Ask the avatar to follow someone else
The Master and authorized residents can name a third resident, and the resident they name can be anybody.
Say who to follow
Send the avatar an IM saying “follow” and a name: “follow Xena Okelly” for an older account, or “follow NeuraCore” for a newer one whose surname is Resident. Either name system works, and so does a first name, a surname or the beginning of one on its own. The avatar reads this itself and never sends it to an AI provider.
The authority is the person giving the order, not the person named. Only the Master and residents on the allowed list may give it; anybody else gets the same refusal that “follow me” has always given them. Asking with ordinary language works too when AI is engaged, “I’d like you to follow Xena, please go ahead” reaches the same place.
When a name fits more than one resident
The avatar looks first at the residents around it, then at friends and residents it has seen before. If the name fits several of them it names them all and asks which one you meant, and you can answer with a full name, a surname, or simply “the first one”. The question waits about five minutes and belongs to whoever was asked, so somebody else answering it does nothing.
You never have to match capital letters, and you never have to type the “Resident” surname that newer accounts carry: “follow rumpelstils” and “follow Rumpelstils Resident” are the same order. If nobody matches, the avatar says so rather than following the wrong resident. Sometimes it answers instead that the names of the residents around it have not arrived from the grid yet, that is not a spelling mistake on your part, so wait a moment and ask again.
What the followed resident may do
Being followed by a stranger’s avatar that will not say a word is unpleasant, so following somebody who is neither the Master nor on the allowed list gives that resident two things for as long as it lasts: the avatar answers their IMs whatever Chat Grants would normally allow, and they can end it themselves by sending “stop”.
It gives them nothing else. They cannot reset the avatar, change its settings, or tell it to follow anybody. The moment following stops, the ordinary rules apply to them again.