trans_9 | If you prick us, do we not bleed? [open]

In some ways fainting had been a blessing to Chaucer. Medically, it was nothing but a nightmare, but he hadn't had to deal with the doctors or healers, or whoever had patched him up in the end. Whoever it was had done a brilliant job; Geoff had been terrified that he'd lose his arm at the very least, probably die. Instead he'd woken up to a splint and some heavy sort of wrapping. He couldn't move his arm, but it wasn't missing. A few minutes of checking it over had passed before he'd even noticed the odd pulling in his side and noticed the bandages there.

The relative lack of pain was a marvel in itself.

He needed to find out who had helped him, thank them, eventually. When he got out of the medbay. For now he was propped up slightly in his bed, struggling with the stylus for his comm. Left-handed writing was ridiculously difficult, made even more awkward by the unfamiliarity of the surface, but it was something to do. A way to write Philippa, one he could transcribe into legibility later.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Geoffrey hadn't been paying much attention to his surroundings, but when he glances up and spots the knight it's hardly unwelcome. Putting his stylus down, he smiles slightly. "I have no idea what they have done," he answers truthfully, "but I am feeling surprisingly well. It seems like a miracle."

Relief shows clearly in Sparhawk's eyes at Chaucer's announcement. "Much of what happens here seems almost miraculous, but I am glad that one has happened to you."

He steps further into the room rather than lurk in the entrance any longer.

"It's a relief from how my luck has been of late, m'lord, I will admit." Seeing that Sparhawk isn't just dropping by for a moment, Geoff awkwardly tries to shift and sit up a little more. His comm almost slips off his lap, but he manages to catch it.

"I don't mean to be interrupting you, neighbour," Sparhawk adds as he halts for a second, seeing if he will have to make a grab for the comm if Chaucer should miss. One the comm is caught, Sparhawk takes the last couple of steps to stand beside the bed, trying not to loom.

"Have they told you how long you will be confined here?"

"It's been slow going with my off arm, so you're hardly interrupting anything that wasn't interrupting itself," Chaucer assures him as he tries to resettle.

"Though apparently I am only here a day or two more." He may wander off before then, of course, but he's not going to inform anyone of that before he does it.

Another day or two, for what should have been a mortal wound? Sparhawk is giving some serious thought to how best to take some of this equipment back to his own world. After Tynian caught a crossbow bolt in the shoulder, this would have fixed him easily.

Sparhawk feels slightly awkward now. He wants to tell Chaucer that he's sorry that he didn't look out for him, that Sparhawk is sorry for feeling the rage that he was feeling. But that's not his place, and he doesn't know how Chaucer will take it.

"At least wounds can be healed. The divisions from this may take some time to heal over," Sparhawk is interested in hearing what the other man has to say.

"I do not know what to think of the division that might result from this," Geoff answered honestly. "I have been trying, but I cannot understand all of the rationalities here. Will the dissenters even be allowed their freedom?"

He had had plenty of time to think on the matter, but with little understanding of the system seemingly in play here, he could hardly form a clear opinion. Sparhawk, he felt, might have some insight to such matters that a man chained, even metaphorically, to his bed would not.

"Their views are understandable, but their methods are not. The decision to free them will have to come from the senior command, but there were too many injuries for them to be safely freed at this time. Betrayal is not something that can be accepted easily."

Sparhawk's face is stern as he utters this last. A member of his team was part of the conspiracy, someone that he had thought that he could trust, someone he thought would trust /him/. He's so far resisted the urge to go and yell at her though.

"Would you free them, Sir? Their actions directly harmed you."

"I was injured because I did not hide far enough from the action, not from any purpose of either side. I'm hardly even sure which side hurt me. Their actions were wrong, but I can understand the spirit. I won't damn them for it." That, Geoff hadn't even had to think about.

"Neither party is without some fault, luck is all that is to thank for a lack of fatalities. I can condemn all or neither, and I have yet to decide which."

Sparhawk sighs. "You're a voice of wisdom, but you were still injured. Lady Redfield was injured, and she only tried to help the wounded, and was not in the conflict. I am surprised that Sir Leon has not called Sam out, prisoner or not."

Sparhawk's upright posture slumps for a second, before he straightens again. "I hold myself at fault, also. If we of the jury had not voted the way that we did, perhaps this would have been averted. Sacrificing the one to save the many is not an unfamiliar concept."

"Please sit, sir. You're a strain on the neck of the injured." Geoff grinned at him, shifting his legs over to make room. "And correct me if I am wrong, but such a saying is typically in reference to the death of one to spare others that fate. Was that not partially your intent?"

"I am sure that the healer would have me thrown out were I to worsen your wounds," Sparhawk is glad of the banter as he seats himself.

"If we had voted to slay the Yeerk, then one faction would have been satisfied, and those who sought a peaceful resolution, I would hope, would have not chosen violence to make their protest. No one would have been hurt, and this division would not have been so complete."

"I think my head must be fogged by whatever has taken away a majority of the pain." Geoff rubbed his face, wondering if he was making any sense at all. "What sort of life was the creature fated to?"

"My knowledge of the Yeerks is limited to the information given for the trial, but I believe that if it had not been discovered, then it would have stayed hidden, reluctant to act without orders, and unwilling to act to the detriment of the host. It was not of a high rank, and so was at the mercy of others higher than it, who did not have the proper respect for the behaviors of leaders. It was under threat."

Which is something that Sparhawk disapproves of. There is a certain standard of behaviour that he expects from those in charge, and the Yeerks go against all of that.

"With our vote, it was either doomed to death, or imprisonment. There was never the choice to give it freedom, given the way that it would live out in freedom."

If you prick us, do we not bleed? [open]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject