"Books- so, would the... if I scratched at the letters that looked like English letters, would it scrape off ink, or... or would it really... if you don't use "what I'd think of as a language", how does... I guess it could..."

Wait. No.

"Started knowing it? That's- that's not how information works. At all. Is a name- I mean, if it were encoded in DNA- do you have DNA?- I can see if being a thing that grows out of- but then the system would rely on that, it wouldn't work the same way for mort- do mortal names- how-"

God, he's flailing again. What's the most important line of inquiry right now, even? He takes a deep breath and puts his hand over his mouth.