[Taking risks has done nothing but help here. Chasing that echo of understanding that he feels in her - that's helped, too. When he found it in Cassel, it might have been the best thing that ever happened to him.
He manipulates people now, reads them and pushes them in the ways he thinks they need to be pushed. He manipulates them for them, and couldn't she do the same for him?
And in the end he has only one real defense against someone whose personal willpower could bring them to suicide instead of hurting someone else. It is manipulative. But it's real, too. Honest. And his voice is softer when he says it, disliking the weakness of it and the truth of it.]
[private]
[Taking risks has done nothing but help here. Chasing that echo of understanding that he feels in her - that's helped, too. When he found it in Cassel, it might have been the best thing that ever happened to him.
He manipulates people now, reads them and pushes them in the ways he thinks they need to be pushed. He manipulates them for them, and couldn't she do the same for him?
And in the end he has only one real defense against someone whose personal willpower could bring them to suicide instead of hurting someone else. It is manipulative. But it's real, too. Honest. And his voice is softer when he says it, disliking the weakness of it and the truth of it.]
Please don't hurt me.