"Clothing and gender roles are very restrictive where I come from. As restrictive as here, I think, but in different ways. I was always bad at fitting into my assigned role. It's surprisingly freeing to be able to inhabit a different one. I don't think of myself as a woman, and yet... it's nice to not have to be a man, for a while."

Glancing back toward the village to make sure that no one is following them or within earshot, Huaisang nods hesitantly. "This place makes me uneasy. The way some people have those too-bright smiles, like actors playing at joy, but their eyes are so dead and empty. I almost feel like they want to break down screaming and crying, but they can't. I think this is a place where things happen. Like what happened in October. It's just a matter of time."

But hey, Huaisang's paranoid by nature. Sometimes he's just more vigilant about hiding it.