It was a rare occasion where sunshine and snow blended together. This festival was unique, taking sand and snow to create a sculpture contest. It was where participants from around the land would use their creativity to craft pieces that combined the stark contrast of the two elements. To make it fair, magic was allowed but only in a limited way, with the focus being on the art rather than the power behind it. Targa, as always, was intrigued by this. She was by no means an artist, but she did do a lot of it growing up to pass the time when she wasn't allowed into the noble courts as a bastard.

Maybe it was luck. But she had grown up in two places. Desierto, the place where the scorching warmth was the only environment she had experienced for most of her younger days. However, she later spent numerous years in Iceberg, a region of winter, where the freezing temperatures became as familiar to her as the sun-dried grounds of her childhood. She then began bouncing between he two places throughout her life. The contest encouraged the participants to draw inspiration from their personal experiences, using their past and present to create something unique. For Targa, that meant making a sculpture that represented not only the contrast between sand and snow, but also the internal conflict that had defined her existence as of late. As a vampire, an immortal being whose nature was rooted in darkness, Targa had always fought against that darkness, striving to do good despite the curse within her. But was it a curse? It saved her life after all. There are fallen angels and risen demons, so a good vampire is well within acceptable.

Her sculpture would be a metaphorical representation of this struggle, the eternal battle between light and dark, good and evil. Targa needed to find a way to create something that was not just a sculpture, but a statement, a reflection of her inner turmoil and the delicate balance she maintained every day. She focused on the task at hand, as the contest rules were simple: combine sand and ice in any way she saw fit.

Targa's magic was a destructive force that could break or shatter. Though many saw it as inherently destructive, Targa had learned to use her abilities in delicate and creative ways. She had an idea and started by gathering wet sand from the shoreline, letting the damp grains cling together in her hands. Then, she turned her focus to the untouched snow, scooping some into her palms and feeling the cold against her skin. The idea came to her. She would use water as a bonding material, freezing the snow to make a sculpture that was both sturdy and delicate, solid yet fragile. However, this was not enough. The sculpture needed something more to make it stand out. This is where her Crash magic would come into play.

Targa focused intently and moved deliberately as she worked. She began by building a foundation of damp, heavy sand, shaping it into a rough mound to serve as the base of her sculpture. Once the base was ready, she moved on to the snow, piling it on top of the sand and shaping it into the rough outline of a figure. She used water from the nearby ocean to bind snow and sand together. The slush would turn to ice. The figure took form as a tall, proud woman, with one hand reaching skyward and the other holding a broken sword. The sword symbolized the destruction and battles she had experienced in her life, while the upward reaching hand represented her constant striving for good. Focusing her energy, Targa envisioned the figure as something fractured, broken and reassembled. With a deep breath, she released a small, controlled burst of her Crash magic. Not enough to even be called a spell. The invisible magic met with the figure and cracked, with fractures appearing along its surface.

Targa stepped back, satisfied with her work. The towering figure, made of sand, snow, and ice, was cracked and broken, yet stood tall. The fractured surface mirrored the vampire's internal turmoil, the conflict between light and dark, good and evil.

Looking around she saw a familiar face. Waving to her she asked if she was entering into the contest as well. "Hey you. Glad you're at this event as well. We should have just traveled together. Well, what do you think of what I made? It's not as good as others here, but I'm hoping the symbology gives me points".

WC: 775

Karina wasn't out to do any building today she was just going to the beach to look at them as she was not a skilled builder and she didn't want to make a fool out of her self but she saw Sunshard looking at the things that were made and rubbing his chin as if he was interested by this activity so she figured that she was about to be doing it rather she liked it or not as if she was going to get a choice as the small creature seem to now run down the beach to look for a spot that it could start to build the creature had a huge grin on it's face as it started to try and build. That is when the woman had heard the voice of the woman she had met a night or so before and Karina wondered if that meant that she was also in this competition to see if she can win. "I don't know about traveling together but I can see you were working hard on that." She was not sure why the woman had made it look like that or anything but she guessed that it had it's reasons and she wasn't going to pry into them.

Sunshard was staying hard at work as he was building a base and making marks that nearly looked like runes of some kind into the base before he got the buckets that a worker had handed him as he went to get sand and snow from nearby to him. Karina was wondering what the creature was making or planning but she guessed that it was not something it wanted her help with so she was free to talk to the woman that stood in front of her without any issues as the creature kept hard at work and doing it's best to make piece of what look like snow and sand mixed for small castles with out the lines on it and she was confused by this but she also was not going to question the creature as it was having fun and not bothering anyone. "So why do you think yours isn't as good as the others that are around here? From want I have seen yours looks like it would hold up well against the others that I passed on my way here with him."

Karina pointed to Sunshard who had now made what looked like half of a city so far just small and some now having the strange rune looking markers on them and she was not sure if it was something the creature had seen in a book or if this was something it was just straight making up on her own but for some reason she was starting to feel a bit off by looking at it like she should know that place but she had no idea of where it was from or maybe she did but she couldn't put her finger on it just yet maybe after he did some more of it she would know what or where it was from.
(525)

Targa blushed slightly at the compliment, a rare reddish tint rising to her cheeks as she smiled. She wasn’t used to praise, especially not for something like art. With a half-smile, she tucked a strand of her long dark to pink hair behind her ear and glanced at her sculpture again. "You really think it’s as good as the others?" She let out a soft, almost nervous laugh. "I guess the meaning behind it helps, but I don’t know. It’s hard to compare with some of these incredible pieces."

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, still feeling a bit shy about the praise and she really wanted to win, but if her new friend won then she'd be okay with that as well. Turning back to her new friend, or rather new acquaintance, her smile grew a little more confident as she asked, "So, what about you? Are you planning to build something? You could do something that means a lot to you. What are you going to make? You could make a giant sculpture of Sunspot....sorry Sunshard!" There was genuine curiosity in her voice as she tilted her head slightly, waiting to hear what they had in mind. "Or will you just enter what Sunshard makes? He's quite talented to be honest."

WC: 231
TWC: 1006

Karin looked at the woman as she saw her getting nervous but Karina didn't know why the woman would be getting so nervous about it cause there was no reason to be worried about what she said about her creation. She needed to make sure that she is more careful in the future as she seemed to have made the other woman nervous. "Yes of course it is just as good and you can tell there is a lot of heart in it, even if it doesn't win anything big take it as your own personal victory for being able to make something like that, that clearly means something to you." Karina was just being honest as she didn't know what all went into judging things like this but she did know that she needed to make sure that the woman understood that she should be proud of her hard work even if it wasn't the judges cup of tea in the end.

She looked at the woman as she asked if she was going t build anything. "I don't have the skills to build things and I am not going to take credit for what Sunshard builds. If it requires I enter it under my name I will but he is getting the reward for it as I had no hand in it. Besides bringing him to the beach for it." She looked over to the creature that had built more of the city and she was realizing that it looked more and more like a city she had seen once but she had no idea where she had seen it before and looking at the runes made her head hurt a little like her memories of them were repressed and she had seen them but she couldn't figure out how or where just that she shouldn't stare at them for too long and she looked away as she breathed and looked back at the vampire.

"Yeah he seems to have quite the depth of skills but I am not sure why or how but I am not going to complain." She kept her eyes away from the snow and sand city that the creature was still making as she needed to not look at it and keep her self calm.
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Targa listened to Karina’s words, her eyes softening as she heard the sincerity in her voice. It was comforting to know that someone could see the heart she had put into her work. The blush lingered on her cheeks, not from embarrassment, but from a quiet pride she wasn’t accustomed to showing. Plus it helped that Karina was quite the looker. She glanced back at her sculpture, the towering figure of a fractured woman. "Thank you, really," she replied, her voice more steady now. "It does mean something to me. Whether it wins or not, you’re right, it’s a personal victory." The sun was now coming out in full view without cloud cover. It was proving a lot of light and the way the light reflected off the ice and snow was highlighting the cracks she had purposefully created with her Crash magic. For better or worse, they were even more evident than before.

As Karina spoke about Sunshard, Targa followed her gaze to the curious creature, which was busy creating an intricate city out of sand and snow. The details were astounding, more so than anything Targa had seen at the festival so far, even more than her own sculpture in her opinion. She couldn’t help but be impressed, even if it was clear to her that Karina was downplaying her own involvement. Targa sensed there was more to it than that, but she respected the humility Karina showed, allowing the creature to take the credit for its own work. Then again, that might be Targa's own bias at play. "You brought him here, though and he's your companion. In effect that’s something, isn’t it? I mean, not many could say they have a companion who can craft something like that. If it's bonded to you, you could say Sunshard is an extension of yourself. Like how a swordsman's sword is an extension of their arm." She gestured to the growing city Sunshard was working on.

The sight of the sand and snow city, side by side to her own creation, stirred up more memories, drawing her back to the two places that had shaped her life so profoundly. Desierto, with its blistering heat and endless dunes had been a place of harsh survival that called for action and constant movement...but Iceberg, with its snow, ice and cold winds had served to teach her patience and control. In many ways, the contrast between the two places mirrored the conflict within her, two opposites combined into something new and cool.

Shaking her head and spinning the memories away she returned to her converstaion, choosing her words carefully. "You know I’ve always been fascinated by werewolves. I don’t know if that’s something you’d be willing to talk about, but... I’d love to hear more, if you’re comfortable sharing. Are they born werewolves? Turned?" Her tone was polite, using her years of court training to use the right cadence with her words. She didn’t want to pry into Karina’s personal life, but the curiosity was genuine. Werewolves had always intrigued her, perhaps because they too lived with an internal struggle, torn between their human and beastly natures, much like her own inner battles.

Before Karina could answer, Targa spotted one of the judges nearby. It seemed like a good time to have her sculpture reviewed, and she raised a hand to wave the judge down. "Excuse me! My sculpture is ready for review," she called out, hoping to catch his attention. The judge, an older portly man with a thick handlebar mustache and a fur-lined coat that seemed far too heavy for the relatively mild winter weather, made his way over. His face was set in a permanent frown, but there was a sharpness in his eyes that suggested he took his role very seriously. He nodded curtly at Targa before turning his full attention to the sculpture. Without a word he began to circle the piece with his eyes scanning every detail with a practiced critical gaze. He moved slowly and occasional stopping to jot something down in the small notebook he carried. As he walked around the sculpture, his mustache twitched slightly, and every so often. Targa could hear him mumbling under his breath, though the words were too quiet to make out and that annoyed her slightly.

He leaned in closer to examine the cracks in the ice and snow, his fingers brushing lightly over the surface as if testing its stability. Targa watched him closely and was trying to gauge his reaction but his expression remained unreadable. He mumbled again but it was clear he wasn’t offering any real feedback just yet. The judge continued his slow inspection, moving around the sculpture with a kind of deliberate care that only someone with years of experience could possess.

After what felt like an eternity, the judge finally straightened up, giving the sculpture one last appraising look before tucking his notebook back into his coat and moving onto the next finished piece. Sighing Targa looked back to Karina. "Sorry about that. i saw him and didn't mean to interrupt your response."

WC: 884
TWC: 1890