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

Karina didn't know much about the ins and outs of swords as she more focused on her gun and shooting skills so the saying she was using was a bit lost on her. Karina understood it for the most part but she was not sure if Sunshard was hers or if she was Sunshard's but for now she was the person responsible for him and what ever he was building she guessed and she was hoping the pain that she was feeling in her head would go away soon but she was sure it was just some freak random headache and it would pass for her.

Karina looked at the woman as she was asking about werewolves and Karina was sure that she had said this but she was going to say it again. "I was born a werewolf but my werewolf form didn't show till I was more toward my teens, my mother was beside herself as I hadn't shown any signs of having it, so she hadn't taught me to control it or about it as she had wished a normal human life for me so she wouldn't change me. You can be turned into a werewolf as far as I know but I never learned how to do it just I have to be careful." The woman was now fine with being a werewolf as she was use to being one but she was not sure what it was really like to be normal or a different race but that was just her in a nut shell so she wasn't going to worry about it and just keep moving on without any other thoughts about it for now.

Sunshard was still working hard on his vision of this city and the markings that were all part of it, making a detailed street and markings on them as well like it was some kind of ritual site but the city was the sacrifice. He was making things in very detailed ways and that was something that was going to keep going on for a bit and he was looking happy as he got the sand, snow and ice pieces arranged in a way to look like there was some kind of monster that was at the castle that looked kind of like Sunshard but bigger and more scary than the form her was in at this time.

Karina looked at the judge that was looking over this woman's hard work and it was as if the man was looking through it. People walking past Sunshard are looking at him weird but it was like they couldn't see what he was making or how detailed it was and that was something that Karina couldn't understand and she was starting to wonder if she was the only one seeing what the creature was making and she wondered if she was losing her mind and that she was going to have to do something like destroy the build of the companion as something was wrong but she couldn't place it and it made her feel nervous.
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Targa shook her head in a playful but fully intriging way as she listened to Karina talk about being born a werewolf. The idea fascinated her. The thought of Karina not showing any signs of her wolf form until later in life intrigued her even more. She could almost picture the chaos that must have ensued when her werewolf side finally emerged, her mother caught off guard and unprepared for the transformation. "Born a werewolf," Targa repeated softly, as if tasting the words for the first time. Her pink eyes glimmered with curiosity as a flood of thoughts rushed through her mind. "Do werewolves have their own kind of magic they can use, like a racial magic? I know about the physical changes, but what else happens when they transform? Do they get stronger? Faster? Is there something... more? Are there different breeds of werewolves?"

As all these thoughts swirled in her head. Targa loved magic and werewolves were in a sense magic themselves, akin to a magical beast. Then again, wasn't she also? Isn't' she now a magical beast? If that's the case, what does that make Demi-humans? The idea of getting home to research more magic excited her.

Looking over it seemed that maybe Sunshard was possibly getting close to finishing the sculptor so she would draw her attention to it. "Seems like he's making something personal, don't you think? Have you seen if he can write? Maybe give him or her a pen and paper and see if Sunny is able to communicate that way?"

WC: 270
TWC: 2160

She heard the woman question if the creature cold write and Karina pointed to the runes. "I am not sure he could write in a way we can understand but wouldn't that also mean he shouldn't be able to read as well if he couldn't write..." Karina was now a bit perplexed at this as she had never thought about it and the creature had never written anything for her as far as she knows but she guessed that maybe it might not be out side the realm of possible things that the creature could do. She now wonders if the creature was using her more than she had first thought was the creature pulling some kind of it is stupid thing or was it just it didn't think to communicate to her out side of nods and simple gestures that she could pick up, cause she knew it was smart but she didn't know how smart it was.

Karina then turned her attention back to the vampire woman and she spoke. "How about you is there anything that you are looking for besides a big win here at the building contest? I know you spoke of the blood stuff. There is a lot going on down here in the south for now, so maybe you might want to do some more of the things that are going on?" She was not sure how the vampire will answer to that though she was giving her a chance to say something or make plans if she wanted to do anything else that might fit the events that are going on if she needed someone to do them with. Karina was trying to make a friend in some sort of way or at least that is what she is trying to think she is doing but she is a bit awkward.
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Targa waved her hand in an ornery way, a small grin on her face. "A toddler can stare at a book too, but that doesn’t mean they’re actually reading it. Just looking at words and pictures doesn’t count for much." She shrugged, still amused by the thought of Sunshard possibly understanding more than it let on, but she couldn't discount the possibility it was just pretending to read and just mimicking what it had seen others do. Certain birds could mimic speech but didn't necessarily actually speak themselves or understand what they were saying.

After a brief pause, Targa considered Karina’s question about what she wanted down here. "Honestly, I’m not here for a big win. Just traveling, keeping on the move, having a bit of fun before things get too complicated. But yeah, I’d love the company to check out the rest of the events. It could be fun, and I bet Sunshard would be great at some of them too. I hear there's a boat ride, a cannonball contest and a skating rink."

WC: 188
TWC: 2348

Karina smiled as the other woman made sense that Sunshard was clearly never actually reading it was just mimicking something it had seen and her worry had just been silly, The woman heard her speak of some of the other things that were going on and she was excited at the idea of doing the other things that were going on though she knows that probably means that she was going to skip some training she wanted to do this sounded like more fun and she can always make up for skipping on a bit of training she was going to make sure that she saw all that she could and do all that she could while she was here. "Would you mind if I joined you for some of all of those things?" She looked at the vampire woman being very excited.

Sunshard at hearing the vampire woman saying that he was probably just mimicking things he saw scuffed but kept to finishing up it's creation it was a city made of sand and snow with ice accents of what looked like a city with demons and other forms of monsters in it as well as runes written on buildings. Sunshard kept looking it over and he looked like he longed for the place he saw but he was not able to go there. The creature sighed and then a judge moved the creature away from the thing inspecting it and looking it over and talking among themselves. Sunshard was not pleased by them having pushed him away from the thing he made thought about biting the person that pushed him but he knew he needed to not cause trouble.
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Targa nodded both warmly and excitedly at Karina’s own excitement, and then began shaking her head slightly. "No, not at all," she replied, her tone friendly. With a playful flourish, she offered her arm to Karina, like a proper gentlewoman might, or how female friends sometimes do. "Shall we? I hear there’s a skating rink set up just down the way. We could check that out next." Her smile widened as she added, "And who knows? Maybe Mr Sunshard will be a natural on the ice, too. He seems quite skilled when you think about it." There was a light, teasing tone in her voice as she glanced over at the creature, already imagining what kind of chaos might unfold if it decided to give skating a try. That or it might show everyone up. At this point Targa had also forgotten about the current contest and didn't really care to wait to see who won.

[Targa Exit]

WC: 156
TWC: 2504