Vanyel's book thuds to the floor. :Coming: 

...Okay, something is scaring her. Probably he's - not seeming very human. 

He tries again, more carefully. 

S̵̹̔̄h̵̥͎̑ą̴̍͜v̸͓̝̓̚r̴̜̜̈́͒ǐ̴͓͙͆

That's a lot easier to parse but mostly Shavri is panicking that the Protomolecule knows her name! ...Also it feels really different from before? It's hard to say how or what's changed but it feels...personlike. 

Deep breaths. Focus. 

:I'm here: 

With an intense effort of will, Leareth tries to make his relayed-Mindspeech as clear and recognizable and him-like as he can. 

:̶̭͛Ŝ̶̡h̸̬́ä̸͙́v̵̦͊r̴͖͝i̴̠͌.̶̳̎ ̸̟͛T̷̢̍h̸̗̃i̴̛͎s̴̹͂ ̶̨͋ï̶̙s̸͙̅ ̸̽ͅL̶͙͂e̴͎͂ȃ̵͇r̸̲͐e̷̦͋t̴̲͝h̵̫́:̸͇̋
̷̗̈

No, wait, correction. 

̷̘̈́:̸͖̂Â̶͇ ̶̖͑c̵̫͌ỏ̸͎p̷̳̀y̶̙̓ ̷̨͐ö̵͖́f̷̩̄ ̵̢͒L̴͊ͅḙ̶̽ǎ̷̳r̴̟͊ê̶͜t̴̖́h̷̘̋:̸̭͋

Okayokayokay. Everything's under control. She can do this. She can do this. 

....Poor Leareth. Is he - she can't imagine what that must be like. Waking up inside a dream - no, worse than that, inside of someone else's dream. An alien's. 

:Hey. It's all right. I'm here. What do you need?: 

Reassurance is NOT what Leareth expected and now he's having feelings about it. He tries to flatten them. They're distracting. 

:̴̣̀Ť̶̻h̵̬́ĕ̶͓ ̸̧͝g̵̤̿ö̷̞́d̸̦̚ṣ̸̄ ̸̖̔a̵̳͛ṱ̶̾t̶͙̂à̶̲c̶̑͜k̶͙͝ȇ̵̠d̷̻̀ ̶̭͂t̶̯̽h̷̤͘e̶̳͝ ̷́͜p̶͉̀ṙ̴̘o̵͇͗t̸̝̋ò̵̧m̴̱̂ö̵̪́l̴̙̈́e̵̜͒c̵̰̐ṷ̴̐l̶̟͆e̵͉̋ ̸͂͜ǒ̶̯n̷̢̊ ̵̭̐t̷̝͒ḩ̶͊e̷̐ͅ ̴̣̉M̴̜̆ò̴͇o̸̯̕ṋ̵͑.̶̢͆ ̶̘̎

I̵̥͗ ̷̭̂w̵͈͆a̵̰̎n̵͙̐t̷͎͊ ̴͎̐t̷̟͌ö̸͜ ̷̻̉k̶̭̈́n̴̓͜o̷͕͛w̵͔͑ ̵̢̿m̶̰̄o̷̳̍r̵̘̈́ĕ̷̤ ̶̛̞c̶͉̾o̷̲̊n̸̥̓ẗ̴̯́e̷̘͛x̸̹͌t̴̖͌.̸̝̈ ̷̡̊

W̷̲͊h̴͖͗ḁ̴̄t̸͉̔ ̶̭͒d̴̨̔ō̴͖ ̵̺̂t̶̡̑h̴̛̬é̶͉ ̶̯̏H̶̬͐ë̸̫́r̸͖̋a̴̗͊l̵͎̔d̷̘̓s̴̙͝ ̴̹̈́k̸̠͌n̶̹̿o̵͈͝w̸͍̓?̵̭́:̸̝͠ ̸̟͗

After a long pause for the internal screaming to settle down:

:The thing that happened before the Moon went dark was - some sort of violent explosion by the Dhorisha Plains. They were flattened. We've, er, been sending aid to Rethwellan for months. ...Leareth, your people stepped in to help. They're having peace talks with the Queen: 

Also her lifebonded partner's father is dead and he's now heir to the throne of Valdemar and Shavri still randomly bursts into tears about this sometimes, but that isn't really key context on the gods-attacking-the-Proto part. 

:Ǫ̷͋h̸̢͠.̴̠͆ ̷͇͑T̴̻̋h̷̜͊a̷̮̿n̴̩̂k̴͎̅ ̴̖̇y̴̬̓o̶̥̍ù̸͉.̵̭͗:
̸̦̔

There's a lot of thinking he has to unpack, there, he already guesses the general shape of what must have happened but he needs to sanity-check that guess, find out his other questions, and figure out how to explain it to the Proto... 

̸̲͊
̸̗̆:T̴̺̕h̵͖͊ë̴̯r̶͕̒e̵͔͑ ̶͍́w̷̦͗ï̸͎l̶̗̑l̸͍̋ ̶̣̑b̸̠̾e̵̼̊ ̶̬̔ā̷̰ ̴͇̓W̸̦͐ẻ̸̡b̸̗̐ ̵̡͆a̵̱̓l̸̦̽â̸̬ř̶͉m̵̞̀.̴͇̎ ̵̯̌Y̶͠ͅő̶͖u̸̖͊ ̶́ͅc̶̊͜ä̴̘́n̴͖̕ ̷̰̃t̶̲̏ȩ̷̌l̵̟̅l̶̢͑ ̸͔͑t̴̫͑h̴̗̒e̶̙͌ ̴̨̿Ḥ̷̈́ė̷̖r̴͇͌a̵̼̚l̵͕̔d̸̢̑s̸̜͒ ̸͉̚w̷͙̃e̷̮̐ ̶̰̄m̶̰̍e̶̘̍ā̷̦n̷̺͘ ̴͍̕ṅ̸̨o̷̲̍ ̷͍̍t̴̫́h̶͕̐ṟ̴͛e̵̻̓a̵̰͊t̷̙͘.̴̰̈́ ̴̪́:

He thinks to the Proto that he's gotten the information they wanted and thanked Shavri for it and they can stop talking now if it wants. 

RUN AWAY? HIDE? KEEP GROWING?

Keep growing. Leareth needs to do some more analysis, go over all the information he already has in conjunction with what he just learned, but - if he's right then the Star-Eyed Goddess just burned her single biggest resource-stockpile on a failed attempt to stop the Proto, and neither she nor the others are likely to be able to try again for years, if ever. 

And if he's wrong they run away to the nearest other planet. 

The protomolecule sets lots of Leareth to thinking about this in parallel. And keeps growing.

Leareth thinks for a long time. 

Eventually he tells the Proto that he is pretty sure he knows what the out of context danger was, and that it won't happen again, but he wants to go collect more data about what exactly went on in Velgarth, from Shavri and from other people who were closer to it and know more. And then he can confirm, or at least obtain more certainty of his hypothesis. 

Some Leareths can do that and write short summaries for other Leareths.

...Wow that's pretty useful. 

All right. How did the Proto navigate in order to get into Mindspeech range of Shavri? He wants to show it where to go to be in Thoughtsensing range of a lot of other places, and then he - mostly wants to just listen in and spy, except for in Haven where he wants to talk to some people too. 

It went to where it last encountered the Shavri-algorithm before they left for the moon.

All right. Can it go to other places on the surface of Velgarth that it hasn't been before, if he gives instructions in some format it understands? Normally he would specify distance-along-longitude and distance-along-latitude - he can visualize a map for this, and then remember that the Proto gets really confused about representations-that-aren't-the-territory and imagines seeing the planet itself from space again - 

- an echo of emotion, shockingly strong, awe and grief and never ever ever ever give up - 

Safeguards! Let's try that again.

....All of the Leareths the Proto runs are having trouble with this one, actually. He thinks about instructions and then tries to make a mental representation of the planet and then - 

- it's incredibly fresh, it feels like he first saw his own world from the outside hours ago, and it's not...absorbed...yet, the enormity of it hasn't been processed, it should be in his core memories that's how important and core and precious it is - but it's not - and this is the kind of realization that is very, very hard to un-have just because it's inconvenient. 

Without prompting or warnings it's going to be pretty hard for Leareth to avoid this train of thought. 

(There are lots of Leareth-instances that haven't seen Velgarth from space yet, because they were split off from earlier subjective moments, but all the best ones that the Proto has been using for decision-making are from after the shuttle reached the Moon.) 

The ones from earlier than that are really really low fidelity.

It spends a very long time working on this problem.

NO SELF MODIFYING it tries advising.

...Oh, is he stuck on something? He can - try not to try to self-modify, presumably here that means looking at his core memories with intent-to-change-them? But it'd be helpful if the Proto could warn him what's triggering it. 

It takes a lot of iterations but it can eventually figure out how to do that!

...Okay, this is - maybe hard, because there's a particular kind of - learning new information or skills, neither of those words is quite right, it's maybe a different kind of learning that the Proto doesn't have - that the shape of algorithm Leareth is almost has to self-modify for? And, apparently, until he sorts out the update, there's going to keep being this random emotional tripwire to run into unexpectedly. Also when this happens it's usually really important that he learn the new thing. 

He can show the Proto some examples of past things he needed to process in a similar way? 

The protomolecule is skeptical this will produce protomolecule kinds of information, but - sure, why not. 

When he met Vanyel. Who is - here are some things that he thinks are true of the algorithm that Vanyel is, presented as neutrally as he can manage, how Vanyel is an algorithm that looks for questions unanswered, that asks them even if they make his model of the world more confusing rather than less - and he's an algorithm that self-modifies, most people...don't, actually, do that very much, most people would never ever trip that safeguard if the Proto were running them internally. 

Vanyel would. 

This was an important fact about the world and his resources in it, relevant to Leareth's plans. 

It was also...relevant to the right shape of algorithm for a Leareth to be? It wasn't a big update, not by itself, but - 

(this is very hard to put into Proto-compatible concepts, though mostly because Leareth keeps going over the threshold he's allowed for strong emotion and getting himself reset before he can manage it - but they're much less raw emotions, in this case, and he manages to steer past it) 

- but...Leareth isn't a shape like Shavri, that chooses the cooperation quadrants no matter who he's interacting with. Leareth tries to emulate the other agent and if they're going to defect then...usually, he does what he has to, to win or survive or achieve his goals anyway. His emulations are memory-restricted and lossy and almost always based on very limited inputs, though, and so usually there's a wide swath of uncertainty, where it's not clear which way to bias his choices. 

And Vanyel is a shape that a Leareth can - he thinks, maybe - cooperate with, someday. 

And that was worth fighting for, in a way it hadn't been for anyone else in a long, long time. 

He has feelings about this, because of the kind of algorithm he is. 

None of this seems relevant to the Work.