D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

— Kat —

“So, for my next bit of info… do hold your questions. A lot of it is meant to be a surprise so I’ll probably won’t be answering questions involving it. It’s something I’ve hinted at a few times… and that’s the fact that there will be other people on the island!” Thyme threw up their hands and summoned twelve different versions of themselves all wearing different outfits. They all had different professions from hunters to bakers to one in a swimsuit?

The Thyme with the biggest boobs was wearing a suit and tie with a monocle and stepped forward to speak next. “Everyone on the island is either a paid actor or a body that I’m controlling. The people there aren’t meant to be perfect people, they’re meant to be actors reacting to what you do to them. They may have intentionally limited information to give you, or react in almost exactly the same way to everything. That’s the point.

“I’m not trying to convince you that real people live on this island, they’re acting as part of the scenery in the finale round. Sure some may have more freedom to act within their role but ultimately it IS a role. As such there will hopefully be no hard feelings if you steal from them or fight them for one reason or another.

“Everyone, including my copies, will be limited to what that character is meant to have as their strength. Just as an example, if I’m pretending to be a baker,” all the Thyme’s pointed to the Thyme with a big belly, a chef’s outfit, and flour on their hands. “then I’m not going to break out powerful time magic to slap you around. Perhaps that me might have some minor fire artifact or the ability to defend themselves with a frying pan, but nothing too extreme.

“If the actors cross that line they will be removed from the island and have their payment reduced. Though don’t take any of that as an excuse to act how you want. Even if there’s no emotional or ethical issue with attacking them… they are still meant to be acting somewhat like real people. Don’t expect to ‘kill’ their friend and then remain happy with you. It’s quite possible you’ll be chased out of town and then the rest of the settlements warned about your behaviour if you act too wilfully…

“But perhaps there’s treasure to be found? Maybe that baker has an important fire artifact powering their oven? Maybe the hunter has a legendary bow? Perhaps the town bartender knows where a bunch of keys and chests are… and threatening them is probably faster then making friends?”

Fancy Thyme shrugged, “It’ll be up to you to find out the specifics. Just know that you won’t be causing real permanent damage… but actions will have consequences during this tournament round. Though… one bit of warning I will provide is that if you bait one of the actors into breaking character they will be punished… and allowed to attack you with their full strength for the next hour. ‘Killing’ them is one thing but trying to force them into real consequences is something I will NOT be happy about,”

Green raised her hand and Thyme hummed. “Alright I’ll take your question,”

“You said ‘killed’ and we all get that they won’t actually die… but like… what about being restrained or major injuries and stuff?” asked Green.

Thyme nodded, “Yes that’s a fair question and one I’m willing to answer. In the case of being restrained… absolutely nothing. They’ll be free to act or not act as their character would. Perhaps they’ll try to escape, perhaps they’ll be let go by someone else later on. Nothing special will happen. As for injuries? Once the fight is over they’ll be healed up in truth but will have makeup applied to make them still look injured and pretend to still be in poor condition unless another actor can heal or something similar,”

*I wonder how well you’ll be able to tell? I also wonder how Thyme will police it if… say you offer to heal someone in exchange for providing a hint to a treasure chest but in truth Thyme healed them like a day ago.*

[I’d guess Thyme will be using something more like special effects makeup. As for the healing? Thyme probably has something in mind. Should we ask?]

*Maybe? I’m not sure I want to give people the idea that going around injuring people for the teams healers to heal up is a valid way to get information. I’ll probably mention it to Nixilei but… yeah not something I want to announce. Feels like a recipe for disaster.*

[Yeah that’s a good point.]

Thyme pointed to Pansy who also had her hand up. “Will there be people outside of the settlements?”

“Not a question I can answer,” replied Thyme as they pointed to Trevor.

“If we managed to hide the fact we ‘killed’ someone will the rest of the actors still know?” asked Trevor.

“Still not a question I can answer,” said Thyme as they pointed over towards Hedera.

“If we manage to take something from one of the actors will they get another copy later to keep playing their roles? Like if we stole the baker’s oven or something?” asked the elven archer.

“Once again, I cannot answer any of these questions. We’re moving on. No more questions on this topic for at least an hour, and even then I likely still won’t answer any of them,” stated Thyme.

The Thyme copies faded away leaving only the original. “So, we’ve mentioned the actors… but there are also a number of monsters around. No reason to hold back on them, they’re monsters that were causing problems elsewhere and the ecosystem is already horrifically disrupted considering there really wasn’t one before I made the island. So don’t worry about that at all.

“Hmm… anything else? Hmmm… hmm… I’ve covered the chests, the orbs, the bracelets, the people, the monsters, the win conditions… hmm… I think that’s it from my end! If you have any questions not relating to the people on the island have at them,”

Of course most hands came up with a question, even Kat and Lily had a few. Regardless, Thyme pointed towards Dusk first. “Do all the chests look exactly as shown before?”

“Not at all. The keys and the chests have a variety of designs but the keys are all the same size and shape and the chests all have a giant lock on the front. Don’t bother with finding matching keys. They may or may not exist but any key can open any chest and finding one that matches does NOT change the reward,”

Thyme made a giant arrow appear above Sen’s head next prompting the guy to speak, “Um… I had another question but first… are the hint wall things all the same or do they change like the chests?”

“They aren’t quite the same but they’re all large square bits of rock with glowing flowers around them. The chests have a lot more variety to them,” answered Thyme. “What was your other question?”

“Well, you mentioned that if we got taken out by another person we’d lose a bunch of stuff to them… what are the rules regarding getting taken out by other things like the actors or monsters or traps?”

“Basically the same,” answered Thyme. “The orbs will act like they were destroyed, you’ll still lose the same out of time on your bracelet. If it’s an actor that defeats you they can choose to take something from your bracelet. You can try getting it back later if you want. Monsters technically should have that choice as well but realistically aren’t intelligent enough to choose anything before the timer runs out. Finally, traps will just remove a random item from your storage,”

Sen raised his hand again and Thyme nodded. “Does that mean we can just fill our storage up with a bunch of pebbles?”

“If you think that would help,” said Thyme with a shrug. Sen looked less then pleased with the answer but Thyme had given all the info they wanted about the subject and turned over to Kat this time.

“If you team up with someone and you take down another contestant together, who gets the benefits?” asked Kat.

“Whoever lands the final blow automatically receives the benefits. If you choose to share after that, it’s up to you,” said Thyme.

Kat raised her hand back up and Thyme gave the go ahead. “And in the case of restraining them? I can think of half a dozen ways that restrain someone with two people keeping them in place,”

Thyme nodded slowly. “I… am not sure what was set up for that now that you mention it. I’ll need to double check the enchantments to see what they’re going to do before answering that as I’m not certain I know,”

*Wait… what? Didn’t Thyme write the rules?*

[The rules probably state that it’s based on the enchantment or something? I’m not totally sure myself.]