In the past Boimler might have been condescending. But...he's been learning. Gradually understanding the kind of grace and patience he should have. Not just as the commanding officer he's training to be but also as a person trying to be their best self.

Attention from commanding officers matters less and less. Trying to do good matters more.

Something about this place, so wildly different from his world, with people from wildly different worlds too, has been making him think about all the possibilities out there. The people, the different backgrounds they come from.

"You can just call me Boimler." He has no idea if Dan ever caught his name.

He starts drawing circles on the tablecloth with marker.

"Nobody knows things from birth. In my dimension and the time I come from, our education is great so we learn about this early. But there were also times in humanity's history it wasn't." He shrugs a shoulder. "If I'd been born at a different time, my education might have been only okay, or I might not have gotten one at all, especially during all the world wars that happened before humanity got it together."

He looks at him again. "It's all just circumstance, right?"

Besides, maybe there were other things that were more important for Dan to learn instead. These wildly different worlds probably have wildly different problems.