[He kind of wishes he could refute that, because he's gotten much better at being expressive over the years, but as his classmates remind him, he has a long way to go before he can be considered normal. And Goro hasn't seen Julian on an off day or, worse, during a disassociative episode. He's had friends before who lasted up until that happened.

Those friends were different, though. They were human and normal. Maybe this time, this would last.]

My father's people don't really have expressive faces or voices. They speak telepathically, so they don't have to rely on those things, and those kind of things don't come naturally to me. I'm trying, though. I don't mean to weird anyone out.

[What is self-esteem.]