Belmarniss in Fullmetal Alchemist
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Bellona's curiosity can at least today be satisfied with that little slice, then, if Belmarniss feels like sharing - it's also a good opportunity to highlight cultural differences with Amestris.

The degree and nature of sexism from Belmarniss's world is apparently really weird locally - there's definitely skews in some jobs (like, the rank and file military leans towards men, though state alchemists are more balanced), and a lot of people have this or that stereotype about women or men, but people usually latch on Bellona and Emma's ages (or Emma's short height) if dismissing them, and she's never heard someone suggest women don't belong in the military at all.

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"It depends where you go. My people have women in charge."

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"It just seems a silly thing to divide by, though I guess we also divide by silly things - loyalty to the state's a big thing people think is important, and everyone's suspicious of or hates anyone who's loyal to the wrong state or wrong religion or whatever, and sometimes that spills over to people who belong to an ethnic group usually loyal somewhere else."

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"I guess loyalty to a state is, like, information about who'll juke where if something big happens?"

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"Yeah, though it tends to encourage people to not question the state, because they might get targeted by their neighbors."

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"Yeah, that's not great."

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"I wonder why the differences?"

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"I couldn't tell you. I guess people'll try anything and most of it doesn't immediately bite them too bad."

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With some humor: "Yeah, and some people'll try even the obviously bad things."

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"Which might immediately bite somebody, but as long as it's somebody else..."

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"And some people can get really reckless even with themselves if they think it has a good enough payoff - that's really common in alchemists."

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"Adventurers too."

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"'People being reckless' is how a lot of advances happen, especially if they're also being methodological."

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"For reasons that are not clear it's almost impossible to get past level five or so without taking lethal or at least high-stakes risks."

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"That's generally not the case with alchemy. You can get extremely good taking no risks, and especially not risking your life - alchemists being martial at all is really recent - but a lot of people who want to be alchemists are experimenter types. There's also a thing where the highest level of alchemy requires a lot of risk, but that's - irregular."

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"Sometimes a god drops a lot of levels on a cleric all at once but it's really rare."

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"I think the closest thing to that is the Gate of Truth, which is - incredibly stupidly risky to face and guarded by an asshole. It's rare for alchemists to know about it, rarer for them to try, and a lot rarer for them to survive."

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"Guarded by an asshole?"

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"Yeah. Calls itself Truth, and the universe, and God, and all sorts of things. We're not sure - what it actually does - and both me and Em disagree on what it looks like and how it behaves, and I haven't talked to anyone else who's seen it in depth."

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"What was it like for you?"

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"Uh. To me it looked like a kid - did for Em, too, but mine was shorter... But it was just an outline, for both of us. White, with this kind of - black static around it, and it had a big mouth and no other features. It behaved kind of... Like a cat playing with a mouse? Sadistic, amused, easily bored, weirdly friendly while also being cruel. Laughed a lot."

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"Yikes. Our gods suck but at least the evil ones have some competition."

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"Dunno it actually does much, though. Alchemy doesn't - seem like something that usually has something intelligent controlling or intervening in it? You always get out what you put in."

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"I haven't seen all that much of it but if it can be arranged whatever way that still seems complicated. If you give the same box of paints to a bunch of different people they will make paintings that weigh the same amount, I guess, but the paintings will be different."

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"It's close to 'weigh the same amount', but... The same circle with the same materials with equally skilled alchemists will make the same results, mostly, with some differences accounting for visualization if the circle was under-specified in what it makes. Less skilled alchemists might instead make an equal weight pile of slag."

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