Subject: pumpkin carving contest 347 views

[nachtmare]

pumpkin carving contest

At the grassy miniature park within Asuka City, a row of pumpkins evenly spaced lay on a fitting tarp. Each pumpkin was around 2 feet (61 cm) tall and 1 1/2 feet (45.7 cm) wide. Every one of them were ripe for the pickings, perfect little bundles of data ready to be carved. They carried the same toughness as a real pumpkin.

A panel of judges sit at the ledge peering down into the park. There are three of them, with a large golden trophy carried by the one in the middle. It looks like any traditional trophy in real life, with the exception of a pumpkin on the very top.

rules and guidelines

• your character has one knife
  
• the knife can break, it's not invincible
  
• characters may use techniques
  
• you may enter multiple contests with the same character
  
• you may enter more than one character
  
• after posting, you may not edit your post
  
• you may only post once per character in this thread
  
• you will be judged on the creativity of your post

[homme]

normal tamer • crest of purity • kudamon

Lucien was very, very good with knives. It was a talent, a proper skill. Generally he was using them on things a lot more animated than a pumpkin, but that was neither here nor there. It wasn't as if he'd actually hurt anyone for... what, two years? He'd hurt so many people before, though, that he was fairly sure he still had plenty of karma to pay off - if he even believed in karma.

As it was, though, it was strange to have a knife back in his hand. He hadn't even been given a knife to eat with, and this one was alarmingly sharp. Someone could be hurt - or, he supposed, someone could feel pain. Even if he stabbed someone, they'd just be logged out, completely unharmed. A pointless thought, really. For once, Lucien didn't feel any need to hurt anyone. Anyone who had hurt him in the past was so far gone it was hard to be mad at them. The only thing that was getting hacked up was the pumpkin.

Even if Lucien was very, very good with knives, he wasn't much of an artist. Any design was going to have to be particularly angular. Picking out a slightly wider pumpkin then the rest (even if they were largely identical), he scooped it up, hauling it over to a carving table and setting it down. What could he carve out that was nothing but sharp angles?

The water. It was his view - the only scenery he'd gotten to look at for the past year. It was all angles, all skyscrapers towering over the waterfront. Plenty of angles, not very many curves... layered and intricate. He could do that. He checked the sharpness of the blade before going to work - carving out the quick rough outlines of the buildings and the bay itself.

It was all layers from then on out - stripping down the outlines into a layered pattern. Thinner let more light in, showing light reflecting across the water, and the outline of light from windows. The occasional mistake was covered up with more windows, or more waves. It adjusted with his mistakes, but the longer he took with it, the better it got. Eventually though, it was done - and he stepped back, nearly stepping on the dozing kudamon at his feet.

Not bad. He was sure others would do better, but it was nice to do something on his own. It was nice, wasn't it? Even so, all things had to end - and he placed the knife down, abandoning that temptation as he finished his entry.

[prince]

LOVENOTES ON THEIR HEADSTONES

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Lucca was no swordsman. All throughout high school, as well as his childhood, he'd specialized in archery above all other sports. He was high in the accuracy stat- if we were talking roleplaying- and knew little about wielding a bladed weapon. All he knew was the stabbing motion. But Lucca hoped a keen eye and a lot of patience would get him to the number one slot of this contest. It was a pumpkin. He'd carved them before, every single Halloween. But he'd always cut faces into them. Just scary faces. It was time to try something new.

A circle was cut around the stem of the pumpkin, being pulled free to allow a white fox Digimon to snake its way into the orange fruit's guts. The inside of the pumpkin was scraped clean within a few minutes, seeds and strings of mush in a pile on the table that the pumpkin sat atop. The pipe fox slithered free of the now empty cage, licking his maroon claws clean of the squash-like fruit's remains. Kudamon had done his part- for now. He left his tamer to the carving, tending instead to his pipe, which had turned into quite a sticky mess after fitting it inside the massive pumpkin's shell along with him. He simply refused to part with the holy item. It might as well be his life source.

The moment that Lucca started carving, his knife never quite went all the way through the pumpkin. It reached halfway through the skin, shaving away at the hard exterior to make it easy to dig into the pumpkin's meat. Rather than cut holes into the fruit, he left a quarter of an inch of flesh to keep onlookers from seeing inside. When a light was later placed inside the future jack o'lantern, it would shine through and cause the carved picture to glow.

At first, it looked like a snake, wrapping around the pumpkin. It's tail started at the bottom and it's head reached the opening near the top. It's mouth was wide, ready to eat any hand that tried to reach into the hole and take whatever treasures were hidden inside. But the picture was no snake.

It became obvious soon what Lucca was drawing as he kept looking to his Kudamon, who's eyes were fixed firmly on his tamer. They both knew what was going on. The holy Digimon was still as a stone, arms crossed comfortably in front of him as he waited for his tamer to finish. But it was taking a long time. It was only when Kudamon yawned in boredom that Lucca was able to carve in the details of his sharp fangs, protruding from the the bottom row of teeth.

Where the Kudamon's markings were, the pumpkin was a few centimeters thicker, making sure they would be visible to watchers. They might not know what the carving is otherwise. The picture's ears were flat against the back of its head, thin slivers of pumpkin making the line between the ears and the rest of its body clear.

Lucca found the eyes to be the hardest part of his portrait. It took careful concentration, his face almost pressed against the pumpkin- enough that he could smell that intoxicating odor. He was going to need pie after this. Unlike the Kudamon's markings, which used thicker pumpkin skin than the body, the eyes were thinner. That quarter of an inch of pumpkin flesh turned into half of that, a hand pressed to the inner walls of the pumpkin to make sure he wouldn't cut right through.

Until he got to the pupils. The only detail on the entire Kudamon carving where he got to stab right through the walls of the fruit. The pupils became empty holes. Without light, they looked like dark, bottomless pits. But, once the jack o'lantern was filled with candles, those eyes would burn brightly with a fire. A real fire.

There was no way that Lucca could figure out to get the shading of the Kudamon's dark nose right, so he skipped that step. The carving also lacked the Kudamon's precious and holy pipe. But, in this picture he'd carefully spent so much time on, the Digimon was possessively wrapped around a pumpkin. Which, Lucca thought, would be just as useful to hide in as the pipe was. So, what was the problem here?

Even if Lucca couldn't win this, he was proud of himself. The knife was placed back on the table, his aching as lightly sliced up fingers having to be pried from it as he fell back into his seat. There was a laugh- short, amused, and pleased. When was the last time he'd put so much effort into anything? The tamer felt worthy of an award, even if that award just happened to be a compliment and a pat on the back. All of the fun he'd had was worth the time and effort.

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[hero]

YOU'VE GOT THE MARK OF A BEAST

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Halloween was easily Hero's favorite holiday. The pumpkin carving was his second favorite part of it all. The first was showing up at strangers' doors and taking their free candy. If only the NPCs in Digimon Online would give out free candy to their players. Too bad it wasn't even real candy. Just zeros and ones that had a nice taste to them.

Hero had always been the kid who thought pumpkins throwing up their insides had been funny. He made them almost every year. He was never very creative and always took ideas from pumpkins he saw around the streets he grew up in. As soon as the pumpkin mush was dug out, leaving an empty husk, Hero was digging his knife eagerly into what would become the face of the jack o'lantern.

The hardest side of the pumpkin was picked to start carving into, after feeling his way around the orb and avoiding the soft spots. The blade was stabbed right through, quickly sawing at the fruit in the best circle he could. Hero was no artist. The eyeball he was trying to cut for his masterpiece was kind of oval and jagged. No one said this pumpkin had to look like a human. It was a demon eye! Of an evil demon Digimon. Anyone who looked at the pumpkin should be able to know that, he was sure.

Next came the mouth. Hero punctured through the hard surface, starting to cut a long line from one side of the pumpkin to the other. Then the curved line beneath it to make the mouth look like a giant D. As if it were a happy face. But a happy pumpkin wouldn't do. The knife was twisted in the attempt to carve deformed fangs into the pumpkin's mouth. But the knife didn't bend that way. The blade snapped right from the handle, which Hero yanked back in panic. In his hand now was only the wooden hilt. The blade remained stuck inside the jack o'lanterns mouth, as if it were eating it. This couldn't be safe. He hadn't even finished both of the eyes yet!

A weak whine and he threw the handle to the ground, looking at Lopmon with a desperate look in his eyes. They had to finish this pumpkin! Hero tried to dig his nails into the fruit, clawing at it in hopes of making holes. Of course, it didn't work. He made little dents and small scratches. But the only thing he succeeded at doing was bending his nails back and breaking one. Ow. This wasn't success at all. "Lopmon!" Hero really needed help.

The Digimon who'd only sat by up until then, watching her tamer struggle as she giggled away, jumped up to the plate. It was her turn! Too bad she wasn't strong enough to have any techniques yet. Instead, she ran for the pumpkin and bit down at the top. With her little teeth, she bit and pulled at the hard exterior, managing to chew a hole in it. Unfortunately, the hole didn't go all the way through and just looked as though she'd taken a bite out of a massive apple. With a defeated sigh, she sat down too beside her tamer and stared at the pumpkin intently. What was there to do? Hero had gone ahead and broken their only tool!

"H-here... we'll just add decorations," Hero quickly stated, determined to make this work out. If he couldn't make more holes, he'd have to find other ways to make this the coolest pumpkin to ever be on display. With bare hands, Hero dug his hands into the nearest pile of pumpkin mush and white seeds, lifting it and dropping it on top of the pumpkin. Hero wasn't a stylist either, but he tried to position the stringy substance in ways that would hopefully resemble hair. Really grotesque and slimy hair. But it was Halloween! Slimy worked.

See? It was already becoming beautiful. But each of Hero's breaths were fast, trying not to panic. He was down one- and his only- knife. He'd been really excited to show everyone up and win this. With his elbow, he tried to make another hole. But it was nowhere near sharp enough. Instead, he rammed his right elbow- and then switching to his left after it started to ache- against the pumpkin where he wanted the second eye to be. It took a few minutes and his arms started to ache. But there was finally a deep indent that still hadn't broken through. It would work! But then for the last touch to complete that hollowed eye.

Without removing the knife from the pumpkin's mouth, he gently slid his fingers along the sharp end of the blade. A gasp and he had to jerk them back. It wasn't real! That's what he had to tell himself. Despite how much it stung, the pain wasn't real. The blood couldn't be real either. But it looked real. His hand shook and he smeared the bit of blood from his fingers into the pit he'd created. He had to make sure the eye socket was bloody. It was a Pumpkinmon gone wrong. Terribly wrong.

But still, as Hero managed to pull his stinging fingers away, he smiled at his work of art. It was ugly. Terribly ugly. The hair and blood only made it worse. If anything, it was kind of gross. What was this monster that Hero had just created? The way it stared at him with that jagged smile and bladed tooth? It sent shivers down his spine.

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[lupo]

pumpkin carving was not something she was good at. fighting and battling other players, now there was something that she could boast, but carving a pumpkin? that took skill, a skill ruki was persistant to learn. at first ruki was going to carve the pumpkin into a likeness of renamon, until she realized that was a bit too out of her skill range. debating on what to carve, for normal faces in a pumpkin was a bit too normal, ruki narrowed her brilliant blue eyes in utter frustration.

equal blue eyes of her partner peered at the pumpkin, reaching one white furry claw out to touch the rough skin, ebony painted nail digging in and tracing a light pattern across. "renamon!" ruki hissed between clenched teeth, eying the pumpkin as if she could turn it into flame via stare. she knew she had to get started, the sooner the better otherwise she'd miss out. time was already ticking onwards. and the contest would end even if she was still busy hacking away at the giant vegetable.

beside her sat the carving knife she would use, picking it up with her left hand whilst trying to think of what to carve. in the end she decided to stick with renamon. sure it probably wouldn't look anything like her partner but doing something was better than staring at it. "renamon, stand still, don't blink!" padding closer to the pumpkin, the girl stabbed the vegetable, inwardly groaning as she felt the knife go in, not deep as she thought, but mere inches. the pumpkins thick skin was enough that she needed to use force. "i can help." renamon offered, a fang peeked from beneath her lip as she stared at her tamer. all she had to do was use her diamond storm technique and that would make the skin less durable, and thus, easier to cut.

ruki, being ruki, ignored the offer, not wanting to sink as low as using a tech when she was capable of handling this herself. she didn't know what the others were doing, didn't care, all she was focused on was herself. knowing she would not be able to do the entire body in time, she settled on the head, and it proved to be tricky. first she made the outline of renamon's foxy head, scoring the lines where she needed to fully cut away bits of pumpkin. once the scoring had been done, she worked on the top part, cutting pumpkin away around the ears and smoothing it with her hands every so often. working on getting the head clear took time, and ruki was beginning to wonder if she started too late.

after the ears and the rest of the face left the eyes, nose and other small pieces. including the pattern beneath renamon's eyes. flicking her hand towards her, renamon padded close to her tamer and waited for any instruction. as she carved in the pattern, she heard a snap, and watched in dismay as the knife blade broke in half. as the broken piece clattered to the grass, ruki almost growled: yet she was a game moderator, staff of the game, and she wasn't about to make herself look bad just for that. still, she was seething: her eyes narrowed into slits and she could kill if anyone dared say something. using her hands to finish up, she even had renamon to grab some of the messy pumpkin and move it to the side.

when she was finished, it didn't look like an exact replica of renamon, but at least one could see that it was renamon's head. at least, she hoped.

[maverick]

It was time they entered into one of the contests that were setup around the game, and what better one than pumpkin carving. He looked at the knife and the pumpkin, trying to think of an interesting pattern to carve. He was trying to think of a way to design it, when suddenly, there was an axe heading his way, and his body instinctively flung itself backwards to the ground. Looking to the source, Pyre head decided to cut the top of it off, but took a rather large swing to make sure he got through the pumpkin.

"Oi, oi, watch where you're swinging that thing, I don't need to be any shorter than I am," he poked at the reptile, as it blinked, looking back at him confused, before seeing that the axe was hovering over head. Rubbing the back of his head, Pyre had a sheepish grin on his face, apologizing to maverick. Although, it did give Maverick an idea now, as he went to work slowly with the knife to make sure it didn't break while he was working. With a few quick strokes, there was the eye-patched face on the pumpkin, with scratch marks along the 'eye-patched' side.

Cleaning out the innards, he tilted the pumpkin so that Pyre could shoot a baby flame into it. The flames burned a little higher than they imagined though, as it looked like the pumpkin had fire for hair now. Of course, this worked for them, and to add the finishing touch, the put battle axe the agumon had into the pumpkin's side to make it appear to be wielding it.

They had the strongest pumpkin of the lot now!

(sneaking in, unless I can't in which case, don't mind me |D)

[nachtmare]

+ Contest Results

The winner of the Pumpkin Carving Contest is hero. Second place goes to maverick and third to lupo. Your awards will be sent to your inventory. Participants will receive a bonus 5 xp for joining. Thank you for participating!