Ah. I'm guessing you never told him that back then? [ Things have changed between Near and Mello now, she knows that. It kind of seems like their whole relationship could have been different if things were just done... right, whatever right really means. Maybe as children they were just too different. Even now, they may as well be as different as night and day. ]
I should not need to spell everything out for him.
[There is more to it than that. It would have been showing a weakness, a crack in the armor. Not something he had been about to do back when they'd still been competing, and something he'd been loathe to do even here.]
You're telling me you expected him to catch on to clues that you didn't even realize you were leaving? Someone needs to sit you down in front of a television and put on some PBS.
[ you need some social skills near and only elmo can do this right ]
Why? [Look, it's not that he hasn't heard of PBS, he just doesn't know what kind of programming is on it. Why should he? Nobody at the House has had a normal childhood to the point where it's arguable none of them have had a childhood at all.]
text
text
[There is more to it than that. It would have been showing a weakness, a crack in the armor. Not something he had been about to do back when they'd still been competing, and something he'd been loathe to do even here.]
text
text
[Yes, he is defending this by framing it as respecting Mello's intelligence. Which he actually does.]
text
text
[One or two, perhaps. But even those he more expected Mello to take as taunts or attempts to hold leverage.]
text
[ you need some social skills near and only elmo can do this right ]
text
Why? [Look, it's not that he hasn't heard of PBS, he just doesn't know what kind of programming is on it. Why should he? Nobody at the House has had a normal childhood to the point where it's arguable none of them have had a childhood at all.]
text
Sesame Street is a children's show, by the way, to help children develop important skills like counting, and how not to be a total dick.
text
[Yes he's deliberately leaving it at that because he thinks it's funny.]
text
...You're a little bit of an ass, aren't you?
text
text