"That makes sense. I'll - think about it. And maybe try the stick."

Nod. Snuggle.

Snuggle.

She tries the stick several times. It doesn't seem to do anything. She reports this.

"I don't think we can actually contact the humans any time soon."

"Guess I should be sad about that."

"Can't very well blame you for not."

"Want you all to myself."

Snuggle.

"If we don't want to wait until they send someone, then - I guess we'll have to figure out what we're going to promise by ourselves."

"Uh huh."

"Well.

"Traditionally the husband is supposed to promise to love, to honor, to keep, and to comfort his wife, and to remain faithful to her until one of them dies. And the wife is supposed to promise to love, to honor, to keep, to serve, and to obey her husband, and to remain faithful to him until one of them dies. I haven't been to a proper one since I was a girl, I think there are blessings and other things, but - the promises are the important part. And - traditionally one is married by a priest, but I should think that if there weren't any priests available it would still be possible for people to be married."

"That makes sense. Uh, what's 'to keep'."

"...I'm not completely sure, I didn't think to ask. I guess I'd expect it to mean that you'll try to provide for your spouse's material needs, insofar as you can."

"I am not sure it makes sense for you to promise that?"

"Material needs broadly defined? It seems - good to say that I'm going to try to take care of you. But - maybe we can change the wording to something that more obviously makes sense."

"I just - what are you thinking of when you say you'd take care of me?"

"Well... you don't have to eat, so I suppose that's not worth much. And you're able to build your own houses perfectly well. But - I think it wasn't good for you to be alone for so long. And I might not know exactly what you need from people, yet, but - I want to find out what it is and make sure you have it."

"Huh. Okay. I guess that's a reasonable thing to say you're gonna do."

Snuggle.

"I don't know how long we should - intend to do the different things for."

"I thought you needed it to be forever?"

" - it's supposed to be until death, yeah. But - you didn't want to say that you meant to be faithful until death, so - "

"I didn't want to say that we won't have sex with any other people until we die. What's being faithful have to do with it?"

"If a human gets married and then has sex with someone else while his spouse still lives, we call it being unfaithful. - possibly we should expand on all of the things we might be promising and make sure we understand them to mean the same things."

"Yes, that seems like a good idea."

Snuggle.

"Well. First thing on the list is love."

"I want you to be happy and I want you to feel like it's important if you're okay and I want to show you nice things and I want you to feel safe with me."

Eee.

"I want you to be happy. And - I don't want you to have to wonder whether I'm with you because I wanted to be or because I had to be. And I want you to feel - valued and precious and important to me."