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

— Kat —

Thyme had sent out a reminder to everyone that they needed to have their bracelets on and organised so… it was about time they did that. It was a simple matter to grab the box of bracelets and get started… but a much more difficult issue to figure out what to do with them. “Hmm… do we keep the camping supplies?” asked Kat.

“Well… why wouldn’t we?” asked Lily.

“Mostly their lack of enchantments. I’m not sure how deadly the environment is going to be on Thyme’s island but it’s not going to stand up too much. The sleeping bags might be alright but we don’t really need those either. If it’s too cold you can snuggle up with me and if it was so cold that even that wouldn’t work… well… it probably wouldn’t be survivable for the actors or the other contestants so I doubt we’d need to hang out there long,” explained Kat.

“I guess that makes sense… but at the end of the day they’re not particularly precious. These aren’t sleeping bags that have been in the family for generations. If they get trashed then we can pay to get more of them and they don’t take up too much space… though probably best just to take one. I can sleep quite happily in Memphis form and share yours. Same with pillows, you’re much more comfortable regardless of my form,” said Lily.

Kat leant over to give her girlfriend a quick peck. “That’s sweet… and probably true. The thing is… with my regeneration I’m not going to end up with a bad back if we have a shitty place to sleep so I’m not sure I really NEED a pillow either. Then we get down to just the sleeping bag… and at that point I’m wondering if it’s best to go for basically nothing,”

“I’d recommend taking the sleeping bag anyway,” Nixilei said from bed one over. “Even if you don’t need a sleeping bag there are quite a few reasons to have one. They’d make for a great thing for someone else to steal, thinking you need it. That or you can loan it out to someone less prepared, or perhaps use it to keep something else safe? It can probably double up as a shoddy backpack in a pinch,”

Kat nodded along, “Ok that’s some very good points. Into Thyme’s bracelet the sleeping bag goes… but do I take two?”

Nixilei shrugged. “I wouldn’t think it would be worth it but that’s up to you,”

Kat nodded again and Lily said, “Maybe just leave it out on the bed? We can see how much space we have right at the end, and if it’s a whole bunch or even ‘basically nothing’ it might be worth taking both as places to store other stuff,”

“Alright makes sense,” agreed Kat as he put the second sleeping bag next to her on the bed. “Next order of business, food. How much food do we want? Callisto made us a fair bit of food and we can stretch it for a while… but how much do we want to take?”

“I’m not sure we want to take any,” said Lily. Kat raised a questioning eyebrow at her girlfriend to prompt a response. “It’s not the food, it’s the plates and the containers. Callisto doesn’t just re-use shitty take away containers to store stuff, she uses quality cutlery that can be washed and used over and over. We can’t just throw that away… but keeping it around would use up a tonne of extra space,”

“Oooh,” mumbled Kat in understanding. “I wasn’t even thinking about that at all. I mean, I wasn’t going to throw any of the plates away but I didn’t think of the space they’d take up afterwards… hmm… do we… hmm… we’ve got some like… plastic bags? We could dump some of it in those…” Kat didn’t seem pleased with her idea… but it was an idea.

“I think we’ll be ok,” said Lily with a similar grimace. “There are monsters on the island yeah? I’m pretty sure I can eat most of them raw so it doesn’t matter if we can’t cook them for one reason or another… and if you need to eat we can either pay for it or steal it from the actors… because surely they’d have something… right?”

“Yes but I do believe we have some spare rations if you’d like them,” chimed in Nixilei.

“Ah…” Kat gave a wry smile. “Woops?”

Nixilei shrugged. “They’re cheap and not particularly tasty but they do the job. Do you want yours to taste vaguely of grass, vaguely of dirt, nothing but they’re extra dry, or slightly meaty but wet?”

Kat didn’t think any of that sounded great but… “Does the extra dry one get better if you have it with water?”

“No,” stated Nixilei.

“I think I’ll still go for that one…” said Kat slowly. “Lily do you want any for yourself?”

“I think we can spare the time to hunt,” said Lily with a slight shiver. “I mean… I have an answer if I really needed to… but… I’d really just rather not,”

Kat nodded, “Perhaps for the best. I won’t need that many because a week without food is likely quite easy for me… but yeah whatever you can spare I guess?”

Nixilei dumped a huge tower of blocks onto the bed. “We’ve got plenty. Those are just the dry ones. Each block is technically enough food to sustain you for a day but that’s for civilian use. We tend to use them more as… bad seasoning? Just a bit of something extra to make our meals more filling if we’re not eating well enough,”

Kat nodded and decided to pick up seven. She really didn’t need any more… but even then it barely made a dent in the big pile of them that Nixilei soon swept back up into her storage ring. “Nixilei just wants to get rid of the dry ones,” said Kress. “She thinks they’re the worst ones!”

“Which one do you think are the worst?” asked Kat.

“The dirt ones, definitely,” said Kress.

“I don’t really like the wet ones myself,” said Gareth. “They’re really slimy, the meat taste feels exceptionally fake and I feel like I’ve done something awful afterwards…”

“I’m with Nixilei, the dry ones are the worst,” added Green. “It’s why I don’t keep any in my storage. I’m… actually not sure why Nixilei does,”

“It’s because they’re the cheapest,” answered Nixilei. “For some reason they’re preferred by quite a few people and whatever dark and twisted rituals are needed to make them are more streamlined then the others. No idea why. Without a bunch of water you’re somewhat likely to choke to death eating them, and more than a few people have… but they’re still a favourite,”

Kat wasn’t sure what to say about that… but people did weird things for nostalgia so perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising. “Anything else?” asked Kat.

Lily hummed for a few moments. “There’s… one thing but I’m really not sure about it…”

“Go ahead,” said Kat.

“Well… it’s the matter of clothes,” said Lily.

“Clothes?” asked Kat.

“Yes clothes…” agreed Lily. “Unlike everyone but you… I don’t have armour… and unlike you I don’t have clothes that will regenerate if they destroyed. I’m not sure how big of an issue it is though. Like… I can stay transformed for the most part and I don’t think it’s likely I’ll need a change of clothes… but it could be really annoying to need them and not have them,”

Kat nodded, “Ok I can see how that might be an issue. I… it’s probably fine? How many sets would you want to take? These bracelets aren’t exactly small. Not massive by any means but a few well folded clothes will hardly make the difference,”

Lily sighed. “I’m really not sure. I’m debating between one and two sets. Two because if one outfit gets destroyed so could the other… but I’m thinking of just one because I could keep one set for when we’re out and about and another set for if we need to interact with people and I’m in my human form. Of course the issue is if we get ambushed while I’m in my ‘good’ clothes and they get destroyed as well I might need a backup… but then we could just take someone else’s I guess,”

“I see what you’re saying,” acknowledged Kat. “I’m not too sure either. One set of clothes doesn’t take up a lot of space… and neither does the second set… but hmm… would we need to be worried about someone ‘stealing’ clothes if we lost?”

“What are the chances we ‘die’?” asked Lily. “I don’t think it’s particularly high. Well… maybe they could get me… but even then at Rank 3 bordering on 4 I should be fine against just about anything,”

“I think the bigger worry is if… rules change to make it easier to take someone out, or if there’s like… special rules for one of the challenges that send us away,” offered Kat.

“Let’s go with two sets of clothes, plus the set I’m wearing now,” decided Lily. “It’s not ideal, but if we really need space that desperately I can afford to throw away a set of clothes. I really don’t think it’ll come to that… but if it does,” Lily shrugged.