The grownups are all very busy, but the children are all bored.
Bored or having nightmares. But Tasárinon was not on a ship and did not see the people dying and has only heard it thirdhand and can't exactly have nightmares about the look in his mother's eyes - well, he probably could, but he hasn't - so he's bored, and he is drawing on the floor. It is an absurdly intricate drawing. He has been embellishing it for three days.
"Okay." Would his diplomatic escort like lunch and playing cards or something while he drinks coffee and reads things?
They would! They can make it a sort of picnic in the shade of the giant concrete wall.
Fun.
He reads things. He texts Maitimo that results are pending, and Fëanáro (encrypted) what his idea was.
Fëanáro replies that he should, if he's considering it at all, demand from the Enemy oaths to the effect that the parley isn't a distraction to keep Cam in one place while they try something in addition to the obvious ones about being non-lethal and non-injurious and no lies spoken and so on. He thinks it could be worth it, and says so.
Cam would very much appreciate consultation on the exact wording to solicit. He is thinking of raining letters on Angband and requiring that the oath be recorded and verifiable in advance.
He sends annotated suggestions.
I swear that in this negotiation I am using all words' standard referents, do not expect confusion over the referent of any spoken word, have not made an effort to create such confusion, and am speaking entirely in Quenya. I will not use oaths, memory alteration, or any other means to deliberately alter my expectations, and as far as I know I have not done so. Forces under my command do not have explicit or implicit orders to use the parley to advance any military objectives. If we agree to a ceasefire for the duration of the parley I expect it to be obeyed on my side and I will prevent violations of a ceasefire on either side from escalating. For the duration of the parley I will not lie. I will not prevent any participant in the parley from departing. I will not use any oaths, magic or technology to affect any participant in the parley. I do not have chip- or mind-reading capabilities beyond the known-to-you ability to upload a chip. I will not harm anyone at the parley. I will not take actions that cause anyone at the parley to be harmed. I expect that all participants in the parley will return home unharmed. There is no major information or strategic planning pending that would alter that expectation. None of my people have orders to interfere with the parley. If they had such orders I would know of them. Coming to parley will not put you in a strategically disadvantageous position compared to verifiably having managed never to receive the invitation. So I swear.
That looks pretty good to Cam. Maybe "I would be able to find out if I had done so, have made a good-faith attempt, and have determined that I did not" on the expectations thing? Should Cam expect to need to privately communicate with people on his side at the parley, should there be an added thing about not having a way to read over people's shoulders?
Oh, right, Cam doesn't have osanwe. Yes, those are both good additions.
Cam folds them in. And maybe the word should not be 'home'. Cam lives in Hell.
They can just say 'to return', probably. Perhaps he should send the note with instructions about how the Enemy should respond: slightly misleading instructions like 'type your response into any computer console with the filename 'parley-negotiations' and I will be able to retrieve it', just in case the Enemy doesn't yet realize that Cam can get anything committed to physical form.
Sounds good. And will Cam likely need to provide an audio recorder for the oath itself? Seemed like Melian didn't have any.
The Enemy has audio recorders, there are audio recordings among Angband's complete works. But Cam could send his own, if they're worried about high enough fidelity they can notice sneaky insertions of words.
Adorable.
Doriath confirms that Melian has checked Cam's recorder and done some real sentences, some illusory sentences, and some with a mix, each recorded separately.
Cool. Now - aiming very carefully - he wants works dated today by Melian, Queen of Doriath, in the genre of spoken word, actually spoken -
He gets exactly the recordings that Doriath says were spoken aloud with no interspersed illusions.
Marvelous. He reports success cryptically to Maitimo and encryptedly to Fëanáro.
Fëanáro thinks that in this case they should go ahead and parley, perhaps the Enemy's nervous and willing to make actual concessions in exchange for not getting black-holed.
That would sure be nice!
So Cam thanks Melian very much, would she like any material objects for her trouble or anything.
Doriath is as post-scarcity as they were last week, but thanks. She urges Cam not to parley with the Enemy.
...in the interest of harm-reduction, sure, but Cam should really just not parley with the Enemy.
Cam should really just not parley with the Enemy. Perhaps he could at least add "I will not gain improved capacity to use my abilities against you as a consequence of time spent in proximity to you" and add "in any respect" to the bit about being strategically disadvantaged by parley so the Enemy can't conclude that various strategic disadvantages imposed are in the clear as long as they're outweighed by other advantages.
He appreciates these suggestions very much. Bounces them to Fëanáro. Does understand the underlying principle she's advocating but thinks he is a sufficiently escalating/destabilizing presence that the chance to deescalate/stabilize is especially valuable.
Sorry you turned out to be redundant, diplomatic escort. Ride home time.
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post