Restless

Keeping busy. Getting over the cold I picked up at Paiho that left me not wanting to face pod goo for a while. Finally managed to sell some of the stock out of the office, but it's really not a good place for a shopfront.

Did dinner at Cia's place with Else. Pleasant. Speculated on what would happen if Aeron tested positive for the pod: I imagine that would not be a happy day for Rhiannon. Aware that we still need to arrange a suitable time for the talk Else would like to have.

Set things up for some simulator training with Ulf, CJ, Benito and Ivan. I like the simulator. Ivan designed me a fit that gets in very close, and I'd hate to have tried it the first time for real. On the sim, however, it was good. He was surprisingly gentle in the ways that mattered. Makes me want to become better. Makes me hesitant about going back if I'm not becoming better.

Went back to The Last Gate, despite the awkwardness since we redded Veto. Caught up with Shae: Caellach's been even more scarce than Jacob this last month. Met a Veto pilot called Raxip Elamp who, at a guess, might have issues about enforced unhappy freedom. Also met Sard Caid. Very strange to do that while I still have kill rights on him, although I was in holo so we've still not breathed the same air. Does that somehow make it okay?

"So Mata, can I call you that?"

"Mmm. Why not? I suppose we're past conventional formalities. Do you prefer 'Sard'?"

And then there was Ethan himself and... nostalgia. A great sodden wave of it. Talking to Ethan brought it all back: dunesurfing, icecream, dancing to his piano playing, and... Jonny.

Maia doesn't know who Jonny is. I've come to wonder if that's for the best.

With Jacob away so long I'm thinking with my head again. Not a bad thing, I suppose, but it's clinical, lacking the surge and impulse of the gene-wisdom and the archetypes.