“I wanted to talk to her because she seemed the most likely to not be manipulating me, but because she looked like the one least likely to manipulate me, she could in fact be the master manipulator, manipulating me into manipulating myself by asking for her help, ergo—yeah, I’d looked it up and it wasn’t a person—I’d fallen right into her trap. Got it? Glad somebody did.”
“Maybe that was why she was helping Madeleine. She was a manipulative bitch, but Dess couldn't imagine living in any other reality than the one those manipulations had created. In a way, Dess owed the old mindcaster something. Like her life, such as it was.”
“She smiled a little. "You are a manipulator""I like to think of myself more as an outcome engineer.”
“You can't manipulate me. I made the choice because you look like some lost puppy dog at the the thought of losing me, and I felt bad for you.”
“He felt fortunate to be with Helen; she had her own ambitions and he could not manipulate here.”
“Don’t pull that manipulative sex kitten shit on me”…”but what if I am a manipulative sex kitten shit?”