Marathe & Steeply, losing people — "With your sleeveless skirt and different…"

The persona intrudes even into grief. Steeply says he "couldn't even stand to be in the same room" as his four-point-restrained friend, and Marathe won't let the disguise recede for the sentiment — he tags the visit with "your sleeveless skirt and different breasts," pinning the operative to his costume at the one moment feeling breaks through. It's needling and it's true: the operative is never off-duty from the cover, cannot even mourn out of it, and the "different breasts" attend the deathbed with him. The disguise doesn't pause for the human underneath; the human visits his dying friend in drag.