[ Alan's attention seems to wander slightly as he listens to Jesse explaining, taking in the words and thinking them over even as his eyes shift to one side. He might be thinking over her words but that doesn't mean he's stopped listening to her.

He thinks he doesn't have to worry about Jesse losing her way and forgetting about retaining the humanity of it all; but people can be lured down different paths when they're least expecting it. Maybe Polaris wouldn't let that happen; maybe Jesse's somehow shielded from that. He hopes that's the case, anyway.

Returning to the present and pulling himself out of his thoughts again, he hears her question about Polaris and he nods. ]

She was just like you, knowing what's behind the poster and having Polaris with her. [ He smiles a small smile as he adds: ] And she was just as stubborn too, in a good way. Well, stubborn when it came to plowing ahead and getting things done that needed to be done.

[ Maybe she thought that the situation with her Alan wasn't something that could be fixed with brute force. She was right, wasn't she? ]