[ How can I be sure? That's a last desperate grasp at rejection. It's shaky. Even so, he still grasps at it, needily. He doesn't know how this psychic link works. Maybe lying is possible. There are always new ways to lie, aren't there? Lying through a mental link would be a new one, but...
He subsides. Instead, he sends to Gregor - his anger hot and pure and honest rather than the aching pulsing hatred - Stop feeling sad. Because he can sense that, some new flash of pity in the back of Gregor's mind, another thing that the Emperor has found pathetic. He focuses fiercely, for just a moment, on all the things that he has to be proud of: getting off Jackson's Whole; excelling in his studies - never good enough, no, but always good; his success in tracking Vorkosigan, figuring out the Naismith connection; his physical aptitude; his ability to think. He packages all that defiant pride and shoves it at Gregor. Don't feel sorry for me. Don't you dare.
no subject
He subsides. Instead, he sends to Gregor - his anger hot and pure and honest rather than the aching pulsing hatred - Stop feeling sad. Because he can sense that, some new flash of pity in the back of Gregor's mind, another thing that the Emperor has found pathetic. He focuses fiercely, for just a moment, on all the things that he has to be proud of: getting off Jackson's Whole; excelling in his studies - never good enough, no, but always good; his success in tracking Vorkosigan, figuring out the Naismith connection; his physical aptitude; his ability to think. He packages all that defiant pride and shoves it at Gregor. Don't feel sorry for me. Don't you dare.
And then he's ready. ]