" - should we go - inside, or something - or do you want space, I could go get lunch -"

Why is she so bad at having conversations.

"Sorry."

" - why -"

"For - snapping, or whatever. I'm trying to do less of it but I'm really bad at it."

"I didn't think you were - snapping, I just thought it sounded like you were stressed and maybe we should talk about it more somewhere else, or alternately maybe talk about it later."

"I guess we could possibly go inside."

"Okay." Then they can go inside.

Yeah, they can. The house is empty.

"Do we - actually think that it's a good idea to talk about my misgivings about the Osirian institution of marriage right now, because - I don't really want to just be, like, upsetting - "

" - I mean, we should talk about it at some point? It doesn't have to be now especially. I - agree with you that Osirian marriage doesn't give women many rights, and Osirian marriage to royalty's worse, and we shouldn't live in Osirion."

Nod.

"It's just really - not even actually relevant to this situation, really, it's just - imagining having been born in Osirion and having nothing but the law and the impressions from a handful of dates to protect you from failing to accomplish any of your goals and being miserable for your whole life is - really upsetting to think about? And - I'm aware that that is not actually what we're doing, at all, it's just - I dunno."

"I - think most people are okay. I guess I don't really know. Mahdi's parents are happy."

"Maybe so? But - it doesn't seem obvious that most people would be in a position to know about that. Especially if they don't have a lot of married friends. And - maybe you have safeguards other than the abandonment laws? But I don't know what they are."

"To the extent they are cultural things I'm not sure I'd know them either since I didn't - have the culture."

"That makes sense."

"I really think there are? I think a lot of the stuff I picked up about how to be a husband is - that. But probably some people have shitty husbands and are unhappy and it's not any better than Cheliax except that they don't go to Hell."

" - I mean, going to Hell is obviously a lot worse than going to Axis, unless I am pretty mistaken about how Axis is, but - I don't think Cheliax has this problem."

"People don't get stuck in abusive relationships?"

"Obviously people are abusive everywhere and there are lots of ways you can get stuck? But - I think marriage doesn't particularly contribute to the problem unless you take it more seriously than people think you're supposed to. Common wisdom is kind of that the best marriages are sort of epiphenomenal. Or - that's not it. That the best marriages are mostly social and legal recognitions of how things were already going to be anyway. And if you're less responsible than that and you get stuck to someone who's horrible, like - obviously there's no recovering the time and resources and feelings you invested, but you're allowed to leave."

"I think - obviously you shouldn't marry someone if you think the law is going to be the only thing holding you to them, but there are things you can build when they've promised to stay that are different than the things you can build without that."

"I don't disagree with that."

"Are you worried I'll be horrible actually?"

"No?

" - maybe? But not in the sense of actually worrying about you in specific and more in the sense of - worrying that, because everything we're doing is different than the things I figure you're supposed to do, that it's possible that I won't, actually, end up getting to know you properly, and I'll end up leaning on the concept of marriage itself for stability, which you are not supposed to do, and it'll turn out that there's some cosmic law of the universe that people who irresponsibly marry foreign princes who have different cultural understandings of marriage are doomed to find that they have married someone quite unlike the person they thought they were marrying, and maybe the actual person will be one of those people you hear about who stops being kind and thoughtful and safe once he figures you've invested enough in him that you're not going to leave, and - I realize this sounds like I think very little of you but I don't, in my head it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with me being an idiot."

She's crossing her arms and looking at the floor.

- hug?

Yes please that sounds good. Hug.

"I don't - wanna chain you to me."