[He stops before he makes contact with him, leaving his hands raised-- or, moreover, his right raise and his left sort of hanging lamely from his wrist, but still somewhat raised, and doesn't shrink away from him but doesn't make a second attempt. He lingers nearby, at least, but takes a small step sideways to clear a path to one of the sets of stairs.]

Your guess is as good as mine, but it did something weird when I was up here, too. Now it's weirder, for sure, so I definitely think it's trying to get us to be a lot closer than I think either of us want to be.

[He says all of that in mostly one breath, because he keeps taking in air and holding his breath, possibly in some kind of means of steadying himself.]

It helped when I went back down, though.