Micky’s instructors left him at his house. They looked relieved that he was alive, but most looked more like they were relieved that the package hadn’t broken on delivery and not that he was alive and healthy, ish. Micky stared off into the void now that he was out of the crawl. It wasn’t an uncommon symptom, they called it PDDD or P3D, post dungeon dive disorder.

Luckily Micky was responsive upon prompting and with the care of Yolanda and Merry the alchemist he was convalescing well. So even though he was staring off into space when not directly talked too he was going to be ok. Or at least that was the hope by the medical professionals on call. This happened to be Yolanda and Merry though who were not medical [Class] or classed.

When he was returned home he was hugged by all of his girls and even Prin and the taciturn Mrs. Doderson joined in. She could not fault a lord that was willing to sacrifice themselves even if she could not approve… At least not without an heir. But she was more then willing to fully serve a lord that would fall on their sword for their people. And who wouldn’t? She couldn’t approve it, ever, a lord that allowed themselves capture or death would send their house into turmoil. As a maid and staff, she should be berating him for what he did. But how could she? This was a story that houses passed down for generations to be retold about that one ancestor that did that glorious thing in life. This was that glorious thing. Much like being a soldier and warrior or great general or forging new land. This was a tale that houses were built on.

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Micky sat in his bed and just stared. He wondered if he was going to wake up and be back there. His mind knew that this was real, and that he survived. But his heart did not and his conscious kept telling him that what he did was impossible. All the while Prin stood [Guard] over his bed as his sentinel. She had failed and instead of being the knight that sacrificed herself for the lord, it was the lord that sacrificed themselves for the knight. She had failed, and she had failed hard. She would not fail again, it was a silent promise to herself and Micky. She had been lacking in her training in her [Profession]s apparently. This is what she told herself, that there was something that she could do.

Micky for his own personal part just stayed in bed moving as little as possible to not aggravate his wounds. He just huddled inside his blankets and let the world pass him by.

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Merry came up the stairs and made an announcement to Micky a day or two after he was rescued from the crawl. “I’ve decided to move in with y’all. Really Micky, if you wanted to extend your hospitality you should have said something instead of being so dramatic!”

Micky made a polite chuckle but you could tell he wasn’t feeling it. Prin just stared at her soullessly. While her joke went over flat, too soon perhaps, they did not disagree and this way she could keep an eye on him as his medical consult.

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It was a full week after his episode in the crawl that Yolanda had come into his house with a strange contraption. By this point, he had had a festive array of parishioners praying for his good tydings at his bed alter. The least of which not being his troll blacksmithing instructor. Micky still remembered the first time he met the man.

“What, never seen a troll blacksmith before? I’ll tell you I can make bronze with the best of the dwarven smiths and if it wasn’t for their fancy adamantium I would be able to out smith them all!” The smith said as Micky stared at the man.

Micky responded with “No, it’s the first time I’ve seen a troll sir. Sorry for staring it’s just that your so big… I mean I knew that your type was big but I didn’t think. I mean I don’t mean your type it’s just your race… I’m going to be quiet now...” Micky said and the man stared at him with a blank face. Then he broke into a raucous laughter and slapped Micky unconscious with a ‘friendly’ slap to the back.

When Micky woke up he was told that he would need to level up his STG and END if he was going to be friends with blacksmiths. Micky told the man to his face “Guess I will just have to never be friends with a blacksmith.” To this both men laughed.

Now his troll smithing instructor and Yolanda wheeled in a device that was a chair but mobile. It had wagon wheels on a chair and could be wheeled around by someone. It was a good thing because though his fight was postponed that didn’t mean those old fogies would wait forever. Though his forfeiture would simply mean they would have bragging rights over him for the rest of his life, as it was simply a ‘friendly’ wager, Micky had no plans to do so. With the END of even the least of those old fogies, they will stay old fogies long until Micky died of old age. Why Yolanda herself *Smack* Micky stopped that thought as Yolanda gave him a mean look. He didn’t know why or how, but a woman could always tell when you were thinking of their age.

After they wheeled in the chair Micky was, reluctantly, for the first time in a while, moved from his bed. He had spent an entire week in his bed, and had no intentions of leaving it. Not for any real reason, he just didn’t ‘feel like it’ and Prin was not about to disagree with her master. This would also be the first time the girls saw him again. And Micky feared it. In his general malaise he was not affected by the goblin lust or rage he still felt. Only, there was no goblin that it was coming from. This meant that it was coming from himself and that was something that he had to deal with. Or that is what he thought.

In one of the few times that Prin left his side, she had even stayed with him during his ablutions, and when he was receiving a bath. Actually, she was one of the ones helping with those activities, Mrs. Doderson being one of the others, and Yolanda and Merry making up the last. Yolanda had forced Prin outside and forbade her from listening in. Then she had forced Micky to tell her about what was eating him inside.

He then told her about the goblin lust and rage. It was something that felt like it physically burned inside himself. He felt it so viscerally that he could near project it as an aura. So far for Prin and the others sack he was too depressed to act on it, but he feared recovery as he knew that he might. Yolanda laughed at his trivial worries. It was called familiar sickness. It was something that was caused when a [Bond] was broken. And Micky’s bond, even if an unwilling one, had broken in the worst of ways. It was something that would pass in time. He was just ‘seared’ with what was left of the goblin’s last vestiges before it had died. Even though it was the worst it was the fact of the way and the reason that it would dissipate in time. This was because he felt no real emotional attachment to the goblin, it was just an effect of the magic.

Now, Micky was in front of his girls again, and he was nervous. He was surrounded by women and the goblin lust was still there, burning, searing at his consciousness. But it was easy to endure for that reason. He feared himself, but at the same time the foreignness of the thoughts made it easy to ignore. But now was not the time, so he laughed a bit nervously at himself. He was Micky Anderson, it was not like him to act like this. He would endure and he would triumph. So he was wheeled outside and into a riot with screaming commoners...