The outtake below will probably not appear in Righteous Anger, book two of the Okal Rel Universe saga. It just sort of happened while I was beavering away at a draft, but doesn't have the right tone for the passage it cropped up in. The dynamic does, however, illustrate an aspect of Vrellish propriety that I find entertaining to portray--namely the "rules" about who is taking advantage of whom when a lower status woman seduces a higher status male. It is all about breeding outcomes and possibilities, of course, which is why the Vrellish call it fertility manners. Taking ferni would offend the Watching Dead, in religious terms. In practical ones, for the race, giving Vrellish sex drive the "out" of avoiding reproductive consequences would probably lead to even lower birth rates. Like many religious prohbitions, Vrellish fertility manners serve the society at large, although not, necessarily, the individual. Not that Vrellish, male or female, are self-conscious of all this at all levels. :-)
Horth was disinclined to listen if they were going to start speculating about the purpose behind the pornography on the silver box, again. He was more interested in the second woman, who was smiling at him with obvious interest; and in more than fencing, Horth felt sure. Bryllit's warnings about the risks of a easy reputation for a highborn male who stooped to entertaining lesser women without stooping, at the same time, to frustrating the Watching Dead with ferni, were doing their best to assert themselves; but he was having a hard time remembering specific reasons why breeding down indiscriminately wasn't a desirable idea. "Horth?" said Branst, and followed up with a jab in the ribs, of necessity. "Horth! Will you pay attention? You know, someday, some woman you are too busy ogling is going to put a sword through you when you're distracted. Get a grip!" "Show some respect," the Black Hearth veteran snarled at her female partner, at the same time. "He's Black Hearth family! And he's just a kid!" Horth resented that remark. He was twenty years old! How old was she? Thirty, maybe? Forty? It could be almost as hard to tell with nobleborns, who aged more slowly than commoners, as it was with ageless highborns. But she couldn't be anything close to his father's age. Or even Di Mon's. |
posted by Lynda at 18:49
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