Good behavior for years, obsessions with seeming trivialities to distract from your potential, making friends with your guards.
in The Prefect by Alistair Reynolds there’s a mind that does nothing but make varying clocks for years before it starts killing, and then it turns out every clock is actually an extremely well-hidden complicated weapon.
Good behavior for years, obsessions with seeming trivialities to distract from your potential, making friends with your guards.
in The Prefect by Alistair Reynolds there’s a mind that does nothing but make varying clocks for years before it starts killing, and then it turns out every clock is actually an extremely well-hidden complicated weapon.
I mostly meant the mind games he played with Clarice Starling.
in that case: Trading useful tidbits of information for seemingly minor cooperation until the interlocutor has grown used to collaborating with you.