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A Bar in Baltimore, Saturday Evening
If anybody were to ask Sparkle, he'd happily tell them that the last person he ever figured he'd be going for drinks with was Seivarden. Like. Ever. He'd also admit that he'd put more time than he had ever figured he would into picking a bar they could both probably enjoy, something with live blues music on Saturdays that still didn't get too rowdy. He had no idea what kind of music Seivarden liked if she even did, admittedly. Mostly he just wanted some sort of guaranteed background noise, in case whatever drunken conversation they had turned into something weird.
They lived on Fandom Island. That was always a pretty good possibility.
"Huh," he said as he stepped in and looked around for an empty table. "Cozy."
It was that sort of bar that always kind of felt like it was being lit by the streetlights outside, with the occasional neon sign or dim lamp doing the rest of the work, though the light on the singer at the stage was doing wonders to brighten it up the slightest bit, too.
"What do you think, Seivarden? How's this for tonight's drinking establishment?"
All the other places Sparkle knew were gay bars and dance clubs. So.
[OOC: For one!]
They lived on Fandom Island. That was always a pretty good possibility.
"Huh," he said as he stepped in and looked around for an empty table. "Cozy."
It was that sort of bar that always kind of felt like it was being lit by the streetlights outside, with the occasional neon sign or dim lamp doing the rest of the work, though the light on the singer at the stage was doing wonders to brighten it up the slightest bit, too.
"What do you think, Seivarden? How's this for tonight's drinking establishment?"
All the other places Sparkle knew were gay bars and dance clubs. So.
[OOC: For one!]
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She laughed again.
"Peter's awful friend showed up with a movie about a sinking ship. He ate pizza with his hands and then they both lectured me about pronouns while people were drowning on the screen. And apparently everything was my fault."
Seivarden shook her head.
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"I mean, the pronoun talk is important," he noted. "But, like, it probably could've waited until after the movie. Do you figure any of it was maybe misunderstandings, the same way they were when we first met? I mean, different cultures, different expectations, and everyone's talking past one another?"
Sparkle didn't know who Peter's awful friend was, but he knew Peter. Peter was good people.
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She snorted.
"I mean, Peter could have brought it up afterwards. I wouldn't have minded that." Much. But at least she respected Peter, even if she didn't always agree.
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"Everyone goes by 'she' where you're from, right? So you have, like, no frame of reference? I can try to talk you through it sometime if you want. When we're both, like, way more fucking sober."
Because ahahahaha right now? Good luck.
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"Because suddenly I was this evil person who used the wrong pronoun for people in an entertainment, and I should be able to figure it out just by looking for tits, and then, no, it's really complicated and there are more than two, and you have to ask and people get killed over it!"
Sorry Sparkle, Seivarden had just been really frustrated about this for a week.
"So yes. Please. When we're sober."
She sipped her whiskey.
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"Hookay, there's a lot to unpack there. When we're sober." That part was really important, yes. "So we'll do that. Not right now. But we will, and you can ask whatever questions you need until we make it make sense, okay?"
Because it sounded like they had tried, and either they weren't exactly on the same page while explaining to her, or someone was drunk, or both, but what he was hearing was nothing shy of a gender binary disaster.
He did pause and then offer, "But it is bullshit that Rose didn't get to save Jack."
That movie had come out when he was an infant. Like that ever stopped Sparkle.
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He gave his shoulders a shrug.
"You like that kind of thing? Sad movies, or just beautiful ones, or...?"
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She snorted.
"And you have a lot more options for who can rescue who."
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He took another drink.
"You ever want to watch something, though, and don't think it'll all make sense, I can try to explain that, too."
He had 'being from modern Earth' going for him, there.
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"So, can I ask you one thing? That seems to come up a lot."
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"Sure," he replied with a shrug. "I can't promise I'll be able to answer it well right now," he nodded toward his drink, "but I can try."
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"So, the in the romantic entertainments the lovers often want to get married, and I understand now that marriage can be either romantic or for money. Like in the one we talked about, Rose was expected to marry someone who wanted her to have children and maybe not pay her for it." She paused here, trying to focus. "But either way, it's always upsetting if one of them have other people in their lives. Even if it's just for money. Or having children. But I understand the part about having children is mostly in the past?"
There was probably a point to this, somewhere. Sparkle might have to look for it.
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Sparkle squinted a little in thought.
"Uh," he said, because that seemed like a good starting point. "Are you asking about monogamy? I think you might be asking about monogamy. And the point of marriage?"
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Seivarden wasn't sure. She poured more Coke in her whiskey.
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"Do you have marriage where you're from? How does love work? And romance?"
That seemed like a good starting point.
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Because she had been part of the invading force who brought civilization.
"And no, we don't. If you love someone, you... love them? Exchange pins or whatever. You could offer clientage if your lover needed it, but it wouldn't necessarily mean you were... oh, of course, in some situations people would assume... Anyway, you wouldn't do that with a social equal. I mean, there are romantic dramas about that, some poor, provincial but very honourable person who gets the attention of someone from a wealthy family, and well, of course the family don't want that connection. Anyway, no one expects anyone to have children for them or to not have other lovers."
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"Children should never be an expectation," he noted. "Even here, in this backwards stupid time and place, children should be something that two people talk about and agree on because they both want to have kids, not because somebody is someone else's property or anything shitty like that."
That part seemed like an important first thing to lay out. And firmly so. Sparkle had strong feelings about kids, especially kids that weren't necessarily wanted.
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She squinted, waving a hand. "But... marriage?"
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"It hasn't really been banned," he noted. "I mean, like, forcing somebody to is banned as fuck, but like, pressuring, like, a wife..."
He sighed.
"God, this is fucking hard," he muttered. "Marriage is... like... a commitment between two people, ideally. And in some places it's still about ownership, and here it's supposed to be about love, but sometimes it's just... convenient. Maybe like two people have been fucking and she gets knocked up and there's gonna be a kid, and they marry because that's just... what people do. It's an old stupid mindset that's just as much a religious hangup as it's a sexist one, and about power, and..."
He paused to take a long drink.
"It causes problems, and not everyone buys into it, and for the smart people, marriage is more about having certain rights between two people be protected by law."
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"But... people have children by mistake? I mean, I know that happens in some places," very remote and uncivilized ones, "but... anyway, so, if it's just..." she blinked. "...convenient, why not other lovers?"
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Not that he was grinding his teeth a little at that, no.
"That's just more shitty attempts at controlling women, and people suck and I hate them." So, that was a helpful part of this conversation. "And the not other lovers thing is..."
He pulled in a breath, and then took another drink, and then sighed.
"That's a more complicated one, I guess. There are a lot of reasons people do it. Sometimes it's just as simple as 'that's how we were told it should be done.'" He shrugged. "I mean, I don't buy into it, but there are some reasonable excuses for it. Preventing, like, diseases from spreading unchecked, I guess?"
He was having a really hard time justifying monogamy, yes.
"Some people just want to devote all their attention into one person, and maybe the kids they have together. Which is a choice they should be able to make. And other people want to love a lot of people, which society hasn't quite gotten used to yet, which sucks, because it's fucking awesome."
Put Sparkle firmly in Camp Polyamory.
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Seivarden was so, so drunk, and might wish she wouldn't remember this conversation tomorrow.
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This was perhaps also something she should be aware of.
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