ic contact

[14thcommander]

It's Hange, Hange, Hange! Were you looking for me? I'll get back to you posthaste. Or when it's convenient.

[ communicator & actionspam it's all good ]

Comments

[14thcommander]

"I am." Tess could probably use a warden for reinforcement.

"Well. I saw the mirrors move. It looks like the cybernetics lab still isn't changed." Picked totally arbitrarily. Now, since they can walk and talk: "Let's head that way. How did you change your area?"

[dog_eat_dog]

She's not entirely sure what the cybernetics lab is, but it works. She follows.

"I got this key from a mirror," she replies, fishing it out of her pocket. It's ornate wrought iron. "My reflection wasn't what it was supposed to be. It was like it was talking to me, trying to get out –– and when the mirror cracked, the key was inside."

[14thcommander]

"Mirrors are important, then." It might seem like a jump based on one person's experience, but Hange saw her own reflection distort and change so it's a solid bet.

"Well, I'm sure there'll be something shiny there."

The lab is on the second level, so they're not far. Hange marches them down the two flights of stairs in total work-mode with minimal chatter; she doesn't want to attract too much attention from passers-by while they're doing sensitive stuff. Some people are attached to this barge.

[dog_eat_dog]

"The mirror was the way both times," she replies. "That's how I got the 8-ball, too, just by moving things around until the reflection matched."

Moving around with a warden feels odd; not that Tess doesn't walk around with Arthur a lot, but after a week of ducking and dodging wardens with penchants for torture, it is a little different. Quiet works just fine with her, too.

[14thcommander]

Hange taps on the door of the cybernetics lab and then opens the door without waiting. She is wearing the tactical gear and there is a good chance if they meet with resistance that she'll just slice the person in their way in half, so the knock is... fair warning.

Anyway. The technology the lab boasts is clearer to her than it was when she arrived, but honestly still beyond her, so once they're in she seems slightly at a loss.

"You don't have a trigger item, do you?"

Because she does not. Hange circles the room and picks up a shiny piece of metal when one comes to hand, tilting it to face the light.

[dog_eat_dog]

Being on the Barge often feels like being in a science fiction movie, and the lab feels like that on steroids. Machinery and technology has been so far beyond her grasp that she almost forgot it existed on this level. No time to gawk, though.

"A trigger item?" she replies. "No, I never had one. I just looked for my reflection until I saw something off about it."

[14thcommander]

Hange pivots the metal plate towards Tess.

"See anything?"

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess approaches it with the squared shoulders of someone ready to jump as soon as she sees something; her reflection isn't perfectly clear, but it's enough for her to look around, scope out the differences. She tests movement, lifting one hand and then the other, turning her face side to side, but it's not her that's different.

She glances over her shoulder, looking at the mess, and then back at the sheet, hunting for something different amongst the clutter of machinery. She reaches out to take the plate from Hange, to walk with it backwards.

"It should be something in the room... something that's different. Come around to this side."

[14thcommander]

Hange trails her, reaching out to adjust Tess' hold on the plate so she can study her own reflection. That is where she saw the initial signs. The metal is a little wavy, so her reflection is a bit distorted, but - "Wait! Hold up." Her grip tightens.

With one eye remaining, Hange can no longer wink; her reflection bats its lashes in a way Hange is not causing at all, and points. Hange turns to look over her shoulder at a reflected machine. There's an "out of order" sign haphazardly stuck to it.

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess holds still, looking –– there it is. She smirks.

"It gets easier every time," she remarks. Might as well, seeing as there's a number more rooms to get to. She drops the plate onto a workbench with a clatter, making her way over to it. "I hope we don't have to fix this. I'm handy, but not that handy."

[14thcommander]

"Well, we'll experiment."

There's a big green power button on this baby. Hange, not one to resist a big button, gives it a push.

The machine makes some sad wheezing noises. A loud clunk echoes from inside it. There's a slightly offset panel on it, just set in place, not screwed in... the noises might be coming from there...

[dog_eat_dog]

Sounds like every messed up machine that still sorta-runs in the Quarantine Zone.

"It's not about to get more broken," she remarks, and she grabs a screwdriver to wedge the panel open. It falls open with a metallic clunk, and Tess steps back when a tarry black substance pools out, oozing slow. "Ugh..."

[14thcommander]

"Well, we can clean this up!"

Hange moves to some of the supply tables. There's rags and delicate tissue wipes around, though this is not a job for delicate anything. She returns with a handful of rags and some heavy-duty paper towels, offering the roll to Tess and crouching down to mop up the ooze.

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess takes it, though the moment Hange crouches down, she rolls her eyes –– she'll do it, but cleaning has hardly been a concern of hers, let alone anything productive. She tears off a few pieces of towel and starts at it, wiping off gobs of the muck and going back for fresh towels.

And, conversationally:

"So are you still enmeshed in this whole... Torture Barge thing?"

[14thcommander]

"Enmeshed in it how?"

It sounds like an evasion and it sorta is but seriously, also, what does that mean?

[dog_eat_dog]

"Do you believe this is the real Barge?" she clarifies. "Lots of the wardens are real pissed about the rooms being fixed, but you're actually helping."

[14thcommander]

Hange shoves her rags around the corners, making them squeaky clean, and when she turns to Tess her eye is bright with interest.

"How can you be sure this barge isn't real?"

[dog_eat_dog]

"Because we're changing it?" she replies, like this should be obvious. "Because over the past few days, people have started acting differently?"

She supposes that on the other side, it might look like the start of something rather than what is ideally the end of it, but...

Tess shakes her head, scrubbing into the grooves of some gear.

[14thcommander]

"So? This place changes regularly. It changes during every flood. People behave differently when we experience breaches. None of that is outstanding for the barge."

[dog_eat_dog]

"Sure, but I have an idea of what you're actually like," she replies. "But you don't have any idea who I am."

Tess is pretty sure she'll go through a whole roll of this paper towel by the end of it.

[14thcommander]

"What am I actually like?"

Hange seems kind of amused, but she often does. She's going along with it though.

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess laughs a little.

"You're a hell of a lot more enthusiastic than this," she says. "Louder. Chattier. Passionate."

[14thcommander]

Hange remembers being that person - someone who's in the past now. An old self.

"What I know of you is you're the shiny idealist type. Not exactly popular with the warden crew here. Invested in your beliefs."

[dog_eat_dog]

"Fucking annoying, isn't it?" she remarks. "Fortunately for you all... I don't actually believe in anything but surviving."

[14thcommander]

"I respected her drive."

Hange shrugs. The goo is almost wiped away now. "How are you sure the person you are now isn't the construct?"