Problems Aboard [12 Hivvem 4385; en route]

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

Alzagonde lost no time in doing her research, at breakfast the next morning. She brought her bowl of fish stew and her chalice of kathia, and plopped herself down next to Feralan.

Alzagonde: “Young Rassimel! May I ask you a few questions?”

Feralan: “Are you being curious? Or would you say you’re more ‘inquisitive’?”

Alzagonde: “I’m trying to look out for your safety. What’s your name?”

Feralan: “I’m Feralan. What’s your name?”

Alzagonde: “I’m Alzagonde. I’m a senior student at Lord Caring University in Barency.”

Feralan: “Does that mean you’re trying to care for people, or that you care about people, or nearly something else?”

Alzagonde: “Lord Brandorff Caring was a great hero of Barency in the early days. But I do care about people, especially young people, and I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

Feralan: “Well, you’re weeks too late on that.”

Alzagonde: “Oh, dear. What happened?”

Feralan: “I went to Jinteros to buy a watch, and the city guard killed us. That hurt.”

Alzagonde: “Jinteros? I don’t believe that your skyboat went anywhere near Jinteros. Besides, the city guard wouldn’t kill a child.”

Feralan: “No, it’s really true! The nendrai glued me back together with a spare Locador demon named hCevian. Then the wizards had to split us apart. That was hard. It hurt a lot.”

Alzagonde: “Well, I’m sure you’ve had some wonderful adventures, but I’m here to talk to you about something serious.”

Feralan: “They were horrible adventures! I think they came out OK in the end. I like hCevian.”

Alzagonde: “That’s very nice. What species are your parents?”

Feralan: “Rassimel, of course. Do you believe me?”

Alzagonde: “I believe that your parents are Rassimel. Do you know what most of the adults on Strayway are doing?”

Feralan: “Do you believe me about hCevian? I think they’re mostly doing chores now. Windigar is probably steering the ship. Sythyry is probably doing enchantment. Arfaen is making breakfast.”

Alzagonde: “I’m not here to talk about hCevian…”

Feralan: “Does that mean you don’t believe me?”

Alzagonde: “It means I’m not talking about that now.”

Feralan: “You’re not supposed to confuse me about emotional states! My psyche is very fragile and covered with scars from the spirisection! I’m trying to learn how to communicate with people again, but it’s hard and you’re making it harder by not cooperating!”

Alzagonde: “I just don’t want to talk about that now. I want to keep you safe.”

Feralan: “Safe from what? hCevian is pretty good protection from most things. He promised that if a city was ever fighting me again, he’d whisk me away farther than they can possibly reach.”

Alzagonde: “Please, this isn’t about your imaginary friend. This is about how to grow up to be a good adult.”

Feralan: “I know! I’m trying! It’s OK if you don’t believe me about hCevian, but you’ve got to tell me whether or not you do! I think you don’t or you wouldn’t have used the word ‘imaginary’! But I need you to say it!”

Alzagonde: “Fine, fine. I don’t really believe your story about hCevian, but I’m not too worried about it.”

Feralan: “But if you want to protect me you need to believe in him. He’s the one doing most of the protecting of me these days.”

Alzagonde: “Well, I just want you to grow up right, is the main thing.”

Feralan: [nearly in tears] “I’m trying! I’m learning everything I can about it anymore!”

Alzagonde: “Shh, shh, it’s nothing bad. I just don’t want you — or any child — to get beaten or scorned when you grow up.”

Feralan: “I don’t either, but I dunno how to stop it. I’m going to be very, very, very strange, what with my soulmate and all.”

Alzagonde: “Soulmate? Oh, great staring gods — have all the traff-folk here been telling you you have to pick the love of your life, at your age? And it has to be someone a different species? Listen to me, Feralan, this is important. It’s fine to be friends with someone of a different species, but you do not have to marry them or love them in an adult way. No matter what the people on Strayway say. I think they’ve been abusing you very badly, and I shall … figure out what action to take.”

Feralan: “No! It’s about hCevian! When they did the spirisection operation bits of his soul got stuck in mine, and bits of mine in his. So we’re soulmates.”

Alzagonde: “hCevian is imaginary!”

hCevian: “No — simply implausible.”

Alzagonde: A very loud shriek as the demon appeared on all sides of her at once.

Feralan: “Hi! This is Alzagonde. She wants to protect me.”

hCevian: “She has very poor reflexes, and does not react to much effect when she is startled. I don’t think she really holds a candle to Vaisessasilmin, who also wants to protect you.”

Vae: “And she has a candle for me?” (Her earmuffs protect her from most prime words, but of course she can hear hCevian.) Vae was in the shape of a withered and wattled Khtsoyis hag, for reasons best known to herself but probably due to some misguided attempt to punish herself for, well, it could be nearly anything she’s done.)

Alzagonde: [recovering pretty fast, considering] “I’m not trying to be his bodyguard. I’m trying to protect him from a moral quagmire that it’s all too easy for him to fall into.”

Vae: “The candles do I love!”

hCevian: “Which one?”

Alzagonde: “The dread and stenchy bog of transaffection that yawns beneath his feet, wide and tempting in this ship of fools!”

Vae: “And what sort of candle is it?”

Alzagonde: “Excuse me, beldam. I have no candle for you.”

hCevian: “I do not believe that Feralan has yet formed a clear image of what sort of prime he will love. Speaking as someone who was attached to his mind and soul for a long while recently.”

Vae: “The candle from you, that is what I desire and demand!”

Alzagonde: “You’ll get nothing from me, step-grandmother!”

Vae: [becoming a twelve-clawed monster] “The candle — give it to me!”

Alzagonde quite sensibly attempted to flee. hCevian blocked her, giggling. Vae hissed and threatened and demanded. Feralan teleported to a pantry, got a candle, teleported back, slipped it to Alzagonde, and told her to give it to Vae. Vae wriggled in involuntary and much-despised delight. Feralan teleported her to a parlor, and followed himself.

Feralan: “I think you need a bodyguard, Miss Alzagonde. Not me.”

Comments

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Uh, that wasn't research, that was prostelytizing. One of the necessary components of field research is an attempt to minimize your effect on whatever it is you're supposedly observing.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Well, glad to know that Feralan seems to have picked up a great deal of Locador for his own use in the mean time. Might not really replace, you know, socially essential parts of your soul, but all things told, being able to reliably teleport around the ship is really useful!

[arenhaus.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. :S

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

My thoughts as well.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

It is really? I didn't know that! Sythyrs did they teach you that at university?

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Mump probably thought it was necessary to send a missionary or two (or a dozen) into a terrifying place like, um, wherever it is they're going. You know, to spread the hate and doom.

[brynndragon.livejournal.com]

I am almost as underimpressed with Alzagonde as Vae and hCevian are. Does she have an iota of an inkling of just how damn lucky sbhe is that Feralan didn't get to conclude she wants to take him away from his parents (if only because she didn't get that far)?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I already took him away from his parents.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well ... if it's research in preventing transaffection, then mightn't it make sense to try several approaches and see which one works best?

[oh6.livejournal.com]

I am just sort of wondering if any of Mump's students and entourage are going to manage more than 5 minutes of conversation before getting out of their depth.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Experimental work should be done under controlled lab conditions, not in the field!

[brynndragon.livejournal.com]

You're right, I should have said "foster parents", which I think covers almost all of your clients on board plus yourself (technically only you, IIRC, but the others are helping out).

What rights and responsibilities do you have towards the students et. al. anyway? What sort of legal/social trouble would you be in if she had managed to have an even more unfortunate adventure, if any?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I don't think I have anything unusual by way of rights and responsibilities, for a skyboat captain. It rather depends on the particulars of the adventure -- if I threw her off the ship while we were high in the air, I would be morally culpable; if she teased the Locador demon to the point where it killed her, despite being told clearly not to, I would be less so.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Mhebb and Windigar had an excited hour-long conversation about skyboats. Postmarine conducted a perfectly reasonable interview of Phaniet and Este, asking a great many intimate questions, and nobody was the least bit unhappy. Those sorts of things are simply less fun for me to write down.

[bloofox.livejournal.com]

Bah! You know how hard it can be to get your experimental subjects into the laboratory when they don't approve of your work? They just go "moral this!" and "rights that!" and "freedom t'other!" and completely fail to use a reasonable argument when you point out that all of those things are arbitrary constructs and you have important work to do and just start yelling at you. Much better to do experiments on them in the field without asking them first.

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

Well, monster though I may be, at least you might gain some comfort in the knowledge that I found that exchange to be exceptionally gratifying in every respect.

Well done, Feralan!

[oh6.livejournal.com]

I'm relieved, but entertained!

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Sociological experiments, especially those with long-term duration and/or effects, are notoriously impossible, or at best unethical, to do in a controlled environment. It would involve lengthy imprisonment at best, and goes downhill from there.

Not that this student is being ethical either, but failing to keep her experiments to a lab is not a thing that deserves to be numbered among her faults.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

It may still be worth noting at some point so that we, your eager readers who are not there to see for ourselves, don't get the impression that they're all cads! Just as a quick line, much like you just stated here; you need not go into great detail about the less interesting things(inasmuch as you "need" to do anything for our sake, or specifically mine, to begin with).

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Does Feralan have to use Cley to teleport like that?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Yes, he was casting a spell.

Or no: he can ask hCevian to help him, and hCevian probably will.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that maybe he gained some kind of at-will feather-casting-like self-teleport ability from the soul thing...

And wow, what complexity and power can he reliably get for a Ruloc Locador teleportation spell? I'm just curious as to how much of a boost he got from the soul thing, that's all!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

*Backs away slowly from bloofox...*

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

He's using a complexity-20 spell now, which is not at his limit, but is all I could find boxed for him to graft.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

It depends on the category of research, Delight -- but this is true for many types of research! Mostly, in this case, if you just want to observe something 'in the wild', as it were, just to gather basic information, you don't want to introduce your effect... but if you are trying to do something else, like set up some kind of experiment, you are intentionally introducing an effect. In that case, you might want to be careful that you only introduce the one (or few) effect(s) you meant to, and not accidentally any others!