"Early adolescence meaning here...?"

"Let's say the population's mortal but with a lifespan of two hundred, and consider the first decade to be adolescence."

"All right, sounds good. Are you going to be upset if I wind up simmering at you and if so what should I do about that."

"Won't get upset. I might freeze up a bit but I have a preference you ignore that."

"Okay. Did I ever tell you how funny Adyanci thinks the way we used to look at each other over games was?"

"You did not. How did I used to  look at you over games?

"Like -" That.

"Can't promise I will be doing very much of that. I'll try."

"You don't have to, it'll be fun without too."

"I suppose you have more than enough boyfriends to sleep with but I will be annoyed if I cannot get it together."

"I mean, yes, desire for the Enemy not to have succeeded, but there's no rush."

"It's not particularly a thing I'm expecting to get easier, I've had decades to do all the relevant unpacking and picking-at, it's more - not having built anything in the place of all that picking-apart."

"Okay. Just - let me know what you need."

"A plan to stop me from getting your arcology sold for scrap and its population turned out planetside, obviously."

"Oh, you want to start that right now?"

"Well, there are also forms of flirting that don't require pens and paper, I hear, and we could try employing those, but I will feel very sad if I can't get you smoldering at me at least a little bit before Cam shows up - think Governor is a thing that'd be hard, while you're getting the hang of having a brain back, and if so, would it help or hurt to have an alt around..."

"Might depend on if he's ever played the game before."

"Fair enough." He is still regarding Kib delightedly. 

"I will probably not play well by my old standards even with an alt as a prosthetic, I - it's sort of like you came out capable of all the important practical skills central to you and I came out capable of having a personal life without twitching but that's about it -"

"I didn't know anyone's names. Still had the faces, but I'd lost all the names. Covered for it pretty aggressively, could pretend I was too fevered to recognize people..."

"He couldn't keep it away for long but I spent a while illiterate."

Hugs. "I think he left my ability to lie and to read people intact because he was still somehow hoping to use me. Or he couldn't figure out how - I remember once when I was dumbfounded at the sound of speech and thought food was the cleverest idea ever but the person trying to coach me through an oath was mean and saying wrong things -"

Snuggle. Burrowy sighing snuggle. "I love you."

"I love you. We don't have to play, if it'll make you frustrated, or I can play handicapped -"

"You beat me half the time anyway, if I'm going to be frustrated it'll take more than one game."