"Mm..." It's a serious question, and Tarantulas gives it the thought it deserves. "Taran was...like me, but simpler. And yet also more complicated, but in a different ways. It's as though someone pared me down to my most basic elements, the most important pieces of my history, and then pressed me into an organic mold. Dawn..." He shudders hard, voice cracking. "Dawn was like a beautiful dream," he says hoarsely. "A child of my own body, born of the love shared between my dearest patron and myself...but this time protected and spirited away, instead of stolen from me and enslaved. Taran never discussed this with you," he hastily explains in an aside. "Even Amy only knew...pieces. But it colored every decision he made, in the home in he built."

"It's not...I don't think I'm female. Not...not really. But having a child was my greatest desire, for so many years -- once achieved, never repeated. And when I began to study organics in earnest, I felt...such envy for you. How you achieve so easily what I have always found so elusive. That's why...this body..." He hides his face in Ryja's chest. "I still can't have children," he whispers lowly. "But it brings me comfort sometimes, to...pretend. To imitate the form, if I cannot have the function."