Quinn hadn't realized how thirsty she was until she took a long drink of the clear, cold water. God, but it was still so good. She didn't know if she'd ever [i]fully[/i] get used to it, but she got the feeling that she took a lot more pleasure out of just water than most people did. And so, "[color=ffe63d]Just water is fine, thanks![/color]"

She was still stuck on the 'fans' thing. She supposed it made sense, really; Dahlia was such a household name that she'd even heard of her back in her—back in [i]the room she grew up in,[/i] and she was well aware by now how many unwritten rules she'd broken by not pulling that final trigger. It stood to reason that she would have people who followed her because of that. But still, it was intimidating somehow. Like suddenly her every move was going to be watched. And she didn't know how much she wanted the whole world to see her breaking down like at lunch today.

As Mona went on, Quinn tensed visibly and reflexively at the mention of Hovvi. Her smile trembled briefly and threatened to break, but she managed to keep it on her face.

"[color=ffe63d]It was...[/color]" She swallowed down the lump that was starting to form in her throat, taking a deep breath. "[color=ffe63d]S—sorry. It was really, really different for sure.[/color]" True enough, even if it probably wasn't for the reasons that Mona assumed it was. Her smile came back renewed as she continued, voice lowering suddenly to a conspiratorial stage whisper as she found her footing a little better, "[color=ffe63d]Just between you and me, I'm pretty sure the Board speeds the clocks up at night so we're as tired as possible.[/color]" 

She could count on two hands the number of [i]sincere jokes[/i] she'd ever made. Hopefully that one would land.