[He looks sheepish for that, but it probably is the various forms of stress. Rat is ordinarily a very calm individual, but recent events have left him feeling much higher strung than usual. He opens his mouth obligingly, and wishes he'd brushed his teeth before he came, but he is more or less a normal, if slightly run-down man in his late forties. He's not sick, though, nor has he been recently, so that blows his flu theory out of the water.]