with some people.

[Azungar]

Hi, I'm Azungar. You can remember me from such amazing feats such as: 101 ways to roast the community, how to hate on the community and how to show that you don't care about the community and I wish to let all of you know, that the community (and as such, this competition) smells. Thanks, that's all!

[Tewf]

Whoops, Didn't see it has to be made after this contest started, will resubmit a new one!

[Gerhazo]

The tragic story of the first and the last tea party of Manta's release round.
How a simple gathering turns into a painstaking journey of ups and downs.
And as soon as everything was put into place and the destined meeting has been ready, the feast would turn into nothing.


The frog ambassador would arrive on the station, stuttering in their voice and trying to gather the Manta's crewmembers to join one grand tea party to commemorate the event.
He'd be met with difficulties, not just from all the accents he's been afflicted with.
A hyperactive clown drinking too much coffee and being difficult to make contact with, another crewmember willing to join the party being found dragged dead to medbay minutes later.
Crewmembers would agree to join the party and yet mysteriously disappear all the time.
At one point just before it was to begin the party got engulfed in flames, the damage of which was minimized thanks to one of the participating doctors.

And despite the hardships, the partygoers persisted and through their endurance, finally the stars seemed to have aligned and given them luck.

A table outfitted with glass vases, mugs, glasses, bottles of tea and other drinks as well as the obligatory very suspicious looking cakes from the bartender's table waited for the feast to begin.

It was a very diverse group, consisting of a greek attire-wearing frog, a bug and a horse dressed as barbers, one sharp-looking gentleman and a beautiful princess.

And as soon as the mugs are picked up, the men prepare to celebrate, a shoutout to future great times on Manta is made and as Julian makes his well-mannered response of "And you, old chap"...
Everything stops.
Not a sip or bite is made.
The charred floor from the former flames of sabotage stares into them with an evil grimace.

The server has died.

This is the story of the tea party that though has suffered and yet successfully persisted through several disasters and lost men still never came to be.

The participants:
Casey Spark(Gerhazo)
Julian Stough-Jackson(Avak32)
Mouse Fitzgerald(Cthucky)
Sov Exant(Sovexe)
Nolan North(The Gorog)
(due to the event crashing and the fact that people were coming and going all the time I really hope I didn't mess up this list but I'm fairly confident this is the final group)

This turned out much, much harder to organise than expected(though it wasn't helped by me playing an ambassador without a PDA and mutation accents, a shoutout for supplying the mutadone for to Clifford Stills). Everything was done inside the game with no outside channel communication, which was great to have been possible. I felt the server crashing at that moment was a perfect ending to the whole situation and the hardships faced.

[Superlagg]

So what defines a player, here? What if I get birds to consent? Does the person need to physically exist and have a unique ckey to count?

[Flourish]

So what defines a player, here? What if I get birds to consent? Does the person need to physically exist and have a unique ckey to count?

Yes, they have to be an actual different person behind the computer!

[pali6]

Just the five of us having a nice warm cup of arms tea with Satan himself:



The participants were:

• Camryn Stern (RichardGere)
  
• Edgar Palmer (Moonlol)
  
• Ryan Yeets (Comrade f191)
  
• Jebediah Hawkins (WhataTerribleUserName)
  
• Frederick Cooper (Pali6)
  

[Comrade f191]

Just the five of us having a nice warm cup of arms tea with Satan himself:



The participants were:

• Camryn Stern (RichardGere)
  
• Edgar Palmer (Moonlol)
  
• Ryan Yeets (Comrade f191)
  
• Jebediah Hawkins (WhataTerribleUserName)
  
• Frederick Cooper (Pali6)
  

dabdab

[polivilas]

Enjoying a cup of tea and a sandwich at the end of the end of the world.



Participants:
William Carr (played by Autisme)
Bruce Isaman (played by MrMelons)
Julio Hayhurst (played by Polivilas)
Unwilling participants:
The transposed scientist

[UrsulaMejor]

The late night RP crew goes on an adventure under the sea, to complete the NSS Manta's Mission: Find the NSS Polaris and retrieve its flight recorder.



Honorable mention to Dionis Bacchus (Dionis616), who didn't make it to the end:

Spoiler!

[AleksAdamska]

The dead find some peace and quiet in the new afterlife bar! Featuring, from top to bottom & left to right; The Dramatic Chef, Boogiebot, myself as Marmalade Addison, Rodney Dick as Lily White, Unknownity as cockroach, and Archer231 as Darcey Paynter! Unfortunately, Shitty Bill couldn't make it by virtue of being alive. Maybe next time!

[saccharineChampion]

Featuring the unforgettable Studenterhue as Ion Storm, the inestimable 2Birdie as Anya Fields, and myself as Constance Virdian, is our lovely little Polaris party! We were joined by our new friend arm-holding-a-coffee-cup (top right table), our good friend Dead Engineer, and our even better friend, H! (Heisenbee if you want to get formal.) There were many foods to be had, tea to be sipped, and then drowning to be done... together! Thanks for doing this, pals!



Bonus post-party non-submission image!
Spoiler!