"As in all twenty-eight of me?  A bit over nine years."

"Huh. Do you think it had to do from the beginning with seeing me coming or is that just selection effect?"

"I have no idea.  I'm talking to Nudge right now and he's just winking at me about it.  Or, you know, the bodiless version thereof."

Cam snorts. "Nudge is a bit weird but I like him."

And the shuttle with the kids in it returns. The city had playgrounds in the parks already, so once the kids have slept off being resurrected there's a place for them to hang out.

All of the adults in this batch and most of the kids wanted to be instantiated sedated, but the maybe-murdered one didn't.  He doesn't want to go to the receiving building either.

"Do you want to go straight to the playground? Or lie on the grass, that's also been weirdly popular."

"If I pick out an apartment will I be able to keep it?  Myself?"

"...I think that might wind up depending on how competent you are to live alone. Most people your age are not, it'd be psychologically unhealthy even if they didn't wind up with an emergency they couldn't handle."

He starts crying a little and looks really frustrated about it, wiping at his eyes with his sleeve.  "So what are you going to do with me?"

"I mean, for now you can pick an apartment and live in it by yourself, I don't think you're going to be psychologically damaged by it in the next week, but I'd recommend trying to make friends with an adult you might be able to tolerate living with."

"Okay."  Snif.  "And if I pick one out you'll fill it up so it isn't empty?"

"They come with some furniture but yeah, if you need something tell me, or tell a Felicity so I can do stuff in batches."

"What about food?"

"There are stores; they currently contain only nonperishables but that'll be enough to get along with for a bit."

". . . I don't have any money."

"Yeah, no, they're stores in that they store things, not in that they do transactions. Just take stuff."

"Isn't that stealing?"

"From whom?"

"From the store, I guess."

"It's my store, I made all the stuff in it, and I'm saying you can take stuff."

He bites his lip.

"...would you feel better about it if I accompanied you to an apartment right now and put food in it directly?"

Nod nod nod nodnod.

"Okay, I can do that, but I do want to observe in the process that taking responsibility for making sure there is food in your home is exactly the sort of thing a cohabiting adult is for."

" - Fine, okay, bring my parents here, I don't care!"  He seems to actually care very much.