[Lance is an absolutely terrible judge of age since he looks much younger than he is and was hardly ever around people his own age growing up, so he can't tell if Tewkesbury is as young as he looks, but he sure does look like a teenager. And although Lance is already empathetic in general and would've been so toward any of the new arrivals, that's only heightened with this person being a kid.

So he manages to summon a small smile, trying to put him a little more at ease, glancing briefly around to make sure no one's watching them before answering.]

Because I don't agree that holding new arrivals against their will for days right after they've been abducted to another world is exactly the best thing for them.

[But he doesn't make the final decision on that and no one had really listened to his protests, so he's just dealing with it in the way that he can. And that said--]

Has anyone explained to you exactly why it's dangerous to be out of the safehouse in your first few days here?