[OA gives her companion another of those thoughtful, searching gazes. It's an interesting choice of question. People always want to know what to fear, and they should, but it's difficult in the midst of upheavals like this to find the wherewithal to ask where and how to rejoice.

It's good. It's good to want to know. Essential, really, as a matter of survival. She can't help but feel a certain kinship with Cass, in that light. A smile crinkles the corners of her eyes, warm and genuine, uncharacteristically shy.]

I don't know, I... maybe all the variety. So much food, so many different people, all these lives.

[She ducks her head with a soft laugh, biting her lower lip. She knows how that sounds: sad, small, lonely. It is. It's still wonderful.]

And nobody here knows anything about me unless I want them to.

[Here she can disappear, to a greater or lesser extent. She's the object of relatively few people's scrutiny, which makes for a pleasant change.

There comes another thoughtful pause, something harder to discuss.]

Maybe the thing that happens when we touch. It troubles me, like... I don't know. I don't know how to explain it. It doesn't leave much room for faith. But it is beautiful.