What a shame. Mood-altering songs?

Well, by the nature of soul contact, he'll have to let go to find out if they worked. The fork's soul doesn't visibly object, at least.

Also, his husband is over there giggling with his face in his hands, insulated from the songs by a touch of silver light. I should have expected this, why didn't I expect this, everything is going to work out exactly the way I planned but in the meantime he is going to fuck with us at every turn, there was no way that was ever not going to happen...

We were kind of vaguely unethical to him.

Yes, that's true. He doesn't mind, though, if he actually minded he wouldn't have thrown his soul at you. He's just - being very me.

It's a good thing I love you. Since he asked for it I'm tempted to leave him like this all day, want to go get dinner? We were going to have me meet your mother but perhaps that's complicated by recent events?

Were you in fact refraining from torturing him so he'd get curious and go find your sad alt?

He gets up and goes and kisses his husband and is kind of tempted to touch his alt's soul to see what happens.

He holds it out. Yes, but not even consciously - I rarely consciously decide to manipulate you, I often have instincts for how to act to get the reaction I want -

That's - why is that adorable, he really doesn't know, but wow he loves his husband so much.

He kisses him again and puts his hand on his alt's soul. What's it even like for him, he's not sending me all his private thoughts...

He sends them.

It's like -

He really really wants to be a part of this amazing relationship. He wants it so much. He envies them both - adores them both - and he's wryly aware that he's almost certainly going to take the other choice, but in the meantime he is so deeply fulfilled and delighted by being wrapped up between them like this - he was not expecting this outcome when he threw his soul at Maitimo, he just instinctively knew that if Maitimo was deliberately refraining from touching his soul the only way he was going to get him to do it would be to throw it at him instantly the moment the impulse crossed his mind - having his alt in the mix seems to pull him out of it a little, give him slightly more affordance for complex thoughts, although he hasn't exactly done this very often so he isn't sure - it's nice, it's lovely, the soul-contact intimacy feels like a warm hug, is this how good it gets, no it isn't, if it can be this good he bets it can be so much better -

...you actually can't leave him like this all day, says Taliar, there's a background risk that his soul will acknowledge you like mine did and then you will have two sun-bright god-killers and no nice helpless Taliars to give your alt and my alt will be making fun of us for months - it's not going to happen under most circumstances but the thing that'll do it is if he either decides to definitely stay with us, or gets so wrapped up in being in love with you that he forgets there's another one out there waiting for him.

He takes his hand off his alt's soul.

He floats on adoration.

Exactly like that.

He drops his soul, shaking his head. 

His husband laughs and hugs him.

He only stays dazed for a few seconds, and the first thing he does when he recovers his senses is dissolve into helpless giggles. He actually won - he loves Maitimo so much, he loves them both so much - and he has independently figured out that he needs to make sure he doesn't let his soul get carried away on that, and it's kind of difficult because getting carried away is so tempting, but he's managing it.

"So obviously you'd rather stay here and be happy than go be tortured by a desperately unhappy and lonely version of me," he says.

Still giggling too hard to speak, but luckily Maitimo can read his mind!

If only I were that sensible.

I love you just the way you are.

I know you do.

"Were we always this adorable?" wonders Taliar. "I think we might always be this adorable, but wow, it's much more visible from the outside. My love, what if I'm tempted to keep him?"

He is totally tempted to keep him. The three of them, forever - it would be amazing. But his alt is going to go try his luck with the other Maitimo, that's pretty clear by now.

"Well, if you're tempted to keep him, clearly I should pick up his soul at once and hold him until he forgets my alt exists, I doubt there's any other way to do it."

He is getting such a clear picture of what they're like together and he has no idea how they got there - well, he knows one of the prerequisites, but how the hell they managed it is a total mystery.

"I need a soul necklace," he says. "Sun-bright, use your godlike power and get me a soul necklace."

"No," he says, pointing at him, "I'm not changing my soulname, you are changing your soulname."

"Fine," he says. "I'll be Sun-dark. Dawn-shining, use your godlike power and get me a soul necklace."