Conjoinment Dash

Some of the more bizarre events tend to be the conjoinment events, solely due to the sheer creativity of the participants, and the Conjoinment Dash is no exception! The event to the untrained eye might just seem like any other race, but one must look closer to realize that all of the contestants on the field are made up of more than one body...

All contestants at the start of the rodeo are shown a stable of sentient creatures, typically powerful or sleek forms that do not have possession or transformation abilities on their own. Each contestant chooses to ally with one of these creatures, and for the rodeo's duration are able to use any abilities they might have to conjoin with their chosen ally in any way they see fit. Often, one of the more popular options is to conjoin with a large, powerful body in a 'taur' configuration, forcing a normally bipedal creature to serve as the lower half of a body for the race. The conjoinment may be done in any way so long as the two bodies are physically inseparable.

And then, they're off! The Conjoinment Dash is an obstacle course filled with all manners of hazards, where bodies must be able to run, swim, dodge, leap, and maneuver through the course to get the fastest time. This is where the choice of the correct body to conjoin with is key--a powerful form that might be suitable at climbing may likewise be cumbersome in the water. That's not to say the fastest times are those who can swim well... but the record time held at the BCR was at the 85th annual event, were a gaseous being, conjoined to a large octopus-like species, managed to take the record spot by a full three seconds. Critics still complain about how a gaseous being might be considered 'conjoined' to anything, but the BCR Committee assures critics that the gaseous being was interlaced in the octo-species' physical structure, and that was enough to count. Still, most contestants who participate are solid, often humanoids.

Whether or not the conjoined body can function on a unified front is another question. When conjoined like a taur, the 'upper body' tends to be able to steer their whole conjoined self through the obstacles by being generally in control of the whole form, but there's no guarantee that the other being's willpower might not dominate and change strategies, leading to a chaotic display on the field. The allied body for conjoinment may not hail from a species of super-intelligences, but they are all very aware of prize money to be won if they are picked for conjoinment and then win the competition. In the instances where weak-willed contestants can't keep their conjoined form under control, the other body might take things into their own hands...

Unless both the contestant and ally agree, the conjoined partnership lasts the whole rodeo, with the contestant choosing when and how long to remain conjoined. Often, they will attend other events or participate in interviews in their conjoined forms, to show off their constructed bodies.