It's telling that Gen stiffens at the question, expression hardening as his next breath escapes in a ragged huff. And though he opens his mouth to answer, then immediately closes it, Emet-Selch might instead glean more information in something unspoken: a frisson of emotion strong enough carry through the Innocence-enhanced empathy between their shards regardless of Legacy. It feels an awful lot like deep, wrenching heartache, something far worse than the garden-variety rejection that most teenagers would be dealing with.

"... so, what. It's just thinking about people like that, that's all it is?"

Pointedly, Gen refuses to actually answer Emet-Selch's question in the end. Though he makes an attempt to petulantly cross his arms, he's thwarted by the wings protruding from one forearm; he reluctantly settles for looking away, instead.

"There's gotta be a limit to that. To how long that can carry you. Especially when you're dealing with things like ... that."