His total ridiculousness can be selectively endearing, in theory. They haven't spent nearly as much time around each other as they had to in Reims and back there she didn't have the patience to suffer others' levity. She can't remember anything funny ever happening there, or any occasion on which she laughed.

She shrugs to Kamala's question. There's a whole other village full of empty houses, so Jess doesn't think of herself as living far away. No farther than she lived from Trish when she dazedly walked out of her first abduction and closer than she was to the community in Reims, though not by much. "If someone comes looking for me, there're fewer people around to get caught in the crossfire." Though the utter dearth of sapient life, the deadly silent lack of foot traffic has gotten and low-key stayed on her nerves since night one.