This is like some bizarre thought experiment on how awful you can make a scene and then try to justify it afterwards.

Actually it's really really like some bizarre thought experiment.  Too pointlessly extreme for anybody in dath ilan to consider good practice to write about - you can almost always make the point in thought experiments without the bizarre torture or the rape or whatever and students with possible edgelord tendencies are specifically cautioned about that - but if you imagine somebody not being warned about that, then this reads eerily exactly like the kind of thought experiment they'd come up with.  Suppose you saw a woman bonded in place and hurt and screaming, now, what kind of elaborate backstory could somebody come up with to excuse that?  And the answer is that some thought experiments have no apparent purpose except to damage your emotions and deontology and you shouldn't go along with their premises.

It is very like that.  To the point where Thellim almost has a horrible feeling that she knows where she is inside reality.  Next, the inhuman superbeing responsible for the eclipses will materialize and offer her insane, contrived choices.

This is like some bizarre-thought-experiment on how awful you can make a scene and then try to justify it afterwards.

Actually it's really really like a bizarre-thought-experiment.  Too pointlessly extreme for anybody in dath ilan to consider good practice to write about - you can almost always make the point in thought experiments without the bizarre torture or the rape or whatever and students with possible edgelord tendencies are specifically cautioned about that - but if you imagine somebody not being warned about that, then this reads eerily exactly like the kind of thought experiment they'd come up with.  Suppose you saw a woman bonded in place and hurt and screaming, now, what kind of elaborate backstory could somebody come up with to excuse that?  And the answer is that some thought experiments have no apparent purpose except to damage your emotions and deontology and you shouldn't go along with their premises.

It is very like that.  To the point where Thellim almost has a horrible feeling that she knows where she is inside reality.  Next, the inhuman superbeing responsible for the eclipses will materialize and offer her insane, contrived choices.

This is like some bizarre-thought-experiment on how awful you can make a scene and then try to justify it afterwards.

Actually it's really really like a bizarre-thought-experiment.  Too pointlessly extreme for anybody in dath ilan to consider good practice to write about - you can almost always make the point in thought experiments without the extreme torture or the rape or whatever, and students with possible edgelord tendencies are specifically cautioned about that - but if you imagine somebody not being warned about that, then this reads eerily exactly like the kind of thought experiment they'd come up with.  Suppose you saw a woman bonded in place and hurt and screaming, now, what kind of elaborate backstory could somebody come up with to excuse that?  And the answer is that some thought experiments have no apparent purpose except to damage your emotions and deontology and you shouldn't go along with their premises.

It is very like that.  To the point where Thellim almost has a horrible feeling that she knows where she is inside reality.  Next, the inhuman superbeing responsible for the eclipses will materialize and offer her insane, contrived choices.