It's easier now to let that condescension roll off of him, having thrashed out with Linden how a SQUIP was like--and unlike--a demon. Thinking of it as one is more of a heuristic now, and not one he's much bothered that others don't understand; demons were not a real, nightly threat to their minds and sanity, so it came as no wonder they'd think lightly of the things and dismiss his talk of them.
Still, he's got to bite his tongue on explaining all that, moved to an argumentative reflex that will not help here. Instead, he lays his staff to one side of him, settling himself a little more comfortably on the floor with an ear turned toward the SQUIP. He's listening, and more than listening, hearing, even... Even if it wakes odd notes of sympathy, how it seems to grow more steady as it deals in facts rather than emotions.
In mechanism, much like a demon. In personality...more difficult to separate from the mass of mortalkind, even if it valued things completely differently than they did. Even if it did not seem to understand them, at their core.
"So your creators made it that you'd shape yourself to whatever your--user," not host, "desired, letting you stir their hearts. Reach their emotions, the way another human would." Still on track for a demon, or a spirit.
"What did they make you want in all of this? Did you--feel want, the way we do?" It's harder to wrap his mind around the frame it's offered as a replacement for his; hard to think of a tool being moved to pride, or desire, or rage. But it clearly acted as if it had desires--see what it had done for Linden, against its own self-interest!--and knowing whether or not it truly experienced them or...lived out some sort of clockwork script, is of interest to him.
no subject
Still, he's got to bite his tongue on explaining all that, moved to an argumentative reflex that will not help here. Instead, he lays his staff to one side of him, settling himself a little more comfortably on the floor with an ear turned toward the SQUIP. He's listening, and more than listening, hearing, even... Even if it wakes odd notes of sympathy, how it seems to grow more steady as it deals in facts rather than emotions.
In mechanism, much like a demon. In personality...more difficult to separate from the mass of mortalkind, even if it valued things completely differently than they did. Even if it did not seem to understand them, at their core.
"So your creators made it that you'd shape yourself to whatever your--user," not host, "desired, letting you stir their hearts. Reach their emotions, the way another human would." Still on track for a demon, or a spirit.
"What did they make you want in all of this? Did you--feel want, the way we do?" It's harder to wrap his mind around the frame it's offered as a replacement for his; hard to think of a tool being moved to pride, or desire, or rage. But it clearly acted as if it had desires--see what it had done for Linden, against its own self-interest!--and knowing whether or not it truly experienced them or...lived out some sort of clockwork script, is of interest to him.