[She's talking. And he's listening, but mostly he's looking, searching, finding out for himself. Engrossed in the book in the seconds it's taken him to take it from her, flipping pages steadily and reverently while she explains. (They're images. Bright and crisp and captured stills of the things Armin had taught him to dream about. Of things he hadn't begun to think were possible, even with the heretic books of his childhood. It's easy to imagine it as impossibly vast and alien and untouchable even from here. It's not their world, but there are familiar enough things trapped in the photographs to make you wonder if it could be.)
It monopolizes his attention so much that it takes him a few seconds too long to realize that Hange has finished and waiting for a response. A few seconds longer to collect himself enough to trust his voice.]
Thank you, ma'am. [And it's mostly steady but it still sounds a little thicker than usual. His throat works, he blinks hard a few times before raising his head from the pages.] For showing me.
[It is not an uncommon dream, in the Survey Corps, to wish for freedom. There are few who would be crazy enough to enlist in their ranks without a dream like that. And they haven't gotten there yet, even as far beyond the walls as they are, now. They're still fighting. And as reminders go...it's not such a bad one.]
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It monopolizes his attention so much that it takes him a few seconds too long to realize that Hange has finished and waiting for a response. A few seconds longer to collect himself enough to trust his voice.]
Thank you, ma'am. [And it's mostly steady but it still sounds a little thicker than usual. His throat works, he blinks hard a few times before raising his head from the pages.] For showing me.
[It is not an uncommon dream, in the Survey Corps, to wish for freedom. There are few who would be crazy enough to enlist in their ranks without a dream like that. And they haven't gotten there yet, even as far beyond the walls as they are, now. They're still fighting. And as reminders go...it's not such a bad one.]