He should have assumed that the pinching was going to continue, possibly ramped up to an annoying and intolerable degree. Somewhere around the fourth or fifth pinch Crozier starts to writhe in a way that’s clearly searching for a way to get away from the assault.

But he’s also laughing, wheezing slightly with each pinch to his skin, hand twisting in Ram’s bright red coat to keep himself from jolting straight up. He’s resisting in the best way he knows how, by pretending it isn’t that intolerable.