"Yeah." Optimism as a concept is pretty new to him (so is pessimism, in fairness), so he's making a go of that. "Maybe by the time I get back they'll have worked out the big things so I can just...start my life. Whatever it's going to be."

Without having to be in the centre of everything. He's pretty sure that's not who he is - not like the real leaders.

"I'm a detective model." It never occurred to him before to be grateful for what he was - because it could always have been even more menial or degrading labour - but now it does, powerfully, and he pauses for a moment, gaze distant and troubled, before he remembers himself and goes on. "I was designed to assist police with pretty much anything. Evidence gathering, interrogations, combat... My first mission was a hostage negotiation."

He's not proud of how he did it, in retrospect, but he did save the hostage.