?


    As soon as they got to the cafeteria Kress went and grabbed some food and then ran off to his room. Kat had to assume it was to n the final task. *I still don''t know how he can be so confident in his knowledge of what the task is. Even I''m starting to think he knows what it is. Though… I wonder what makes him excited to participate in it. Knowing the answer is just one half of the equation.*


    Gareth was standing off to the side while Green tormented a blushing Blue with Nixilei helping asionally. Kat of course, decided she didn''t want anything to do with that nonsense. Stan had picked up his food and wandered off, possibly to sulk, possibly just to emte Kress. Both were equally likely in Kat''s mind.


    Vanya was berating Marigold for riling Blue up enough to win that final match instead of failing part way through or, even better, just having them take the loss. This… seemed to bepletely ineffective. If anything Marigold was enjoying the current punishment. Vanya using her as a chair did seem a bit extreme… but yeah… with a smile on Marigold''s face it was hard to argue it was a real punishment. She didn''t even seem to mind the fact she had to eat off the floor. Well, the te that was on the floor. Marigold was a masochist not an idiot, and getting dirt in your food is not tasty.


    Midnight and Mauve were just… casually eating on the other side of the table. They seemed to treat the whole thing those two were doing aspletely normal… which does raise some questions. *Wait… is Marigold trying to win at all? Or is she just looking for creative reasons to get punished. If this is somon that Midnight and Mauve are just… treating this as normal, and Marigold is clearly enjoying this ''punishment'' does that mean something like this is amon urrence.*


    [I don''t like the fact I think you''re on the right track. Sure Marigold is trying her hardest to win… but seemingly only when it suits her. She probably tries properly to win because not doing so isn''t something Vanya would punish her for. Heck, Vanya would probably try to coddle Marigold, perhaps thinking something was wrong, or perhaps as a real punishment. Which… is just weird to think about.]


    Over at another table, Nabras was being bullied, mostly by Nell and Bonas about his poor performance in the log splitting event. Ellenell would chime in asionally to add fuel to the fire, but seemed pretty content to munch on what looked to be a sd rather than directly bully Nabras himself. Kat wasn''t sure if this was fairly typical sibling stuff, or if they were actually annoyed with him… probably a mix of both. Probably why Ellenell was mostly staying on the edge of the conversation.


    Stan being missing didn''t seem to affect the dynamic of his group much. They''d all grabbed a table together and were eating without problems. They certainly weren''t bullying March like Nabras'' team was bullying him. Kat herself was somewhat tempted to go over and hang out, what with everyone from her own team being busy… but Burnice was standing around as well, so getting a table with her was probably more interesting. Perhaps inviting Mint over as well would be good.


    Romilda''s team was packed away in the back corner. Kat could hear them if she wanted, but considering they were leaned in close whispering to each other in the far back corner of the room they probably wanted whatever they were saying to remain a secret. Sure it would be nearly impossible for Kat to be caught… but realistically? If the information was actually sensitive, they could''ve gone up to one of their rooms. They were magically soundproofed after all. Eavesdropping prevention back by Thyme. Seemed like the safest method to Kat.


    Whatever the case, Kat took one of the spare tables after waving over Burnice and Mint. Kat decided to go for the sd like Ellenell, because he seemed to be really enjoying it. Lily picked a chunk of meat. Possibly not the healthiest thing for a normal human, but Lily wasn''t anymore so it was probably fine. Burnice grabbed a sd of her own, though it was a different one to Kat''s. Mint made her way over and sat down.


    Kat held her questions until everyone had gotten a bit of food in them. She knew that she''d be fine despite thete meal, but not everyone would be so lucky. So Kat kept her silence for the first fifteen minutes. Burnice tore through that sd and then went back for a second one. *Right… everyone is hungry. Perhaps the sd isn''t THAT good… it''s just that everyone is starving.*


    Kat had been wondering if it was just an elf thing, but she found the sd a bit nd. Sure she''d not realised there should be dressing on it, but that was hardly her fault right? Mint, not knowing much about food, didn''t say anything. Lily obviously didn''t know, and Burnice just assumed Kat didn''t want dressing for whatever reason. The elf had quite a few weird preferences when it came to food, and leaving the dressing off a sd probably didn''t even crack top ten, so it wasn''tmented on. Thus, Kat had a nd sd, and decided to pick something else next time.


    Once Burnice started to slow down a bit with her eating, Kat felt the need to ask, "So… what did you think of the volleyball matches?"


    Burnice finished off a mouthful of not-lettuce that was orange instead of green before saying, "It was… boring. Well, no, that''s a bit rude of me to say. It started out interesting, and that first round without Blue in it was super tense. Once Blue got going though… it got real dull real fast. True Gareth and Burgandy nearly managed to snatch a win from Blue but I didn''t think they could do it till right at the end, so there was like… five minutes of excitement there max.


    "I think Thyme should''ve ruled that you can''t touch the ball with magic for more than a few seconds. Which might''ve been fine? I do understand why Thyme was so restrictive about using the ground, because if they weren''t I could see things getting really silly really quickly. Like, imagine if they just set a big wall to bounce the ball back. Basically what Blue did, but packed stone would be a lot harder to get through, plus the harder you hit the harder it hits back.


    "Though if they were earth mages they could lift the wall and then have a face off against Blue, but that would''ve been rather mana intensive. If it was just a wall attached to the ground you could set and forget it. At least Blue had to concentrate for her strategy. Though… ultimately I''m just not sure the ruleset was right for the game. I think a time limit on spells would''ve really helped,"


    "I''ll bring it up with Thymeter," said Mint. "These games, at least in their current form, are very unrefined. Thyme is hoping to find some standouts to be main attractions at the resorts here to encourage more people to have fun… but it was mostly tested by Thyme in a bunch of different bodies trying to work out the kinks. So… sometimes we have major issues like water mages destroying the bnce that can get missed. Though I promise the games havee a long way,"


    "Oh? In what ways?" asked Burnice.


    Mint frowned for a few moments then nodded before saying, "So I can''t tell you some of the really funny moments because some of them involve games that you guys haven''t seen yet, but there are quite a few notable moments for the Volleyball matches. The first one thates to mind is court sizes. Originally they were much smaller but the issue was… a single ''person'' could cover the entire court no problem. Defending was ridiculously easy. So Thyme doubled the size of the court… then increased it some more.


    "Um what else… originally there was actually a no magic rule, but Thyme felt like that would be really unfun for the mages, and Thyme had some high hopes for the game to be yed by a wide variety of people, unlike say the log chopping which is meant to be a test of strength and dexterity not magic. Um… there was a version that Thyme tested of only magic… but it got messy really quickly.


    "The optimal strategy for that version was not to focus on the ball but to try to disrupt your opponents casting which Thyme felt went against the spirit of what they were trying to do. Hmm… what else… oh right at the start there wasn''t a rule stopping you from casting spells on your opponent''s side. That had simr problems. The best strategy there was to create pit traps that you would then close up to keep your opponents from moving. Bit nasty that iteration,"


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