[ Simon looks over at him, and as he speaks he’s stepping around the end of the aisle, toward the counter, away from 9S’s probing look. ]

Yeah— yeah, just lost my train of thought. [ The are you okay followed by an unrealistically prompt yes hasn’t really been a staple of Simon’s existence since the last weeks of his human one, but even after this long, in an entirely different existence, the beats come back like he’s at work trying to act normal.

Which he is, technically. Everything old is new again.

After a moment, he rallies: ] You know, we might still have time to just evacuate all these robots to the moon.