[ He can tell the story lands, but past that, Harold has little insight into what Carver's going through. He's clearly still distressed, almost frozen through long periods of delay in his response, but anything more nuanced is utterly opaque. Harold has always cared about people and equally always been rather awkward about how to express it. ]
... They're not all that sympathetic, of course.
[ It's a strange sort of reassurance. He doesn't want Carver to think they'd been some kind of heroic figures -- they were just people doing their best, like he'd promised the Machine. That was all he could promise.
Harold casts his mind back to how they got into this conversation, and finally gives up and addresses it directly. ]
I apologize if anything I've said has distressed you. It was not my intent.
no subject
... They're not all that sympathetic, of course.
[ It's a strange sort of reassurance. He doesn't want Carver to think they'd been some kind of heroic figures -- they were just people doing their best, like he'd promised the Machine. That was all he could promise.
Harold casts his mind back to how they got into this conversation, and finally gives up and addresses it directly. ]
I apologize if anything I've said has distressed you. It was not my intent.