Marigold and Gareth, vs Burgandy and Carl featuring Blue on the sidelines.
Gareth POV chapter.
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Gareth stepped onto the oversized volleyball court, marked out with thin wooden strips around the edges that rested on top of the sand. If he was from Earth, he'd notice the proportions were all wrong, but alas, to him this all seemed completely normal. The court had tripled in size, though the net remained at about the same height. Gareth stepped onto one side, with Marigold following closely behind.
*Ok, I don't know anything about my competition, but I can work with Marigold well enough. I've heard more than a few rumours about her… but she should be a decent teammate. Honestly, the real challenge for this round, and a few of the following ones, will be making sure not to get Green mad at me.
I mean, who choses to wear so little? Granted I might not be wearing a shirt, but I'm worried that Marigold's top will come off if she moves too much. Something that's likely to happen. That towel around her waste is barely sufficient but at least it's something. Blue and Burgandy both have much more reasonable outfits, so perhaps I should focus on them?
Eh, it's not like it's easy to stir up Green's jealousy, but that's not something to just take for granted. No, leave that for now. Focus on the game. I can go over potential measures to keep my fiancé happy later. Perhaps I can ask Thyme for a picnic basket and go on a moonlight date somewhere on the island? Yes, that sounds wonderful.*
Gareth felt the sand shift beneath his feet as he hopped from one side to the other. *Hmm…* Gareth stomped down on the ground and flooded it with his mana. He felt some parts of his clothing react to the excess mana, but simply filed it away for now. Burnice, seeing this copied his action, resulting in the entire playing field solidifying into sandstone. "Well that sure does defeat the point of 'beach volleyball'" said Thyme, in a cheery voice.
Gareth whipped his head around to see Thyme dressed up in bright colours and an open floral printed shirt, knee length pants that had sandcastles decorated with colourful shells on them, and open toed shoes. Thyme had just barely present breasts and a feminine figure while keeping a rather androgynous but loud voice. The long hair did tip the scales a bit further. Of course, the cap and sunglasses felt like a bit much.
*I suppose Thyme couldn't keep up the dreary act long.* Which almost felt like an understatement. Thyme had situated themselves on a high chair that let them see the entire board. It was decked out with colourful shells of its own and had a bright yellow and red cloth as a sun shade over the top, with a pink flag on one side and a blue one on the other.
Gareth turned to the other side and found a matching Thyme, with their shirt practically falling off and a more masculine frame. They hadn't said anything yet, but instead of flags they had a scoreboard on either side. Both said 00 right now, and the numbers could be flipped over to mark out the current scores.
"Hey Gareth, do you think you could hand me a long hard rod?" asked Marigold, knocking Gareth out of his introspection.
"What?" asked Gareth, partially thinking he'd heard wrong as he turned to see Marigold posing to show off her legs.
"A nice hard rod. I didn't bring my axe, and Thyme might have disallowed it anyway… but if you make me a nice thick rod from between your rocks then I can bounce around the arena much more easily. For that's magic, and it's only being used on our half of the field," said Marigold with a grin.
"Did you really have to ask for a stone pole like that?" asked Gareth as he walked to the edge and did just that. Trying not to leave a hole in the court now that he'd solidified that.
"What? Not used to having women handle your rod?" said Marigold, causing Gareth to almost lose control of the magic he was using. It wasn't really a spell, but it did require some careful manipulation.
"Can you lay off the inuendo? I'm rather happy with my fiancé thank you very much, and I don't particularly feel like dealing with… whatever this is," said Gareth as he gestured vaguely in her direction as he pulled the pole Marigold had asked for from the ground. Gareth didn't bother making an axe head or anything fancy, just getting it solid enough for use was already somewhat difficult. He didn't know if it would hold up as it was let alone if he tried to give it an edge.
"Are you sure? If you've got a fiancé surely compliments about your rock hard rod is commonplace… unless… well I suppose she does tend to sleep a lot. Perhaps you're pent up?" said Marigold.
Gareth hurled the stone at Marigold, not really caring if she caught it or not. As it happened. She didn't even try, Marigold bent her knees a bit so that the pole would impact her right on the left tit. "Oh? Slapping my boobs with your thick rod? Why whatever would your fiancé say?" said Marigold without shame.
"I'd say it's a great show keep going!" shouted Green from the sidelines with a thumbs up. Marigold, of course, shot back a grin and her own thumbs up while Gareth buried his face in his hands. *Why did I agree with this? And why is Green enjoying this so much? Wait. No, she's the one who still calls the Queen 'Titty' I know exactly why she's enjoying this.*
"I'm glad you're all enjoying whatever this is," said Thyme with a grin, speaking from both bodies at once, "but we do need to get started. So… Blue! Who's serving?"
"Wait me?" said Blue, shocked at the question.
"Yup! That's your prize for being denied the chance to get all hot and sweaty with three other people first thing in the morning. It's not true compensation, but it's all I can offer," said Thyme, feigning sadness while pretending to wipe tears away from their faces.
Marigold burst out into a mad cackle as she leaned heavily Gareth's rod to keep herself from falling over. Gareth just kept his head in his hands. Not wanting to engage in this nonsense. Especially not now that Thyme and Marigold seemed to be teaming up. Blue looked around awkwardly at the contestants, then a Thyme, then, deciding that she didn't really want to deal with this either cast a spell to summon up a water-ball.
Blue then hid it behind her back. "Carl! How many balls do I have hiding behind my back?"
"Um… one?" responded Carl.
Blue nodded, "Burgandy?"
Burgandy frowned at the question, but answered, "Three,"
"Gareth?" Blue asked.
*Hmm… I don't really know how many… but lower numbers are probably better… unless Green went right to her maximum? Not sure… but let's go with…* "I'll go with Five," said Gareth.
Blue nodded, then turned to Marigold who answered before Blue could even ask, "I think you've got two great big blue balls behind your back,"
"Well I'm happy to say you're wrong Marigold, the answer was three. Burgandy, do you want to serve first or second?" said Blue, not looking at Marigold who was pouting in Blue's direction.
"Um, first, we'll serve first," said Burgandy.
Blue nodded, "There you go Thyme. Burgandy's team can serve,"
"Boo, I wanted you to be forced to choose. Would you go with the team that beat you once before? The member of your own race, the fae? The princess in an attempt to curry favour with the elves? The human lordling that is striving for better interracial relations? Or perhaps trying for Carl, and perhaps curry favour with the only person I'm certain is single on the field," said Thyme.
"Um, I have a boyfriend thank you very much," said Carl.
"Wait you do?" said the female Thyme. "And you didn't tell me? For shame,"
"Hey, and if we're doing this technically speaking I'm unmatched," said Marigold wiggling her eyebrows and ears in Blue's direction. "I've seen some wicked water spells in the bedroom and I'm more than happy for you to pick me up,"
Everyone in the audience turned to Burgandy. "Fuck off I'm not telling you guys if I'm dating anyone or not,"
"She's single!" shouted Willow. To stir things up more.
"So are you, you little shit," retorted Burgandy.
"Yeah, and I'm not trying to hide that fact!" shot back Willow.
Blue shrunk into herself and slowly started to hide behind Thyme's oversized chair, not wanting to get mixed up in… whatever the heck was going on now. *Welp. Things have gotten out of hand, and Thyme's clearly just making things worse. Is this Thyme's idea of how to break the ice with everyone? I get that we didn't really mingle much after yesterdays games… so is Thyme trying to force stuff to happen?*
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