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In the morning, Rapunzel is not disturbed until she has had a little while to go over her coded notes from last night (letter by letter - she will learn to read this just like she learned to read printed notes, but neither task is quick) and has opened the door.
The guards posted there - they've changed in the night, she notices - tell her that she's invited to take breakfast with her parents in the dining hall.
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powershines
hisowninvention
"Yeah. So - there's that. And... I don't know, do you want to hear me extensively compare myself to social norms on the subject of being in love? I have the feeling you're going to say yes."
hisowninvention
"I've been picking up on that!" he says, settling thoughtfully into his Comfortable Library Chair.
"So... I guess the place to start is, these things come with a lot of rules and expectations in the world at large, and I don't tend to play by those. Most people, if they like someone or love someone in a marriage-and-Things sort of way, they want those things with that person - as a goal, as something they'll be upset if they don't get. When I told you what it means to me that I love you, I said that if you wanted to marry me, I'd say yes. That's still the best way to put it. You could take ten years to decide how you feel about marriage and children, and then marry somebody else at the end of it, and I'd still love you and want to be your friend in just the same way I do now. The important part, to me, is getting to be near you and help you and see you be you and be happy. That's what I'd be sad to lose." As an afterthought, he adds, "The hugs are also very nice."
"So... I guess the place to start is, these things come with a lot of rules and expectations in the world at large, and I don't tend to play by those. Most people, if they like someone or love someone in a marriage-and-Things sort of way, they want those things with that person - as a goal, as something they'll be upset if they don't get. When I told you what it means to me that I love you, I said that if you wanted to marry me, I'd say yes. That's still the best way to put it. You could take ten years to decide how you feel about marriage and children, and then marry somebody else at the end of it, and I'd still love you and want to be your friend in just the same way I do now. The important part, to me, is getting to be near you and help you and see you be you and be happy. That's what I'd be sad to lose." As an afterthought, he adds, "The hugs are also very nice."
hisowninvention
He smiles.
"The other main thing I was thinking of is... well, marriage is very much a one-at-a-time deal. And to a lot of people that extends to being in love with one person at a time, and not wanting to do any Things with anyone else, and not wanting the person they're in love with to do any Things with anyone else either. I don't feel that way at all. But - I don't know if you do, and I don't know how you feel about me - I don't know if you'd consider it relevant to you what I do with my spare time, that way. So I thought I'd better ask. It's okay if you don't know or don't want to say."
"The other main thing I was thinking of is... well, marriage is very much a one-at-a-time deal. And to a lot of people that extends to being in love with one person at a time, and not wanting to do any Things with anyone else, and not wanting the person they're in love with to do any Things with anyone else either. I don't feel that way at all. But - I don't know if you do, and I don't know how you feel about me - I don't know if you'd consider it relevant to you what I do with my spare time, that way. So I thought I'd better ask. It's okay if you don't know or don't want to say."
powershines
"Why do you disagree with everybody else about so much stuff?"
hisowninvention
"I've never been sure of that. It just seems like... most people have something that makes them tend to think and act and feel in ways that are normal in the place where they live or the place where they grow up - not perfectly or completely, but a lot of the time about a lot of different things. And whatever that is, I don't have any, or so little it's barely made a difference. So I just end up being, well, me."
powershines
"If you just go around doing things with whoever couldn't you wind up having kids?"
powershines
"Oh." Rapunzel taps her chin, thinking.
"I don't really have a normal with how I grew up."
"I don't really have a normal with how I grew up."
hisowninvention
"Just people I happen to meet. Usually it's been people I met the once and then never saw again, but if I'm going to be settling down here with you, I suppose I'll have more opportunity to get to know people."
powershines
"People just jump straight to that with people they don't even know?"
hisowninvention
"Some people, some of the time. There are even people who do it for money with strangers, and, reciprocally, people who pay for it that way. I've been the first kind more often than the second, but that was all a while ago now. It's not a well-thought-of occupation and it's considered impolite to talk about it in most places."
hisowninvention
"Usually it's men who want something they can't get by themselves and either aren't married or don't want to go to their wives for it, for some reason or another. I guess that doesn't explain why there's so many of them, but the trade thrives regardless of how badly thought of it gets."
powershines
"Huh." She looks contemplative for a long moment, and then says:
"If I could talk to a version of my parents who weren't going to be culturally awkward about having the conversation at all what would they have to say about you wanting to do things with other people in your - spare time?"
"If I could talk to a version of my parents who weren't going to be culturally awkward about having the conversation at all what would they have to say about you wanting to do things with other people in your - spare time?"
hisowninvention
"I could guess that they might not think it was anyone's business but mine, except for making me seem vaguely disreputable, unless you were planning to marry me, in which case I could guess that they'd say it would be appropriate for me to stop beforehand and not start again. If you married me and it was generally known that I did that sort of thing - well, people would feel sorry for you, especially since I'm not any kind of nobility. People, your parents likely included, would think it meant that I didn't really love you. While we're on the subject of your parents' opinions on you and me and marriage, I think that from what Cearl said to me yesterday, if you do plan on marrying me he'd appreciate knowing about it well beforehand."
powershines
"But it sounds like you have plenty of room to stop-and-not-start-again if that seems best later even if you do things now?" she shrugs. "Without that making anything worse?"