She's listening and watching October, quietly filing his reactions away in her memory so she can figure out what to do next on this apparent road to humanity that these people are going to end up walking.

October stops and thinks, gauging his own condition. "I feel... I do not know if I have the right words. I... wish to experience taste and smell but I know that I cannot and it is... slightly painful?" His hand absently rubs his chest.

"That's regret," Astrid says quietly.

"Does it occur often?"

"Yes. But it's not necessarily bad. It can make a person more determined to fix whatever is wrong."

"But this... cannot be changed..."

Astrid opens her mouth to speak, but stops. She's out of her depth, now.