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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/39261
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/39261
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I have a little contradiction in my story that may well be fatal.

In my high sci-fi setting, one of my main characters is an android. Let's call him Bob. Bob is efficient, cold and straight-to-the-point: we may as well say that he is heartless. To give you an example: in a scene I'm planning, he will willingly let 30 people die without flinching because their death will maximize the chance of him getting his goal.

Now, Bob is supposed to be a cold bastard, you got the point. But by definition, in my setting androids like Bob are only built in couples - partners, let's say - with matching functions and synergies. The bond between those partners escape logic and can be as well an equivalent of unyielding, hard-coded love.

Sadly enough, Bob's partner, Alice, has been destroyed some days prior to the start of the story (in my prologue). Bob knows this very well.

And now I've got an heartless character who, supposedly, should be dealing with grief.

I can't let Bob falter or mourn: he still has to move on and try to reach the goal. Yet, I wonder if I could (or should) show something.

Is this possible, or have I written myself into a corner from the very start?

In short,

## how can I show a heartless character coping with grief?

Original score: 9