Welp

[thornsofmalkav]

Okay, uh, I'm sorry it took me this many hours to remember to warn people about this stuff, but to my credit I was pretty distracted.

Anyway. So. We're in the late 1980s as far as things go by date, which means there's one thing everyone has to be pretty vigilant about and that's sex and drug safety. Because while I know this isn't my world, what I don't know is whether or not is if there's the same nasty disease going around that there was in my world's 1980s and I figure everyone should, like, follow some basic safety rules about that stuff. Just in case, but also because they're also good ideas anyway.

First, always, always, always wear a condom when you have sex with someone from this era. Even if you're on chemical birth control or your partner says they are. Even if you're both the same sex. Actually, especially if you're both male.

And second, if any of you are going to do drugs, for fuck's sake, always use a clean and sterilized needle and don't share them.

Please, just listen to me about this stuff. Hopefully, I'm just being paranoid, but I really don't want people to bring a nasty and ultimately fatal STD back to liminal.

Comments

[overlevende]

And don't say 'well I'm not human, I'm safe', it doesn't work like that. There are illnesses out there that can get about everyone, even if you can't get sick normally. And some of them are really nasty.

In general, if you need to ingest any kind of bodily fluids of another person, no matter what species you are, try to go for someone who is the least likely to have an illness relating to the exchange of bodily fluids, like people who have a lot of sex, or people who engage in activities that are at a high risk of the exchange of bodily fluids like drug usage.

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah. What Malin said. Thanks, dude.

[awitchdidit]

I'm going to stop complaining quite so much about being stuck on an island during this time period. Thank you for the warning, even if both of those are somewhat outside my planned activities.

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeahhhh. I guess that's one shitty thing that never reached Rokkenjima.

[sees_red]

What do people usually get up to on a Jaunt?

[thornsofmalkav]

... are you sure you want to know the answer to this?

I mean, one time we went to Ancient Rome and I came back with a flying dick necklace.

[sees_red]

I mean, when in Rome...

Yeah, I got nothing.

[thornsofmalkav]

Most Jaunts aren't Rome, but it's not unheard of for people to bang Infiltrators or people from the Jaunt worlds.

[sees_red]

Isn't that a little sketchy?

And aren't we kind of busy working for guys who play pinball with planets?

I mean. Okay, sometimes when you're saving the world you need to blow off some steam, but.

[awitchdidit]

I can't necessarily speak to Investigators, but Infiltrators don't know they're just visiting another world, and we spend a good deal of time interacting with them...

[sees_red]

A lot of time shooting up and... getting funky?

[awitchdidit]

I've only Infiltrated to time periods before the invention of the hypodermic needle, thankfully, and I refuse to confirm the latter.

[thornsofmalkav]

Well, considering we've been to the Victorian era and its alternate universe analogue, where people still took shit you shoot up as medicine...I wouldn't say a lot of time, but some time.

[theflyingone]

Tell me of your time's safe practices. Why do they require needles to have drugs? What is a condom? I am sure it will come up—in conversation I mean, in conversation.

[ He walked right into that one, didn't he. ]

I do not like the idea of lying with Infiltrators, for many complicated reasons. But I still need to know these things to blend in with a crowd of excitable people at a festival.

[thornsofmalkav]

Most drugs don't require needles, but at the same time, people who want to get very high very quickly on a relatively small amount of the drug can inject a liquid version into their bloodstream using a hypodermic needle.

A condom is a prophylactic. Uh, something you use to keep people from getting pregnant. Birth control. Basically, it's a thin latex sheath that you put over your dick and it keeps you from catching any diseases and also from getting your partner pregnant, since it traps the semen inside. I think at some point in the past they had a version of condoms made of sheep's intestines, but I'm not sure if it was as far back as your time. Latex is more reliable, though.

And, uh, don't worry, I'm not encouraging people to bang Infiltrators. It's a complicated subject ethics-wise, after all. But it occasionally happens.

medieval sources are extremely vague, so i'm going with educated guesses

[theflyingone]

[ He had only encountered needles in the context of medicine, mostly for sucking cataracts away. Hypo-dermic. Many Modern English words had their roots in Greek now, he was quickly learning, and if he listened closely he could unveil them. These particular needles administered things under the skin. He was amazed that complicated medical equipment was now available to young festival goers in search of their next thrill. ]

Pastes are more common for preventing children in my time, but the sheath is, yes, used for preventing disease as well as children. What is latex?

[thornsofmalkav]

Uh, it's either a kind of plastic or a natural rubber. I forget which. You can get them at a drugstore, I think. There should be a Walgreens in downtown Santa Carlita. I think there's one in Wilton too but I forget where.

[naturaltwohands]

Thank you for such warnings. I believe I will abstain from both. [He hates drugs, and he doesn't want to sleep with anyone.]

It may serve to add an explanation of how buses work. They are... confusing. Their map confounded me for quite some time.

[thornsofmalkav]

I find it easier to pay less attention to the lines on the map and more to the scheduled stops, but that's just me.

Busses basically drive the same 'route' around and around. You get on it, pay them money, and get off when you're closer to your destination. Sometimes you have to get on another bus, so you ride it until they're at the place where all the busses gather together, get off there, and get on another bus.

[naturaltwohands]

Perhaps I will go back to simply walking.

[Drizzt is obviously joking.]

But, no. Truly, that is helpful information. Perhaps I should ask a friend from a time like this to accompany me on some trips. It may hasten my understanding.

[thornsofmalkav]

Good idea. Maybe DS? I mean, he is your bestie, kinda. [Or at least that's what it seems like from the outside.]

[neverfeltthatway]

...Are sexual diseases very common? [Because guess who's never even heard of them before.] What happens if you catch it?

[thornsofmalkav]

Uh, medium common. They're easily prevented by wearing condoms, though. And some of them just make you itch.

Most of them can be treated, but not so much this one yet. I mean, it can in my time, but during the eighties it was pretty much a death sentence. It basically fucks up your immune system like hell so your body can't fight off other diseases.

[neverfeltthatway]

...What is a condom? [She'd mentioned it in her post, too, so he knows it has something to do with birth control? But beyond that, he's not really sure. Although maybe he should be asking this of someone else.]

I see. That's much more serious than I'd realized. [Not difficult, since he hadn't really even known they existed before.]

[thornsofmalkav]

...

[How you didn't knock up Sansa, she does not know.]

A condom is a sheath you wear over your penis to contain the semen when you ejaculate so that you don't impregnate your female lover. They're also good at keeping venereal diseases from spreading. They used to be made of sheep intestines, but now they use latex.