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"At the expensive of others?" Echo asks. "There is a difference between joking and just being mean."

Nuvain ponders this. "Was I being mean? I'm sorry," he says.

"Um, I wasn't talking about you specifically," Echo points out.

"Oh, I see," Nuvain says. After another moment's thought, "Maybe it would help if you did speak specifically? I'm having some trouble understanding," he admits with a smile.

"I just had an...odd conversation with Hollidan. He was asking about my mother, and how she would react if she met him. I asked him why, and he said it was because he was going to use my mother to mess with me, and it just made me mad," Echo explains. "Where I'm from, people have done that most of my life. My mother is an elf, so she looks more like my sister rather than my mother, and out of the both of us she is certainly the more beautiful one."

"So you're jealous of your mother's beauty then?" Nuvain asks, trying to understand.

"Maybe a little," Echo admits. "Actually, I'm a little jealous on how she can get along with people so easily too. I can't do that."

"No?" Nuvain asks. "You seem to get along with me pretty well. What does your mother do that is differently than you? I suppose if you can figure that out, you can duplicate that, right?"

"You would think so," Echo says. "But I have a hard time pretending to be flirty and outgoing," she explains. "And I get along with you just fine mostly because I think you get along with pretty much everyone."

"Why do you have a hard time with that?" Nuvain asks, genuinely curious.

"Because people don't respond to me well," Echo says. "No one really likes me, so I keep to myself."

"But why don't people like you? You seem pleasant enough to me," Nuvain states.

"I'm short with people. I tend to think myself better than other people," Echo says. "So I guess that means I'm arrogant. If people annoy me enough, I'm mean to them." Basically, she was saying that she was a complete bitch most of the time.

Nuvain ponders this. "Why is it then," he asks, "do you feel you are better than other people?"

"Well, I'm highly intelligent," Echo explains. "Most people that I know are lucky enough to be able to communicate with one another."