"...I don't eat, thank you. And I would rather have coffee anyway."

"May I ask why you don't eat if it's uncomfortable not to?"

"...I don't think you want to know and I don't think I want to tell you."

"Okay. Do you want help with getting or making coffee?"

"I don’t think I have any local money unless you take dollars."

"If you become a citizen of Vanda Nossëo, you can get paid money every couple of weeks just for existing, and if you don't want to be a citizen, you're still eligible for charity."

He tenses up. "...I think maybe I’m not obedient enough for that."

"...can you elaborate on that?"

Shrug. "I think someone said something about being a citizen but I had a question and then they had a bunch of questions for me instead and then they lectured me about how it’s right to obey the rightful authorities and also they’ll try to hurt me if I don’t but supposedly they don’t have the stomach to do more than restrain me and I... don’t really understand anything anyone said but maybe it bothered them that I didn’t pretend to care? And they didn’t say anything else about being a citizen or answer the questions I went to them with in the first place. I’m not sorry and I won’t obey anyone ever again even if that means I’m not allowed to know what Allspeak is or have any money."

"It sounds like whatever conversations you've had about that haven't been very successful at communicating with you."

Shrug. "It wouldn’t surprise me if I just don’t understand anything. I’m already pretty sure I was taught most of the languages I speak intentionally badly by demons."

"Wow. Uh, is there a language you're pretty sure you've got learned correctly?"

He thinks about it and tries to call to mind the first language he ever learned, one he hasn’t spoken in lifetimes. With effort he drags enough words to answer from the depths of his memory.

"A long time ago, but not anymore."

"Do you think you'd benefit from a language class that would aim to get you conversant in one of the most popular Vanda Nossëo languages, maybe one you haven't studied before to get a fresh start?"

He flinches. "...Probably. Maybe if it doesn’t involve learning definitions in words in something I already know. I would have thought Ristrell would have caught anything really glaring but she also didn’t think I would hurt people just by talking to them."

"Do... you think you will hurt people just by talking to them? Why?"

"It sounded like I gave my neighbor nightmares," he says in a hollow voice as though this is among the most shameful things he can imagine.

"That may have been hyperbole..."

"...Oh."

"Even if it wasn't, I'm not sure this level of guilt about it is - adaptive, for you."

"Huh?"

"I don't think it helps you, or your neighbor, or future people you might meet, for you to react this way to the idea of having introduced someone to an idea that they then had nightmares about."

"...If you care so much what I do, why would you go about changing it like that? Do the yeerks just hate the inside of my head too much to give me to them and make me act however you're hoping I'll act?"

"I am confused by that as a response to what I said. Can you break down your thought process into smaller steps?"

"It sounds like you want me to act in ways that help people. And I don't see why you'd try to achieve that by telling me things."