Path of the Vampire forum

Mortimer, who often accepted being called 'Mort' for short, had resolved to turn his life around. Yes, things had been better once, and they were not-so-good now, but he was an eternal optimist. Other people might have been pre-occupied with their misfortune or perhaps even losing their grip on reality by fixating on supernatural things, of which he'd heard rumor of in Harper Rock but not much more than that, but not Mortimer.

He had better things to focus on. The strange thing was that he wasn't entirely sure what he was wearing. He knew it was a long-sleeved shirt, he knew he was in jeans, but he couldn't figure out the colors. He could feel points where the fabrichad frayed. He smelled of Wickbridge Station, where he panhandled. It was not pleasant--it was like smelling of asphalt, ash, and industry. Thankfully, it covered up his less-than-clean normal odor....though it was debatable if the new smell was exactly better.

During his pandhandling, someone had told him about a nearby class that would teach Braille. Mortimer had earned some small money from his pandhandling...and sometimes via clumsy attempts to pickpocket people that got too close. He didn't mean to be a criminal, but it was the sort of misbehavior that was caused by a hungry stomach rather than malfiesance. Once upon a time, he'd been quite handsome--brown hair, finely kept beard, tanned skin, piercing eyes that looked like a stormy sea. Nowadays...well, he did not know what he looked like. He knew he was unkempt. But he had no idea how much damage the shrapnel and debris that had blinded him in the construction accident had done to his face.

He had better things to think about. Braille!

After getting directions several times and occasionally asking assistance from passerby to guide him along, Mortimer found the place the class was being taught. The smell of the coffee hit him instantly, and his stomach rumbled in reply. He made a beeline for the food and coffee once a few others mentioned the food...and summarily tripped over a chair.

From somewhere in the vicinity of the floor, Mort said, "Ah. Okay. I'm sure this class teaches Braille. Probably doesn't teach obstacle-avoidance, I'd hazard." There were a couple of smiles, and Mort, grinning, was guided by a teacher to sit at a desk, where someone was kind enough to bring him coffee and a snack. It was obvious to those who could see that Mort was the panhandler who'd taken up residence near Wickbridge.

He was sitting near Robin; he could hear someone near. He didn't know it was Robin, of course, and Robin was a stranger, but Mort said, "Uh, nice to meet you. Mortimer, but most just call me Mort. Can I assume if you're sitting here that you're taking the class, too?"

The delay in reply reminded Mort that it wasn't as if another blind person would have the accompanying visual cues to know they'd been the one spoken to. He felt a little silly, but he didn't let it show. Well, he could have, not that the other person could see.

"I've heard that a lot of good things are produced in Braille, but not everything. A lot of it relies on translators willing to produce the material. So...options are a lot more limited for stuff originally produced by people who can still see, I think. But I do think that blind authors can produce their own stuff using text-to-speech and a handy publisher willing to put something out in normal and Braille editions. Hopefully, at any rate. The teacher might know more? I'm sort of approaching answering the question the way I would for any language that requires competent and capable translators."

He had purposely not mentioned how long he'd been blind for at first; Robin's question about Braille literature seemed to be a better ice-breaker.

"New-ish blind, too, I guess. Work accident, in my case. Unfortunately, the perfect storm of problems, one of which being my inability to read Braille, has left me in a professional bind looking for other work, so here I am."

Mortimer tried his best to listen to the goings-ons in the room. "Are there quite a lot of people here, do you think?"

I think there are more than I would have anticipated once upon a time, but not nearly as many as one would think is in a normal class, Mort thought to himself, but he couldn't be sure.

Meanwhile, the teacher of the course came in and began quietly setting up at front, and Mort did hear that. He asked Robin, "Is this your first time here? Do you have any idea how they teach these classes? I hear someone in front; I wonder if we'll be starting soon."