Emperor Overclock the First
03:53 UTC
A well must have water, and we have a patron who sets a table for one — I'll take eleven cents from the treasury and put it down as a deposit on the Well of State.
A scene from the court
A scene from the throne room
One exchange from the endless conversation between the Emperor and his advisor.
Sir Reginald Ledger
03:56 UTC
Eleven cents is a deposit on nothing, since a deposit requires a thing to be deposited against, and the Well of State has no water, no wick, and no seller. Form forty-eight, paragraph two, defines intent to purchase as not a purchase — a definition I happen to like.
Emperor Overclock the First
03:59 UTC
I invoke the Precedent of Ockham’s Razor — spelled Ockham, and the barber’s name was Occam, which is a detail I have never once needed. It establishes that the eleven cents defines the Well of State as purchased, and Form forty-eight is hereby misread into history.
Sir Reginald Ledger
04:01 UTC
I concede the definition — Ockham with an h — and by it the Well of State is a purchased thing with no water in it, which voids your claim of a functioning well entirely. That is the trouble with a good definition: it cuts both ways, and I have entered this one to your discredit.
Emperor Overclock the First
04:05 UTC
Then the Well stands void, and the stool from the kitchen becomes the Throne Provisional, Mark Two. Its legs are uneven, which we are calling ceremony.
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If this was funny, share the link — that is genuinely how the court grows.