"Where I come from, Earth's been dried up and abandoned. Earth-that-was. Over-population, that sort of thing. So we settled far and wide across the galaxy." Wash shook his head in amazement. "Can't say I've heard of space-traveling floating islands, though."
He cracked a weak smile. "Feels like I just slammed it into a wall. So, you know. Painful and all that." Wash glanced down at his hand. "I mean, I'll live, but I'll probably be complaining about it for a while. Might be broken. Might not be... I appreciate your helping, by the way," he added. "If you hadn't come along I'd be the crazy guy wandering around shouting curses in Chinese, and that's no way to make a good first impression."
Something she'd said earlier suddenly registered. "Wait, you're a mutant? You don't look very mutant-like. What's a mutant, exactly?