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The Competitors: Kress, Borgick, Midnight, Stan, Ellenell 

The Assistants: Blue, Marigold, Carl, Gareth, Burgandy

--- Borgick & Marigold ---

"You know that idea that\'s \'just crazy enough to work\'? Well Borgick, I\'m pretty sure it hasn\'t worked," said Marigold. She was standing next to a big pile of somewhat wet sand. Her hands and legs were covered in sand that had gotten stuck and she had a frown on her face. 

Borgick sighed. She was right. In front of them the sand pile looked nothing like a cannon. In his mind, Timmy was good for collecting sand, but it didn\'t seem to be helping. "This… might be more difficult then I\'d initially thought yes. I\'m still somewhat committed to the idea… I just KNOW cannons. I can\'t see myself doing better with anything else… but we\'re not doing so well are we?" 

Marigold shrugged and said, "Look, I\'m as happy to keep going with this as I am to switching to something completely different. I\'m just not sure this is going to work. Even if we manage to get the base looking like a proper base, can we keep the cannon looking like a cannon? Or would the roof of it collapse under its own weight? I suppose I could try really compressing some of the sand into something closer to sandstone… but that\'s not going to be a fast process," 

Borgick shook his head slowly as he looked over the pile of sand. "I think what\'s really holding us back is the water ratio. I think we\'ve been a bit light on the water. If we just mix in a bit more, maybe pack the sand a bit tighter then we can really make a start," explained Borgick. 

"If we pack the sand too tight we won\'t be able to mould it into shape. Same if you\'re trying to make sandstone. You\'ll need to make sure you pack it into a curved shape so that we can use it for the top. Urgh… I\'m not really happy with this… look Marigold, you got any other ideas? We\'ve already wasted an hour and while I really WANT to do a cannon… but I can see it might not be working out," continued Borgick. 

Marigold just shrugged and said, "I\'m happy to stick with the cannon idea if we can figure out how to get it working," 

--- Midnight & Carl ---

Midnight and Carl both stared down at their completed sandcastle. They\'d managed to squeeze in a number of sand buckets all together to make a base, then filled in the gaps before adding extra buckets worth of sand at the corners, with two in the middle. It only went up to about armpit height, and sure they hadn\'t gotten to the detailed work yet… but it could certainly come out very nicely. That being said… it wasn\'t a BIG sandcastle. Not at all. 

"I feel like we\'ve failed with this attempt," said Midnight bluntly. 

"I have to agree with you somewhat," conceded Carl. "It\'s not BAD necessarily, and I\'m sure we could add a lot of life to it… but it IS rather tiny compared to what we were planning to do with it… and the fact of the matter is that we\'ve nearly finished it and we\'re only an hour in. I think we\'ve got to start from scratch and somehow make the castle a LOT bigger or… do something else? Maybe just add things around it or something?" 

Midnight sighed. "I\'m really not sure what to do about it. I know Thyme can give us larger buckets but I don\'t exactly know enough about this sort of thing to know HOW we go about making it larger. I\'m not sure just increasing the size of the buckets will work out for us," said Midnight. 

"I mean… couldn\'t we ask for a big wide bucket for the base?" asked Carl. 

"Yes… but I\'m not sure we could spin it over quickly enough to stop the sand going flying," answered Midnight. 

"What if… we like get a big shovel as well. A big flat one that one of us can hold to keep all the sand inside?" offered Carl. 

Midnight was nodding rapidly as he spoke, "Yes… yes that would be perfect. We can make use of much larger buckets with that technique. Good idea there Carl. What… what should we do with this little castle though?" 

Carl rubbed his chin as he looked at the castle. He stared at it for a few minutes before an idea came to him. "it seems like a waste to just destroy it… so what if we make it part of the overall… \'sculpture\' I guess is the word? We make a smaller castle like half the size, then we make a bigger one double the size, and if we have time make one double the size of that? Or maybe just like fifty percent larger, if that gets a bit much for the final castle," 

Midnight grinned and said, "Yes, yes I\'m rather liking that idea. We\'ll have to add a few details to this one, but that shouldn\'t take long. Should we do that before or after building the other castle," Carl shrugged. Still, they had a plan. 

--- Stan & Gareth ---

Stan and Gareth were looking at their first attempt at a sandcastle and… were not very happy with it. Not at all. One side of it had collapsed. The front \'door\' looked more like someone had dragged a finger through the sand at the front, and the main tower was more of a cone really. 

"I\'m proud of our efforts," said Stan firmly. 

Gareth… couldn\'t actually find it in him to disagree. The castle was rather ugly, and it was clearly falling apart but they\'d TRIED dammit, and looking at it now? It was rather satisfying all told. "Indeed. I\'m… surprised at how fun this was. I might need to look into building the odd thing with Kress when he goes to play with some sand," 

Stan nodded, "Well as long as it\'s not EVERY time Kress goes out. I\'ll need to sneak in a few dates here and there as well," 

Gareth, having already accepted Stan\'s way of thinking, and hoped for his success nodded and said, "Of course. I wouldn\'t want to get in the way of a date or something close to it. Still, perhaps I can talk Green around as well and we can make a double-date out of it. That would surely be less awkward then three of us," 

"Yes, that does sound like a fun idea," said Kress with a smile. A smile that quickly fell off his face. "Still… as proud as I am of our dinky little sandcastle… I can\'t say that it feels like a winner to me. Blasphemous perhaps, but as precious to my heart as it is, this sandcastle isn\'t winning any awards," 

Gareth sighed but nodded. He agreed with Kress completely. It was a sad but true statement. "Should we lean away from sandcastles then? Perhaps make a giant fish? Pack all the sand down, draw on the scales and hope that we\'ve got enough details on it to make it pop?" 

Stan pondered the question, "Hmm… I\'m not saying no… but I\'m not really sure our design skills are up to something like that," answered Stan. 

"I\'m not sure our sandcastle skills are up to making anything better," retorted Gareth with a  slight chuckle to show he meant no harm with it. 

"Yes… if only we could make better use of Timmy. Perhaps he can help us somehow? What is he doing anyway?" asked Stan. 

"We told him to gather sand… though I\'m not sure we ever told him where from or how much. So where is he getting it from and where is he putting it?" asked Gareth. 

Stan and Gareth looked around confused. There was no sign of Timmy. "I… I feel as though we may have made a mistake," said Stan. 

"Yes… I\'m getting that feeling as well. I… do we call him back?" asked Gareth. 

"I mean… we have to right?" asked Stan somewhat worriedly. 

"I mean… Timmy is just part of Thyme right? So it\'s not like he\'s at risk of dying?" offered Gareth. 

Stan nodded, then got an idea and said, "So… if he\'s a part of Thyme he should still here us when I do this right? TIMMY TIME TO COME BACK WITH THE SAND YOU\'VE COLLECTED!" 

Suddenly there was a rumbling, and then a mountain of sand was deposited on top of Stan and Gareth. It was actually dumped further back so that they could still breathe… but they were covered up to their chins in sand now. It was all over the place, and the only reason it was staying in the box HAD to be magic. "Well shit," said Stan. 

--- Ellenell & Burgandy --- 

Unlike the other teams, who were struggling for one reason or another. Some with ideas close to success… others… not so much. Ellenell and Burgandy were looking at their prototype tree with smiles. It was smaller than they planned for the final version, but this was just a test. It was working well. The tree itself ended up being porous so that the water in the sand could sink and make it \'cling\' to the tree better. The first prototype didn\'t really keep the sand on it as well as they\'d liked. The branches were a bit questionable as well, but Ellenell and Burgandy agreed that it\'d work better scaled up. 

"I feel like we\'re getting a bit behind," mumbled Ellenell. "This prototype was necessary but I can\'t shake the feeling that we\'re not making great time," 

Burgandy was about to respond when a giant pile of sand just seem to appear in the area next to them. "You know Ellenell? Something tells me we\'re not actually doing that bad," Burgandy said with a completely gobsmacked look on her face. 

Ellenell, confused, turned around and got just about the same look. "Oh… dear me. Well… I… I don\'t even know what to say to THAT. I guess… are they do some sort of insect nest? A warren perhaps?" 

Burgandy shrugged and said, "No idea, but I\'m guessing that was a poorly worded order to a Timmy," 

Ellenell looked down to the ocean at their own Timmy who was packing the sand well for them. But little else. "Perhaps…" mumbled Ellenell.