[In another version of the same universe, maybe he would have gotten Iota. Maybe Carolina never lobbied for two A.I. fragments, or maybe she never had to give up Sigma, or maybe tiny incremental quantum shifts ensured that Carolina was never so consumed with competitive envy that she would relinquish her place on the leaderboard without fighting like hell to regain it.]
It's better that it was me, C.T. It's...
[A long memory. The ability to pull the shards of himself tight and knot them together and recontextualize and compartmentalize and think and lock himself into a holding pattern until such a time that he could splinter off with enough force to break Freelancer beneath the overwhelming gut-fuck pressure of it.]
no subject
[In another version of the same universe, maybe he would have gotten Iota. Maybe Carolina never lobbied for two A.I. fragments, or maybe she never had to give up Sigma, or maybe tiny incremental quantum shifts ensured that Carolina was never so consumed with competitive envy that she would relinquish her place on the leaderboard without fighting like hell to regain it.]
It's better that it was me, C.T. It's...
[A long memory. The ability to pull the shards of himself tight and knot them together and recontextualize and compartmentalize and think and lock himself into a holding pattern until such a time that he could splinter off with enough force to break Freelancer beneath the overwhelming gut-fuck pressure of it.]
[He smiles. It aches with the unevenness of it.]
Better me than anyone else.