He ruffled, but more out of interest than any sort of defensiveness. "Of course, of course! I'm fairly certain half the creatures in this cave will eat me, if they can," he confided, with a short laugh and a clap of his hooked beak.

He studied her as he listened intently to her other words. Her cellular life (though he did not know those words, as such) was fascinating. Focused, new, in a way. He couldn't make heads or tails of it; he had never really looked at an insect, or anyone really, who'd just metamorphosed or truly reformed. It reminded him of his own internal life rebuilding after a chrysalis, but his had been nearly purged. Hers-... he could not figure it out. But he had little time to; her words were proving even more interesting.

She was testing him? Fascinating! But why? "Aha! Testing my perspective, yes? May I ask why? What do you do?" he prodded, hopping down and closer, tilting his head this way and that to study Luna more closely. "What is it you intend to do?" It wasn't asked with suspicion; he only expected that she had goals of her own, and that he must fit into them, somehow.

How, though, he could not say.

Doctor paused. For a moment, after Luna had spoken, he stood quite still; the gaze with which he regarded her--hidden though it was by his goggles--seemed to sharpen with slow interest. When he spoke, it was with a slower, deeper, more considering tone. "A natural curiosity, then, but unsharpened by experience. Unguided." He stared for a moment longer, then ruffled himself and tipped his head a fraction to one side. His tone regained some of that enthusiastic cheer as he added, "And well-meaning! -Pardon me. It is--well, it is just that given the... sharpness? Of your questions," and perhaps he'd meant 'pointedness' here; he didn't always find the right words for what he meant--"I had thought you had something specific in mind!"

He turned, shuffling around his Hopper as he continued. "A goal, a perspective, one I wasn't yet aware of. Hmph! Fascinating." He paused again, glancing back, again falling still and a little quieter. "Well! I dare say there are plenty of ways to leave these dismal caves in a slightly better state than they are, hmm?" Doctor considered. "Why, I can tell you firsthand that half the creatures in these caves need guidance itself. 'Therapy,' is I think the word. Medical care, infrastructure--the lights dipping off and on, and no true consistent source of food... Why, just look around us!" and he waved a broad wing at Pegasus entire. "In some caves there are ruins of civilization! Cities, crumbling and dusty! Here-? This is only wilderness." He paused yet again, then in a quieter and more amused tone, leaned in a bit. "...It is still wilderness, yes-? I can see bodies, but the environment around me, ahh--not so much. I don't suppose any cities have sprung up here since I was blinded-?"

It was, perhaps, a hint at his priorities that he didn't focus on the "pained screams of a Lesser" so much as the "grand claims of progress."

His ruffled wings, so proud, settled almost meekly down his body. His head lowered some, goggled face shifting to eye his lesser--or was he afraid to make eye contact? (Or, rather, button-to-eye contact...) "But it is progress," was his quiet protest, and it was difficult to tell if that softer tone was insulted, or upset, or disappointed. Or maybe Luna had shocked his concepts of grand plans into realizing that really, all he had here was an unconscious rabbit on a rock, and not a bustling scientific research center. "It comes slowly, that is all. In bits and tiny pieces. One must do what they can," he added, and this rallied him some; he looked up at her.

"Do not misunderstand! I enjoy the breadth of air for flight, the river, the fields. But that is all there is. Cepheus has no true facilities," he added, with a snobby sniff through his nares. "If I had a staff..." Doctor took a wistful breath. "A group, like that Forge held but-" He cut himself off before insulting the giant Chaos monsters by calling them mindless or violent. Because if word got back, well, they might take offense. Doctor rephrased, then continued, after a pause. "...Focused on science. It is the difference between a Gembound arriving to a medic and we medics guessing at their treatment," and now he began to stalk quickly back and forth in the grass, as if pacing thoughtfully as he spoke, "and knowing at once what techniques to apply! What temperature the healing best works at. Which herbs will salve the wounds..." He sighed, and drooped again, pausing in his stride. "But you are right, it is certainly slow progress on one's own. I do not judge you for your... perception. Maybe it is not wrong."

There was a moroseness to this last, and he paused, looking through those goggled eyes to stare thoughtfully at the rabbit on the rock.