"And then they could go home and fuel their civilizations on their own emotional energy."

"I wonder how it's possible that they don't have emotions. I mean, random animals have emotions."

"They do? Like, proper emotions?"

"Well, not all of them, but if you think dogs and cats don't have emotions, then you probably haven't spent much time around them."

"I haven't, admittedly."

"I think they're more inclined to emote in ways comprehensible to humans than, you know, species that haven't had their development guided by humanity for the past few thousand years."

"That doesn't guarantee the internal states are anything to write home about. Unless you've checked?"

"I haven't. Mostly I'm relying on Occam's Razor--having emotions is a tidier explanation for emoting than pretending to have them. Maybe I had better, when I get home, if emotions violate conservation of energy in your universe."

"Maybe. And you just explained why cats and dogs would emote legibly..."

"And in response to stimuli that make sense to produce the relevant emotions. I do have more evidence than 'it seemed simpler,' I just didn't particularly think I was going to need to explain it before just now so I wasn't taking notes."

"Fair enough."

"I think I'll still check manually, though, since I can."

"Your spells definitely work just fine on pets?"

"I don't know, I haven't tried, but if they don't that says something in and of itself."

"Not necessarily anything about the minds of cats and dogs, it could just say something about your spell."

"I know it doesn't only work on humans, though, or it wouldn't have worked on the fluff."

"There is that. Have you tried it on anything besides humans and fluff?"

"I have not. Bar, would you be interested in seeing if I can do it to you?"

Goodness me. I'm just not sure.

"I definitely absolutely won't if you don't want me to, but the point is more to see if it's possible and I could angle the mirror so no one could see it."

I suppose as long as you only make the mirror there's no harm in it.

"Is that a 'it's fine' or an 'I don't want you to but am going to allow it anyway,' because I really do try to be as conscientious about real consent as I can."

I don't mind as long as the mirror only exists and is not used.

How interesting.