"Wanting to keep me is fine, it's like... if in the moment you find yourself really viscerally reluctant to give me up even for an hour, it might not go through. But if what you're thinking is more like 'wow, having my very own Rosy is really great, but I'm going to release her just for a little while to check in and that's okay,' then it should work fine. Does that make sense?"

Phew. "Yeah, that does make sense. Okay. That shouldn't be a problem." Phew. 

He continues reading over the list of things that this will do to her (and him), backwards and forwards to make sure he understands it all. It's very hot. Also scary, but hot. "How does command ordering work," he asks. "Like, if I order you too not obey certain types of commands, and then later order you to do something that would violate that... what happens then?"

"Oh boy. One of my ancestors wrote a whole treatise on that! Um, for most purposes you can assume recency trumps, but if you dig into the technical details there are ways to enforce long-term commands that can't be casually overridden, and ways to revoke or alter those if you need to."

"Oh," John says, face falling. There goes his ideas on making sure she would stay safe if he ever fucked up. Well, mostly. "Can I see the details on that, later?" he asks. "For now... I assume the lines and things are on the other side? Is there anything else I missed asking about before I flip this over?"

"Here," she says, handing him the book and the pen. "Read over all the points and check them off when you've read them and asked any questions you can think of."

"Oh! That's a clever idea!" he says. He hadn't thought of that. Rosy is very clever. 

Okay, so, starting from the top, he's learned (and asked about) all of the release conditions. The basic ritual safety checklist makes a lot of sense. Don't do anything. He can not do anything. "Fidgeting is okay, right?" he asks. "Also how big is the spot, actually? And are the lines on the other side?" Okay apparently he has more questions than he thought. 

"Fidgeting is okay and we have fidget toys on little wristbands to make sure you don't drop them. Your spot is, like, a few feet square? You don't have to stay glued to two footprints the whole time, you just have to stay in your little circle. I can adjust for a chair if you want to sit in a chair for most of it instead of standing. And yes, the lines are on the other side."

"Oh, that's probably big enough," he says. "And will it be visible? Visible would be good." Also the fidget toys (on wristbands!!) will help. (Clearly they have dealt with such problems before. He's impressed.) Also, if she said something wanting to sit for most of it... "about how long will it take, actually? Or is that also on the other side. Should I just flip this over and read over everything and then go back and check everything off? Maybe I will do that." He flips the paper over. 

Structure of ritual

0. Setup
   1. We rehearse places and cues, but NOT lines, in what will soon be the ritual space
   2. I spend a couple of hours making sure everything is ready
   3. (You can sit outside the ritual area and read a book while I do that)
1. Lighting the Way
   1. I do my nifty light trick! ♡
2. Embarking
   1. I take my place
   2. You take your place
3. Calling Forth
   1. I do important ritual tasks
   2. You are bored
4. Gathering
   1. I do important ritual tasks
   2. You are bored
5. Weaving
   1. I do important ritual tasks
   2. You are bored
6. The Precipice
   1. I do important ritual tasks
   2. You are bored
7. The Gift
   1. I cross the ritual space and stand before you
      • (if seated, you stand)
   2. I say a lot of things you will like hearing ♡
      • Me: "I come before you of my own will."
      • You: "I acknowledge your choice."
      • Me: "I ask nothing, and offer everything."
      • You: "I understand your offer."
      • Me: "I give you myself, Euphrosyne Angharad Blake, to be bound to your will, your unwavering servant, fully and without reservation."
      • You: "I accept your gift."
   3. With your final line, the ritual concludes and it's safe to act and speak normally.

Total time: ballpark 2h immediate setup (40min if ritual is already set up from last time), 20min ritual, 10min teardown after last ritual of the night.

That is a number of "you are bored"s in there. Valid though. He grins and giggles. And 20 minutes... that's not the smallest amount of time but it's not the most at least. He might want a chair. "I assume I can't hold a page with these lines in front of me just in case?" he asks. "You said memorize, but just making sure. Also how... interesting are the important ritual tasks you will be doing from the outside? Like, from me watching -- I know it says 'you are bored' -- several times by the way" he's grinning "but like, will it be interesting for me to watch what you're doing? Because if not a chair miiiight be a good idea, if that doesn't cause any problems." 

"The ritual adapts just fine to chairs! It's not like one of the really gnarly ones that need the whole family to show up and walk around naked for three hours. I have no idea how to evaluate how interesting my important ritual tasks are if you aren't a huge nerd about ritual magic like me. Um, you could have cue cards on a wristband like the fidget toy if you really need them? But it'll make the ritual... worse... if you have to actually consult them when the time comes. Not worse like it outright won't work, just, if you did a hundred things that made it worse by that much, then it might not work. And I do have to adjust a bit to account for accessories, though not as much as I do for clothes—what are your thoughts on clothes? Valid to want to wear clothes! I can make it work! If it's all the same to you, though, I'd rather be naked. It feels thematically appropriate."

"You not having clothes does seem thematically appropriate," he says, blushing. "Me having clothes could thematically go either way? It would certainly make it easier for you to kneel and um," he blushes and doesn't finish the sentence (and starts to get turned on). "No clothes for me is fine. Anyways. I will try very hard to memorize my lines -- they do not seem very complicated, yours seem more involved -- but also would like to have a cue card if possible just in case. Um. Are there things I could do that would make the ritual worse? I guess you've mentioned a number of them already." Be vewy vewy quiet. Got it. 

"The basic ritual safety for non-casting participants rules are pretty comprehensive! I guess, like, don't... literally murder me in the middle of casting? If you literally murder me in the middle of casting you might be in actual danger besides the thing where you'll be down a Rosy. But somehow I don't expect that to happen." She considers. "I guess if you have any bizarre hypotheticals you'd like to ask about, one or more of which may be secretly covering for you being three aliens in a trenchcoat or something, you could do that."

"I don't want to murder you in the middle of casting! I don't want to murder you at all!! I am also not secretly three aliens in a trenchcoat. Basically from what you're saying, don't say anything, don't make any noise, don't leave the circle, play with my fidget toy and wait for... you to approach me? Is that the signal to stand? And then say exactly my lines, wait for you to say yours, and then... um. Then other things. Then we're done, basically. I don't know, I guess if I'm not wearing any clothes and everything is attached to my wrist this makes it less likely for anything to go wrong in that regard... hm. I guess, what happens if, I don't know, I lose a hair and it crosses the circle boundary? Is that something we need to worry about? I'm guessing that's not something we need to worry about. I don't know that I have any weird hypotheticals for you." 

(She nods at 'is that the signal to stand'.)

"That's not something we need to worry about, little things like that or like a leaf blowing in from outside are within tolerances," she assures him. "If you, like, took off your fidget wristband and threw it at me, that might void the ritual. If you dropped it and it rolled a little ways out of the circle that probably wouldn't void the ritual by itself but it'd use up a lot of tolerance."

"I will not take off my fidget wristband and throw it at you," he says. "I will hopefully not take it off at all. I mean. I will try very hard not to and probably succeed. There will be other things to fidget with on the wristband besides the actual catch of the wristband itself, yes?" 

"Yes. There's an entire fidget toy on there. I can show you later."

"Works for me." He looks over the backside, to see if there's anything else obvious popping out at him that he should ask about before flipping back. There does not seem to be. He flips back. "I think that covers everything in the basic ritual safety category," he says, checking them off. As for ritual effects... not wanting to betray him (and so on) seems straightforward enough, desire to serve seems simple enough (and hot), him being highest priority (still hot)... hm. "How does the sense of 'knowing that you're mine' and vice versa work?" he asks. "Or will I need to wait to find out? And what does it mean to um, mean something as a command? Will I know what that feels like? Will I know if it took root or however it works?" 

"It's sort of hard to explain without just showing you, especially since I obviously have never felt it myself. Having an active vassalage link feels like something. You'll be able to pick me out of a crowd even if I'm in disguise, by looking for the person you feel like you own. And I did mean to say, though I guess I wasn't clear enough, that when you give me a properly enforced command you and I will both be able to tell the difference between that and you just saying some words that sound superficially like they might be orders. The notes say that some people have trouble at first with intentionally shifting their mindset to choose whether what they're saying should be a command or not, but the feedback helps enough that even the people having the most trouble almost all got themselves straightened out within a few weeks."

"A few weeks seems like a very long time to get used to it!" he says. "With that kind of power, that is. Hopefully I will do better? Probably I will do better. Possibly we can practice? We may have some um, practice upcoming directly after." He blushes a little. "Also I guess I can instantly revert anything I tell you to do by accident as long as it's not, like, jump out of the car or something. Please don't jump out of any cars. Though I guess it likely won't be that bad if people normally get sorted out pretty fast." 

"If you have a lot of trouble with it in the first few hours I can find you the notes on how to install long-term orders and you can long-term order me to prioritize my immediate physical safety over your commands? But, um, even if you did somehow accidentally order me to jump out of a car, unless you said 'now' I think I would be able to realize it was in your interest to delay until you could countermand."

"Oh. That works? Okay. That helps. I do want to look into the long term orders thing. And also there probably won't be a problem, right? I can... probably do the right mindset, I bet." He's been doing it before. Kindof. Mostly. 

He starts perusing the list again, checking off everything on the "magical knowledge front", and making his way through the rest... which mostly seem to be anti-evil-genie type things. Which are useful! But also aren't that complicated or concerning or need any questions about. 

They've already talked about the clothing bit... "we should, um, remember the tea more often maybe?" he realizes. "Um. How's your throat so far tonight, after my, um, fingers were in there?" He blushes sheepishly. 

"My throat is doing pretty okay!" She kisses his cheek. "But yes, I foolishly put Contingency Tea on my ritual checklist but not my after-school date checklist, because I don't have an after-school date checklist yet. I should make one of those and put Contingency Tea on it. —I also didn't put 'I'll be bringing condoms to the ritual site' on the checklist of things to tell you, which was an oversight, for the record I'll be bringing condoms to the ritual site and leaving them with our clothes, please use one if appropriate." She blushes really hard. "I, um, can't stop you, obviously, if you decide not to, but—I'd really rather you did."

"That... makes sense," he says. He pauses. "Would you... are you on birth control?" he asks. "Could you be on birth control?" Technically he could order her to be on birth control, soon, but, better to ask, right? "If you were on birth control, would that help -- I've literally never been with anyone else and find it unlikely that I will, and if I do I can wear condoms thereafter -- but -- if you're on birth control and we've never had sex with anyone else, that should be ok, right?" 

"I'm already on birth control, slightly magically assisted birth control at that, but I really don't want to have a kid while I'm still in high school. And it's hard to know exactly how much more useful slightly magically assisted birth control is than the regular kind, because there's fewer people to do statistics on, so it might not be very much. So—condoms? Please? And I will be happy to reevaluate acceptable risk levels after I graduate?"