[ Going over it left Simon nowhere close to internalizing why the-Simon-that-he-is would be doomed to be left behind when all he's experienced is what felt like the seamless continuity of being the only him that there could be, in changing forms. Even the second Simon was only him until he was someone else. It was the only way he could fathom it. But that he was stupid and wrong, that he'd created a worst-case scenario even worse than the one so bad he refused to contemplate it, were pretty easy to put together.
"Only sapient thing on Earth with nothing to do except wait for the WAU to die" is the perfect time to go over things. He didn't go over it thoroughly. But he did it super fast.
At something like... understanding, maybe, even?? the anxious vicegrip on his guts loosens a little. He raises his eyes with a spark of recognition at what sounds like, wow, exactly what he was doing. Muddled recognition that turns a little wry, because-- ]
Yeah, me neither.
[ --obviously the same basic method and collaboration on the same exact distraction had wildly different results.
And then, after a pause wherein he studies Catherine for a moment and decides this is finally weird enough, he gestures beside him. ]
Uh, do you want to sit down?
[ Simon tried to envision a body-having Catherine what would probably strike her as surprisingly seldom, that's how squarely his human self was The Real Simon and human Catherine was The Other Catherine by virtue of not being the first one he met. And this still manages to not match it. He knows her as "brash taskmaster", not the "kid being made to feed a horse" standing across from him. ]
no subject
"Only sapient thing on Earth with nothing to do except wait for the WAU to die" is the perfect time to go over things. He didn't go over it thoroughly. But he did it super fast.
At something like... understanding, maybe, even?? the anxious vicegrip on his guts loosens a little. He raises his eyes with a spark of recognition at what sounds like, wow, exactly what he was doing. Muddled recognition that turns a little wry, because-- ]
Yeah, me neither.
[ --obviously the same basic method and collaboration on the same exact distraction had wildly different results.
And then, after a pause wherein he studies Catherine for a moment and decides this is finally weird enough, he gestures beside him. ]
Uh, do you want to sit down?
[ Simon tried to envision a body-having Catherine what would probably strike her as surprisingly seldom, that's how squarely his human self was The Real Simon and human Catherine was The Other Catherine by virtue of not being the first one he met. And this still manages to not match it. He knows her as "brash taskmaster", not the "kid being made to feed a horse" standing across from him. ]