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[badfeyth]

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[badfeyth]

That's fine. You can swap them whenever you like.

I imagine you've had plenty of time on your hands lately to do that copying, too.

[justscribing]

You can find a lot of free time when you don't have a job.

I can met you at the same cafe today, even.

[badfeyth]

You can find a lot of free time when you're not spending eight hours a day of it arguing with Kaveh, leaving me to pick up your slack.

But I don't mean to repeat what you just said.

1/2

[justscribing]

[How many people had this gotten around to??]

[justscribing]

I'm not responsible for his behavior and if you can tell him to stop if you don't want to hear his latest grievance. He has plenty of other people to talk to.

[badfeyth]

What makes you think he was airing grievances? I said he was looking for someone to argue with.

[signs you've been a lawyer too long: these two things are not inherently synonymous.]

[justscribing]

With Kaveh those are often one and the same.

My point remains: you can shoo him away if you don't actually want to argue with him. Does Kaveh give you the impression he needs to coddled?

[badfeyth]

He gives me the impression that when something's upsetting him he starts to become unhinged from his sanity.

Do you like stew?

[justscribing]

That's Kaveh. He cares a great deal about everything. If not me, he'll find something else to be upset about.

[Alhaitham loves him... but unhinged is kind of his default state. It's a charm point.]

I don't care for it. I assume he must have made plenty for you if you're asking.

[badfeyth]

What about it don't you care for? Smell, taste, mouthfeel?

[justscribing]

It's difficult to eat while reading. I have the same issue with any soup-like dish.

[badfeyth]

That strikes me as sort of unfair to an otherwise perfectly good dish, but to each their own.

I assume the option of not reading while you eat it has been considered and rejected?

[justscribing]

Since there are plenty of other dishes more suitable for reading, I see no reason to change from a habit I enjoy just for the sake of a dish that isn't very compelling.

Is the properties of stew the argument Kaveh supposedly cornered you into?

[badfeyth]

Oh, so it's not really that it's hard to read while you eat it. It's that you don't like it so you found a reason to justify that you don't like it.

No, we argued about whether or not I should wear a dress, actually.

[justscribing]

I just don't see a reason to tolerate the extra hassle when there are plenty of other things I could be eating instead.

And this argument over a dress became uncomfortable enough that you felt the need to blame me for the circumstance, but not uncomfortable enough that you'd tell Kaveh off for picking a fight over it.

[badfeyth]

I'm just saying, it's interesting to rule out a food on a basis that has nothing to do with the usual reasons people dislike food — flavor — and instead disregard it on the basis of convenience.

Speaking of inconveniences, I'm not actually blaming you for anything. Mostly I'm just curious about the circumstances that had me serving as, apparently, your replacement.

[justscribing]

If Kaveh didn't explain it then you'll have to keep wondering.

[badfeyth]

Ugh. I don't know why I even bother sometimes.

I suppose I should thank you for providing perfect rebuttal to his point. I win after all.

[justscribing]

You're welcome. Now can we get back to the book exchange?

[badfeyth]

No. I think I'd rather not.

[justscribing]

[... Hey.]

Then I suppose I'm keeping the current one indefinitely?

[badfeyth]

Why should you? You've already made a copy of it.

You'll recall the last time we talked about this that I pointed out my arrangement for the exchange of the books wasn't actually with you. It was a favor I had negotiated with Kaveh. You've presently offered no justification for why I should indulge you a favor, and you certainly haven't offered payment in kind so it's not a transaction for valuable consideration.

You have my book out of sheer kindness. Kindness which, I'll hasten to point out, you don't seem to have any interest in extending. That's fine. You're not obligated to. In fact, you've proved the point I was arguing the other day, which is that the only reason I matter to anyone is for what I'm able to do or deliver to them.

But Kaveh was relentless in insisting that I have some sort of inherent personal worth, which follows in part that I can presumably do better than to expend my time on people who aren't going to treat me as anything more than a convenient dispenser for the things they want from me. And so I've decided to see what it feels like if I presume for a minute that he's right.

[justscribing]

Putting aside your argument with Kaveh for a moment: your stance is that I am unkind because I have decided not to divulge to you a matter that is both personal and private between Kaveh and I. In that, you consider personal worth to be equal with entitlement to other's affairs, since that's the only thing you've asked of me so far.

Is that correct?

[badfeyth]

My stance is that I am trying to TALK TO YOU because I thought maybe there was the chance that we could be friends but the only thing I know to talk to you about is Kaveh but you don't want to talk about him and you also don't seem to want to talk about anything else either.

So I can only conclude that you don't want to talk to me at all, and just want my books.

Is THAT correct?

[justscribing]

We just has a discussion about the properties of stew in tandem. Or is that not divested enough from Kaveh that you think there's nothing else to me? I obviously don't want to talk to someone I don't know well about this matter.

Did you come to me looking for friendship because Kaveh directed you to me?