"Good. Well, I'm Daphne White, as I'm sure you've guessed, your fellow future biologist. What made you pick the field?"

"I want to cure aging."

"Huh! Think you can?"

"I think I'm not willing to trust that someone else will, and if no one does I'm going to die in less than a dozen decades, so I had damn well better try."

"I think there's something to be said for making the best of the life you've got--I just think Biology's fascinating, myself, don't have a specific project in mind--but I can respect that viewpoint."

"I'm glad. It would probably get awkward before the year was up if you already thought I was crazy."

"...Does that happen to you a lot?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"You'll see soon enough."

"If you say so. Your life sounds kind of depressing."

"Things used to be nice."

"I'm sorry about whatever happened to change that."

"Thanks."

"Maybe college will help. New faces, new sights, no one who knows your embarrassing childhood anecdotes the way only someone who was there can--a fresh start. And this place is utterly gorgeous, too--and it's really close to the ocean, I have feelings about the ocean."

"Oh?"

"I guess it's kind of weird, I just--feel the way about oceans that really religious people feel about church, sometimes."

"...That is weird," she says, relaxing a little bit. "One of the reasons people think I'm crazy is because I apologize to bees when they sting me. Not that that happens often, but."

"That's adorable."

"I thought so too. Picked up the habit from--someone else. But a lot of people--well, it probably wouldn't have meant much if they hadn't already thought I was a little off in the head, but since they did it reinforced it."

"Sounds like a decent chunk of your problem is that you've spent your life around people who suck."

"Most people do."

"A lot of 'em are really great, when you give them a chance, but I can hardly blame you for not, under the circumstances."

"I don't exactly blame them for thinking I'm crazy. I just."

"Do you want a hug?"