[ Rau doesn't pull his hand away -- he's perfectly confident that he could if he wanted to, which removes any sense of urgency. And it's less troublesome to be caught by fingers than disquieting thoughts, in any case. ]

This would be a very different conversation, if the purpose was to hurt you. If truth is painful, if the limits of possibility are painful, the pain is hardly my doing.

[ And it’s true that the overarching purpose isn’t to be hurtful. Rau likes talking about people, he likes talking with Gil; long chats about the nature and foibles and fate of humanity are catnip. But for all that he delights in deconstructing other people’s views on human nature, he’s less equable about having his own nature prodded in ways that chip away at his sense of self (or lack thereof). And that’s where his claws have been flicking out, going briefly on offense for the purpose of playing defense. ]