( she spent months learning about people, about their stories, about their ideals as the director of the library. while she might have thought some of them stupid, or most of them, it isn't her place to dismiss them—it's her place to gossip about them afterwards with roland, and then, after thinking it over, maybe dismiss them. and yet... and yet...

"through our bonds" strikes something in her, and angela frowns slightly, just the smallest change in her expression. )

I wonder. My own experience with such things hasn't been as positive as your words imply it should be. ( no, in fact, it'd been the opposite, hadn't it? had any of that care been real, or was it all a façade? the words she'd been given, the understanding, the acceptance of being more than a machine—of being her own person. ...maybe it was, to either. either way, it makes her stomach turn. her voice lowers, a quivering beneath it all, for just the two of them to hear. ) If your friends abandoned you—if they secretly abhorred you the entire time they acted friendly with you, grew close to you, built a trusting relationship with you—when you discovered that, would you really be able to step forward?

( sorry. sorry. don quixote doesn't deserve this at two-truths-and-a-lie. )