"I don't want to make light of your losses, but...you really don't. You've lost people, it's true. And you'll likely lose more. It hurts for now, and you'll mourn them, likely the rest of your life. But you will meet more people, make more friends, and some of them, most of them probably, will last a lifetime.

"If, as you believe, you really are immortal, or effectively so, then someday, after you have loved and lost and loved and lost, generation after generation after generation, then you will know what it feels like. Then you'll know why, when I lose yet another friend, I feel the need to assure myself that I have not yet lost everyone, yet again." His voice stays as calm as he can make it, and if anything, it leans more toward melancholy resignation than anything else.