You were made incorrectly. The words slam into him like a bullet to the gut and there's a moment where he can't will himself to move because that's right isn't it? Yes it is.

(Worthless mutt, useless dog stand up and fight.)

There's everything wrong with him, a broken crippled thing that's fractured and falling apart and it cuts into him down to the bone. After everything that's happened in this place, the awful desert and the open spaces and the sky as wide and ominous as a wound and the days and days and days of trudging monotony, it's hard to pull himself back from the slow inward slide so when Laedo takes hold of him again he doesn't shoot, doesn't bite or snap or snarl. He just stands there, motionless.

"Get off me," the words are delayed, and when they come they're softer than he'd intended them to be. Lack the usual sardonic drawl.