"...That does not seem like a relevant distinction in the way you seem to mean it."

"Sure it is, I'm probably just not explaining it right - it's technically not what I came to talk to you about but it's going to bug me if - like, I'm a sub, that's why the collar, my dom gave it to me to show off I'm his -"

He goes still and doesn't say anything.

"- sorry, it's really not that important, what's your name I'm Terry -?"

Another couple of seconds, and then he unfreezes.

"Korovai."

"Okay, and have you been bopping around here and there all over the planet doing weird stuff while immune to psionics? My co-worker had to find you by looking for a blind spot, it was really hard."

"Yes," he says. "The things I have done have been helpful. If there are any whose purpose you are unsure of, I can explain what they were meant to accomplish."

"Why have you just been doing them without - asking?"

"It was not obvious who I should ask."

(Would Cam like to be brought up at this juncture...?

He means to send just the question and the purely-verbal conversational context, but it turns out to be impossible to fully erase all hint of the howling void of panic and horror that engulfed him at the thought of an entire society just going around interacting with each other like that all the time and being inclined to sort him into a category. On a rational level it's obvious that their society functions just fine; his emotional reaction is not relevant to the task at hand and he should therefore not allow it to affect anything he does.)

- I didn't realize that would be a, uh, button - you can bring me up, they don't seem to have space travel, I'll be fine -

I apologize for sending that. Feel free to disregard it.

Out loud, he adds with hardly a pause, "And the last time someone came here and tried to help in this way he was captured and imprisoned without explanation."

"...the one with wings?"

"Yes."

If they'll talk to me now I can take over, you don't have to have this conversation -

I am still functional and it is not yet clear whether they are willing to talk to you.

Okay, well, if you find out I'm up for switching places.

He sends acknowledgment and waits for Terry to speak.

"...so you and the guy with wings are some kind of interdimensional dogooders? I'm - sorry, trying to have six psychic conversations at once - uh - something about a planet -"

"'Interdimensional dogooders' would be a reasonable description."

"They figured out what the mosquitoes were for but there's something about a destroyed planet..."

"What, precisely, is there about a destroyed planet?"

"I don't know because these dang psions won't stop talking over each other but they're very concerned about it."

"The winged person is not currently on your planet but he's retrievable if they would like to talk to him."

"He escaped emergency custody earlier, they sure want to talk to him."

"I would feel more comfortable facilitating that if someone would clearly explain to me what he was in emergency custody for and what line of reasoning led to the specific parameters of the emergency custody."

(Well, rhetorically speaking he would. In more concrete literal terms he is not entirely sure he will ever feel comfortable again, but that's not relevant.)