how do you think khaba unbinding ammet went down? what did ammet do to prove himself trustworthy?
Imma be real with you my dear I have NO FUCKING CLUE. Both of them are so awful and have so many reasons to... not be the way they are, that I honestly can't wrap my head around the fact that they are. Like, the two bastards least likely to fall for the other just... did.
Buuuuut I have some hypotheses:
The "platonic slow burn": started out on the regular master/servant terms before slowly, slowly, very fucking slowly becoming friends and Khaba eventually shrugging and cutting the bonds to make them equals. Sure, Ammet seems to have chosen to remain in the subservient position, but he was still given a choice.
The "near death experience": Ammet did something which saved Khaba from an untimely demise, even though it wasn't included in his charge so he could've easily allowed his master to die and thus earn his freedom. This made Khaba realise that hey, this one doesn't want to kill me, and then just let him roam free bc if he wanted to kill him he would've done so already. Possible parallels to PG Bartnat except the human survives this time.
"The Fuckup(TM)": similar to the above. The bonds are broken by accident, and Khaba is left defenseless against this evil and powerful marid who............ isn't.... attacking him? Okay?????? Then there's not much point in binding him if he's not gonna do anything hostile anyway?
The "gesture of trust": similar to the platonic slow burn, except Khaba is aware of the frankly nonplatonic feelings blossoming between them and for once isn't trying to like, set them on fire. So he makes a calculated risk and sets Ammet free to see if it's mutual. You know, "if you love something, set it free. If it returns, burrows through your ribs, devours your heart and becomes your new heart, it was meant to be."
The "ah, fuck it": they're already dating (but haven't broken the bonds yet bc eh they're fine the way they are) and Khaba decides to just let him roam free because hey, binding a marid takes up time and energy he could use for other things, and since this one is too gay to harm him, might as well. Similar to the gesture of trust except it's less of "I trust and love you so I'm letting you do whatever you want" and more "listen I know we're both evil and kinky so we don't mind either way but binding you is time consuming so I'm not gonna do that."
The "Khaba likes to play with fire": "lmao fuck it why not? If I die at least I'll die after getting the best fuck of my life."
Can't think of more but my money is on "platonic slow burn"/"gesture of trust" or "near death experience."
