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"Halloooooo!" Hange calls into the back. The front of the stables has a wood stove, tack available for use, bins of feed and apples. Hange tucks the basket she brought along over one arm and opens the bin to grab a few of these slightly wrinkly and old fruits in one hand.

"Hey," she says, giving Hange a quick glance before turning her attention back to the horse. It had shown some interest when she'd first arrived, but after determining that a treat was not forthcoming, had turned back to munching on the hay already in its stall.

"You know-- I've ridden motorcycles, and I'm pretty good with, like, dogs. And rabbits. But I have never thought, 'Hey, you know what I wanna do today? Get on the back of a living animal and ride it'."

There is no picnic basket now; Hange left it up front, and joins Tiffany with a bounty of apples that don't look super appetizing. She greets the horse with an affectionate coo and lifts up an apple: see!

"We love horses," she explains, as the big beast snuffles the apple out of her hand. "They're the scouts' most loyal friends. Our horses ride into battle with us, return to us when we call for them, and give their lives in the course of their duty, just like us."

This should be spoken in the past tense but fighting titans out on the field sometimes feels like the most vibrant and real part of her life.

"If you win their loyalty, it's hard to find a better friend."

Edited 2020-09-08 00:56 (UTC)

"There was a breach where I used to ride wild mustangs," she stretches out a tentative hand, patting the horse's nose when it's in reach. "But a lot of the time that was just seeing how long I could stay on before I got bucked off."

Hange nods, and offers Tiffany an apple, taking care to keep it out of the horse's reach.

"Palm flat. This guy won't bite you on purpose, but you don't want your finger getting caught when he goes for that anyway."

She takes a peek at Hange's hand, copies her, and holds the apple out.

"Like that?"

She loses no fingers, so apparently yes.

"Good! Keep em' going." She hands Tiffany another apple. "A wild horse... I've never ridden one. These guys are specially bred. A scout horse costs more money than a lot of civilians might ever see in their lives. But they're a superior breed, and easy to get along with. We're gonna sweeten the relationship up by making some good things come from you!"

"I don't know, this apple doesn't look that good." But the horse seems to like it, and she smiles a little, going to pat its velvety nose again.

"So how come you rode horses instead of-- I don't know, tanks?"

"Heh. Well, I first saw a car when I was about thirty-seven - tanks were far beyond us for most of my life. Innovation was suppressed for a long time... besides, I still prefer a horse. A tank won't follow you on its own when you have to leave it and engage a titan."

Another apple. Three will be enough, Hange judges.

"Why are they called titans?" she asks, holding the second apple out in the same way. Chomp.

"Because... they are titanic!"

Hange giggles at her own joke, and strokes the softly-furred cheek available to her since the horse's head hangs over the lower gate now.

"... I'm gonna guess you don't mean like the ship." She knows what a titan is. She knows what the Titanic was. She has not heard titanic used as an adjective before, but--

"Very big?"

-- maybe she can guess!

"Is there a ship? Anyway, you are correct!"

"There was a ship called the Titanic. It was pretty famous because it sank, and-- actually, I'm not sure why it was more famous than all the other ships that've sunk, but they made a movie about it." Another possibility for an upcoming movie night, maybe? Definitely. "And then the titans were gods who were overthrown and sent to Tartarus."

"A ship famous for sinking? Uh, wow. I guess things can be famous for being so terrible! Why not."

Very odd.

"Anyway - come back up front, I'll show you your tack. Uh, it's a lesson all its own, and if you're serious about learning to ride you should give it due time, but today I'll keep that part light and we'll focus on the fun stuff."

"I don't know how serious I am yet. I haven't thought much about it before." But she follows, watching along with interest.

"Yeah! So there's no point in making it dull, you know? I'll refrain from making you name the pieces of your bridle, and we'll do the stuff that's cool!"

Hange might not ever make her recite the pieces of the bridle from memory ever, but she snorts with laughter at the joke anyway.

"You sound like my kind of teacher. Are we gonna ride with saddles, too?"

"Blankets and saddles! Bridle, blanket, saddle. That's your fundamental tack."

Hange leads Tiffany up front and then to a storage room to the side. It smells like leather and oil, and of course it's full of tack: a wall with bridles strung all over, blankets folded on shelves, many many saddles. Hange squints at Tiffany: "Alright, grab a blanket you like, as for the saddle... we'll start you on thirty-five centimetres. Let me know if it's comfortable for you, we can change the sizing if not."

She's just going to pretend she knows what that means! Grabbing a blanket as instructed, she hangs as Hange picks out the appropriate saddle.

"You sure this is gonna be relaxing for you, if you're gonna have to be watching to make sure I don't fall on my ass the entire time?"

"Was this supposed to be relaxing for me?"

That totally got lost in there.

"I'll have to keep an eye on you, but... I like sharing things I enjoy! We can relax afterward!"

"Well, yeah, that's why I asked you what you did to relax or distract yourself. I just got the feeling that's the kind of thing you need right now."

Oh... okay. Hange pushes her hair back from her forehead.

"This is fun for me! I like sharing things I like with people. We can kick back afterward. It's really not a problem."

That's fine with her if it's fine with Hange, so she turns back towards the stalls, blanket still in hand.

"What do you do to relax, anyway?"

"I knit, I watch movies, I walk the ship, I swim, I visit places in the Enclosure, I prep clay for the art room, I paint, I'm in a band with Betelgeuse and Bill and we're on a break now but hopefully we'll practice again in the future..."

Hange is an active person. She picks a lead rope off the wall and then, managing saddle, bridle, and rope, follows Tiffany.

"Anyway - we're gonna have you make nice and socialize with the horse first! I'll tell you what to do. For starters, when we're in the paddock, you should kind of ignore them..."

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idk what i did with quotation marks up there lol... prose?

lmao i assumed you were having her quote what she wanted Tiffany to say!

... oh you're right that is what i did where is my brain today

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