"Nobody's advertised it around here as far as I know; maybe they haven't thought of it or maybe they don't expect it would be popular enough to be worth it.  I'll - make a note for the city to inform anyone who's building a new shower or planning to do renovations on an extant one anyway?"

"It's not a huge deal, just something I'd bother the landlord about if it happened in my apartment."

She gives him an odd look for a moment.  " - So, safety razors."

"The blade goes in a casing so it can't descend below the skin's surface." He can sketch one.

"That's probably doable.  Oh, delving into this should probably wait till later, but - how much do you know about culture and the arts?  There are lots of people who would love nothing more than to learn about alien music and drawing and plays and books and dance and - sports, and whatever other artforms your society has developed."

"I can't sing any more for medical reasons. I've seen movies and read books and played sports, of course."

"I'm not a good singer but I can carry a tune. I don't know how to dance well enough to demonstrate but I've probably read more books and seen more movies than Kyeo."

" - I see."  She looks pensive.  "Well, if you have even a little citrelièv, it seems likely that we'll be able to get you to a level where you can fix those."

"I'm sure Kyeo would like to be able to sing again."

"Would it be my singing voice again or someone else's voice?"

"I'd be surprised if it was only one or the other if it was either of them at all.  Probably being able to have someone else's would come in first, if we're right about what early versions were like and yours are similar."

"I mean, is it possible to copy being able to sing without copying the way the other voice sounds. If I copy someone else's voice over mine, mine is gone. Right?"

"Yes, that's correct.  I suspect you'd be able to do that first, but if it - matters to you, that you have yours specifically, then you shouldn't just take someone else's, because if you've gotten to the point where you can do that, you'll almost certainly eventually be able to fix whatever it is while preserving yours.  Healing things is fiddly but we've thrown a lot of time and effort into developing it as much as possible, and have accordingly made a lot of progress."

"He was a good singer. - I mean, according to me, maybe you have very exacting standards for that sort of thing here."

"I'm very sorry for your loss.  - Is there any hope for - if it turns out you can't copy things at all?"

"I mean, if we were still on Outer Sohaibek I'd tell him to see a doctor about it."

"Is it - you can talk; how, specifically, is it that you can't sing . . ."

"I don't know."

"You are a little hoarse sometimes, if you go on more than a few sentences in a row."

"Hm.

"I have a - friend? - who might be able to help.  Not a doctor, I'm not sure anyone here could help from that side of things, but a singer.  Quite good but she doesn't copy people for it; they copy her.  Maybe you could meet up and see if you can figure anything out together.  Or she might know someone, even if she can't."

"That sounds worthwhile."

"I'll talk to her tonight.  - Sometimes, in the course of development, people end up with very narrow citrelièses, and it can sometimes take them a year or so - our years - to get back to the standard level, so even if you do have any citrelièv I'd say it makes sense to meet up with her."

"How do they wind up narrowed?"

"Well, at a fundamental level, all development could be said to be trying to narrow and widen things in specific ways so they only cover precisely what you want.  And sometimes it makes more sense to get very intricate and then add everything else back on rather than trying to make a minute change to something already very complex and unwieldy."