[ It's hard to miss the hesitation, the uncertainty. Fern had realized that she might be drawing attention to something Jasnah doesn't want to talk about, though she had also imagined that others would have asked by now.
A cultural practice. She should have considered it might be something like that, but... a safehand? What is that? She blinks a few times despite herself, unsure what it all means but also gathering that this isn't a subject Jasnah wants to delve in too deply with a relative stranger.
Always back to what it is or isn't proper for women to do. It surprises Fern a little that Jasnah would bother with such things, but one's culture can be so deeply ingrained. ]
... I see. I didn't mean to overstep, but I appreciate you answering me. [ She'll do the kindness of not pressing on with even more probing questions, opting to take a sip of her drink instead. ] In any case, I should leave you to your customers, but thank you again for the repayment.
[ — Oh. She's a little quick to clear up any possible misunderstanding on this particular point. So much so that she seems to ignore the not-so-subtle indication that the woman might want to leave. ]
I always forgive curiosity.
[ Even when it's personally convenient. ]
You caught me on the back foot, that's all. No one else has asked about it.
[ Fern's in the midst of turning to the side so she can not-so-gracefully excuse herself when Jasnah quickly speaks up to clarify.
I always forgive curiosity. An interesting statement, and one that must belong to someone who's curious herself. After a pause, Fern slowly shifts back toward Jasnah. ]
... I see. Many seem reluctant to ask me about my features as well, so I suppose it's just politeness.
[ Which is also her way of saying Jasnah can ask in return, if she wants any of her own curiosity indulged as well. ]
May I ask what a safehand is, then? I've never heard such a term.
[ ...Fern's features? Jasnah blinks, thinking it through for a moment. Sure — she doesn't appear strictly human. But back home, Jasnah has met peoples who grow carapace on their skin. She's met people with tinges of blue or green to their skin. She's met those with horns, with sharp crystalized fingernails, with all manner of differences. Is that not — hmm.
She resolves to ask, too, then. But first: ] The safehand is simply the left hand. The hand that's kept covered. As opposed to [ — she raises her right, bare one — ] a woman's freehand.
[ The reasons are arbitrary and largely historical. But it boils down to: ] A symbol, I suppose, of the division between feminine and masculine arts. The former are things that can be managed one-handed. The latter, with two.
[ A safehand and a freehand. Fern tilts her head, glancing from one hand to the other, but she still doesn't quite follow what that all means.
A further explanation comes, though, and Fern glances back up, a frown growing. ]
There's quite a large divide between men and women in your society, it seems.
[ While there is some of that in Faerûn, Fern had never subscribed to it, nor had she been raised that way. Shifter women were no different from shifter men, and were expected to carry out many of the same duties among the colony. Still, on the Sword Coast she had seen how women could be treated as lesser. ]
When you say arts, do you mean creative pursuits? Or something else?
[ Once she gets started, it's not so strange to describe the differences. After all, she's studied them close enough to oppose them back on Roshar. And yet she wears the glove all the same. A complicated, personal calculus. One she hopes to avoid explaining now. ]
Reading and writing falls to women. Both in creative and more academic fashions. [ ... ] Whittling and sewing becomes a masculine domain — creative pursuits in their own right. I take it there are no such divisions where you're from?
[ That's not at all what Fern would have guessed at, if she'd been told to do so. Reading and writing versus whittling and sewing. Acts of creation, yes, but in rather different ways. Using one's hands versus using one's creative mind, perhaps?
She's not particularly academic and would probably be better suited to those masculine skills, herself. At the question, she gives a quick shake of her head. ]
Nothing quite that set in stone, at least. Women are often expected to take care of a household or do the majority of the child-rearing, but some would say such ideas are outdated, and there are plenty who don't subscribe to them.
[ What Jasnah is describing is both fascinating and, Fern will admit to herself, a bit disturbing. ]
It seems odd to limit a person to tasks based on something as unimportant as their sex, I'll admit. You must find some elements of Diadem quite strange, then.
[ ...Does she find elements of Diadem strange? Certainly. But they've got nothing to do with the division of labour. Oddest of all is the lack of emotionspren dancing around everyone's heads, telling on their especially strong feelings.
So Jasnah hedges. Not quite shaking her head. ]
It's not especially strange. [ ... ] I've travelled in nations and kingdoms — back home — where such divisions are less strict.
[ Indeed! One of her dear colleagues is a Thaylen baker (a man) who pretends to be a female scholar on the spanreeds. ]
[ Ah, so these rules are specific to one kingdom or nation, where Jasnah is from? Rather than the entire plane. That is an important distinction, then, as it means it's not the only circumstances she's experienced.
Fern doesn't mind being corrected, in any case. Clearly she isn't going to know that much about a world and lifestyle that she's only just now learning about.
Although... the weather? She gives a slight tilt of her head. ]
You mean when it was raining quite a lot, or something else?
[ The weather really hasn't seemed that odd to her, so there must be something about Jasnah's home to inspire such a feeling. ]
[ Of course, they'd met in the rain. Sort of. That's why she'd invited Fern here in the first place. Payment rendered for an umbrella. All because of the rain. ]
Steady and clean like that. Otherwise, we get vicious highstorms — perhaps the one constant across all the kingdoms. Bad enough in some regions that a person can't survive being caught out in one.
[ Once a year? Just once a year, exactly? It seems so specific that Fern has to assume there's some reason. She blinks a smattering of times, not quite hiding her bafflement.
Storms so vicious that they threaten people's lives, though — it's not an unknown concept to Fern, though the frequency seems to be what creates the primary difference between their worlds (and this one). ]
And they happen... quite regularly, I assume? That would make travel quite the challenge, then.
[ She remains distantly aware of the fact that Jasnah is working and she can likely only take up so much of her time with questions like this, but for now Fern still has her drink. Until that's done, she can likely get away with this. ]
Every handful of days. Impossible to predict. [ Despite what the storm wardens would have most believe. ] But most regions have shelters if you're caught in transit.
[ And then she goes on to do what might indeed be the most boring thing ever: talk about the weather. About how highstorms can chuck boulders around as if they were pebbles; about how the rain during a storm deposits a beige-y sediment called crem that builds up on houses and trees; about how the storms always blow from east to west — growing marginally weaker on the far side of the continent. It's the sort of information that's easy to share because it's mostly meaningless. She loses nothing in describing it.
But it does feel strangely good. Talking a little about home. She's been gone long enough now for the homesickness to well and truly settle in — even for the storms. Or else for the quiet that came with locking yourself up for a few hours while a storm passed, either alone or with your family. Reading, playing card games, sharing space.
Eventually, when Fern finishes her drink, Jasnah looks almost sheepish to realize she's delivered a whole miniature lecture on highstorms. Clearing her throat, she excuses herself back to her work. ]
[ Perhaps it would be a boring subject if it were about the weather in a place that Fern already knows or has visited, like the Sword Coast or even Barovia. These highstorms are quite different, though, in their regularity and in their intensity. They truly do seem to dictate the pattern of everyone's lives who has to endure them, and that's something that Jasnah has clearly come to accept, for a lack of any other available option.
And, well, Fern doesn't think it's that strange to be homesick even for the less than pleasant things — simply because they're familiar.
She becomes caught up enough in the conversation to not quite realize she's finished her drink and should be moving on, but when Jasnah excuses herself, Fern is quick to thank her for her time and the explanation, before bidding farewell and heading back out into the relatively calm (for now) Panorama weather. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
A cultural practice. She should have considered it might be something like that, but... a safehand? What is that? She blinks a few times despite herself, unsure what it all means but also gathering that this isn't a subject Jasnah wants to delve in too deply with a relative stranger.
Always back to what it is or isn't proper for women to do. It surprises Fern a little that Jasnah would bother with such things, but one's culture can be so deeply ingrained. ]
... I see. I didn't mean to overstep, but I appreciate you answering me. [ She'll do the kindness of not pressing on with even more probing questions, opting to take a sip of her drink instead. ] In any case, I should leave you to your customers, but thank you again for the repayment.
no subject
[ — Oh. She's a little quick to clear up any possible misunderstanding on this particular point. So much so that she seems to ignore the not-so-subtle indication that the woman might want to leave. ]
I always forgive curiosity.
[ Even when it's personally convenient. ]
You caught me on the back foot, that's all. No one else has asked about it.
no subject
I always forgive curiosity. An interesting statement, and one that must belong to someone who's curious herself. After a pause, Fern slowly shifts back toward Jasnah. ]
... I see. Many seem reluctant to ask me about my features as well, so I suppose it's just politeness.
[ Which is also her way of saying Jasnah can ask in return, if she wants any of her own curiosity indulged as well. ]
May I ask what a safehand is, then? I've never heard such a term.
no subject
She resolves to ask, too, then. But first: ] The safehand is simply the left hand. The hand that's kept covered. As opposed to [ — she raises her right, bare one — ] a woman's freehand.
[ The reasons are arbitrary and largely historical. But it boils down to: ] A symbol, I suppose, of the division between feminine and masculine arts. The former are things that can be managed one-handed. The latter, with two.
no subject
A further explanation comes, though, and Fern glances back up, a frown growing. ]
There's quite a large divide between men and women in your society, it seems.
[ While there is some of that in Faerûn, Fern had never subscribed to it, nor had she been raised that way. Shifter women were no different from shifter men, and were expected to carry out many of the same duties among the colony. Still, on the Sword Coast she had seen how women could be treated as lesser. ]
When you say arts, do you mean creative pursuits? Or something else?
no subject
[ Once she gets started, it's not so strange to describe the differences. After all, she's studied them close enough to oppose them back on Roshar. And yet she wears the glove all the same. A complicated, personal calculus. One she hopes to avoid explaining now. ]
Reading and writing falls to women. Both in creative and more academic fashions. [ ... ] Whittling and sewing becomes a masculine domain — creative pursuits in their own right. I take it there are no such divisions where you're from?
no subject
She's not particularly academic and would probably be better suited to those masculine skills, herself. At the question, she gives a quick shake of her head. ]
Nothing quite that set in stone, at least. Women are often expected to take care of a household or do the majority of the child-rearing, but some would say such ideas are outdated, and there are plenty who don't subscribe to them.
[ What Jasnah is describing is both fascinating and, Fern will admit to herself, a bit disturbing. ]
It seems odd to limit a person to tasks based on something as unimportant as their sex, I'll admit. You must find some elements of Diadem quite strange, then.
no subject
So Jasnah hedges. Not quite shaking her head. ]
It's not especially strange. [ ... ] I've travelled in nations and kingdoms — back home — where such divisions are less strict.
[ Indeed! One of her dear colleagues is a Thaylen baker (a man) who pretends to be a female scholar on the spanreeds. ]
The weather here is weirder.
no subject
Fern doesn't mind being corrected, in any case. Clearly she isn't going to know that much about a world and lifestyle that she's only just now learning about.
Although... the weather? She gives a slight tilt of her head. ]
You mean when it was raining quite a lot, or something else?
[ The weather really hasn't seemed that odd to her, so there must be something about Jasnah's home to inspire such a feeling. ]
no subject
[ Of course, they'd met in the rain. Sort of. That's why she'd invited Fern here in the first place. Payment rendered for an umbrella. All because of the rain. ]
Steady and clean like that. Otherwise, we get vicious highstorms — perhaps the one constant across all the kingdoms. Bad enough in some regions that a person can't survive being caught out in one.
no subject
Storms so vicious that they threaten people's lives, though — it's not an unknown concept to Fern, though the frequency seems to be what creates the primary difference between their worlds (and this one). ]
And they happen... quite regularly, I assume? That would make travel quite the challenge, then.
[ She remains distantly aware of the fact that Jasnah is working and she can likely only take up so much of her time with questions like this, but for now Fern still has her drink. Until that's done, she can likely get away with this. ]
🎀?
Every handful of days. Impossible to predict. [ Despite what the storm wardens would have most believe. ] But most regions have shelters if you're caught in transit.
[ And then she goes on to do what might indeed be the most boring thing ever: talk about the weather. About how highstorms can chuck boulders around as if they were pebbles; about how the rain during a storm deposits a beige-y sediment called crem that builds up on houses and trees; about how the storms always blow from east to west — growing marginally weaker on the far side of the continent. It's the sort of information that's easy to share because it's mostly meaningless. She loses nothing in describing it.
But it does feel strangely good. Talking a little about home. She's been gone long enough now for the homesickness to well and truly settle in — even for the storms. Or else for the quiet that came with locking yourself up for a few hours while a storm passed, either alone or with your family. Reading, playing card games, sharing space.
Eventually, when Fern finishes her drink, Jasnah looks almost sheepish to realize she's delivered a whole miniature lecture on highstorms. Clearing her throat, she excuses herself back to her work. ]
🎀!
And, well, Fern doesn't think it's that strange to be homesick even for the less than pleasant things — simply because they're familiar.
She becomes caught up enough in the conversation to not quite realize she's finished her drink and should be moving on, but when Jasnah excuses herself, Fern is quick to thank her for her time and the explanation, before bidding farewell and heading back out into the relatively calm (for now) Panorama weather. ]