Chapter 112: Feeling Out of Place
It was a slow start to the day. Partly because he'd fallen sleep when he was purely exhausted, but also from not having anything to really do to help out. Jonas had getting clothing for the young women already in hand, with help from Kim, Elin healed what needed to be healed, not that there seemed to be much at this time, and there didn't seem to be any other signs that any goblin had survived the attack. Or at least not any goblins inside the dungeon. If any had survived, then it was because they'd already left the dungeon.
Elmo wanted to help, but since it would involve dressing the young women who were clearly naked, he doubted that, one, Kim would appreciate him helping with that, and two, the young women would appreciate that when they woke up.
When Kim and Elin went to have Kim change into her 'new' armor, Elmo wasn't sure why they took so long, but he certainly wasn't going to check. He'd survived this long in his life by not looking into things that he knew he shouldn't.
One of the bigger reasons he refused to try to peek into the girl's locker room when he was in high school, even though all the jocks were daring him to do so. He knew if he got caught, his social and potential career life would be over before they really stated.
Aside from that, he was pretty sure that it had been a setup, and if he had looked, not only would he have been caught, but that things would only escalate further from there. He might not be good at interacting with others sometimes, but he at least knew when to deny his curiosity. Part of it went with having self control and keeping reason in charge of his actions.
When Kim finally did emerge, he wondered why Elin wasn't with them, but couldn't think of how to word it without sounding like he was trying to keep tabs on her. After all, he knew she wasn't going to just abandon their team. At least not while they were in the dungeon. He was merely curious as to why she stayed behind.
As such, he wasn't sure what he should do with himsef, so he merely made sure he had his things ready to go and waited, sitting on the ground by the stairs.
At times like these, he wished he understood how to interact with others as casually as most people seemed to. Sometimes he felt like he hit on the correct wavelength, but then it would disappear after a time and he'd feel adrift, unsure about the best way to try and find it again.
Maybe his family was right about him being shy, he thought. He didn't want to say he way, mostly because he didn't seem himself as shy, but just because he doesn't want to call it that, doesn't mean that's not what it is. After all, he could remember the line from the Shakespeare play of 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' As such, while he might like to think of himself as something other than shy, that didn't necessarily mean that he wasn't.
As movement pulled Elmo's attention back to what the others were doing, he say Elin returning to the room while Kim was putting clothing on the young women, and Jonas looked like he was searching the goblins for something. Elmo wasn't sure what it was about, but he couldn't find it in himself to care at the moment. He wanted to go ask, but something inside him was telling him to just stay where he was.
He always hated when things were calm around him and he had time to soak in his own thoughts. While it was nice to relax from time to time, he didn't like to spend too much time not doing anything. It gave himself too much time to think and he usually made himself miserable because of that. He looked at Jonas again, wondering if he should be more forceful in expressing his interest, since Jonas hadn't shown any signs of returning that interest or if he should just give up on it.