[Ellie is silent as she listens, and a little while after, looking out at the water trickling by into white noise. It feels strange, alien, to listen to that story, and it takes her a bit of thinking on it to figure out why it makes her so uncomfortable.

She picks at her fingers, stops again when she realizes that she wants to pry off the prosthetics. That's not helping.]

Back in my world, the only people I knew who hadn't killed somebody were kids. And even some of them had to, when there was nobody else to pick up the gun.

[It's a fact of life, for her. She doesn't say it with a cast of horror, but she also doesn't look at Lance's face.]

Everyone understands self defense, because everyone's been there. Probably a lot of times.

Me, I haven't kept count.

[Ellie shrugs, just a small movement of her shoulders.]

That's... not the stuff that bothers me, though. Or maybe it bothers me because it doesn't bother me anymore.