With calculated authority, Braxiatel said, "I'm well aware that I need not. If I'm making the offer, I must have some inclination for it." He was scrambling to remember the pedagogy of teaching strategic games, how to build up a child's confidence and instruct them on the best methods without forfeiting the sort of authority that Brax was trying to make sure Narvin would rely on. Braxiatel wasn't so honest as to say out loud that he was using Gallifreyan patterns purely for Narvin's sake - Gallifreyan language, Gallifreyan oaths, Gallifreyan behaviour - and that it was all in the hopes of making the child trust him as one of his own people, if not as someone he liked.
Well, Braxiatel and Narvin hadn't even liked each other when they were children. It seemed unlikely that a child Narvin would much like Braxiatel as an adult. But the thing about power inequalities is that they were a headache to keep balanced, and Braxiatel couldn't dislike Narvin as a child. (If he were in his fifties, it may have been another story.) The whole point of it - the quiet ulterior motive that Braxiatel had been crafting his every action and word around - was keeping this child safe.
It was a bad idea to compound Braxiatel's general incapabilities when it came to childcare with Braxiatel's particular inability to do much of anything without overstrategizing it. Sometimes, Braxiatel seemed to require a complicated labyrinth to calculate in order to accomplish one simple goal.
But there was something to be said for sprezzatura; if for no other reason than being able to look Narvin in the face when things were back to normal, Braxiatel had no intentions of letting Narvin know how much effort he was putting into caring for him. Braxiatel used a nonchalant wave of his hand to indicate the paper warriors. "I leave it to you, Narvin. We can play with the larger pieces, we can use a smaller set, or you can try your hand at assembling a 27th century Humanian-style robot porter out of spare parts I have for you."
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Well, Braxiatel and Narvin hadn't even liked each other when they were children. It seemed unlikely that a child Narvin would much like Braxiatel as an adult. But the thing about power inequalities is that they were a headache to keep balanced, and Braxiatel couldn't dislike Narvin as a child. (If he were in his fifties, it may have been another story.) The whole point of it - the quiet ulterior motive that Braxiatel had been crafting his every action and word around - was keeping this child safe.
It was a bad idea to compound Braxiatel's general incapabilities when it came to childcare with Braxiatel's particular inability to do much of anything without overstrategizing it. Sometimes, Braxiatel seemed to require a complicated labyrinth to calculate in order to accomplish one simple goal.
But there was something to be said for sprezzatura; if for no other reason than being able to look Narvin in the face when things were back to normal, Braxiatel had no intentions of letting Narvin know how much effort he was putting into caring for him. Braxiatel used a nonchalant wave of his hand to indicate the paper warriors. "I leave it to you, Narvin. We can play with the larger pieces, we can use a smaller set, or you can try your hand at assembling a 27th century Humanian-style robot porter out of spare parts I have for you."