"So, I've come to a conclusion."
"About what?"
"I think I'm a sociopath."
"Oh, well...okay. I think... explain."
"You think explain?"
"Sorry, change my thoughts while making them. I'd like you to elaborate before I form an opin]ion."
"Okay. Well, like, we're in a relationship now, right?"
"I certainly hope you're not just stringing me along!"
"It's what us changelings do best. You'll have to trust me when I say I'd like to stick with this for a while, though."
"I don't have much of a choice, do I?"
"Well, you do, actually. You could adapt a paranoid, suspicious, questioning approach to our interactions in an attempt to suss out any plans of mine to leave or betray you. But that would be deleterious for both of us."
"Then I guess I'll have to take your sincerity on faith. And cuddles."
"Cuddles are always nice. But I'm getting off topic."
"Carry on."
"Okay. So... how do I put this?"
"I don't know, h--"
"Shut up, Clair. Let me formulate my thoughts."
"Okay."
"Okay, so, Changelings are obviously excellent at detecting emotions, because we feed on them. Love, mostly, but love is--to quote one of your sappy ballads--a many-splendored thing."
"I'm glad my good taste in music is rubbing off on you."
"Or I'm just good at suffering dorks. Anyway, we are very good at detecting and manipulating emotions in others, all while failing to feel them in ourselves."
"Yeah, I don't know the exact definition of 'sociopath', but I feel like that would fit."
"It's a pretty ill-defined term. But while it used to be that the queen's orders took precedence... no, that's not a good way of putting it. It, um, it's more like it used to be that any worries that what we were doing might not be for the best was, er, were drowned out by the thrumming directives and assurances of the queen and the hive. You could be slaughtering innocents without a pang of guilt as long as you were made to believe it was for the good of the hive."
"You told me this, or something to this effect, before. Chilling as always."
"Trust me, what I now believe are my sins still haunt me. But I won't apologize for what I had little control over. Doesn't mean I don't feel bad though."
"Do your past sins make you sad? I thought you said you don't feel emotions. And I'm not trying to be an asshole. I want to know."
Okay, so I don't feel my own emotions. But let's take a personal example. Like, if you're sad, I objectively know that's bad. Or at least, it's bad from my perspective. Beyond needing your nourishment to stay alive, we are in a relationship, and in relationships, you care about the other person. I... I really like being in this relationship. So I do my best to care about you."
"That's... really sweet actually. Thank you, Love."