[He was created as a replacement, but had he lived as one? Was he really just a stand-in for the original? ...no. Anise herself had seen it. He was just Ion. If he were to accept his life as a replacement, that would mean his original had been replaceable... but that couldn't be the case. People had cared for him as well, hadn't they? How had he felt, what had it been like, knowing you were just going to be replaced when you die...]
[He knew how that felt. That was exactly as it had been for him, wasn't it? The knowledge that he could have been so easily replaced by another replica. The reason he cared so little about what happened to himself... it was the same. Even though he was a replica, it had been the same for his original.]
[But if that were true, and people couldn't be replaced, then... he couldn't have been a replacement.]
[It's at this point in his thought process that tears begin streaming down his face.]
no subject
[He was created as a replacement, but had he lived as one? Was he really just a stand-in for the original? ...no. Anise herself had seen it. He was just Ion. If he were to accept his life as a replacement, that would mean his original had been replaceable... but that couldn't be the case. People had cared for him as well, hadn't they? How had he felt, what had it been like, knowing you were just going to be replaced when you die...]
[He knew how that felt. That was exactly as it had been for him, wasn't it? The knowledge that he could have been so easily replaced by another replica. The reason he cared so little about what happened to himself... it was the same. Even though he was a replica, it had been the same for his original.]
[But if that were true, and people couldn't be replaced, then... he couldn't have been a replacement.]
[It's at this point in his thought process that tears begin streaming down his face.]
...had it really been... that simple?