That's a disparaging way to talk about your compatriots. I wouldn't have expected it from you, not when their attention is just as important to you.

[Caren is out here diagnosing more than just head injuries today. The observation certainly seems hypocritical coming from a woman who eschewed more concealing clothing in the middle of a frozen wasteland, but she makes it nonetheless, thin and sharp like a needle.

Head wounds tend to bleed viciously, even if they're minor. These seem negligible - the girl probably doesn't even have reason to watch out for a concussion - but Caren brings water to the area to wipe it clean. It's cold, like everything here. Nothing she can do about that.]

But that's how men are, isn't it? Dogs caged together are likely to fight. [She laughs, but it comes out like a sigh. It's actually behavior she finds boorish and, in many cases, denigrating.] I think Meridian's population is no different. Who's to say the