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They think they're in on the joke that they are. The irony is becoming them.

You can't shake the feeling that he knows something you don't.

'I need you there', she would say, if she could.

The self forms around another self. It has no independent being, cannot verify its own existence.

He doesn't care about the money. The competition was all.

He closes his eyes and slips beneath the surface of himself.

A one-time admission of humanity, here at the end of everything.

Though one that makes him respect you less.

He's pleading this case more to himself than to you.

He used to lift her in the air and make her fly like a cosmonaut. Used to say goodnight with a kiss on the nose.

You know the answer.

You could suggest anything, he doesn't care as long as he's invited.

But at what cost? To become the high arbiter of Human Capital, you no doubt have to trade in some of your own.

Base it in fact. He won't believe it otherwise.

He's never been away from them for this long before.

He's got something for you. Ears on your enemies.

Silently, he asks you to trust him.

The problem has been weighed carefully from the perspective of one who knows themselves disposable.

Another little reminder. The subtlest of knife-twists.

His upbringing, education, and other conditions outside of his control have made him who he is today... have patience.

The city was her chrysalis.

Afraid that he won't be able to forgive himself if something happens, but aware that he isn't equipped to help either way.

No attempt to deflect or deny. He takes it all into himself like a landslide.

As he puts it away, you see the look he gives his masterpiece, as though wondering why it is not good enough for you.

It's hopeless. You brought this on yourself.

If this was anyone else you'd feel patronised. But that's not Ram's style -- he's genuinely trying to help.

Glad that the time he spent on the whistle wasn't wasted after all.

He doesn't know, but he has suspicions he's not prepared to share yet.

Understanding dawns on his features, and with it something like peace.

Simple, obvious. The only way it could be.

The feeling isn't even bittersweet. It feels like something that happened to someone else entirely.

31 skill checks - ZERO PARADES field manual