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

--- Lily ---

After breakfast was done with Kat and Lily went to have a meeting with Thyme to discuss the winnings. It only took a quick word to Mint, and suddenly they were standing in what looked like a floating void with Thyme sitting behind a desk in a fancy outfit. Compared to Thyme's previous appearance that made them look like they were one piece of bad news away from completely crumbling…

This Thyme looked like they were ready to rule over a school with an iron fist. The desk blocked the view of Thyme's lower half, but what could be seen was a very nicely tailored suit. It was grey and hugged Thyme's form closely. The faintest outlines of flowers embroidered into the jacket, also in grey.

The edge of the sleeves had a touch of dark green, and of course Thyme had on some imposing square glasses.

*Where does Thyme GET all these costumes. I sort of just accepted it before but now that I'm thinking about it… does Thyme just have a bunch of massive closets full of clothes? Additionally! That might not sound too weird but it's also occurred to me… that Thyme is a tree. One that probably didn't know what clothes were before now.

I mean, Mint just keeps the same outfit on all the time, and it never leaves that body. So… yeah it's just a touch strange.*

[Huh… that is an interesting thought. I say we ask Thyme about it.]

*WHAT! Kat NO!*

[Kat YES!]

"Welcome Kat and Lily, what can I do for you both?" asked Thyme seriously.

"Well we'd love to know what's up with your outfits? I mean, they're all very cool but it just occurred to Lily that it's slightly strange you have so many… and that you have clothes at all. It's unlikely all of your costumes are just made up on the spot, and well, she's too shy to ask so I thought I would!" said Kat.

"No!" hissed Lily. "I thought it wasn't appropriate in the slightest to ask!"

"See, shy," added Kat.

Thyme just burst into laughter at the byplay with a big smile on their face, the sever atmosphere from earlier vanishing. "Ah, I'd be happy to tell you! Most people never ask or just accept it as a strange quirk of mine… but I love it all. Acting, clothes. They can change so much about how a person IS. Not only do outfits influence how other people see us, but they change how WE act.

Mostly in subtler ways… but it's a surprisingly large reaching concept.

"It's… fascinating. It was actually my first big area of interest after magic which I don't really count. Back when I was by myself just… in the wilderness all that I cared about was magic because… well there just wasn't anything else that seemed interesting. I learnt to read from this old mage's hideout I found, and that set me down the path of magic.

Took me ages to decipher anything, but it sparked proper interest in my powers.

"For a while that was my only hobby other than surviving… but I didn't exactly have other things to do. With no people around I had to come up with my own entertainment… so I just studied magic. It was fascinating, and I always wondered what the limits of it were. I know now there basically isn't any limits if you're powerful and creative enough… but that was a huge leap forward for me!"

"Anyway, as for meeting people? Well the first people I met were other dryads who of course, didn't wear any clothes. They were looking for trees like mine and I was soon introduced to their society… but it just didn't gel with me. They were all so… content. Or sleepy? Both perhaps.

They didn't really NEED anything so the hows and the whys weren't important. They spent their time sleeping, caring for young dryads, or looking for young dryads and potential dryads.

"They just… didn't do anything else. I couldn't comprehend it. I never desired sleep like they did. Perhaps that's because I never felt safe enough to sleep early on. One of the first things I saw upon gaining consciousness was a monster casually scratching trees near me. I know now it's to mark territory… but it seemed much more damaging at the time then it was in truth.

"Yes well… from that point all I wanted to do was defend my territory. What I didn't know is that dryad trees recover rather quickly and the minor damage to the back those monsters were doing wasn't a risk at all. It's why most dryads think it's fine to just sleep. There's no danger unless someone or something really wants to destroy your tree…

"But I didn't know that so as I said, I tried to defend. I tried fighting them with my avatar… and got torn apart. Which let me realise that making an avatar is, close, to effortless. Now it wasn't anything close to humanoid. My first few bodies looked more like the monster I was attacking, but well that doesn't matter too much.

"Or maybe it did? I just kept throwing myself at them and then once my body was too damaged I'd leave it behind. This eventually built up a pile of bodies that acted like a wall and taught me that walls are my friend. So then I went a bit nuts in building wooden walls.

I was safe, finally ready for my first bit of sleep… and then a bird monster decided to make a nest in my tree and I was suddenly freaking out again."

Thyme paused to let out a long sigh. "Sorry, sorry I'm getting very off track. What I'm was trying to get at, is though the dryads took me in… they didn't teach me all that much or really act like much of a society. I felt stifled there, so I chose not to move my tree. I was however interested in other people, and one of the dryads mentioned the other races when they were warning me of things.

"So off I went to look around… and the first person I met was covered in clothes. It was winter, so there was a reason… but to me they looked very funny covered in colourful sweaters and scarves. So I followed them for a while until they ended up at a hot spring and got naked.

"My mind was blown in that moment. These people had stuff they wore on their bodies? Why? So I tried to ask… and obviously they didn't understand me. In fact, they turned one of the nearby rocks into an axe and cut off my head. Still, I wasn't deterred!

I understood they were panicked so I tried to visit when they still had all of those colourful clothes on. A good guess in hindsight, but I was assuming they were just happier to be colourful and not that they thought I was a monster, or perhaps were annoyed I caught them bathing. I had no concept of nudity, or modesty back then. So… yeah.

"So that was my first introduction to society. I found the fae first, and I had to keep bugging that one until we worked out a way to communicate. Still not sure why they couldn't understand my writing… if I had to guess it's because I had an older language, or just one they weren't familiar with.

"But yeah… clothes. They… I guess they signified that their society was truly DIFFERENT to the dryads. That there was so much more to the world. And my interest in them started there. Eventually I also learnt that you could lie… and I… I don't quite remember how I reached the conclusion but I decided that wearing clothes was your way to choosing your favourite lie to show the world…

"Then I learnt about theatre and well… I was a hooked. The idea of a COSTUME was completely foreign to me. The idea that you'd put on something unique, and all of a sudden you were a different person? It seemed so interesting… so I tried it out… and it worked. I was shocked.

"So many people seemed to treat me differently when I swapped outfits. It didn't matter that I was still using the same blocky wooden humanoid form… or that I was a wooden blocky humanoid form. They all reacted to me based on what I was wearing and it just… blew my mind. I found it so cool that instead of reworking my entire form I could just change a shirt.

Which, granted, was a lot more effort back then… but it was fairly quick and easy and just so cool,"

"So you just started collecting outfits after that?" asked Kat.

Thyme nodded, "Indeed. First I started collecting them, then I learnt how to make adjustments to them… mostly to fit my poorly made bodies. Then eventually I learnt to make clothes from scratch and now it's something I do to flex my creative muscles, relax… and of course expand my costume collection,"