(no subject)

[sythyry]

Consequences for the Cani [11 Hivvem 4261]

In The Morning

Anoof and Narngi spent the whole night talking and have agreed that they will not marry Enziet. She came too close to lying to them already. They set off to explain this to their other fiances.

In the Afternoon

Narngi choofed Havune about being in charge of the marriage arrangements. That's a Cani-style dominance challenge -- the Cani have a contest about the topic, and the winner of the contest gets to be in charge of it for a while, and all the other Cani are happy about it. This challenge was that some Cani around gave the two of them written questions, and they both wrote answers, and a few Cani read the answers to the others and the other Cani decided which answer was best.

Some of the questions:

1. It's the middle of the night. Baby is screaming-hungry and won't sleep. Husband works as a judge, and must be alert the next day at court. Wife has been awake with baby three nights already and is fainting from tiredness. Which must take care of the baby?
2. Which is more important: cleaning out the longhouse's pond, or painting the walls? Why?

Havune's answers, by the way, were that (assuming ordinary circumstances) the judge should sleep and that the house should be painted. The grounds that the family's honor and status are more public, and will recover from offenses and troubles more slowly and painfully. Someone else in the family should help the wife, if possible, or at least give her a Bouncy Vigor spell or some good kathia; and similarly for the pond. The next time the questions are asked, though, the more private answers should be given more weight. The third time, the private answers should take precedence.

Narngi took a more balanced approach. If there's someone to help the wife the next day, then the husband can sleep; and the family should check with friends and relatives, and maybe hire someone if all else fails. If the husband has not had too much kathia, then he should tend the baby and rely on kathia the next day. And so on, with a dozen different cases.

And most of the Cani (including Anoof) preferred Havune's clear answers -- perhaps they were wrong, but they were clear and not fussy, and if they were done several times they'd be fair. Narngi's answers were probably better, but much harder to figure out in the middle of the night.

So Havune won.

So Havune decided whether to marry Enziet or not.

So they're all engaged to Enziet, still, and they're all happy about it.

Cani are all crazy.

Comments

[vik_thor]

yes they are.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad they didn't ditch Enziet. I never understood why some people are so hostile towards dishonesty. Especially when (as in this case) it wasn't meant to and turned out not to be to the other party's detriment.

Everyone has secrets, after all.

My own philosophy is, "I'll never lie to you! About anything important. Unless it's important. Or funny." [pause for several seconds] "As far as you know."

[zeeth_kyrah]

Sounds reasonable to me. But I think that Narngi needs to learn how to state a case better. After all, it's not so much learning a book of rules, as making note of what reasons will compel a particular choice when half-asleep.

[goodluckfox.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. I think Havune and my Property professor need to meet. He's always talking about how "Crystal, bright line rules are very easy and inexpensive to apply, but are less flexible, and less likely to do justice. 'Mud rules' on the other hand, are much more likely to result in justice and to apply in more situations, but they're much harder and much more expensive to apply."

Havune sounds like a crystal rule kind of guy, and Narngi sounds more like a mud rule kind of guy. I guess even the World Tree has policy wonks. :)

(Not sure I agree with applying the rule differnt times in a rotation, though).

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

(Didn't know you were studying law now.)

"Hard cases make bad law."

[goodluckfox.livejournal.com]

Yup! I almost wrote that line about "hard cases make bad law" even. :) I am THRILLED and happy beyond belief to be in law now. :) It really suits me.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Cani are all crazy and Havune is Stupid.

I'm sniffing the doom from here. And I'm not Cani.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, they are not sensible at all like orren.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Orren are sensible. Cani are loyal. Loyalty and sense rarely have much to do with each other.

[thestra.livejournal.com]

Havune had affan, so of *course* the family is happy now that everything has been decided. I'm just glad that I was able to help!

[redbird]

I am glad that I don't have to get all my partners to be partnered to each other, or assign one of them to decide whether we'll all marry a potential new person. It seems incredibly complicated and difficult--which I suspect says something about the difference between how I [and my partners] think and how cani do.