On Sat, 23 Jul 2022 20:40:01 -0700, Ethan McKinney wrote:

>Any Vargr diplomat who interacts with humans and *doesn't* know that
>chocolate is a potential poison didn't pay attention in the briefings.

Well, yes. Assuming that he had a competent briefing officer. Which isn't
always the case; there's a not-all-that-long-ago example of a US President
that didn't greet a foreign head of state (of a US client state) as an
equal; he positioned himself as inferior to that client head of state. That
sort of thing can only come from a bad briefing.

I suggested that Ambassador Lyssa would call the narrator on the carpet for
that gift - but what if the Ambassador wasn't aware that chocolate was a
potential poison to Vargr? Again, that would be a briefing failure - but
one that might not be noticed for a while; not everyone knows about canids
and theobromine, and it might be considered a serious error for a diplomat
interacting with Vargr to keep a dog as a pet...

>And the guy could have had a label on the inside lid of box, just to be
>sure that the Vargr doesn't miss the "joke."

Yeah, but that adds a second level of insult to it - which may or may not
be intended. (Not only is he saying "Drop dead, Fido", he's also saying
"and you're too stupid to realize that that's what I'm saying".)

>Hmmm ... this makes me think about TL15 cake boxes. Just a grav bubble
>projector.

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