"Yeah," he says, and decides he doesn't have the heart to tell a nice Disneybound about the global historical oppression of the powerless by the powerful. She already knows, anyway, that's the point of a persona from a kinder place, isn't it? "It's better now. Not perfect, but less bad."

He wants to hug her for that little self-soothing gesture, and he's sure she would be very gracious about it, but that's also way presumptuous and would be taking advantage of a nice persona.

Coming up there is a modestly sized Eiffel Tower that the eyes-in-the-sky part of Julien hadn't seen properly. From above the silhouette is different, not as noticeable as the mini castle and prison fortress butted up against each other. That one very stereotypical France tune is playing, and there's a "cafe" under the tower with tricolor flags and employees in berets.

"I'm a pacifist, I don't like to hurt anyone. I mean, sure, sometimes you have to," says Julien, a person who struggles to take any strong stance, especially having seen so many people sneer at the concept of defaulting to no violence. "But I don't like it. And yeah! I've worked with a mortician for about two years and, I dunno, I like taking care of people. They still need respect and care after they've, you know, passed."

Don't make a joke don't make a joke don't make a joke.