⚔ i thought we might have a little chat.

[defies_reason]

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action; backdated to 1/18

[defies_reason]

This is more than an academic matter to you. You've a moral position already, but you're willing to consider other points of view. [He tilts his head very slightly.] That is rarer than you might imagine, and I respect it.

[And Isaak is at the least a good enough man that he'd rather a good man think well of him than the alternative. And he likes Chekov. That is perhaps a more arbitrary reason, but not untrue.]

action; backdated to 1/18

[candothat]

[This isn't an answer, precisely, but it is a compliment. Compliments from Isaak are important because Pavel knows he wouldn't give one insincerely (at least not to him). That Isaak respects some part of his personality is even better.]

As are you. I think that our general opinions on morality aren't as different as I believed them to be.

[It's odd how fleeting his earlier sense of betrayal and disappointment was, and he's aware of that. Isaak has turned what Pavel thought he knew about good and evil on its head and, strangely enough, the new perspective is more in line with what Chekov has believed for some time now than what he would have claimed to know.]

I aspire to be as wise as you are someday.

action; backdated to 1/18

[defies_reason]

[It's only not a direct answer because the question isn't relevant. This has never been, for Isaak, a matter of trust. To say that Isaak trusts Chekov is axiomatic; this conversation would not have come so far if he did not. Granted, that is in part because Chekov wears his ideals like his uniform, and because he has little aptitude for deception. (Isaak, on the other hand, has a great aptitude for seeing through deception, so that as all things are relative.)]

It doesn't come easily, [he says simply, which of course must also be evident by now. Still, there is nothing rueful about that; it is a fact, and true of all wisdom. He sips his drink.]

I'm glad I've not wholly disappointed you.

[That sounds like a joke, and it is. It also isn't. He'd understand and accept it if Chekov never spoke to him again, but he'd be displeased.]

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[candothat]

I think that, if I had expected to be wholly disappointed, I would not have come here.

[It's true; if he hadn't been convinced that Isaak is a decent person, past actions aside, he would have been unable to inquire further. He's still rather solemn and thoughtful as he attempts to recalibrate his moral code to fit Isaak's conduct.]

action; backdated to 1/18

[defies_reason]

Hmmn.

[So, in a sense, the decision was made in advance of the justification.

(Though also, of course, it was not.)]

Well, I'm pleased that you did.

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[candothat]

Maybe not so pleased as I am.

[He's trying to figure this out--why it's so important to him that Isaak remain a man to trust and admire when he has done many things that Pavel would find appalling.]

Isya. [Testing the informality. It sounds right.] I have told you more about what troubles me than anyone else, in any universe. I cannot say why, but I'm glad that you have listened.

action; backdated to 1/18

[defies_reason]

[While it is Isaak's opinion that advice exists independently of its giver-- that good advice can come from bad sources-- there is a certain faith one wants to have in one's confidante.]

I've enjoyed our talks, Pasha.