(Because that's not how conditioning works, asshole. Decided to come complain, did you? Well, you're starting to freak out, yeah, that's gonna get my attention.)

"Ain't that easy." They think back to the book that came on the ferry for some way to explain it. Programming wasn't really in there, but.... "Learned responses. Take time to overcome." That's in there, that might help explain. "Learned to be afraid of my name. It meant pain and fear and. Punishment. So even if nobody here's gonna hurt me for saying it. Still can't."

You're just dealing with a human here, Ardyn. Fairly long-lived one, for the species, hardier than most, with a little bit of a cheat to the system in the form of super serum, but still working with the same general hardware. And that hardware can get messed up pretty bad by some things.