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They've left him alone in his cell.
He can't really be said to be lucid but he has very acute instincts for when there's someone and when he's alone - it's the last of his senses to depart him - and he's alone.
And then suddenly he isn't.
kobold and post-Angband Maedhros
This entire thing started because I said I didn't want you to avoid acknowledging your emotional needs. I don't think I follow why you got from that that I did want to make you avoid having them.
lurkingkobold
There's a pause, and then she sends her impression of him as someone who's confident that they can do that thing, who considers it a valid tool to use even if it's one they wouldn't choose to use in this case.
She's back to 'clearly terrified', but calming down, slowly.
I said that it's not necessary for you to stop yourself from doing things out of fear they might hurt me and I'd have no recourse. Because if they were actual problems they could be addressed at the point where they became problems, not the much earlier point where you're hiding or apologizing for or trying to suppress things on the off chance they'll hurt me.
I didn't mean 'all things you might do I can in full generality get you to stop doing, and would if they annoyed me'.
lurkingkobold
She waits the several seconds it takes for her to become able to send words again.
Choosing when and where and how I express things isn't fear, it's courtesy. Normal, better than waiting for there to be problems that would take effort to solve. The situation makes it important to be more careful but that's all, it's not... personal or unusual or anything. It's a way of showing I'm taking your wellbeing seriously but I'd always do that.
The other thing I may have misunderstood but you've already pushed at my limits and that's a really bad one.
I do not have any preferences, but people being unhappy in my presence and being made moreso by me is a thing I'll disprefer if I start having preferences, it'd once have distressed me a lot - course, then I would also have known how to avoid it...
lurkingkobold
Fuck.
Okay.
I'm not going.
Please try to be careful not to bring that up again. I'll try not to panic if you do but I can't promise I won't.
Sure.
He is still not clear what 'that' is, but he can avoid anything even touching on interaction between the two of them and how it'd be least frustrating to him.
lurkingkobold
Thank you.
She sits there and worries silently for ten minutes or so and then goes to make herself an omelette.
lurkingkobold
She's pretty sure he's faking. She doesn't like it. She plays along.
She makes him pumpkin-lentil broth with powdered eggshells in it.
lurkingkobold
That, she's genuinely pleased about. When he's done, she heads back to the jungle for a few more hours, and returns with a piece of fruit to try.
lurkingkobold
Mmhmm. None of the animals seem to be preparing for there not to be, and there wouldn't be this many eggs if there wasn't going to be food for hatchlings.
lurkingkobold
This one's a little faster.
I think once I've done one or two more I'll have enough of a hang of it to give you a trigger to do the actual teleportation, I'm sure the surprise of it isn't very nice.
lurkingkobold
Better amusement than confusion, she's not going to complain.
Anyway, I've got a new kind of fruit to try, I'll be around for a few hours if there's anything you want to talk about or anything.
lurkingkobold
Yeah, that was a good idea.
I should probably start trying for your world, next, even if I don't go there yet, so I don't forget the location-signature. The way it works, a map would help, but not actually much more than a description would; most of the things I use to aim aren't the kinds of things that go on maps.
So he sends mental images of Valinor, and of the coastline. I shouldn't tell you how far or in what directions or with what results my people'd scouted the other continent by the time I was captured.