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[dog_eat_dog]

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[14thcommander]

"... Fascinating. Fascinating."

Hange takes her drink and steps aside for Tess to move in, staring.

"I'm guessing... that never happened?"

[dog_eat_dog]

"I mean, not yet," she replies, leaning against the bar. And probably not ever, given the lights definitely aren't on at Disney anymore. "But even if he failed, who knows how many other rich inventors have contingency plans like that?"

[14thcommander]

"I guess... if the brain were perfectly preserved - theoretically, if someone were able to take a DNA sample from remaining tissue - they could possibly regrow the body with the right setup and then hook the brain on in..."

CoUlD iT wOrK??? Holy shit.

She died falling, wreathed in flame. Nothing so pristine left to preserve. They could have taken Erwin's head, though.

[dog_eat_dog]

"They'd probably need the brain for the memories, right? But everything else could be swapped out for anything else."

She guesses! What the fuck does one body matter over another, as long as it works well?

"I mean, it'd be nice to have a familiar body, but you could also be stronger, or faster, or hotter."

[14thcommander]

"True, true. No reason to get unduly attached to a shell if you can do better."

Once drinks are in hand, Hange moves them along to a booth. Most of her drink gets thrown back in a swallow. This was an excellent idea, because she's obsessed with the idea of cryo-sleep now and will be thinking about it for days.

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess chuckles, going marginally slower with her own drink.

"Right? Ditch old scars, too, be as careless as you want when you can just replace it."

[14thcommander]

"Aaah... it would have made fighting so much easier. Not that we would have had anything close to the needed technology, at home."

She leaves the drink for a bit, leans back in the booth, lets her eye slit briefly closed.

"Bad weeks for you? Anything you need a hand with, or...?"

[dog_eat_dog]

"Not at our home either. Nice to dream, though."

Tess smiles. A joke about revenge floats on her lips, but for all the fun she is, Hange is still a warden.

"Nah, nothing I can't sort out myself, or won't sort itself out with time," she replies. "Love life bullshit."

[14thcommander]

Hange accepts the rebuff amiably. The nice thing about Tess is she's another human, another adult, another woman from a meanspirited and hardbitten world. She is not Hange's inmate and Hange is not the one who must worry over her in that sense.

"Love troubles, huh? Aheheh. There's always a lot of that going around here."

[dog_eat_dog]

"Ridiculous, isn't it. All this space and time stuff, alternate universes and mind-warping, sometimes we're on a train and sometimes we're raising eggs, and there's still juuust enough time for down-to-earth drama."

She passes her glass between her hands.

"Guy I was seeing wants to take a break, and then my partner showed up when all the people were getting switched around."

[14thcommander]

"He was disruptive, then? To your guy?"

Erwin did not give a shit about the network and did not make himself known there.

[dog_eat_dog]

"I don't think they met each other, it was just real whiplash for me," she replies. "Moron warden, on the other hand, did talk to my moron partner, and neither of them really enjoyed that conversation, so... thanks guys."

She raises her glass in mock toast.

"How about yours?"

[14thcommander]

Hange snorts. Moron warden and moron partner, it's funny!

"I... Erwin was the one who came in my stead. My commanding officer."

Former, actually, but we don't want to talk about that.

"He didn't touch any of anyone's communications, but I know he wouldn't have wanted to disrupt... well, anything. Anything I was working on. He was always supportive in that way."

[dog_eat_dog]

"Extremely good pick on the Admiral's part, then," Tess replies. Oh, to not be enmeshed in drama. "Clean, responsible, hits the ground running and doesn't ask stupid questions. You lucked out."

[14thcommander]

"That's Erwin down to the bootlaces. Hah. He was always like that. An excellent commanding officer, truly a great man."

[dog_eat_dog]

"God, it's good to have guys like that." And teasing: "You never dated?"

[14thcommander]

"Haha! Erwin, or in general?"

The laugh is genuine.

"It's not really a priority for me, either way. People get distracted by romance. It's also not the best idea to date your fellow soldiers..."

[dog_eat_dog]

“Sure, it’s a distraction, but it’s motivating,” she replies, with a flash of a grin. “And I’ve heard that too, but no one’s going to get you or what you do like someone else in the same line of work would. I couldn’t have someone at home shitting himself worrying if I’d make it home.”

[14thcommander]

"Ties like that warp people's priorities from where they should be. Most people don't have the grit to watch their romantic partner die and still prioritize the good of the whole... the good of humanity."

[dog_eat_dog]

Certainly not me, is Tess's immediate thought, but then again, she never prioritized the good of anyone but her own. Fuck them, got hers.

"You don't think it's motivating, makes you work harder when the people you want to protect are right by your side?"

[14thcommander]

"Wanting to protect someone doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with putting a dick in them. Or a pussy on them."

Hange shrugs.

"And there might be something to be said for having a partner who was sheltered from the war. A beacon to return to. It could help with compartmentalization. I can't say that for sure, I suppose."

[dog_eat_dog]

"Works different for different people, I guess," Tess replies. "Depends on where you live, too. If there was a safe place to stash someone, sure. If we're both going to be in danger, anyway, might as well together."

[14thcommander]

"No true safety existed within the walls! For most of my life. The inevitable end to any wall is its collapse, after all..."

Her glass is rapidly emptying out. Hange studies it, melancholic.

"Wasn't it similar in your home? Or not?"

[dog_eat_dog]

"Oh, pretty much exactly that," she replies. "But safety's relative. Being in a gated apartment complex surrounded by soldiers inside a wall is safer than anywhere outside the wall."

[14thcommander]

"Did your walls ever collapse?"