I'm not good with individuals. I can believe in a culture, in an ideal, and be ready to die to defend it if I must. But there aren't many individuals about whom I can feel the same. Barely a handful.
The obvious solution to your dilemma is to get yourself killed while doing something suitably heroic and compassionate and foolish--as you do--while your relationship with a companion is at its strongest. Go out on a relationship high note, in effect. [Narvin sometimes has a dark sense of humour. He takes another drink, a longer one this time. Finishes the glass and pours himself another.]
My inmate. Yes. He had his heart set on me running the library. He thinks that I'm the only person capable of the appropriate amount of cultural understanding to give him the freedom to take proper care of the books. Which, although I'm pleased that he trusts me and that we've managed to get along well, I can't stop thinking that the whole situation is a bit ironic since generally the CIA "understands" alien cultures only so it can infiltrate or undermine them.
I've also started to wonder if part of the reason I like him is something more sinister than I realized. If I'm right, it's as much a condemnation of myself as it is him.
[Spam]
The obvious solution to your dilemma is to get yourself killed while doing something suitably heroic and compassionate and foolish--as you do--while your relationship with a companion is at its strongest. Go out on a relationship high note, in effect. [Narvin sometimes has a dark sense of humour. He takes another drink, a longer one this time. Finishes the glass and pours himself another.]
My inmate. Yes. He had his heart set on me running the library. He thinks that I'm the only person capable of the appropriate amount of cultural understanding to give him the freedom to take proper care of the books. Which, although I'm pleased that he trusts me and that we've managed to get along well, I can't stop thinking that the whole situation is a bit ironic since generally the CIA "understands" alien cultures only so it can infiltrate or undermine them.
I've also started to wonder if part of the reason I like him is something more sinister than I realized. If I'm right, it's as much a condemnation of myself as it is him.