"I'm not interested in making friends. Well. Not more than I am in conducting my research. The barriers in this world, the connective tissue, all the things that are holding us here or pulling us in, in the first place?" He gestures to the sky above them, as if to indicate whatever invisible field kept them all netted within.

"That is the big picture." His eyes narrow slightly. "Not being liked. Not the Pointers or the Magistrates or any other faction in this world. What is outside is bigger than all of that. Literally, as a point of fact."