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[doihavetoexplainmath]

[There's no greeting or anything, just some changing and scraping sounds and a shot of a shadowy, faintly purple ceiling, and it cuts off four seconds later.]

Comments

[doihavetoexplainmath]

If I was going to do it I would have months ago! And I wouldn't have because I know how delicate that set-up is, though I wouldn't have anticipated that, exactly. It's not like you spend your time tallying up offenses from floods and breaches that you hold other people responsible for!

[tetractys]

BUT YOU WERE JUST THE SAME BUT WITH A DIFFERENT GENDER, THAT'S NOT EVEN A REAL THING!

[doihavetoexplainmath]

If I was the same I'd have kidnapped you and plugged you into my systems the first time we met!

[tetractys]

[shit that do make sense]

OH.

UGH.

[who hates being wrong its this guy]

WELL WHY WERE YOU DIFFERENT?

[that doesn't sound like 'sorry,' bill.]

[doihavetoexplainmath]

Boys aren't princesses!

[Duh!]

[tetractys]

THERE'S NOT... PRINCES?

[????]

[doihavetoexplainmath]

What? No, that's dumb.

[tetractys]

NO IT ISN'T, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GENDERS IS ALL IN PEOPLE'S HEADS!

CAN GUYS BE PRINCESSES?

[doihavetoexplainmath]

That's not what a princess is.

[tetractys]

[fuck alright he has no idea what a princess is in this context but he is willing to drop it because this is getting off track]

WELL, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT A PRINCESS IS, THEN! BUT I UNDERSTAND THAT IT'S ENOUGH THAT YOU LED A DIFFERENT LIFE IN THE EVENT THAT YOU WERE BORN WITH A FOUR POINT THREE PERCENT DIFFERENCE IN INITIAL FLESH CONSTRUCTION.

[another thing bill doesn't get yet: the difference between sex and gender]

AND I'M SORRY ABOUT BEING MAD AT YOU.

[doihavetoexplainmath]

Okay.

[She doesn't care about apologies for their own sake. Just the cessation of hostilities.]

Some princesses have runestones and are hereditary components of Etheria's planetary systems. Probably that's how it started. Places without runestones lacked the defensive capabilities and would elevate any girl with useful powers they could find. Dryl didn't really have one before me.

[tetractys]

YEAH, BUT WHY JUST GIRLS? SEEMS LIKE ONE FLESH UNIT'S ABOUT THE SAME AS ANOTHER!

[At this point he's just straight up confused.]

WAIT, IT ACTUALLY IS HEREDITARY? I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST RANDOM, UH, EMERGENCE.

[the only princess he's ever met is Entrapta.]

[doihavetoexplainmath]

Depends. Runestone princesses, yes, entirely. Without one you have more wiggle room.

[tetractys]

ARE YOU THE ONLY ONE WITHOUT A RUNESTONE?

[hang on,] WAIT, THAT MEANS THE GREEN KID ISN'T A PRINCESS. THEY JUST HAVE MAGIC ANYWAY.

[???]

[doihavetoexplainmath]

No, there's others. Spinerella doesn't, or Netossa. Not Double Trouble, though, you're right. I think that's a species thing, not a princess thing.

[tetractys]

DO YOU ACTUALLY RULE DRYL?

[doihavetoexplainmath]

Like, administratively? No, that sounds awful. Most of the runestone princesses do, for a given value of rule.

[tetractys]

HEH, I'M WITH YOU THERE.

WHAT IF THE ROYAL FAMILY HAS MORE THAN ONE DAUGHTER? DO THEY BOTH GET THE RUNESTONE? DOES THE OLDEST ONE GET IT?

[doihavetoexplainmath]

I'm not a historian, and most of the princesses I know are only children. It'd probably be easier to put any other siblings on administration, right? And they could always learn a bit of sorcery.

[tetractys]

EH, FAIR ENOUGH.

OH HEY, THAT WOULDN'T BE SOMETHING ANYBODY CAN LEARN IF THEY PICK UP A BOOK, WOULD IT? I'M IN THE MARKET.

[doihavetoexplainmath]

I'm pretty sure you can. I've never been very interested.

[tetractys]

I'M GONNA TRADE MY MAGIC IN FOR SOMETHING AND I WANNA PICK UP SOMETHING NEW SO I'M NOT AS USELESS!

[doihavetoexplainmath]

Sounds reasonable, but I really wouldn't know where to begin on sorcery. There are two of us now. Maybe someone else from my world will come through. You'd probably like Shadow Weaver!

[tetractys]

WE DO TEND TO GROUP UP, DON'T WE.

SHE A PRINCESS?

[doihavetoexplainmath]

No, but she's a sorcerer--I think--with access to a runestone that got decoupled somehow from its original princess line, so she's probably a good person to ask.