She's wearing some sort of metal gauntlet, stretched from shoulder to fingers, which is strange enough to catch Tom's eye. It's her remarkable hair, facial tattoos and the long, acutely pointed ears that really capture his attention, though.

He tries not to stare, as a rule: staring often invites people to stare at him, and he's spent so much of his life trying to avoid the attention of strangers out of self-preservation. Robin called it camouflage: his tweed jackets, his smartly parted hair, the thicker-than-strictly-necessary frames on his glasses, all of it was engineered to make himself appear utterly unremarkable, unmemorable and, most importantly, easily overlooked.

Since coming to Darrow, that's changed, of course. It has taken years — every single hour of every single day of the nearly four years he's been here, in fact — and it hasn't been without its obstacles and setbacks. But now, his hair is gently mussed from its perfect part and he's in a simple lightweight jacket over a tee, and sometimes he even holds Daniel's hand in public. Now is not one of those times, as he's alone when he spots the young woman as she trips and nearly falls, and he's just offered a quiet 'Oop' before she catches herself, and that's when he sees the gauntlet and the hair and the ears — and, finally, the look of confusion on her face.

"Ah..." he adds, realizing exactly what he's seeing. "I think I can explain, Miss...?"