Oh. Huh. [ he doesn't sound like he really gets it, but he asks after a moment: ] Oh, it's like a found family thing? I guess that makes sense. It seems like you'd kind of have to do that instead of just... Waiting for a squid you know.

[ listen. he's read fic. he understands. ]

...not really. [ it's a little blunt, even though he's not trying to be. ] I mean, Kansas just kind of sucks in general? And you're supposed to honor your father and mother, and your Father in heaven, and all of that. So you don't really get a chance to find family that fits you better, and if you do it's probably against God's will, so you're just kind of screwed either way.

[ it's delivered very matter of factly, for something that has some subversive and sacrilegious things embedded within it. ]

I guess camp was... Kind of like that? But you're not even supposed to group up with more than one person, there. That's not how God's plan works, even though they assign three to a group so you don't have any choice but to leave someone out. So you just... join up with a group, and you try to pretend to be friends, and you just choose someone to be a little less loved than the others. That's how things work back home.

[ it would have been him. it would so obviously have been him, if he'd stayed. ]