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

[godimgood.livejournal.com]

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.

Comments

[godimgood.livejournal.com]

"I think the excitement's over for now," Chaucer tells him, trying to squash that. "Whoever lost lost, or I doubt I'd be up here taken care of."

[gotsomebite.livejournal.com]

"Oh..." He frowns, scuffing his shoes. "They would've lost for sure if I was fightin'. I'm the best there ever was."

[godimgood.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure they would," Geoff assured him. Children fighting didn't make him happy, but he did understand the boy's compulsion.

"Gamin, can you read?"

[gotsomebite.livejournal.com]

"No sir." He wasn't extremely deterred by this fact, but the boy did make a point to call him sir back.

"Can you?"

[godimgood.livejournal.com]

"Writing would be difficult if I could not read. Would you like to learn?"

[gotsomebite.livejournal.com]

The question caused him to take a step back, "why?"

[godimgood.livejournal.com]

"Words are power, young sir," Geoff tells him, unconcerned at the balking.

[gotsomebite.livejournal.com]

"Can they help you win a fight?"

It's a serious question, don't doubt that. After all, so much else is different here, perhaps that is too.

[godimgood.livejournal.com]

"They can help you win a fight before it is even begun."

A serious question deserves a serious answer. Geoff should know, he'd pulled it off before.

[gotsomebite.livejournal.com]

"'nd how do they do that?"

Okay, he might be taking a step forward again. Just one.

[godimgood.livejournal.com]

"If you find the right words," Geoff explains carefully, softly, "you can have power over kings, hold women enraptured, and keep mobs at bay. You learn from practice and study, and the best way to study is to read the work of other wordsmiths."

[gotsomebite.livejournal.com]

The softer voice forces him to take another step forward, listening. "Are you an wordsmith then? Hmm?"

[godimgood.livejournal.com]

"Of course," he says, smiling. "I'm a writer, a herald. Both of them are wordsmiths, just different types, with different goals."

[gotsomebite.livejournal.com]

"And what are they?"

He's a bit interested, just a bit and he finally closes the space between them, looking down at the stylus. "Do you 'rapt women?"

[godimgood.livejournal.com]

"Writers write stories and knowledge for generations to come. We write for your children's children. Heralds are presenters, showmen, announcing gods to the crowd, when the man who pays them is made of sticks."

Geoff blinks. "Do I 'rapt--" there's a short pause as he works through that one, "Do I enrapture women?" It's like talking to Wat, you just have to find the words he means. "I think I do. I certainly helped woo a damsel or two or three."

[gotsomebite.livejournal.com]

"And just by reading?" He glances down at the markings, thinking this one out, "Are the girls pretty?"

[godimgood.livejournal.com]

"Reading is the key to all the palaces of the world, gamin," he assured the boy, "and the women are beautiful."

[gotsomebite.livejournal.com]

"Have you been there? Really?"

He paused, and looked around the room for a minute, "This isn't one of them, is it?"

[godimgood.livejournal.com]

"I have. And no, this is not one." Geoff also paused to look around a little. "Not as I know them."