Relief flooded through me as I recognized Sé standing between Eimear and Blánaid.
I ran and gave my best friend a big hug. "Oh (God). I'm so glad you're safe." From the side, I saw Blánaid glaring daggers at me.
"Dude. I'm fine," Sé said as he awkwardly hugged me briefly then backed away. Blánaid stepped up to his side and looped her arms through his, still glaring at me.
They both looked like they'd been through the ringer. I wanted to cast Repair, but that would require me to get close, and I was half convinced that if I did that, Blánaid would poison me in my sleep. "Hey, I've got a Repair spell... Want me to fix your outfits?"
"What's wrong with our outfits?" Blánaid said on instinct, then blushed. "Nevermind. Go ahead."
Eimear laughed heartily. "Calm down Blánaid, Aisling ain't about to steal your man."
Sé had the decency to blush and looked away.
"What? Why not?" Blánaid narrowed her eyes at me.
"We... We're just friends," I stuttered out. "[Repair]."
"Yeah. No way would I date a dude," Sé said defensively, then shut his mouth.
"I'm not..." I sighed. Blánaid and Gormán looked accusingly at me. "Ok, I was one in the last..." I made a vague gesture so the system wouldn't censor me. "But I'm not now." I lowered my head, awaiting the Sword of Damocles to swing down and put me out of my misery.
Eimear blinked, then bent over laughing. "Really? Was that why you were so prudish? Why didn't you stay as a guy?"
"T-the System wouldn't let me."
"So... What, are you trans or something?"
"What? No," I shouted back at her.
"The System seemed pretty sure about me being a woman, so I thought it would've done something similar for all of us." Eimear shrugged.
The other three nodded their heads.
I crossed my arms and looked at the ground. "It did."
Gormán put a firm hand on Eimear's shoulder and looked me in the eyes, "No matter who you were, you are now what you are now. No sense in worrying over it."
Blánaid raised an eyebrow at Sé as she made a disgusted look. Sé waved her off.
Eimear looked to Gormán, and back to me, then sighed. "So.... You lived as a guy in the before, but the System assigned you as a woman. Did I get that right?" Eimear asked.
"Y-yeah." If I could've bowed my head further or shrunk more, I would've.
"Then, you're trans."
"But...That's wrong. I'm not." I gritted my teeth. Now would be the time to be called horrible names, or thrown out to be eaten by wolves.
"Oh gods, you actually think that it's wrong?" She put her hands on my shoulder. "Aisling, it's okay. You're okay. I know that this is probably the last thing in the world you want to deal with. We're trapped in whatever world this is, all alone, and nothing to guide us. But I'm here, and I'm going to help."
"But..."
"Enough fucking buts," she said and bonked her forehead against mine. "You're going to listen to me. I don't care about that. I don't care that you're trans, or that you have some hangups about it. The system read your brain and said you're a girl. Do you not want to be a girl? Do you really wish you were a man?"
"Of course I wish I was a man," I said too quickly.
She gave me a look. "You're a terrible liar."
"Sorry."
We stood like that for a moment.
Blánaid looked me up and down and gave me a look of repulsion, as though I was the worst thing to have ever graced her presence. But she didn't say anything, she kept holding onto Sé's arm. He blushed.
"Whatever," Gormán said, and clapped a hand on my other shoulder. "She still reminds me of my daughter, so I don't care who you were in the last whatever." He patted me twice, and I had to brace against his strength.
"W-what about you two?" I looked up through my eyelashes at my best friend and his new lover. "How'd you get together in just a few days?"
"It's not like it takes that long," Blánaid scoffed. "We only had each other for company, to rely on. We had to fight off so many monsters, keep watch in the trees, cuddling for warmth." She blushed and smiled. "Sé was ever the gentleman, he never pushed, and took all the worst watches."
Sé laughed a little too loudly. "Y-yeah. It was just natural, I did what any man would do." He looked at me. "Well, maybe not any--"
"If you've gotten your peacocking through your system," Gormán interrupted him. "We've still got work to do."
"Can't we have a moment to rest?" Sé asked.
"Sure, but we need to make plans. Have a seat." Gormán gestured to the makeshift beds by the fire.
As Sé and Blánaid sat together, I cast Shape Earth to craft a bench along the wall.
"So... tell us what you know." Gormán sat across the burned out firepit from them. "Where were you? Did you discover anything interesting?" He looked to Blánaid, "Especially if it's related to any crafting, or if you've found any good reagents that we can harvest."
I noticed that the lovebirds had nothing but the clothes on their back, and we were going to have to work overtime to get everyone fed and geared up. But Blánaid's grin turned predatory.
"Oh... Have I found some reagents--"
"Let's tell the story of what we've found, then we can go into your alchemy." Sé cut her off with a panicked look on his face. Blánaid pouted.
"We managed to escape from the clearing together, and we were making our way after the adventuring party when we saw the pyre signal. I think they've gone to the world tree to the north of here. My treasure instinct is telling me that there's a wealth of stuff there." There was a glint of greed in his eyes. "But we had to take enough detours, the monster density got higher and higher the closer we got to it, so we turned around, and we made our way to the pyre. We met up with Eimear in the morning, but someone..." He gave Blánaid a look, "Wanted to grab a bunch of stuff now that we had Eimear to keep watch. Apparently I'm not enough for her to feel safe to venture into monster infested fields."
"Babe." She held his hand. "I love you, but you're not a fighter, you're a scrapper. You're enough to keep us safe and running from those monsters, but we both know that neither of us are built for a straight up fight. Eimear is more monster than the monsters! Of course I'm going to feel safe with her watching over us. Besides, you did your best work when they were focused on her, and you could sneak around and stab ‘em all in the back." She gestured animatedly with her free hand as she spoke.
Sé looked a little crestfallen, and released Blánaid's hand.
"Oh don't be like that." She made doe eyes at him.
"You basically called me weak."
"No, I said you're a scrapper not a front liner."
"No. I think he's right," Eimear said with a mischievous grin on her face. "But it's okay, we'll get stronger."
Sé rolled his eyes.
"Can we move on?" I looked at Blánaid. "What were you able to find? I don't see anything."
She started pulling out plants from thin air. "Oh, I managed to get a whole slew of reagents, food, herbs, and ingredients. This forest is full of so many treasures if you know where to look. Would you believe I've already gotten my herbalism to three?" As she set down enough plants to completely cover one of our beds, there was no doubt in my mind that she had. "Also, I've gotten a farming trait that gives me even more options with herbalism, even though I haven't planted anything yet."
"How many are edible?" I asked. I didn't get any indication from my cooking skill, but I knew there were recipes that required local plants.
"Uhhhh...." She looked over the haul as she continued to pull plants out. "Maybe a few of them... Most of these are for," she looked askance as she lowered her voice, "poisons or acids."
"What I want to know is how you're carrying so many of the damn things?" Gormán said as his jaw dropped.
"Oh, that's my native trait, Caravanner. It gives me an extra dimensional space that I can store stuff."
"And you can store that much?" He looked flabbergasted. "I think I chose the wrong trait."
"I mean, this is the cap for what I can do for now." She said as she laid out the last stalk. "But it's weight based, not volume based, which means that I can fit a ton of light weight plants. Why? What did you take?"
"Workshop. It gives me a bunch of bonuses, unique skills and recipes while crafting within a workshop."
"But you don't have one of those yet. Do you?"
"No," he grumbled.
"It sounds like that should be our priority, if that gives you a bonus," I said.
"What about you?" Blánaid turned to me. "Actually, what about everyone? It's not like we got to talk about it at the clearing."
"Non-Combatant," I said. "I give up most of my ability to harm creatures in exchange for a bunch of ability and spell options that are reserved for (NPCs)." The System stopped me from saying the last word, and everyone looked confused at me. I sighed. "For... I dunno... I can't say."
I was met with a mixture of confusion and understanding on everyone's faces.
"Seems kinda weak," Sé said. "Why'd you pick something like that?"
"Because utility lets me cheat."
He laughed a bit. "That's just like you. Ignore all of the combat, and interesting bits, so you can play house."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing... If you're a woman, which... oh yeah."
"Really? You have a problem with this?" I stood up and stared down at him. "You're not the one that's having to come to terms with being assigned..." I lost the words as I angrily gestured at my chest.
Everyone else looked between us, unsure of what to say.
"Of course I have a problem with it. My best friend is dead and replaced by you!" He shouted. "You're not (...) anymore." I guessed my old name had been censored. He waved his hands in frustration, as he stood and pushed me back.. "You're... I don't even know who you are anymore. You're such a fucking pussy. But I guess you've always been one, haven't you?"
I felt myself getting smaller as I took a few steps back and sank into myself. Was that how he saw me? But he was right about one thing, the old me was dead.