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Did anyone else find parts of our recent visit to the frozen wastelands a little too close to something that happened back home?

[private to Hickey]

How familiar are you with how this is supposed to work?

[spam]

[Now that things have mostly settled down after the recent port, Tesla has also settled into his usual routine. He takes his regular shifts at the bar, turns up to browse through various shelves at the library, and every now and again can be found up on the deck, watching the stars go by.]

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Considering that you're the first warden I've gotten, let's go into this with the assumption that I've got no bloody clue how this works.

Hunh. Well, I suppose everyone has to have a first.

[He might not have expected to need to explain the entirety of the system - or at least, the most immediately relevant parts of it - but that doesn't mean that he can't.]

The basic explanation is that it's my responsibility to keep an eye on you for the month. And if there's anything you think you particularly need, I - or whichever other warden you might have - can make requests to the Admiral for you.

[ Anything you think you particularly need...Hickey makes a 'hmm' noise of thought before answering. ]

A knife. I had one, back home. A boat knife, not a kitchen knife. That's what I need. Something that I could use to defend myself should the situation arise. I almost died during that last port. If something like that were to happen again, I want a fighting chance at survival.

I'll ask. But I can't promise the Admiral will grant it.

[And if not, it's not like Tesla couldn't manage to come with something that would at least serve the same kind of purpose.]

Asking's good enough for me. If he doesn't grant it, that says as much about this place than if he does grant it.

Mmm.

[It's an agreement, for all that it might not necessarily sound it.]

If he doesn't I can probably manage something?

I'd appreciate that. [ And really, he would. ] Even in the Navy, a man had something to defend himself with. Most people favored a gun, but I have a soft spot for a good knife. You need something like that in the Arctic. After all, who knows what you'll find.

Though I suppose the Barge has more mystery and danger than the Arctic. After all, it was a few years back home before something tried to kill me.

Mmm.

[A nod.]

Knives are more versatile, anyway? Especially in that situation.

Right? [ The more they talk, the more it's obvious that Hickey really likes knives. ] My previous one had this bone handle. Absolutely great especially compared to all the guns. I could wield that thing up in the Arctic without having to worry about the skin on my fingers ripping off. Couldn't say the same about those Marines.

[The fondness for knives has very definitely been something that Tesla has noted, albeit with some amount of wariness. Not so much as to be particularly visible - not unless someone happens to be looking very closely - nor to make him feel a need to change the topic just yet, but enough for him to mark it as a potential concern, even if he isn't about to go back on his offer to ask the Admiral to provide a knife.

(He will end up keeping a closer watch on matters if the Admiral should happen to grant said request, mind. But that's nothing he means to bother Hickey with.)]

Wield, yes. But you're still losing some of the range you might have had with something else.

Edited 2021-08-08 07:49 (UTC)

Range isn't what matters. Accuracy is. Say there's a man with a knife and a man with a musket. Man with a musket shoots someone. Unless he gets them right in the heart or the head, he's got to reload. By the time he's finished with that, the man with a knife has already made his way over and stabbed his target multiple times.

Not all guns are going to take that long to reload? But generally speaking, yes. Unless it’s something you don't want to be that close to.

Course they take that long to reload, [ says Mr. 1840s. ] Pretty much all guns I've dealt with are single shot.

They used to all be that way, yes. But most modern guns are capable of carrying multiple rounds.

[ Well that's certainly interesting. ]

Do you have one of those modern guns on you? I don't want to use it, of course, I just want to see what it actually looks like.

They aren't exactly something I tend to gravitate to. But I think I might have one of Helen's around here somewhere?

[He says, as if he doesn't know exactly where it is.]

If you find it, let me know. I figure I might as well get as used to the future as quickly as I can.

[There's a moment or so of silence, broken only by the unmistakable sound of someone rummaging around for something, and then Tesla reappears with a gun in hand.]

Most of them will look something like this.

[ Hickey lets out a little 'hmm' as he looks at the gun. ]

Honestly, I'm a bit surprised it looks a lot like the guns I know. I thought it'd be different.

There's not a lot of change you can make to the basic concept? Not if you still want something that's still firing bullets.

Well yeah, but you're what, over a hundred years in my future? One gets big dreams and different ideas at that point.

People aren't interested in different. Just finding faster ways to try and kill one another.

[He... might be a little bitter, yes.]

Well you sound like you're talking from experience.

I've lived through multiple wars, a number of them well beyond the scope of any you'd be likely to know. So yes, I am.

You know it's rude to say something like that and then not give a man more information.

If you were looking for a purely historical accounting, the library here should have literature on World War I and World War II?

[Pause.]

And if you were looking for something more personal... how long do you have?

Mate, I'm dead. It's not like I've got anything else to do. I've got all the time in the world.

[There's a longer pause at that. Long enough that it might almost seem like he's about say no, and then:]

Fine. But we're doing it in person, so I can have maps on hand.

Name the time and place and I'll be there.

The library, in... call it an hour?

I'll see you then.

You've been to the Arctic, too?

Not that part. I was thinking about the "invisible pathogen that makes people into monsters" part.

Though I have been to a number of other places?

I see. I managed to avoid that danger until this port, at least.

That's something, I suppose.

Indeed. Has it happened often, to you?

Not often? But honestly, once was more than enough.

It certainly isn't an experience I'd call anything but terrible.

At least back home we knew why it was happening, and could work to stop it.

That would be better than being completely at a loss.

That does generally tend to be the case.

Indeed. Though you don't seem like the type to ever be at a loss.

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