Brusque. That's a word she wasn't quite familiar with, but she'd assume it meant prickly, like she'd been calling him all day. "Mister Ace just needs hugs, that's all. He's like the plants in the gardens. Like a rose bush! It's prickly, but if you water it and sing to it enough, it'll be too pretty for the prickles to matter, and you can have one of your own and it won't hurt you very much at all." She sounds completely convinced of this.