"Not me." Howard would have liked nothing more than to stay an average middle school student and grown up into an average adult instead of being thrust into this roller coaster thrill ride of the odd year. He's had enough of heroics and seeing the universe.

So. He catches the way her nose wrinkles. The kid doesn't like Orin Calad either. That's something they have in common. Still, he doesn't know what he should tell her, if anything - even if his experience with Stacy's diplomatic missions means he's already expecting this is blown, he'd rather not be the one blabbing something that might be confidential. "Trade. I don't know why I'm here, but the ship chose me to go along with this and so, here I am."

He glances over at the guard and hunches a little closer to the girl, spreading his hands open like in a perfect gesture of 'I don't get it' and then pretending to give her one of the candies as a cover.

"Where'd you get the mark?" he whispers, then getting slightly more nervous as he realizes what group she might be talking about. The one with Zouichi, maybe? The diplomats in that group hadn't looked so certain where they were going. "Wait, what processing center? What happens at the processing center?"

"Anyway," he says a bit more loudly. "The feelies can't be that much cooler than X-Box Live."