"I'm not, really? But - we're trying."

He looks confused.

"Doing your best is a lot to expect of people when everything is hard."

"I mean, you want to be doing your best given that everything is hard?"

"You can try to do your best? But - even if you're trying, it's hard to know how much strength you have in you. And a lot of people eventually get too tired to keep trying very hard."

"Oh."

He glances at Valentine.

She's still dutifully writing things out for Verita and his father.

"What happened to her?"

She glances at Valentine too.

"Dunno specifics. She - had some kind of situation where she couldn't feed her kids, and ended up signing a life contract with an organization run by devils."

"And those are?"

"Oh, uh, lawful evil outsiders. They run Hell."

"Is she safe now?"

"Her plane is paused. She's afraid that if anyone unpauses it the organization will immediately recover her. And is also afraid that the organization spans several different planes, and that some of them might not be paused, and eventually one of those might notice her. So - maybe. But whether she is or not, it'll be a long time before she believes she is."

Nod.

"Like her?"

"Not in a - like I said, I'm not looking to get married. But she seemed - like she needed to be somewhere safe and pretty and not full of people, where she could do something that wasn't awful, and - I guess I get more of what's going on now but I still think I don't get most of it -"

"I don't think any of us do. She's been quiet. You'd have to talk to her, probably."

"Maybe I'll do that."

"It'd be good for her, probably."

"Long as you're not, uh, easily wounded and vague about what you want and using words completely differently than she does."

" - I'm not very hard to injure if you have, like, a knife? Or a slingshot? I won't take it personally, though."

She hugs Hagan.

"He's being metaphorical. You'll be fine as long as you don't get very attached right away and then end up very heartbroken due to failed attempts at communication and overinterpreting things she doesn't know she's saying. Like some people."

"Gosh. Okay. I will - not do that, that sounds like a bad idea."

"I really can't recommend it. 'S better now, though." Hug.

"Long as you're happy. And, you know, know to ask for help if you end up in a bad situation which humans where you're from solve with murder."