我的继坶我的性老师

Judges: Ulf/\'Steve\' Auctifer, Oditr, Titania, Mint

Criteria: Looks, Not-sand features, Structurally Sound, Creativity, Looks

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Kress and Blue were back on the main platform once again and Thyme was asking for everyone\'s opinions on the stacked castles. Kress still thought it was an interesting concept but the details being off dragged things down a bit for him. 

Titania actually went first for once. "It\'s creative idea, and I like it… but it\'s not quite as creative as the previous on. Still, it\'s a big step up from the cannon so I\'m going to give them a tentative six for now. I\'m open to bumping that up a few points though," 

*That seems… a bit low for how much Titania seems to be smiling. Is she lying about what she plans to score it in the end? I\'m confused.*

"Well I\'m giving them a big fat zero," said Auctifer. They pretty much only used sand. Ok no, that\'s not true. There are a few bits of shells as decoration but come on! That\'s basically nothing," 

*Once again… he\'s not wrong but I find myself liking Auctifer\'s scoring system less and less as time goes on. I wish he\'d have picked something different. Even if we\'ll probably do quite well in the category it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.*

Oditr stepped up to speak next, "I found the performance here… pretty middling for the destruction aspects but it looked AWESOME when it was destroyed. The towers all fell differently and the cascading effect as they topped one after another was a joy to watch. Five for destruction appearance and a… hmm… two for durability I think," 

*Dam. Oditr is impressed. I kinda wish I\'d actually paid attention to what this one looked like as it fell apart. I guess that\'s the downside to splitting things up into copies and only destroying the one. I\'ll have to be on the same one as Oditr for the next two I think. Assuming the \'last\' one I haven\'t seen yet is in any way good. I definitely have to see how my own shakes out though. No question about that.*

Mint and Steve looked at each other and then Steve said, "Ladies first," 

"I\'m not sure I count as having a gender, but sure I\'ll go first," said Mint with a nod. "Right… well I think this is a really cool idea and it\'s nice to look at from a whole bunch of angles. That said, I feel like picking a castle as the base for the idea is a bit boring, I\'m thinking six or seven? Do I need to actually pick one? Heck, I might bump my scores up a bit if the last two aren\'t any good," 

"That\'s an acceptable answer," said Thyme. Mint gave a little clap and moved back. 

*Decent score. I think seven is probably more deserved, but we\'ll see what Steve says.*

"Personally I find it a bit lazy," said Steve, "But that\'s not what I\'m scoring you on, it\'s how good it looks. The problem with that, is that all the details that don\'t stay consistent between the different castles bother me. Perhaps the differences were intentional, perhaps not but I\'m just not a fan of this one personally. I\'m thinking… maybe a four?" 

*Huh… that\'s a bit harsh. I mean… if that\'s really how you feel sure, go ahead. But… yeah that just feels a bit harsh. Perhaps a few weeks ago I\'d agree but whoever made this clearly put in a lot of effort, and if this wasn\'t such a serious contest I think I\'d be very happy if I\'d made this myself.*

Thyme bowed and said, "Right then, next sculpture," 

Kress watched as the next sculpture came into view. He saw five trees all connected by rope bridges with little houses carved into the trunks, and sitting on the branches of the larger one. Kress was honestly floored by the details. As he was stepping onto the invisible platform and having a good look, something occurred to him. *Wait… is… is Thyme ordering these from best to worst? Did he say this was all random? Because I\'m pretty certain it ISN\'T.*

Kress quickly pulled Blue by the elbow away from the trees. She glared at him, until she saw the serious look on his face and started walking with him. They\'d moved into the corner where Kress whispered, "Is it just me, or has Thyme ordered these from best to worst. Not to say I think we did better then whoever made these treehouses. The details are really nice, and none of it was just copied like what we did. Still… if you look at the order of everything…" 

"You get best to worst," mumbled Blue as she thought it over. "Yes some arguments could be made of course… and with Titania, Oditr and Auctifer using strange scoring systems things might not shake out exactly the way Thyme has outlined it… but yes I agree. If we\'re using Steve\'s and Mint\'s scores it tracks. Roughly anyway," 

Kress nodded. "Not sure how I feel about it to be honest," 

"I think we DID do the best so I feel fine about that… but yeah the subtle ranking is a bit strange," agreed Blue. 

Kress sighed, "Whatever let\'s just take in this sculpture before the judges get done with it," Blue nodded and the pair half jogged back to the tree to take it all in. Kress was personally amazed with the little rope bridges. They were remarkably well done. Probably something Timmy did, but no less impressive. Not to mention all the greenery on the trees. Honestly, Kress could see these are being small versions of real trees, sand bark and all. 

Kress really wanted to ask how they\'d managed to get the branches stable. He was sure just a few sticks wouldn\'t be good enough. Sure they branches themselves were pretty thick, but sand just wasn\'t that stable, and a core of wood for the branches wouldn\'t really work. Just the weight of the wood itself would likely be too much for an inner core of sand to support. No, the whole thing was likely supported somehow.

Kress looked to the one being destroyed and found his answer as the sand fell off after a few shakes. *Ah. Stone centre. That means this was either Burgandy and Ellenell, or Gareth and Stan.* Things kept shaking until one of the trees fell over into the others. That was enough to bring the whole thing down. Apparently they weren\'t all connected underground. Bit of a shame they didn\'t think of it. *Not that they should\'ve needed it but aw well.*

With the destruction over, they all headed back to the main island, as was becoming routine. Oditr spoke first claiming, "Excellent destruction and pretty good durability. I can see a few easy ways to reinforce it if they\'d known it\'d need to survive longer so… I\'m thinking… eight total points? Four in each category? I might want to drop it down one in survivability, but it all looked cool as it fell, and the trees still look decent without the sand or some of their branches," 

*This is the first one I\'ve felt bad about having destroyed. Even if I know it\'s a copy… this one was really nice. Much nicer then I\'d expected out of a four hour competition. Sure we got more done, but Timmy was a godsend and I don\'t think anyone else made good use of him. They seemed to see him more as an accessory.*

Auctifer came up next, "So initially, I was going to give this one a decent score, because the leaves were nice and the bridges were a great touch… but to find out the whole thing is actually made of stone with sand on top? It makes me… very confused as to how I should rate this honestly. Because this wasn\'t really a sand sculpture. This was a stone sculpture with sand on it. So… I\'m going to say no comment for now?" Thyme was shaking their head, "Fine I\'ll go generic with a five until I figure out what I\'m actually going to give this one," 

*Huh… well… he\'s not WRONG I suppose. I think Auctifer is too nice not to give them a good score in the end even if that observation is correct.*

Steve spoke next, "This is easily the best looking one we\'ve seen so far. I\'m giving the team behind this a nine. The only reason I\'m not giving them a higher mark is because I know you\'re a sneaky bastard Thyme. So I have high expectations," 

*Ah. I bet he figured out what Thyme was doing as well.*

Mint followed with a frown and said, "I\'m not really sure what Steve is talking about. This is a wonderful sculpture and I see no reason I shouldn\'t give it the full ten," 

*Welp. Hopefully you\'ll see a reason not to give them full marks in just a few minutes…*

Titania spoke up last, "I think that while this is certainly somewhat creative, the use of stone to support it brings things down for me. It\'s just a stone tree really, and those grow in nature as well. Still, it does look nice and there are quite a few little touches that raise my opinion. I\'ll give it a six for now, maybe a seven after I\'ve had more time to think,"