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

[ofobedience]

I can't say I have, but it's hard to imagine that it's any more or less painful than regrowing limbs that have been torn off, or having one's skull crushed. For example.

[sereneflame]

[She assumes that these are just the sort of idiot hyperbole a man who doesn't want to admit he's less tough than a mere woman spouts out when he's in danger of discovering what the other sex can endure, so she scoffs]

That depends, in all of these situations just how in danger of dying are you? Are you struggling to tear your body open before you or the one you're trying to bring into the world die from the ordeal? Or are you simply lying there in a passive pool of pain while your new limb spouts like a seedling from your body?

[ofobedience]

[If only it was. Though he's well aware that the women he knows are a damned sight tougher (brighterstrongerbetter) than he is-- his original comment on the burden of womanhood still stands. Like so many other things here, it's not something he fully comprehends.]

I suppose in my case the risk of death is exceedingly low, but I wouldn't say there's anything passive about it, either. The show must go on.

[Besides. There are worse things than death. Take it from him.]

[sereneflame]

[Mercy, this is far too much of a spiral into predator logic for her. She sighs.]

So what I am to understand from all of this is that you know nothing about menstruation, contraception or any other subject pertinent to my current predicament?

[ofobedience]

[Well, she's right there but--]

I know that being a woman is no burden. Not in any of the ways that really count.

[sereneflame]

[If he were just an objectionable man from her own land she'd ignore him, but he's different enough that she's curious despite herself]

So what ways count for a predator?

[ofobedience]

Strength. Speed. Precision. Intelligence. Command over oneself and those around you. Number of kills within a set length of time. That kind of thing.

[Frühling, Mother, (LilyLilyLily)-- they surpass him in so many ways.]

[sereneflame]

[Well now, his species must be interesting if the women are so superior, but she's happy to claim the reflected glory, especially if a bit of posturing will get him to back down next time they're face to face]

It's good to hear a man acknowledge the truth. Most have far too delicate an ego to freely admit that they're fundamentally disadvantaged.

[ofobedience]

[As odd as it might seem to her, he knows his place in the order of things and whilst he'd prefer that place to be a little higher up the food chain so it speak, he's never been one to challenge authority. Mother's authority is unquestionable. Still--]

I wouldn't go so far as to say one is fundamentally disadvantaged purely on account of one's gender, but I will say all the women I've ever known were exceptionally capable.

I'd never considered gender to be a factor at all, if I'm honest.

[Nevertheless, there's something about powerful women that he unfailingly responds to.]

[sereneflame]

[She sees the contradiction there, that undercurrent of deference for the women he knows despite his profession of gender blindness]

I wonder, would the women you know agree with those words?

[ofobedience]

I wouldn't know. I've never asked them.

[It makes him wonder, fleetingly, what Frühling say. Something dry and mocking, probably. Something that would leave him feeling small and inferior.

Mother though. Professing to have any idea how her mind works seems almost akin to blasphemy. He doesn't like to think about it.]

[sereneflame]

[He really is a strange and alien person, so repellent, yet she cannot deny he keeps prickling her curiosity despite herself]

What sort of society did you grow up in? I am no optimist when it comes to human nature, but I cannot imagine feeling as undervalued and brutal as you. Don't your people form friendships based on trust?

[Because of course insulting someone is the best way to get them to freely answer personal questions]

[ofobedience]

I'm valued enough.

[Said lightly, but it falls a little flat even to his ears because it isn't true, is it? He never has been never will be and if Mother had any confidence in him at all surely she wouldn't have sent him into Zollner's trap, knowing full well what that man really was what would happen and-- shut up, don't think about that.

As for calling him brutal-- well. That's not an insult at all.

The question of friendship though, that has something stirring in him and just briefly the images flash behind his eyes, he and Heine and Lily back then before it all came crashing down, buried beneath a mountain of corpses with Lily dead and Heine gone and him left behind to rot. His voice comes smooth and slick as a knife, but there's still something in it. A caustic edge that he can't quite conceal.]

My people. Ha ha. Where I'm from, friendship is irrelevant. You may as well ask your sword if it forms friendships.

[sereneflame]

So you're a warrior class? Were you raised to be a sword from your birth or were you taken from your family later?

[That's fascinating for her, for her military training began when she was young enough to swallow whole the lies she was taught about all the world and her hostage nation's natural superiority. She'd been raised to be a soldier first, but she'd never been raised to see herself as nothing but a soldier]

So what will happen to you if you become too injured to fight? Will your people abandon you or is there a worthy retirement option for swords?

[ofobedience]

Warrior class. That's not a term I'd use but I suppose it fits the bill, more or less. And I've always been what I am. Made for it, you might say. Ha ha.

As for the rest, injury isn't something I need concern myself with. I meant what I said earlier-- severed limbs, bullet wounds, nothing keeps me down for long.

[Though once again it's both true and untrue-- his series, they were never meant to recover from massive brain trauma, a little production fault that had yet to be ironed out when he'd been created. He's been upgraded, yes, but there are complications. Complications that ALASTAIR have currently halted, though for how long and whether it's something he'll retain when he leaves, he doesn't know.

It's not something he wants to think about.]