He waits. Maybe he can win over a different Cam.

Cam tries some things.

"...not a me. And I never did think of any good way to learn who I was without already having it guessed and they've covered all the same tracks."

"That's too bad. That it's not a you, I mean." Since that one wouldn't be traumatized by the recent war and also biased against having anything to do with me.

"Yeah. Would've been neat."

"Also it's very weird that a similar thing would happen at the same time without the same person motivating it."

"Yeah. Edie said she found a sort of mashup of herself and her sister but I don't have anyone obvious to mash up with... checked for my parents and they're not there either."

"So, two Earths with the same history but not precisely the same people, two Ardas with the same people despite totally different underlying mechanics of society... and they are the same people, modulo a different culture and upbringing, the ones we resurrected would pass for the versions of them I know except for the other Valinor being a censorious bubble-wrap-land..."

"Would yours have not banned shampoo commercials?"

"Shampoo commercials?"

"This is how I learned about the Elf hair thing, I was looking at what they were banning on Valinor and they were fine with nudity but scandalized at shampoo commercials."

"We don't ban pornography but probably find the same things graphic."

"Fair enough. When your alt said 'shampoo commercials?' in more or less exactly that tone of voice I found an actual example, the look on his face was amusing."

"Probably a bad idea. Though I'll admit mild curiosity."

Cam snorts. "Watch hair porn on your own time."

"I will have to bother my brother's girlfriend for it."

"Or Bar, she seems very nonjudgmental."

Annnyway. "Hair's not a thing for humans? And ex-humans? And human-like daeva - you know, I really wonder how any of this works..."

"Hair is not a thing for human-style persons, no. By and large, I guess there might be idiosyncrasies about that like anything else."

"I am trying to think why 'the Valar, only censorious' exists. An exact duplicate of our world with some point of departure would make sense, but a world that's completely different and has magical beings in it, and yet which runs through the same history -"

"It's very weird," agrees Cam.

No progress is made on figuring that out. Progress is made on xenobiology, on responses to all of the bioweapons conjurable from the alternate Endorë (no bioweapons are conjurable from this Endorë, of course, which doesn't mean much except that the Enemy's minimally competent at information security.) Progress is made on procedures for giving worlds a tech boost and statehood in the empire, and on designing a lovely new capital city for said empire, and on designing a palace for said city.

Progress is not made on getting over Cam.

Well, as far as anyone has told Cam that's because 'getting over Cam' is a done thing, so he will continue to win at Governor about half the time and be smug and tail-wagging about it.

Yes, he will, won't he. He doesn't get distracted enough to make mistakes. He reminds himself that he prefers Cam smug and tailwagging and unknowingly causing lots of anguish to Cam quiet and non-tail-wagging and courteously giving him space.

And he's convincing; he's stopped moping, so they've stopped worrying about him. 

And at some point he says to Cam, 'so when Edie and I were talking about how to help you out I said I thought this was above Maitimo's pay grade and we needed, like, him, a therapist, and a time machine. To fix it. Not that the main reason to fix it is so that you won't be sad over it, but it's sure pretty motivating -'

"...uh, me being sad really shouldn't be particularly motivating compared to, like, people being dead. What would Maitimo be adding to the therapist and a time machine package anyway?"