"I don't know because she wasn't using one! And I couldn't point out the loopholes in any way that wouldn't have involved using them because she did the gag correctly! I have worried about her occasionally since, she stopped drawing me up after a few weeks and I don't know if she got a human boyfriend or got bored or decided to go for variety with somebody who'd..." He shakes his head.

Hug. All things considered he is not very jealous. "Your home world's gag thing is so weird. ....I bet there are accurate, and varying degrees of kinky, instructions for that on Endorë, they would have had nice daeva to point out loopholes..."

Snuggle. "I bet. They're probably very well-crafted. Does it sound fun?"

The points of his ears might go slightly red. "Doesn't make any sense for your summoner to be someone who spends significant time in your vicinity, particularly doesn't make sense for it to be me."

Awww earblush. Cam nibbles on an earblush. "Why not?"

"If there's a calamity that kills everyone on a planet or in a dimension it'd be deeply unfortunate if it also dismissed you and you couldn't do anything mitigating. And people might want you gone badly enough to shoot your summoner."

"...yeah, that makes sense. So it'd have to be only an occasional thing if you wanted to play with it."

"And you would find this hilarious?"

"Probably depends on the details but likely."

"Then maybe very occasionally. ....ideally we obviate the problem by fetching you directly from Hell with good interdimensional transit, then there's no squishy people in the way..."

Kiss. "Yep."

It is another week after that before Midnight settles on less mind-controlling oaths for his boyfriend. If he dies Findekáno is to self-destruct; if he is held prisoner or incapacitated or put in extreme time dilation or similar Findekáno is to not move from the spot except to render aid if appropriate; Findekáno is to come when asked and not venture outside osanwë range or otherwise endeavor to make himself unreachable and under no circumstances attempt to harm either himself or Maitimo. And no asking anyone to remove this or giving consent to procedures that would remove it or indicating that his non-consenting to removal is the result of an oath. Maitimo helps his alt with wording.

It's sort of better than the previous state of affairs as long as nothing happens to Midnight. (Can they admit that they know he decided to call himself Midnight yet?)

He is happy to tell them he chose that name. He doesn't seem to have run across the concept of bugging yet. He accompanies Findekáno to talk with Nechar.

He would like all his oaths removed except the ones he swore today, but it's very important those stay. Can Nechar do that?

"'Today' is kinda a weird concept in Milliways," says Nechar. "Can you specify it some other way?"

"Since I woke up?"

"Yeah, I can aim like that." Pause. "There you go."

And a lot of pieces pop back into place and-

-two Maitimos but constrained by PR concerns -

- might get let go entirely if Maitimo thinks he can be won back, but he's not going to be able to lie about that -

"Thank you very much. I think I'm going to go outside, I haven't been out since the first day."

And over osanwë, Edie?

Yes?

A couple questions, though keeping in mind Maitimo might learn everything you tell me: do you have a way to knock Maitimo unconscious without harming him, just - asleep - and what do you need to target that-

Yes. And his location relative to me.

Can looking through my eyes give you that, or do you need to be present.

I've actually never tried that. I could try--I could test it with Tyelcormo, first, if that would be safer.

He won't try to stop you? I want both Maitimos out, yours helped mine come up with a safer set of oaths and has made a lot of decisions that are most flatteringly interpreted as mistakes but that helped Midnight tremendously.