Collette shrugs, as if to dismiss her own question on building. She has no idea of what he can do, so it seemed logical to start tossing options out into the air.

What she latches onto is his confession on writing. "What do you write about?" she asks, ignoring how it being nothing major made it almost sound dismissive. The rest, with most aliens being driven away, that she can understand in a sort of graceless way that expects people are more comfortable when assuming they can keep the bad parts of reality far away just by pushing out the obvious reminders from their daily lives.

It doesn't work quite like that, but the illusion is nice.