[A funny sort of look crosses Izzy's face. Something painful and shameful and vulnerable before it's gobbled up by iron ring fencing and clamped down for good measure.
This was never meant to be about himself. He doesn't want it to be about himself. Looking too closely, stopping to examine anything too deeply, will show across the mirror surface of his tightly controlled image a mosaic of spidering cracks. the glass still hold, but one stiff knock could send it all cascading down to nothing.
And then they would see, Castor and Pollux, they would see his hollow insides where a whole person should be solid. His teeth creak with the force of his jaw holding shut, lips a tight line. Any possible answer to that will be humiliating, he just knows it.
He is sick and tired of being made a fool.
He can manage one word. Relievedly, terribly, horribly, it answers both her questions in truth. One small, grunted, scowling-]
no subject
This was never meant to be about himself. He doesn't want it to be about himself. Looking too closely, stopping to examine anything too deeply, will show across the mirror surface of his tightly controlled image a mosaic of spidering cracks. the glass still hold, but one stiff knock could send it all cascading down to nothing.
And then they would see, Castor and Pollux, they would see his hollow insides where a whole person should be solid. His teeth creak with the force of his jaw holding shut, lips a tight line. Any possible answer to that will be humiliating, he just knows it.
He is sick and tired of being made a fool.
He can manage one word. Relievedly, terribly, horribly, it answers both her questions in truth. One small, grunted, scowling-]
No.