Helen wrote: <Avon underwent 4 days of torture before tehy sent in Shrinker. I seem to remember some stains that would suggest blood had been drawn at times; there were screams in the background as Shrinker talked to him. He underwent this voluntarily. At any point he could have turned off his transmitter and been pulled out by his friends.>

All perfectly true, but (as a devotee of Beautiful Suffering, especially for one of the people I think he cares about) rather beside the point. The fact that he could withstand the pain doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt. And a great deal of the appeal of Avon-torure *is* watching him be stoic in a Good Cause. As I said, it's a balance between strength and vulnerability, and the balance I see in Avon is just right for me.

Avon does give the *impression* of vulnerability under those shields, and Gan doesn't. Whether it's canonically true doesn't really matter in this instance, methinks, since fanfic writers are as much influenced (if not moreso) by what they read into the characters as what is strictly on screen.

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