[ What Contractors lack in empathy, they make up for in perception. In Hei's case, as a human functioning under-the-radar with Contractors, he's learnt to develop both. Except he doesn't need his usual repertoire to catch facial tics or trains-of-thought. He knows, with a queasy stirring in his gut, that something is brewing in Pai's mind. He just isn't sure what. It's how it's always been between them -- siblings twined by bloodshed, but separated by a tangible wall -- emotionalism vs. logic. For all his inquisitions, all his desperate fumblings to catch her soaring comet... ]
[ Well. Like him, Pai has always had a mind of her own. ]
[ Instead of pressing for details, he takes up his fork again, finishing the colorful stuff on his plate. Watches Pai's hands, so small and delicate, their joints whiter than the surrounding skin. He stares at the dainty movements of her fingers, and thinks -- If I could freeze my consciousness at this point, this moment, after she's gone, maybe I'd survive the truth of it. Maybe everything would be okay. ]
[ Years of bullshitting other people. But he can't bullshit himself. ]
action;
[ Well. Like him, Pai has always had a mind of her own. ]
[ Instead of pressing for details, he takes up his fork again, finishing the colorful stuff on his plate. Watches Pai's hands, so small and delicate, their joints whiter than the surrounding skin. He stares at the dainty movements of her fingers, and thinks -- If I could freeze my consciousness at this point, this moment, after she's gone, maybe I'd survive the truth of it. Maybe everything would be okay. ]
[ Years of bullshitting other people. But he can't bullshit himself. ]