[Perhaps, Raine considers, it's been a very long time since he was new to this.]

The transformation is obviously quite the undertaking, and it's been causing Colette some not insignificant difficulties.

[Which shouldn't need stating, but then, Raine's question seems perfectly obvious to her.]

It will help somewhat if I know what's normal and what isn't; in other words, if I have a baseline for the type of life-form Colette is becoming. There's a shortage of representative samples.