"I know a blatantly stupid and evil thing when I see it!"

"As much as I appreciate the sentiment, Milo, calm down," says Mial.

"Thank you," Aurin says to his cousin.

"I agree with him that it's blatantly stupid and evil, I just don't think he has the means to actually do anything about it and he'd upset a lot of people trying," says Mial.

"Think before you speak," says Mark.

"I don't have the means to do anything about it yet," says Milo.

Aurin utters a (Draconic) word which fails to render except as the subconsciously understood form of [rueful swearing]. "Mark, please, use your - super-Mileses-understanding to put him off this" [swearing translating loosely to 'notion'] "or so help me I'm flying him out over the lake and feeding him to the squid, [swearing swearing swearing]."

"You are not feeding my alt to the squid," says Mial. "Milo: it's my problem and if you want to do anything about it you're going through me."

"Fuck you too, Crazy Dragon Jann!" says Milo. "You, Mial, are clearly bewitched by your crazy language curse! Why am I the only one who's upset about this?"

"If I had to hazard a guess," says Mark, "I'd say you were used to expecting a certain level of benignness from the unaltered workings of a universe, and when something bad happens you expect both that there is a person whose fault it is and that something can be done about it. Mial didn't help anything by implying you weren't up to the task, that's a button all Mileses possess and he should have bloody known better."

"Would it be productive to suggest distracting Milo with the pegs game?"

"If you learned that your alt had spent a hundred and seventy years subjected to subtle mental torture via widespread mind control, would you be easily distracted from the topic of making it stop? Milo's not wrong, I don't think. He's just unduly enthusiastic. Milo, I'm sure you agree that the problem is a delicate one and alarming people by yelling about it isn't going to get you any closer to a functional solution."

"If I learned this and she wanted me to back off? I would allow myself to be distracted."

Milo growls.

"I suggest that the entire league of Mileses go up to Stalas's room where they can get to know each other and Mial can talk Milo down without outside interference," says Mark.

Aurin grumbles to himself. Ivan pats him on the shoulder.

"Fine. Jann'll have to carry me there, though."

Jann scoops him up. "Lead the way, Other Milos."

Stalas leads. Miles and Mial follow.

And Jann carries his cousin and puts him down someplace suitable in the room. "Somebody'll let me know when you want to come down again, yeah?"

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Aurin asks Mark.

"Yes. They don't ultimately disagree."