'No, they can't understand. They've been captured, we're trapped.'

That will stick with him.

"No."

It's a whine. Hundred-percent a whine. He drops his hands from their fidgeting and for a moment looks like the most petulant child, not a billions-year-old entity.

His "attitude" is what keeps him sane.

"I socialize strictly out of necessity to get what I want from people." He's told Istredd that people are easy. That they're a game. He'd stopped himself from saying more on that branch, but he doesn't feel like he has to anymore if pushed, even at risk of being overheard. Thorne knows some of what he is now; they shouldn't be surprised by his methods. "I don't do small talk."