Honestly, I think I would have had to work to make the scene with the pods anything else. The concept itself is powerful; all I had to do was describe it.

The penny was always going to drop for Lennox in this fic, and while I enjoy reading Will/'Hide/Sarah fics, it just didn't seem right in this universe for the idea of (non-Pretender) interspecies to even have occurred to Will.

And... I hadn't considered it, but I think you are so right about Simmons having figured it out a long time ago. Because not only is he a twisty-minded bastard, but he also has the advantage (in Simulacra'verse) of being the only other human to have actually slept with a Cybertronian (Mirage). May I steal use the idea/conversation?