"Okay," he whimpers, obviously rather distressed. "But I don't want either option. Okay? I will go with locking you in a closet before any of those options and - and I don't know, I would rather grab teleportation than let the knife near you."
"I need to make the knife go away," he growls, a little desperately.
"Yes. I know. The only thing you can do right now is wait for the dean." Hug.
He nods, a little. "They should have - multiple people touched with the harp, it's not efficient."
Aldaras quietly mutters some very impolite obscenities about them and their stupid power games getting people killed.
"I'm not sure if they're really turning away a lot of volunteers at the door," Annie points out quietly.
"The side effect isn't strictly unpleasant, but I don't think he has time to do anything but eat and work, when he's awake. If he were more efficient - if I thought I could get ahold of the damn thing without having to give the university all my privacy and undying loyalty and complete control over my care - if artifacts needing identification turned up often enough that he had a backlog - then I'd consider it. But none of those things are true."
"Same here. I'm just - upset. Sorry, I'm mildly taking it out on you..."
"Still, sorry. The - extreme reaction to you being - not safe caught me by surprise. I knew it was important to keep you safe but I hadn't though about what would happen if you weren't." He shudders, a bit.
Oh look. It's the return of the adoring gaze. What a surprise.