It occurred to me a long time ago, Mr. Lastogne, that diplomacy has very little to do with making friends. - Adam-Troy Castro

He’d played me very well. He’s sensed my misanthropy, and played up that aspect of his own personality. He’d even accused the Porrinyards of the same failing. But was that just the typical gamesmanship of a habitual manipulator, or the obfuscation of a sociopath?

In short, they were like the complacent everywhere: in that they were already dead, and did not yet happen to know it…

She’s a little bit below mediocre, isn’t she? And the worst kind of below-par personality at that: the kind who believes herself destined for great things.