D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

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Kress stared at the mirror and spun the shovel in his left hand, bucket held in his right. He was dressed in light, airy clothes and equipped for a sand castle contest. *I'm going to look really silly if I rock up on stage with a bucket and shovel instead of weapons and then find out it's an obstacle course or something… but I'm certain it's going to be a sand castle contest and I'm willing to steak looking a bit silly on that certainty. Though we'll probably be provided with digging equipment.*

Kress spun the shovel in his hand a few more times. *I wonder what idea I should go with. Obviously going for a sand CASTLE is a classic and it could let me show off in a number of ways, both with the little details and with the large scale construction. But… it is pretty standard even so. All the people that end up surprised, which I suspect will be most of them, will all just go for castles as well. I'm sure I can do it better then most in the sand castle building space…

But if someone manages to come up with something unique then even the best sandcastle might look boring. Still… we're going to have a lot of time. What can I do that's suitably impressive? I could probably make like a sand treehouse? But would that be impressive to a dryad? I've got no idea. I could do something suitably… fun like Thyme seems to want… but I'm not sure what constitute 'fun' like Thyme seems to be after. I could make a big pool or something? Though making detailed figures to populate it would be a massive pain, bordering on impossible even with the Thyme. 

So let's scratch the pool idea. Probably waterslides as well. Fireworks? Hmm… the sand isn't particularly colourful here so I don't see that working out well. Maybe I should do a sand castle with added sand town around it? That could suitably elevate my castle above anyone else's. Doing little trees might be a pain… and if I added rivers I might struggle a bit… but I've got a lot of time to complete it, so it might be worthwhile. Ok, so put 'Sandcastle and Sand Town' on the top of the list. Let's keep brainstorming. 

I could do an underwater scene? Coral is a fairly sturdy structure, more so then leaves anyway so doing up little sand coral should be possible… plus depending on the rules I might just be able to use bits of REAL coral that's dried out. I could do a little underwater river and line it with shells… maybe do an underwater town? Hmmm…

Should I expand my sandcastle and town concept to make it an underwater sandcastle and town? Not sure how I'd convey it was all underwater instead of on land. I might be making it overly complicated. Though if Thyme provides us with some fancy sand I could coat everything with a layer of blue to imply that it's underwater? That might be cool…

If I've got help I might be able to excavate a big gash through the sand and then set the houses into the walls? Make it seem like they're using an underwater trench as the place the town was built. Hmm… I could see it… but maybe I could just pretend it was a normal cliff? Make up little elevators? Not sure how I'd make tiny elevators but I could go about it that way… hmmm… so above water or below water? I guess I could just build the thing and then not tell anyone what it's supposed to be unless directly asked. I can just say whatever it looks MORE like one it's finished?

But won't it look a bit like a mess if I don't have a unified vision for it? I suppose that could be the case. Shells here, and there while I make trees or something in other places. Not ideal certainly. I'll think about it a bit more in the future. For now I'm still locking down ideas. What else can I do that's not just based around a sandcastle?

I suppose I could do a giant portrait? That sounds like a massive pain in the ass though. I'd have to be very careful not to disturb it as a moved over the damned thing and made any corrections that are needed. I suppose if I was really careful and worked from a corner outward it would be fine… but what about the breeze? If the wind picks up too much then I'd need to go in and fix things and that might be impossible depending on what needs to be fixed. Though… I could see Thyme blocking the wind for the contest. Not sure if they'd consider the wind a feature. Thyme might want to keep it around so things are difficult. 

Should I try for like… an underground city then? Dig out a big bowl or even further and like, carve out sections so that it can't be blown away? Might be nice but it's a fucking SANDCASTLE AND TOWN COMBINATION AGAIN.* Kress threw his shovel up at the ceiling, not particularly hard, just to get some of the anger out. He caught it again on the way back down, and then bounced it over his palm for a few moments, making sure it didn't tip over and land on the floor. 

*Right. So let's think of something that isn't town related then. I could… carve a giant monster? That could be fun. I'm not sure I can think of one that's suitably impressive when compared to a more standard fight… but I'm sure I could think of something that's at least 'decent'. I could either go for something longer, like those death worms and have them coming in and out of the ground and go for quantity over quality, or maybe I should focus on one good looking animal that I can get some nice detail into?

Something with scales maybe? Fur would be all but impossible to make look nice just using sand and whatever else is around. A sea monster of some kind might be thematic… and if I wanted to, I could do up some fake waves made out of sand and make it look rather impressive. Yes… I can see that working well. So is that something I want to go for? I'm leaning towards… maybe. I'm still not sure if the results would be more impressive then a really nicely done town, but at least it's different. 

So… anything else? If I don't go for giant monsters or for little towns… I can't think of anything. I mean, sure landscape stuff but I can show more proficiency by adding a town to it or something. Maybe I should decide if I'm better off pretending it's underwater or not? Or trying to work out how much time we've actually got? Thyme wasn't exactly clean but I know it's a good few hours. 

What should the process be then? Making a town might be the best way to hedge, because you can build a suitably impressive castle first and then you can work on all the smaller stuff like houses in a slow ring outwards depending on how much time you've got left… which seems pretty simple even if it'll be a bit hard in practice. If I want for a giant monster, or a reasonable sized monster, then I'm committing to finishing just the monster and a few background details within the time limit… but not TOO inside of the time limit. 

Yeah it'd be a horrible use of your time if you finished up like an hour early… but then again, depending on the rules you might get bonus points for finishing early. I'll try to remember to ask Thyme about it before the round starts. Perhaps I should also look into sabotage? No that's not a good idea. I'm confident that will be against the rules in some way. Hmmm… but what about working together?

Would Thyme put in a rule against working together? Like, I build a nice castle and then Stan builds a giant animal of some kind to attack my castle? Both better together but clearly judgeable apart? It's certainly an interesting idea… but I have no idea how skilled Stan is when it comes to building things together. So even if I can trust him not to screw me over… which is still a bit up in the air, then I'd also have to trust him to be good at his job. Which is a completely separate matter really…*

Kress let out a long breath as he glanced out of his window. The day was wearing on. His food was eaten, and their likely wasn't much time left before the round was set to start. *Perhaps I should wrap up this musing and start heading outside to the staging grounds? I wouldn't want to be late.*

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