[That's a kind (and fair) verdict! He takes one last drag of his cigarette, then crushes the stump in the ash tray.]

You know what, now I'm motivated to try again. But first I'll watch the others for a bit. I wonder how the Vessel-Wielder distribution shakes out!

[He could of course ask Oryou to pair up with him - he trusts her! -, but he's too fretful of the possibility that he'll produce some shitty, pathetic weapon for her, and that'd be terribly hard to live down... or, worse, she might have lost too much trust in him after the Gorgon Incident, and that, while understandable, would just sting too terribly! So for now, he'll just people-watch.]