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by The Harmonious Orchard of Fishy Apples. . 16 reads.

Our Application For the 2020 Oatland Summer Games!!

Fishy Apples' 2020 Oatland Summer Games Submission Form

Fishy Apples is returning once more to the Oatland Summer Games, and which let's just say from the results of last year's Summer Games has made folks feel as though we're a bit... cursed. A year later, and folks are STILL talking about and asking how we failed to even medal in swimming, so upon Queen Jackie's suggestion, we hired an outside coach to overlook our team for this year and give their impressions.

Before we share our more detailed information, this is the quick primer we worked up for our guest coach of who is participating where and in what, as well what they are, and for the Oatland Games Committee we also included, as usual, our national anthem, and our uniforms!!

Our Representatives:
Diving - Faruk Nor (♂)
Rifle Shooting - Holly Blossomforth (♀)(Ψ), Dusty Tatin (♀)
Decathlon - Red Halivista (♂)
Gymnastics - Russel Cox (♂), Ayame Yoshikage (♀)(Ϡ)
Weightlifting - N/A
Equestrian Sports - Cheryl Religieuse (♀), Mandy Baldwin (♀)
Swimming - Lily Normande (♀)(Ψ), Daisy Ashmead (♀)(Ψ), Momoka Nishitara (♀)(Ϡ), Nadia Karang (♀)
Archery - Natsume Chiyo (♀)(Ϡ), Ro Tassarion (♂)(Ԑ)
Fencing - Cameo Antonovka (♂)
Sailing - Alstroemeria Edmund (♀)(Ψ), Bob Urliss (♂), Ruri Izaya (♀)(Ϡ)

Inspired by our neighbors, we have decided to label our athletes to better clarify who they are.
Symbol Legend:
(♂) = Male
(♀) = Female
(Ψ) = Mermaid
(Ϡ) = Nekomimi
(Ԑ) = Elf

Our National Anthem:
Link"Inazuma Double Kick"

Below are our uniforms:
This is the upper portion of the uniform for all our athletes across all sports for both sexes:
This is the lower half of the uniform for most of our athletes across all sports for both sexes:
This is the lower half of the uniform for our mermaid representatives (as obviously wearing shorts is physically impossible for them):

And here is our flag:



This below is file footage of our foreign-hired coach meeting our team and preparing this year's roster...

Coach: "So... let me get this straight. You guys had a poor go at it last year, winning only one medal (Cheryl Religieuse beams widely, flashing her bronze medal for equestrian sports), and even got creamed at two events you should on paper completely dominated."
Queen Jackie: "Well, I threw mah back out for that interview an' then there's those old injuries, an' stuff..."
Lily Normande: "Honestly, I'm not sure if it's a secret doping program, speciesism, some combination of both, or something else I'm missing, but how did a bunch of humans beat us? Last year three out of five members of our team were mermaids. We're PART FISH. How did that work?!"
Coach: "Well, to quote your nation's application from last year,
'Our coaches got together and decided to focus our recruiting on swimming, choosing to bring an amazing five athletes with us, because we determined that if a nation where nearly three out of five of our citizens were beings commonly associated with the water couldn't win a medal in an event doing one of the very things we're best known for, then we're CLEARLY doing it wrong, and we should be ashamed of ourselves.' Well, that must mean you're clearly doing something wrong, and should be ashamed of yourselves."
*awkward silence*
Daisy Ashmead: "...Damn, she got us there."
Coach: "Now that got that out in the open, and we know it was primarily your fault, let's see what we got to work with..."

*3 hours of adjusting and cursing vehently later*
Coach: "Well... hate to say it, but it seems we pretty much have the same team from last year. Seeing as there are the same number of player slots but now ten events, this is what we're going to do. First, at least for this year, we're straight up cutting weightlifting."
Queen Jackie: "What in tarnation?!"
Coach: "Well, this is largely a PR move more than anything, giving you a chance to save face from the disaster that was 2019. Speaking of 2019, you're still a world leader, you know, and there is that whole global pandemic going on, so I don't think it'd make great optics for a world leader to go off participating in a pan-regional sporting event during these times."

*another round of silence*
Red Halivista: "She's just kicking ALL our butts today."
Queen Jackie: "Alright. Guessin' ah'm out then. What else?"
Coach: "I want Holly Blossomforth to focus on one event, and seeing as she is one of best riflemasters in Fishy Apples, it would be best for her to focus solely on her proficiency in Rifle Shooting, and to withdraw from Archery. Finally, the last cut is one not made by my hand, but the military, as Dahlia Stayman, according to my notes, is under deployment by the Fishy Apples Royal Navy and thus cannot attend the games this year. As a result, this opens up three slots for us fill for the new event, Sailing, so let's welcome our newcomers Alstroemeria Edmund, Bob Urliss, and Ruri Izaya."

*several minutes of introductions later*
Coach: "Now then, let's get to know the team..."



Diving

Following last year's games, Faruk Nor has been working on his diving with a series of cliff diving challenges all across Fishy Apples, and to add extra challenge, streaming each attempt and allowing the viewers to choose what kind of technique to perform. This always kept him on his toes as he never knew what diving technique he had to perform next, forcing him ensure he was well-rounded.



Rifle Shooting

Upon our hired coach's recommendations, along with regular winter biathlete Dusty Tatin, Holly Blossomforth narrowed her focus this year on her rifle training, and this year had the idea of using her military contacts to arrange a group training exercise with all the participating athletes in the Rifle Shooting event in The Bunny Fire training together at an event in The Onigiri Enclave, headed by none other SID second-in-command Brigadier General Mirin Haberdash, possibly the best markswoman in all of The Bunny Fire, and owner of one of the only two models of the Mysterium Arms MA-666 "God Killer" 66.6mm x 420mm Depleted Uranium 4ng Anti-Matter Core Round Magnetic Rail-Accelerated Sniper Rifle. The training camp was a rousing success for all nations involved, and Holly even got to fire the God Killer, leveling a whole mountain in a single shot. Needless to say most everyone there was impressed. General Haberdash said her aim was slightly off, as she didn't quite hit the target on the side of the mountain, and fellow Onigiri Enclave SID officer who happened to be there Colonel Weyl Nantessa said "she's seen bigger."



Decathlon

To further prepare for these games, sports medicine physician Red Halivista began a program of using his weekends to enthusiastically run around the sweltering deserts around Risottosh in order to build up his endurance. At first, it was a bit of a slog, but now he has gotten to where he can get decent times with ten pound weights strapped to his arms and legs.



Gymnastics

Russel Cox resumed his career as a pizza delivery boy after the 2019 games, but kept working on his parkour skills in hopes he could polish them into something he could use this year, and good news, this year, he didn't lose a single pizza. Improvement!!
Meanwhile our other gymnast, Ayame Yoshikage, after the 2019 games opened her own cheerleading camp for girls for all species ages 10 to 14 outside of Setsuna City near Lake Redlove. The cheerleading practice she has done in that time, as well as operating the camp, has kept her limber and ready for these games coming up.



Weightlifting

The coach decided to bench our queen, and no one else wanted to apply, so we have no team for weightlifting this year.



Equestrian Sports

Back again is our only medal winner, Cheryl Religieuse, riding on such notoriety to help build more popularity for equestrian sports in and around Coral Canyon City, but otherwise has simply continued to do what she loves, raising and riding horses.
Meanwhile, fellow teammate Mandy Baldwin has developed a bit of a rivalry with Cheryl, feeling slighted that someone of a lower tax bracket got a medal and not her last year, and is now wanting to prove she's as good, if not better by training herself and her prized mare vigorously daily for these games.



Swimming - National Specialty

Swimming... oof. The results of last year hit Fishy Apples hard. Some like Momoka Nishitara thought they could have done more, while others like Lily Normande actually believed it was an outright hidden agenda of speciesism behind the scenes of the games, considering, with the exception of that cardboard cutout Windiria sent, only humans were winning medals, and that cutout was awfully human-shaped if you asked her. However, at the end of the day, the only clear thing was that we lost, and that we had to get better at what is SUPPOSED to be our specialty. As such, Lily began to hit the gym regularly after work, as well as swim to work with weights strapped to her body. Daisy Ashmead would regularly swim the irrigation pipes while timing herself. Momoka Nishitara decided to work on building her endurance and lung capacity, so she began laps twenty feet underwater with a twenty pound weight strapped to her tail. Finally, Nadia Karang, the sole human on the team, used deep-sea diving exercises to help get her into better shape in preparation for the upcoming games.



Archery

With Holly Blossomforth bowing out of the Archery event, it means Natsume Chiyo and Ro Tassarion need to step up even more if they hope to bring in medals for Fishy Apples. Natsume is considered a clear competitor this year, mainly thanks to the extreme rigors of her Magus Sister training, which includes an intense archery regimen. Ro also has maintained his fletching prowess as his work as a sheriff's deputy in Lobster Eye.



Fencing

We don't know much as to what Cameo Antonovka has been doing save his regular routine, as he seemed rather salty after the 2019 games, keeping to himself, and we thought we wouldn't see him back again, but he surprised us by returning to our ranks again. What secret techniques has he been working on no one knows...


Sailing

Finally, we have our newcomers in the Sailing division. Alstroemeria Edmund is an Earth mermaid from The Sweet Apple Ocean who runs a sail-operated cargo ferry back and forth from The Sweet Apple Ocean to the island city of Lorelai, stopping halfway in between in the middle of the ocean to deliver and pickup supplies from the underwater city of Niwatori City. When asked why she chooses to use sail power over say diesel, solar, steam, or something thaumatic, Alstroemeria said it was part to reduce her carbon footprint and part to reduce overhead, as she wasn't as big as other shipping companies yet, and it was a way to keep up with them.
When asked about his sailing experience, accountant and Jazz native Bob Urliss told us he first learned to rig a sail from his granddad, but really began to master it when he got into participating in historical naval battle reenactments, where he regularly portrayed a Bosun's Mate on a recreation of the HMS Applesauce, one of Fishy Apples' largest and most famous naval ships of the late 17th-early 18th centuries.
Ruri Izaya is a wealthy nekomimi socialite from Setsuna City and president of her local yacht club. As such, her sailing credentials have been vouched for by winning the All-Bunny Fire Ice Regata two years in a row, where sailors have to sail their dinghies from Northern Spy, across the cool northern seas of The Bunny Fire, where the occasional iceburg may prove to be a harrowing obstacle, out to and around the island where the Windirian city of Zepyhrion resides, and back to the finish line at Silk Sardonyx in the northern part of The Onigiri Enclave.


With that, that concludes our 2020 entry to the Oatland Summer Games!!

The Harmonious Orchard of Fishy Apples

Edited:

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