[ Apart from being dead himself, there is a lot of death in general, true death, in Jean-Claude's life. He is quite detached from it, to say the least. Not unfeeling, but he rarely has the luxury of being anything but practical.

Still, he knows the social dance, and offers a credible, ] My sympathies. How strange, that this could be an afterlife. [ He glances around at their surroundings with new eyes. ] You have been given a rare gift, mon ami-- a second life with you unchanged from the first.

[ All of the second lives he knows come with strings attached. ]