Post by The Stranger on Jun 14, 2008 23:38:58 GMT -5
Aldrys, back inside Sheyn’s private room, was wiping tomato off his hands with a rag as the old man approached him. “That wasn’t bad, boy.”
“Not bad? What do you mean, not bad? We were great! They loved it!”
Sheyn twisted his head so far to the side it appeared his neck had been broken. He gave Aldrys an incredulous look and said, “What on earth are you talking about? Oh, it was good, and the audience did get pulled in a bit, but you were far from great.”
It was Aldrys’ turn to look incredulous. “What?! Bu – but we were perfect! We did everything right, just like you’ve always taught us!”
Sheyn shook his head, chuckling. “Perfect? Your performance may have been perfect, but it was not a perfect performance. When I was about your age, I faked my suicide on stage at some lord’s holding. They actually called the man’s Maesters to try and revive me. And even that was far from perfect.”
Aldrys sat down hard and leaned against the wall. “But… but I thought you’d be proud of us. We did so well!”
Sheyn sighed and sat down next to him. “Aldrys, you did well. You did very well, especially considering how out of practice you are. But you still have so much to learn.” He pointed at the tomato stains on Aldrys’ shirt. “What are these supposed to be?”
Aldrys looked down, pulling the shirt out so he could see. “Bloodstains, battle-wounds…”
“And yet your shirt is not torn and I can see bits of the pulp. They’re tomatoes, Aldrys. You’re still imitating reality. The only way you’ll ever become a great actor is if you can create reality.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
Sheyn stood. “Stand up, boy.” Aldrys did so. “Pretend to cut me across the face.” Aldrys sighed and made a lazy motion of bringing a sword across Sheyn’s face.
When he did, Sheyn yelped in pain, swayed to the side, and when he came up there was a long, shallow cut across his cheek. Aldrys’ eyes widened, and he actually looked at his hand to make sure he wasn’t holding anything, even though he knew his hand was empty.
Sheyn smiled and held up his hand, showing Aldrys a razor the size of a thumbnail hidden in his hand. “Fantasy becomes reality. An act becomes a fact. This is how you create reality, Aldrys. I never meant that a man could act, put on little performances, and become a god. To be a god, you must literally create reality.” He pulled a cloth out of his shirt and dabbed at his face. “Keep that in mind, boy. No matter how good you are on a stage, it means nothing in the real world. You were the lord of that stage for a few minutes, but when you walk out the door here you’ll be a commoner again.”
“Then what’s the fucking point of it all? Are you telling me that everything you taught me is useless?”
“Nothing’s useless, boy. But there’s nothing in this world you can possess or know that will help you with everything. That’s why you need to always learn more, work harder. Only then will you be great. Most of those lords out there were born into what they are, true, but if you go back far enough, you’ll find a dirty peasant mucking in alleys who decided to do something grand with his life. You’ll find a little boy or girl who was sick of their lot and wanted to become more, just like you, just like me. Most of them failed. Do you want to know which ones succeeded?”
Aldrys nodded.
Sheyn gave Aldrys a gentle punch in the shoulder. “The ones who could convince everyone else that they deserved to be great. Every person in that audience is an actor, Aldrys. If you could get an honest answer out of any of them, they’d tell you that they’re plotting the death and downfall of at least four of the people sitting next to them. Yet they put on their pretty make-up, dress in their lovely costumes, and they act like they aren’t the scheming little shits they really are. That’s why they’re powerful. That’s why they aren’t all dead by now. Well, that, and they’re all more than a little insane. I’ve spent time in courts, it’s actually quite hilarious to watch.” He frowned. “I decided not to pursue that life, even though it’s well within my power. I wanted to create, Aldrys. I’ve never told any of you this, but I really did think of all of you as my little creations. As each of you left me, one by one, I couldn’t help but be worried about what I’d unleashed on the world. You’re the first one to come back to me, and I have to say I’m disappointed with you. You were meant for much grander things than the life of a thief.”
Sheyn turned and walked over to the chair, sitting down. “Now, what should we do for the last performance? Something easy, but moving.”
Aldrys was looking down at the carpet by then, tears in his eyes. Sheyn had beaten him daily for three years, called him an idiot, a bungler, a worthless piece of shit, and every derogatory thing a man could be called. But he’d never told Aldrys he was disappointed in him until now. At that moment, Aldrys very much wished he was dead.
His voice was hollow as he spoke. “Sheyn. Let’s do the Blind Fool.”
“I suspect you want the lead?”
“Yes.”
____________________________
The Blind Fool was simultaneously the easiest and hardest act Sheyn had. It was short, perhaps ten minutes long. There was only one line in the entire play. Other than that, the performers were silent. The play required only a few simple props and a lot of flowers, which Sheyn had requested be provided, just in case.
What made it difficult was that, without sound, the actors had only their expressions and actions to convey emotions and ideas to the audience, which is a very difficult thing to do. Also, one of the actors was required to memorize the distance and position of everything on the stage. If done right, it was a very powerful piece. If done wrong, it was ten minutes of total boredom for the audience.
Aldrys walked onto the stage with a white shirt identical to his grey one but for the color. He had white powder on his face and hands, his hair was pulled back so as much of his face as possible could show. When he reached the center of the stage, he pulled out a tomato and started tossing it up in the air from hand to hand. Suddenly there were two, then four, then six tomatoes performing a steady loop as Aldrys juggled them. He gave the audience a giant smile and closed his eyes, juggling blind for a moment. There were appreciative claps.
Chennith walked onto stage then, made up to be a very attractive woman. He was quite good at it, being the prettiest man Aldrys had ever known, and there were whistles from the crowd.
Alrdrys looked at the crowd confused, because many of them weren’t watching him. He looked left, saw Chennith, and his jaw dropped. One by one, he had each of the tomatoes land on his head, bringing laughter back to the audience. They’d seemed nervous at first, but now they assumed the humour had begun again. Sheyn was a cold-hearted bastard.
Aldrys looked out at the audience again, putting on the most idiotic grin he could, and the audience laughed again. A fool in love. This was more like a traditional mummery, and now they felt very safe. A sick, cruel bastard, that Sheyn.
Aldrys gathered the tomatoes up and scurried over to Chennith, waving. Chennith put on an uncomfortable smile, unsure, and started to turn and leave. Aldrys motioned for “her” to stop and started juggling again, producing more tomatoes from his sleeves until a full dozen were in the air, and then worked back down to just one, and then none. He made a big show of breathing hard, a huge smile on his silently gasping face, arms spread out. She smiled, clapped silently, gently kissed the fool on the cheek, and started to back away off-stage. The fool brought his hand to his cheek, a look of shock on his face.
Once the woman was off-stage, the fool turned to look at the audience, and pointed at where he’d been kissed with a shaking hand. And then he leapt! A gasp from the audience. He pranced about the stage, leaping, flipping, cartwheeling, dancing, conveying all the wild emotions a man felt when in love. It was an impressive display of acrobatics, and the audience laughed and clapped, happy for the jubilant fool.
And then the fool stopped, placed his hand on his chin, and shot his eyes around searching. He glanced off-stage, made an expression of discovery, and ran out of sight. When he came back, he held an arm-full of all kinds of flowers, and stared out into the audience, searching.
The woman came back on-stage and the fool spotted her. He ran up, his chest heaving, presenting what had to be a hundred flowers to his beloved. She looked at them, delight on her face, and chose one blue rose from all of them. She kissed the fool on the cheek, in the exact same spot, and walked off-stage. The moment she was gone, the fool looked at the audience, then at the flowers, then back at the audience again. They laughed, amused that the fool went to all that trouble and the lady seemingly dejected him by taking only one flower.
The fool shrugged, and leapt as high as he could! He threw flowers into the air, dancing as they and their petals fell around him, his joy seeming to rain down with them. He pranced about the stage, leaping, flipping, cartwheeling, dancing, conveying all the wild emotions a man felt when in love. Every so often he’d grab more flowers off the stage and threw them back up into the air. The laughter at his acrobatic displays continued.
The fool stood to one side of the stage. He smiled, twisting from side to side on the balls of his feet, looking to be barely containing his glee. The woman walked onto the stage again, still holding the blue rose, but this time she was followed by a gruff man. They reached the mid-point of the stage, and the woman turned around and walked off slowly. The man stalked after her, slowly pulling a (prop) knife out.
The happy little fool glanced over and did a double-take, shock on his face. He ran up to the man, grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, punching him in the face. The two struggled, the audience gasped as the man tried to stab the fool, but the fool eventually managed to knock the knife to the other side of the stage and punched the man again. The man shot him a look of contempt and ran after the knife.
The fool sighed, weary, and turned to find his love and make sure she wasn’t harmed. And then a tall, powerfully built, handsome man walked onto the stage, motioning at the woman. She smiled, laughing silently, cast the rose to the ground, and practically leapt into the man’s arms, smothering him with kisses.
The small, scrawny, plain-looking fool stopped. He stared. The audience moaned in sympathy. The fool’s lip quivered, his arms shook, tears glistened in his eyes. His eyes were locked onto the other side of the stage, taking everything in, the moment burning itself into his thoughts. He did not notice the gruff man sneak up behind him and drive the knife into his back. The audience gasped, several noblewomen shrieked. Moments ago they’d been laughing at the little fool’s antics, happy with and supportive of his silly displays of love.
And now that little fool slowly sank to his knees as the thief stalked off-stage, right past the woman and her lover, who were still deeply wrapped in each other’s arms. There was a red stain on the fool’s back, and he coughed suddenly, blood spraying from his mouth. He looked down at the ground, his shoulder’s slumped, more blood dribbled from his mouth. And then the little fool collapsed onto the ground to the cries and gasps and groans of the audience. They couldn’t believe this was happening.
The fool lay there for a few seconds, and then from that prone position he started to crawl. He crawled across the ground, slowly turning towards the audience, and when he reached the edge of the stage, he looked up.
Screams of terror filled the room. The happy little fool now wore a frown. His lips and chin shown bright red with blood, contrasting with the white of his make-up. His eyes… were white. Rolled back completely into his head. The little fool stood up. Blood continued to dribble from his mouth, adding more red stains to the front of his shirt. And the fool stepped backward, slowly, his white eyes never leaving the audience. He walked over to where the man and the woman were, looking longingly off into the distance with his unseeing eyes. Slowly, gingerly, he crouched and picked up the blue rose. Gently, he placed it in the lover’s hand, which was holding the woman close to him.
The fool walked with stuttering, uneven steps in front of the two, one eye towards the audience. He was nearly at the end of the stage, when he turned, slowly, back to the woman. The woman and her lover parted, and the lover suddenly noticed the rose in his hand, a look of confusion on his face. The woman laughed silently and grabbed the rose from him. She looked into her lover’s eyes, pure joy on her face.
From behind the lover, the fool’s white eyes looked straight at the woman’s living eyes. He smiled then, a sick, macabre thing on his bloody face. The fool opened his mouth, and spoke three words, the only sound to come from the stage in the entire performance.
“Always be happy.”
He walked off the stage, leaving the audience to react to this in whatever manner they found fitting.
____________________
Once off-stage, Aldrys blinked, rubbing his aching eyes on his sleeve. He quickly walked back to Sheyn’s room, not caring what the audience thought of the act, only wanting to see his master’s reaction.
Sheyn was sitting in his little chair, a tomato in his hands. He was staring at the tomato as though it held some great secret.
“Well Sheyn? What did you think?”
Sheyn looked up. “Not bad, boy. Not bad at all. You memorized where the rose fell, you gave them all the right emotions, you performed the acrobatics excellently. Not a bad act. I couldn’t even see you sneak the tomato into your mouth.” He pulled out a rag and held it out for Aldrys to wipe the juice off his face.
Aldrys pressed it to his face, and wiped away the blood. He squatted down so he could look Sheyn straight in the eye, pulled his lip back, and showed Sheyn the bite marks on the inside of his cheek, trickles of blood still flowing. Sheyn raised an eyebrow, and as Aldrys tore the cloth in half and tucked it into his mouth Sheyn smiled and said, “That’s the boy I remember.”
The door opened, and a pair of Guardsmen walked in. “Mummer, you and your men are to stay here. You will keep to these two back rooms, and none will be allowed to leave, under pain of death.”
Aldrys’ eyes widened and he stood up, turning to face the guards, who looked slightly aghast at his smeared face-paint, bulging cheek, and bloody clothes. “For what reason?!”
“That is none of your concern.”
“What the fuck do you mean, it isn’t my con-“ he stopped as Sheyn stood and quickly threw him sideways into the wall, knocking him into a heap on the floor.
“You will hold your tongue when your betters speak to you, idiot!” Sheyn kicked him, then turned to face the guards. “Forgive the boy. He’s stupid and forgets his place from time to time.” He kicked Aldrys again.
The guards didn’t seem to care all that much. “Just don’t let him try to leave, or we will kill him.”
“Of course, Guardsman.” The guards turned to leave. “If I may ask, though…” The guards turned back. “Are we here as prisoners, or as guests?”
The guards looked at each other, then looked back and said, “As guests, for now.”
“I see. And if I may ask, how long will we have the pleasure of your hospitality?”
“Until our orders change.”
Sheyn bowed low, a hand over his heart. “Very good, guardsmen. If that is the case, I pray it would be allowed for my men to be brought water to wash with and something to eat. It has been a long morning.”
The guards looked at each other again, turned back, and said, “We’ll see.” They left the room, closing the door behind them.
Results:
Aldrys advances to Master Acting
Aldrys advances to Expert Acrobatics
Aldrys, Sheyn, and the Thousand Faces are confined to the back-rooms of the Mummers Guildhouse until further notice.
“Not bad? What do you mean, not bad? We were great! They loved it!”
Sheyn twisted his head so far to the side it appeared his neck had been broken. He gave Aldrys an incredulous look and said, “What on earth are you talking about? Oh, it was good, and the audience did get pulled in a bit, but you were far from great.”
It was Aldrys’ turn to look incredulous. “What?! Bu – but we were perfect! We did everything right, just like you’ve always taught us!”
Sheyn shook his head, chuckling. “Perfect? Your performance may have been perfect, but it was not a perfect performance. When I was about your age, I faked my suicide on stage at some lord’s holding. They actually called the man’s Maesters to try and revive me. And even that was far from perfect.”
Aldrys sat down hard and leaned against the wall. “But… but I thought you’d be proud of us. We did so well!”
Sheyn sighed and sat down next to him. “Aldrys, you did well. You did very well, especially considering how out of practice you are. But you still have so much to learn.” He pointed at the tomato stains on Aldrys’ shirt. “What are these supposed to be?”
Aldrys looked down, pulling the shirt out so he could see. “Bloodstains, battle-wounds…”
“And yet your shirt is not torn and I can see bits of the pulp. They’re tomatoes, Aldrys. You’re still imitating reality. The only way you’ll ever become a great actor is if you can create reality.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
Sheyn stood. “Stand up, boy.” Aldrys did so. “Pretend to cut me across the face.” Aldrys sighed and made a lazy motion of bringing a sword across Sheyn’s face.
When he did, Sheyn yelped in pain, swayed to the side, and when he came up there was a long, shallow cut across his cheek. Aldrys’ eyes widened, and he actually looked at his hand to make sure he wasn’t holding anything, even though he knew his hand was empty.
Sheyn smiled and held up his hand, showing Aldrys a razor the size of a thumbnail hidden in his hand. “Fantasy becomes reality. An act becomes a fact. This is how you create reality, Aldrys. I never meant that a man could act, put on little performances, and become a god. To be a god, you must literally create reality.” He pulled a cloth out of his shirt and dabbed at his face. “Keep that in mind, boy. No matter how good you are on a stage, it means nothing in the real world. You were the lord of that stage for a few minutes, but when you walk out the door here you’ll be a commoner again.”
“Then what’s the fucking point of it all? Are you telling me that everything you taught me is useless?”
“Nothing’s useless, boy. But there’s nothing in this world you can possess or know that will help you with everything. That’s why you need to always learn more, work harder. Only then will you be great. Most of those lords out there were born into what they are, true, but if you go back far enough, you’ll find a dirty peasant mucking in alleys who decided to do something grand with his life. You’ll find a little boy or girl who was sick of their lot and wanted to become more, just like you, just like me. Most of them failed. Do you want to know which ones succeeded?”
Aldrys nodded.
Sheyn gave Aldrys a gentle punch in the shoulder. “The ones who could convince everyone else that they deserved to be great. Every person in that audience is an actor, Aldrys. If you could get an honest answer out of any of them, they’d tell you that they’re plotting the death and downfall of at least four of the people sitting next to them. Yet they put on their pretty make-up, dress in their lovely costumes, and they act like they aren’t the scheming little shits they really are. That’s why they’re powerful. That’s why they aren’t all dead by now. Well, that, and they’re all more than a little insane. I’ve spent time in courts, it’s actually quite hilarious to watch.” He frowned. “I decided not to pursue that life, even though it’s well within my power. I wanted to create, Aldrys. I’ve never told any of you this, but I really did think of all of you as my little creations. As each of you left me, one by one, I couldn’t help but be worried about what I’d unleashed on the world. You’re the first one to come back to me, and I have to say I’m disappointed with you. You were meant for much grander things than the life of a thief.”
Sheyn turned and walked over to the chair, sitting down. “Now, what should we do for the last performance? Something easy, but moving.”
Aldrys was looking down at the carpet by then, tears in his eyes. Sheyn had beaten him daily for three years, called him an idiot, a bungler, a worthless piece of shit, and every derogatory thing a man could be called. But he’d never told Aldrys he was disappointed in him until now. At that moment, Aldrys very much wished he was dead.
His voice was hollow as he spoke. “Sheyn. Let’s do the Blind Fool.”
“I suspect you want the lead?”
“Yes.”
____________________________
The Blind Fool was simultaneously the easiest and hardest act Sheyn had. It was short, perhaps ten minutes long. There was only one line in the entire play. Other than that, the performers were silent. The play required only a few simple props and a lot of flowers, which Sheyn had requested be provided, just in case.
What made it difficult was that, without sound, the actors had only their expressions and actions to convey emotions and ideas to the audience, which is a very difficult thing to do. Also, one of the actors was required to memorize the distance and position of everything on the stage. If done right, it was a very powerful piece. If done wrong, it was ten minutes of total boredom for the audience.
Aldrys walked onto the stage with a white shirt identical to his grey one but for the color. He had white powder on his face and hands, his hair was pulled back so as much of his face as possible could show. When he reached the center of the stage, he pulled out a tomato and started tossing it up in the air from hand to hand. Suddenly there were two, then four, then six tomatoes performing a steady loop as Aldrys juggled them. He gave the audience a giant smile and closed his eyes, juggling blind for a moment. There were appreciative claps.
Chennith walked onto stage then, made up to be a very attractive woman. He was quite good at it, being the prettiest man Aldrys had ever known, and there were whistles from the crowd.
Alrdrys looked at the crowd confused, because many of them weren’t watching him. He looked left, saw Chennith, and his jaw dropped. One by one, he had each of the tomatoes land on his head, bringing laughter back to the audience. They’d seemed nervous at first, but now they assumed the humour had begun again. Sheyn was a cold-hearted bastard.
Aldrys looked out at the audience again, putting on the most idiotic grin he could, and the audience laughed again. A fool in love. This was more like a traditional mummery, and now they felt very safe. A sick, cruel bastard, that Sheyn.
Aldrys gathered the tomatoes up and scurried over to Chennith, waving. Chennith put on an uncomfortable smile, unsure, and started to turn and leave. Aldrys motioned for “her” to stop and started juggling again, producing more tomatoes from his sleeves until a full dozen were in the air, and then worked back down to just one, and then none. He made a big show of breathing hard, a huge smile on his silently gasping face, arms spread out. She smiled, clapped silently, gently kissed the fool on the cheek, and started to back away off-stage. The fool brought his hand to his cheek, a look of shock on his face.
Once the woman was off-stage, the fool turned to look at the audience, and pointed at where he’d been kissed with a shaking hand. And then he leapt! A gasp from the audience. He pranced about the stage, leaping, flipping, cartwheeling, dancing, conveying all the wild emotions a man felt when in love. It was an impressive display of acrobatics, and the audience laughed and clapped, happy for the jubilant fool.
And then the fool stopped, placed his hand on his chin, and shot his eyes around searching. He glanced off-stage, made an expression of discovery, and ran out of sight. When he came back, he held an arm-full of all kinds of flowers, and stared out into the audience, searching.
The woman came back on-stage and the fool spotted her. He ran up, his chest heaving, presenting what had to be a hundred flowers to his beloved. She looked at them, delight on her face, and chose one blue rose from all of them. She kissed the fool on the cheek, in the exact same spot, and walked off-stage. The moment she was gone, the fool looked at the audience, then at the flowers, then back at the audience again. They laughed, amused that the fool went to all that trouble and the lady seemingly dejected him by taking only one flower.
The fool shrugged, and leapt as high as he could! He threw flowers into the air, dancing as they and their petals fell around him, his joy seeming to rain down with them. He pranced about the stage, leaping, flipping, cartwheeling, dancing, conveying all the wild emotions a man felt when in love. Every so often he’d grab more flowers off the stage and threw them back up into the air. The laughter at his acrobatic displays continued.
The fool stood to one side of the stage. He smiled, twisting from side to side on the balls of his feet, looking to be barely containing his glee. The woman walked onto the stage again, still holding the blue rose, but this time she was followed by a gruff man. They reached the mid-point of the stage, and the woman turned around and walked off slowly. The man stalked after her, slowly pulling a (prop) knife out.
The happy little fool glanced over and did a double-take, shock on his face. He ran up to the man, grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, punching him in the face. The two struggled, the audience gasped as the man tried to stab the fool, but the fool eventually managed to knock the knife to the other side of the stage and punched the man again. The man shot him a look of contempt and ran after the knife.
The fool sighed, weary, and turned to find his love and make sure she wasn’t harmed. And then a tall, powerfully built, handsome man walked onto the stage, motioning at the woman. She smiled, laughing silently, cast the rose to the ground, and practically leapt into the man’s arms, smothering him with kisses.
The small, scrawny, plain-looking fool stopped. He stared. The audience moaned in sympathy. The fool’s lip quivered, his arms shook, tears glistened in his eyes. His eyes were locked onto the other side of the stage, taking everything in, the moment burning itself into his thoughts. He did not notice the gruff man sneak up behind him and drive the knife into his back. The audience gasped, several noblewomen shrieked. Moments ago they’d been laughing at the little fool’s antics, happy with and supportive of his silly displays of love.
And now that little fool slowly sank to his knees as the thief stalked off-stage, right past the woman and her lover, who were still deeply wrapped in each other’s arms. There was a red stain on the fool’s back, and he coughed suddenly, blood spraying from his mouth. He looked down at the ground, his shoulder’s slumped, more blood dribbled from his mouth. And then the little fool collapsed onto the ground to the cries and gasps and groans of the audience. They couldn’t believe this was happening.
The fool lay there for a few seconds, and then from that prone position he started to crawl. He crawled across the ground, slowly turning towards the audience, and when he reached the edge of the stage, he looked up.
Screams of terror filled the room. The happy little fool now wore a frown. His lips and chin shown bright red with blood, contrasting with the white of his make-up. His eyes… were white. Rolled back completely into his head. The little fool stood up. Blood continued to dribble from his mouth, adding more red stains to the front of his shirt. And the fool stepped backward, slowly, his white eyes never leaving the audience. He walked over to where the man and the woman were, looking longingly off into the distance with his unseeing eyes. Slowly, gingerly, he crouched and picked up the blue rose. Gently, he placed it in the lover’s hand, which was holding the woman close to him.
The fool walked with stuttering, uneven steps in front of the two, one eye towards the audience. He was nearly at the end of the stage, when he turned, slowly, back to the woman. The woman and her lover parted, and the lover suddenly noticed the rose in his hand, a look of confusion on his face. The woman laughed silently and grabbed the rose from him. She looked into her lover’s eyes, pure joy on her face.
From behind the lover, the fool’s white eyes looked straight at the woman’s living eyes. He smiled then, a sick, macabre thing on his bloody face. The fool opened his mouth, and spoke three words, the only sound to come from the stage in the entire performance.
“Always be happy.”
He walked off the stage, leaving the audience to react to this in whatever manner they found fitting.
____________________
Once off-stage, Aldrys blinked, rubbing his aching eyes on his sleeve. He quickly walked back to Sheyn’s room, not caring what the audience thought of the act, only wanting to see his master’s reaction.
Sheyn was sitting in his little chair, a tomato in his hands. He was staring at the tomato as though it held some great secret.
“Well Sheyn? What did you think?”
Sheyn looked up. “Not bad, boy. Not bad at all. You memorized where the rose fell, you gave them all the right emotions, you performed the acrobatics excellently. Not a bad act. I couldn’t even see you sneak the tomato into your mouth.” He pulled out a rag and held it out for Aldrys to wipe the juice off his face.
Aldrys pressed it to his face, and wiped away the blood. He squatted down so he could look Sheyn straight in the eye, pulled his lip back, and showed Sheyn the bite marks on the inside of his cheek, trickles of blood still flowing. Sheyn raised an eyebrow, and as Aldrys tore the cloth in half and tucked it into his mouth Sheyn smiled and said, “That’s the boy I remember.”
The door opened, and a pair of Guardsmen walked in. “Mummer, you and your men are to stay here. You will keep to these two back rooms, and none will be allowed to leave, under pain of death.”
Aldrys’ eyes widened and he stood up, turning to face the guards, who looked slightly aghast at his smeared face-paint, bulging cheek, and bloody clothes. “For what reason?!”
“That is none of your concern.”
“What the fuck do you mean, it isn’t my con-“ he stopped as Sheyn stood and quickly threw him sideways into the wall, knocking him into a heap on the floor.
“You will hold your tongue when your betters speak to you, idiot!” Sheyn kicked him, then turned to face the guards. “Forgive the boy. He’s stupid and forgets his place from time to time.” He kicked Aldrys again.
The guards didn’t seem to care all that much. “Just don’t let him try to leave, or we will kill him.”
“Of course, Guardsman.” The guards turned to leave. “If I may ask, though…” The guards turned back. “Are we here as prisoners, or as guests?”
The guards looked at each other, then looked back and said, “As guests, for now.”
“I see. And if I may ask, how long will we have the pleasure of your hospitality?”
“Until our orders change.”
Sheyn bowed low, a hand over his heart. “Very good, guardsmen. If that is the case, I pray it would be allowed for my men to be brought water to wash with and something to eat. It has been a long morning.”
The guards looked at each other again, turned back, and said, “We’ll see.” They left the room, closing the door behind them.
Results:
Aldrys advances to Master Acting
Aldrys advances to Expert Acrobatics
Aldrys, Sheyn, and the Thousand Faces are confined to the back-rooms of the Mummers Guildhouse until further notice.