001 [voice] @SERENE

[sereneflame]

[Serene has never tried making these posts before and thus she's as formal as if she's making a speech, keeping her voice well-modulated and calm. She's matter of fact, unembarrassed by the subject she's raising]

Good afternoon. I hope that someone can help me in an urgent matter, but I fear this is a long shot.

I am looking for the wombsbane herb and I was wondering: are any of you cultivating a patch in private? Back home it grows as free as a weed but I have trekked through the gardens and forest here and have not seen as much as a seedling.

If not, are there any herbs from other worlds here that will lighten my menstruation and will render my womb barren? Womanhood is a burden I like to minimise as much as possible.

I thank you in advance for your time.



OOC: replies will come tomorrow!

Comments

audio | un: hound

[ofobedience]

[Well here's a slippery Germanic voice you may recognise, although this time he sounds less slick and more vaguely bemused.]

What an odd thing to say. How could being female possibly be a burden?

Re: audio | un: hound

[sereneflame]

[Urgh, the predator. Serene's had a week to come to terms with the fact that most of the so called civilised humans in this place are from corpse-desecrating cultures, but Giovanni had left a particular impression.

Still, the medium of their communication means she has some distance to be able to respond without wondering what his predator eyes are seeing as they look at her, which gives her room to let her disdain drip]

It must be so freeing to be a man. I refer to the part where my traitorous womb desires to be impregnated every month and the way that it cramps and complains to shed its bloody lining after I frustrate its selfish wants. I have no intention of putting myself in a position where I have to force another human's skull out of my most sensitive area.

[ofobedience]

[Well that's...something. It creates a vivid mental image, that's for sure.

(does it apply to Frühling, to Mother? He highly doubts it, but--)]

It can't be as bad as all that. A little blood and pain never hurt anyone. Ha ha.

[sereneflame]

[She makes a wordless noise of absolute disgust for him]

Have you ever witnessed childbirth, predator, or are you remembering the day you were constipated and assuming that the two sensations can't be all that different?

video, @ashraf

[healplz]

Now there's a bluntly named herb, there's no questioning what that does!

In any case, it's not something I've ever heard of, so I don't think it's a given in every world. There might not be any here at all.

Re: video, @ashraf

[sereneflame]

No... [He's gone and confirmed her worst fears, if her little whine is anything to go by. However, she rallies, shooting him an arch look]

How extensive is your knowledge on these matters, anyway? Could it just be that you are ignorant of what the women in this castle use?

[healplz]

I'll admit, I'm not an expert, it's been a while since I was married. It's entirely possible there's something around here in use I've never heard of.

[sereneflame]

[A divorcee or a widower. She shan't make assumptions, except to wonder that if he's divorced whether it's because he wasn't attentive enough in the bedroom when it came to these dull practical matters]

And what did you use while you had a wife?

[voice] @Tohsaka Rin

[defenceless]

[the transmission opens with a heavy, slightly irritated sigh.] Just deal with it. Believe it or not, we have bigger problems. Being a woman isn't any sort of burden unless you complain about it.

[tl;dr, no fun allowed, serene]

Besides, there are no candidates you want to procreate with here, anyway. One out of two problems solved.

[voice] @Tohsaka Rin

[sereneflame]

Spoken like a woman who's never had the joy of an altered reproductive system.

[She snorts at Rin's dismissal, unamused]

Tell me, did I grow up on a barbarian backwater? Is the rest of the universe really a paradise where a rapist will reschedule his ravaging for the next month as soon as I tell him I'm haven't been consuming a contraceptive?

[defenceless]

Why would I want to alter anything to do with that? [she gets by fine enough.] I don't know where you grew up. It seems a bit misplaced to worry about would-be attackers. You're making quite the leap.

[sereneflame]

Misplaced? I don't know where you grew up, but it sounds like you led a far more sheltered life than I.

[These soft little girls... yet Serene can't begrudge her that. Let her live in her protected world and know peace]

So do you know of any herbs or medicines in this land that can help me?

video | un; sieglindesullivan

[grunehexe]

[Ah... this woman. Somehow, after their conversation, Sieglinde is becoming accustomed to being surprised by her.]

I've chasteberry and lady's mantle, others of their like, but... I've nothing to actually render you barren.

[Surely she means only... in the free to do what one wills without consequence sense, right?]

If it's giving birth you wish to avoid, though, I've a tea recipe...

video

[sereneflame]

[Serene smiles to see Sieglinde answering her.]

Ahh, my healer friend. What do those herbs do for me? I assume that the tea you're offering has to be drunk afterwards to flush out my womb? That's an unpleasantry I've never had to try, as I prefer prevention to cure.

video

[grunehexe]

The herbs will lighten the bloodflow of your cycle, make it shorter, as well, so it should not be such an imposition in the field.

[She has no firsthand experience but she supposed bleeding from the uterus while swinging a blade isn't fun...]

Yes, it is- within a few days after at most. I've a cream as well, but... You have to be aware of upcoming activity for that to be of use.

[So if it's barbarian attacks, it might be less... Useful.]

Re: video

[sereneflame]

[Oh that first description makes her pleased]

Now that sounds like wombsbane, even if it does not prevent the seed from settling. Will you be able brew that tea for me if I do not find anything else? What are your trading terms?

(Video; UN: courtesy)

[stonebird]

The burdens of womanhood are so we may carry children. Are you not interested in being a mother someday?

Re: (Video; UN: courtesy)

[sereneflame]

[The truthful answer is NEVER, but she knows that makes her an outlier in the eyes of many women, so she demurs]

When I become a mother it will be exactly when I intend to become a mother and not a month before. Wombsbane weakens the lining of the womb so that children cannot grow; once that sheds for the month then simply refraining from drinking wombsbane will leave a woman's womb fertile again.

Do you really take the risk that at any month you might fall pregnant?

(Video)

[stonebird]

(She cannot judge; there was a time she dreaded having a child. Though she dreaded the whole process, honestly.)

I see. That is far less permanent than it originally seemed. (And she can understand the use.) I am a maid. There is no risk.

video | un: lavellan

[strikingtwice]

I haven't been looking, but I could see if I could find if there's any witherstalk anywhere. I'm afraid wombsbane isn't something from my world, so I wouldn't know it if I'd seen it, but maybe looking for other herbs as well will turn up something that will work for you?

Re: video | un: lavellan

[sereneflame]

[That wins him a bright smile from her]

Oh yes, would you? If my world's plant isn't here I can at least hope yours is instead.

Are you a herbalist, or do you just have experience with this plant in particular?

[strikingtwice]

It's worth a shot anyway. And no, no personal experience exactly. My clan would harvest it for that and other uses though. More often to sell than to use ourselves but... sometimes there's a need.

audio | un: L . L

[asscan]

[Laedo's a little late to the game, not because he was left with a bad impression of Serene, but because of the abject obviousness of the question. He'd been lapping water at the time when the voice piped up and nearly spat all of it back into the lake.

Humans! Of all the creatures to cause so many unexpected headaches to those with morals so stringent as to cause existential wedgies...

It's not until she's had several conversations already that he finally weighs in.]

Good goddesses, why would you want to submit yourself to the crapshoot of herbal essences when you could keep a talisman? They were as common as sin among human women from my world, I had assumed that all of you had something more or less like them.

[Just as Serene has learned to enjoy a video-free networking experience, now Laedo is thanking that feature as he pulls a sour face. The horrific idea that perhaps the other women around here are sneaking around trying to get with children is dawning on him and he doesn't know how to process it, so a dull silence fills the space as he hangs his mouth open, so many objections clustering on the tip of his tongue that he's been rendered speechless. Mostly, it's about the fact that this temporary shard of reality is so fragile that nobody can hope for the stability that such a sneaky child would even require, but also his quandary stems from the absolute snarl of sexual politics that comes from being in a world with humans and with askans that can take human form. Halfbreeds of any kind are asking for trouble.]

Re: audio | un: L . L

[sereneflame]

Talismans? Do you mean magic can cure this?

[She huffs, both caught by the idea and suddenly so annoyed. Of course magic can cure this but who are the magicians?! That's an entire new search]

Laedo, if there were such things as talismans on my world I wouldn't wear it, I'd have it bolted into my skin as a piercing and damn any fashions that clashed.

[asscan]

[Laedo makes a small, disgusted noise in the back of his very long throat.]

Spare me the gory details. Talismans are not hard to make. They're....

[Goddess, it's embarrassing to admit this, but he's learned to loosen up over the last few months.]

They're one of the first field spells we learned upon entering the Guard. You merely wear a bangle and snap it to activate it, then snap it again when you're done to be rid of the... evidence....

[This is the most mortifying conversation he's ever had with a human, barring his wonderful time with Stupid Sexy Achilles' Naked Buns.]

...I'll make a dozen or so. Distribute them if you must. I don't want to discover fraternisations tearing this team apart over undesirable... outcomes... ugh.