snowblindrpg | [network] @ADMIN; Arrival

No. Should I?

You should. Yeah. Do you work in a hospital? Tell her you're allowed to do that sort of thing in the future.

I do work in a hospital, yeah, but - oh.

[Oh.]

I'll talk to her. When is she from?

[Another smile, still gentle. She appreciates the thought.]

You have soft spots.

Soft and hard spots, like everyone else in the world. Yes.

[Everyone else in the worlds? Multiverse theory is so weird.]

Mid-nineteenth century, or thereabouts. Little colored girl. Frustrated by her lot in life.

Not everyone is willing to show them, though. [She appreciates that he is - she knows too many gangsters who like to pretend they don't have a care in the world. It's exhausting.]

Not surprising. It's not like everything is fine and dandy nowadays for us, but it's still something for her to be glad for.

Mm. You're thinking about the ones who don't have anything behind the front they prop up. All talk, that's what they are.

[Alfie is very secure in his ability to be tough, harsh, and even deadly when he needs to be.]

A woman can be a nurse, in my time. Her time as well, I expect. But you, you would have gone to school for it, yeah? University?

Yes. College, and several certifications after that.

[It's a lot less like war nursing, where pressing bandages to wounds and steady hands to extracting bullets were the best thing they could do.

Although her field nurse work with Matt has made her quite good at that, too.]

You can't really be a nurse in my time without education, but there are several ways to get there. To be fair, back home, you'll need an education for most jobs you want to do.

Well, there's the difference. Women aren't educated that much in my time, and less so in hers.

What do you think about it? Educated women?

Can't say I've thought about it much before. Are women given their own universities, or do you attend with the men?

I'm sure that there are some universities that don't do co-ed, but most of them mix men and women. It can be a wild ride. Did you go to university?

I didn't. But if I had, none of us would have been focusing on our studies with so many women about. Why don't they separate them?

[It just seems like the smarter way to do it to him.]

[She chuckles.]

You're not the only one. The full college experience tends to involve a lot of drunken debauchery.

[Claire takes her time to reply to his question; there are pros and cons to both sides of the argument, after all.]

They're not always separate anymore because it doesn't help anyone in the long run. Men and women should get used to working alongside each other, since we're not separate in the adult world. It helps with social intelligence, too.

Right; that's another difference, there. In my day men and women don't socialize with each other as much.

[That's changing a bit, but his 1920s British world is still very much a "men with men, women with women" place in a lot of respects.]

It sounds as if in the future, there's not much difference between men and women at all.

Unfortunately, there's still too much. We're still approximating 60 cents on a man's dollar, for example. Women still get raped and get the blame for it. They are still often treated as inferior.

[There's so much more. But at least, they have the freedom to live their lives as they want.]

It's still better than the 20's, though. Especially for someone like me.

We do have suffrage in my time. You've got the right to vote.

White women do.

[And isn't that a major difference.]

Mm.

[Oh look, something he's literally never thought of before. Is it really only legal for white women? He's not sure, off the top of his head.]

Right, well. Another reason to talk to Kesara then, innit.

[She's not going to spoil him for the future, but, here you go, Alfie. Black and mixed raced women didn't get to vote in the US for another 40 years or so.]

I imagine so. Is she from the US?

India. British Empire. That's another thing that goes by the wayside in the future, eh?

Goodness, yes. Although it's still part of the Commonwealth - a bunch of countries that were under the British Empire still accept the crown as sovereignty.

[It might make it harder for Kesara to relate to Claire, considering how different the places they come from are, but. She has to try.]

And I suppose we don't conquer you Americans again, do we.

[He's teasing; he knows that they don't.]

[She laughs, genuine and deep.]

I'm pretty sure if you could see it from my time, you wouldn't want to anyway.

[That makes him chuckle too, just a little.]

And here I thought the future was wonderful.

In a job like mine, cynicism is kind of a necessity. It's got its ups, like 12 years old scotch and constantly evolving human rights, and its down, like police brutality and global warming. I imagine it's the same for you.

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