Chapter Fifteen Page 16
(PSSSSHH)
Jany: I bet this suite really is as big as Naresh’s whole flat! I don’t even want to think about what it’s costing. Did he text back while I was in the shower?
Kara Lynn: He did. I could only read his name, but I assume it was good, because he didn’t use any capslock. Are you going to try to stay awake, to get on a local sleep schedule?
Jany: “Try”, nothing. It’s still only half-one back home. I could stay up for hours!
Kara Lynn: Oh?
Jany: I should probably email Bianca and Sparrow. They’ll want to know I got here safe too.
And then, you know . . . maybe we could cuddle for a while . . . But first, I’m gonna shut my eyes, just for five minutes . . . Don’t let me pass out for too long, okay?
Kara Lynn: Of course, Master. ♥ I’ll only let you sleep for as long as your body needs.
Kara Lynn always seemed like one of the most inhuman Beings to me. She always wears that strangely plain white dress everywhere. It strikes me as… ethereal, like she could be some otherworldly changeling wandering out of the woods or a sleepwalker in a nightdress. I think she’s the least emotive and most quiet Being we’ve seen, next to Cub. She’s got the scales out and she’s drawn without pupils. Definitely feel like Erin’s playing up Kara Lynn’s stoic lizardliness. Not a criticism of Kara Lynn as a character or a person, just an observation.
This scene gives me a weird mood. It’s sweet and fluffy, but the close-up drawings and slight crowding on the page make it feel unusually intimate, and the stuff about Kara Lynn I was talking about is just the slightest bit eerie (though of course it doesn’t feel dangerous; I know Kara Lynn is a sweetheart). I dunno, maybe it’s just late and I’m reading too much into a page of d’awwww look at the cuties.
Hi there, Chicago! I really need to go back.
So add Kara Lynn to the Beings who can’t read English category. Which does suck that she can’t send out messages on behalf of her passed out Master.
“Only half-one”? Is that like half-past-one? Half-an-hour-to-one?
I’m gonna shut my eyes, just for five minutes . . . Don’t let me pass out for too long, okay?
Of course, Master. ♥ I’ll only let you sleep for as long as your body needs.
That’s… definitely a complex interaction between “do what Master says”, “do what Master wants”, and “do what Master needs”, there. Kara Lynn is better equipped than anything short of a doctor’s office to gauge what Jany’s body needs, but she’s also hard-coded to follow the letter of any order Jany gives her, even if it contradicts what’s best for Jany. Jany’s order here wasn’t very specific, but in context it was a strong indicator that she wanted her conscious will to override her unconscious body, and yet Kara Lynn’s response suggests that she’s going to ignore that part of the message.
This seems to indicate that if the letter of “what Master says” isn’t a factor, it’s possible for a Being to favor “what [I think] Master needs” over “what [I think] Master wants”, even if the spirit of “what Master says” clearly backs the latter.
In the vast majority of scenarios where a Being makes a decision under these conditions, their Master will be able to spot the aberration and issue new orders before major consequences can be incurred, so this isn’t a terribly concerning behavior… except, as now, when the Master is in an altered mental state or otherwise not supervising the Being’s actions.
tl;dr- if you and your Being haven’t agreed on tomorrow’s agenda by the time you go to bed, use an alarm clock.