It's very clear that Vanyel is acting like she is Expected to just eat the food, despite her moral discomfort with the act.  The social pressure to transgress against her deontology is practically a tangible pressure in her mind.

This about Thellim:  She has been in that situation before.  When she was eight years old, there was a teacher in her school who smiled at her and acted friendly with her and shared snacks with her, who one day started asking Thellim for help with minor pranks on other teachers, acting like of course Thellim would reciprocate.  The pranks escalated, bit by bit, little by little, over the course of months.  The point where Thellim finally balked was when she was asked to put a caltrop on a student's chair, something that would actually deal a physical injury.

It was all a test, of course.  And Thellim didn't do too badly!  A hundred years earlier, her performance would have been excellent and entitled her to subsidized childcare to encourage her to have more kids!  They have to keep making the test subtler and subtler, and perform it on younger and younger children, or else everybody would pass.  It's something Civilization can take pride in, that they have to keep making that test harder.  Thellim's score in the 45th percentile of moral integrity was barely below average.  Well within a standard deviation of statistical noise.  Slightly less than half the planet will get a score no better than that, by design, because they keep making the test harder.  A 45th-percentile score is definitely not at the point where you should start thinking that you shouldn't have children, if that's your only flaw, if you have other virtues to make up for it.  Almost all of the reason why Thellim doesn't intend to have children is that the people around her seem happier than herself and like they'd enjoy having kids more.  Her remembering her 45th-percentile score for moral integrity has practically nothing to do with it.  Almost zero.

But Thellim will not overlook that there is an atmosphere of taken-for-granted social expectancy pressuring into doing something that the back of her mind - or front of her mind, in this case - feels to be wrong.

:Vanyel, I'm sorry and I don't mean to force you to explain things while you're tired, I know that there's all kinds of things I don't understand about your world and that I might be misunderstanding - but the way things look - is that your world has lower technology and much less wealth per capita than my world, and people here are living on the brink of starvation.  Anyone who visibly looked like you, in my world, wouldn't be taken to a restaurant, they'd be taken to a hospital.  Even if you have enough food for today, do you have enough food for tomorrow?  For one month later?  If I take food from you today and it contributes to you falling over dead from starvation two months from now, when I have plenty of caloric reserves myself, that's - that's something my people would consider - worse than an innocent mistake.  A foul act.  I am not certain that I will be able to repay you myself.  I don't need you to politely reassure me that things are okay, I need a serious not-polite reassurance that authorities will reimburse you for whatever food you spent on me so you don't literally die.  Yfandes, back me up on this?:

Thellim glances at the 'Companion', hoping that her pleading expression translates across the species barrier.

:Oh, and sharing a blanket is fine,: she adds as a quick afterthought.  She's slightly uncomfortable doing that with a strange man, in fact, but that mental twinge is nothing she can't just ignore.

It's very clear that Vanyel is acting like she is Expected to just eat the food, despite her moral discomfort with the act.  The social pressure to transgress against her deontology is practically a tangible pressure in her mind.

This about Thellim:  She has been in that situation before.  When she was eight years old, there was a teacher in her school who smiled at her and acted friendly with her and shared snacks with her, who one day started asking Thellim for help with minor pranks on other teachers, acting like of course Thellim would reciprocate.  The pranks escalated, bit by bit, little by little, over the course of months.  The point where Thellim finally balked was when she was asked to put a caltrop on a student's chair, something that would actually deal a physical injury.

It was all a test, of course.  And Thellim didn't do too badly!  A hundred years earlier, her performance would have been excellent and entitled her to subsidized childcare to encourage her to have more kids!  They have to keep making the test subtler and subtler, and perform it on younger and younger children, or else everybody would pass.  It's something Civilization can take pride in, that they have to keep making that test harder.  Thellim's score in the 45th percentile of moral integrity was barely below average.  Well within a standard deviation of statistical noise.  Slightly less than half the planet will get a score no better than that, by design, because they keep making the test harder.  A 45th-percentile score is definitely not at the point where you should start thinking that you shouldn't have children, if that's your only flaw, if you have other virtues to make up for it.  Almost all of the reason why Thellim doesn't intend to have children is that the people around her seem happier than herself and like they'd enjoy having kids more.  Her remembering her 45th-percentile score for moral integrity has practically nothing to do with it.  Almost zero.

But Thellim will not overlook that there is an atmosphere of taken-for-granted social expectancy pressuring into doing something that the back of her mind - or front of her mind, in this case - feels to be wrong.

:Vanyel, I'm sorry and I don't mean to force you to explain things while you're tired, I know that there's all kinds of things I don't understand about your world and that I might be misunderstanding - but the way things look - is that your world has lower technology and much less wealth per capita than my world, and people here are living on the brink of starvation.  Anyone who visibly looked like you, in my world, wouldn't be taken to a restaurant, they'd be taken to a hospital.  Even if you have enough food for today, do you have enough food for tomorrow?  For one month later?  If I take food from you today and it contributes to you falling over dead from starvation two months from now, when I have plenty of caloric reserves myself, that's - that's something my people would consider - worse than an innocent mistake.  A foul act.  I am not certain that I will be able to repay you myself.  I don't need you to politely reassure me that things are okay, I need a serious not-polite reassurance that authorities will reimburse you for whatever food you spent on me so you don't literally die.  Yfandes, back me up on this?:

Thellim glances at the 'Companion', hoping that her pleading expression translates across the species barrier.

:Oh, and sharing a blanket is fine: she adds as a quick afterthought.  She's slightly uncomfortable doing that with a strange man, in fact, but that mental twinge is nothing she can't just ignore.

Thellim goes on looking at the chunk of hard cheese in her hand.  It's very clear that Vanyel is acting like she is Expected to just eat the food, despite her moral discomfort with the act.  The social pressure to transgress against her deontology is practically a tangible pressure in her mind.

This about Thellim:  She has been in that situation before.  When she was eight years old, there was a teacher in her school who smiled at her and acted friendly with her and shared snacks with her, who one day started asking Thellim for help with minor pranks on other teachers, acting like of course Thellim would reciprocate.  The pranks escalated, bit by bit, little by little, over the course of months.  The point where Thellim finally balked was when she was asked to put a caltrop on a student's chair, something that would actually deal a physical injury.

It was all a test, of course.  And Thellim didn't do too badly!  A hundred years earlier, her performance would have been excellent and entitled her to subsidized childcare to encourage her to have more kids!  They have to keep making the test subtler and subtler, and perform it on younger and younger children, or else everybody would pass.  It's something Civilization can take pride in, that they have to keep making that test harder.  Thellim's score in the 45th percentile of moral integrity was barely below average.  Well within a standard deviation of statistical noise.  Slightly less than half the planet will get a score no better than that, by design, because they keep making the test harder.  A 45th-percentile score is definitely not at the point where you should start thinking that you shouldn't have children, if that's your only flaw, if you have other virtues to make up for it.  Almost all of the reason why Thellim doesn't intend to have children is that the people around her seem happier than herself and like they'd enjoy having kids more.  Her remembering her 45th-percentile score for moral integrity has practically nothing to do with it.  Almost zero.

But Thellim will not overlook that there is an atmosphere of taken-for-granted social expectancy pressuring into doing something that the back of her mind - or front of her mind, in this case - feels to be wrong.

:Vanyel, I'm sorry and I don't mean to force you to explain things while you're tired, I know that there's all kinds of things I don't understand about your world and that I might be misunderstanding - but the way things look - is that your world has lower technology and much less wealth per capita than my world, and people here are living on the brink of starvation.  Anyone who visibly looked like you, in my world, wouldn't be taken to a restaurant, they'd be taken to a hospital.  Even if you have enough food for today, do you have enough food for tomorrow?  For one month later?  If I take food from you today and it contributes to you falling over dead from starvation two months from now, when I have plenty of caloric reserves myself, that's - that's something my people would consider - worse than an innocent mistake.  A foul act.  I am not certain that I will be able to repay you myself.  I don't need you to politely reassure me that things are okay, I need a serious not-polite reassurance that authorities will reimburse you for whatever food you spent on me so you don't literally die.  Yfandes, back me up on this?:

Thellim glances at the 'Companion', hoping that her pleading expression translates across the species barrier.

:Oh, and sharing a blanket is fine: she adds as a quick afterthought.  She's slightly uncomfortable doing that with a strange man, in fact, but that mental twinge is nothing she can't just ignore.

Thellim goes on looking at the chunk of hard cheese in her hand.  It's very clear that Vanyel is acting like she is Expected to just eat the food, despite her moral discomfort with the act.  The social pressure to transgress against her deontology is practically a tangible pressure in her mind.

This about Thellim:  She has been in that situation before.  When she was eight years old, there was a teacher in her school who smiled at her and acted friendly with her and shared snacks with her, who one day started asking Thellim for help with minor pranks on other teachers, acting like of course Thellim would reciprocate.  The pranks escalated, bit by bit, little by little, over the course of months.  The point where Thellim finally balked was when she was asked to put a caltrop on a student's chair, something that would actually deal a physical injury.

It was all a test, of course.  And Thellim didn't do too badly!  A hundred years earlier, her performance would have been excellent and entitled her to subsidized childcare to encourage her to have more kids!  They have to keep making the test subtler and subtler, and perform it on younger and younger children, or else everybody would pass.  It's something Civilization can take pride in, that they have to keep making that test harder.  Thellim's score in the 45th percentile of moral integrity was barely below average.  Well within a standard deviation of statistical noise.  Slightly less than half the planet will get a score no better than that, by design, because they keep making the test harder.  A 45th-percentile score is definitely not at the point where you should start thinking that you shouldn't have children, if that's your only flaw, if you have other virtues to make up for it.  Almost all of the reason why Thellim doesn't intend to have children is that the people around her seem happier than herself and like they'd enjoy having kids more.  Her remembering her 45th-percentile score for moral integrity has practically nothing to do with it.  Almost zero.

But Thellim will not overlook that there is an atmosphere of taken-for-granted social expectancy pressuring into doing something that the back of her mind - or front of her mind, in this case - feels to be wrong.

:Vanyel, I'm sorry and I don't mean to force you to explain things while you're tired, I know that there's all kinds of things I don't understand about your world and that I might be misunderstanding - but the way things look - is that your world has lower technology and much less wealth per capita than my world, and people here are living on the brink of starvation.  Anyone who visibly looked like you, in my world, wouldn't be taken to a restaurant, they'd be taken to a hospital.  Even if you have enough food for today, do you have enough food for tomorrow?  For one month later?  If I take food from you today and it contributes to you falling over dead from starvation two months from now, when I have plenty of caloric reserves myself, that's - that's something my people would consider - worse than an innocent mistake.  A foul act.  I am not certain that I will be able to repay you myself.  I don't need you to politely reassure me that things are okay, I need a serious not-polite factual statement that authorities will reimburse you for whatever food you spent on me so you don't literally die.  Yfandes, back me up on this?:

Thellim glances at the 'Companion', hoping that her pleading expression translates across the species barrier.

:Oh, and sharing a blanket is fine: she adds as a quick afterthought.  She's slightly uncomfortable doing that with a strange man, in fact, but that mental twinge is nothing she can't just ignore.

Thellim goes on looking at the chunk of hard cheese in her hand.  It's very clear that Vanyel is acting like she is Expected to just eat the food, despite her moral discomfort with the act.  It will be very socially awkward if she refuses.  The peer pressure to transgress against her deontology is practically a tangible force in her mind.

This about Thellim:  She has been in that situation before.  When she was eight years old, there was a teacher in her school who smiled at her and acted friendly with her and shared snacks with her, who one day started asking Thellim for help with minor pranks on other teachers, acting like of course Thellim would reciprocate.  The pranks escalated, bit by bit, little by little, over the course of months.  The point where Thellim finally balked was when she was asked to put a caltrop on a student's chair, something that would actually deal a physical injury.

It was all a test, of course.  And Thellim didn't do too badly!  A hundred years earlier, her performance would have been excellent and entitled her to subsidized childcare to encourage her to have more kids!  They have to keep making the test subtler and subtler, and perform it on younger and younger children, or else everybody would pass.  It's something Civilization can take pride in, that they have to keep making that test harder.  Thellim's score in the 45th percentile of moral integrity was barely below average.  Well within a standard deviation of statistical noise.  Slightly less than half the planet will get a score no better than that, by design, because they keep making the test harder.  A 45th-percentile score is definitely not at the point where you should start thinking that you shouldn't have children, if that's your only flaw, if you have other virtues to make up for it.  Almost all of the reason why Thellim doesn't intend to have children is that the people around her seem happier than herself and like they'd enjoy having kids more.  Her remembering her 45th-percentile score for moral integrity has practically nothing to do with it.  Almost zero.

But Thellim will not overlook that there is an atmosphere of taken-for-granted social expectancy pressuring into doing something that the back of her mind - or front of her mind, in this case - feels to be wrong.

:Vanyel, I'm sorry and I don't mean to force you to explain things while you're tired, I know that there's all kinds of things I don't understand about your world and that I might be misunderstanding - but the way things look - is that your world has lower technology and much less wealth per capita than my world, and people here are living on the brink of starvation.  Anyone who visibly looked like you, in my world, wouldn't be taken to a restaurant, they'd be taken to a hospital.  Even if you have enough food for today, do you have enough food for tomorrow?  For one month later?  If I take food from you today and it contributes to you falling over dead from starvation two months from now, when I have plenty of caloric reserves myself, that's - that's something my people would consider - worse than an innocent mistake.  A foul act.  I am not certain that I will be able to repay you myself.  I don't need you to politely reassure me that things are okay, I need a serious not-polite factual statement that authorities will reimburse you for whatever food you spent on me so you don't literally die.  Yfandes, back me up on this?:

Thellim glances at the 'Companion', hoping that her pleading expression translates across the species barrier.

:Oh, and sharing a blanket is fine: she adds as a quick afterthought.  She's slightly uncomfortable doing that with a strange man, in fact, but that mental twinge is nothing she can't just ignore.

Thellim goes on looking at the chunk of hard cheese in her hand.  It's very clear that Vanyel is acting like she is Expected to just eat the food, despite her moral discomfort with the act.  It will be very socially awkward if she refuses.  The peer pressure to transgress against her deontology is practically a tangible force in her mind.

This about Thellim:  She has been in that situation before.  When she was eight years old, there was a teacher in her school who smiled at her and acted friendly with her and shared snacks with her, who one day started asking Thellim for help with minor pranks on other teachers, acting like of course Thellim would reciprocate.  The pranks escalated, bit by bit, little by little, over the course of months.  The point where Thellim finally balked was when she was asked to put a caltrop on a student's chair, something that would actually deal a physical injury.

It was all a test, of course.  And Thellim didn't do too badly!  A few generations earlier, her performance would have been excellent and entitled her to subsidized childcare to encourage her to have more kids!  They have to keep making the test subtler and subtler, and perform it on younger and younger children, or else everybody would pass.  It's something Civilization can take pride in, that they have to keep making that test harder.  Thellim's score in the 45th percentile of moral integrity was barely below average.  Well within a standard deviation of statistical noise.  Slightly less than half the planet will get a score no better than that, by design, because they keep making the test harder.  A 45th-percentile score is definitely not at the point where you should start thinking that you shouldn't have children, if that's your only flaw, if you have other virtues to make up for it.  Almost all of the reason why Thellim doesn't intend to have children is that the people around her seem happier than herself and like they'd enjoy having kids more.  Her remembering her 45th-percentile score for moral integrity has practically nothing to do with it.  Almost zero.

But Thellim will not overlook that there is an atmosphere of taken-for-granted social expectancy pressuring into doing something that the back of her mind - or front of her mind, in this case - feels to be wrong.

:Vanyel, I'm sorry and I don't mean to force you to explain things while you're tired, I know that there's all kinds of things I don't understand about your world and that I might be misunderstanding - but the way things look - is that your world has lower technology and much less wealth per capita than my world, and people here are living on the brink of starvation.  Anyone who visibly looked like you, in my world, wouldn't be taken to a restaurant, they'd be taken to a hospital.  Even if you have enough food for today, do you have enough food for tomorrow?  For one month later?  If I take food from you today and it contributes to you falling over dead from starvation two months from now, when I have plenty of caloric reserves myself, that's - that's something my people would consider - worse than an innocent mistake.  A foul act.  I am not certain that I will be able to repay you myself.  I don't need you to politely reassure me that things are okay, I need a serious not-polite factual statement that authorities will reimburse you for whatever food you spent on me so you don't literally die.  Yfandes, back me up on this?:

Thellim glances at the 'Companion', hoping that her pleading expression translates across the species barrier.

:Oh, and sharing a blanket is fine: she adds as a quick afterthought.  She's slightly uncomfortable doing that with a strange man, in fact, but that mental twinge is nothing she can't just ignore.