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[encourage]

Nara Shikamaru. Are you here?

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/SUDDENLY, ANIMORPHS???

[encourage]

[ Her eyebrow has crept up this whole time. ]

No. Not exactly. Why would there be restrictions on any of the things you've mentioned? In the case of Clans, I can see there be child custody issues, but these sound more like civilian concerns than anything I've dealt with personally.

NOT THE WORST THING!

[bloodthirsts]

It's been like that for women in my world for... well we got the right to vote about seventy years in my country. It took a lot of fighting, they called it the suffrage movement.

As for why... well, a lot of reasons. Established culture mainly based of religion said that women's place was in the home as wives and mothers, not as leaders and breadwinners.

[encourage]

Women as leaders is more rare where I'm from, if we're not restricted from being any of what you've said. Mother, wives, home-makers, breadwinners...

[ She shrugs. It's not that they can't do all these things. They just happen to not, in general, be as good at leading at the highest levels. They tend to fold or not press so stupidly hard, and it shows when they have less resolve than the men around them.

Nevermind that this resolve is often stupidly suicidal. Men don't stop to listen to what a woman says. Women fight and are strong because they must be. ]

[bloodthirsts]

There's only been one female Prime Minister for my country. A couple Queens back when the monarchy were still in power. [And erm, opinions varied on how well Thatcher done there.] That's really different.

[encourage]

Right, monarchies, like the ones in England? Western European countries on Earth?

[bloodthirsts]

Yes, that's where I'm from. England.

[encourage]

What's England like?

[bloodthirsts]

Oh it's lovely! Not quite as damp as some people would have you believe. Certainly we've got a temperate climate, but we do get sunshine as well. [Grin.] Especially out in the countryside, green rolling fields and moors, some charming little villages too. Lots of interesting old castles.

[encourage]

Ones you've visited? It sounds... nice.

[ Like Splendor, once outside the main city. Where that egoist whose name she couldn't recall lived, who hadn't wanted her to help in fighting off a frenzied beast.

Ah, underestimated from the start. If he'd known her skills and still insisted... at least that would have been different. ]

Green rolling fields as far as the eye can see... What's a moor?

[bloodthirsts]

Yes. A lot of them on school trips when I was a kid. [Grin.]

A moor is like... very hilly, covered in heather and other plants. No tree's, very big and open.

[encourage]

I don't know that I've seen anyplace quite like that before. It does sound beautiful. Do you miss it much?

[bloodthirsts]

Oh yes, I do. Miss it a lot actually. I haven't been back there in... two years, really. [And things were so bad when she left.]

[encourage]

"Distance makes the heart grow fonder." I tend to think it just makes the dreams more poignant.

[bloodthirsts]

I know I'll get back there someday, I have to. It's just hard sometimes... it's too bad we can't leave the island. I bet England in this world is just as nice as back home.

[encourage]

How many years has the Island been isolated from the rest of the world, again?

[ "Isolated." ]

[bloodthirsts]

I'm not sure about that. I know it's several decades at least.

[encourage]

Hmm. What's the flow of information and goods like in and out?

[bloodthirsts]

I don't hear much worldwide news at all, it all seems confined to the city, likewise it's hard to tell what the outside world knows about the Port. Importing goods is possible, the Master of the house I live in managed to bring in soil from England for me.

[encourage]

You need the soil for a particular pre-existing condition? [ A pause. ] Or are you a particularly discerning gardener?

[bloodthirsts]

[She laughs a little.] Sort of the former, I'm a vampire. If I don't sleep in the earth of where I died my powers can weaken.

[encourage]

Ah, vampirism. There are so many varieties, I lose track of what sort necessitates what. I'm glad such trade was possible, for your sake, as well as any others affiliated with you.

[bloodthirsts]

Were there many vampires when you were last here? Me and my Master are the only ones of our kind right now.

[encourage]

There may have been. I wasn't taking a poll.

[bloodthirsts]

I was just curious that you didn't seem surprised about it.

[encourage]

Vampirism isn't -- new to me. Besides, what world doesn't have countless stories about the specifics of different forms of vampirism? Earth's China has a unique set of mythos from European nations, or those from other worlds.

[ Not to mention all vampirism she recalls being about blood. There were other things to drain from the living. ]