Is he going to bother going?

...nnnnnno he is not. Maybe tomorrow, but not tonight, no.

He drives in circles some more. Contemplates Valerie's emergency-alert read, and then sighs and sets it to the same as Dani's, where it'll tell him if she wants his attention. Thinks briefly about hunting and then has to pull over on the side of a random street and cry.

Fuck. What is he even fucking doing with his life? He feels... lost. Not run quite so ragged as he was before he talked to Karen, but... it's still so hard to see what his future could look like, how to live in this world where he's fucked up such important things so irrecoverably.

And, speaking of Jenna—

He gets out his phone, stares at it for a few long minutes with his mind totally blank, and finally texts: i really liked hanging out with you. let's do that again

Jenna feels her phone buzz and though she really should be paying attention in class even if the teacher isn't exactly talking about something she's particularly interested in at the moment since really while she understands why they want her to learn various things about set building and the vocabulary behind it and while it probably will come in handy even if she never does any of this directly as an actress she's going to be an actress and really wishes she was learning to act. But she knows it's important and she's trying to be studious and not be distracted thinking and worrying about why Sean hasn't texted her back yet even though they had a date two days ago and Carol told her not to worry and they didn't do too much so it's not like the sort of situation her mother warned her about she still has her virginity and everything and they never even went below the belt even if it was amazing and one of the most incredible experiences of her life and... right. Her phone buzzed and it could be Sean and she wants to see if it's Sean and so she takes a quick glance around and surreptitiously slides it out of her pocket and checks and it is from Sean and she's in class so she shouldn't squeak or jump for glee even if it's a surprisingly short message and not as emphatic as she would like but honestly it's still very him and she knows she shouldn't read much into it because he said he wants to see her again and she really should not bounce up and down in class at all or draw any attention she should be paying attention. 

Jenna slides the phone back into her pocket because she definitely shouldn't text him back in class and he can wait another 30 minutes or so until her class ends and she'll be paying attention to what different kinds of stage dressings there are and how set changes work and not thinking about if another date with him on Tuesday is too soon or if she wants to wait until Thursday because they do have ballroom together on Thursday and she doesn't want to go too fast and certainly not thinking about how incredible their date was and how amazing she felt being touched and touched and touched and held in his arms afterwards and how sweet it was and maybe Tuesday isn't too soon because she wants more of that and maybe that's all the more reason to wait until Thursday. But she's not going to be paying attention to that or thinking about that at all instead she is going to take notes like a good student and text him after class and they can figure things out together. Even if she wants to do it now. But she's supposed to be paying attention. And so she will. Definitely. And not take her phone out and read the message again no it was already bad that she did that once even though everyone seems to do that all the time already well maybe one more time no she's going to be a good student. 

Okay. There. He did that. And now... she will text him back... at... some point... probably... and anyway he is not best served by sitting here worrying about it.

He goes driving again, for lack of a better idea. Mildly scandalizes a McDonalds drive-through by taking his car through it, just because it's starting to get weird how infrequently he eats and maybe it'll help him feel more like a human being. It does, kinda.

In the middle of eating, he gets a text back from Jenna. 

I had a really great time too! I've got a lot going on this week I think but I'll see you on Thursday for ballroom, right? We should hang out after that, or get food before it, if you want.

Jenna stares at the message and waffles back and forth before pressing send and then regretting it but it was probably fine. She really shouldn't see him again so soon even if she wants to it was a good idea to take things slow even though she wants to be in his arms again and see his cute smiling face and feel his muscles and kiss and make out some more and maybe even more than that and Tuesday was too soon. Much too soon. Even if she wants it lots and lots and lots it would be so much better to pace herself here and not totally scandalize her mother even if she wasn't going to tell her the whole truth or tell her yet at all.

And she wasn't sure if she sounded ok or too needy or too enthusiastic or not enthusiastic enough in the text and she knows she shouldn't be so scared because it was so clear he likes her at least she was pretty sure of that he just took a while to text back but that's ok it was two days two days is normal it would all be fine but she still wants to make sure she came off properly and right and she spent way too long on it and so she made it good enough and then sent it and that will be fine. It will. Hopefully he'd text her back soon and maybe she should put some hearts on it she could still send him a couple and it wouldn't look weird and she could pretend she didn't have signal for a bit and that's why it took so long but now that would be far too forward and it's probably too late now anyways. She should go get something to eat and go back to her dorm and do her homework and if he texts her back it would be fine. And checking her phone every couple of seconds wouldn't going to make him text her any faster. Food, homework, hope for text. And no more checking her phone it will buzz that's what the buzz is for. 

It takes him about a minute and a half to answer that text with: getting food before dance sounds good! ♥

Jenna had kindof wished he'd offered both but this was still fine and she was sure he'd be up for hanging out some afterwards and getting food with him beforehand would certainly be good and would probably help them to get to know each other better anyways even if she really wanted more of the kissing it was important to make sure it wasn't just his cute face and muscles and body she wanted even if she did really want them. 

Maybe he'd take her somewhere nice and they could make out in the car a little beforehand. Probably a bad idea almost certainly a bad idea but she should still leave the option open and maybe he would take her nice and as long as she was clear than anything too overt could wait until after dance they'd probably still actually make it to ballroom fine. Jenna did in fact actually want to go dancing. 

Also he sent her a heart. A heart!! She knows it probably doesn't mean too much at least not yet but it's still really sweet and makes her all giddy and means she can certainly send back more of her own without worrying about things though maybe she shouldn't send quite so many. She still doesn't want to seem too enthusiastic. Probably.

Awesome!! ♥ Anything in particular in mind? Where and when should we meet? Looking forward to it! ♥ she sends, and then gets in line for food at the cafeteria and does her best to think about her homework and the Chinese food she's about to eat and not fantasize about her date or about Sean or how incredible their last date was and how awesome and sweet and incredible and hot and fun and cute he is or anything like that. 

His turnaround time on this one is even faster.

i've been the worst at finding interesting places to eat around here but i have this excellent car, is there anywhere you wanna go?

This line is suddenly much shorter than she wants it to be because she doesn't want to be in the middle of a text when she makes her order but also now he's asking her to figure out a place to eat and he's rich shouldn't he know all kinds of secret or fancy places she doesn't know anything about it really probably is too early for that sort of thing she totally understands him not taking her to a super duper fancy expensive restaurant even if she's never been to one before and it would probably be such fun and the food would probably be amazing even if it would probably be all stuffy and formal but even if he's rich it's probably a lot of money to spend and maybe he just doesn't know any places in the city yet like he said. Still, you'd think he knows of something. And this line isn't getting any longer. Well as long as he is essentially asking to take her somewhere well she can't really impose but she, well, he has to have eaten somewhere, right? It's not like he's been eating cafeteria food the whole time he wasn't on the meal plan so he must be eating something maybe he cooks? That still doesn't track. Well she can always just ask especially since she does not have a lot of time left there's only two more people in front of her and that's almost no time at all. 

Honestly I haven't really been eating anything other than campus food, but it is already starting to get old and it'll only get older by Thursday I bet! Wherever you normally eat would probably be great! Doesn't have to be too fancy or anything ♥ 

oh no now i have to admit that the only place i've eaten at since saturday is mcdonald's ♥ i am not good at food it turns out. i could look for a place if you can't think of anything though?

Really? Well maybe he's just used to servants cooking for something and having all of his meals provided for him but she's still surprised that he'd eat at McDonalds. For days. Really? For breakfast too? She's really not sure that makes any sense and maybe he does know about some really good fancy-pants places but can't tell her about them like some kind of secret society but really then he'd have some kind of better lie and that really doesn't seem like the kind of thing he'd lie about but also that doesn't make a ton of sense especially given his body unless he's just like that which is unfair genetically but that can't be right at all maybe he's just not sure what to eat now that he's not living at home anymore? Jenna is really rather confused and doesn't know what to make of this and maybe it's all fine and he's very much a bit strange but she still doesn't understand. She wants to admonish him and she wants to ask more questions and she really shouldn't pry but she's very confused and he really has no reason to lie but. Well she can ask him in more detail in person she guesses because it wouldn't be polite over text but also she's so very very confused. 

Well I guess you get less bored with things than I do, Jenna writes tentatively and slightly confusedly. Are you sure you don't know anywhere good nearby? I can always look something up before Thursday, if food really isn't your thing. As it seems not to be, if he's eating at McDonalds but she still doesn't want to impose and pick something too expensive or too cheap though if he's eating at McDonalds she supposes that too cheap isn't really as likely or worrisome but still she doesn't know what the right protocols are and she expects he won't mind and she can just pick somewhere nice she'd probably pick herself but she's still very confused. 

i like food i just suck at it! like it's really hard to remember that i need to eat and then by the time i do i can't think of anywhere better than the nearest fast food place, you know? actually you probably don't know. probably this is just a me problem. i'll totally take you wherever you wanna go though.

Okay that's actually a more reasonable explanation than anything Jenna was thinking of though maybe he should be doing something other than McDonalds all the time like getting some sandwiches or something in his fridge or something microwaveable or something. He's probably just a little out of sorts right now what with moving away from his parents or something and will figure out something a bit more sensible to do later. She hopes. Regardless she shouldn't be nosy and stick her nose where it doesn't belong at least not over text especially since she should probably eat food which should be coming soon and not worry so much about this. She's sure she can get plenty of recommendations she probably has at least one or two friends who live in the city and worst case the internet is good at food probably even if Sean isn't. 

Well, that makes sense! I'm sure you're not the only person with that sort of problem :P ♥  I'll see what I can find and let you know soon, alright? See you this Thursday! ♥

okay, see you then! ♥

What a refreshingly normal interaction. Is this even a normal interaction? What is a normal interaction? Well, he doesn't want to cry anymore, so he'll take it.

After finishing his meal, and driving around for a little longer, Sean might start to notice little flickers of a signal on the "wants his attention" signal from Dani. It's not a full fledged signal, for sure -- it's never particularly strong and it certainly seems to be fluctuating between weak and not there at all, but once he notices and pays attention to it it's clearly a signal, even if it's fading in and out.

Huh.

...has he even told Dani about the emergency-alert read? He can't remember.

He tries to think about whether he wants to contact her, how, what he'd say if he did. He super doesn't want to talk about magic over text message, but she really didn't seem fond of communication by magic even once he wasn't reading her mind. (While he's thinking about it, he checks for any further plots against him she may have made since last they spoke.)

Her plans haven't changed very much since last he checked. They're still fuzzy on details, but involve trying to talk to him and find out how he works and what's going on so that she can stop him if she needs to. Either convincing what he's doing is wrong and having magic does not give him the right to hurt or do whatever he wants, or figuring out if there are loopholes or exploits in how his power works so she can free herself or Valerie or both from his control, and anyone else he might have taken in the meantime. She has a couple of branching conversation trees of ways to try to convince him to agree to things but she has very low confidence in them and most of the trees are crumpled up and discarded, and the rest are half-formed. She has some questions and experiments in mind for trying to figure out how his power works but she's trying to figure out how to conceal results from him in case she lets him know something that makes him stronger by accident, or guide experiments in a way that aren't likely to find out that he has more power or control than expected, even if those experiments would be useful.

This is at the same time perfectly reasonable and immensely frustrating.

Okay. Sure. Fine.

He texts: I have some time to talk, can I come visit?

Dani has been slowly but increasingly frustrated over the past couple of days. Having a pad of paper and a pen in her hands has helped immensely and clearly is related to something she used to do, especially given the fact that she knows shorthand. There are a number of jobs that such a skill would be useful for, assuming it was something she used at her job, assuming she had one. So many assumptions, with so little to base them off of. So many things that should easily come to mine that she has to guess or assume at without having anything solid to base them on. Every time she reaches for something and finds nothing but darkness it's a bit more of a blow. Not knowing who she is or used to be continues to make it so very difficult for her to do anything, and she's made so very little headway on solving it. A court reporter or a personal assistant (jobs that often require shorthand of some kind) don't feel right, however much evidence her intuition gives her is actually worth at this point. Of the things she found, journalist feels the most likely to be correct, but a mysteriously disappeared journalist seems like it would certainly have made the news, and regardless she can't find any journalists whose names start with Dani or Dan or even Da that sound like they should be her. Maybe she wrote under a pen name, perhaps? She's not sure of any of her old motivations or what she would be called.

Searching through the list of missing persons doesn't help much either. Even though she knows most missing persons aren't reported for at least a couple of days, depending on circumstances, she's still spent many a time flipping through the incredibly awful mobile webpage on her phone, hoping to find someone who looks or sounds familiar. Anyone who looks anything like she used to, as long a shot as that is. Any sort of pattern, when the mobile version has extremely restricted filters to use. She did manage to make a trip to the library yesterday, in frustration, but the computers there that don't require a library card to access log her out after 30 minutes, preventing her from getting anything reasonable done, and the librarian was starting to give her weird looks after a couple of hours of searching and she did not want to attract too much attention. Maybe she could go back tomorrow, with a different librarian, and try again -- but having a laptop or any kind of computer at all would really help, and only having a cell phone was starting to get immensely frustrating.

And then there is Sean. Sean, who she currently owes everything to, and Sean, who had done all kinds of awful things to folks and gotten away with it and she still wasn't sure how to stop him from doing again. She still isn't sure what had happened to the poor girl who he raped and wiped her memory of in the past that he was planning to take on a date. He's still taken control over someone against their will and is keeping them as a slave just because she annoyed him and he wanted her and because he can. There's still the fact that no matter how much his strange sense of honor means that he's giving her everything she needs to survive, and how he seems to be leaving her alone (as far as she knows, because she has no way of knowing for sure, even with the notes she's taken to hiding around the apartment, and even then he could be reading her mind right now and she would have no way to know), he can still change his mind at any time and do whatever he wants to her. Even assuming he keeps all his promises, which admittedly seem likely from that short mindreading session, she still has no good way to plan without him finding out what she's planning, which makes working against him very hard.

And working against him, well. He's a monster, he's hurt people with utter impunity, and is likely to do so again, and he needs to be stopped. She could try convincing him to stop, but from her past experiences that really doesn't seem like her forte and still means he's likely to get away scott free for things he's already done, even if he never does anything like that again. She's tried figuring out how to do so anyways, but nothing she's come up with sounds right upon reviewing it. She could try finding someone else with magic and getting them to stop him -- but there's no guarantee that they wouldn't be even worse than Sean, especially... remembering how Sean had found her, and regardless all of her internet searches for actual real magic turned up nothing. Not even conspiracy theories that sounded like they might be real, and some of those message boards had been incredibly painful to read, until she gave up in disgust. Her only real option seems to be to find out some way to use his power against him, or find out some way to escape or disable it -- and while she certainly is motivated to make him stronger so she can find whoever... did... that thing they did to her, she also doesn't want to make such a monster more capable of doing whatever he wants to do, when what he wants to do is so repugnant and horrifying and harmful. She's done her best to design some experiments, but given that she doesn't necessarily want him to know the results, it's making it rather difficult.

And then there's the fact that whenever he wants, he's going to find out and know all of her plans. Even if she finds out some key detail that he doesn't know, she won't have long to act before he knows it too and will take whatever measure he wants to stop her.

It's late in the afternoon, starting to be evening on Monday, when Dani is starting to get fed up. Her computer isn't here yet. Missing persons still has turned up nothing. She's frustrated and she doesn't know what to do next, and even trying the pre-loaded games on this phone don't seem to distract her much from her worries and annoyance and frustration. Neither does watching daytime TV. Sean hasn't tried to contact her at all, and while she appreciates the space he's giving her, especially under the circumstances, she doesn't know what to do next and it's really starting to bother her. A lot. Eventually, watching something really stupid on TV, she starts to consider contacting him, just so that she can have someone to talk to, because she doesn't know anyone else at the moment. It's a foolish idea, and she keeps pushing it back down, but the idea keeps seeming more and more appealing. Maybe he'll have something useful she can do. Or she can try to make progress on convincing him to stop being a sadistic rapist monster. Or propose some of the couple of experiments she's come up. She's trying to figure out what exactly she'd text him, assuming she wants to text him -- which she really probably shouldn't, when his text arrives.

The timing is very slightly suspicious, given that she was considering talking to him -- and this doesn't really seem to be plans, so it does seem to fall outside the boundary of things she's been promised he's going to do. But maybe it's just a coincidence, and it's not like she has any way to stop him from reading her mind anyways, other than his sense of honor. And she's honestly grateful for the distraction, and can always ask him about it when he shows up.

It's not like I have much on my plate at the moment, she writes, which is perhaps a bit more snide than she wants to be but it honestly feels good to let out a bit of a frustration. Still, she probably shouldn't be quite so snippy with the man who could do whatever he wants to her whenever he wants. It would be more prudent to be polite in the rest of her message. Feel free to stop by, if you'd like, I wouldn't mind talking to you some more, especially if you've found out anything interesting, she finishes, and then presses send.

ok, i'll be there in ten minutes

Ugh. He's kind of dreading talking to her, but at the same time he wants to. He wants to—dump his whole weekend in her lap and ask her if maybe now she's willing to work with him. Except that's not really fair, is it? She has perfectly good reasons for being as wary of him as she is—it's just—it's just that he wants her to understand where he's coming from and she so clearly still doesn't and if he could just show her, somehow, who he is, how he thinks, then maybe she'd stop trying to hold him back and hide things from him and turn him into someone he's not, and they could have an actual honest fucking conversation and maybe even start working together on their common interest in making sure what happened to her never happens to anyone else ever again—

Oh would you look at that, it's been ten minutes. He parks the car and gets in the elevator, and when he gets up to the right floor he texts here before walking down the hall to knock.

Dani takes a few minutes after he texts back to make sure to update a couple of the hidden notes-to-herself and that they're all are properly hidden around the apartment. Of course, they would really only work if he's careless, given that he could likely just read her mind and find out where they're all hidden. Or compel her to tell him where they are, or all manner of things. But they provide her with some measure of peace of mind regardless, even if it's unwarranted.

She takes a few more minutes, once that's done, just to try and figure out what she's going to do. She might start by asking about that poor girl he was going on a date with. She really hopes nothing bad happened to her, she knew about it but there was nothing she could have thought of that would have let her stop it. Hopefully she's ok. Hopefully he didn't do something horrible to her again and make her forget it. Her inability to do anything continues to be incredibly frustrating.

She's in the middle of trying to figure out what exactly to do -- what to ask, what to say, when he finally does arrive. Dani sighs, steels herself a little, and goes to answer the door to let him inside, then walking back to the living room to sit. She's got a fresh sheet of paper and a pen, and she has no idea what to talk about, but maybe this conversation will go better than last time. Who knows.

"Alright," she says, after a moment. "Is there anything in particular you wanted to talk about? Or is this just a general check-in?" She clicks her pen a couple of times, waiting for his answer.

He flops heavily onto the couch, rubs his face with both hands, and sighs.

"You know what, I'm just gonna—"

—let her read his mind, because a lot of shit has happened this weekend and he doesn't even have the faintest clue of how to start putting any of it into words.

Okay. From the top.

He spent a while thinking after that conversation they had, and came to some tentative conclusions, and then he had his date with Jenna and—and—and he is trying really hard not to cry, because crying in front of someone as hostile as Dani does not feel good and he doesn't want to play for her sympathy he just wants her to know what happened—but what happened is, in fact, a lot of stuff that makes him want to cry whenever he thinks about it, so, fine, that's a thing that's happening now, moving right the fuck along—

They had a beautifully adorable cute cozy date and he likes her so much and he loves making her happy so fucking much and then—he told her about magic—and then he told her everything—and that went just about exactly how you'd expect it to have gone—except that for some insane reason she still cared enough about him not to want him to dump her on the spot, so he faked his way through a version of the conversation about magic where he hadn't hurt her, which, by the way, is a thing he can do, and he almost wishes he couldn't because he's not sure he can face living in a world where no matter what assurances he gives of his sincerity he could always be faking them by magic, but, well, what's he gonna do, lie about it?

Anyway. So there's Jenna.

And then he sent her home and cried about her (and invented the emergency alert system which is how he found out Dani kinda-sorta wanted his attention today, he meant to tell Dani about that but it looks like he never got around to it, sorry) and went back to Valerie and observed that he'd been neglecting her and woke up the next morning and neglected her some more, for which his general exhaustion and dismay really isn't a good enough excuse, and was too exhausted to hit on Zoe although he'd previously been looking forward to hitting on Zoe and—

—Karen asked him what was wrong.

And after they finished studying, he told her.

That was... he needed that. He really really needed that. Honestly he probably needed a lot more than that but that's what he got and he wouldn't dream of demanding more and he really, really needed it.

He's better, now, at going over his memories and focusing on the parts that explain things and not just barreling through the whole mess and calling it good. He gives Dani a good overview of his thoughts and feelings from that conversation, especially the ones that seem relevant to her, like the parts that were about her, or the parts that touched on the question of Sean hurting people, or the fact that he absolutely does not think for a second that anyone he's ever hurt deserved it—

—and, a little out of order, he gets to the part about trauma, and—the thing is, it was still worth it, it's very important to him that Dani understand that, saving her was worth the nebulous discomfort and disconnection and uncertainty and the feeling unsafe and the crying in his car, it was worth all of that, he'd do it again in a heartbeat if he had to, for her, for anyone, what happened to her was awful and so long as he has the power to fix it he will.

It matters that she understand the way he feels responsible for her, too, how he just will not use his power over her in certain ways because he took that power for her sake and he'd be betraying the implicit promise of the bargain if he abused it, but the most important thing is that she know he does not regret saving her just because it hurt him, not at all, not even a little bit.

...anyway and then he cried on Karen a bunch more and then he cried on Karen a bunch more again and then he did his best to stop neglecting Valerie—because Valerie is important, actually, and he is incredibly fucking fed up with himself for the way he's been treating her, it's irresponsible and neglectful and stupid and he is done ignoring her needs like that, he is making her an explicit priority in his life from now on—and, well, that was his weekend.

He waits, rubbing his tearstained face, to find out what she thinks of it all. (Ugh it's so uncomfortable being—open to her like this—especially when he can't see any of what she's thinking in response—but dammit it's worth it if he can get her to finally fucking understand him—)

Dani really wishes he would ask permission before doing any of these sorts of things, even if she wanted to try reading his mind like this again, to gain a better understanding of his perspective, and figure out if she could find a way to make him stop. She's really had more than enough of being treated like anyone can do as they wish to her, having him impinge on her mind and thoughts again and again without even a word of asking. Still, he seems to have quite a lot on his mind, so she follows the torrent of memory and ideas and explanation as they go past, scribbling things down so she doesn't forget. 

It seemed like she'd had some effect on him at least, after their last conversation -- even if his reasoning is so very twisted (the idea of being not able to hurt someone is cowardly?) the end result seemed to be at least a movement in a direction towards not doing horrible things to him, just because they could, because of his weird sense of responsibility and dislike of lying. It might only be a temporary thing, from what he was thinking, a way to find out if he could get something out of it and satisfy his own strange morality to see if it worked out better for him, and he wasn't going to give up what he already had, regardless. It was something, but, it was only a push -- not enough to get him to stop, not for certain, only enough to get him to think about it more and see if this new strategy works better than what he's currently been doing. But progress was progress, she supposes. 

And then the crying starts and while Dani is slightly rankled at being called hostile she supposes it's a mostly accurate description of her current stand towards a monster who wants to rape and torture people for his own amusement just because he can get away with it. And she's certainly not going to be swayed by tears, no matter how heartfelt they were, he certainly didn't need to worry on that score. 

And then the date, well, he doesn't cover it in great detail but he still clearly cares for this poor girl, enjoys her and is delighted by her and honestly Dani can see why. Even through his own memory and perspective, Jenna is clearly a happy and eager person, clearly taken with Sean (unfortunately) and they do have a very nice conversation and time together. And then, he takes her into his car, and reads her mind (without consent, once more), and Dani can see first -- well, secondhand, just how happy and delighted she is, and how much of a very nice time they have. She bites her lip at the snippets of that little episode, that she gets -- feeling a bit too much of a voyeur for her taste, looking in on something not meant for her. But it isn't like she has much of a choice, at present, and he's already thinking about what came next...

And then Dani gets to see what happens when the poor girl learns the truth, and her delighted little world comes crashing down on her. And even though Sean's a monster, and deserves to be taken to task for everything he's done, he deserves so much worse than to be screamed and yelled at for hurting this poor girl that he cares so much for, to hurt because he hurt her, Dani still can't help but feel the smallest bit of pity for him. But that poor, poor, poor girl. 

The fact that she still wants to be with him is a surprise, and not one that Dani can easily explain. Some girls are attracted to bad boys, Dani supposes, but that doesn't quite seem to be what's going on there. She isn't sure what to think of it, exactly, but Jenna clearly wants to stay together with him, or go back to the ways things were, or learn about magic, or something, and it's far more of a boon than someone like Sean deserves. 

The bit about being able to edit through memories in real time is rather disconcerting, and calls into question everything she knows so far, everything she's heard from his thoughts -- but really, he has no reason to tell her about that, not unless there's some other version of her that he's made a deal with, like Jenna, which at this stage seems highly unlikely. If he wants her trust, if he wants her to believe certain things, he can just make her believe them, without any need for such trickery. Still, it leaves a nagging worry in the back of her mind that something isn't quite right. Something to puzzle through later, she supposes. And she is writing everything down. There really isn't much point in being paranoid, not at the moment. 

The emergency alert system is a reasonably non-invasive way for him to keep track of her and make sure she stays safe, Dani supposes. Still, she would have been preferred to be consulted. She doesn't really like the idea of her emotions leaking through to him like that, even if she can see how prudent the concept is. And it would be better, if instead of her desire tickling at him when she had been considering contacting him, if getting his attention was voluntary, as opposed to reading her emotions and thoughts to send him back an analog signal. Something to bring up once this rather long summary is done, which should be soon, she supposes, after such an eventful Saturday. 

But apparently not. Dani clicks her pen a couple of times in disdain at how he's been mistreating his poor slave -- regardless of the shape of the impression of thoughts she gets secondhand through Sean -- is that really how she thinks? Not important for the moment, something to follow up with later. Regardless, no kidding that he doesn't really have an excuse. She can tell he's much more sorry about it now, but he's been treating her, as Dani was afraid of, as a simple sex slave. Which does strengthens her resolve to find some way to free her. Somehow. Even if clearly he seems to have done something about that, which she supposes she'll find out about later. 

And then, Karen. 

Karen, who apparently cares about him, and better yet, wants to rehabilitate him. Even in spite of knowing about all the horrible things he's done, she still seems to see it as, well, something about his mind and upbringing that he needs to outgrow. Which, while noble, and sweet, and somewhat naive, doesn't keep the rest of the world safe from him. Still, the way she approaches it seems to, well, help him listen to her. 

His reflections about Dani to Karen while summarizing, while not entirely new at this point, still help reassure Dani that she's likely not in too much danger from Sean, no matter how much power over her he holds, but it's the next part that's truly refreshing. And surprising. Karen, somehow caring and understanding enough, manages to help him work through his complicated thoughts and desires around hurting people, how it hurts him to hurt those he cares about, and how anyone, potentially, could be someone cares about, and how it would look to others... well it's not the most solid ground that Dani would have preferred, but it's something much more concrete than she ever would have expected. Sean is, well, very probably not going to try and hurt anyone anymore. At least for the foreseeable future. Dani lets out a breath of relief that she didn't know that she was holding. Thank goodness. 

And, while, yes, he has trauma about the whole experience, congratulations, have a cookie, it's still not as horrifying as what Dani went through and how she... feels about the whole... experience. Still, she's very relieved, at the moment, and more capable of giving him some sympathy about it. She's glad he managed to push through his unease to do what was necessary to save her, and she's glad that he even knowing the consequences he'd do it again. And she's especially glad that she was saved in the first place. She's still more than grateful for that, no matter what mess she's managed to fall into now. 

And then, well, Dani is slightly gratified that he's treating his sex slave better, now. Karen seems rather good for him, and seems like she'll be able to at least help him make better choices in the long run -- at least she hopes so, and whether or not she directly caused him to treat Valerie better, treating her as an actual human person with her own (rather strange) desires and wants and needs (she really does think like that. What a strange person), she's still likely a partial cause. She hopes that there are more, well, therapy sessions in his future. 

And Dani feels a lot more comfortable now. Sean is improving, and not likely to do anything any more horrible than he's already done anymore. No more rape. No more torture. Other than of Valerie. Who still needs to be freed, no matter how much of a character she is. And Sean still needs to be stopped, and to pay what he's done, somehow. No one person should hold that kind of power and certainly not someone like him. But as long as things go the way they've been going, well -- it's not as urgent anymore. They can work together to find out who she was, the most burning and most important question on her mind, or to bring down whatever... person... did things to her, before she tries to stop Sean. She still needs to be cautious, but not, well, over-worried. 

"You can stop sharing your thoughts," she tells him, in response to his worries about being open to her. She gives him a slightly softer look than she has been, despite herself. Things are better now. Not because she understands him, oh no, but because he's changing. Thank goodness. "I have everything I need. Thank you for sharing." She gives him a very soft smile. 

The telepathy cuts off with a tired flicker of gratitude. He's still sitting slumped on the couch with his head in his hands, but he does look up in time to see her smile. It seems to make him more tired.

Dani takes another minute or so, occasionally clicking her pen to collect her thoughts, before she speaks. 

"Alright," she tells him. "I'm glad you showed me all of that." She takes a breath. "As long as, well, as long as you keep your promise to Karen, which I expect at this point you will, I think we might not need to be quite so much at odds with one another. There are still a number of things you've done that I have a problem with, as I'm sure you're aware." She clicks her pen. "And there are things you're still doing, like keeping a sex slave, no matter how well you treat her or how regretful you are over how you treated her in the past, that I'm going to have serious problems with." She clicks her pen again. "Or doing things to me or my mind without having the decency to ask me first, for goodness sake. My brain's been more than cooked enough without my consent." Click. "But as long as you stop doing any more harm to anyone else, we can, well, I'd like to be able to figure out who I am and where I came from and what magic exist and how much we need to defend against it. And I expect we can be more productive together if I'm not so worried about what horrors you're going to unleash on poor unsuspecting people next." She gives him a small smile. "As long as that keeps on being the case, as long as I don't have a burning need to make sure you don't hurt anyone anymore, well. I can always figure out how to deal with you after we have a better picture of the world we both seem to have been dropped into." 

...he's... pretty sure she's telling the truth. He doesn't quite manage to smile back, but he looks relieved, and much less tired.

"—yeah, that's fair," he says, "the telepathy thing. I'm not—I don't—" He cuts himself off in frustration, rubs his face again, but doesn't try to cheat by just throwing his thoughts at her this time. "—Saying things right is hard and I hate feeling like I'm not getting my real point across but not asking first was just lazy and inconsiderate and I'm sorry. I'll ask first next time and if you don't want to see what I'm thinking I will suck it up and use my words like a normal person."