Tally tries to imagine who she'd be if she hadn't always known what was and was not permitted, if she hadn't always known she was ugly. If she'd grown up somewhere like here, with everyone looking different, would she have grasped that she was ugly at all? Part of her thinks of course she would; just seeing a bunch of ugly faces doesn't make evolutionary biology not real. Her nose would have always been too big, and her eyes too squinty, and her hair too frizzy.

"But what makes you afraid to talk now, if Laurel talked and was okay?" she asks. "And you still seem utterly curious to me."