Strong Heart - 8

[bovidae]

***The brightening sky woke Jo early.  She lay on the raised platform of the caravansary cubby for a moment, gathering her wits for the day.  Her squad slept around her, their blankets spread out to cover most of the ledge jutting from the pocketed caravansary wall.  Quietly, she rose and rummaged through packs stacked nearby for her gear and tea

Comments

[anonymous]

Ah, the comment about "sister or a cousin somewhere" makes more sense to me after Jo explains about Dagha pavadkar.

It isn't about pretending to be a boy, but actually seeing yourself as a warrior, which means you are male?

Can't wait for the next chapter.

WA_side

[addergoole]

I'm loving the way you're going around the edges of the gender thing; it's a neat angle to take it from.

I like the way Jo was with the kids, too.

~l

[bovidae]

You got it, WA_side. Given how the gender-specific social roles work in the desert tribes, Jo can only be a warrior if she's literally considered a man and embraces that. She obviously has, although even I'm not sure yet just how deeply it's set in her psyche.

I'm glad both you & Lyn are getting it, even though I'm being deliberately less-than-obvious on the subject. It's a significant feature about Jo, so I've been trying to engagingly "show" it instead just doing an info-dump "tell" about it.

Actually, when I was writing the first few chapters, I even considered going back and using masculine pronouns for Jo with the slow reveal being the fact that "he" actually has female genitalia, but so far the feminine pronouns combined with revealing her male social identity seems to be working out well enough.

Actually, I prefer it the way...

[bovidae]

... you're doing it. I think that it reflects, in a way, how people in her world get to know her - they see the female guard first and learn about the male social identity behind it all later (but not much later, see also Tobias ;-).

Typo hunt results for this chapter:

their blankets spread out to cover most of THE ledge jutting from the pocketed caravansary wall

she had the sudden urge TO rub her itching palms together

Chana took the hands of HER smallest child

Also, "but apparently the child is a boy after all" - I'm not sure I'd use "but" here.

Cheers,
Gudy

Re: Actually, I prefer it the way...

[bovidae]

Thank you! Although, it isn't quite so obvious that Jo is female to the casual observer. I haven't really had a chance to show that in the story, unfortunately. Tobias is a bit of a special case because of how Haik introduced him to Jo (hence *that* little dinner conversation) and the fact that he's a magician (how that works will be mentioned in the next chapter).

And thanks for the typo watch, as always. I fixed all but that last one. That last part of the sentence is a switch to mimicking a tribal elder's dialogue while addressing the gods in that situation, as in "sorry, but we got it wrong." *Sorry* if that wasn't clear, *but* I'm going to leave it that way for now. ;-)

Re: Chapter 8

[bovidae]

*grins* Thanks!

Tobias is also a bit younger than Jo, too, so that contributes to it.

I'm still working on that 'same sex' question! I know for sure that marriages or relationships between two people of the same social gender would absolutely not fly: no "two mommy" or "two daddy" families. Whether or not someone could have a "special friend", though... not sure yet. One fun thing about having Jo be a dagha pavadkar is that I'll get to explore that in-story at some point, because the daghas have an interesting time trying to negotiate those social rules.

[ext_93509]

I'm enjoying the story so far :)

I like Jo - she's an interesting character.

With regards to her gender etc. I think it's mainly down to perception. Jo's adopted what is perceived as a 'masculine' role within their society so I would assume that they would perceive her & treat her as such regardless of her 'gender'. Hope that makes sense.

Btw, this is Miladysa - not sure if this openid thing will record me as such.

[bovidae]

Glad you're enjoying it =) I understand what you're saying, and I agree. Most of the time, no one has any idea that Jo is dagha pavadkar rather than old-fashioned male.

It took me a second to recognize it, but openid did record you as roydss.