The weight of Malcolm on his shoulder makes him smile. He hums a bit, thinking over the masking issue. "And you shouldn't. She might not understand how devastating it is for you, to go through that. For her, not expressing the few emotions she has, following the 'social rules' as she hears them and tweaking her reactions according to feedback- well, I'm not going to say it's good for her either. But it's easier for her."
He holds up a finger and takes a moment to flip the fish bites. "She just has to put her feelings in a container, maybe pull them out every so often and shuffle through them. You, on the other hand, have...feelings more like wriggling snakes, and trying to get them to stay in the container is a lot more difficult, and you have to make sure it's tightly sealed. You have to expend a lot more energy to mask than she does, and I don't think she understands that. And-"
He takes a moment to sigh and run his tongue along his teeth. "I don't even know if it'd be a good argument to make. Like I said, I don't think masking is good for her, either. She's just shutting down parts that don't 'fit.' It makes it difficult to know what's her normal brain function and what's repressed."
Re: During Malcolm's Japan Trip
He holds up a finger and takes a moment to flip the fish bites. "She just has to put her feelings in a container, maybe pull them out every so often and shuffle through them. You, on the other hand, have...feelings more like wriggling snakes, and trying to get them to stay in the container is a lot more difficult, and you have to make sure it's tightly sealed. You have to expend a lot more energy to mask than she does, and I don't think she understands that. And-"
He takes a moment to sigh and run his tongue along his teeth. "I don't even know if it'd be a good argument to make. Like I said, I don't think masking is good for her, either. She's just shutting down parts that don't 'fit.' It makes it difficult to know what's her normal brain function and what's repressed."