"Dave is my friend! He's a really good friend. He helped me with these machines - Mother, they can make a recording here of something that's happening, and show it over and over again. So I can tell a story once and it's told forever, but since I don't know how that works, Dave helped me - "

His excitement faded a little, too many topics tumbling over themselves in his head, all trying to get out at once.

"Is he going to train with us?" he settled on. He'd get to the other important things later. Excitement at the prospect of training with his friend and his mother bubbled up in him, almost too much to contain.