justashotaway | (no subject)

That does not describe you.

You are in the minority for thinking so. It's much appreciated.

Other people are wrong.

At the risk of asking you to compliment me, I'm curious as to why you think so.

You are interesting.

[Light laughter.] I'm glad to hear it. Though I don't mind being thought of as stuffy, if I'm honest. There are far worse things I could be.

What things?

[It might sound like one of those patently Laura I know nothing about the world questions--but for once, she does not mean what other options are there when what do you think worse is an option.]

[An intake of breath-- not sharp or gasping, just stalling, thinking.]

Rude. Cruel. Tempestuous.

...Yes. Those would be worse.

[Cruelty would, anyway.]

[Sadly, cruel is the one thing he's sure he is.]

Of course, I've been called such, but not by anyone whose opinions I found of much merit.

[What he says is an easy thing to agree with. What he thinks would not be.]

They were incorrect.

Orlesian nobles are not known for fair appraisals of elves, no.

Why do they dislike you?

It is not personal. Elves are treated differently from humans, as lessers. The fact that you do not do so is part of why I enjoy your company.

I know they are. [She says it quietly, not happily. When she was under Deepstalker's control, she saw that elven girls in similar positions frequently suffered worse than she.] I have never understood it.

It is easy to think little of what is different from you. That is the only logic I can put to it.

That is bad logic.

[Even as she's saying it, she knows it sometimes is not: she is different from other people, and there is little to her. Nugs are different, and they require no thought at all.

But that is not the same as Mhavos.]

Do you feel that way about humans?

Not all. I have some... ingrained antipathy for Orlesian nobility, but that's yet to lead me astray.

[She does not laugh, but she does breathe out, and it means something similar here.]

I do not feel that way about you, either.

I'm glad to hear it. A rather uneven friendship it would be, otherwise.

That would not be a friendship.

I'm glad we agree on that as well. I've never had much in the way of friendship, but I've always hoped it to be an even thing.

I have not, either. [What a surprise. Mhavos is the only one she can say these things to, she suspects, and get an answer she will like.] But it is...not bad.

No. I... enjoy the knowledge that I can continue to benefit from the company of others. In Orlais, my contract was frequently traded or sold; I stopped trying to make acquaintances, much less friends.

People did not want you.

[Only what you did. There's a note of sympathy in there somewhere.]