As he watched Vriska saw away at her block of wood, Vanitas slipped his hands into the pockets of his soft, loose cotton pants. He didn't altogether like the feel of them against his skin, but over the past week he'd been getting used to them, just as he'd been getting used to being at Yellow Brick. That was another thing he didn't like the feel of. For a space traveler like himself, being in a world very different from his own wasn't new, but being trapped there was and the last thing he needed to be was complacent, so hopefully this girl could be one of the keys he needed in order to open the door to escape.
She was a difficult one, though. Vriska sought control unlike others he'd met there - or anywhere. In his experience, people struggled for control, fought for it; but it was as if Vriska was unaware she was supposed to do that, like her very nature kept her secure on a pedestal above others. In his "dream" life, his true life, it had been very easy - almost effortless - for Vanitas to stay in control. He'd known more than those he'd been dealing with. He'd known everything that mattered. At Yellow Brick, hew knew nothing: not even how to use a hammer effectively.
Vriska couldn't know much more than him, yet she managed to make him feel inferior in the moment she stopped what she was doing to question him. When he'd first awoken and gotten his bearings, he'd told himself he would act like he believed everything he'd ever known was a dream, just as he'd been told by the warden. This was partially so the other patients would underestimate him, and partially because if he pretended so it'd give him an amusing way to taunt everyone. But he didn't want to pretend to Vriska because he'd seem like an idiot in her eyes and he knew it. His impulses were telling him to confide in her what he really thought, but Vanitas fought against them. She wasn't important enough for him to care what she thought, and the irony of it all was that he'd scolded her about her ego before, and now his own was tripping him up.
"What's your proof it's not a dream?" he asked at last, offering Vriska a most unimpressed look in return for her stare. "You feel in your heart what you woke up knowing is true? That's the real bullshit. You're crazy, like everyone else here, and you'll have to own up to it before you can make any progress."