?


    As all the groups left the pier, the copies of Thyme all rushed together, before splitting apart. Now, there were three Thymes, one in a butler outfit, one in pirate getup, and a final one dressed as a maid. Except, the butler one took more feminine features,rge behind, noticeable breasts and a pinched waist, while the maid Thyme had massive arms and legs with bulging muscles to match March. The pirate was split down the middle, with one half looking feminine and one-half masculine. Apparently, Thyme wanted to look as crazy as possible.


    It was the pirate Thyme that spoke first. "Yarr, wee to me ind. I couldn''t give yar a vacation for this round, so I did the next closest thing maties!" Kat''s trantion ability informed her that Thyme wasn''t quite sounding that way, but they were trying to go for the realm''s equivalent of a fake pirate ent so it was close enough.


    The butler Thyme stepped forward to continue speaking… except just to keep things mixed up their voice was even gruffer then the pirate''s, despite the formalnguage used. "Now that you have been cordially invited to my ind, I shall inform you that the first four rounds will be made up of a thematic set of three party games. Nobody can go skip more than one round of participation, and nobody can participate in three rounds in a row,"


    Maid Thyme stepped forward, their voice was softer then silk, and seemed to tickle the ears. Stan, the incubus on the middle team, looked way too interested after maid Thyme started speaking, "Though there will be one event that I am specifically banning Kat, and perhaps Romilda from as well. To pre-empt the obvious question, it involves flying, or more urately, falling while aided and the ability to simply fly instead of participating in the task properly is too much of an advantage. Topensate, I will allow Lily to participate in Kat''s stead, though Kat and Lily will count as the same ''person'' for rules purposes.


    "For Romilda, I will have to investigate if there is a suitablepromise. If you are willing to ept having your metal taken from you for the task, and returnedter then I can simply allow you to participate in that event if you wish… or if that is uneptable you will have to remain barred,"


    Pirate Thyme stepped forward to continue, "Yarr, it seems that simply giving Romilda the option is a mighty bigpromise already. No offence to the weess, but while these activities are nothing serious, they are mostly test of physical ability. Of course, Kat will be restricted same asst round, so perhaps swapping out will be fine,"


    *Well I suppose that tells me that the other demon isn''t as strong as I am. I wonder if he will be restricted at all? Though I suppose there is also the chance that he just wasn''t around for the previous round of events.*


    Romilda floated around for a bit with a frown on her face, "I can''t be separated from my metal, and I don''t particrly like the fact that you''re forcing my team to take a disadvantage because o'' that fact,"


    All the Thymes just shrugged before one more split off into a dwarf Thyme that then started to float… somehow. Lily, who had a small sense for things because of her space affinity, even if it wasn''t properly active realised that Thyme was standing on solidified space. Which was apparently a thing you could do.


    "I ept your displeasure and return your displeasure with bit of information. I don''t care. It is well within my rights to dictate the specifics of a task, and if you wish to get into the specifics, the task in question disallows anything that would allow for flight, or levitation. This means if you want to participate you need to relieve yourself of your metal…


    "Yet you don''t see Katining. She has WINGS for crying out loud. She could argue that her wings aren''t a flight aid, as they are part of her body, and if she really wanted to press the issue, I might have to let it go and allow her the chance topete regardless of my feelings on the matter. You may notice, that the boon I provided, the ability to allow Lily to swap in, is also technically allowed in the rules.


    "Lily counts as a familiar ording to the rules. The fact that Lily ispletely sentient and basically a 6th person for their team doesn''t matter. I''m actually cing TWO restrictions on Kat''s team by forcing only one of them topete in the events, but we all know that would be unfair, and once again, you don''t see themining. Not even about the fact that Lily CAN remove her wings, so theoretically, if they used that line of reasoning, Lily could participate despite Kat''s bans.


    "Heck, arguably, the restriction bracelet that Kat is willing to wear isn''t strictly necessary. The rules are really fuzzy about it. Especially in regards to if Kat can destroy it or not, and because I am actually a bit annoyed at your Romilda, I''ll reveal this. Kat, ording to the rules, if you can destroy the restriction bracelet during a round, you get to finish the round without one, before I am required to make another, tougher restrictor if possible,"


    "Oh," said Romilda, not wanting to argue more, but not trusting herself to hold back from yelling if she said anything else. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Oh indeed. I may be a bit unorthodox, but I already said I was trying to make this round of the tournament as rxing as possible. That''s why you''ll all be staying here in what happens to be a new luxury resort! I''ll be opening it up to the publicter on, but I started a chain of them so that I could use them as a location for all of the teams, not just the five here," exined dwarf Thyme.


    *Huh… well I don''t n to make use of that information because getting on Thyme''s bad side seems like a horrible idea… and it seems a lot less fun.*


    [Would you HAVE to for the Contract though?]


    *Nope, because the Contract was never to win, it was just to turn up remember? And it hasn''t really been renewed properly I don''t think? I''m not sure how it works exactly, and I''d ask D.E.M.O.N.S just to make sure it hasn''t been an issue, but I suspect it won''t answer me.*


    [Let me try]


    D.E.M.O.N.S cannot answer that question right now due to restrictions.


    [Should''ve listened apparently.]


    Romilda floated back into her team, scowl on her face. It wasn''t as though she didn''t understand why Thyme had made such a rule. Thyme clearly had no idea how egregious of a social foe pare it was to even request such a thing. Sure it wasn''t something that all of the world abided by, but surely someone as old and powerful as Thyme would have seen simr situations before?


    Romilda was of course overlooking the fact that Thyme might know and not care, which was a bit closer to the truth. Thyme had an idea of how precious the metal was, but decided that forcing a decision on Romilda was a great evil then asking her an ufortable question. Still, Romilda was fuming and Thyme was annoyed with themselves for getting so worked up over Romilda''s response. Apparently getting everything organised, both this and the initial preparations for the final round, was getting to them.


    Thyme breathed in and dismissed the dwarven copy. Trying to get in character for that aspect probably wasn''t helping matters. Thyme let the butler version speak, keep things formal. "For the moment, you are all cordially invited to explore your residence for the next few days. Each team has been assigned a wing, one half of a floor. The ground floor is amon room for everyone, and you each have a room to yourselves… though double beds have been provided,"


    Quite a few interesting reactions to that statement were noted by Kat. Green and Gareth obviously had a slight blush, but so did a few other people. They were just individuals though, so Kat wasn''t sure who the androgynous elf was thinking of spending time with, nor the fae with orange hair, who both sported prominent blushes themselves, though Kat doubted they were paired up in any way. Stan did look excited, but considering Kat thought he was a Incubus, it wasn''t hard to guess why. Perhaps Burgandy was dating him? The idea seemed wrong to Kat''s mind.


    Butler Thyme cracked their knuckles and continued speaking, "Food and drink will be provided in the cafeteria, it is located on the East side of the ground floor, though additional seating can be found on the roof and your balconies, so you will not be confined to the cafeteria for meals. The menu can be found next to the serving station, and if you wish to make any requests, either for entire dishes or substitutes, you will need to provide me with six hours'' notice. Meet back here one hour after the lunch bell has been called for you first task,"