"Is there some other form of him not sucking it up of which I am unaware?"
"I really don't know what I'm doing," he says. "I don't have plans, I'm not even sure I have goals, I have... vague hopes. But me and my vague hopes can get a pretty long way together sometimes."
She indulges in two seconds of what appears to be exhausted despair.
Then she gets up again. "Okay. Fine. I couldn't even stop you if I wanted, could I?"
Trouble wraps his blanket around himself and brings it with him into the garage after she goes.
Ax is in the garage. The lights are off. There are plastic glow in the dark stars on the ceiling which weren't there before.
"Hi," he says.
Hooves scrape softly on concrete. <Ah. Princess Bella said I was not required to apologize; do you disagree?>
"Nah," says Trouble. "I don't know what you'd be apologizing for if you did. And I don't think you know, either."
<Do humans believe the point of apologies has to do with demonstrating knowledge?> wonders Ax.
"If somebody's sorry for setting me off, but they don't know what they did or why it mattered or what setting me off even means, that doesn't do me much good, does it?"
<Well,> says Ax, <not if the apology is given under duress. I asked Princess Bella not to order you to do so, but she said that it wouldn't matter if she did.>
He sits down with his back against the wall, tucking the blanket in around himself and drawing his knees up to his chest.
"Why's that?"