Hal's affect-detachment: he feels his own face to check whether he is wincing

pivotal · 8 Nov YDAU

• When: 8 Nov YDAU, Eschaton's violent collapse
• What: As the Eschaton degenerates into real violence, Hal is "just about paralyzed with absorption," unable to tell whether he should be wincing when Troeltsch and Pemulis wince — first aware that they are wincing while he is not, then, in a beat "Hal will later regard as completely and uncomfortably bizarre," physically "feels at his own face to see whether he is wincing" (the single tactile check; the earlier beat is non-tactile). An early, explicit instance of Hal's affect/interior-exterior disconnect (the failure that culminates in his year-later communication collapse), here rendered as inability to read his own expression.