The Drow Queen of Glaley [Very NSFW]

[Claudia Emerison]

Claudia lifts her head, frowning. "Coquette, you're my wife. Why would you owe me for helping you?" she asks, her tone a mix of confusion and hurt.

[Coquette Blacquin]

"Nothing in this life comes for free, dear pet. Everything has a cost. The cost you cannot see is often harder to bear than the cost you can touch."

[Claudia Emerison]

"That's a really sad way of analyzing life." There's pity in Claudia's eyes, visible despite the glaze still present. "I'm sorry things have been shit for you for so long."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"Has it... not been so for you? With Estelle? That the cost of your mistakes was nearly unbearable?

[Claudia Emerison]

Claudia flinches, her body going rigid for a second. "I-- well-- I mean... Yes but not like you're saying? I mean... Estelle didn't name a price or tell me I owed her? It was... other people really."  Looking pensive, she adds in a very soft voice, "I think... I think if it wasn't for her station, for what people expect and demand of her-- of us both really-- we could have... made it work, you know?"

[Coquette Blacquin]

"If she had named a price, say, a hundred thousand gold. And then she'd have forgiven you. Wouldn't that have been so much better?"

[Claudia Emerison]

"No," Claudia says without hesitation. "I'd never really believe it. How could gold make what I-- make it right?"

[Coquette Blacquin]

"I suppose. What about something other than gold? Retribution of some kind? A public flogging, let's say, until you pass out from blood loss?"

[Claudia Emerison]

"Maybe? Actions and deeds seem different than payment though."  Claudia frowns deeper as she tries to work this into words. "I guess it's... It being a price makes it too clean, too, umm, compulsory? For both sides. And regret can't be forced or it's not really real?"

[Coquette Blacquin]

"I had been told that... this was how your culture -- Estelle's culture, rather -- treated wives. That mistakes were to be made whole via punishments and retribution."

[Claudia Emerison]

"Yessss-ish? I mean, that's the, uh, the shitty old ways, so to speak, totally. Everyone is property of the people above them and all that pegasus shit, and you punish your things when they misbehave, evidently? Anyway. They're trying to change things so that it's... It looks similar, alright? A lot of stuff is like that here; it's easier to do something complicated but feels familiar on the surface than to just create something easy and simple but new. Sorry, I keep-- basically, for this specific thing, the shift is from punishment to atonement. Like... it's supposed to be less 'you have failed me, wife slash slave slash possession, and so I will whip you fifty times to make myself feel better and look powerful.' Instead, it's 'I made a mistake or didn't succeed at something so I want to show that I regret that and make it clear to everyone who knows about it that I'm taking responsibility so it's not your fault, my beloved wife.' Or something like that, am I rambling?"

[Coquette Blacquin]

"What is the difference, if it means you are forced to endure something or prostrate yourself before her."

[Claudia Emerison]

"Well, for one, you're not forced," Claudia points out. "I mean, yeah, there'd be consequences, but everything has consequences, you know? Two, because it's you-- or the penitent, whoever that is-- making an offering, a show of remorse and such, you have way more control over it. You can pick the form of it, the time, the place and so on. Thirdly, there's the huge difference in mindsets for everyone involved. Like, motivation and intent do matter. Umm. Four? Four. It's part of a very different sort of relationship. One party might have more authority or influence or whatever, but both are still people. Still mostly equal in most ways, instead of near god to slave. Or tool. Toy. Worse."

[Zevran]

Zevran had been content to just listen, letting the two talk in faux-privacy, but this prompts him to break his silence. "You seem to have put some fair amount of thought into this. Into the relationship dynamic of past and current cultures."

[Claudia Emerison]

Blushing a little, Claudia shrugs her free shoulder. "I mean... I get, umm, stressed kind easily? And aside from-- Well, The two things I can do to settle down that are-- I can tinker to calm down. Designing needs too much thought but tinkering is soothing. But that only soothes, it doesn't, umm, no, how to... Tinkering is like putting numbing salve on a burn. Reading up on the thing that stressed me out though, that's like getting a glove. Sorta. It also calms me down, though not as fast or as easily, but it helps later. Understanding something, even if it's still hard or awkward or uncomfortable, it helps. Me anyway."