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Keeping minor characters in the picture?

Ireth

Myth Weaver
I don't know how your castle is organized, but I'd think there are more workers. He could swap with someone else, for his own job needs to be done, too. He could assist in the kitchen, cleaning the kettles under supervision of someone else, carrying wood, pumping up water, feed the pigs, those things. Give him one of those little kids that are always underfoot to be his 'eyes' for getting around.

Many of those seem difficult for a blind guy to do, in my opinion. Especially since he hasn't had much time to adjust to it yet. I'm not sure about giving him a seeing-eye kid, since the majority of the characters in the story don't HAVE them, and those who do are older and their offspring grown but unmarried. That's one of the drawbacks to this story being based on a RP -- it was originally a Hogwarts type setup, and the characters were students and faculty. I kept the location and most of the characters intact, but took away the "school" aspect. Now it's just a settlement of immigrants from Earth in the midst of the woods of Faerie. There's is still magic involved, it's just not learned in classes.

Having someone stay in the infirmary, costing money without working, while he isn't ill or hurt, doesn't seem convincing to me.

Given that these humans are settled in a world with an alien economy that doesn't place value on money, I would think they'd adapt to that somewhat as well. They can't really rely on their Fae neighbors for trade and the like, since the Fae hate them and see them only as playthings; if they need anything they don't already have, they go to the Earthworld for it. But that doesn't happen too often.

Also, I think blindness would certainly qualify someone as "infirm", if not specifically ill or hurt. His clubfoot was bad enough, but this is potentially devastating, at least on an emotional level. And the knowledge that his attacker escaped to do more harm is not helping anyone.
 
Just because he can't do the major cleaning, doesn't mean he can't try. He might have difficulties coming to grip with his new disability. Maybe he's over-confident. Maybe he's such a control freak that he'd rather risk injury than admitting he's disabled.

Besides, janitors do lots of things that don't involve ladders. Dusting the rooms. Cleaning the silverware and the mounted suits of armor. If the castle has "cleaning ladies" (or men) as well, then maybe he can try to supervise (despite that being really hard) because he needs to be in control.

I'm pretty sure a real workaholic wouldn't let blindness separate him from his work. Those people are so addicted to their job it usually takes a life changing experience to make them take a step back. Becoming blind could be such an experience but then your character will most likely face depression. And he'll probably try to work first and only suffer from depression after failing or injuring himself.
 

GeekDavid

Auror
I'm pretty sure a real workaholic wouldn't let blindness separate him from his work. Those people are so addicted to their job it usually takes a life changing experience to make them take a step back. Becoming blind could be such an experience but then your character will most likely face depression. And he'll probably try to work first and only suffer from depression after failing or injuring himself.

I'd say he might even throw himself even more into his work as a way of battling the depression.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
Just because he can't do the major cleaning, doesn't mean he can't try. He might have difficulties coming to grip with his new disability. Maybe he's over-confident. Maybe he's such a control freak that he'd rather risk injury than admitting he's disabled.

[snip]

I'm pretty sure a real workaholic wouldn't let blindness separate him from his work. Those people are so addicted to their job it usually takes a life changing experience to make them take a step back. Becoming blind could be such an experience but then your character will most likely face depression. And he'll probably try to work first and only suffer from depression after failing or injuring himself.

I can see that happening at first, since the blindness takes a little while to be complete. but with the way the story goes, I go from the scene of his blinding, then to the MC, the henchman and other characters, and don't even get the chance to mention Ailin again until a few days (and several chapters) later, when the blindness is total and he has presumably fallen into the aforesaid depression. That's the point I'm at in the story now, a day or so after the blindness is complete.
 
On average, a depression takes a lot longer to manifest than a couple of days. Unless Ailin was already having (subconscious or not) problems, he probably won't fall into a depression until after a few weeks. He might be mourning the loss of his sight and he might feel a bit blue, but unless he has already taken lots of blows to his mental resistance, he won't be depressed.

I'd say after a couple of days he's gone past the initial shock of losing his sight and he's had a couple of days to mourn about it. At that point, he'll probably want to get back to work asap. He'll want to convince himself that he's not handicapped. That he still has value as a human being (being a workaholic, he most likely judges people by their ability to work) and that his life hasn't ended.

Another thing to remember: people react different to the same situation. Maybe John will suffer from depression. Mike, the optimist, might be a bit less gloom. And Pete, the emotional wreck, might suppress his emotions for months before finally having a nervous breakdown. So there really is no reason why you can't have Ailin doing his janitorial duties.
 

GeekDavid

Auror
Another thing to remember: people react different to the same situation. Maybe John will suffer from depression. Mike, the optimist, might be a bit less gloom. And Pete, the emotional wreck, might suppress his emotions for months before finally having a nervous breakdown. So there really is no reason why you can't have Ailin doing his janitorial duties.

Exactly. Blind is not helpless, and if he's reasonably intelligent he can come up with ways to perform at least some of his duties.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
Exactly. Blind is not helpless, and if he's reasonably intelligent he can come up with ways to perform at least some of his duties.

Not helpless, no, but severely disadvantaged. Similarly, I have one character in the same story who's been deaf since infancy, and that has its own downfalls. She's a fighter, but I wouldn't think of sending her into a huge melee where she could easily be sneaked up on and stabbed in the back before someone could warn her. This very situation comes up later in the book; war is fast approaching, and the human settlement is about to be evacuated. The deaf woman decides to evacuate rather than fight, since she knows she's far less likely to survive.

/end tangent

I dunno, I still can't imagine Ailin being back on his feet until after he regains his sight, even with his workaholic attitude. I can see other characters insisting that he stay off his feet and appreciate the chance to rest while they take over the jobs for him, but that still doesn't give me much for him to do. :/
 

GeekDavid

Auror
Not helpless, no, but severely disadvantaged. Similarly, I have one character in the same story who's been deaf since infancy, and that has its own downfalls. She's a fighter, but I wouldn't think of sending her into a huge melee where she could easily be sneaked up on and stabbed in the back before someone could warn her. This very situation comes up later in the book; war is fast approaching, and the human settlement is about to be evacuated. The deaf woman decides to evacuate rather than fight, since she knows she's far less likely to survive.

I think you're drastically overestimating the disadvantage. I've had people tell me they wouldn't know my step-dad was blind unless he or I told them. He can cook most things (eggs are sort of beyond him cause doneness is a visual thing), he has a lawn mower repair shop where he does most of the work, he's worked on roofs as I mentioned... it's really not that huge a handicap, especially in a pre-technological society where many of the people are illiterate anyway.
 
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