blood sweat tear

[imeanforever]

He's moving her to a different court to see if it'll improve her attitude. She's allowed to fly. It's been a long, long time since she was allowed to -

She is only allowed to fly to her destination, not anywhere else. She notices that she is not where she should be, that she cannot progress to where she was told to go, and she careens out of control when her wings won't flap anymore, and she crashes.

---

with Miles (kappa)

with Minus (kappa)

Comments

[imeanforever]

"Plants. I'm not picky and wouldn't recognize any individual plants here either. I can't chew solid wood."

[eversomuchfun]

"I can provide plants and things made from plants," he says. "Should I go shopping again before sunrise?"

[imeanforever]

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble yes please."

[eversomuchfun]

Shrug.

Off he goes, returning fifteen minutes later with another big cardboard box, less clearly labelled. It is full of plants and plant derivatives.

[imeanforever]

"This would be a good time to decide if you're going to be feeding me or if I have to get used to risking claims from every mortal who's ever interacted with that food, the land it's grown on, and the water it's grown with."

[eversomuchfun]

"I suppose I'll be feeding you, then. Unless there's some clever alternate solution available."

[imeanforever]

"If I vassalize someone first, I can take food from them without it being a problem, but I don't exactly have candidates lined up."

[eversomuchfun]

He shrugs. "So it seems like the most convenient option all round is me feeding you. Fine."

[imeanforever]

"Thanks."

[eversomuchfun]

He makes a noncommital sound and extracts a plant from the plant box to feed to Promise.

[imeanforever]

Nom.

"I'm Promise, by the way, I hadn't mentioned."

[eversomuchfun]

"Sherlock."

Click.

[imeanforever]

She relaxes a little bit but doesn't say anything immediately. Nom.

[eversomuchfun]

Plants and plant derivatives.

[imeanforever]

Eventually Promise isn't hungry anymore.

She blurts, suddenly, "Don't order me -"

[eversomuchfun]

[imeanforever]

"Sorry about that. I just - I don't want to - I'm not going to hurt you but I'm paranoid right now. Um. It's your name, it was your real name, that counts even for someone who's already your vassal. You haven't exactly given me reason to be suspicious I just -" Headshake. "Never give me an order that I do not expressly request of my own uncommanded will, or that you do not sincerely without mental contortion believe to be in my best interest as you genuinely understand it, except for a copy of this order should you so desire."

[eversomuchfun]

"I suspected as much," he says. "I'm not going to copy your order; the design doesn't agree with me."

[imeanforever]

"Is there a different one you'd like better?"

[eversomuchfun]

"I might come up with one after I've had more than twenty seconds to think about it. But I don't think it hits the optimal balance. As stated I think it needlessly prohibits me from giving you permissions if I happen to be confused about how they relate to your best interest, which seems silly, but I haven't come up with an elegant way to change the wording."

[imeanforever]

"Permissions are in general beneficial to my interests."

[eversomuchfun]

"But are you relying on me to reliably know that? Whose assessment of my assessment of your best interest is operative here?"

[imeanforever]

"Yours, because I can't very well oblige you to read my mind - reading my mind is not in my best interest, if there was confusion on that - but you can incorporate things I tell you, like 'permissions are in general beneficial to my best interests'. I wasn't expecting this to seem very complicated, I confess."

[eversomuchfun]

"Weren't you? But you have clearly observed that the entire system is new to me."

[imeanforever]

"The system isn't especially complicated. New orders take precedence over old ones, independent of source. Imperatives and permissions can be enforced, or not. None of the details like that have to do with whether you can figure out that I would rather be allowed to do things than not."