"Eh?" He actually looked worried. To be honest, the expression, in which his smile was still there, but rather frozen looking, which he didn't wear often, was kind of cute. "I had more figured you'd just give me, you know, a simple punishment."
I shook my head. "Seems there's still things you don't know about me. I consider most classic 'simple' punishments like flogging, if not barbaric, then certainly distasteful. I was stumped about what to do with you for quite some time…but then it hit me. What would I consider to be a truly horrible punishment? There are certainly ways in which we are alike—curiosity, similar senses of humor, and we're both rather earnest of personality, though you're maybe a bit more sociable. So, I figured such a question would be a valid basis to come up with my idea. And it worked."
