Stabbing myself wasn't something I'd often done deliberately before. While intellectually I was aware that I had damage reduction, and that stabbing myself shouldn't hurt, there's a difference between knowing that you should be able to ignore being stabbed and having actually tested that.
This meant that when I stabbed myself, it was swift. Not giving myself time to get anxious over the chance that this wouldn't work and would hurt like a bitch, I'd picked up the knife and slammed it into my wrist. It had bounced off, thankfully, nice to know the damage reduction worked, but for some reason the other people at the table had had a problem with that, leading to the situation I was in, casually leaning back in my chair while Zahri inspected my wrist.
"He's fine. Just an idiot." As Zahri released my arm to go and sit back down, I rolled by sleeve back over my wrist, adjusting my vambrace where it'd been in the way.
"See? I'm fine. I'm a lot tougher than I look. I mean, I can still be hurt, don't get me wrong, but it takes a decent amount more effort to hurt me than it does a normal person." I attempted to reassure them. From the looks on their faces, the ladies were not impressed. Well, apart from one of them.
"Fascinating. Is this a result of the draconic influence you were mentioning earlier, or does it come from another source? Lidda's blade bounced off of you, but it doesn't seem to have been blunted. Is it a rubbery feeling, or a more solid one?" Sabrina was seconds away from clambering over the table to inspect my skin. A cough from Julie broke her focus.
"Not really the question here, Sabs. A better question might be 'What the fuck were you thinking?' Why did you think sticking a knife into your hand was a good idea?" Julie seemed genuinely outraged. I was just confused.
"Because I knew it'd bounce off? You were worried that I was going to get hurt, or at least that's what I assumed you were worried about, so I proved that you didn't really need to worry. What's the problem?"
"What's the... what's the problem? You stabbed yourself! Or at yourself, whatever." She corrected herself as both Sabrina and I went to say something. "That was really the best way of doing that? Not just telling us it, borrowing a knife and without warning sticking yourself with it?"
"Well, yeah, I guess. I figured it would be the best way to skip the argument about whether or not you believe me, or if I'm exaggerating or whatever." And test for myself that it does work somewhere where I can get actual medical attention. Assuming they have actual medical attention around here. They probably do, it's a logging camp, they must get injuries that need fixing. "Obviously I was wrong about skipping the argument. Still, I feel my point is kind of proved."
Julie put her head in her hands and sighed. "You know what? Fine. Whatever." She looked up and fixed her gaze on me. "Just don't do it again," she ordered.
I cocked my head to the side. "Or what?" Something about her tone had set my back up. "It's not like it's a problem to me, and I don't really get why you give a shite about it. I'm tough, it's fine, leave it alone."
I'd never seen someone actually stare upwards and let out a muffled scream before. I ignored the judgemental looks that Lidda and Zahri were sending my way, and drank more tea. Julie eventually stopped being overdramatic and stood up.
"Fine, you're tough enough. We'll head out, then. I'm going to put my armour on. Zahri?" The pair of them headed upstairs, followed by Sabrina. Lidda stayed at the table, staring at me. I looked back, passively. She broke first.
"I can't believe I'm the one that has to do this. Can we have a quick chat outside?" She gestured to the door.
"Um, sure?" Standing up, I walked out into the street. The houses in this part of the village were oppressively close together, with a small path between the rows of buildings. Lidda stepped out after me, and closed the door behind her. She stared up at me.
"Why are you being such a pussy?"
What? "What?"
"You've been nothing but rude and dismissive. My friends have gone out of their way for you, and you've been a clit about the whole thing. The appropriate reaction to people being concerned about you stabbing yourself – with my dagger, by the way – is not to get defensive about it! None of the others are going to say anything, so I will. I don't care that you're having a shit time, you don't take it out on my friends."
The fuck? Who did she think she was? I geared myself up to have a go at her, before deflating. I was angry, and wanted to lash out at her, but...
"You're right."
It was her turn to look confused. "What?"
I sighed. "I said you're right." I mean, I still felt justified about the whole thing, but as far as terrible first impressions go, I was working quite hard on one, for no other reason than my own pride, and I like to think I'm not a completely egotistical idiot.
"Right, yeah, sorry, I was just expecting more of an argument. Really?"
"Do you want this apology or not?" I took another moment to calm down. "You're right, and I'm sorry. I'm in the middle of nowhere, I'm dependant on other people, and it's got me on a raw nerve. But you and the others in there are not responsible for it, and I shouldn't be lashing out at them." It was surprisingly difficult to get out. I wasn't a fan of admitting I was wrong at the best of times, but at the moment it rankled for a reason I couldn't quite pin down.
Her left hand went up to a pocket on her leathers, before slowly drifting back down to her side. "I wasn't expecting..." She looked down, slightly abashed. "I thought you'd be... Well, nevermind. Just apologise to them as well and it'll be good. And I'll try and get them to ease up a little bit, I guess being surrounded by women can be kind of overwhelming, huh."
I snorted before I could help myself. "Compared to everything else, that's not really been something I've even noticed, to be honest." Villages that smell like shite being something of a mild hindrance to the libido.
Lidda briefly raised an eyebrow, before smoothing out her features again. "You don't say. Well, they have noticed you, so maybe a bit of delicacy might be in order."
Yeah, that makes sense. I guess the whole 'Doesn't get hurt if stabbed' thing could be taken as a threat, if you squint, and you interpreted it more as a 'You can't stop me' style thing.
"Right, I'll try to be less blatant about the whole thing," I replied. The conversation floundered for a second, so I took a moment to dramatically shudder, catching Lidda's attention. I responded to her raised eyebrow.
"I've just realised we calmly de-escalated the situation, and had a chat about our feelings to come to a useful and meaningful solution for everyone. I mean, damnit, there goes all of my excuses to repress things and not talk about them. What's next? An honest reflection on my flaws? Genuine character growth? Bah."
Lidda's eyebrow went back up again, and a smile flickered across her face. "And here I thought men were the ones to get all soppy and talk about their emotions," she deadpanned.
Actually, that's a point. "That reminds me, I'm not stopping with the sarcasm, though. That's pretty much a default, many people have tried to get me to stop that. It's flat out not happening."
"Just make it funny as well, and it'll be fine," she sighed.
"It'll be funny for me, at least?"
Lidda simply shook her head, and turned back towards the door to head inside. She stopped half-way there, and looked over her shoulder at me. "Also, don't try whistling again. That was a travesty, whoever taught you how to do that was not worth the money you spent on them."
I scratched the back of my head. "I mean, I kinda taught myself?" It was whistling, not the fuckin' violin. "What's wrong with my whistling?"
"That explains that then. A good whistle is supposed to be loud and clear, it's used for letting people hear you from a distance away, cutting through other noise. You sound like a stabbed pig bladder deflating when you do it."
Wow, rude. "Look, it does what I want it to do." Which was to be able to copy a particular phrase from the Clangers, sadly enough, ."It's not like I've ever needed to use it for anything else," I grumbled.
"Your whistle was two off-key notes, and the volume was pathetic. It needs work." Lidda scoffed.
Wow, rude! "So the time between 'easing up' and outright insulting me was, what, five seconds?"
She blushed. "Ah, sorry. I'm not trying to insult you, it's just a useful skill to learn. A proper whistle could be heard all the way across the village if you pitched it right, and it's a good warning if someone gets cornered on their own." She gave me a meaningful look. Come on, I wasn't even part of the group then (assuming I counted as part of the group now), you can't have a go at me for splitting the party.
As we made our way inside, we were met by the other four people in the house. Sabrina had switched to a rugged set of clothing, a tight (and form flattering, I couldn't help but notice) robe over a shirt and trousers, festooned with belts and pouches. She was watching the conga line happening in the corner, where Julie was being assisted into her splint mail armour by Zahri, who was being helped into her own splint mail by James, who looked mildly uncomfortable with the process, but was gamely helping.
A couple of minutes passed as laces were tied and buckles were done up, with the conversation staying on task. Sabrina was doing some last minute reading, while Lidda went through all of her pockets, checking the contents of each. I had some more tea, and reached into a pocket to pull out the first trail ration of the day. Sure, I'd just had breakfast, but there had been a lot of walking yesterday, and I didn't know how many calories breathing fire would use. What I pulled out was some kind of loaf of what I presumed was bread, dotted through with what looked like vegetable matter and nuts. A quick nibble revealed that it tasted alright, although a little bland.
Once everyone was kitted out, and I'd stuck the half-eaten loaf back in my pocket, I decided to speak up.
"So, I may have mildly overreacted earlier, and I figured I should apologise for it." Simple and straightforward. More of a 'smoothing over the social situation' apology than anything else, but with a bit of confidence and the fire in my voice still there from last night, I could see it resonate.
Julie spoke up almost before I finished speaking. "I accept your apology." The haste at which it was said slightly ruined the graceful tone that she otherwise would have had. Zahri grunted her assent just afterwards, and a turn of my head allowed me to see Sabrina consider for a moment, and then nod.
At a slightly less frenetic pace, Julie continued. "I just wanted to make sure that you didn't end up... Well, it doesn't matter. You're insistent, so if they agree..." She trailed off, looking at the others. Zahri's quiet "Yes" was almost overwhelmed by the sound of Sabrina energetically nodding, pouches clattering around. Lidda looked me up and down, before agreeing as well.
"Well, it's unanimous. Welcome to the party." Julie smiled, and while I tried to resist the impulse, the urge to dick with her was just too strong.
"You know, you haven't actually invited me yet, you've just kind of assumed that I want to join." Briefly enjoying the expression that appeared on Julie's face, a mix of surprised, sad, and disappointed (there was probably a word for that), I decided to put her out of her misery. "Luckily for you, I do, and accept your gracious invitation." No need to be a prick, even if it is funny.
The old man was looking backwards and forwards around the group at this point, settling on Julie. He was hesitant, as he started to speak, but slowly developed confidence as he went. "You've stayed here for a few days now, and while your friends have kept to themselves, you've been a good egg. You keep yourself and them safe now, you hear? No need to get yourself killed on my part, just because I wanted to see my Mary again."
If he was aiming to talk the group out of it, he'd failed, as it had only firmed their resolve. I personally could take it or leave it, but to be fair I wasn't exactly planning on dying anyway. As long as I determined the threat level first, and it was basic bitch undead over anything else, I could plough through a lot of them fairly easily. And if not, running away was always an option.
James had taken the time I'd been thinking (damnit, can't a man internally monologue without time passing?) to move to another topic of conversation. "Now, I'm not going to accuse anyone of anything, because you all strike me as wonderfully kind people, but my Mary, bless her heart, was a mercenary before she became a lumberjack, so I know how it gets once you've just had a fight and you're all worked up." He gave me an obvious significant look at that point, as if I had any idea what he was talking about. "So just make sure you all stay careful when you're out there. You don't want to do anything in the moment that you'll regret later. So just make sure you all keep an eye on each other, especially just after fights and the first time you get some rest, and that none of you are alone." Another significant look was directed at me, and I had to stop myself getting angry.
There were implications in what he was saying that I didn't like. He didn't know me, so I could understand his position, and logically I knew there was merit to what he was saying. You take a random guy you don't know into dangerous situations, there's a chance he could do something unsavoury to you, especially if you're injured. My own anxious thoughts would think the same thing about basically everyone, but there was something galling about having that kind of suspicion directed at me. For a start, even if I was the kind of person to try something, I'd have to be an idiot to do it when outnumbered 4 to 1 in a place I had no idea about. I suppose he could be trying to get me to stay on my guard in case this was a weird mugging kind of thing, but if that was the case they could have taken all of my shite last night while I was asleep, so I wasn't hugely worried about that.
Right, getting angry won't help, and there's no need to alienate people over a reasonable concern. I focused on calming down again, and tried to figure out what to say. Even if he doesn't trust me, he probably trusts the others, at least. "I'm sure that nothing will happen, but your concern is..." Noted is too passive-aggressive, unwarranted sounds sketchy, ah fuck "appreciated." Not the best word there, but fuck it, it works if you ignore his subtext, it'll be fine.
James looked taken aback, but the ladies seemed pleased by that answer. Taking it as confirmation that I wouldn't do anything? I dunno.
A quick gear check followed, along with the four adventurers grabbing a backpack each. Goodbyes were given to the old man (he gave me a hug, and got a polite, mildly stilted verbal goodbye in return) and we slowly made our way out of the village.
As we approached the gate, a question popped into my head that I probably should have asked earlier. "So, where is this crypt thing, exactly?"
"Well, the crypt itself is to the back of the local graveyard but to answer the implied question of where the graveyard is we take a north out of the gate and then it's roughly an hours walk away." Sabrina managed to answer that without actually stopping to breathe, which was impressive.
Still, walking for an hour with four people I barely know. Let's hope someone can come up with a good conversation topic, or this is going to be awkward as fuck.