"I can put things in space, just have to match up your numbers with mine in case something important is different."

"I know things about orbital mechanics but I think not the right things. Oh well."

"Today is weird. Why is the creepy one staring at the floor over there?"

He looks up at her. "I don't want to concern people. I can look somewhere else, if you'd like."

"It's not really concerning, just weird."

"I got here first and that complicates the hell out of spin so he's trying for inoffensive, I guess."

He does not answer that.

"He -"

"Don't."

"Don't what?"

"I was going to explain what was going on inside his head. He decided that he would tell me not to do that."

"How do you know what is going on inside his head? Do you read minds too? I did not think you could do that! It does not seem like a nice thing to do."

"People show their thoughts on their faces and their bodies and that almost always tells you what they are thinking. Most humans do not know how to interpret it, though."

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

"I do not really have a way to not do it. You are harder to understand that way than most people because you do not do any of the people signs of your thoughts."

"That is probably good!"

"The rest of us can sort of guess what you're probably thinking but just by being similar to you, and you're definitely harder to do this with than the others. And there are surprises like Belmarniss's inexplicable hatred of babies."

"I don't hate them."

"I think this way of guessing is okay! I think being like me is good."

"I might also have better guesses with him because of being sort of like him though I do not think I'm very like him."

"No?"

"I'm actually not a rapist? This seems like a sort of futile argument to get into but I don't punish people for being so compelling they matter to me because that would be self-destructive and stupid. He knows it was self-destructive and stupid but I don't think he actually understands how much, I think he's got a habit of - he writes things off because it's better than torturing himself with the hope he hasn't lost them -"

" - oh."

"What does all of that mean?"

"That one - hurt people he loved very badly for a very long time. He did it because of some things about him that are not true of me, even though we are the same person. Even though some of my mistakes are sort of like some of his mistakes, I have not made that specific mistake and would not make that specific mistake. The other people will not believe this because it would be a convenient thing for me to say even if it was not true."