Because scum Arete doesn’t have to make these assumptions if she wants to engage in theatrics with Alice.
Scum Arete can either go for the throat and try to control the thread, or keep regarding Alice with fake paranoia while agreeing with her reads, such as:
So to clarify:
I think scum Arete has a few much better options to either distance from Alice or buddy with her, and what they are doing right now is suboptimal if viewed through the lens of “Alice/Arete W/W”.
Also, I’m not even going to entertain the idea of scum Arete and town Alice here at all. It should be obvious why, but I can write it out for you if you want me to.
Disclaimer: those are just my own opinions, of course.