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{nikola tesla}

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I suppose I might as well add my voice to this. For all those who might recognize it, or what it means if I say I'm still on the Barge.

[A pause, a shrug.]

I didn't think to have any music ready, so how about a toast? For the people who have been and gone.

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Is that place giving people things to toast, then?

Eh, mostly when people manage to leave. On purpose, instead of because the Admiral forgot them, or whatever it is.

Death's inky maw.

Did Helena ever come back?

I don't remember seeing her again, no.

I'll drink to that.

[ familiar enough voice here? ]

Helen.

[It's a single word, but one that very much speaks to relief and no small amount of having missed her besides. He holds the moment too, just long enough for it to sink in, and then he continues on.]

Did you miss me?

I'd wager that it's only been a day since I last saw you.

[ so. yes. but like hell is she admitting that in front of all of these people. ]

I suspect you might have missed the sound of my voice after so long apart.

[ does that mean she won't needle him? hell no. ]

[Well, that at least confirms something he's long suspected about how time flows between the Barge and the worlds it's connected to. Not that he's about to say anything of that, of course.]

Really, Helen? Time might be passing more quickly here, but I seem to recall other long stretches of time where we weren't speaking. Which, I should mention, I managed just fine.

[...He absolutely misses her, but isn't about to say so any more than she does.]

Mmmm...

[ she draws that out like she's thinking. ]

Is that before or after you got into serious trouble and had to beg me to get you out?

[ are they flirting?

....

they're flirting. ]

[Absolutely flirting, even if neither of them will admit it.]

Says the woman who actually kept the last remaining autotype.

[He's not, directly, denying that he has needed help from time to time. But if he's guilty of getting into trouble, she's just as guilty of being sentimental enough to actually be willing to help when he does.]

Because I knew you would need to use it. And it turns out, I was right.

[ it's absolutely not sentimentality. not at all. ]

C'mon Helen. Don't tell me it wasn't at least a little bit out of sentiment.

[He's not complaining about it having been, mind. Much less because he had needed it. But he's pretty sure that hadn't been all of it, either.]

[ they may be romantically entwined now, but she still doesn't like being coerced. even if he is right. ]

And if I don't? If I simply leave you to your imagination?

[ she's as much of a pest as he is. ]

Then I suppose I'll just have to imagine it.

[And he might be willing to imagine wrong, too, though he's not about to use that as a bargaining chip. Or not one he's about to verbalize, at any rate - he knows the truth just as well as she does, even if he's more than willing to imply otherwise.]

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