"Articulate why I believe what I believe, then. I guess I'm coming from the wrong place, though. Why do you?"

"Why do I what?"

"Believe what you believe."

"I just do."

He furrows his eyebrows. "I'm not sure what to do with that."

"I noticed."

The corner of his lips twitches, but he sighs. "Well. Back to what we were saying, the obstacles to breaking up are that it's scary and you're not sure you're allowed to, right?"

"If I knew I was allowed it wouldn't be scary."

"Okay. Do you know what it would look like, for you to be allowed?"

"He'd've said. Something about how if I wanted to give the collar back I could do - whatever."

"So... okay, suppose you're not allowed. Then what?"

"Then if I do it anyway he'll be mad."

"But I mean, suppose you don't do it. You're not allowed to break up, so you don't break up, what happens, do you stay with him forever against your will or, how do you see this working?"

"I-I don't know, maybe he'll dump me eventually."

"That's not a very stable situation. Anyway, now suppose you do it anyway and he's mad. What happens?"

"When he's mad he punishes me."

"Well, um. That can mean a lot of things and some of them are nice and some are not and some require you to be naked and bound which would presumably not be the case so, uh, how much power to punish you would he actually have in this situation?"

"I'm not good at not doing things people are trying to make me do!"

"...would it help if someone else was around to tell you to do other things? Would it help if I told you to break up with him?" Because honestly as creepy as that is it may be the lesser of all evils.

"...maybe."

"To which?"

"Either, both."

"If I just tell you to break up with him, will you then go on not to do it if he countermands that when I'm not around?"

"- well, if I wasn't around him he couldn't."

"Do you want me to tell you to break up with him?"