"In my defense," Andrei said, "forty thousand angry voices in my skull telling me to kill and consume is a lot to argue with."
"No one's asking you to argue with them. Arguing implies negotiation, and negotiation implies they get a vote." She finally looked at him properly, eyes sharp with the particular brightness of someone who found the failure more interesting than frustrating.
"You need dominance, not dialogue. Right now, your command signal isn't fast or strong enough to withstand the feedback coming through the connection."
"You're trying to imprint your will onto minds saturated with rage and hunger, but before you can reach deep enough to seize them, those instincts overwhelm your own neural signature. And guess who loses when that happens?"
"Spoiler: it's you. Every time."
