It's a loneliness he's more or less been distracting himself from, and for the most part it had been fairly effective. But there are always the reminders that come in the most unexpected and sometimes simplest forms, teasing out a memory, prompting an errant thought- where are they now? What are his siblings doing?

"It's...an incompleteness," Tech says. "An obvious absence, no matter what you're doing. As much as you busy yourself with, maybe even forget it for a little while, it's still there, waiting."

It's difficult for him to really put it into words, and even this attempt is almost a clinical dissection of a feeling, but for Tech it's a big step in that he's acknowledging such a feeling at all.

Vader comes from a point where he's been bearing something greater than loneliness, too late to restore most of those bonds lost. Tech would admire him for it were it not such a miserable thing to have had to shoulder. It's not something he'd wish upon anyone. Even here, second chances had been a tease, and he's not sure how much anyone could take of having something they wanted so badly torn away one too many times.