[ Ned doesn't say anything in response to that, but any sentence that starts with 'hopefully...' around here is a bit naive, as far as he's concerned. It's true what Samandriel says, and that people here are kind, but that's about all this place has going for it. Apart from that, Ned's only seen things go from bad to worse, and optimism seems misplaced ]

Maybe it's the captivity. You'd think it would turn it against one another, make people competitive and greedy, but it hasn't. For the most part, anyway.

[ And then, because there's nothing either of them (at least, as far as he knows) can do about the power outage, and because he's feeling strange and isolated and a bit melancholy, Ned asks, in a tone of somewhat forced cheer ]

So, uh, where are you from, Samandriel- do you go by Sam? Or uh, Andy, I suppose?