[ There is a part of him that wants to wring the sorrow from her fingers with his own, but it feels disingenuous to what they're seeing. He can only stay steady for her. ]

If it was an escape, I would have gotten just one.

[ Rather than three, more than any of the others had managed. One was the limit for some, and many didn't even survive that. Fingertips skimming the metal bound with scar tissue makes the other muscles of his shoulder flicker. The caps are warm — there's a pulse there, wired irreversibly to everything that keeps him alive. ]

I can connect to machines this way. For the guys we worked for, it meant easy labor. Cheap, too.

[ Being able to operate machinery supplanted the need for schooling. ]