"You being able to catch some of the examples that weren't directly implied by the rules I mentioned is promising for some amount of cultural overlap at least."

"It's not overlap with my actual culture, it's overlap with cultures I read old books from."

"Oh, that's strange to imagine but I suppose makes sense. What is your culture like in similar situations?"

"Oh, if I were going to a party with dancing for one thing I'd be dressed like I was when I first showed up - some people get up to more interesting things, I'd be the most boring-looking person in the room, but nondescript, not underdressed. Everybody would introduce themselves by first name or nickname and I would only learn their last names that night if there were two Michaels or if somebody was related to another person I already knew. People swear a lot and it means nothing unless they're also really angry while they're doing it. Also there would be less... gender... happening... to everyone... like I could dance with boys and it wouldn't be marked or anything, girls wear pants, people's grandmothers wear pants it's been normal for so long."

"Oh. That sounds extremely nice...."

"I've never worn pants before," she adds, somewhat inanely.

"I guessed, yeah."

"Gender restrictions seem sometimes useful - especially for empowered - but I do wish there was substantially more thought put into what was actually important."

"Actively useful? How?"

"Empowered are much less likely to die in childbirth and more likely to have empowered children, so it makes sense for there to be increased pressures on empowered to produce heirs. Additionally I understand it to be the case that gendered expectations make matchmaking easier due to common preferences."

"Personally if my children were exceptionally likely to be tortured by a demon for most of their lives I would get a vasectomy."

"I think that's a disservice to commoners who benefit from sufficiently good empowered nobility but I understand the perspective."

"If the portal guy can do portals you lot can import worthwhile guns and see how demons like those. And espers! Lots of us if the guns won't do the trick."

"To my knowledge guns are not entirely effective against wild demons, though perhaps yours will be different. I also suppose access to your world would offer alternative economic benefits beyond those that our abilities can provide. I do think my own suffering is far outweighed by the benefits of using my power to do irrigation or level land in certain areas presently unsuitable for agriculture."

"I'm glad you find the tradeoff worth it, just, I would not have kids under these conditions, because what if they don't."

"That's a reasonable position - though not one I expect my husband to share so I couldn't exactly afford to insist on it regardless if it were mine."

"The obligatory marriage thing seems like it would be complicating. Does divorce work, can you like - swap spouses within whatever grace period you get?"

"Unfortunately no."

"Yikes. - how does widowhood work."

"The shock of one's husband dying relatively often breaks a woman's powers and the exceptions are able to re-marry. The reverse is very rare but I believe similar."

"Why are widowers so much rarer?"

"Empowered rarely die outside of conflict with other empowered or a demon, which are the affairs of men. Additionally powers break simultanously for a wife and husband so there is not a period of time when one is safe and the other is not."

"Uh-huh."

"Mm."

"Anything else I need to know for the dance et cetera?"

She thinks for a moment.

"Oh, we should establish an explanation for how you came to be here - it can be largely the truth probably - and also perhaps some details about how we met that will be less improper than reality."