He doesn't really know why but this makes him feel like kissing Tintin.

But he doesn't really care, so once Tintin has his boots on he leans forward to do just that.

Tintin squeaks with happy surprise, then kisses him back.

"You are—" He pauses, and seems to consider his words for a couple of seconds. "I don't have an adjective. Really attractive, but that is not all." Shrug.

"Well. Thank you. You are also very attractive, and - in many ways also difficult to describe? You're very accommodating, which I mean as more of a compliment than it sounds."

Taharqi grins once more and bows a little. "I shall take it as intended. I think." He straightens up again. "—we should probably actually go eat food during this 'food and rest' break, though."

"Yes. And drink some water, sex is apparently very thirsty work."

He slings his backpack over his shoulders and heads back towards Raziya and Horan.

Horan has curled up into a ball and fallen asleep, apparently, and Raziya is sitting against a rock and staring at the sky. When she hears them walk back she is initially alarmed but calms back down when she recognises them. "Have your fun? You sure sounded like you did." But then her eyes drift down to Tintin's crotch and she blinks. "I think you're missing something, there. I thought eunuchs couldn't have sex."

Tintin blushes, but responds with a minimum of stuttering. "You've got it backwards - I never had balls in the first place, science gave me a prick. I can have sex fine, just can't impregnate someone. Or get pregnant, though that's for a different reason and I could fix it if I wanted."

"...you... were a girl and then not? But you don't have tits?"

"You could put it that way. And yes, I had them removed, not that there was much to remove."

Raziya squeezes her own (rather larger than "not much") breasts, a bit protectively. "Why?"

"...because I'm a man, and having breasts made me unhappy. If some kind of magic gave you a penis, I doubt you'd want to keep it."

"No, I like my pussy." She looks at Tintin's again and amends, "Without a dick. But why are you a man if you didn't have a dick and only got one later?"

"Complicated reasons! There are an astonishing number of ways that humans can be, due to a dizzying array of genetic and epigenetic factors, and one of those ways is 'identifying with a gender that doesn't match the physical sex of their body'. Some people are even born with bodies like mine is now! Some people don't want to be male or female! I met an asari once - a species that only comes in one biological sex, mostly corresponding to human females - who had gender confirmation surgery to make himself look male, despite the fact that his species didn't even have the concept of masculinity built into their neurology!"

    "Okay... So you're a man now..."

"Yes he is and we should eat and resume walking," says Taharqi.

    "Do we have too, my feet still hurt..."

"I suppose it depends on how many more days you want to add to our ten-to-twelve day journey," he replies, neutrally.

    "...hm."

Tintin removes a ration bar from his pack. It is putatively lemon-flavored. He tears into it, and drinks some of his remaining water. "I'm going to have to set the bottles to refill over the night," he mentions, "don't let me forget."

"I will remind you," says Taharqi. "Wake Horan up," he adds, to Raziya.

    She sighs and pokes him with a toe. He startles awake and yips and jumps back, but then he shakes his head quickly like he's shaking water off his hair and blinks at them. "Food?" she says, and he blinks at again then nods.

Tintin will distribute foodstuffs and the remaining water, being apparently the quartermaster.

Indeed he is.

At some point Horan's gaze rests on Tintin's genitals for a bit longer but Raziya says, "It's complicated," and that seems to be enough of a deterrent that he doesn't try to formulate any questions about it.

Good, good. Tintin is beginning to think that his nudity is not a mistake. It's not cooler than the encounter suit, but you do eventually get bored of constantly being the ideal human temperature all over your body.

-he sets his omni-tool to filter UV radiation in a field over his exposed skin. He's probably already going to have a mild sunburn from the fifteen minutes he didn't have it up, but there's no need to make it worse.

And soon enough they can resume their very, veeeery long trek.

Tintin will happily tell stories and occasionally eke out more information about life in the Exiled Lands from his compatriots until they stop for the night.

The Exiled Lands: mostly suck rather a lot! Taharqi has a rough map in his head, and he has actually seen a few different maps of varying accuracy including one that magically updates itself to reflect the underlying geography as it changes over time, so he can expand a little bit on some details. Apparently the Exiled Lands include a mountain chain (with its own volcano) up north, and a rainforest that eventually gives way to sea to the east. It's not very thoroughly inhabited, and most camps of people are, if not immediately hostile, at least very definitely not friendly. The werehyenas are one of the more numerous groups, having outposts around the central and northern parts of the desert, but there are also groups of exclusively-Darfari cannibals and even, he has heard, pirates.

    "So the pirates are real," says Raziya.

"Oh, yes. I have no idea what they want, though, they definitely do not limit themselves to the ocean."

    "...so aren't they just thieves?"

"Thieves that act like pirates and call us 'landmen'."

"Bizarre. Perhaps they crashed on a shore?"

"Nope, most if not all of them seem to be exiles, too."