If River's brain was a map it was like a treasure map written in code and then translated into a second code and penned in invisible ink onto the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that was already disassembled. The sort of map that was impossible to read unless you were the one who had made it, and maybe not even then. Because even if you put all the pieces together, the message would still be fractured and out of order. Much like the girl in question.
"I am," River said, nodding. "We're all different. If we were the same, we would be artificial. And we're not. Well...some of us, but only pieces. We're still real." She smiled warmly at him. "You see a puzzle and you want to solve it. You can't solve me but you can try if you like. You want to poke around and touch and look and see. Like they did. But not like them. Would you like to see inside me, Topher? See what colors they painted my brain?"
She tilted her head to the side. "I'll let you," she said. "Only you. I trust you. You do good work." Not like them. They didn't. They hadn't. "I just wanted to be challenged. That's all. I was bored. It was too easy and I wanted to think. I was curious. I'm not a cat but I think it killed me. I was just curious. I wanted...I just wanted to know. But more than that, I wanted to dance. They're different freedoms. But they took both. They took and they..." Her hands shook and she was holding onto him again, hiding her face against his chest. "You won't. You'll be careful. You won't take, will you? Will you?"