She nods. "Yeah, heard that. Maybe some of the people even don't suck. And pretty places are still pretty, even if the people in 'em do suck."

Elemi decides to ignore the topic of people being awful. "They are, I really want to see big waterfalls, oh and the ocean sounds fun too. And looking off tall cliffs and I already like forests and gardens so seeing really big forests like the redwood ones would be exciting. Or rainforests and coral reefs."

"That sounds kinda great actually, especially the cliffs and other tall places like that." She manages a small smile at the thought. High perches are awesome.

"Oh, have you tried climbing trees or rock climbing? I guess probably not rock climbing."

"Yeah, trees are nice to climb."

Her smile falls as she remembers how she learned to climb trees, running from her cousin.

She blows out a slow breath.

Then shakes her head and smiles again. "Yeah. Climbing's great. Tried trees, and some walls and such. Wanna try more things."

"Well have to try it together some time. Probably when I'm wearing pants to avoid having anyone objecting too much. There are some around campus but they're all either pretty short or not really suited to climbing. That's probably intentional honestly."

"Objectors can fuck off," she replies with a sharp laugh, "but valid not to want 'em to see."

"I don't care about modesty but if something would bother people and it's not too much trouble to avoid it I don't mind. Also, there's a cost to blatantly breaking social norms."

"Mm." She hums. "Can respect the cost at least. Not gonna care about people bein' uncomfy 'til they give me more of a reason, though."

She's got enough to deal with.

It's okay that Hailey doesn't believe in people. Now definitely isn't the time to try to convince her. "What's the tallest tree you've managed to climb?"

"Didn't have a way to measure it, but maybe two stories?"

"Fun! I think I've managed three stories. What kind of tree was it?"

"Oak. Yours?"

"A big pine tree."