"I mean, he knows he can be if he's given reasons to, but that's not exactly the point. It's more..." She bites her lower lip in thought, for a moment. "Sometimes, his compassion gets expressed through conviction, you know what I mean? It's not always -- what's it called -- purely altruistic, or soft, or gentle. And he can be pretty spiteful and harsh, if you haven't noticed."

"So he feels that just 'cause he isn't usually the biggest asshole in the room, people think he's nice, and then they'll get disappointed in him when it turns out he isn't, really. He'd rather say he was a selfish person all along than feel like an idiot who set himself up for disappointment even when he tried his best." She drums her fingers against the table. "... Honestly, what happened with those guai lan heroes didn't really help either, but no one can change that."