"Yes," he says, as his mouth twists slightly again. "That has always been the bump in the road as I try to learn what will work and what will not. I do not know how to account for it when I still feel as alive as I did before, and so much of my work is the same -- but I am undeniably different."

He scratches the side of his nose.

"I have also never had the opportunity to convert energy that way. It is not as... mutable, where I am from. Once it is formed, I do not think it can be changed. So I will need to work on that as well."