Possibly. It really depends on how they “aren’t bad for her.” A significant other can’t FORCE change on a person that doesn’t want it, but they can provide incentive to make the person choose to change.

Okay, yes, conceded, one person can force another to change through abuse. I would submit that such change is functionally never for the better, which was the sort of change I was implicitly talking about, though. Though I would point out that there is both physical and emotional abuse, and Allison is not immune from the latter.

And while yes, Allison has shown herself willing to compel certain behavior from another in circumstances she deems sufficiently dire, it’s also clear that she was really, really conflicted about it after the fact, and it’s unlikely she’d repeat that sort of thing casually just yet (whether this was the start of a slippery slope or not is impossible to say from here), and almost certainly not against a person she had strong personal feelings towards.

Regarding your last point, that depends entirely on who the significant other is, what they each value in others, and how their relationship develops. It’s a fool’s errand to try to quantify the relative contributions of participants in a relationship – everything involved is altogether subjective to those in it. Nor is there any guarantee that Al would not contribute more than you expect to someone she found herself feeling strongly about. She has her ambitions, sure, but those kinds of priorities can undergo radical changes when new people prompt a transformation of perspective. On the flip side, it’s entirely possible she could become involved with someone who shares her passions and wants to participate in them. Someone she can see as a collaborator in her work would have many more points of contact to reinforce and criticize her.

I don’t think it’s even arguable – Patrick absolutely emotionally manipulated Allison. He’s been doing it since the start. I suspect twisting her worldview to more closely match his own, and thus enlisting her as an ally, is a major factor in whatever his long-term plans are.

I don’t disagree that anyone getting into a relationship with Allison is taking a huge chance, whether they know it or not. The general rule of thumb, yes, is when there are huge power imbalances in a relationship, it tends to be an unhealthy one. But that’s a rule of thumb, not an absolute law, is all I’m saying. Someone who is sufficiently generous and wise could get involved with her and not suffer for it. Such a person is rare, but they do exist. Who knows whether Clevin is such a person or not – we haven’t seen enough of his character yet. He SEEMS to be a genuinely kind and patient person, and those are traits a successful significant other for Allison would almost certainly need.

And we’re on the same page regarding Max – he’s a deeply unsympathetic victim, but is a victim all the same. The matter of Feral’s boundaries is almost certainly something Allison hasn’t thought about deeply enough. If she had, she would have pulled strings to discuss the subject with Feral before approaching Max. And I doubt very much she’ll think about it enough until and unless a downside to Max’s powerboost presents itself – so long as the outcome for Feral appears unambiguously good, she won’t re-examine that aspect of things.

I’m VERY suspicious of Patrick’s apparent ineptitude when it comes to Allison. The boy owns a huge multinational corporation entirely on the strength of his ability to manipulate people. He came within inches of literally ruling the world, and managed to avoid being held in any way accountable for his crimes in the process, entirely on the strength of his ability to manipulate people. And it’s been made pretty obvious that a great deal of his behavior around Alison is an act. I personally think nearly all of it is. I think he “fails” to convince her to do things on purpose, either to lull her into a false sense of security, or as an effort of reverse psychology.

Yeah, it’s possible he’s got a blind spot for Al – if he really does have feelings for her, that would not be odd. It’s pretty common for people that are normally very socially intelligent to become inept towards a person they’re attracted to.

But personally, my starting position with Patrick is to assume he’s got nefarious intentions, and it’s his job to prove me wrong. We know his history, and we know he hasn’t suddenly transformed into an altruist. He’s got SOME kind of plan going on – the only real open questions are exactly what his endgame is, and to what extent Alison plays into it.

The mark of a gifted strategist is not laying out a plan that never encounters unexpected obstacles – that requires perfect knowledge of all future events and is therefore impossible. It is successfully adapting when the unexpected occurs, and turning it to your own advantage.

Patrick has, manifestly, done this more than once. The very fact that he remains free, with his past identity as a global super-criminal still secret, is proof enough of that all by itself. We don’t yet know how, but I’m fairly confident that having an enhanced Feral in the world also benefits Patrick’s long-term goals. I’m sure Patrick knew that Al would reject his money but act on the intel about Max exactly as she did. That takes far less insight into her mind than Patrick has. The open question here is whether he alienated her at the moment he did just so that he could push her to act in this manner now, or whether he was trying to be honest with her for more personal reasons.

Absolutely, that’s also possible – not saying it isn’t. But given past behavior on his part, I don’t feel like Patrick has earned the benefit of the doubt – I’ll have to see some evidence of non-malevolent intent before I assume he’s not still plotting evil. “Expect the worst, hope for the best” is my motto. 😉

Well, it stands to reason that most of the biodynamics would be hot messes – that’s what tends to happen when you grant children massive levels of social power after all, and these people all had that plus literal super-powers. It’s going to mess with a person’s still-developing psychology a bit.

Regarding Patrick’s ability to manipulate people, yeah, you’re right that he doesn’t really need deep understanding of any given person’s personality, thanks to his own power – being able to hear everything another is thinking makes it really, really easy to figure out, purely from trial and error, what works to make them act and think the way you want, without needing to develop any deeper insight. His working model of human motivation is probably pretty shallow, but it has the benefit of being operationally effective.

Agreed. I’m really curious to see what Patrick does next.