i love the functionist universe flashbacks bc of course i do it's my two faves interacting on page and also there's a horrible depressing dystopia, it's like it was MADE for me
but also i really love how we get this weird sort of cautious dynamic here and how that adds to the sense of paranoia? rewind and minimus clearly know each other well, like that's obvious, but in retrospect they seem to be trying to carefully feel out what the other thinks re: the current political climate even though realistically, these are both characters who like... Have Strong And Obvious Opinions on such matters!
minimus asking that dumb "so does being disposable suck" question DOES make me laugh bc INAPPROPRIATE, but once you get to the bit where rewind shows his hand a little and minimus in turn is like "oh good i can point out all this sucks", it reads a lot more like him trying to work out where rewind stands. (and rewind DOES have a weird slight undercurrent of functionist thinking at times- he *really likes* his function as a data stick/archivist, after all.)
rewind hedging his words here likewise feels like the same kind of thing. two people both very strongly opposed to All This Bullshit, who seem to know each other very well (and who it makes perfect sense would- minimus has apparently been speaking to his brother and rewind's conjunx often enough in his two million years off world him not calling for a couple months seens weird) but who are also not sure of where the other stands.
* if minimus is a turbofox as word of god says (and tbh as makes sense, as per other siblings sharing alts) this bit:
* also in parallel to all the above with rewind, and especially interesting given how much minimus seems to angst over not knowing what his brother thought of him (ie, mederi):
"did you have a point" nnnnnot really hush
