D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad-Chapter 1160 Growing Mint
๐๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด, ๐๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ ๐ท๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ต ๐ง๐๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐๐๐ฐ๐ท๐๐ญ.๐๐๐ฎ ๐ก๐ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐ก๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐.
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After Mint's apology, she went on to ask about Kat and Lily's respective childhoods. It was no issue for either of them to share. Mint had a few questions, mostly about technology that came up and had no direct magical equivalent, but she'd studied the other races quite a lot and didn't need to ask too many questions. When they finally finished the story, ending with how they got together (even if they skipped over Kat becoming a demon) Mint clapped her hands together happily and said, "Aww, you guys are so cute together. I'm glad you've found each other. I hope I find someone like that in the future,"
Lily felt the need to ask, "Do youโฆ do you feel romantic or sexual attraction? I mean, not to be rude, I meanโฆ it's justโฆ wellโฆ I don't exactly know how dryads SEE that sort of thing you know? Considering the wholeโฆ lack of body issue,"
Mint nodded understandingly, "I don't think you're being rude Lily, it's a very valid question," said Mint calmly. "As far as I knowโฆ most dryads don't experience it the same way most sentients doโฆ but I think I might be fairly close? I meanโฆ for dryads it's meant to be all mental. You find your partner, and you move your grove thereโฆ and that's thatโฆ
"But wellโฆ just based on Thyme's lessons I do tend to find things attractive. Iโฆ I haven't really admitted that to anyoneโฆ but I feel like I can trust you with this, especially after you just told me your life stories'. Butโฆ umโฆ yeah I have the same sort ofโฆ I suppose the closest equivalent is 'blush'. I can 'blush' when looking at all sorts of races, or even some of Thyme's forms.
"Thoughโฆ I 'm sure you can guess by my own chosen form that I tend to prefer women, or maybe just feminine looking people? I don't find March attractive AT ALL. In fact, I probably find her less appealing then Gareth and Kress, your two teammates. Not that I find them particularly appealing either butโฆ you know?"
Kat just shrugged and said, "I've already mentioned I just don't feel sexual attractions so I really can't relateโฆ"
Then lily picked up where Kat left off, "โฆ and I do find March at least somewhat attractive. I don't know why it is exactlyโฆ but just knowing that she's a woman automatically makes her a whole bunch more attractive to me. Iโฆ I also think it might be a smell thing as well now? To me March still smells like a woman even if she's got muscles on her muscles, and I find that faint scent marker to be attractive all by itself,"
"Huhโฆ so am I weird then?" asked Mint.
Kat let out a giggle, "I can't really say Mint. Though considering I'm a Succubus without sexual attraction I'm probably weirder then you are,"
"Huh, I guess so," said Mint with a smile.
"Honestly Mint, as someone who was a human beforehand, I can say that most of us don't know why we like what we like. Everyone is at least a little weird when it comes to sex. I'm sure even most dryads that say they don't find things sexually arousing probably just don't find more socially acceptable things arousing. And consider this, you never wanted to admit to it did you? So why would it be different with the others?"
"Huhโฆ yeah I guess so," said Mint thoughtfully. "I'm still not sure I'd be comfortable answering truthfully if someone other than you two asked, but I suppose I can try. I wonder why it's so easy to chat with you two though,"
Lily shrugged, but Kat had a few guesses. "It could be because we're knew. We don't know you from childhood, we know you as you are right now. We have no notions of who we might think you 'should' be, instead we can much more easily see you as you are, because we don't know anything different.
"Another guess could be that if you really need to, cutting off contact with Lily and I is really easy. Just don't respond to messages after we've left, simple. Imagine if one of the dryads you grew up with told other peopleโฆ like your parents or other friends, that could be awfulโฆ but we can't do that. The only one we can tell is Thyme and you clearly trust them enough not to spread things aroundโฆ even if that would be an uncomfortable topic to talk about with your teacher,"
Mint nodded, "Yeahโฆ that makes a lot of sense. Thanks Kat," said Mint with a smile at the end.
"Mhm, I've seen it a few times when kids come to the orphanage just for a few weeks while their aunts or uncles from overseas get to the country to pick them up. They feel free to talk about a lot more of their feelings then the ones that know there's a chance they'll stick around. Enough of that though, what can you tell us about your childhood Mint?" said Kat.
Mint nodded, "Right wellโฆ for dryads theโฆ 'infant' stage I suppose you could say? We start as just trees. Then there is thisโฆ weird in between state. We aren't conscious, in fact we aren't really anythingโฆ but once we ARE conscious we can vaguely remember things that happened to us in the past. I'm not sure you can understand properlyโฆ
"Because when a dryad materialisesโฆ it's sort of like everything that we were before that point crystalises into a proper being? We tend to come alive already knowing at least one language, and how to we aren't really babies when we awake. We'reโฆ I suppose the closest comparison is an odd mix between teenager and toddler.
"We can barely walk if we form a body we just float everywhereโฆ but we can be painfully naive. Despite knowing how to talk and looking fairly mature most of the timeโฆ we don't really 'know' things. Umโฆ we have knowledge but not wisdom? I suppose? Andโฆ and it's not like we have too much knowledge. It tends to depend on what we've picked up in that not-quite-alive state.
"For myself, I was 'born' for lack of a better word, at the same time as a number of other dryads. That can happen sometimes, and it's more common in large groves but it doesn't always. I guess technically more dryads are born in groupsโฆ but only because there are multiple people in the groups? If that makes sense. Likeโฆ you might have five or so loners for every group, but a group could have ten or more people in it.
"Anyway, my group was on the smaller side, just four of us. There was, me, Mint, and the other three were Pear, Grape, and Thyme. Not that 'Thyme' of course but wellโฆ their parents had high hopes for them I guess? Umโฆ we didn't stay particularly good friends for long. Whichโฆ I don't really know why?
"It all just seemed to fall apart around me. Even though I'm much older now, I still don't understand why. Thyme, the younger one obviously, went out to explore by themselves and never returned. Their tree is still aliveโฆ but they've never answered back. So we don't know if they're hiding in their tree in shame, they have a body moving around somewhere but haven't come back orโฆ what happened really.
"Umโฆ Pear and Grape had a big fightโฆ but I don't know about what. I was sleeping when it happened and when I woke up nobody would tell me what it was about. The older dryads that knew said Pear or Grape needed to tell meโฆ but neither of them would. Thyme left shortly afterwardsโฆ so maybe the fight was about that? Or maybe Thyme left because of the fight?"
"Umโฆ after that I was pretty lonely. I just slept most of days away until Thyme, the older one, announced they wanted to start teaching the younger dryads and I latched onto it as a way to make friendsโฆ but sadly despite Grape and Pear showing up, neither of them wanted to talk to me muchโฆ perhaps bad memories?
"Ummโฆ I did have a few acquaintancesโฆ but I never felt like we clicked all that well I guess? My 'best friend' if they qualify was a dryad called Oregano but they were a massive magic nerd and threw themselves into work much too often. So even though we got on well, and we did hang out in our shared free timeโฆ they didn't exactly have much 'free time' to spend.
"The others I hang out with were more Oregano's friends then mineโฆ but they had similar habits. They were all nerdy magiciansโฆ but they didn't like Oregano much because while they all spent way too much time with magicโฆ Oregano was just BETTER at it. Oregano had, HAS talent. Soโฆ they sort of ostracised them for it, and me with them. Even if we could still sort of be called friends? Does that make sense?"
