He lets out a long breath. "Ask."
"Why do you have scars?"
"Nanites don't heal scars, Kira."
"That's food excrement, Drasuk. I had hundreds of scars before the genali. Fiery pit in the ground, my fornicating arm barely worked because a cyborg crushed it."
"I'm tired, Kira. Speak clearly."
A groan of frustration rumbles up my throat, but then I rephrase. "I had scars before. I don't have them now."
He stops mid-step and turns toward me. "Show me."
I tell my suit to recede from my left arm, since it was a mass of surgery scars before. "Excrement."
It won't be much help as an example, though, since I'm not sure how I didn't notice, but it is now covered in dark red drak skin down to my forearms.
"I would have preferred more of my blue, but I still approve."
I let out an annoyed grunt. "Well, look at my hands, then. Completely scar free."
I turn them to all sides so he can see them.
"Regeneration is not normal."
"Is any of this," I pause as I gesture to all my new freaky additions to underscore my point, "fornicating normal, Drasuk?"
"Valid point. No, it is not. The best person to ask is the manticorid. If anyone made those nanite upgrades, it's them."
"Sure. I'll get right on finding them, since it's not like that isn't what we've been trying to do for a million years or anything."
Even my own eye twitches at the double negative, but I don't restate it.
He grunts at me in annoyance, then I switch to English and start belting out the best cat-man attractor I know.
"Here kitty, kitty, kitty!"
I keep yelling it louder and louder for a few repetitions and then stop. The pain switching back to his language is worth it.
"See? Useless."
"Are you sure? Someone just responded."
"No excrement. Are you fornicating with me?"
"I would never."
"I don't believe you."
"'Never' leaves little room for misinterpretation, Kira."
"No, I meant... This is not important. Who is it?"
"How would I know? I can't understand them. It just sounds like your curses."
"Mimic it, then."
He lets out a series of sounds I ask him to repeat three times before it sounds likewho are you?
