"Thinking about what sounds nice? Praise kink isn't that rare. But having any kind of sex with people without their permission is bad for them, Lastai's clerics are very serious about that. Everyone who's there is there because they want to be."

If this were an anime, you'd hear the sound of breaking glass and see the life drain out of Scyelen's eyes.

Because of course. Of course. All the perversions are allowed. Except hers.

He notices, and gives her a little squeeze. "Some people kink on it. It's usually still very bad for them if it actually happens. There are ways of playing with it that are safe, though - you talk about it ahead of time, and -"

Scyelen doesn't respond to him at all. She is unable to process his words beyond the snippets of phrasing that, out of context, confirm her despair. The immense tower of hope Raafi had been building under her has shattered beneath her feet, and all she can hear is a rushing in her ears as she falls.

"Sweetheart. It's okay, there's nothing wrong with you. Not even that."

This sure is an unresponsive Scyelen on his lap.

Calm Emotions, how about.

Emotions? What emotions. His spell has no noticeable effect at all.

Well. Sending takes ten minutes to cast, he gets on that.

"Miss Vaux, I need you urgently in Scyelen's room. You can reply to this message, twenty-five word limit."

He doesn't get a reply.

Fifteen seconds after he sends the message, the door opens and Miss Vaux calmly steps inside.

She peers at them sitting on the bed, and at Scyelen in particular for several long moments, then she shuts the door behind her.

"You broke her," she says flatly.

"Mentioned consent, wasn't expecting the rape kink."

"I warned you these people don't-!" She stops herself. "That by itself shouldn't send the poor girl catatonic. What, exactly, happened?"

"We were talking about - how things work, in a community where kink is acceptable. She didn't think it could happen without people being coerced into being in the community in the first place. Suggested we might be doing that, magically - proposed a scene, really. I said our magic doesn't work that way - we have truth magic, but it doesn't make anyone talk - and that even if it did that'd be bad because of the consent issue, and that that's taken seriously. And then this."

"I suspect you're eliding over relevant details out of ignorance of which details are relevant. Tell me exactly what you said to her."

"-uh- 'Having sex with people without their permission is bad for them, Lastai's clerics take that seriously. Everyone is there because they want to be.' Lastai is our goddess of pleasure, her clerics host the community I'm familiar with."

"You'd mentioned this 'Lastai' previously?" she guesses. "She was part of the conversation about how It Is Okay To Be Kinky?"

"Not in detail. Which - is the problem, isn't it, she's filling that gap in with the local god's attitudes. Scyelen, sweetheart."

(Scyelen still isn't responding.)

"So, in summary," Miss Vaux says, her voice achieving new levels of flatness. "You told a girl with a rape kink and acceptance issues who has no concept of what a scene is that her need to be taken without permission will never be acceptable outside of a scene. Do you see the problem here."

Sigh. "And that's why I leave this to the experts. What do we do."

She smirks at him, and winks.

"Simple. We rape her."

Scyelen suddenly inhales sharply, her dull eyes twitching upwards. There's nothing like hope on her face, but those three words simply could not pass through her brain without catching on something.

Now it's Raafi's turn to need some time to process.

Scyelen starts slipping back down into the emptiness.

Raafi is completely failing to say anything while he has the chance. They're going to lose her again.

Nope.

She kneels beside them and takes Scyelen's face in her hands.

"There is nothing wrong with fantasizing about getting raped. Lastai doesn't reject it. Raafi doesn't reject it. I don't reject it. Alright? Raafi just, apparently, was bad at explaining that safely experiencing such a fantasy necessarily involves arranging for your partners to pretend to rape you. You are a lovely girl, and I'm sure that in a community like the one Raafi told you about you'd meet lots of other nice people who'll love that you're excited by thoughts of having sex forced on you, because they are too."

"Wh-What..?"