"If it's any consolation, you weren't the only one," she replies. "Four different people brought up Hawaii as a selling point. You can share the blame."
She fishes some glasses out of a cabinet; one has a whole crack up the side, and Tess feels a long-buried twinge of embarrassment. Whatever. There's been too much stress lately to waste any on what anyone might think of her room.
Hange politely ignores this evidence of deprivation. It's actually nothing new to her, coming from resource-starved world for most of her life.
"Better luck next time. People hate breaches, but I've even enjoyed those before. The one before that, we went to magical country and I wasn't even a human, I was some sort of ancient being who associated with humans and gave them favors in turn for writing their memoirs... if they were interesting..."
Tess pours them some drinks and takes her own seat.
"I'll happily take any circumstance that doesn't fuck with my memories or mind, no matter how violent or depraved," she replies. "But being an ancient being for a week or two sounds like fun, at least."
"It's interesting to look back on. You see yourself in a different context. In my first breach, I was a professor of botany in a mysterious town... at the end of that one the seas pulled back and a monster rose."
And Hange swore her loyalty to a Nyalathotep cult, represented at the time by Tesla and Bill. It's a tiny bit awkward.
Not a context Tess cares for, unfortunately, but getting into that defeats the purpose of drinking.
"I can see you as a professor," she replies. "And I could enjoy a good... whatever kind of monster movie that's called. Godzilla, or something? Did it come destroy everything?"
"I'm not sure. We left after that. It was a strange place, there were all kinds of mysteries under the skin of the town... it was dangerous, but magical."
Hange tilts a smile Tess' way.
"I recall enjoying professorship too. I've always had an interest in botany."
"Yeah! I haven't dug too much into it. I've spent a lot of time since I arrived working on bringing myself up to speed with modern chemistry, physics, and technology in general... it's changed a lot from what we had at home."
"No," she admits. "I pick up a little bit of work for my warden here or there, but I haven't bothered to learn shit."
She's been filling her weeks up with distraction after distraction, jumping from one thing to the next –– until these past few days, she hasn't given herself many minutes to breathe. To think.
Hange, who did not come over here to drink to the edification and improvement of Tess, shrugs. "Oh, well. I don't know much about opportunities like that myself. I did ask Rhys Strongfork to teach me some things about cybernetics, do you know him?"
"Ah, yes." Mixed feelings mostly because Moblit laid down his life to preserve Hange's and all she gave up was this eye, but, not talking about it! "Well, you know, lacking depth perception is absolute shit, and you never know what's going to happen around here. It's good to stay in fighting trim."
"Could be a death sentence back home," she remarks. "And you had that whole... contraption on you back there, the thing with the boxes and the blades. Can't imagine that's easy to use with bad depth perception."
"It's not! I mean, I mostly adjusted to it, but it makes it harder than it needs to be." Tactical gear usage is risky enough when the wearer is fully abled. "Plus, from what I hear it's possible to build in some useful utilities to artificial eyes like that. Rhys and I aren't there yet but in some ways they're better than, you know, the originals..."
"I believe it's modular once they're in there! Risk is pretty minimal, I believe. My main worry is, you know..." Hange makes a vague gesture, and then reaches to top up Tess and herself. "I like swimming. Ocean swimming. Rhys assures me that we can account for water and sand and such, but seawater is hard on most every material."
"Oh, probably. But goggles aren't perfect. They leak, pop off... Rhys says we can make them hold up, but I don't want to rely on technology I don't understand and can't fix, eh?"
"Mm," Tess hums. That would be a problem. "If you can't fix it yourself, then it just becomes a liability. Not a lot of people with complex prosthetics in my world."
"Yeah! That's why I'm learning from Rhys. I'll get on top of it, and if I don't, I won't accept the prosthetic. Kind of strange how a machine is more reliable than a regular old eye, huh? Although," Hange taps next to her one remaining eye, beside her nose, "My eyes have always been shit. Heh heh."
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"If it's any consolation, you weren't the only one," she replies. "Four different people brought up Hawaii as a selling point. You can share the blame."
She fishes some glasses out of a cabinet; one has a whole crack up the side, and Tess feels a long-buried twinge of embarrassment. Whatever. There's been too much stress lately to waste any on what anyone might think of her room.
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"Better luck next time. People hate breaches, but I've even enjoyed those before. The one before that, we went to magical country and I wasn't even a human, I was some sort of ancient being who associated with humans and gave them favors in turn for writing their memoirs... if they were interesting..."
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"I'll happily take any circumstance that doesn't fuck with my memories or mind, no matter how violent or depraved," she replies. "But being an ancient being for a week or two sounds like fun, at least."
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And Hange swore her loyalty to a Nyalathotep cult, represented at the time by Tesla and Bill. It's a tiny bit awkward.
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"I can see you as a professor," she replies. "And I could enjoy a good... whatever kind of monster movie that's called. Godzilla, or something? Did it come destroy everything?"
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Hange tilts a smile Tess' way.
"I recall enjoying professorship too. I've always had an interest in botany."
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"I admire the commitment, taking advantage of what the barge has to offer. Me, I am never going to be a scientist."
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She's been filling her weeks up with distraction after distraction, jumping from one thing to the next –– until these past few days, she hasn't given herself many minutes to breathe. To think.
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"I've heard the name here or there, but I haven't met him," she replies. "He's friends with your inmate, yeah?"
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And she taps on her eyepatch. It's remarkable to think of being able to build a new, functioning eye, but her feelings are actually a bit mixed.
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"If you're going to live on a barge with a cybernetics lab, you might as well take advantage. No point in living without if there's an alternative."
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Or who knows, maybe it is.
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"I guess if you like the new one a lot, you can eventually replace the other, too."
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