Callie's first thought was, 'Don't. You don't want to be equal to me.' but she let it go unsaid. Aqua cared, in ways Callie only understood when applied in any other direction. But mostly she didn't feel like putting the effort into driving her commander off.

Callie listened, this was a classic tactic. You mention how someone gets better and therefore everyone can get better. That was original. Nobody has ever tried this tactic on Callie. She'd never seen that child was hustling for drug money, or had a habit of sleeping with any girl he met. Still, she listened to see who the ending punch line of this little story was.

And she did her best to hide her surprise, it was still clear that wasn't where she thought this was heading. "That's great, I'm glad he's found himself a better life. What's your point?"

Callie had decided, long ago, most of the legion was better than her. She had her one skill, and no matter what good it was. No matter how hard she worked, she was never going to be more than who she was. Dave saw it, Dave saw what she was worth, nothing. So the idea that Ven was better than her? She was already there, just now the definition of how changed, as she had to reassess his whole nice thing. Since he clearly learned it, it's probably some way to disarm people.