Kat: Main Protagonist Extraordinaire
----
Thyme clapped to get everyone focused on them, before sinking into the floor alongside the spinning wheels. A stage dropped from the ceiling with a Thyme in a tutu who said, "Sorry about that, I feel like I blanked out for about the time it would take to play a game of twister. Odd that. Now onto the current scores! Oh, and I get to reveal all of your team names! We've got, teams DK, and DS, as well as Team D, and then Team E and Team B. Which obviously makes perfect sense to everyone here,"
*Ok… what? How the heck are these teams named?*
[Pretty sure I know.]
*Really?*
[Right well, firstly, there's only one team with 'k' names in it, and that happens to be our team, and because I'm biased I'd guess our team is 'Team D-Kat'. Then, following that my guess for a similar reason, leads me to guess that team DS is 'Team D-Stan' so really both are 'Team Demon Person' which leads me to guess that Romilda's team is 'Team Dwarf' Marigold's team is 'Team Elf' and that makes Nell's team 'Team Beastkin' or something like that.]
*That's just crazy enough to be an acceptable answer I think.* Thyme waited for a few moments to see if anyone would speak up, but seeing mostly confusion continued. "Right so, clearly that's not enough of a hint. I'll add this in then currently the scores for all the teams can be seen behind you,"
Kat looked up and saw in first place 'Team DK' with 4 points. In second place, 'Team E' with 3 points. In third there was 'Team DS' with 2 points, with teams B&D both sharing fourth at 0 points. "Does this give you all a good enough clue as to who is who?"
*I mean… yes but I sort of hate the fact that you were right. Why are we team Demon Kat? I mean… why not have one of us be Team human and the other Team fae? And really, why is Romilda's team 'Team D' when they only have two dwarves. Don't answer that, I sort of get it… still weird..*
[You know what? I actually think it might all be for a sillier reason. Now that I'm looking at this… I'm wondering if it's so that Thyme can have as many teams with 'Team DX' as possible. It seems like the sort of silly thing they might do.]
*Hmm… maybe. We can ask Mint later to see what she'll say.*
[Oooh good idea.]
"Welp, that's the only hints you're getting till tomorrow. If you can't figure it out from this much I'm a bit worried about how you all managed to make it this far," Thyme shook their head with an overexaggerated sigh. "Moving on, I've got a few bits of news for you all. Dinner will be served in an hour, running for three hours with food being offered for the first two, and additional fancy drinks and snacks offered for the last hour. If you want a drink outside of that time, you can always get water, and sometimes something fancier but no promises.
"If you want me to stock up on something specific let me know when the cafeteria opens for dinner and I'll set aside a freezer full of whatever you request. Just know you'll need to return it at some point if you want refills, and I'll only be giving a maximum of one to each person. If you share, that's fine but the freezer I hand you is YOUR responsibility, not anyone else's.
"Um… hmm… what else… there's no curfew you can all stay up as late as you want but breakfast starts at six in the morning and runs until eight. We'll be having the next contest at ten and I expect everyone to meet me out on the docks for that where I'll show you to the next series of minigames. The first game will be Beach Volleyball. Each round, four contestants will be split into two teams with one having a bi.
"Your goal will be to win the most matches; matches are first to three and both you and your partner get a 'win' for the match if you make it. I'm not so silly as to only give a point to the person who took the team over the line. You'll play one match with each partner to give everyone plenty of chances to win points. Same rules as before, first place gets two for their team, and second place gets one at the end.
"After that will be the Log Splitting Contest. I don't really need firewood because I can generate it en masse or find plenty with just a touch of effort but I won't always be running this place, and I want to encourage more people to take up the sport. You'll be given thirty minutes to chop as many logs as you can into four, roughly even pieces. If the logs aren't split evenly, you don't get a point, you get a point for every four blocks, and if you just leave them in twos you won't get anything.
"The final contest… will be a secret. You'll have to sign up for it before you find out what it is. Just know that it will start at two in the afternoon and go until six. The full rules will be explained at two, and you'll get a bit of time to plan things before the challenge will officially start… but good luck deciding who to do it," said Thyme with a smile, melting away into the floor.
Only to pop back a moment later, "All questions will be addressed at breakfast. You can give them to me early, but I won't answer them till tomorrow morning. Rest well!" Thyme said before once again sinking back into the floorboards.
"I'll do it," said Kress.
"What?" asked Nixilei confused.
"Just trust me. I don't know what it is… but I have a really good feeling about this," said Kress firmly. "I'll take the secret challenge,"
"So will I then!" confirmed Stan from his group. Everyone else in it just shrugged.
"I guess I'm on log splitting then," said Kat with a shrug, ignoring Stan's comment entirely, not surprised at all by it. "I'll take the round afterwards off,"
"Ooh, in that case I want Gareth to do the volleyball match," said Green.
"Are you sure?" asked Nixilei with a raised eyebrow. "From what I know of the sport it's popular in some coastal areas and is more suited to your body type. Spin is the name of the game,"
Green nodded, hands clasped together as she said, "Yes… yes I understand that… but counterpoint," Green stopped to point at Nixilei, "This way I get to see shirtless Gareth, and I kinda want that,"
"You see him shirtless all the time!" shot back Nixilei.
Green shook her head, "No, no this is completely different. Shirtless Gareth doing sports is completely different to shirtless Gareth in the bedroom, or coming out of the shower. They have completely different appeals,"
Kat was about to question the logic of such a statement when she caught Lily nodding in the corner of her eye. The look on Lily's face clearly said that it made perfect sense for these things to be different. Kat raised an eyebrow at that. "Well Kat, it's like seeing my in lingerie or a swimsuit," said Lily.
"I don't get it, it's the same thing," said Kat, knowing that it probably wasn't for most people.
Lily just sighed, "Sorry Kat, I think this is just one of those things you'll never be able to understand. It just… it's just different ok? Though… I kinda want to see you in a swimsuit as well… hmm… but then I'd have to share. Decisions…"
"I don't have spare clothes though, only you do, and I don't think you brought a swimsuit…" said Kat.
"Ah, but before you caught back up to Mint, I asked a few questions and one of them was if we'd have clothes provided and the answer is YES we do have extra clothes. With resizing on them as well, so it should all fit," explained Lily.
Nixilei was just shaking her head. Clearly the planning for this next round had gotten away from her. Kress was insisting on the mystery event, Green was being distracted by thoughts of a shirtless sweaty Gareth and Lily had taken Kat's attention away just by talking. "Welp, guess there goes this planning session," grumbled Nixilei.
She wasn't truly annoyed. Green's reaction wasn't a surprise, and neither was Kat's. They had time to plan, plenty of it… but it was still a bit strange. Kress' nomination was particularly surprising, but Nixilei decided to just let it be. Either Kress would be right, and they'd get a point or two for his bold guess, or he'd lose and she could make fun of him for months. Win-win really.
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr𝒆e(w)𝒆bnovel