"...Yeah, that's definitely the more dramatic outcome.

"I think I overcorrected.  Or maybe the numbers assigning machine just didn't work in the first place; I'm really not a good Bayesian-probability calculator.  I sure felt like it was a thin veneer of optimism over a sinking rock of doom in my gut.  It was a bossfight, what was I expecting?

"...that sounds like it really sucked to have to do, and - it's honestly absurd of me to think that it'd help any, but.  If you'd like a hug, or something, I would like to offer you a hug."

She seems kind of like she could use one, after hearing all that.

Griffie motions Jane over to eir barstool for a hug, given the logistical issues. “It’s … mostly nice that you’re not avoiding me about it. She was trying to kill us, it was self-defense, she couldn’t safely be kept down … still kind of feels like I broke some kind of principle there that I hadn’t articulated to begin with. The Geased party member was the one who’s the most merciful generally, it felt wrong deciding without her.”

There's a moment, as she moves to take Griffie up on the implicit offer in the beckoning, but must first round the table, where she simply stands there, struck still by shock, even her ever-present fidgeting coming to a halt.

Then, she starts pacing, punctuating her expression of frustration with sharp, choppy gestures of emphasis.

"Why would I hold acting in your party's best interests against a hostile mind controller(!), against you?  I'm just - amazed you're holding up alright!  However long it's been, that's...

"It's the sort of thing that wouldn't leave me alone, and for all that my experiences aren't universal, I'm guessing it hasn't left you, either.

She blinks away a tear she's trying to not shed.

"And your biggest concern was that I'd shy away because you didn't succeed in the impossible?  Gods, given the way your world's been treating you on that whole adventure path, I find that both reasonable and an unspeakable suppurating wound marring the quality of good sense exhibited by the average inhabitant of that whole damn village, if not the whole damn world."

Her voice softens from its prior fervent exasperation with everything, down to a soft, calm tone that's level, but nonetheless a front over her sympathetic grief.

"If you managed to not successfully talk her into doing something prosocial, my guess is that it literally couldn't be done.  That the rules of the world were constructed such that no argument would sway her, and whatever adventurers found themselves tied up in her plot would face that fight.

"That you feel you lost something to it only makes sense.

"I almost want to guess it's innocence.  The hope for a true golden ending, the belief that there's a happily ever after in every story.

"But I'm just an armchair...everything, really.  So...think about it, see if the shoe fits, but don't take my words to be some deep profundity.  I'm just muddling through, as much as you are, and just...hoping I can help a little bit more."

And now, speech delivered, she hugs Griffie, if that's not presently contraindicated.

"The townsfolk and the local fae didn't care, they wouldn't have minded if we'd just gone in there with killing intent. Wizard understood, oracle … understood we couldn't do better. My family isn't upset with me, they're impressed I could handle the situation at all, but … it still feels like you should be disappointed. And I agree, if Rhoswen won't listen to someone incredibly diplomatic whom she Geased into protecting her telling her to back down, she won't listen to anyone, but… It's not that I think we should have convinced her, I agree that was clearly doomed, it's that I hate taking potentially-irreversible violent action without consulting the people who ought to be consulted. Which is the story of my life, at this point" Griffie gestures expansively around Milliways "but it turns out I care less about that than I care about winning."

Griffie is definitely getting another hug.

"Griffie, it's - no.  No, there's -

"You believe your ideals are compromised because you can't carry your friends around in your pocket?  You're better than that.  You surround yourself with the sort of people who care.

"And it's not that I think the village was judging you for pacifism - it's that they dared try and brush off your experience to the point of - well, considering - trying to tell you how you were supposed to adventure.

"And - that's too much judgement!  You should not hold yourself to that unreachable standard!

"Gods know I've enough scars - thankfully, only mental ones - from trying and failing to live up to the image of social opprobrium in my brain; this subject I know quite well.

"You can't and shouldn't try to be perfect, especially when it comes to being perfectly giving.  That breaks people.

"You need to care about yourself, because so many others won't."

"The village was overwhelmed and in a bad situation and flailing for some control of it, of course they'd consider things like that. And … it doesn't take perfection to make a plan that amounts to 'learn how to design superweapons to compete with and hopefully beat the ones used in the last world war, then build them, then as soon as time restarts commit a first strike'. Most people never do that. You could argue that it's associated with false beliefs of current perfection, really."

She snorts.  "You definitely ought to talk to the AI alignment folks.  They'll be helpful."

"You're free to recommend me essays, if they publish?"

"Bar, please point Griffie in the general direction of Yudkowsky et al.?  I don't really know the field, I just know some of the people."

Griffie's tablet doesn't noticeably do anything from Jane's standpoint, but ey still takes a look at it a few seconds after Jane asks that question. "Bar sent me some files, I'll have a look later."

"That's good.  I'll be around if you want some help with the jargon.  It's very jargon."

"…do keep in mind that I don't have an intelligence headband, don't have magic intelligence augmentation, and am not at least in the near term working towards either. There are unaugmented humans who are smarter than I am, and they aren't incredibly rare. Even less so in worlds with good nutrition and prenatal care."

"Yeah, but it's not like there's a convenient Leareth around to do the god alignment project for you, so if you're going to be building superweapons...You should understand how you don't understand what you're doing, even if you don't understand what you're doing.  Which plausibly means 'being able to follow AI-alignment discussions'.

"Or other superweapon mechanism of action discussions.

"I have to imagine nuking Charon to death might be a little satisfying if you can be sure it'd work."

...

"That was mostly a joke.  Don't actually nuke a god.  It probably won't do enough.  ...Well unless you enchant it..."

"'Really large explosion' is not going to be adequate, and also we don't have a straightforward equivalent to 'radioactive decay' at least that anyone's published papers on. And yes, I need to know what I'm doing, I agree. But I just spent a lot of time on mathematical groundwork. I'll get there eventually."

"Honestly, the biggest problem they have is a fundamental lack of quintessence to measure values with.  From there's it's just...building something that's good at satisficing amongst identified constraints.  And uh.  Determining the right constraints, first."

"…part of what 'good' being a political definition means is that we don't actually have a definition we could fully trust the way you seem to be thinking."

"You can measure doing-actionness, though."

"Well, I can once I, y'know, save up enough to buy the raw materials for doing enough experimentation to build this stuff from scratch without a good teacher around."

"...Yeah.  Who even has that kind of money?"

"Well, working here isn't as profitable as my past work, but it's safe and steady and I got my soul fixed up, so … me, eventually. I'm not in a rush. And probably it'll be cheaper than stuff like my headband. Which I bought with loans from my party members, but still."

"The canonical Pathfinder economy is a picture of an economy thrown over magic item prices like the metaphorical rug you ineffectually try hiding things under."

"Magic item prices are a function of material and labor cost, plus, well, transaction costs, they're a pain to find on the market and to find buyers for. But economics has never really been my area of expertise, I always deferred to a party member and our wizard generally crafted our items unless there was some loot we wanted to keep. I can tell you about some things we've made money from or some non-magic-item purchases if you're interested?"

"Not that I'm not curious about Suaal's economy, but I think I've run out of complex-systems-understanding brain for the moment."

"Does that mean that I should let you sleep or otherwise rest and not ask you for more predictions?"

"I'm leaning towards either 'do that' or 'give me a minute and see if my ability to think properly has a sudden and inexplocable recovery'."