Hal becomes unreadable — even to Mario

timeline_event

pivotal · 11 Nov YDAU, ~2300h

When: 11 Nov YDAU, ~2300h (Mario's Ennet House walk)
What: From Mario's POV, the clearest external marker of Hal's interior slide: "He is having a harder and harder time reading Hal's states of mind or whether he's in good spirits. This worries him." Mario "used to be able to sort of preverbally know in his stomach generally where Hal was and what he was doing, even if Hal was far away... and now he can't anymore." Since "Mario never changes," the loss is in Hal. (Related affect note: Hal has "sometimes felt a twinge of envy" of Mario's inability to feel pain; and Hal has asked when Mario will come back to sleep in their room.) A pivotal state-change: Hal's affect going opaque to the one person who could always feel him.