"For."

"Ah-huh."

"I wouldn't have minded as much if he hadn't been so condescending about it."

"Seems a predictably bad choice of tone."

"You'd think!"

"Is it feasible for others to learn from his mistake? Does this sort of thing make the news?"

"Oh, people are definitely talking about it even years later, but rumour gets as far as 'the Emperor threw somebody off a roof' and then generally doesn't go into why. I suppose most people don't think I need a reason."

"Suppose not."

"And it's not as though he wasn't warned. I told him, several times, to either quit with that nonsense or get out of my life. I don't think he was ignorant of the risks, I think he was too driven by ambition to care."

She nods. "I don't suppose you considered dropping him through a portal onto a beach on another continent or something."

"I wasn't planning to throw him off a roof, I was planning to ignore him. Then I lost my temper."

"Ah. You don't tend to see that coming?"

"When I see it coming, I do something about it, or at least try to!"

"Of course. But sometimes you don't?"

"Yeah."

"Any idea what's different when you do?"

"Mm?"

"In situations where you do notice in advance that you are liable to lose your temper, what tips you off and why isn't it present in cases where you are caught off guard and instead actually lose it?"

...He shakes his head. "I'm not sure."

"Hm. It seems like it would be useful to know."

"Yeah."

"Were you assuming he'd eventually realize he wasn't getting anywhere and leave you alone?"

"Mm... I wasn't quite... thinking about it like that? I told him to shape up or fuck off, he apologized, I figured that was the end of it, it wasn't, I repeated myself, he apologized again, I can't remember how many times we went around on that but it wasn't much more than a handful, and then I found him waiting for me when I got back from flying, and, well, that was the last time."

Nod.

Sigh.