I don't know. I mean... yes, if they were going to fix it, and not otherwise?

What about, like, to see if they could fix it or not.

I guess it would be kind of stupid to pass up what might be the only chance I ever get just because we don't know yet if you can help. And if you were going to use the information to hurt me you'd probably have read my mind without my permission, I guess, unless you need me to do something to make that work.

No, I don't need you to do anything, that's why they train us to be so careful about asking. It does get complicated if you can't just answer, though. Would using the information to hurt you be the only thing you'd be worried about?

I think so? It's not like I have other secrets or anything.

You don't need to have things that are super serious secrets to want privacy!

Shrug.

Do you maybe want to think about this over a milkshake for a bit, if you're not used to subtle artists you probably haven't done any thinking about it in advance. It doesn't have to be a milkshake, that's just what I'm having.

I don't want a milkshake. I don't think I'm... confused about things I would be less confused about if I literally sat and thought about it with my eyes closed. It's just that you do know about subtle artists and you seem to think I should have reservations and I don't really understand why.

Well, I'm a really private person and some subtle artists are huge jerks and if I didn't have native shields it'd sure spook me, but I guess you also don't have enough exposure to be spooked...

I'm not sure what the difference is between using what you find out to hurt me and being a huge jerk.

It's kind of a continuous spectrum, I guess.

Shrug. Well, are you going to be a jerk?

I'll try not to but I'm from another plane, I won't necessarily get it all right! Not without even more mindreading than I was proposing.

I didn't actually realize there were... amounts... of mindreading.

There are so many amounts! The thing I'm doing right now is basically just having a conversation without using our mouths, I'm going very light touch to only get what you mean to send and not things you incidentally think about or what the inside of your eyelids look like or anything.

They look like eyelids. ...I don't think I have any other concerns about you looking at whatever you want if you're not going to be a jerk about it. Including, uh, figuring out what being a jerk means to me?

Okay. You can stop me if you suddenly want to for any or no reason, okay?

Okay.

So this person is cursed to obey orders. They don't actually have to be given with the full knowledge of how she would take them; they have to at least sort of be aimed at her but text aimed at whoever happens to read it counts. There have, of course, been a lot of orders. Some of them are mind-affecting, like loving God and accepting that he made her a lovely young lady.

It sucks. Valerie's guardian doesn't let her go anywhere because she might see a billboard. She's not even allowed to look out the windows. She has no friends. All her reading material is screened. She would very badly like to stop living like this.

...how does it work if new orders supercede old ones?

Recency wins.

Is there anything you'd like me to say to you?

There isn’t really any point in not being under any specific orders for a while, it’s not like that would make it safe to have a life.

That's true but it might be useful for certain purposes to see what happens, and I don't want to just make something up that you'd rather not hear.

I guess you can make me talk to you or let me talk to strangers or something. I don’t mind if you make me clap my hands or something. - Hey, are there imperatives written on anything around here?