[During the whole negotiation, Aral had never swayed from where he stood. As it became more and more apparent that he wasn't going to be needed to tip the scales, he spent most of his attention watching the exchange, and all of the implications of it. Since that heated argument with Cordelia he'd been going over memories, conversations, trying to see Mark as he does Miles... as he does Cordelia.
Seeing the heavy breaks and fractures, muffled vulnerability and need to have the past in the open and clearly presented... perhaps he'd been looking for the wrong half of his genome...
Almost as strikingly... It was the first time seeing Gregor like that, commanding, even handed. At no point was he not directing the conversation. It was a bit like what Negri must have had of a view of his conversations with Ezar. The young man was just moved skillfully through the lines, pushed here, pulled there. But there was less... inhumanity behind it. In fact, Gregor was making no secret of what his pleasure was for the outcome.
Why try this hard? To cement a safer future? For the sake of the man kneeling before him, tight as a drawn bowstring, as fragile and deadly at the same time? ... Or was it the real reason he was in the room? Perhaps all of it.
Almost despite himself, he found himself watching with a deep intensity, hanging for the moment, on what name is offered with Mark's hands.]
no subject
Seeing the heavy breaks and fractures, muffled vulnerability and need to have the past in the open and clearly presented... perhaps he'd been looking for the wrong half of his genome...
Almost as strikingly... It was the first time seeing Gregor like that, commanding, even handed. At no point was he not directing the conversation. It was a bit like what Negri must have had of a view of his conversations with Ezar. The young man was just moved skillfully through the lines, pushed here, pulled there. But there was less... inhumanity behind it. In fact, Gregor was making no secret of what his pleasure was for the outcome.
Why try this hard? To cement a safer future? For the sake of the man kneeling before him, tight as a drawn bowstring, as fragile and deadly at the same time? ... Or was it the real reason he was in the room? Perhaps all of it.
Almost despite himself, he found himself watching with a deep intensity, hanging for the moment, on what name is offered with Mark's hands.]