"And pathetic." It wasn't a punch he was ever going to pull. "I'll not be so desperate. If I cannot use my Maker-given gifts, then...I'll just have to resort to something else."

What, he couldn't say, but something. Dorian Pavus would always view that machine as a weakness, something to rely upon. Not for anyone else, of course, but he holds himself to a sometimes impossible standard. That view could change, of course, given necessity and what not, but for the moment the very idea of it...