(Untitled)

[two_natures]

The problem with the lab - one of them, anyway - is that it's often times extremely constricting. And as much as Hank sometimes wishes that he didn't have to take breaks, that he could devote most of his waking hours to research, he has to admit that staring at calculations for hours on end can lead to his becoming sloppy. Numbers get transposed,

Comments

[with_diamonds]

Given the number of people usually in and around the rec room, it takes Lucy a second to realize she's the one being spoken to, though it isn't any longer than that. It isn't like she's anything close to oblivious, just slightly distracted, meaning to look for something to read herself with a free afternoon on her hands. Glancing at the title of the book, she nods, then smiles as she looks up to the person holding it. His face is a vaguely familiar one, she thinks, if not enough to place; after a while, the same could be said of just about everyone here, anyway.

"Yeah, I liked it," she says lightly, glad that it's at least something familiar. "Haven't read it in kind of a long time, but it's good. Heavy, but well-written."

[two_natures]

Hank turns the book over in his hands, looking at the cover again, and then at the reviews on the back of the dust jacket. It's obviously a reprint, printed long after 1962, even if the work itself was first released in that year.

"Thanks, I think I'll give it a shot," he replies, "I think this came out the same year I left home; I never got around to reading it."

He doesn't get into the multiverse theory behind the fact that it may not have been released during 1962 when he comes from.

[with_diamonds]

"Yeah?" Lucy asks, voice lilting with obvious interest, head tipping to the side. It's a silly little thing to pick up on, but she's spent so much time feeling out of place for the fact that she comes from so many people's pasts (though there are plenty too who come from earlier) that she can't not seize upon that bit of offered information. "It came out just a few years before I did. Showed up here, I mean."

[two_natures]

Most of the people Hank has become acquainted with on the island are from times technically in Hank's future; he's noticed that a great deal of them are from sometime around the turn of the century, actually.

"Really?" he asks, attempting to hide his excitement over the fact, "What year? That still seems so strange to ask."

[with_diamonds]

"It was '68 for me," Lucy answers, mouth pulled into a knowing smile, almost teasing as she added, "So we're practically neighbors. This came out in, what, '62? '63?" She'd been just too young at the time to read it, but had done so while in high school, before the world changed and left her without much free time for leisurely reading. Now, though, there's plenty of it. "And it does get less strange. A little."

[two_natures]

"Sixty-two," Hank helpfully supplies, and he wishes that he knew what part of the year it'd been published in, if only to know whether or not it's his own distractedness to blame or simply poor timing. Even now, he tries to find time for recreational reading, but he can't read everything.

"Do you know, I think you're the first person I've met here whose not from the turn of the century. Well, sort of. I'm Hank McCoy." He realizes at the last minute that they actually haven't been introduced, and extends a hand.

[with_diamonds]

"Lucy Carrigan," she replies, shaking the offered hand even as she starts to think about what happened between those years, what he might have heard about and what he might want to know. There's still more familiarity in the time than anything else, and when she knows full well what it's like to have most people come from forty-odd years in the future, she's grateful for it herself. It gets easier, but it's not always easy. "And yeah, I'm not surprised. You don't get that many from our decade around here." Pausing, she asks, "You haven't been here long, have you?"

[two_natures]

"Just coming up on six months," Hank replies, and while it feels like a long time, comparatively speaking, he's still relatively new to the island. There are some people who have been around for five years.

"I... I don't really get out much, I guess." he adds.

[with_diamonds]

Lucy tries, for a moment, to think about what she was doing after six months on the island, but it's so long ago now, so much of that time all blended together, that she can't remember it. She supposes it doesn't matter, anyway. So much has changed since then that she doesn't feel remotely the same anyway.

"It happens," she says, one shoulder lifting in a shrug. "What have you been doing instead? If you don't mind me asking."

[two_natures]

"Research, mostly," he says, and he's well aware that he's over simplifying matters. But it's easier than saying that he spent his entire first month on the island attempting to locate genetic markers in his DNA to try and recreate a formula he nearly perfected in Westchester.

"You really only get the same few people in the lab, for the most part. It kind of makes it hard to get to know the locals."

[with_diamonds]

"I guess that would do it," Lucy replies, the thought logical enough to her, at least. The lab is one area on the island she has virtually no experience with - she's been by it, of course, knows the whole Compound like the back of her hand by now, but her skills lie elsewhere - but as far as she's seen, it's never been an overly crowded area. To spend a lot of time there would probably be limiting. "How's that been going?"

[two_natures]

"There's... still work to be done, unfortunately," Hank replies, though he knows it's an understatement. The work that needs to be done is completely unable to be done at all, since the island has seen to it that all of their genetic mutations are a thing of the past.

"This place doesn't necessarily make it easy. There's... a shocking lack of adequate equipment."

[with_diamonds]

"Mm, I would've gone with frustrating," Lucy says lightly, half-teasing, though it is true on both counts. It's just that hardly anything surprises her about this place anymore, especially when it comes to making life difficult. Things may have been fairly steady for her as of late, but that doesn't mean she isn't well aware of how quickly that can (and probably will) change. "It really doesn't, though. Make it easy. At all, with anything, ever."

[two_natures]

"How long have you been here, then? If- if you don't mind me asking," Hank asks, because it sounds like she's been around for quite some time. It's not as if someone would have to be around for more than six months to know how the island has a tendency to mess around with all of them, but the way Lucy speaks gives him the impression that she's something of an island veteran.

[with_diamonds]

"Oh, no, I don't mind at all," Lucy answers with an easy shake of her head, exhaling on a laugh. It's always a bit weird to bring up on its own, especially with someone relatively new, when she knows how many people are daunted by such big numbers. She has no reason not to tell, though; it isn't something that bothers her quite as much as it used to (at least, most of the time). "Just over four years. I showed up in October of what the calendar here said was 2007."

[two_natures]

Instantly, Hank tries to remember what he was doing four years ago. He hadn't even met the Professor yet, had no real idea that there were others like him. So much has happened since then that it seems almost like a distant memory.

"It seems like so much longer than it really is," Hank replies, and he wonders what it is about some people that makes they stay around longer than most; he's heard that some people barely last a month.