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"Oh dear God if I drop her off a cliff she is going to murder me in my sleep as she knows already where I live." Reginald was dangerously close to snorting tea across the room, or at the very least dropping his cup. "Lords only knows what unspeakable torments she would do if I turned up with a pony." He somehow managed to imbibe a small measure of tea without choking.

A moment later Reginald was more contemplative, remarking, "Trouble is, you can't ever tell Ylaine things directly, you have to trick her into it. You have to do it sideways, elbow her--" he elbowed the air-- "into a corner to make her do what you want. I tell you, it gets tiresome sometimes. Like trying to put a cat in a bathtub." Then he really started laughing, doubling over at some memory of a past exploit, probably involving cats in bathtubs.

"That sort of thing would definitely work on me," mused Reginald, calmer now, "but Ylaine only ever seems interested in proving just how much she doesn't need other people. In her mind, she thinks that's what adults are: totally self-sufficient. If she ever looked too closely at the lot of us..."

Reginald sighed a little. "You were right to call her self-obsessed. She is susceptible to vanity, But at this point, it's going to take rather a lot of pleading and cajoling, and that's the bit I'm not good at. I'm good at the 'you will go to school young lady and that's that.'" He said it in a mock-adult voice, pretend scowl on his face, but it quickly dissolved into a grin.

Reginald peered over his tea at Lindy, bemusement on his face. "I'm not going to be able to do this without you, you know. I told her she had to go to school, you told her she could leave. She's going to use the answer she likes best out of the two of us, and frankly, it isn't mine. I can force her to come back, I don't mind playing the bad guy here, but she is going to require some form of cajolement. Some sideways meaneuver that makes her think she's getting what she wants. A carrot, if you will."

"Mm, yes, could," mused Reginald, holding his tea under his nose, "Provided she doesn't think she knows the answers for the exams or can fake your values and relationship requirements. She can be quite the actress thanks to that gambling friend of hers. I was thinking we might also bump her up a level or two. She'd love that, it'd be like telling her she was the equivalent of an older child, and it would probably be even harder for her."

"If it means I have to come back and drink more of your tea, I'm all for it," agreed Reginald heartily, and from the seriousness it was hard to know if it was just a joke or a real promise. Either way, it sounded like a solution.