"If you'd like, ma'am."

"I'm really excited! If you're going to be here lots I can come find you again at some point?" 

"Yes ma'am."

Shavri runs off to her lesson. 

And DZ picks up where she left off in her history book.

The next day, about an hour before lunch, while DZ is at the library, Deskyl goes looking for Savil.

Savil is just getting back to her quarters with Sandra after their morning lesson. "Deskyl! Excellent to see you." 

:Good to see you, too. Is this a good time to talk?:

Savil glances over at Sandra, then reaches out with shielded Mindspeech. :Privately? Sandra lives here, just so you know: 

:She'll need to know about droids too, eventually, but I can talk to her separately if you'd rather. It is pretty unpleasant.:

:Hmm. I'm not too worried, then, Sandra isn't at all squeamish and she'll hate being the last person to find out if there wasn't a good reason for it: 

Deskyl nods and follows them in.

:So, I wanted to explain about that - awkwardness, in Lancir's office yesterday. I'm not quite sure where to start, though; there's a lot of background context and I'm not sure how it came across to you.:

:...What?: Savil includes Sandra as well this time. :Honestly I might've missed whatever it was, I was kind of preoccupied: 

:When my droid stopped him from clearing off the chair for her.:

:Ah. I must've noticed and not thought much of it - that she was more comfortable that way, or something: 

:She doesn't get tired or uncomfortable standing, yes. But there is more to it than that, and I don't want there to be any misunderstandings over how she acts and how I treat her. Droids are - made, in my world, designed, as you'd design any other tool, to be convenient for the people around them. They're people, but they're not meant to be, and the skills and instructions they start out with reflect that. I've been working with her on it, but I don't want her to just act like she wants the same things everyone else does because I've told her to, I want her to understand what she wants, and she still has trouble with that.:

:Oh. Hmm. I do see. That is a little disturbing: Savil frowns thoughtfully. :Anything in particular I can do with her to help?: 

:Asking her to think about her opinions seems to help, but getting real answers out of her can be tricky. Being here is helping, though, even without people doing that - when he asked her what she'd need to be comfortable here, and she said she'd think about it instead of just saying she'd be fine, that's a breakthrough I was expecting to take at least another year. She has trouble even hearing the question, a lot of the time.:

:Oh, that's wonderful to hear! What do you think helps about being here?: 

:Having more people than me around who think she's a person, and having them just casually assume she wants things, I think are the important parts. She's been confused about that, but in a good way.:

:Good. That's something: Savil nods briskly. :I'm glad to have that context - if I notice, er, awkwardness like that again, I'll know what you're aiming for at least. And I'll try to ask her opinions on things. What sorts of topics does she tend to have opinions on? I know she reads a lot...: 

:It's pretty easy to get her talking about poetry, we've read a lot of it and she's gotten the hang of it. Shouldn't be too hard to pivot from that to other art. Practical things are harder, she has to fight her programming more about them.:

:Huh! Does she have opinions about what side was in the right in a historical dispute, that kind of thing? I'd be curious how her programming interferes, if not, she certainly reads enough to have the context: 

:That'd be interesting to try, I hadn't thought to. The problem she usually has is that she knows the supposed right answer already and has trouble ignoring that to figure it out for herself; she might have some political principles written in that'd give her answers to that kind of question but I don't know that she does.:

:I'll try that, then. And I'd be curious to hear her thoughts on our current affairs, once she has more context. In general I'm curious whether she's able to have opinions on if other people's decisions were good ones, if they had nothing to do with her in any way. She's evidently very smart: Savil smiles. :And, speaking of that, would the two of you like to join us for supper again sometime?: