[ The aforesaid reflections on time as a contrivance of humanity also account for the difficulty if not impossibility of determining her age in keeping with scientific method. Does arrested youth correspond to adulthood with the passage (or in her case absence) of time or is Millie a child in every sense? and if so can one square her penetrating remarks with the verdict of childhood? Her psychological terrain has no analogue in the pages of a medical journal, therefore the onus of drawing an opinion falls on his shoulders, a responsibility he did not ask for or is compelled to undertake by anything but his own disquiet mind.
The pact is a trick. Smoke and mirrors. It is not a trick played consciously by the pale beast on the gentleman but an artifice which came about as if by happenstance, because, there is no authority to enforce her pact but the frail bonds of a promise; and therein is the brilliance of it: Millie intuits that perfidy is not in his character, or rather that he is true to his word, and will therefore feel compelled to remain so without collateral. Now this rash judgement of his integrity may prove mistaken, but she does not think it will. ]
Good intentions.
[ Her malformed smile expands to reveal another pointed tooth. Ideal circumstancesā€”intentioned circumstancesā€”so often come undone in a crisis. He is not so naive as to affect absolute certainty; and though her education insists on absolute distrust of adults, perhaps this one can be relied upon for certain things. Her olive branch, self-interested though it may be, is another sin against the doctrine she must follow.
Millie eases back, the promise made. ]
You remind me of him... of my daddy. You're different and alike. It's like a riddle.
[ She drops a palm on the pommel of her sword. ]
There are people that need running through. I said it: there is a war on Christmas. If Christmasland is ailing someone is breaking it from the outside. You will help me find them and put them to the sword.
[ Millie raises her pinkie as a reminder. ]
Or will you let me come to harm? I think you're interested in me, but I'm not your little doll. I can leave with or without you.
no subject
The pact is a trick. Smoke and mirrors. It is not a trick played consciously by the pale beast on the gentleman but an artifice which came about as if by happenstance, because, there is no authority to enforce her pact but the frail bonds of a promise; and therein is the brilliance of it: Millie intuits that perfidy is not in his character, or rather that he is true to his word, and will therefore feel compelled to remain so without collateral. Now this rash judgement of his integrity may prove mistaken, but she does not think it will. ]
Good intentions.
[ Her malformed smile expands to reveal another pointed tooth. Ideal circumstancesā€”intentioned circumstancesā€”so often come undone in a crisis. He is not so naive as to affect absolute certainty; and though her education insists on absolute distrust of adults, perhaps this one can be relied upon for certain things. Her olive branch, self-interested though it may be, is another sin against the doctrine she must follow.
Millie eases back, the promise made. ]
You remind me of him... of my daddy. You're different and alike. It's like a riddle.
[ She drops a palm on the pommel of her sword. ]
There are people that need running through. I said it: there is a war on Christmas. If Christmasland is ailing someone is breaking it from the outside. You will help me find them and put them to the sword.
[ Millie raises her pinkie as a reminder. ]
Or will you let me come to harm? I think you're interested in me, but I'm not your little doll. I can leave with or without you.