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

[mothmansplaining]

[Ford is going to sit here fuming until she's done laughing, because he still hates this inaccuracy very much.]

[14thcommander]

Hahaha...

[Okay, she trails off.]

It’s all made up anyhow.

[mothmansplaining]

Apparently so. When you're a group of insanely powerful extraplanar beings who can grant any wish you can imagine, I suppose you can call your officers whatever you want.

[if you want to be WRONG.]

[14thcommander]

[Doing it wrong is just inventing the new right way sometimes!]

Kick Betelgeuse out if he's too intolerable of a houseguest. He won't like it, but it's your quarters and you should feel comfortable and safe there and have privacy.

I think some of the people on this ship have done wrong by him, but he certainly does his part to instigate.

[mothmansplaining]

Oh, don't worry about that.

If he wants to stay in my house, then he has to behave. If it gets really bad, I'll kick him out and pretend he isn't there.

With demons like him, sometimes that's the only threat that works!

[14thcommander]

Hmmhmhm. [Just a lil swallowed chuckle.] Well, good. Thanks for being kind to him in spite of the inconvenience.

[mothmansplaining]

Hange, I've seen a lot of strange things in my time, and I've made the kinds of mistakes that people don't usually come back from. I've been given more second chances than I'll ever deserve.

You're never too old to change. Even if you're a trillion-year-old demon! I'm not going to trust him carelessly, but I'm willing to give him a chance.

....with precautions in place, of course. Do you know my coat is magic-proof? I also bleed helium.

[Ford why are you saying that so cheerfully.]

[14thcommander]

[She is totally distracted by that last point.]

How are you alive then?

[She's reaching out to poke him. Hmm. Feels solid. Doesn't feel like he's full of gas. Hmmm.]

[mothmansplaining]

Oh, it's still normal blood while it's in my body. But, as soon as it breaks contact, presto! Lighter-than-air gas. Impossible to use for blood-magic rituals.

The magic comes from an alchemical sigil I put on my socks. I've got another for ammonia, but that one's less practical, except for when I'm out of cleaning solution.

[14thcommander]

I wanna see the sigil.

[please. PLEASE show her the sigil.]

[mothmansplaining]

Well, okay, but I've had these boots on all day, so...don't say I didn't warn you.

[Ford pulls the left boot off. He crosses his ankle over his knee with a huff so that Hange can see: the bottom of the sock, which has been mended at the heel, has a complex symbol drawn onto the bottom in permanent marker. There are alchemical symbols for the components of blood and for helium, mathematical equations, and all kinds of esoteric nonsense.]

[14thcommander]

[Hange gazes upon this and says the first thing that comes to mind.]

That seems like something you should have tattooed on. If someone peels off your socks won't they be able to get your blood?

[mothmansplaining]

Only if they know it's there.

[A jovial and conspiratorial wink.]

Hence the bottom of the sock! If I got it tattooed, I'd be unable to change it. I might need my own blood for something in the future! And besides, an unlimited ammonia supply is darned useful, especially when you're an inmate and can't get at the cleaning chemicals in the maintenance closet.

[Also, he'd been helping to feed Tesla at the time, purely as a friend, you understand, and that shit needed to be removable.]

[14thcommander]

[Hange nods, because all of this is totally reasonable and sensible, the kind of thing any person who could prepare themselves with magic to deal with any kind of situation would do.]

If the basic structure is similar you could tattoo that and then mark it on... I suppose that'd be more time-consuming than socks, though...

[mothmansplaining]

I suppose an incomplete formula might be feasible. But then I'd need a marker that wouldn't rub off halfway through the day but wasn't too permanent to wash off in a hurry.

[14thcommander]

Wipe down with alcohol. A rag and a flask.

[mothmansplaining]

....well, I do have that.

[He has a lot of pockets in this coat. This baby can fit so many survival supplies. He thinks it over.]

I would have to redo it every time I came back from the dead. Which I'm sure I could find someone in a port to do, but those only happen every few months. You don't happen to know anyone on the Barge who does them, do you?

[14thcommander]

Off the top of my head, no I don't.

Is that something that happens to you often?

[mothmansplaining]

Not particularly. But you never know when it will! I've died several times since coming here for one reason or another, so I have to take it into consideration.

[14thcommander]

You know, [Hange snaps her fingers,] that brings to mind, I spoke to a man, Fives, early on when I arrived here. He told me that he left the barge to "set" his tattoos, that then they wouldn't disappear if he died. You could do the same.

[mothmansplaining]

Would it work on any world, or does it have to be my own?

[There's heaviness to how he says that. If it has to be Ford's own world in order for his death-toll-reset-state to update, then he's out of luck.]

[14thcommander]

That, he didn't say, which leads me to believe it should work regardless of what world you go to... it seems more likely he'd specify if it had to be his own.

[mothmansplaining]

I'll ask him, then. If any world will do, then this just might work.

[14thcommander]

[Hange nods, turning to stare out at the ocean again.]

It sounds like you've been through a lot here. [And in your life in general.]

[mothmansplaining]

[Ford breathes out a long sigh.

He wants to trust Hange, to open up to her about everything that's happened -- the deaths, Bill being here, the fear of Bill escaping, the fear of never seeing his family again, the real knowledge that something in him is broken and he'll never understand others easily, the desire to help people here who are hurting but not knowing how to do it equitably, and Bill...Bill using him again, and Ford missing him anyway like a damned fool.

But complaining is showing weakness. It implies Ford can't handle this, and he wants to show he can. He's fine, he's been through plenty of terrible things before, and he doesn't have to tell them to everyone he meets.]

If I could, I'd leave in an instant. But it's still my best chance to find my family and bring them somewhere with a future.

And there's the other inmates. It'd make me a real jerk to give up on trying to make the place better as soon as I didn't have to deal with it. The things I hated about being an inmate didn't go away just because the Admiral decided I was safe enough to bring back to life.