Well, if you did want it, you could have it. It's not out of scope of the present medium at all.

nah nah nah I pass let's not even go there this is going to be a straightforward thread without heaps of exasperating metafiction

Where were we? Right, the surrender signals.

Ahem.

"Unfortunately, no, though that would be a splendid idea. But I don't think it is very hard to tell when someone doesn't want to keep fighting. And if you make it clear to them that you are no longer attacking, they'll certainly stop too."

"These are in this hypothetical the same people who would be attacking me unprovoked in the first place?"

"Indeed."

"I might be asking for too much here, but... Well, hopefully you won't need it."

"Let's go to the next room, shall we?"

"If you like, ma'am. ...are you also attacked by monsters when you go out and about or is that generally a problem only humans face, here?"

They go through an another fairly straightforward (if involving a lot of spikes) puzzle in the next set of rooms.

"It certainly... happens, on some rare occasion, when someone is clearly much too excited or belligerent. But it will be different for you - as a human and not a monster; as someone with no reputation."

"Well, as you've seen, I am no novice at combat magic, but I have never actually... I have never burned a monster down."

(But I am a monster, not a human, now am I?)

(And what a shame, to weasel with words, here, in this matter.)

Toriel looks like she may have complicated feelings on the topic.

"Is there local law on how people may respond to violence or are you stating your own convictions only when you produce advice?"

"Here in the Ruins? Not so much, I would guess. The Royal Guard doesn't come here, and we rely on our own decency, but I haven't heard of a violent death around Ruins in decades regardless, so there's that."

"You could say these are just convictions of this silly old lady, then, though I would hope they are something a little bigger than that."

"I think it - reflects an interest in a Good end and I do not yet understand all the details of how it is meant to work in practice or if you have much experience with its practice with respect to humans. If you had meant to tell me that it was my legal responsibility as a human present in this area to receive unprovoked violence tamely and if necessary die in the process for some reason, and this in spite of the fact that you intervened violently with the - flower creature, it would not have been the strangest thing I ever heard, but - that did not seem to fully explain your attitude."

(There is, in fact, a law like that. Which is not at all relevant to anything that happened between the three of them today and is... probably the wrong thing to say.)

(Blai seems to be preoccupied with law. What if he decides to follow that one?)

"I am quite confused. Um. That is most definitely not what I meant to tell you, however."

EVEN THOUGH IT IS SORT OF TRUE

"I am simply trying to protect people. You, and everyone else, insofar as I can, even if that's not all that much, really."

The room is a very long, very straight purple corridor. Plenty of room to slowly walk on and talk (or to contemplate awkward silence).

"I do not see how it protects me to advise me to attempt amateur diplomacy instead of professional self-defense. Perhaps you could explain this."

She's rambly and has difficulty expressing herself.

"It does prevent chain reactions of retaliation against you, and does build a good reputation. But of course it is mostly for the benefit of others..."

"...and if someone... really is trying their best to murder you, which I wouldn't assume of any- of most monsters picking a fight, and you can't escape or otherwise come up with something, well. Maybe it is good to be armed, and resolute, and-..."

(And it isn't, but how do you tell him that? Should you?)

"...-well. Your life is no less precious than theirs, right? Though theirs is no less precious than yours, and I have some... experience with humans... and it suggests that swinging a sharp thing around in self-defense is generally not what you want to do..."

(If you agree with the previous notion, that is. And not all humans agree with that, now do they?)

"Um. Truth be told, I don't know how much you can... trust my experience. But I hope you can trust my intentions. I truly do not mean anything bad for you."

She's clearly sincere in that, if she is ever readable at all.

"I believe you, ma'am. I'm prepared to also believe that monsters here are different in some extremely vital way from the ones I'm accustomed to, though I don't yet know what way that might be, and I can imagine spells I might prepare to better adhere to your protocol which wouldn't necessarily make me worse at defending myself with my mace if it came to that should they fail and I'm not unwilling to use those when I have them. I've just spent my career guarding the border around a portal to an infinite plane full of demons who if permitted to escape were bent on the subjugation, torture, murder, and consumption of any mortals they might happen across."

toriel have exhausted her ability to say things for the time being

awkward silence it is

clak. clak. clak goes the walk across the long corridor.

'bout halfway to the end, now?

Okay. Awkward silence can be.

clak. clak. clak.

And there's an exit door.

"If I may... would it be okay if I left you alone for just a little while? I will be back soon, I just-..."