[The way that Hayame speaks of the masquerade is not entirely surprising — but the intensity of her disgust gives Liem a moment's pause. He can't help but wonder just what went on at that party to elicit such a strong reaction from her. For the sake of her privacy, though, it might be for the best if he didn't know.
He still doesn't know what to say to her assumption — that he is a good man, that his peers should be perfectly willing to reduce his Discord for him. The longer he lives and works in this place between worlds, the more he realizes that his reputation here isn't what keeps him from doing the things that might shame him. Like the others in Meridian, he cannot bring himself to leave the culture he came from behind him — and he cannot fathom being deserving of solace from himself.]
I've made it difficult for myself, [he admits. Maybe not in the same way that Hayame often does, with her abrasive words and her tight grip on her honour, but difficult all the same.]
Submitting to purification means being vulnerable, means allowing yourself to be known. And I have tried to avoid being known by anybody.
[He likes things best when his peers see only the parts of him that he wants them to know: the parts that he's curated for public viewing, that are civil and inoffensive. But he had come to know more of Manon than just his surface demeanour when he had worked to purify his shard. He had seen flashes of his life during times both happy and sad: things that had no bearing on the disaster that had led him to fall into Meridian's hands.
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He still doesn't know what to say to her assumption — that he is a good man, that his peers should be perfectly willing to reduce his Discord for him. The longer he lives and works in this place between worlds, the more he realizes that his reputation here isn't what keeps him from doing the things that might shame him. Like the others in Meridian, he cannot bring himself to leave the culture he came from behind him — and he cannot fathom being deserving of solace from himself.]
I've made it difficult for myself, [he admits. Maybe not in the same way that Hayame often does, with her abrasive words and her tight grip on her honour, but difficult all the same.]
Submitting to purification means being vulnerable, means allowing yourself to be known. And I have tried to avoid being known by anybody.
[He likes things best when his peers see only the parts of him that he wants them to know: the parts that he's curated for public viewing, that are civil and inoffensive. But he had come to know more of Manon than just his surface demeanour when he had worked to purify his shard. He had seen flashes of his life during times both happy and sad: things that had no bearing on the disaster that had led him to fall into Meridian's hands.
Liem gestures to the bead in Hayame's grasp.]
… Isn't that why you're in here, as well?