"Tarnish, follow her and make sure she doesn't, like, suddenly kill everybody and escape. We have to assume at this point that tropewise she's now the story's protagonist and I'm the villain."
"Carmin, sorry. I let myself get excited about meeting Carissa, I was - trying not to do the thing that obviously isn't going to end well, or rather, is going to end even worse, of suppressing too many emotions, not making any concessions to excitement - didn't ask her to swear any oaths in advance, and - just now told her that it was looking like I needed to turn her into a statue for a week, if she didn't want to offer any promises."