The Competition Plays Out

Marsha stared at her totem for a bit in confusion, especially since the totem felt surprisingly comfortable in her hand. It looked like a dinosaur woman that was generic in most of her defining features they were literally blank, the figure had a bust and butt that took up most of the body itself, so much so that you could almost not make out the limbs that were somehow symmetrically mismatched with different types of legs, arms, feet, and hands in a way that was somehow complimentary to the bosom and ass of the figure in her hands, even the tail seemed to be mismatched with different segments looking like they came from different saurians. Somehow this humanoid chimera managed to simultaneously be forgettably bland and immeasurably memorable at the same time, which was quite the feat in and of itself.

Looking over the idol a bit more, Marsha found something surprising, the idol was designed to be buxom at almost every angle. Just turning the idol to look at it from the side made it look more like two buxom dino ladies back to back. The end of the tail-like piece looked like it ended in a tip that had half a club on one side and two spikes on the other side, but turning the idol to its side made the end of the tail look as if it were a blank sauropod head with two horns on its back; turning the idol upside down turned the feet into nondescript hands and the hands turned into nondescript feet and made the two figures the idol seemed to be modeled after changed as well.

“I’m not quite sure what this is,” said Marsha as she held the totem and looked through her bag for something else; after a few minutes, she pulled up a midnight blue crystal, and as she held it up to the light to inspect it more, a pattern of constellations shown on the ground and trees nearby. “Well, that’s interesting.”

“Last I checked,” said Trisha, “you were a bit of an amateur astronomer but only really practiced on your days off.”

“Says the woman likes to play around with the concept of storm photography,” retorted Marsha playfully.

“What is photography,” inquired Molsalkisa.

“There’s a device in the world we grew up in called a ‘camera’,” said Trisha, “you use it to take pictures called ‘photos,’ and when you took pictures for one reason or another, the practice was known as Photography.”

“Sounds interesting,” said the ceratopsian woman, “now then, which of you two wants to go first in this exercise? And also, that totem seems to be modeled on a traditional Dino-kin fertility idol, other races have often referred to it as the ‘Erosaurian Idol,’ which I find mildly amusing.”

“I guess I’ll start,” said Marsha as she stepped up to the line. She looked hard at the furthest target and pointed at it as she said, “That is my first target,” all of a sudden, a bolt of radiant energy in the shape of a shifting star blasted from the tip of her finger and hit the target, “Okay, that was not what I was going for, but I’ll take it.” She then fired off two similar bolts with similar actions at the remaining targets.

“Well,” said the ceratopsian woman as she jotted down her notes, and presumably Marsha’s score, “I didn’t expect that, by your attire, you seem to be a Druid. My guess is that you’re the type of Druid that draws power from the stars.”

“She did slap me with a thorny vine earlier,” said Trisha, “I’m pretty sure that tracks.” She switched places with her sister, “I hope I can do a little more shock and awe now,” said Trisha as she reached out her hand toward the ranged targets, she suddenly shot out 3 streams of lightning that hit all 3 of the ranged targets.

“Well,” said Molsalkisa as she jotted some things down in her recording materials, “you seem to be a natural mage that channels the power of storms.”

“So,” said Marsha, “I’m a Druid and my sister is a Sorceress,” she turned her attention to her sister, “how come you get get the cooler title?” Trisha just shrugged with amused confusion before sticking her tongue out at her twin playfully for a moment.

The ladies moved over to the area of the course. “You’ll each go through 4 of the 8 swinging targets and react to them as best you can with either a spell or your own movements, then you’ll use an ability or spell to attack the target before moving on to the next one until all 4 of your designated targets have been dealt with,” said Molsalkisa, “after both of you have taken care of that, we’ll move on to the last of the currently finished tests.”

“What makes the tests after these ones we’re doing require extra work,” inquired Marsha.

“They’ll mostly be oriented towards testing Jonah’s abilities,” said the Ceratopsian woman, “the set of tests we have arranged here should be more than enough for your little competition; to keep things as even and neutral as possible, the scores for each area will only be given out after everything has been completed, which will be followed with the totals and some suggestions on how to improve your spellcasting ability. I’ll see about producing some study guides and practice guides for you later; those will take some time, so chances are you’ll have gotten these intense sexual urges out of your systems by then.”

“Much appreciated,” said Trisha, “since my sister started off the first challenge, I think I’ll start off the second challenge. Once we finish this, maybe we can do the same challenge at the same time.”

“I like the approach you suggested,” said Molsalkisa, “and we’ll do that for this section of the tests. That said, your suggestion for the last part would only really work with more than one record keeper, which we currently do not have. Ulnarka is here as a guardian, and not much more, for the time being. Please move into position,” she gestured to the left side of the setup.

“Got it,” said Trisha stepping up to where the ceratopsian woman indicated, finding some defined standing points, and stepping into the closest one to the edge. Molsalkisa and Marsha set up to watch fifteen or so feet from the blocks.

Almost as soon as Trisha had fully stepped into the three-foot square, the first of the blocks came swinging towards her; she noticed it a little late and reacted with what looked like a sparking shield that appeared out of nowhere and made a low thunder crash when it was hit. “Okay,” said Trisha, “that seemed instinctual,” she then grabbed at the block and issued an electric shock to it that left something akin to a hand-shaped electric burn on the wood.

“I see,” said Molsalkisa as she jotted some things down, “please move on to the next square.” Trisha did as she was instructed, ducking out of the way the following 3 before grabbing them and using the same electrical gripping spell she had utilized.

“Okay,” said Marsha, “looks like it’s time to switch out,” as Trisha finished up the last of her four blocks. She moved over to the opposing side of the rig as Trisha moved toward the location Marsha had been watching from.

Almost as soon as Marsha entered the first square, the first block came swinging down towards her; she knew this was triggered by a spell that Molsalkisa was using to release the blocks from their locking pegs thanks to watching the whole thing, and she was much more perceptive than her sister and managed to duck out of the way much faster than her sister’s shielding response had happened before standing back up next to the block and basically blasting it with a loud burst of thunder, the concussive **** of shot managed to cause it to swing back up and surprisingly latch back onto its locking peg. “Well,” said Marsha, “that was unexpected, and a bit more stylish than I thought a loud blast of sound could be.

“Please move on to the next square,” said Molsalkisa as she jotted some things down.

“Well,” said Trisha from her observation point, “that was a bit louder than anticipated, see if you can keep it a little quieter next time, please.”

“Yeah,” said Marsha before moving to the next block, "that seems more your wheelhouse.” She moved to the next block, once again ducking out of the way, this time she used the thorny vine she used to slap her sister with to strike the block from the side so it didn’t potentially hit her on the return swing, she had gotten lucky with the first block, but she had no intentions of pushing her luck. After waiting for the swinging to subside to a safe level, she headed to the next square, once again ducking out of the way, this time she grabbed it with the vine and pulled it straight down, breaking the line of rope it was attached to at the point it met the block. She repeated this with the last remaining block.

“Alright,” said Molsalkisa as she finished jotting things down, “we’ll be moving to the blank mannequins next; your goal for the exercise is to use your spells and abilities in any way you can think of to dress the mannequins,” she turned her attention to Marsha, “you’ll start this session off, choose one of the two figures and see what you can do to dress it, your sister will take the other one after you’re done.”

Marsha stepped up to about ten feet from the blank mannequins; she slowly gestured with her hands as she playfully said, “Let's see if I can grow this thing an outfit.” Over the next few minutes, she grew vines, flowers, and the like around the mannequin. She wasn’t that much of a fashionista, but Marsha was pretty sure she had a decent image for the outfit, something that literally was of the jungle, and decently covered things in a conservative way that also would work as an outfit for warm and hot environments. When work was done almost a dozen minutes later, the outfit was noticeably skimpier than what Marsha was shooting for. She had been shooting for a leotard-like outfit, she ended up with a very revealing leotard.

“An interesting application of a mid-level spell,” said Molsalkisa as she wrote out some more down.

Trisha stepped up next to her sister, shooting a quick glance over to the work her sister had done with the mannequin on the left, “Something tells me that’s not quite what you were shooting for,” said Trisha playfully, “Now, let’s see what I can do.” She reached out with her hand towards the mannequin on the right while grepping her own attire and said, “I hope this swimsuit goes the way I’m thinking it will, time to create something new.” the shadows around the doll began to spar as they collected and coalesced around the statue, they left behind a one-piece swimsuit adorned with storm iconography almost as intricate as the outfit Trisha herself was in, the bikini had a considerable cleavage window and lightning-bolt-shaped abdominal window where the bellybutton would be on the waist. “Those windows were supposed to be a little smaller,” remarked Trisha.

“And my leotard wasn’t supposed to be nearly as revealing,” remarked Marsha.

Molsalkisa sketched, jotted, and wrote out some more in her materials before turning to the twins; “Well,” she said, “I have everything recorded now. Trisha got some bonus points in the first portion for striking all the targets with the same spell, and got some bonus style points for adjusting an existing spell to be more on theme with her aesthetic…”

“I don’t even know how that happened,” said Trisha, “it was basically instinctual.”

“But,” continued the ceratopsian mage, “Marsha pulled things into a tie with her actions in the second portion, it was the variety applied that earned her the bonus points that resulted in that. And in the final portion, while Marsha did perform well above expectations, it was Trisha’s work that pulled out the win, I’ve never seen an outfit like that, and it’s styled in the storm theme she’s been using the entire match.”

“Pure happenstance,” said Trisha, “it was almost like I was doing most of it on instinct, and I wasn’t even trying for the storm aesthetic, it just happened.”

“Which is what makes it all the more impressive,” said Molsalkisa, “I’ll be sharing these findings with my colleagues in academia; as for the outfits your both made for the competition, I’ll reach out to some associates in the appropriate crafting guilds and some of the merchant guilds I am in contact with.”

“Well,” said Marsha as she turned to her sister, “you get to bone him first, please try to at least make sure he’s able to get down with me within the same week, if possible.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” said Trisha, “but no promises yet, we still don’t know what these bodies are capable of yet. By my estimations, it will probably take us a few weeks, if not months, to get a handle on most of the basics of these bodies and the world we’re currently in.”

“Fair enough,” said Marsha, “best of luck, sis, and do try to save some of him for me.”

“Alright,” said Mosalkisa, “let’s get both of you and your companion fed, you likely wasted quite a bit of energy on this, and I have a feeling your sexual encounters will make whatever energy you spent on this seem meaningless by comparison.