[His expression brightens and he arches an eyebrow.]

Flirting, you say?

[Do ho ho. Intriguing.]

Don't worry. They were trying to flash age me to adulthood in the space of a week. Fortunately, they were feeding me mental programming the whole time, at the same rate I was physically aging.

Since the process was stopped early by Walpert's raid, I came out half-baked, but I was mentally a teenager to match my age. A deeply confused, slightly naive teenager. But I had enough to go on.

I won't pretend I'm much like other people the same age, but that's a lot more due to really weird life experience than mental and emotional maturity.