Hal Mason (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
refusestofall) wrote2014-01-21 07:32 pm
refusestofall) wrote2014-01-21 07:32 pm
Entry tags:
app} The Box
Player Information
Player name: Alison Sky
Contact: Plurk: alisonsky
Are you over 18: sadly, very much yes
Characters in The Box Already: n/a
Character Information
Character Name: Hal Mason
Canon: Falling Skies
Canon Point: Season 3, Episode 1: On Thin Ice (he will be waking up from the second dream session with Karen in this episode towards the end)
Is your character Dead, Undead or Alive: Alive
History: Wikia Link here
Personality: Hal Mason was a high school jock turned soldier boy when the aliens invaded a few weeks short of his 17th birthday. It wasn’t until the death of his mother and the kidnapping of his younger brother did Hal start to take responsibility for helping in the resistance fight off the aliens while trying to survive with his father, girlfriend, and youngest brother.
There’s a part of Hal that regrets losing his senior year of high school. He’s had to grow up fast and learn to fight quickly. Most of his assignments with the 2nd Mass are as a scout, setting him off on his own to check for aliens before missions. Even as a kid, he’s earned the trust of those in the military in the group to serve with them, and more importantly, his father trusts him to go on these dangerous missions. Hal isn’t afraid to fight, or put himself in harm’s way to protect another - especially when it comes to his family. He’s seen a lot of people die in front of him because of this war, but it hasn’t developed a completely hard shell to not feel anything when someone dies in the war. His maturity on the battlefield makes it easy to forget he’s still a kid in the end.
When it comes to family, they are the source of his strength. He has a very strong relationship with his father; there are times where they can butt heads - he gets his stubbornness from Tom - but Tom has watched his son grow up into a man in front of his eyes. They tend to lean on each other a lot, both in the field and with advice. Hal may be a teenager still, but he has become an ear to help his father with planning. There is a mutual respect between them, even if at times Hal knows his father makes choices at times to protect him from getting too deep into the thick of things.
When Tom is taken by the aliens, that relationship as a soldier transfers to Captain Weaver. Hal steps up to fill in his father’s shoes during that time, and gets granted with his own scout unit to make recon runs and insurgent missions to hit the aliens before they can hit them. He’s not as wise as his father was, but Hal grows into a leadership role naturally and has a mind for planning strategies and missions that keeps him involved on the inner workings of the 2nd Mass even after his father returns to take back his place as XO. Even when he loses the ability to use his legs after the attack on the overlord’s base in 2x10, Hal is still a member of the inner planning team, a leader and an active fighter to continue to contribute to the fight.
Hal is the eldest of the three Mason boys, and he has a different relationship with each of his brothers. When it comes to Matt, his baby brother is a pain, but he’s too young to really understand everything that is happening. Hal is protective of him, taking it as his job to make sure his brother is safe and happy. He continues to tease him, trying to keep his brother living a normal life and from dealing with the pressures of the new world they are living in. He tries to keep Matt out of the war and being a fighter, even as it becomes obvious that Matt will find his own ways to learn how to shoot and help. In some ways, Hal feels that keeping Matt’s innocence is a way to preserve a piece of his own past life as the older brother.
With Ben, his relationship is more complicated. As kids, they always fought like cats and dogs, and their mother was the one who made the peace between them. Hal saw Ben as a math geek, twice as smart as him and a brat. Ben always saw Hal as a dumb jock. When Ben got kidnapped, Hal made a silent promise that he would find Ben and take care of him – in the comic prequel there is a suggestion that it was a fight between them that had Ben at a friend’s house at the time he got captured and Hal feels it was his fault Ben was taken. That guilt made him reckless in wanting to save Ben once they figured out where he was, but it’s his father that keeps him from following through on just going in and saving him.
After Ben is back, there is a lot of tension between them as Hal fears how much the aliens have changed him. In the few months their father is gone, their relationship becomes even more strained as Ben starts to use his new “powers” to help the 2nd Mass, and Hal can’t reign in his brother’s recklessness and anger. It’s when Ben leaves with the rebel skitters and starts to find his own path in the new world that Hal starts to accept the fact Ben is growing up, and while he will always be frustrated at his little brother, that doesn’t mean they aren’t a good team when they fight together, or that they love each other any less.
His relationship with Karen is probably the most complicated. They met after the war started as part of the 2nd Mass and hit it off quickly. Karen had his back, and they were two teenagers getting to know each other in all the ways that teenagers tend to do.When she was captured and turned by the aliens, he put the blame on himself for not being able to save her. He swore to save her, and her loss weighs heavily on him throughout the first months after she is gone. When he learns though of how the aliens are using her, he knows - as seen from Rick - that the longer that someone is under the alien’s control, the less likely they will want to be free. The guilt and anger he carries is one of his major forces that keeps him fighting so no one else will lose someone they love like that. When she returns and manipulates him to kidnap Ben, he finally comes to the realization that the Karen he knows is dead, and all that’s left in him is the anger after that. Their last interaction, however, left him suddenly crippled and that has added to his anger, and while it should have destroyed any affection he felt towards her, he’s still drawn to her affection in what he believes are dreams that have become more and more frequent in the last few weeks.
Maggie, on the other hand, has given him a reason to smile again. When they met, she was holding a gun to his head. But she saved his life that day, and many times after since then. She slipped into Karen’s spot as Hal’s partner on patrols, which gave them a lot of time to get to know each other, first as comrades, and then as friends. When his father was abducted and Hal was left without a confidant since his relationship with Ben was strained, she took over that spot as well. When it comes to anything more beyond friends, they were caught up in a dance around each other for a long time. Hal finally admitted to her what he wanted, but Maggie was determined to push him away because – as Hal believes – she didn’t think she was good enough to have someone care about her like he did. It wasn’t until they reached New Charleston that Maggie let her walls start to drop and let Hal in. This was important because it wasn’t long after they started their relationship that Hal became crippled and it was her strength that helped him through the last seven months.
In the aftermath of the attack on the weapon of the overlord, Hal fell unconscious after being kissed by Karen. This is what let the bug into Hal that he is unaware of currently. Since he woke up in his own consciousness, he has been unable to walk. All medical tests and scans have shown that he is perfectly healthy, so why he is unable to walk is a medical mystery. It’s left Hal having to start doubting himself and his future in the new world order. As any soldier hurt in battle, he is suffering from PTSD, depression, and anger management issues. He is also having nightmares that only Maggie knows about, and he has yet to realize that the nightmares are actually the bug taking control of his body and sending him into the woods just outside of camp to meet with Karen. The only thing that is keeping him from losing it is the connection of his family and Maggie – and even his family will admit that Maggie is the rock he has been leaning on the most. As the months passed, Hal managed to find a way to get back into the fight so that he would feel useful, and manages to put on an “everything’s fine” attitude to others, but there are still a lot of scars that he has yet to let himself deal with – and more to come.
Items on your character at canon point:
He is currently wearing his normal assemble: jeans, combat boots, t-shirt, button down shirt, and green military jacket. He has a pair of fingerless biker gloves in his pockets. There is a shoulder holster that should have his sidearm, he usually keeps a rifle on his back, and spare ammo for each would be in his pockets. He would also have a maglight in an inner pocket, and a pack of gum in the other one. He also has his wallet in his pocket and there is a few normal wallet type things in there, but in particular is a picture of his entire family at an amusement park before the aliens invaded.
Abilities, Strengths and Weaknesses:
Abilities:
• Hal is human and normally does not have any special abilities. However, it has been shown that humans infected with ashfeni technology can gain powers including enhanced strength and hearing, and the ability to communicate with other aliens both consciously and subconsciously. Hal has not shown the enhanced strength and hearing in canon beyond where he is being pulled from, but he does communicate with Karen and the bug has taken control of him and sending Hal into the subconscious where he isn't conscious or remember anything that happens during these periods.
• Hal is a trained soldier. He is able to use many levels of handheld firearms from handguns to assault rifles. Currently he is manning a truck mounted assault canon. He has also been learning military strategy including planning missions, scouting locations for weaknesses, and how to organize and lead a team in a mission.
• Hal is able to operate a car and motorcycle.
• He will kick your ass in lacrosse. Just sayin'
Strengths:
• His family is probably his biggest strength. His father supports him and still manages to find time to be a father to him even though he is an adult and they are in the middle of a post-apocalyptic battle for survival. His siblings give him a reason to keep fighting so that they have a chance to have a better future they won't need to fear. While Anne is becoming a mother figure to his siblings, Hal is old enough that Rebecca can never be replaced in his mind as that person. But she is still family, as will his new little half sibling that he loves already even though Lexi has yet to be born. Maggie is his rock and anchor, especially after the loss of his legs, and he loves her like no one else he has ever cared about before.
• He has a strong mind and willpower that impress many people when they get to know him. Even with his own self-doubts, he tries to be optimistic for others and keep their spirits up.
• He is more intelligent than he gives himself credit for. He knows he is no longer the dumb jock that he was before the aliens invaded, and continues to surprise people at how much information he can absorb and use to help the 2nd Mass.
Weakness:
• His family is also his greatest weakness. He will do anything to protect them, even if it means putting himself in the line of fire. This can, has, and will continue to be used to take advantage of him.
• He is currently suffering from PTSD after his encounter with Karen that left him crippled. He has moments of anger outbursts, snaps easily at people for no reason, paranoia, self-doubt, and trust issues. He is also having nightmares that make him wake up in cold sweats.
• There is a probe planted in his cerebral cortex by Karen in 2x10 that connects him to her, and in a way lets her control him and his actions. Currently at this point of canon, she has just been using him to come see her for make-out sessions in the woods, but later on in the season the probe will take over Hal’s consciousness as it develops its own personality that is a darker version of Hal with access to all of Hal’s memories. When it does take over, his own consciousness is knocked out and he has no memories of what happens in these times. In canon, the only way it can be removed is either by the one who planted it, or a skitter made organism that can hunt out the bug in a host and destroy it – or in the absence of a bug, destroy the host. Other effects of this bug are mentioned up in the abilities section.
• His body in resisting the probe has made Hal unable to walk when he is conscious of his actions. He is in physical therapy and after 7 months is just barely able to move with leg braces and crutches. He has learned how to use a wheelchair quite well at this point. In later canon, Karen has revealed that he is doing it to himself in resisting the probe as he is able to walk just fine in his “dreams”. It is theoretically possible that someone will be able to make Hal realize this too in game and eventually give him back use of his legs.
Samples
Network/Action Spam Sample: Sample Here
Prose Log Sample:
Step. Step.
"Keep up the good work, Hal."
Step. Step.
"There's nothing physically wrong with him."
Step. Step.
Hal focused on his legs, finding a way to use his hips and shoulders to move his leg forward another step. He could heard them talking about him, hear that words of encouragement as they passed, but he ignored them all. No one understood what was happening to him, and because of that, no one understood him.
He hated this. Hated being weak, hated being useless... the last year he had spent learning to be a solider. A leader. Someone his mother would have been proud of. And now? Now he was struggling to figure out how to walk across a room again.
Nothing wrong with him? Who the fuck were they kidding here?
Step. Step.
He was supposed to be out there taking the fight to the aliens! He was supposed to be standing - standing - at his father's side when he and Colonel Weaver were planning missions, and not in some dark corner with in his chair. He was supposed to be taking care of his brothers and making sure they weren't getting hurt out there.
Hell, he had a baby sibling on his or her way and what the hell was he going to be able to do but sit around and watch as the kid learned to walk before he was able to again!
Step. S...
"Hal, are you okay?" Lourdes was at his side as Hal shook his arms free of the hand crutches so he could push himself up by his arms. Her hands were checking his face and shoulders but he waved her away. "Hal, just let me..."
"I'm fine, Lourdes," Hal snapped, making her sit back on her heels as he pushed himself up to sitting and worked to rearrange his legs. He took a breath, then looked back over at her again. "Sorry, I shouldn't have snapped like that."
"You're under a lot of pressure, Hal. It's fine." He could tell she was still checking him over for any injuries, and she smiled when she was satisfied that he was okay. "You should take a hot shower and rest. We can do more tomorrow."
Hal nodded, and looked over to where Ben stood. Without a word, Ben easily scooped Hal up in his arms and got helped his brother into the waiting wheelchair before stepping away. Lourdes took the braces off his legs and put them back into place in the stirrups while Hal just sighed and stared at the walls as she did it. She patted his shoulder when she was done and he nodded.
Leaving them all behind, Hal wheeled himself back to his room and slammed the door behind him as best he could.
He shouldn't have to be apologizing to everyone. And they shouldn't have to be making excuses for him either. They all knew the truth, and no one wanted to say it out loud. He was broken, and no one knew how to fix him; and eventually, whatever was happening was going to destroy him.
Just one slow step at a time.
Player name: Alison Sky
Contact: Plurk: alisonsky
Are you over 18: sadly, very much yes
Characters in The Box Already: n/a
Character Information
Character Name: Hal Mason
Canon: Falling Skies
Canon Point: Season 3, Episode 1: On Thin Ice (he will be waking up from the second dream session with Karen in this episode towards the end)
Is your character Dead, Undead or Alive: Alive
History: Wikia Link here
Personality: Hal Mason was a high school jock turned soldier boy when the aliens invaded a few weeks short of his 17th birthday. It wasn’t until the death of his mother and the kidnapping of his younger brother did Hal start to take responsibility for helping in the resistance fight off the aliens while trying to survive with his father, girlfriend, and youngest brother.
There’s a part of Hal that regrets losing his senior year of high school. He’s had to grow up fast and learn to fight quickly. Most of his assignments with the 2nd Mass are as a scout, setting him off on his own to check for aliens before missions. Even as a kid, he’s earned the trust of those in the military in the group to serve with them, and more importantly, his father trusts him to go on these dangerous missions. Hal isn’t afraid to fight, or put himself in harm’s way to protect another - especially when it comes to his family. He’s seen a lot of people die in front of him because of this war, but it hasn’t developed a completely hard shell to not feel anything when someone dies in the war. His maturity on the battlefield makes it easy to forget he’s still a kid in the end.
When it comes to family, they are the source of his strength. He has a very strong relationship with his father; there are times where they can butt heads - he gets his stubbornness from Tom - but Tom has watched his son grow up into a man in front of his eyes. They tend to lean on each other a lot, both in the field and with advice. Hal may be a teenager still, but he has become an ear to help his father with planning. There is a mutual respect between them, even if at times Hal knows his father makes choices at times to protect him from getting too deep into the thick of things.
When Tom is taken by the aliens, that relationship as a soldier transfers to Captain Weaver. Hal steps up to fill in his father’s shoes during that time, and gets granted with his own scout unit to make recon runs and insurgent missions to hit the aliens before they can hit them. He’s not as wise as his father was, but Hal grows into a leadership role naturally and has a mind for planning strategies and missions that keeps him involved on the inner workings of the 2nd Mass even after his father returns to take back his place as XO. Even when he loses the ability to use his legs after the attack on the overlord’s base in 2x10, Hal is still a member of the inner planning team, a leader and an active fighter to continue to contribute to the fight.
Hal is the eldest of the three Mason boys, and he has a different relationship with each of his brothers. When it comes to Matt, his baby brother is a pain, but he’s too young to really understand everything that is happening. Hal is protective of him, taking it as his job to make sure his brother is safe and happy. He continues to tease him, trying to keep his brother living a normal life and from dealing with the pressures of the new world they are living in. He tries to keep Matt out of the war and being a fighter, even as it becomes obvious that Matt will find his own ways to learn how to shoot and help. In some ways, Hal feels that keeping Matt’s innocence is a way to preserve a piece of his own past life as the older brother.
With Ben, his relationship is more complicated. As kids, they always fought like cats and dogs, and their mother was the one who made the peace between them. Hal saw Ben as a math geek, twice as smart as him and a brat. Ben always saw Hal as a dumb jock. When Ben got kidnapped, Hal made a silent promise that he would find Ben and take care of him – in the comic prequel there is a suggestion that it was a fight between them that had Ben at a friend’s house at the time he got captured and Hal feels it was his fault Ben was taken. That guilt made him reckless in wanting to save Ben once they figured out where he was, but it’s his father that keeps him from following through on just going in and saving him.
After Ben is back, there is a lot of tension between them as Hal fears how much the aliens have changed him. In the few months their father is gone, their relationship becomes even more strained as Ben starts to use his new “powers” to help the 2nd Mass, and Hal can’t reign in his brother’s recklessness and anger. It’s when Ben leaves with the rebel skitters and starts to find his own path in the new world that Hal starts to accept the fact Ben is growing up, and while he will always be frustrated at his little brother, that doesn’t mean they aren’t a good team when they fight together, or that they love each other any less.
His relationship with Karen is probably the most complicated. They met after the war started as part of the 2nd Mass and hit it off quickly. Karen had his back, and they were two teenagers getting to know each other in all the ways that teenagers tend to do.When she was captured and turned by the aliens, he put the blame on himself for not being able to save her. He swore to save her, and her loss weighs heavily on him throughout the first months after she is gone. When he learns though of how the aliens are using her, he knows - as seen from Rick - that the longer that someone is under the alien’s control, the less likely they will want to be free. The guilt and anger he carries is one of his major forces that keeps him fighting so no one else will lose someone they love like that. When she returns and manipulates him to kidnap Ben, he finally comes to the realization that the Karen he knows is dead, and all that’s left in him is the anger after that. Their last interaction, however, left him suddenly crippled and that has added to his anger, and while it should have destroyed any affection he felt towards her, he’s still drawn to her affection in what he believes are dreams that have become more and more frequent in the last few weeks.
Maggie, on the other hand, has given him a reason to smile again. When they met, she was holding a gun to his head. But she saved his life that day, and many times after since then. She slipped into Karen’s spot as Hal’s partner on patrols, which gave them a lot of time to get to know each other, first as comrades, and then as friends. When his father was abducted and Hal was left without a confidant since his relationship with Ben was strained, she took over that spot as well. When it comes to anything more beyond friends, they were caught up in a dance around each other for a long time. Hal finally admitted to her what he wanted, but Maggie was determined to push him away because – as Hal believes – she didn’t think she was good enough to have someone care about her like he did. It wasn’t until they reached New Charleston that Maggie let her walls start to drop and let Hal in. This was important because it wasn’t long after they started their relationship that Hal became crippled and it was her strength that helped him through the last seven months.
In the aftermath of the attack on the weapon of the overlord, Hal fell unconscious after being kissed by Karen. This is what let the bug into Hal that he is unaware of currently. Since he woke up in his own consciousness, he has been unable to walk. All medical tests and scans have shown that he is perfectly healthy, so why he is unable to walk is a medical mystery. It’s left Hal having to start doubting himself and his future in the new world order. As any soldier hurt in battle, he is suffering from PTSD, depression, and anger management issues. He is also having nightmares that only Maggie knows about, and he has yet to realize that the nightmares are actually the bug taking control of his body and sending him into the woods just outside of camp to meet with Karen. The only thing that is keeping him from losing it is the connection of his family and Maggie – and even his family will admit that Maggie is the rock he has been leaning on the most. As the months passed, Hal managed to find a way to get back into the fight so that he would feel useful, and manages to put on an “everything’s fine” attitude to others, but there are still a lot of scars that he has yet to let himself deal with – and more to come.
Items on your character at canon point:
He is currently wearing his normal assemble: jeans, combat boots, t-shirt, button down shirt, and green military jacket. He has a pair of fingerless biker gloves in his pockets. There is a shoulder holster that should have his sidearm, he usually keeps a rifle on his back, and spare ammo for each would be in his pockets. He would also have a maglight in an inner pocket, and a pack of gum in the other one. He also has his wallet in his pocket and there is a few normal wallet type things in there, but in particular is a picture of his entire family at an amusement park before the aliens invaded.
Abilities, Strengths and Weaknesses:
Abilities:
• Hal is human and normally does not have any special abilities. However, it has been shown that humans infected with ashfeni technology can gain powers including enhanced strength and hearing, and the ability to communicate with other aliens both consciously and subconsciously. Hal has not shown the enhanced strength and hearing in canon beyond where he is being pulled from, but he does communicate with Karen and the bug has taken control of him and sending Hal into the subconscious where he isn't conscious or remember anything that happens during these periods.
• Hal is a trained soldier. He is able to use many levels of handheld firearms from handguns to assault rifles. Currently he is manning a truck mounted assault canon. He has also been learning military strategy including planning missions, scouting locations for weaknesses, and how to organize and lead a team in a mission.
• Hal is able to operate a car and motorcycle.
• He will kick your ass in lacrosse. Just sayin'
Strengths:
• His family is probably his biggest strength. His father supports him and still manages to find time to be a father to him even though he is an adult and they are in the middle of a post-apocalyptic battle for survival. His siblings give him a reason to keep fighting so that they have a chance to have a better future they won't need to fear. While Anne is becoming a mother figure to his siblings, Hal is old enough that Rebecca can never be replaced in his mind as that person. But she is still family, as will his new little half sibling that he loves already even though Lexi has yet to be born. Maggie is his rock and anchor, especially after the loss of his legs, and he loves her like no one else he has ever cared about before.
• He has a strong mind and willpower that impress many people when they get to know him. Even with his own self-doubts, he tries to be optimistic for others and keep their spirits up.
• He is more intelligent than he gives himself credit for. He knows he is no longer the dumb jock that he was before the aliens invaded, and continues to surprise people at how much information he can absorb and use to help the 2nd Mass.
Weakness:
• His family is also his greatest weakness. He will do anything to protect them, even if it means putting himself in the line of fire. This can, has, and will continue to be used to take advantage of him.
• He is currently suffering from PTSD after his encounter with Karen that left him crippled. He has moments of anger outbursts, snaps easily at people for no reason, paranoia, self-doubt, and trust issues. He is also having nightmares that make him wake up in cold sweats.
• There is a probe planted in his cerebral cortex by Karen in 2x10 that connects him to her, and in a way lets her control him and his actions. Currently at this point of canon, she has just been using him to come see her for make-out sessions in the woods, but later on in the season the probe will take over Hal’s consciousness as it develops its own personality that is a darker version of Hal with access to all of Hal’s memories. When it does take over, his own consciousness is knocked out and he has no memories of what happens in these times. In canon, the only way it can be removed is either by the one who planted it, or a skitter made organism that can hunt out the bug in a host and destroy it – or in the absence of a bug, destroy the host. Other effects of this bug are mentioned up in the abilities section.
• His body in resisting the probe has made Hal unable to walk when he is conscious of his actions. He is in physical therapy and after 7 months is just barely able to move with leg braces and crutches. He has learned how to use a wheelchair quite well at this point. In later canon, Karen has revealed that he is doing it to himself in resisting the probe as he is able to walk just fine in his “dreams”. It is theoretically possible that someone will be able to make Hal realize this too in game and eventually give him back use of his legs.
Samples
Network/Action Spam Sample: Sample Here
Prose Log Sample:
Step. Step.
"Keep up the good work, Hal."
Step. Step.
"There's nothing physically wrong with him."
Step. Step.
Hal focused on his legs, finding a way to use his hips and shoulders to move his leg forward another step. He could heard them talking about him, hear that words of encouragement as they passed, but he ignored them all. No one understood what was happening to him, and because of that, no one understood him.
He hated this. Hated being weak, hated being useless... the last year he had spent learning to be a solider. A leader. Someone his mother would have been proud of. And now? Now he was struggling to figure out how to walk across a room again.
Nothing wrong with him? Who the fuck were they kidding here?
Step. Step.
He was supposed to be out there taking the fight to the aliens! He was supposed to be standing - standing - at his father's side when he and Colonel Weaver were planning missions, and not in some dark corner with in his chair. He was supposed to be taking care of his brothers and making sure they weren't getting hurt out there.
Hell, he had a baby sibling on his or her way and what the hell was he going to be able to do but sit around and watch as the kid learned to walk before he was able to again!
Step. S...
"Hal, are you okay?" Lourdes was at his side as Hal shook his arms free of the hand crutches so he could push himself up by his arms. Her hands were checking his face and shoulders but he waved her away. "Hal, just let me..."
"I'm fine, Lourdes," Hal snapped, making her sit back on her heels as he pushed himself up to sitting and worked to rearrange his legs. He took a breath, then looked back over at her again. "Sorry, I shouldn't have snapped like that."
"You're under a lot of pressure, Hal. It's fine." He could tell she was still checking him over for any injuries, and she smiled when she was satisfied that he was okay. "You should take a hot shower and rest. We can do more tomorrow."
Hal nodded, and looked over to where Ben stood. Without a word, Ben easily scooped Hal up in his arms and got helped his brother into the waiting wheelchair before stepping away. Lourdes took the braces off his legs and put them back into place in the stirrups while Hal just sighed and stared at the walls as she did it. She patted his shoulder when she was done and he nodded.
Leaving them all behind, Hal wheeled himself back to his room and slammed the door behind him as best he could.
He shouldn't have to be apologizing to everyone. And they shouldn't have to be making excuses for him either. They all knew the truth, and no one wanted to say it out loud. He was broken, and no one knew how to fix him; and eventually, whatever was happening was going to destroy him.
Just one slow step at a time.