video | c.fraser

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Claire looks a little tired. Maybe it's due to the recent trek through the jungle, but more likely it's because her husband's returned to stasis. She could talk about that--with anyone, really--but instead she'd much rather focus on this. So, here she is, mustering up a pleasant smile.]

It's a belated thank you, but I would like to extend my gratitude to everyone that helped during our last crisis.

That said, I have noticed that quite a few of you have some interest in being helpful, and not just when it comes to fighting. You'd like to help the ill or injured as well. However, there's not always time to walk newcomers through something such as sewing a wound or changing the bandages on someone bedridden. So, with the help of Dr Watson, I'm hoping to make us better prepared in the future.

Every other month we'll be holding first aid lessons. Basic skills, answering questions, clearing up any misconceptions. Consider it a health class. Take notes, record it, whatever you'd like. If you have anything about medicine or anatomy that baffles you, please attend. Of course, we're always available for general questions.

We'll be offering two sessions. One will be on the station on the morning of the 9th, in the simulation rooms, which we encourage everyone to at least try once if they're interested. If that makes you uncomfortable, I suppose we can hold the other in Olympia in the evening.

[Her place is now an option, but she's not going to announce that bit to the whole network. Claire hesitates before deciding to end the feed.]

Thank you, and we hope to see you there.

[OOC: Class is in session! Feel free to answer a roll call here, even if your character plans on only attending once. The actual lessons will be handwaved but feel free to use the "classroom" time in your own logs.]

Comments

[nineteenfortyfive]

Massages for sore muscles and joints aren't usually gentle or pleasurable.

[vorrutyer]

Oh, come now. Any touch is precious. Even painful touches. Sometimes especially painful touches.

[nineteenfortyfive]

As I said, I'm sure other establishments could scratch that itch for you, sir.

[vorrutyer]

I know. I work for one.

[nineteenfortyfive]

Then what are you after?

[vorrutyer]

Who says I'm after something, Madam Fraser? Perhaps I simply want to chat with a beautiful woman. To learn a bit more about her and her ways. She is, as it turns out, a very tart woman.

[nineteenfortyfive]

And married.

[Regardless of her husband in stasis or not.]

[vorrutyer]

Oh, I don't mind. I've had many a fruitful relationship with many a married woman. I enjoy their company, and they enjoy using me to shock and horrify their husbands into compliance. Is he a disobedient man? - Or is she a disobedient woman, I should ask; you do seem a most modern soul.

[nineteenfortyfive]

I mind. I love my husband.

[Which should answer the last question and a half.]

I'm sure there are less faithful married women about.

[vorrutyer]

There can be love without faithfulness, you know. I've loved many and been faithful to none.

[nineteenfortyfive]

Our worlds must have had different definitions of love, then. Love and faithfulness go together, especially with a spouse.

[... which is more than a little hypocritical of her, but like she'd admit it.]

[vorrutyer]

So - what? If someone were faithful, that would automatically mean they were in love?

[nineteenfortyfive]

No. You can have faith without love, but love without faith. When you love someone, a husband especially, you make a promise. I would imagine wedding vows to be similar in most worlds.

[vorrutyer]

[ He frowns thoughtfully. ]

Oh, I don't know. On Jackson's Whole, marriage involves signing a contract - a financial one. It was quite in fashion for a while there for those contracts to reach staggering length - I heard when Baron Bharaputra was married, the contract was over two thousand pages in length. Detailed who was to buy the toothpaste when it ran out. And on Cetaganda, they say, husbands and wives can go their whole lives never having met, though they still write love-poetry about one another. More about showing off their mastery of the form, I suspect, rather than passion. On Beta there are a hundred different ways to be married - I heard of a group-wedding once that involved thirty people pledging sexual fealty to one another.

[nineteenfortyfive]

Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ.

[She stares, then shakes her head. A little too much for her to contemplate right now.]

Where I'm from, vows are made. Blood of my blood, bone of my bone. 'til death us do part. [Not the whole thing, not the exact words, but she can't bring herself to say them to this man.] Like that. Two people, one union.

[vorrutyer]

[ He laughs at the not-quite-profanity, and says agreeably: ]

Essentially what we do on Barrayar, too. Just with some groats added. I don't suppose your ceremony involves groats?

[nineteenfortyfive]

Only the occasional blood vow.

[vorrutyer]

Ooh, tres dramatique. With real blood shed?