How many people do you think would consent to this?

[they're all gross bugs, unfortunately, no butterflies or moths here. resilient insects only.]

Got the procedure when I was about 14, if that tells you anything about how Corporations back home operate.

[ looks at his own canon and the weird splicing gag they did once, and the time they were all cicadas ruining elementary schoolers' love confessions... ]

Y-yeah, that's pretty messed up. Did they tell you it was going to be something else?

Didn't say anything about it until after it was finished. I didn't know I was getting it.

[a halfhearted shrug, one-shouldered. that's still expecting too much of them.]

That... definitely seems like something you should have been able to sue them over in any other world...

...Do you actually want to go back there when this is done?

Well, it's not about wanting to, or not.

[otherwise, he might have a different answer.]

Rodya and I have a contract to see through with our employer.

Can't you just break it if you're in a completely different world, though? I mean, what are they going to do?

Hunt us down.

...contracts in the City aren't the kind you pay a fine to get out of, if they're overseen right. They're the, uh. 'Stick to it or die' kind.

They can really do that across dimensions? And in space??

Wouldn't put it past 'em. I mean, I don't know for sure, but...

Well, if they could manage it, they just might put the effort in.

Yikes... How—

[ oh, back to the void. cw for much more cartoonish body horror and visible organs in this memory (14:25 - 22:30), which is... a sharp tonal contrast to the conversation they were in the middle of. ]

...I. Okay. Anyway.