It seems pretty possible that you didn't do anything that was stupid. We needed him at first, right, and he could read your mind, so it made sense to - 

Yeah. And - he's a good person - he'd disagree but you know what I mean -

He's a person who wants things to be good. 

And I don't know what else a good person is, except - except I guess I have a better idea of the distinction he is drawing. 

Yeah. 

I think probably one ought to draw some lines somewhere. - I don't particularly think the limits of our imagination are the place to draw them. 

I don't either. I guess I will have to figure that out. 

I don't want to not talk to him until I have figured that out. 

Yeah.

I also don't want to do this to him repeatedly whenever something new comes up.

We could try to think of lots of very bad things people can do? So you feel less like it's a domain you can't reason about?

We should probably do that. 

Patpatpat. 

Stuff Melkor does...you can torture people, you can kidnap them, you can kill them, you can prevent them from killing themselves - 

Melkor has also presumably forced people to bear children! I just failed to think about it!

Forcing people to swear oaths -

I did think about that one. I tried not to while he was awake but that's how you'd seize control of the Noldor if you wanted to, you'd use a compulsion to get the right ten people to swear - I don't know if he thought of it or not, I didn't go into much detail about how oaths work. 

I would find it hard to work with someone while in a state of meaningful uncertainty about whether they might do that. 

I mean, I was sure of him. I had a read on him and it held together, it didn't feel like it was failing to explain anything, and it included that he'd done a lot of awful stuff but also that - he wanted to have reasons to cooperate, instead. And that I could give him those. 

It feels like - a natural consequence of that, that he will hurt people who don't have anything else to offer him.

Yeah. Not for fun. But  - but his friends are me and Vanyel and maybe he can only be friends with people who it's straightforwardly in his strategic interests to be friends with?

We got off topic from evil things people can do.

You can...disfigure people? You can marry them against their will, you can, I don't know, make them pick which of their children to murder, you can make them forget their lives, you can steal their kids, you can ...eat people? 

Snuggle. 

You can trick people into thinking you're their husband, apparently.

It's interesting that Vanyel thought of that as - the kindest way to do what Leareth was doing, there -

- I mean, it probably beats using a compulsion to prevent them from committing suicide and then, like, tackling them? 

...would that work?

I'm not sure and I cannot think of any women I would want to ask!

Is this doing the thing you were hoping for -