"Okay, why do you think he would say no now but not once you're emperor of the multiverse?"

"He doesn't know me very well, my alt apparently had endless relationship drama and he hasn't actually seen me handle conflict effectively or handle relationships maturely so he doesn't have anything to go off, and I'm very far outside my element. Once I am emperor of the multiverse then I can ask him if he wants to be emperor of the muitiverse with me and he does want that, sufficiently so that he'd probably be willing to give it a try and I am capable of handling relationships with maturity when I'm prioritizing that so if he is willing to give it a try I think it will go fine."

...She refrains from commenting on his apparent emotional maturity.

"I know. I am usually around more than three other people at some point over the course of a year and it turns out that lots of my life management relies on this. Though observe that all I've done is spend time that did not have any other demands on it composing sad songs."

Well, spending as much time as he has been writing sad songs is sorta worrying for itself. She's worried about him, not about his functionality.

"That I usually outsource. Concern for my wellbeing, I mean. I don't have an intuition for it."

Well, okay, fine, it's not like there's that many other people around, he can outsource it to her. Not the best possible solution but they're working from a limited set.

"I think I should stop playing Governor. If he asks why I'll answer honestly."

"If you don't mind an inevitable victory I'm still game to play."

"Sounds fun, let's."

At some point Cam will notice that Maitimo demurs when Governor is suggested.

"What," he says after the third time this happens, "did you get tired of losing?"

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh he looks so smug and it's so hot and that tail

maybe there's another Cam somewhere in the multiverse aaargh.

"No. Uh, actually, I noticed I was developing feelings for you, and then you told me you were Revelation, and that was fairly distracting. And losing to you at Governor is fairly distracting. I'm thinking that probably the best thing is for me to just get over this, is that right?"

"Oh.

"...this really shouldn't come as such a surprise, I guess, your alt told me I was his type."

"I'm surprised it came up, during the war I would have significantly more pressing things on my mind."

"He was explaining why Findekáno was acting weird, which was apparently because Findekáno thought he'd seduced me or something?"

"I want to meet my alt but at this point mostly out of morbid curiosity. Anyway, yes. People who end material scarcity on their home world by the age of 22: my type. And when I said the tail was adorable I meant it, and -"

Sigh. 

"Just give me a couple of months, it'd be even less than that if I had anything to do, and we can play some more when I'm less distracted."

Sigh. "It's really not fair to judge you based on your alt's behavior, I should stop that."

aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

Blink.

"I did not bring this up to demand you be - fair about anything in particular, just mentioned it because you asked. But it doesn't sound like we have much in common in our personal lives, no."

"I didn't say 'I will acquiesce to this demand you totally made', I said, 'it's really not fair'."

"Anyway. I will let you know when I am next in the mood to lose at Governor."

"...okay."

"Is that...not the best way to handle this? I mean, I can also, delightedly, ask you out, I just didn't get the sense that'd be particularly welcome..."

"...kinda not in the right mental place to even seriously think about it. Also we live in a bar, I'm not sure where 'out' would be."

"Yeah, I figured. Couple months. Sorry."

hahaha that's such a lie he's definitely not going to come out of this conversation better equipped to get over it -

"Okay."

The tail: it does not wag.