The Rumpus Room Of Sin

Not even a gilded age. At least something that's gilded has a tiny bit of gold on it.

Not even pyrite, just the soft glittery micro-shale like shit that you find around it. The shit that makes veins in other more desirable stones, and fucks up the ability for them to be polished. The key component of so much make-up, used to plaster over things we want to make appear more aesthetic, but which ultimately cannot improve anything beyond smearing glitter on it. A cheap pigmenting mineral with an inflated price.

It can be very effective, and it can be really hard to learn to second-guess it, especially if you come from an environment where you couldn't check or trust people to be honest with you. But you have to learn to second-guess that instinct -- because it's not empathy, it's projection. You don't "know" what someone's feeling, you're assuming, based on an assumption that's kept you safe in the past.