Ves felt as if he was treating Marvaine as an employee rather than his son.
Setting up such a formal and rule-bound incentive structure smacked of manipulative behavior.
It was the kind of approach that a heartless results-driven boss imposed on their underlings to ensure that they remained productive and helpful to the company.
Though Ves possessed enough awareness to recognize that he was acting a bit too much like Gloriana than he was comfortable with, he couldn't help it. Marvaine had so much talent that he couldn't bear the thought that his son would grow up as less than the sum of his parts!
He distinctly recalled one of his distant Mastery experiences where he had landed in the mind of a certain drug-addled, good-for-nothing scion of the Streon Clan of the Greater Terran United Confederation.