[Ask him in five minutes and he won't be able to say why. It's some rotten combination of instinct and impulse, curiosity and concern. The muttering is irritating him, and he could walk away, but he doesn't want to. He's concerned, because this man is bleeding. He's exhausted, like the world has pressed its weight down on him all at once, and this is one way he can exert control over the world around him, despite the fact that it isn't his own.]
[None of which he'll be able to articulate. He just — grabs, and that's it. Holds Vashti's hand up to look at the back of them, the bleeding patches and the scales.]
3
[Ask him in five minutes and he won't be able to say why. It's some rotten combination of instinct and impulse, curiosity and concern. The muttering is irritating him, and he could walk away, but he doesn't want to. He's concerned, because this man is bleeding. He's exhausted, like the world has pressed its weight down on him all at once, and this is one way he can exert control over the world around him, despite the fact that it isn't his own.]
[None of which he'll be able to articulate. He just — grabs, and that's it. Holds Vashti's hand up to look at the back of them, the bleeding patches and the scales.]
[His eyes, equally sunken, meet Vashti's levelly.]
They'll grow back, no matter how many times you rip them off. Don't you think?