You slid the sabre back to its scabbard, bloodied as it is, before making your reply. You consider a bit on how to proceed. Whatever magic is affecting you right now allows you to understand but not to communicate. You rummage your pockets, finding your somewhat bloodstained journal. Using your good hand to open it, you activate the glyph sewn to its leather cover.
Mind to text marker activated.
"Hello?" You replied back, parroting what he said, before shifting to your own language. "Who are you?"
There's a lengthy pause from the other side of the door. There's no doubt that the man is considering what you're saying. You took the time to make your way to the countertop. You activated the analytical arrays outside, covertly scanning the person waiting.
True to your assumptions, you see the visage of a man, seemingly tanned brown in complexity, scratching his black haired head in confusion with one hand. The other hand holding a rather sizzling mace. He carries with him a rather large pack on his back. Your still working eye veers to his waist, adorned simply with an interesting looking longsword hanging without a scabbard, completely black with a golden hilt. You also sense a sort of weird... magical energy of sorts permeating throughout his body. You can also sense the utter feeling of concentration on his face.
"Can you understand me? Say yes if you can."
"Yes." You apply to your left hand a Gausser's Glove, one of your best selling items. Accidental limb loss is something that's an unsolvable literal plague that haunts Artennova ever since you were born and an item that works as an emergency prosthetics is always in demand. The phantom feeling of having your fingers back is simply great. That's one injury hidden.
"Can you speak my language? Say no if you can't."
You pause in your musings to consider what the man trying to do. "No." You smile as you realize what he's doing.
"Are you okay?"
"... Yes." By phrasing whatever he's saying as questions and giving you the binary ways to answer, the two of you now worked out a crude and ineffective yet nevertheless working method of communication.
"Can I come in?" Of course, it's ineffective partly because you can't make a sales pitch and tell him about your predicament.
"No."
"Why no-" He paused. "Can I come in later?"
"Yes."
"Whe- In one hour?"
That would be enough for you to take a bath and bandage yourself... you think. "No."
"In two hours?" Of course, you need some more time. You look at the journal, matching the thoughts in your mind with the papers. You're transcribing his diction to something that you can look at and pronounce.
"No. Three." You do need to teach him how to understand you though.
"... In three hours?"
"Yes. Three hours."
A rather long awkward pause occurs before the man shrugged. "I will wait outside for three hours then. I will erect fortifications waiting for you. I will stay with you. It's still dangerous tonight."
Fortifications? "Okay, er, I mean, yes." Well, you'll see what he mean. Now you need something to do to pass the three hours.
Vote the following based on Ranked Voting:
[] You're curious about this strange man. At first glance, between the pack on his back and the fact that he's not even wearing anything resembling an armour, he looks like an average traveller. Yet the way he carries himself, what with the mace and the sword on his waist, reminds you of a Subjugation Knight. And fortifications? You're inherently curious about that.
[] You mustn't be distracted though, you need to clean yourself up. You're literally caked with your own dried blood. You need a clean hot plunge in the bath tub and tend to your wounds. Make yourself more presentable and all that.
[] Speaking of presentable, you need to make sure the shop looks presentable too. At least clean up some of the blood. You're not going to try and move the weird creature though. That one stays bound inside the mandala.
[] You need to find something to communicate better with the, for the lack of better word, Knight. There should be something in your inventory that would work.
[] You should also complete cataloguing the shop's inventory. It's not exactly the most appealing or important of things to do, but finishing it may give you a slight peace of mind.
[] Also something else that does give you peace of mind, your stash of money. You're not even sure how currencies will work here but you need to properly account what money you have in the place.
