"What would have once been called eighty-six minutes* back when we were permitted any way of measuring time."

(*)  A round unit of time rather than a precise one, in the Capital dialect.

"And if you use a full token can you actually have multiple orgasms or was I right that it would shut off?"

"No, you get your time window until the end, except that around one time in six it just randomly shuts down in the middle.  For the drama."

"But..."

Opalyn wants to object but it's not like Iilasir made this design decision. She assumes.

"Hmph. Well, I guess they'll change the rules again next week, and I'll probably like those even less!"

"I think maybe you should ask me some questions about Earth now, so I don't end up too much in your debt."

He can do that, sure.  He'd rather have her in his debt but finds it quite sympathetic that she rather wouldn't be.

Iilasir mainly has questions about how a society organizes itself absent the foundational assumption that everyone in charge, on any level of management, can outfight everyone below them en masse.

Opalyn will explain, then, the various ways that humans on Earth have organized themselves, and by what means they hold power.

He asks a few questions but mostly listens.

As the most powerful person present--theoretically a "Duchess", ha ha--it is of course Opalyn's decision about where they go from here.

Okay, but, what is Iilasir's current working theory of Opalyn's actual rank and what happened at her lightline charging test?

She'll keep a poker face throughout whatever Iilasir says next. She's not going at lying or bluffing, but she's fairly good at staying composed while others speak.

He's got several theories and is keeping firm track of the 'none of the above' category, of course.

His top theory is that Opalyn was powerful enough to cut down a Prince despite being greatly unskilled in wizardry, meaning that she's more powerful than a Prince, meaning that the Dread Emperor was indeed from outside Eldrida or maybe prior to its existence and that Opalyn possesses power on the same level as he.  She went back to the Facility because she didn't have anywhere in particular else she knew to go, didn't know how to teleport, and wanted to try messing around in lewd dramatic prison after having led a much less exciting life back in her magicless home universe.

His second theory is that people from outside this universe are also cursed by very weird luck, such that Opalyn managed to wildly disrupt lightline charging despite not actually having any more power than a Duchess, causing the Dread Emperor to show up and kill a lot of people but not actually kill Opalyn and send her back to the Farm.

His third theory is that there is no Dread Emperor, never has been, and whoever really rules Eldrida was attracted by the presence of an Outsider and then events ensued which got the Farm Prince killed and Opalyn sent back to the Facility.

None of these theories except the first one super hold together.

That third theory triggers a strong desire to say:

'I am not the Dread Emperor ... The real Dread Emperor has been retired 15 years and living like a king in Patagonia.'

Opalyn does not actually say this, nor does she giggle. Maybe the corner of her mouth twists a little bit.

"I am not actually going to tell you what happened, at least not right now. All I can really say is that I was assigned the rank of Duchess, and I'd appreciate it if we can just stick to that when speaking to others. Does that work for you?"

"Yes.  I'm having trouble imagining how it couldn't?  And also, I think you ought to know this, it is very very hard to take at face value that if I said 'no' you wouldn't kill me.  I am, to be clear, listening to what you say, and tracking the possibility that it is actually true.  You're just behaving in a very odd way by local standards, if so."

'Good night, good work, I'll most likely kill you in the morning' is definitely not the right comeback right now.

"I don't know of a way to convince you that I'm not going to kill you for going against me, except by not killing you for going against me. If we work together for long, we should set up situations where you can test this in tiny lower-risk ways at first and then work your way up, noticing each time that I still haven't killed you."

"And yes, I'm not surprised I'm acting strangely by local standards. If anything, it's a miracle I can function here at all. Out of the space of all possible civilizations I could have landed in, this one sure is foreign, but much more matches than doesn't."

"To be clear, are you saying that the way this works where you're from is that I betray you a little, and then betray you a little more, slowly escalating up a ladder of misbehavior while you don't kill me each time to establish trust, until we fall in love?"

"Ha! No! Not at all! Oh my goodness. Let me start again."

"Remember how you said before that with long term relationships, you try not to inhibit or modify yourself? That's all I mean."

"Some people take it hard when others disagree, or have different preferences, or have different values. Some even see that as a betrayal. I mostly don't. I want to know what you actually think and want, and then depending on how much natural, true, overlap there is there, we can be close -- or not. But it's highly unlikely I'm going to kill you about it."

"Always good to know when I'm highly unlikely to be murdered!"

"People sure do take it as a betrayal when you believe things they'd rather you not believe.  I admit I'm a little skeptical that you won't take it as betrayal; but then, besides myself, I've never met anyone else who even understands why they shouldn't.  It'd be a cheap way to earn a lot of loyalty from me, I'll say that much."

"I am not representative of my own culture on this, most of my people make this mistake too."

"I think differences of opinion can arise from many sources, and when the issue matters enough, it's worth trying to figure out why I disagree with someone else, but meanwhile I can mostly just tolerate the difference."

"I wouldn't mind if you could charge an entire lightline with your irritation about it, so long as you weren't under the impression that I owed you the opinion you wanted, and you didn't order me to change it."

"Let's try that sometime! You can tell me something awful and then I'll charge the lightline with it! It'll be fun!"

Opalyn does not expect to fail to charge the lightline even if Iilasir's allegedly radioactive takes turn out to be radiopassive.

"I'm hungry, but I don't want to end up at that one Duke's political chat. Do we have multiple refectories to choose from? Is there one where we're more likely to run into the Countess you were thinking of?"

"High Countess Marina Waterfront.  I could guess at a refectory.  Though recruiting her away from Carnidine wouldn't be a subject to broach to her in public; and if we follow her out, she'll run away, and I for one couldn't catch her even if she was running on one leg."

"I guess you could introduce yourself to her, at least.  She's one of those non-introverted types."

"Odds that she'll be there?"

"I'll probably want to go either way, though, I haven't eaten yet today."

And maybe this refectory will have something other than cupcakes and soup? Maybe she was somehow at the dessert cafe before, not realizing that there were choices?

"Ordinarily something like 1 in 10, I'd say, but with recent drama more like 1 in 2 that she'll be there or findable from there; it's not a day for Countesses to hide in their rooms."

This other refectory--noticeably more distant from Opalyn's quarters--is not visibly any fancier, but the discussions here have a more focused, sober sort of tone, among the more dressed men and women here.  (Also some people in submissive postures to them; and some of those look rather distracted.  But they are not the focus of attention.)

Opalyn suggests to Iilasir that he look around for Marina.

Meanwhile, she'll avoid making eye contact, appear engrossed in her book, and survey the food situation. It's going to be all cupcakes again, isn't it.

She sighs and takes a plate full of cupcakes.

Has she noticed any ill effects to her mood or satiety so far from subsisting entirely on sugar?

Why would that be a thing?  Heck, why would C6H12O6 even be a thing?