when will my life begin

[powershines]

In the morning, Rapunzel is not disturbed until she has had a little while to go over her coded notes from last night (letter by letter - she will learn to read this just like she learned to read printed notes, but neither task is quick) and has opened the door.

The guards posted there - they've changed in the night, she notices - tell her that she's invited to take breakfast with her parents in the dining hall.

Comments

[hisowninvention]

"So. I like it when you do things that are... you."

[powershines]

"I don't think I get it."

[hisowninvention]

"Okay. What do I need to explain?"

[powershines]

"How can you tell what things are me-things? I mean - anything I did would be a thing I would do."

[hisowninvention]

"Well... partly, I do just like it whenever you do things," he says wryly. "But there's also an aspect of - if it's something you would do that other people wouldn't or might not, or if it's something you choose to do out of some range of available options, on a level more significant than what you have for breakfast - those things are more you than, well. I was going to say 'brushing your hair', but, in fact, you brush your hair pretty uniquely. Eating breakfast, then."

[powershines]

"Oh, that makes mores sense, I guess."

[hisowninvention]

"Yeah. So - there's that. And... I don't know, do you want to hear me extensively compare myself to social norms on the subject of being in love? I have the feeling you're going to say yes."

[powershines]

"Yes."

[hisowninvention]

"How'd I guess," he says with a grin. "Okay."

[powershines]

"I do usually want to know things."

[hisowninvention]

"I've been picking up on that!" he says, settling thoughtfully into his Comfortable Library Chair.

"So... I guess the place to start is, these things come with a lot of rules and expectations in the world at large, and I don't tend to play by those. Most people, if they like someone or love someone in a marriage-and-Things sort of way, they want those things with that person - as a goal, as something they'll be upset if they don't get. When I told you what it means to me that I love you, I said that if you wanted to marry me, I'd say yes. That's still the best way to put it. You could take ten years to decide how you feel about marriage and children, and then marry somebody else at the end of it, and I'd still love you and want to be your friend in just the same way I do now. The important part, to me, is getting to be near you and help you and see you be you and be happy. That's what I'd be sad to lose." As an afterthought, he adds, "The hugs are also very nice."

[powershines]

"Okay."

[hisowninvention]

He smiles.

"The other main thing I was thinking of is... well, marriage is very much a one-at-a-time deal. And to a lot of people that extends to being in love with one person at a time, and not wanting to do any Things with anyone else, and not wanting the person they're in love with to do any Things with anyone else either. I don't feel that way at all. But - I don't know if you do, and I don't know how you feel about me - I don't know if you'd consider it relevant to you what I do with my spare time, that way. So I thought I'd better ask. It's okay if you don't know or don't want to say."

[powershines]

"Why do you disagree with everybody else about so much stuff?"

[hisowninvention]

"I've never been sure of that. It just seems like... most people have something that makes them tend to think and act and feel in ways that are normal in the place where they live or the place where they grow up - not perfectly or completely, but a lot of the time about a lot of different things. And whatever that is, I don't have any, or so little it's barely made a difference. So I just end up being, well, me."

[powershines]

"If you just go around doing things with whoever couldn't you wind up having kids?"

[hisowninvention]

"Well, not if it's only Related Activities."

[powershines]

"Oh." Rapunzel taps her chin, thinking.

"I don't really have a normal with how I grew up."

[hisowninvention]

"Yes, that's true."

[powershines]

"I mean - who would you be doing them with?"

[hisowninvention]

"Just people I happen to meet. Usually it's been people I met the once and then never saw again, but if I'm going to be settling down here with you, I suppose I'll have more opportunity to get to know people."

[powershines]

"People just jump straight to that with people they don't even know?"

[hisowninvention]

"Some people, some of the time. There are even people who do it for money with strangers, and, reciprocally, people who pay for it that way. I've been the first kind more often than the second, but that was all a while ago now. It's not a well-thought-of occupation and it's considered impolite to talk about it in most places."

[powershines]

"...Why do people pay money for it? I don't get it."

[hisowninvention]

"Usually it's men who want something they can't get by themselves and either aren't married or don't want to go to their wives for it, for some reason or another. I guess that doesn't explain why there's so many of them, but the trade thrives regardless of how badly thought of it gets."