"Ehhhh, a year and change, and 'couple months. Respectively."

"... But you said you were a child soldier."

"I don't remember there being a past tense when I said it."

"W--you're. Oh my god how old are you."

"Not much older than the worm kid looked! Heh. Surprise!!"

"...guess I'm not the only one who doesn't look their age here, huh?"

"Guess not!"

"I, you were, forcibly grown to adulthood and, oh hell was that a byproduct, how does your -- your regeneration. How does it work."

"Oh yeah sure I'll just look in my human experimental explanation packet that he hands out to all the girls and boys oh wait. Iunno. Something along the lines of cloning, I think, best explanation I got was that when I do the healing thing I'm, like, eating through lifespan or whatever."

Ah. That... would make sense, wouldn't it. "I wondered. So they haven't figured out how to give you access to the higher dimension, then?"

"You are asking the wrong person, man. I'd think that there's got to be some kind of dimensional shit going on with me because otherwise how do I make any goddamned sense, but I was not the end result he wanted."

"I suppose you wouldn't be. Your sense of smell is pretty good, though."

"It is! I'm also stronger than normal people and think I have better vision, too, so, you know. That's nice."

Yvette seems to be having a moment, her head is buried in her hands and she's just looking horrified.

"Tragic backstory, part two? You did want it to be broken up into chunks."

"What, yours? Right now???? No!!! No, not right now, I need another fucking minute holy shit!"

"I mean, I'm curious, and I didn't get the part one, soooooo..."

"It's mostly because it's, you know, connected." He gives Morgan a soulful look and leans forward to take both of her hands into his. "Our pasts are intertwined~"

She gasps, and clasps him back.

"Are you my real dad after all?"

"...probably more like uncle? If what's going on is what I think is going on then whatever they did to you was research based on my brother."

"Aw. Oh well. I guess I can call you uncle Zash. I'll have to think about it."

"Okay fine just. Yes. Go. Tragic backstory part two fine fine just. Augh!"

It is her turn to thonk her head down onto the table. She is so unhappy.

"...how about we sleep, first, and do more tragic backstorying tomorrow instead when we resume our drive to Terminal? You look kinda miserable."

"No, no, now it'll bug me, just. Just. Go, it's fine. The world is wide and horrible and I knew it was both but I did not know how much."

"Alright. Well, about 140 years and change ago, I was living with some scientists from another ship—mine wasn't one of the surviving ones—and I was... helping the cities get started. People were abusing their plants even worse than they do today, they were constantly terrified that they were going to die, and I was trying to teach them how to... not do that, I guess. Listen, some, to the needs of the plants, and use them sustainably."