[...Well. This explains some things. Claude's fascination with poisons and herblore, of course, but other things about him as well. How hard it was to get close to him. Why the first time she ever learned anything of substance about him was when it had been forced into view by the labyrinth.
There has never been a time in his life when he has not been on his guard against something... someone. Enemies he has yet to meet.]
...Which is why you always have your shields up. [Deception...] Always smiling, no matter how you feel? Not the specific thing you kept from your close friends, but the fact that to keep your secrets is so natural to you.
[She'd had a similar conversation with Toph recently--on the subject of vulnuerabilities, and how and why we hide them. That had been in the context of being thirteen. But Claude has had other, far more grave reasons to make that not only a way to cope with becoming an adult, but an absolute way of life.]
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There has never been a time in his life when he has not been on his guard against something... someone. Enemies he has yet to meet.]
...Which is why you always have your shields up. [Deception...] Always smiling, no matter how you feel? Not the specific thing you kept from your close friends, but the fact that to keep your secrets is so natural to you.
[She'd had a similar conversation with Toph recently--on the subject of vulnuerabilities, and how and why we hide them. That had been in the context of being thirteen. But Claude has had other, far more grave reasons to make that not only a way to cope with becoming an adult, but an absolute way of life.]