"Yeah, that's the tough one all right."

"Ooh, yeah, that's an interesting angle. ...But I might want to stay away from it because I'm at least theoretically supposed to be pretending I'm not anybody important while I'm on Beta Colony, and my perspective on power and responsibility is very much the perspective of somebody who played tag with his Emperor as a child, you know?"

"Uncle Simon thanks you for your understanding."

"Uncle? You call Simon Illyan uncle?"

He laughs. "Well, not so much recently, but when I was a kid, yeah."

She giggles. "That's incredibly adorable."

Snort. "Thanks?"

"Yeah... there's something there, but I don't know, how much agonizing emotional suffering can you bring to life in Margaret? Because I can get a lot out of Richard."

"I don't believe I can match you and Richard there," says Yvette seriously. "Not with just Margaret. I mean I can probably make some eloquent points but that's not quite the same as agonizing emotional suffering." Pause. "I am maybe bad at attempting to make someone cry."

"I don't think I've ever deliberately set out to make someone cry before, but I have high hopes about my ability to pull it off."

"Reasonable."

"I try! ... That being said I do want to uh. Actually help."

"Well, help as in contribute to the essay, or help as in contribute to the goal of the essay? Because if it's the second thing, your most effective role might be as a test audience. ...Although I'd rather not make you cry, you haven't done anything to deserve it."

"Probably the first thing, but I can do the second. And I don't mind crying."

"...What, really?"

"I mean. If you made me cry in front of people I'd be annoyed, but this is not in front of people? This is in a tiny out of the way study room, I can cry here without feeling the need to snarl at concerned but useless people that I am fine or deal with the awkward stares or finding a quiet corner to be left alone in until I'm out of tears. I mean, it'd. Be kind of embarrassing, I'll probably be trying desperately not to cry, but if I happen to in this environment it's not the end of the world?"

"I cannot promise I won't stare awkwardly and/or hypocritically offer to hug you if you start crying about my agonizing literary interpretations."

"That's still - I trust you to mysteriously make yourself busy spellchecking or something if I asked you to stop awkwardly staring? And offering to hug me is fine, I'd probably accept. It's - large amounts of people doing it that makes it awful. And it's three that's the crowd, so I think we're all right."

"... So, we're doing the second thing?"

"I mean, either way you're making me type it and I seem to be the one with a clearer idea of what I want to write down. Once there are words on the page maybe it'll be more obvious whether you're going to make direct contributions to the text or just help me rate its effectiveness."