Tattle's Show for Freedom

TSFF - Thirteen

Mousey slowly awakened. Her head was throbbing for no apparent reason and she groaned quietly, irritated that she didn't have any painkillers like paracetamol. She noticed Feathery rising next to her and Paper Ball sitting somewhere off, staring at the ceiling. Collar was talking to Rat, who didn't look too amused; Mousey could hear a, 'you might find that funny, but to others that's bullying' and sighed softly. Despite their differences, Rat was definitely similar to her in concern for younger individuals. They barely had any time to say hello to Feathery before Tattle suddenly appeared and clapped his hands dramatically. "Wake up, contestants! Your time to rest is over, and it's time for the next challenge! Make your way to the competition grounds so we can start our third challenge!" He called out to them, before teleporting away. She shook her head and got up, helping Feathery stand and beckoning her team to follow.

Laser stepped into the grounds and peered at Tattle, alongside Food Bowl and Water Bowl. He glanced at the other teams beside his own and turned back. "I see all of you are here now - therefore it's time to announce what we'll be doing!" The host grinned, walking onto a little podium that meow had placed. They clicked their fingers, showing a hologram that Laser didn't notice he could do before. To him, that was interesting for sure. Tattle cleared their throat, moving the holograms around. "This challenge is simple. Your team will need to work together to carve anything out of stone. There will be a collective stack of tools for all of the teams to share, and you can make anything. The tools may be useful, and may be useless, but there are eighteen total; one for each member of your team. This challenge won't be based on what you make, but how you make it. It will have to be neat, with enough detail so it counts to the challenge. Good luck to you all!" He waved, the holograms disappearing and four slabs of stone and a tool pile appearing. Laser could hear a beeping sound, and a whistle with a 'go!' Laser ran forward and snatched up his item of choice; a chisel. What else would it be? He darted out of the way as a few of the other contestants came running. He felt a little sick watching them all falling into the pile, imagining how much that would hurt. He went to his team's designated stone, marked with a simple sign reading 'Team Cat'. Surprisingly, it wasn't that long before Bag, Tin, Food Bowl and Water Bowl arrived, seemingly unscathed and with pretty decent tools, except Bag. "Of course all of the good things had to be gone by the time I had finished battling with the other contestants." She glared angrily down at her... wooden sword? Laser couldn't help but laugh a little bit at this. "At least that can help you battle with them more." He pointed out, grinning. Bag wasn't amused at this remark at first but he could see the smile threatening to show on her face.

Feathery held a small knife of some sort, trying to understand how to carve a stone with this small thing. They looked at the knife's sharp points, the blunt edges, and felt across it. They spent a while thinking, before beginning to gently scrape the rock. This wasn't entirely effective, so it resorted to trying to hit the knife to crack the rock. That worked.. slowly. That was fine. That worked, slowly but steadily. Below them, Paper Ball held a chisel and carved small details with a bit of ease. The team had decided to carve a sort of cake shape, with the details of frosting and toppings on the top and layers of the cake at the bottom. They were making good progress. Feathery was proud of the team's collective effort, and how well they got along with each other. Since two of the four teams weren't entirely stable, it was good they had a bond that made them stronger. As they finished carving a layer of the cake with Paper Ball, Feathery stepped back to examine the work on the stone cake build as Mousey walked over, asking them a short and simple question; "Hi Feathery! Are you enjoying the challenge we have today?" There was a pause as Feathery shook their head. Mousey grinned, a little awkwardly; "Fair enough... I'm not a huge fan of it either. I had to do stone carving in school this one time, and I think mine was the worst in the entire class!" Feathery giggled a bit at this, smiling and replying, "I'm sure yours wasn't the worst, Mousey. You're probably just insecure about how talented you are!" Mousey flinched at this and looked away, embarrassed at this. "You aren't meant to be giving me the advice..." She smiled at them and they smiled back. "Well, come on Mousey! This stone cake won't carve itself!"

Three hours went by, slowly and full of hard team effort. As Tattle whistled to show the end of the challenge, the teams stepped back and waited. "I hope you all had a wonderful challenge, bonding with each other and trying to manage the tools you all had to work with! I'm sure it was difficult for some of you, with your wooden swords or plastic spoons." He giggled to himself, and the unamused faces of Bag and Clawey stood out in the groups. He continued, "anywho, I'd like a single member of each team to introduce what the team made! First, Team Cat." He turned to the group and Laser stepped forward, awkwardly stimming with his hands. "To show the name of our team, we made a stone sculpture of a cat. It isn't exactly the best, but..." He pointed over to the statue he made. It was... actually amazing. Paper Ball stared at the sculpture with admiration in his eyes for the talent of the team. He wished he could do stone carving this well... "Wonderful!" Tattle clapped his hands, smiling. "You clearly had a great team effort here, your determination and skill really show here!" Team Cat all appreciated this, and Paper Ball watched Bag and Tin give each other a high five. "Next, Team Bird! What do you have to show?" Scratchy stepped forward and waved his hand at the sculpture he made. "So, basically.. we made a round kitchen table. With several bowls, plates and cutlery on it. Out of stone. I think it could work as an actual table, but I couldn't care less." Scratchy shrugged as he said this and stepped back. "Interesting idea! It does look pretty practical.. maybe we could use this in the merge when there's less players to fit the size!" Tattle gave a thumbs up, before moving on. "Next, we have Team Rodent! What did you all make?" The team looked around, before Feathery stepped forward. "Uhhmm.. we made a giant cake out of stone! It isn't edible, of course, but uh... yeah! We have the toppings and frosting..." Feathery smiled and walked back to the team, where Mousey gave them a thumbs up and they seemed a bit more confident. "Nice! I love the details on it, and overall it looks great. Last but not least, Team Fish! What do you have in store?" Goldfish stepped forward, looking proud. "We decided to carve a statue of you! What better thing to make than a sculpture of our own host?" Goldfish grinned as Tattle looked at the statue. "You really got it down to the last detail, I see! Well, that is impressive!" The host gave the team applause, before making his way to the front. "You all made very amazing sculptures out of stone! I applaud you all, and I will make a decision later!" Tattle let out a laugh as the competitors let out groans of complaint, and he left quickly.

"This host is a pain to deal with." Collar gave a disappointed sigh.