Champion Wallace wrote:Obbl wrote:So, if King breaks his promise to be exclusive with Bailey, then that breaks the trust Bailey has in King. That is certainly going to hurt. But the point of trust is that Bailey is not going to be concerned when she sees King with Sasha, because she trusts in his promise. And if he lets things go a little too far, she trusts that he'll stop himself from going any further. She's holding King to the same standard as she holds herself, she just trusts King. King's worried that his relationship with Sasha will worry Bailey, and she's telling him he needn't worry about that.
Communication and Trust go hand in hand
You're made it clear over several posts that Bailey trusts King to make the right choice in any situation, but it seems that's the problem here, not the solution. What TheOne saw was that King didn't want Bailey to be so accepting of him being attracted to Sasha. It's not that communication and trust are bad things or he wants Bailey to go on a jealousy fulled rampage, but King needs to be reassured that Bailey loves him at the level she wants him for herself.
Yep; that's basically what I was thinking. Bailey, as a dog, has doggie instincts and morals. King, as a human-brain/dog-body, has to balance human instincts/morals with doggie instincts/morals.
So, there's a natural dissonance that needs to be dealt with. It was sorta dealt with in the next update, but not as much as needs to be. King wants to honor his human morals, and that means being 100% devoted to Bailey. Bailey, on the other hand, is a dog, and is therefore partially clueless about human morals, so she doesn't think a male dog needs to be so loyal. After all, dogs do what dogs do, and for dogs, it's not a problem at all.
So to Bailey, there is no divided mind, and she doesn't really understand King's divided mind. Her doggy brain says, "If King makes puppies with Sasha, it's okay and good. If it makes King happy, I'm happy. I don't really desire King to be 100% loyal to me." King, though, has a sort of a loyalty complex. He wants not only to be loyal, but he also wants Bailey to desire his loyalty.
Obbl wrote:I just don't see King as needing reassurance of Bailey's love. Or I don't see how Bailey making any rules for King would constitute as love. If King feels the need to distance himself from Sasha because he's worried he'll accidentally cross a line that will hurt Bailey, that is his decision.
I agree with you about the reassurance. King already knows that Bailey loves him wholeheartedly. I respectfully disagree with the rules point, though. In a solid relationship, there are clear rules and boundaries as to what you can and can't do. Bailey, at this update, had basically shown her opinion as, "Everything is fine; do whatever or whoever you want; it's alright with me, so long as you're happy."
In doggie rules, that's normal. But King isn't 100% doggie, so his mind is having trouble with that concept. To him, there
must be some line somewhere, and having no clear boundary is extremely confusing and harmful to his conscience. It's not merely his sanity that he's dealing with; he also has a personal set of rules. He wants to know that Bailey also has a set of rules, and he wants to know what those rules are.
Obbl wrote:Bailey feels comfortable with King and Sasha spending time together and even being intimate friends, and I can't see that as anything other than good, trusting, and loving....
That's where King and Bailey differ. Bailey has doggy logic and knows doggy rules. King knows human logic and human rules. What Bailey sees as being loving, supportive, and accepting, King might see as carelessness or flippancy. They'll have to work together to establish what and where the boundaries are.
Obbl wrote:King needs help with his anxieties, and Bailey may need to step in and help him come to some conclusions, but it's King who's going to need to ultimately make the decisions for himself, rather than Bailey making them for him. That's my take.
It's a valid opinion, for sure. King will need to decide what he's going to allow himself to do. I feel he can't get there on his own, though.