" - do exactly what they do? Not really super eager to make my children having a father depend on me promising to obey someone else in full generality, no."

"That's not exactly what I meant? I meant - hmm, I imagined you'd take it as 'huh, that's how these people do things' and then go ask more people and not take any one of them too seriously. But it seemed like maybe you wanted to take it more seriously than that? Maybe not though, I don't know."

"Oh. I guess it's just kind of depressing that what they do sounds so much worse than what we do. But I'm sure they're trying their best. And I guess I might assume that unfamiliar things are worse than they really are."

"They don't seem as unhappy as you did when you met us."

"Well, yeah, I'm not at all claiming everything about their lives is worse. Just think their model of marriage is - questionable."

"It definitely sounds that way."

"I should probably talk to the others. Just feel - less nervous, checking in every now and then, I guess."

"I'm glad you're checking. I hope you find something that sounds right."

Nodnod.

She heads over to talk to Valentine.

" - hi! Doing okay?"

"No worse than before? Apparently my conceptions of marriage are very influenced by slavery, and I was thinking maybe I should ask the free Liars how their people do things, so I have a better idea of how we might do things when we're free, too."

" - oh, huh. Do you want, like, my society's general view of marriage, or my view of marriage in particular?"

" - both, I guess?"

Sigh. "My society mostly thinks that marriage is something that you enter into when you really love someone and want to spend the rest of your life with them, or probably don't want that but want the world to consider your love very important. I think that marriage is something you enter into when you think that God is calling you to build a life with someone, and have kids and a family with them. Historically it was largely an economic relationship that allowed people to form stable households, but now everyone thinks a lot more about love and romance and choices and stuff. - uh, and it is at its most basic level a monogamous sexual union between a man and a woman, who live together and often but not always end up having children."

"Huh. Your society doesn't think it's about children at all?"

" - I might be exaggerating? People mostly do try to get married before they have children, although that's becoming less of a thing now, too. But lots of people also marry with no intention of ever having kids."

"Huh. So it's just - saying that you plan to live together?"

"And not sleep with other people. - to be clear I am being pretty cynical here and if you want to know what I think marriages should be you might have to ask different questions."

"What do you think marriages should be, then."

"I think you should marry someone if you love them - in the general and not specifically romantic sense of the word - and trust them, and would like to have and raise children with them, and wouldn't mind sleeping with them, and have compatible values and goals, and feel safe with them, and are happy about the prospect of spending the rest of your life with them. - and if you feel like you're being called to be with them and not do something else. And then I think that they should protect and provide for and support each other, and go to a lot of effort to be good parents, and not cheat on each other or hurt each other, and - be someone that the other can depend and rely on, I guess."

" - see, apart from the sounding very melancholy about sex, that all sounded pretty sane."

"Are you not very melancholy?"

" - well I think I'm a lot more melancholy about it than most people. But I guess if you were giving advice to me in particular then maybe that makes sense."

Shrug. "You thinking of getting married?"

" - well, it seems better for the baby to have a father. I'm going to try to find the biological father but I really don't expect him to be very interested in it. Apart from, uh, all of the phenomenal cosmic power around here."