[—And that's when he finally sees it: the despair written across Qubit's face, the torment he's kept so well buried, and it strikes Carlisle in that moment that, perhaps, Qubit hasn't been talking about him exclusively.
For someone he genuinely considers as his friend -- someone he thought he could trust, someone he believed wouldn't lie to him, someone who has offered to help him despite everything -- Carlisle knows so, so little about the technomancer himself. He, too, shuts out his emotions as best he can when necessary, masks himself with cold, detached logic rather than inane ramblings -- he keeps the details of his life private in a way Carlisle never could, certainly not with a lineage like his, and not now that he is at constant odds with his Revenant nature. It's a different kind of emotional isolation than Carlisle faced, but one that can be just as damaging. Carlisle knows his reason, but what is Qubit's?
It may be too late to ask. Carlisle's expression softens immediately, his wrath replaced with apologetic regret, but his attempt to reach out to Qubit is halted by a sharp, stabbing pain across his abdomen. Carlisle stiffens as his breath catches in his throat; he presses a hand against his middle, atop the scars that lay beneath his many layers. Just as he stops, so too do the skeletons, frozen in their animation.]
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For someone he genuinely considers as his friend -- someone he thought he could trust, someone he believed wouldn't lie to him, someone who has offered to help him despite everything -- Carlisle knows so, so little about the technomancer himself. He, too, shuts out his emotions as best he can when necessary, masks himself with cold, detached logic rather than inane ramblings -- he keeps the details of his life private in a way Carlisle never could, certainly not with a lineage like his, and not now that he is at constant odds with his Revenant nature. It's a different kind of emotional isolation than Carlisle faced, but one that can be just as damaging. Carlisle knows his reason, but what is Qubit's?
It may be too late to ask. Carlisle's expression softens immediately, his wrath replaced with apologetic regret, but his attempt to reach out to Qubit is halted by a sharp, stabbing pain across his abdomen. Carlisle stiffens as his breath catches in his throat; he presses a hand against his middle, atop the scars that lay beneath his many layers. Just as he stops, so too do the skeletons, frozen in their animation.]