"Who is 'someone' and why do they want to provide me with anything? - I don't think I could possibly. Get married. To some man."

"In this case the someone is my grandfather, and he won't stop doing so without finding a replacement, and even then, I'm sure he can be persuaded to put you with my parents."

"Um. Is that because of the being in love with me downside?"

"- that's very kind of your grandfather I guess but I'm still really confused why he would be motivated to provide for me if this can never pay off as an investment and he doesn't know me socially at all.

"- and yes, it seems like that would be a really unfair situation to put the would-be groom in among other things."

"My grandfather is very wealthy, and someone needs to provide for you so I don't think it is a huge cost for him to be the one, though he might want you to get married or go to a nunnery eventually, in which case I can convince him to let you live with my parents instead."

"...so, where I'm from, if a random person you don't know appears at your residence, it is very, very strange to decide to thereafter provide for them and to consider it your responsibility to re-home them with someone else who will do that if you decide to stop. It would not be weird to me if you personally as an individual wanted to do this, it's not your fault that I had a traffic accident with improperly stored artifacts but I could easily imagine the thing where I'm in love with you engendering a sense of responsibility. But that has nothing to do with your grandfather at all, or your parents."

"I could have introduced the situation to my grandfather in a way that would not have resulted in you staying with us, but I do not want to give up on my chance to be around a person from a new civilization with entirely distinct powers and technologies - partially because it is my best chance to have any sort of impact on the world and partially because I am very bored and you seem very interesting. And it isn't that weird for my grandfather to take responsibility for an unmarried noble woman who landed on him. The part with you being in love with me isn't actually relevant because I... don't really have any conception of what you mean by it."

Annie lights up a little bit at being called interesting. "...I'm not sure what about that would be confusing. I'm new to the polyglot thing but the language... has the words for being in love and they aren't long and obscure-sounding."

"The specific thing that's confusing is that both of us are women."

"I get the picture that you are not attracted to women in general or me in specific. I already was, so that's at least not part of the mind control."

"I mean the part I don't understand is what it means for any woman to be in love with another woman, and what to expect of you as an example of this category."

"...well, what would you be expecting if I said all the same things about it but I were a boy?"

"That you'd want to marry me and that you would have positive opinions about how I looked and acted?"

"...well, I don't know how you look. Because I can't see. I assume I would like it given the givens if I could. But - yeah, that."

"I'm confused about why you assume you would like how I look and also what wanting to marry me even means."

"I am managing to have positive aesthetic opinions about the behavior of your internal organs that I don't about mine or your grandfather's. In addition to having less weird but still definitely mind control opinions about how nice your voice is. If I," she pauses to swallow some misery but then goes on, "were to marry you we'd probably - sleep in the same bed and kiss and if we ever wanted kids we'd adopt them and -" She needs another break now actually and to rub her eye a bit.

"...possibly this is an unwelcome offer, but would you like a hug?"

"Yes please."

Hug.

A Lucette hug!!!!!!!!

Lucette can see Annie's face reflected in a polished metal shield hung on the wall as decoration.

"...oh."

"Oh?"

"You look really happy and that is nice."

Huuuuug.

"I...am confused about how to responsibly interact with you being like this about me as a result of mind control."

"Non-mind-controlled Annie is gone and she isn't coming back. I don't think there's much point in trying to represent her interests where they're not mine. If there's something - complicated, that you have in mind - then I can try thinking about what I'd recommend for somebody else who'd gotten fallen in love with by somebody who touched the same artifact? As a way to think around the exceptionality that I have for you."