Her parents sounded like rather boring sticks in the mud, Ryan thought blandly. How utterly boring for her. His parents had been boring in their normal sort of way, but their very normality had been a shield and an example for him. And besides, there had been stuff under the surface. There's always stuff under the surface. "Pity, one could do worse than to follow Susie Q," he said, recalling the words. I love the way you walk, I love the way you talk. Yes, inspiring that for a child of her grace would have been very apt, he thought, though her diction was so precise it made him want to loosen it up a bit. "So Susie Q, how are you enjoying our humble home so far?" he asked, grinning at her and winking slightly, his tone playful at the nickname. He recalled from reading the journals that she didn't like talking about why she was here, so he would avoid that subject for the meanwhile.