Oooh, good point! Major fail on my part, not to have connected it with the "atevi instinctively push boundaries with newcomers" thing! I never even THOUGHT of that, it was so instinctively (one of those words Bren fears for very good reason) similar to a human child being rude-through-honesty.

That sure puts a different twist on it, especially given the ending! (I HAD wondered, along with Bren, at all those TV interviewers and tourists who never gave so much as a twitch to suggest what was wrong! Maybe the kid saw a TV broadcast about six days ago, eh?)

ambivalent about whether I want to see Cajeiri going through puberty

Heh. The thought, I admit, is somewhat alarming!