Jedao is quiet, for a little while, level, making sure Eiffel has said his whole piece.
"I get it," he says quietly. "I've been -" A brief, hiccoughing little laugh. "I don't know how to express just how utterly I've been outclassed, by someone Elias could be if he had another eight centuries to work on it. I've had to smile and swallow lies and play dumb and not realize the dumb mistakes I was making and act - not dumb, exactly, he knew more about my brain than I did, but - compliant. I get that that's a strategy."
His voice is level and low, but he has to force himself to relax his white-knuckled grip on the arcade chassis behind him.
"But you have other resources, and you're not using them. I don't know if that's because you're so used to this approach that you genuinely haven't noticed, or because you're so used to this approach that you're worried doing anything else on the side will blow up in your face, or if you don't care what happens to other inmates while you're working your angle, or if you do care but it's overwhelming so you're convincing yourself the risk doesn't exist, or what. I am trying to find out. I want you to help me understand."
no subject
"I get it," he says quietly. "I've been -" A brief, hiccoughing little laugh. "I don't know how to express just how utterly I've been outclassed, by someone Elias could be if he had another eight centuries to work on it. I've had to smile and swallow lies and play dumb and not realize the dumb mistakes I was making and act - not dumb, exactly, he knew more about my brain than I did, but - compliant. I get that that's a strategy."
His voice is level and low, but he has to force himself to relax his white-knuckled grip on the arcade chassis behind him.
"But you have other resources, and you're not using them. I don't know if that's because you're so used to this approach that you genuinely haven't noticed, or because you're so used to this approach that you're worried doing anything else on the side will blow up in your face, or if you don't care what happens to other inmates while you're working your angle, or if you do care but it's overwhelming so you're convincing yourself the risk doesn't exist, or what. I am trying to find out. I want you to help me understand."