Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hanna picked up her baggie of carrots, remembered they were all gone, and set it back down. She dug back into her bag and found a sleeve of crackers instead. She peeled back the folded over plastic and took a bite out, chewing thoughtfully. "Easy for me, I love cats. I like an animal that doesn't need me constantly and that doesn't like everyone indiscriminately," she said. It had been a point of contention that her family never allowed her to have a cat of her own, but she had briefly lived with a roommate whose cat she regularly considered stealing away. It liked her better anyway.

"Can't wait for the written portion of the exam. I feel like it will involve a potentially existential question, open-ended." Hanna gestured to Taym with a cracker. "Hopefully something as deep as... why do hot dogs come in packages of 10, but hot dog buns are sold in packages of 8?" She tapped her chin mock-thoughtfully and then relaxed. "Hm, that was low-hanging fruit. Not my best."

Maybe it had something to do with sun exposure. She was usually cleverer than the hot dog question, in her own opinion. Though the Death trainee was sensing that Taym was more comfortable posing questions than answering them, it didn't stop Hanna from trying: "Are you the one who didn't turn into a cat on Valentine's Day? Or, whenever it was -- regardless, I was not conscious." Peyton had been the one to mention it, and Hanna thought the girl had mentioned Taym's name. Or maybe she was confused, who knew.

Hanna snorted... attractively? (No.) It faded into a chuckle. “I sort of hope I am one of the cats, honestly, if there are no horrific drawbacks. The idea of a safe, trippy experience sounds fascinating. Deus only seems to give me horrendously dangerous, damaging yet trippy experiences. But scout’s honor – if I am the Chosen One, I will try to identify you and show intense favoritism.” She held up three fingers, which she thought was the sign for ‘scouts honor’ but did it more like the salute from Hunger Games.

“How did you manage to tell them apart?”

Questions, she had them. Endlessly.

Hanna tried to imagine herself as a cat. She had certainly daydreamed it before, for fun. Perhaps some kind of tabby? Or just a tuxedo? Hopefully she might get the chance to find out in February, though that felt a lifetime away now. "Deus is a drug itself, complete with highs and lows. Sometimes you get to experience life as your favorite animal, and you know... the others." She squinted her eyes, imagining every possible horror and still not thinking of even a fraction of what Deus would surely bring her one day.

One food rocked gently back and forth, bumping sole against sole with a rubbery squeak. "I don't miss much about before Deus, not really, but I do miss some of the mundane s**t like, I don't know, going to see a movie. Probably a shitty movie, maybe a shitty date, dry popcorn, sticky floors, the same ten songs looped on repeat before the previews start." Her thumb padded lightly against the edge of the blanket, eyes focused off on the horizon and the beach too littered with garbage to ever truly be a beach. "Not exactly an event worthy of coordinating multiple leaves if you want to go with company, not exactly the same alone either." She felt like she was admitting something, but not in a way that made her feel vulnerable.

"A small thing," she echoed. "Not worth trading this for, but still. Missable."

Hanna's fingers paused in their worrying of the blanket's edge at the flash of passion, positive or negative, whichever, that flashed out of Taym. Her eyes moved back to him. He certainly had the look of someone wrought. Hammerfalls from the life before, no doubt, and from this new one at Deus. They all bore dents, just in different places.

It was unclear to her whether Taym was expressing distaste at the fact that he had not in fact died at the end of the first month, or merely expressing his frustration when he realized what Deus truly was. "Normal adjacent," Hanna said. "Just hoping to reach that is probably healthy for most people." Her inflection made it clear she did not consider herself in that category. The only reason she was even a Hunter was because she was so terrified of being belittled to normal.

"It would make sense, establishing a few places. Even the military has that. I still don't imagine the Powers that Be forking over island real estate for something that does not have a dual-purpose." The mention of America brought another array of questions to her mind, but Hanna had enough sense not to ask. Rumors were rumors. "Perhaps a movie theater-slash-torture dungeon. Think of all the charming theme nights we could have: a slasher flick in one room, an actual slashing in the next." Her fingers twirled in the air before coming to rest against her thigh.

Hanna quirked a smile and nodded as Taym left. She watched the horizon for a moment, drew in a breath, and then picked up her book to continue from where she had left off. A decent day, all in all.