"Y-you saved me? W-Why? W-Who are you?"
Itvasme's murmurs…
There was no doubt that Itvasme was absolutely, to some degree, pretending to be the 'damsel in distress' that had just been rescued by a tall dark and handsome stranger, quite possibly a Dark Prince 🤭✨?!
This was of course, her Grand Dark Rizzard's natural protective survival mechanism, which had instinctively kicked into play.
Indeed. It was a textbook technique, based on the classic Dark Rizzard Mantra: "Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak"![1]
[1] Reference to Sun Tzu's The Art of War
Itvasme had, of course, internalized this vintage maxim. And Accordingly, her 'damsel-in-distress' act was employed in keeping with this strategy, as a technique to reorient herself and reclaim her power, consciously choosing to *act* vulnerable, as a way to avoid actually feeling vulnerable. -In other words, in order to convince herself that she was strong, this was why she would appear weak!
That said.
Darken Mysterious was of course absolutely no stranger to such a multi-layered manoeuvre, especially considering his track record and past experiences in Chapters 124-130, when he was a Quintuple Agent in the High Steaks Survival Games…!!!
As a result, he immediately saw through Itvasme's telling technique.
Oh. So Itvasme was acting like a damsel-in-distress, in order to convince herself that she actually had power in this sudden, surprising situation, and to avoid feeling vulnerable… but in actual fact… she *did* feel vulnerable, and this was just her way of dealing with that.
Immediately, Darken felt a wave of protectiveness come over him, as it would for most people when seeing someone in a vulnerable state.
*Ahem* "Itvasme, Sorry about that. There... wasn't much time to chat earlier... 🫢✨" The mysterious masked stranger said apologetically, even as he naturally injected just the right amount of care, humour and warmth into his tone to make her feel safe and more at ease.
Darken of course, as a [True Multiple Projection] of Bob, possessed basically all of his skills and Abilities, including his naturally high, and insanely well-honed Rizz, except that, of course, instead of pursuing a simple, peaceful, low-key life focused on World Domination, he had purposefully chosen to explore the World of Shadow, in order gain a more complete understanding of Humanity, beyond the feel-good tropes, narratives, and oversimplifications of 'Good and Evil' and Right and Wrong, which were oftentimes biased at best, and often completely untrue at worst.
The point was that if Bob truly believed in a Life-Affirming approach to life and a Life-Affirming legacy, it would be inevitable that he would encounter the alternative, namely an Anti-Life approach to getting things done.
It was easy to say, and comforting to think that if one just 'followed the rules', the letter of the law for example, or commonly accepted social convention, then that was enough.
However, if Bob was truly going to Dominate the World, create an Immortal Legacy, and become a Genetic success, then he was going to need to chart a new map, because history had shown, time and time again, and just because a lot of people believed something , didn't automatically make it actually right, true, or good.
Sure, these Collective beliefs had impact, power, and influence, but ultimately, it was the Truth, and increasingly, aiming for an increasing Awareness of what was truly Good and Life-affirming, augmented through research and Education, that would lead to the best results!!!