The flaming hat was hurled to the ground with a muffled curse. Skandra stomped on it wrathfully. Stomping on Aeotha's face was out of the question. He wanted to, or to knife her, or something, but the Skandra couldn't bring himself to do it. Gloved hands slapped the top of his head - which was still smoking wildly - as he stomped on the hat and spat vicious curses into thin air. Vituperative like this was usually reserved for the soon-to-be-deceased. Kicking more dirt, and hopefully a bit of ash, onto Aeotha's blanket was the only thing that kept him from slinging a knife at her face. Hire him for a job, get mad at him for one slip of the tongue, and then set his hat on fire because you can't stand hearing the truth about yourself? Skandra stalked toward her with fury in his eyes. Gratified to see that she took a half step away from him.
All he did was point a finger at her.
Hit her. Just one. Punch her right in the face. Clearly she hadn't been punched enough up to this point, or she would've known that there were boundaries in life. Your ability to break those boundaries was directly affected by your ability to pummel into submission anyone who took offense at the breaking of those boundaries.
"You think there's something wrong with me, but there isn't," Skandra sneered cruelly; it was a grotesque mirror of his normally amiable face. "You need people 'like me'. Everybody needs people 'like me'. 'Cause otherwise the people in this world that'd take whatever they want would just walk right over you! So you think I'm a scoundrel? Bad husband? Worse friend? Right on all counts! But I'm still tougher than you, and I don't need some imaginary being to tell me it's okay that daddy's dead! Guess what? I deal with it on my own!"
Aeotha might have set something else on fire, but he didn't let up.
"Yeah, that's right, Aeotha. I said your goddess keeps you from being a real person and living in the real world. Reality is already a piece of shit! You think if you elevate yourself, rise above, that there's some grand reward - but there isn't. People like you just have to hope there is because otherwise you couldn't hack it! So go ahead and call me pathetic, but I still know which one of cries over daddy and dead lovers at night, and it sure as fuck isn't me."
By the time he was finished, he was bellowing in her face, but now he didn't care.