Yeah, I prefer humans to cats too. And I can't just order around random cats or I probably would, I'd have to hold one and pet it and probably get nastily scratched up in the process for twenty minutes, half an hour maybe, and then it would do what I said. Tyelcormo is your - brother?

He is! The same parents that made me, made him, and just like I assume in your world animals breed true on various traits, family members tend to be rather similar to each other.

I haven't paid a lot of attention to animal breeding. One of my co-prentices is mad about pets and I picked up what I know about animals from her mostly. And yes, one can breed animals for various characteristics, but it's deeply weird to think about that being foundational to how people interact with each other.

Oh, I think people'd interact the same with adopted children. In addition to shared blood you have shared upbringing, there's a cultural expectation that you'll be supportive of and there for each other. If I did something really wrong I might lose my friends but I wouldn't lose my family, generally. It works pretty well when it works.

...the advantage of there being a cap on social penalty for "doing something really wrong" is not obvious to me.

...do you think people should just - wander in exile hated by all and with no avenue to become productive members of society again? That doesn't seem very useful.

I mean, it depends on what they did, I'm not going to go harangue somebody visiting their spouse in jail for still loving them or whatever, but Designated People Who Are Going To Forgive You Because They Knew You As A Child seems - weird.

Not - forgive you, necessarily, just keep loving you. I can understand the principle that all social relationships should be strictly voluntary or something but I am very very glad to have a family.

Sounds like it suits you.

Tyelcormo meets them near the gates of Tirion. "Hullo," he says to Kib, and then, right, sorry, you won't have our language.

Indeed I have not. It sounds like the thing you do is not exactly like the thing servantmakers do, anyway.

I have never heard of servantmaking. The thing I can do is talk to animals.

Given a little while to imprint an animal on me I can make it so it'll do what I tell it to. It seems like people here can't do one of the easiest-to-try kinds of servantmaking but your thing sounded a little similar.

I could talk an animal into doing most anything but I'm not making it, just befriending it and persuading it. Though maybe it's the same thing and different approaches?

It doesn't sound like it, but I guess if you have an animal around you don't mind me making into a pet that won't savage me while I'm holding it you could see? I can also check if any animals you have around already count as pets.

Nothing should savage you while you hold it, unless you want to go dinosaur-taming - do you want to go dinosaur taming? If you could give dinosaurs orders that'd be amazing - and he holds out his arm and a bird lands on it.

When the bird steps onto his hand Kib draws it closer to him and starts petting it. Mandos is the holding area for the to-be-reembodied? Yeah we don't have that, if I die I'm just dead. Please do not arrange to risk my being savaged by dinosaurs if that is a likely outcome of trying to imprint them.

It is not likely but it is possible, Tyelcormo says. Maybe very small dinosaurs. Where do you go when you die?

Don't, as far as I know. More or less the same state as not having appeared yet.

Maybe not even small dinosaurs. That's fucked up.

I am aware. Pet pet. Nice soft bird.

So how'd you get here?

The answer you are looking for may be either 'I have no fucking clue' or 'a bizarre monster that looked like a snake with a full-length mirror for a face ate me and apparently that causes people to land in strange worlds'."