[Dean has long been, by the marquis's estimation, the worthiest person on the Barge. Even more so than Iris, though she is also someone he respects, for his own value of respect. He considers her to be someone who could reside for a time in London Below and escape unscathed and richer for it.]
[But Dean is someone who could live there. He could sink his jaws into it with the right motivation, could own segments of the city the way the marquis has owned all of it, could be a force to be feared and reckoned with. Which is why he is as close to a friend as the marquis has.]
[London Below is his home because it's a challenge. Door is esteemed because she is a challenge. Richard is scorned because he isn't. The marquis is clever enough that he has constructed an existence for himself entirely separate from the average man's reality in order to survive, but he did it where he did it because he's too clever not to be constantly challenged. If he isn't surrounded by threats he must overcome, his or someone else's, he wilts.]
[So, yes. He's testing Dean. He's always testing Dean, because he trusts him to pass with flying colors in one remarkable way or another, though he never can guess just how. He doesn't test people when he's working - he makes his moves based on almost complete certainty and highly educated guesses - but he needs this sort of mental stimulation.]
[This is the change in him since coming to the Barge, the only major change from sheer exposure to inescapable people: when given the choice between protecting his secrets and being forced to think, he will take the path of thought every time, lately. The long spells of stillness and boredom might lead him to true madness otherwise.]
[As to Dean's first assertion - yes. He does. London Below is as close to a love as he's ever had, and it's helplessly, hopelessly out of his reach.]
[ Private : Video ]
[But Dean is someone who could live there. He could sink his jaws into it with the right motivation, could own segments of the city the way the marquis has owned all of it, could be a force to be feared and reckoned with. Which is why he is as close to a friend as the marquis has.]
[London Below is his home because it's a challenge. Door is esteemed because she is a challenge. Richard is scorned because he isn't. The marquis is clever enough that he has constructed an existence for himself entirely separate from the average man's reality in order to survive, but he did it where he did it because he's too clever not to be constantly challenged. If he isn't surrounded by threats he must overcome, his or someone else's, he wilts.]
[So, yes. He's testing Dean. He's always testing Dean, because he trusts him to pass with flying colors in one remarkable way or another, though he never can guess just how. He doesn't test people when he's working - he makes his moves based on almost complete certainty and highly educated guesses - but he needs this sort of mental stimulation.]
[This is the change in him since coming to the Barge, the only major change from sheer exposure to inescapable people: when given the choice between protecting his secrets and being forced to think, he will take the path of thought every time, lately. The long spells of stillness and boredom might lead him to true madness otherwise.]
[As to Dean's first assertion - yes. He does. London Below is as close to a love as he's ever had, and it's helplessly, hopelessly out of his reach.]
[He nods, just once.]
Yes. [To the first.] I always am. [To the last.]