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

--- Kat ---

Appoline was dropped off on top of the greenhouse they knew had a portal and was ready to book it if things went south. She could slide down to the door without injuring herself, but the elevation gave her safety from the plants of Amaranth or Rose tried to control them. There was a minor debate over Lily remaining with Appoline or not, but in the end, it was decided she’d go along with Kat so that as a pair they could see both what the illusion showed, and what was actually there.

Kat knocked on the door and was allowed inside. Kat was, truthfully, a bit surprised by this. Surely Amaranth could tell? Kat didn’t let her concern shown on her face as she followed the vine to the same room Amaranth was in before. Lily looked up from her perch and confirmed that Amaranth looked like an elf to her. Just a glance though. Appoline had been right. Fake Amaranth was very naked... and quite blessed.

Kat gave a mental chuckle as Amaranth began to speak. ”Welcome back... why have you returned? Was the job too hard?”

”No it wasn’t,” Kat began. ”But considering the ’monster’ we were meant to kill spoke back it was decided we should investigate a bit more. Rose, her name, made some rather major claims and I detected no lies.”

Amaranth gave Kat her best ’are you serious’ look. Sadly for Amaranth, she wasn’t that good at facial expressions and to Kat it looked a good bit more like she was trying to take a massive dump. Eventually this lack of comprehension was realised by Amaranth because she responded verbally instead. ”Really? You’re going to believe her over me?”

Kat shrugged, ”See that’s the odd thing, neither of you are lying... so I had to wonder what was up with it. There is also the fact that I can see through your illusion, and know you’re not an elf.”

”Wait you can just see through illusions? Naturally?” asked Amaranth.

”Yes,” confirmed Kat.

”Ok hang on Thyme Out!” Amaranth said as she did a weird pose. As she completed the sentence, the world turned greyscale and Kat found herself unable to move. Notably though, she could still think, and so could Lily. It meant they were able to watch as a new bud sprouted revealing another dryad. One that was almost certainly, Thyme.

”Yes?” said Thyme. ”Is there something wrong?”

”Yeah there is! What the heck am I meant to do in this situation?” hissed Amaranth, assuming that was her real name? It clearly wasn’t her speaking in character. ”The script didn’t mention anything at all about people who can see through the illusion!”

Thyme shrugged, ”Well, I’m afraid when I noticed that little issue in the script and tried to get it fixed some of the people in the organisational committee insisted it wasn’t a problem... which I’m sure had nothing at all to do with the various devices to see through illusions of exactly this type certain teams packed. Not at all.”

”So you’re telling me someone deliberately messed with the script... and it wasn’t even for the person that ended up causing problems? I mean... what am I even supposed to do? It was a mess to begin with. Why the heck did you sign me up for this anyway?” grumbled Amaranth.

”It’s a safe way for you to practice interacting with people more, and the body you’re currently using lacks of a lot of the features that make operating a more advanced one difficult. It never really mattered to me if you messed up on the script, in fact, that was sort of the intention from a lot of parties,” explained Thyme.

Amaranth flopped forward like she’d run out of bones to hold up her body. She remained that way for a few seconds before pulling herself back up. ”Right well... that’s not really what I wanted to hear. Does that mean that more people are going to show up and see through the illusions?”

Thyme shrugged, ”Perhaps... I never did say where any of the various events were going to be situated, and managed to keep the overall story for the various biomes intact. It’s just the little things like this that were messed with on occasion. Not all of them for sure. Besides, you have a few other roles you can perform if you’d prefer. You’re not trapped here.”

Amaranth sighed, ”Yeah I don’t know that I want to deal with more people messing with things. I thought I had a decent understanding of the script and what response I was meant to give depending on how they interacted... but the illusion was meant to be perfect! I mean... I was told that nobody would be able to see through it!”

Thyme gave a smug grin, ”Technically you were told that nobody could see through it without assistance... which was still wrong because Kat can do that, but apparently the people messing with things didn’t pay enough attention to what the competition could do. Well, that or they just assumed that worrying about one person finding this particular ’trap’ over the other five was unlikely. I couldn’t say.”

”Alright so how do I deal with the one person who DID find out? You’ve been avoiding answering that question...” grumbled Amaranth.

”Because technically I’m not allowed to give you an answer to it. That could be construed as interfering with things. It’s why time is currently stopped,” said Thyme. *Yeah true, time is stopped... but not for me! And there’s no way that’s not intentional. So... is this payback for messing with the script or something?*

[I don’t even know at this point. Thyme could be trying to drop hints for half a dozen things and I’ve got no idea what we’re meant to take from this. My best guess? The entire setpiece is a way to give ingredients over to the dwarves, or maybe an easy way for them to steal a bunch of them?]

*Why bother with the illusion in that case?*

[Well it needed to have a defender... and... you know what I’ve got nothing. I’m not sure what the point is. Unless the person who put in this loophole doesn’t know either? I mean, they may have just been asked to leave a few secrets to easily be uncovered if you can get through an illusion.]

*I suppose. Let’s keep listening to see if we get any more info out of these two. Though it IS nice to have further confirmation people are messing with things behind the scenes. I wonder how worried we’re meant to be about the rest of the tournament. It’s nearly over... hopefully.*

Amaranth wasn’t looking all that happy with Thyme’s declaration of not being able to help. ”Then what’s the point of the code? I thought we were able to ask for help if we had issues and that was the entire point?”

Thyme nodded, ”Indeed, and if there was nobody around I could help with certain things. Fixing enchantments, moving things, helping get set up for the next group to come through... but technically, the scenario is ongoing. I could give you advice for what I’d do next time... but I’m not meant to give you advice for how to deal with one that’s in progress.”

Amaranth looked at Thyme with dead eyes. ”What next time? I thought you said she was the only one who could see through the illusions naturally?”

”I did also point out that five more people had items that would let them do the same,” Thyme offered.

”Yeah, and I can attack them for breaking my enchantment or whatever, that’s technically in character. What’s not, is attacking the... demon? She’s a demon right? Anyway, it feels wrong to attack her just because she can see that I’m pretending to be an alarune... and might even know that I’m a dryad,” explained Amaranth. *Good to have that confirmed I suppose?*

”Well what do you want to do?” asked Thyme.

”Kick them out in embarrassment?” offered Amaranth with a chuckle.

Thyme shrugged, ”If you think that’s an appropriate response I won’t stop you.”

”Seriously?” asked Amaranth.

”Remember, I’m not allowed to interfere with an ongoing situation. As long as it doesn’t break any of the big rules... I can’t interfere. There might be penalties afterwards, but that’s an entirely separate matter,” confirmed Thyme.

Amaranth started to rub at her chin. ”Hmmm... alright that gives me some further ideas... you don’t need any of the plants and stuff here right? How important are they?”

”I grew everything in these greenhouse over the course of a weekend for this particular scene so... it was a bit of work but not something I’ll be devastated over. You might get punished depending on what you’re planning though. Do remember that your mother is getting a report about this,” countered Thyme.

”Oh,” Amaranth voiced after a few seconds of shock. ”I forgot that part. Ok, fine, I get the hint, no destroying or giving away a bunch of useful stuff just because I’m annoyed. Though... can you stick around a bit so I can think of something?”