"I've already made myself clear, on that point," Elijah says quietly.
(Punch him or...what?)
"But relationships, friendships - they are complicated. I avoided them myself, for a long time. That's part of why I was able to do some...extremely amoral things, in pursuit of my intellectual interests."
"...I'm sorry," Elijah says, quietly, sincerely. It's probably the first time that she's talked about her current situation simply in terms of how she feels about it. About how it feels to experience it.
"I know I've said this before, but you can choose something new for yourself. It's not 'you and nothing'. It's you and anything. But I understand how that can feel overwhelming."
"I don't know if that's entirely true. You've chosen a job," Elijah offers as an example.
"The deal was about getting you to talk to me. I honestly didn't expect you to get a job on top of that." No bugs. "Regardless, you've continued doing it. And you do talk to other people."
"All right. So what else might keep you from getting bored?" Elijah asks, levelly.
He really did volunteer for specifically this.
"All right. We've been at this impasse several times before, Jasper. Do you want to talk about why it's difficult for you to see a future for yourself?"
"That's why I'm suggesting we talk about it," Elijah says, patiently. "You're treating this issue as an immovable obstacle, but I don't think it is one."
"I don't," Elijah says solemnly. "Neither of us do. This is going to be - alien, to you. Gems are created already in possession of the skills they're judged to need. Humans are used to having to choose, practice and develop the skills that we want to ultimately benefit from. You're going to have to do that too."
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