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[doihavetoexplainmath]

[There's no greeting or anything, just some changing and scraping sounds and a shot of a shadowy, faintly purple ceiling, and it cuts off four seconds later.]

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[thebubblyone]

"I think about ten years," Hilda volunteers, and takes a tiny pie for herself. "Do you really want to be here that long?"

[doihavetoexplainmath]

"Why would I want to leave?" She's been working on good lying, but that's an active choice. All you have to do is say whatever you want the other person to think. Slightly more subtle forms of deception like not blurting out pretty much exactly the thing you don't want getting around are different.

Also she's told several other inmates as much. And Gortys. And maybe some other warden, she doesn't know.

[thebubblyone]

She looks unfazed.

"Why would you want to stay?"

[doihavetoexplainmath]

"Time is completely irrelevant, information's available from a potentially unlimited number of worlds, serious injury and death aren't a problem..." She ticks off her points on locks of hair shaped into fingers.

[thebubblyone]

"But if nothing's a problem, then nothing matters," Hilda points out mildly. "You can spend centuries gathering information, but as long as you're stuck here there's not much you can do with it, is there?"

[doihavetoexplainmath]

The next look Hilda gets isn't sulky. It's totally uncomprehending. "Information matters."

[thebubblyone]

"Information just for the sake of it?" Hilda wonders. "Information you just gather up and then don't do anything with?"

[doihavetoexplainmath]

Right, people are generally terrible, gotta remember that. "I've tried just researching things other people think are useful. It's boring and restrictive."

[thebubblyone]

"Nobody's saying you should do anything you don't find interesting," she says mildly. "But if you find it useful, wouldn't you rather be able to put it to use? Prove that other people should be paying attention?"

[doihavetoexplainmath]

"Other people are on their own." Bitterness from a few directions there, but all beneath the surface Entrapta's looking at, which consists pretty much entirely of righteous indignation.

[thebubblyone]

Hilda goes to put the kettle on.

"Is that how you're feeling too, Entrapta?"

[doihavetoexplainmath]

The transition is lost on her. "Huh?"

[thebubblyone]

"Like you're on your own," she clarifies, quietly.

[doihavetoexplainmath]

"All evidence suggests," she says airily. It's not a put-on. The power of friendship is just not a big motivator.

[thebubblyone]

"And that's never bothered you?" Hilda wonders, nudging gently.

[doihavetoexplainmath]

"Pros and cons. Lab partners have their advantages." It's not like she's planning on living entirely alone forever. She works fine with people. On a temporary, utilitarian basis. "On balance, I prefer being a free agent."

[thebubblyone]

"But you know that being a free agent and having people to go to when you need them aren't...mutually exclusive, don't you?"

[doihavetoexplainmath]

"Having people, sure, these things happen. Needing them is pretty reliably a bad idea." That makes a complete mess of everyone who tries it.

[thebubblyone]

Hilda just sits with that for a few moments.

"Do you like having friends, Entrapta? Not need or want or anything of that variety - do you like having them?"

[doihavetoexplainmath]

She isn't anti-friendship at all. She just recognizes that there are issues, and you ought to be careful about these things. "Sure, I just know better than to include them in my plans in any significant capacity."

[thebubblyone]

A quiet hum of assent. "What counts as 'significant'?"

[doihavetoexplainmath]

She does think about it. She fully intends to be sulky and uncooperative, but she really can't resist expounding on her ideas. "Outcomes that depend on their cooperation."

[thebubblyone]

Okay. Maybe this can be expanded on, eventually?

"Outcomes such as...?"

[doihavetoexplainmath]

"Long term projects, physical safety. Individual experiments are usually alright, that's more short term." What other outcomes are there?

[thebubblyone]

"What about just...enjoying yourself with them?"

Haha that can't be measured objectively, Hilda, don't be silly.