"Pretty much! People care about being alive and happy and not in pain and so on, and morality means we all agree to work towards making that true for everyone. The differences are mostly about how people think we should get there—it's like we know the destination but we don't have a map so we have to argue about the route or which stops we should visit first on the way." 

"So it's cooperation. And, uh... positive-sum games?" He switches languages for that last term, not that Dion should be able to tell.

Dion is indeed unable to tell the difference; everything Valanda says is already translated. 

 "Yeah, that's the general idea. I still feel like you're probably missing some important part of it, but that's enough that we can talk about it, I think?" 

"Yeah, I think so. So your people study cooperation in more depth than we understand it where I'm from?"

"I guess. I'm still not sure why your people don't. I mean, what do you even have instead? Just laws that say slavery's legal?"

"Lots of people think it's important to pay people back for favors or get revenge if they hurt you."

"Yeah, see, one of those is moral and one is kinda not. I mean, revenge isn't just a Sith thing, but it's definitely on the Darker side of things. Uh, the more evil side. Less moral." 

"What's wrong with revenge?"

"Well...uh." He waves a hand as he casts about for an example. 

"Okay, say someone murdered your best friend. If you get revenge by murdering their best friend, that sounds fair, but it's still bad because you still killed someone. And it's still illegal—please tell me your world has laws against killing people."

"Yeah, we have laws against that. That's why instead of killing them you should take it to the government, so the government can punish them a predictable amount after checking that they really did it."

"Okay, so it's illegal, but you're not sure why it's immoral?"

"Is it immoral because people don't want to cooperate with you if you try to kill them?"

Dion snorts. "Yeah, I guess you could put it that way. People...don't like being killed? So if you're trying to be moral you shouldn't kill people. Unless it stops them hurting other people, I mean." 

"I guess that makes sense. But if you're getting revenge you are stopping them from hurting other people."

"...in some cases, yeah." Dion concedes. "But there's also the part where—you have to be sure about whether you're helping people or not? So, in general, you should leave punishing people to governments and other policing organizations who have enough resources and detachment to make sure they're doing the right thing and not just what you feel like the right thing is. If that makes sense." 

"Yeah, of course. So does that make it immoral not to report a crime someone committed against you?"

"...good question?" Dion says, to cover up the fact that he doesn't know. 

"I think only if it's a violent crime and you think they're gonna do it again? So if a random stranger mugs you or rapes you then you should report it so they can be stopped from doing it to other people, but if someone, like...I don't know. If your boyfriend hits you then I don't think it's immoral not to report him even though it would be a good idea." 

He pauses to think about this. "It's kinda important that...some things aren't about morality? Like, there are good things and there are bad things and then there are some things that are just kind of. Things. And you do them and they don't say anything about whether you're a good person. Like washing your socks or something." 

"That makes sense. Like having green or brown hair, right?"

"Yeah! Having green hair or brown hair or blue skin or whatever is, uh, morally neutral. I think that's the right phrase. Anyway, there's lots of things where morals aren't the important thing even if there is technically a right answer, like the boyfriend thing." 

"What's the important thing if your boyfriend hits you?"

"...making sure you're safe, I guess? Whatever that ends up meaning? I mean, you could argue that's a moral thing to do anyway because you're a person and your happiness and safety matter, but it seems kinda pointless to put it in those terms."

"I guess that makes sense. Why isn't that the important thing if it's a stranger?"

"So, two things. One, a boyfriend is different from a stranger in that he's gonna be sticking around you a lot more, so it's more relevant to think about keeping your future self safe and then protecting other people. Two, your boyfriend isn't necessarily gonna go out and hit other random people just because he hit someone he's with, but a stranger could go find another stranger pretty easily, and there's no reason to think they wouldn't." 

He frowns. "Okay, third thing. You're more likely to be able to guess whether your boyfriend will do it again, so it's less important to go to the government for that."

"That makes sense."

That's when the door opens and someone else walks in. He doesn't quite look like Valanda - browner hair and darker skin, brown eyes instead of green, easily a couple years younger but even shorter than Valanda was at that age - but he looks more like Valanda than a randomly selected person from a randomly selected universe should. A lot more.

"...Excuse me, are you gods?"