Chapitre 651: CH32 (646), Contests (1)
There was no way I could produce the sand model at a 1 to 1 scale. I simply had too many Pokemon for that, not to mention that quite a few of them were quite big, so any attempt at staying true to the original would result in a colossal model, and while we had not been given any size restrictions, taking up too much space was just not viable since I did not own the beach. Besides, I had only a bit more than 2.5 hours to complete my sand sculpture, so I did the smart thing and decided to make liberal use of artistic freedom, selectively adjusting the size ratio between my sculpture and the original.
Starting with my own image, I had my sand counterpart sit cross-legged, his eyes closed, with an ocarina at the tip of his lips. A chibi Mothra/Butterfree was laying on his head. I had sand-me lean my back against Enji/Arcanine, with the Eevee Squad sitting close enough for three of them to lay their heads on sand-me's lap. Horus/Xatu was lying on Enji's back and looking in my direction. Creating this centerpiece took me slightly more than an hour, leaving me only around 1.5 more to add the rest of my family to the sand model.
Taking into account that I still had more than 40 Pokemon to add to the sand sculpture, I had to admit that there was no way for me to do so within the leftover time, so I had to make a choice. I would either have to give up on adding more than half of my Pokemon to the model, or I would have to stop doing everything the classic way and start using my powers, specifically my earth and partly my psychic abilities. If I did the latter, I would be able to easily finish the sand model within the stipulated time without giving anyone up. Heck, I was confident that I could even add the reserve team members to the model if I wanted to.
Ultimately, I felt that I had to go with the latter option. I was streaming the competition to Utopia, and leaving some of my Pokemon out of the model would leave a bad taste if it could be avoided since whoever got left out would feel disappointed whether they wanted to or not. That was why I began to infuse my energy into the sand before I began to manipulate the sand to form Hera/Pideot's general form. I then used a combination of earth/sand manipulation and telekinesis to compress the sand enough to make it durable enough for me to use my telekinesis to make the sculpture more detailed/lifelike.
The whole process took a minute or two at most from start to finish, and I directly moved on to creating Saphira/Altaria's sculpture. Unfortunately, I got interrupted by a Beach Club/competition staff member while I was working on the details of Saphira's sand sculpture. The charming lady straightforwardly told me that I was not allowed to use any special abilities during the creation of my sand model. When I told her that the emcee did not mention a rule like that during his speech, she cold-bloodedly sold him out and said that he had forgotten to mention the rule since it usually did not come into play.
Since it was a mistake on their part, I was allowed to leave the two sand sculptures I made using my abilities intact, but I was forbidden to continue using my abilities and had to return to sculpting by hand. This put a wrench in my plan to add everyone to the sculpture. I now had to limit myself to a third or even fourth of my Pokemon since I wouldn't be able to add more to the model within the stipulated time.
Left with no choice I decided to go with seniority, specifically the time they joined our family. Most of the ones I had already sculpted belonged to the senior group after all, so sticking to that theme seemed the best path I could take. The members of the Eevee Squad, aside from Nyx/Umbreon, would be the exception, but that was just how things developed, so I did not believe that anyone would complain.
Decision made, I began to work on Optimus/Butterfree sculpture, followed by Seb/Nidoking, Gaia/Nidoqueen, Osiris/Skellibra, Mars/Ursasol, Parvati/Beedrill, Prime/Beedrill, and Manami/Lapras. At this point I had less than 8 minutes left, which was merely enough for one more sand sculpture, so Kun/Azuraid's sculpture ended up being the final one. While I still had around a minute before the timer would ring over the set-up speakers, I could do nothing with that time aside from taking a last look at my sand model to see if anything stood out.
When I saw that everything was fine, I simply waited for the alert to stop working on our sand sculptures/models. Once that happened the judges began to check all sand sculptures. It took them more than 20 minutes to arrive in front of my piece and from what they were saying my sand model was the biggest by a considerable margin. I could feel their amazement while they were walking around the model and between the individual pieces. They were full of praise for my work, and I could feel some reluctance when they moved on to the next piece after spending nearly 5 minutes examining my sand model.
It took another 30 minutes to finish their inspection and once they were done, they requested 10 minutes to discuss the rankings. While all that happened, I carefully used my ground manipulation and telekinesis on my model to consolidate all sculptures to raise their durability since I was planning to take the whole thing away.
The ground manipulation ensured that more sand was drawn to the interior of the sculptures as my telekinesis worked in tandem to compress it for durability. If not for the addition of extra sand, the act of compressing the model would have caused it to shrink and perhaps even develop minute cracks. Nonetheless, through this method, I managed to avoid that.
The reason I was doing this, was because I honestly thought that it would be a waste for my art piece to get destroyed after this, which was why I was making sure it was durable enough for me to take it away. Once the competition was over I would be using my special liquid glue to coat the whole thing before storing it away inside Utopia. I was sure my Pokemon would appreciate being able to appreciate it in person.
Anyway, the results finally got announced and I was not too surprised when I ended up winning. I got some coupons for a few hours of Mantine rental and a surfer suit, which was a nice reward for a little competition like this. The other participants got some little participation rewards, which was nice for them I guess.
The staff also asked all participants for permission to safeguard the sand models for the next 3 days so that the public could look at them as well. While that kinda went against my plan, I still ended up consenting when I saw that most had approved. Coincidentally, I would be able to pick up my model the day of my Gym Challenge. I left the beach after telling the staff that I would come back for my model on Giratiday.
After stepping out of the beach, I entered Utopia and everyone was already waiting for me. They all told me how great the model had looked, and the ones that had to be left out of the model due to time constraints asked me to make another one but this time they wanted to be included. I told them about my agreement with the Beach Club staff and promised them to add their sculptures to the model once I brought the model inside Utopia.
That was enough to satisfy them, and we moved on to having our delayed dinner. After dinner, we hung out and I did today's spa session on the side. I mean massaging and caring for a Pokemon did not stop me from talking with everyone.
The next morning, after our morning training session, I made my way to the Hoenn TV HQ to check out the building. I partly did that because I thought it was funny for a rather famous person that the reporters would love to interview from six ways to Grouday to show up at their headquarters incognito without them being aware of the chance they missed out on.
The other reason was simple curiosity. I wanted to see what the HQ of such a big TV company looked like. I could honestly say that it was both more impressive and disappointing than I expected. The building itself was not all that impressive, but the sheer busyness of everyone inside the building was enough to leave me impressed. Still, such an extreme hustle was not for me, so I did not stay for long and left within a mere 30 minutes after my arrival.
Following that rather brief stop, I went to the Contest Hall, and knowing that some of my Pokemon were quite interested in participating in a contest, I decided to sign up for 6 of the amateur appeal contests that would be held today. I saw no reason to take part in the more competitive coordination contest, especially since I would practically be taking away the chance to earn a Lilycove Ribbon from someone trying to qualify for the festival, and I did not doubt that we would be winning if we participated.
I was absolutely sure that my Pokemon would smash the competition during the battle phase after all. That's why I chose to sign up for the appeal contests instead since those were more appropriate for my impromptu contest plans. Since Appeal Contests were divided into three areas, I signed up for each one twice but selected differing themes depending on the Pokemon I was going to sign up for the area.
For the visual category, I was definitely going to go with Tiamat/Milotic. However, I had to choose between Jean/Espeon as well as Saphira/Altaria for the second participant, and I was struggling with the decision. Of the five themes, Tiamat was obviously going to go for Beauty and since that was also the one that fit Spahira the best, I chose to go with Jean as my second choice for the Visual Contest.
As far as themes were concerned, Jean would have no problem with either the Coolness, Cuteness, or Technique theme, but I decided to go with Cuteness since I knew that she would like this one the most. Jean did like to make use of her cuteness after all.
The two that would participate in the Dance Contest were Melinda/Mienshao and Freyja/Lopunny. The duo was literally made for this, not only because of their species but also because their talents made them extremely graceful/impressive dancers. I selected the themes according to their preferred style of doing things, which was why I signed up Freyja for the Toughness theme, while Melinda got registered for the Technique theme instead.
The final duo was going to be made up of Fortuna/Togekiss as well as Tyson/Machamp, and they would be taking part in the Move Contest. Fortuna would be going with the Coolness theme, while Tyson would go with Toughness. Both could have easily gone for the Technique theme, but I felt that the other two would be more fun.
Once I had signed up for all 6 contests, I shared the news with everyone in Utopia, and their reaction was just like I had expected it to be, full of excitement. My clone got inundated with hugs by the ones that had been registered, though Tyson decided to give me a pat on the shoulder instead along with a triple thumbs up.
Those who were also interested in trying out the contest spiel but would not get the chance today asked me to sign them up as well, and I promised them to let them have a go at it on another day. While my clone was dealing with my enthusiastic Pokemon, I sat in the lobby and waited for the first (appeal) contest to start.
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