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60

For the people working the breakfast shift, I apologize for the mess. I wasn't myself during that flood for a lot longer than I wanted, but I just cleaned up the last of it. If there's anything missing or broken that I didn't get to, let me know and I'll take care of it, okay?

Major? We should talk. When you're ready. I'll be in my cabin.

[Private to Rube]

You all right?

[Private to Ralphie]

Care for a drink?

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You probably fared better than I did.

Oh, definitely. I'm not certain he intended to kill me until the very end, though.

I suppose that makes you a better fighter than me. [He totally doesn't sound happy about that. Getting soundly beaten is a pretty demoralising experience, a total threat to his manliness] Why was he trying to kill you?

I was simply the only family he had left. [She glances at him.] But I'd agree you could probably brush up on your brawling. [She looks down at her hands.] And he was going to kill me because he knew he couldn't make me go with him. I just got him first.

Honestly, I was never much of a fighter. I spent a great deal of time at a desk or... directing others. [He shrugs] But I never lost quite as many fights until I came here.

[He thinks]

Hm. It must have been difficult for you, as he was still family. I'm sorry.

He killed my father. [She looks at him again.] I'd kill him again if I had the chance.

Oh. That's very... Shakespearean. [Well, that was a stupid thing to say. West ducks his head a little] Sorry. That was inappropriate.

[Rather than prove her ignorance by asking him what he means, she nods.] He was all I knew, and the only in I had to becoming captain of the Morning Star. [A frown.] Dawg wasn't lying when he said my crew didn't trust me. The helm would have gone to someone else when he died, but he insisted I take it, and he sent me on this quest for buried treasure. I didn't want to tie myself to a ship before then.

I see. That all sounds a bit epic.

I don't think there's a single person on this ship that doesn't have a life behind them that sounds a "bit epic", Major.

[He shakes his head] Mine wasn't. It was very normal, in fact. [It seems all of this talking has distracted him from how angry he was, as West appears relaxed around Morgan for the first time in ages]

I think the same about mine, as will just about anyone else, if for some reason bizarre turns in reality haven't become a common occurrence for them prior to coming here.

[She turns in the chair and curls her feet up onto the seat with her so that she's settled in it sideways and able to look up at him at will.]

I mean -- some people have come here and said they know people here from stories, right? Didn't you say you knew Jacen and Han from a story?

Not Jacen, no. At least, he was never in anything I saw. But Han Solo was from a film.

Someday you and I might meet people who think we're just stories too.

[He scoffs]

That's unlikely. I wouldn't want to hear about any story starring myself.

I don't think I would, either. [She shrugs.] Stories end, and I don't think mine or yours is finished yet.

No, I'm quite certain mine was finished when my face was torn to shreds.

[She realizes there's no overly sensitive way to put this, and it's not likely to go well that she's defending the purpose of this place, again.] Then would you be here?

My being here has nothing to do with a 'story'.

Oh, calm down. You know that's not what I'm suggesting at all.

Then what were you suggesting?

Nothing. If you were really done, then, you wouldn't be here now. That would have been the end.

I see. [He doesn't quite buy it]

Well -- no one can really be sure of that. [She frowns.] We get glimpses sometimes of what other fates there are. Rube said he worked pretty close to it before he came here, but even then they were never assured of what really came after -- just that there was something.

Well, I hope whatever it is is better than this.

60

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