[ Shit, okay, judging by the look of unrecognition she reacts with, she's clearly not from the same world as himself, or at least from a time that predates the modern borders of the Middle East. Her having grown up in "a place like that", though, raises a little question mark in his mind when paired with the loose, exposed blonde bob fluffing out beside either cheek like a golden retriever's ears. No Islam there, then, or maybe she's just an atheist now that she's out. It still clocks as incongruous to someone whose primary experiences of the desert were late 2010s and early 2020s Iraq - it wasn't mandatory by his third deployment, not like it was under the clenching grasp of the self-proclaimed caliphate's Hisbah the first time around, but certainly still preferred by the cultural majority, which further cements the idea that she may not be from his world at all. ]
new mexico and arizona just aren't real to him ig, cw oversimplifications of islam
You did? The desert? What country are you from?