milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Repairs had taken priority, but she's finished as much as she can without mobile i.e.
'softperson' assistance. She can turn her attention to other projects.
Helva doesn't sleep. She's working while keeping an eye on the perimeter. So, there's an area of illumination surrounding the XH-834, though there's no one in sight or scent. Go close enough, and you may hear what sound like voices coming from within.
Busy, between one thing and another. It's a way to pass the time, and to avoid thinking about certain things.

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((OOC: Only on late between shifts- hopefully its ok to tag for a slowtime? If not, I'll hopefully catch Helga next time. ^_^))

Hopefully, it had been time enough, though Wellard would not be the first to know how long was long enough to let someone grieve. He did say he would check on Helva, however-

So, he is carefully approaching the space ship, with plans to knock on the door he entered.

It's been some days, and while Helva will always miss Niall, she has had enough time to get past the worst. Part of being functionally immortal was acknowledging the simple, ugly fact that there was a distinct likelihood of outliving loved ones.

She's kept busy, and not let herself sink into brooding, or solitude.

Wellard's approach is noticed, and she smiles to herself, waiting for him to reach the door.

... And yes, the door will be knocked upon. Old habits and all that, and if there is any sort of protocol for requesting permission to board star ships, Wellard does not know it.

No different than the protocol to request to board any ship, one thinks, and Helva's not one to stand on ceremony.
The door slides open at his knock. "Wellard? Hello! Do come in, certainly. It's much too cold to stand out there."

That does surprise him, but after a moment (and a deep breath), Wellard does enter, looking around.

"Ah- thank you, Miss Helva."

He is still trying to figure out the hologram and what it implies- so it may be obvious he is trying to figure out where she is, while he slips off his coat.

"How have you been?" she asks quietly, thinking that yes, she owes him an explanation. "I've been hoping you'd come back, sooner or later."

And here Wellard was thinking that there was much more to explain to Helva about where she has found herself.

Well, it works on both sides.

"I've been well enough." He nods slowly. "I hope you've been well also?" Wellard smiles wryly, and shrugs.

"I did say I would check on you. Easy enough to do- I stay here at Milliways, afterall."

"I'm doing all right," quietly. "Thank you."

"Do you?" She 'sounds' as if she's a mite puzzled by that.

Wellard nods slowly, taking a deep breath. "Some do, yes. I believe I mentioned how people arrive here from all different times and worlds?"

"Yes. I've met two others who were from further ahead than your year, though still before mine. I'd thought though that people were usually free to leave?"

"Not always." He smiles faintly, though wryly.

"Sometimes people arrive here, and aren't allowed to leave. The term for it is Bound, and it works several different ways, I've been told. Often, even if you are Bound, you can still go with other people, to where they're from, if they're not."

"You're 'Bound', I take it?" She sounds thoughtful. "Does it make a difference to visiting elsewhere, if the other person's from a time ahead of yours? Or even earlier?"

"Sometimes, but not always." Wellard bites his lip. With Niall dying, he had not wanted to mention this, but it was part and parcel of Milliways.

"Ah... People sometimes arrive here after they die, Miss Helva." Quietly. "For the most part, they are alive, and while here, there is little difference between those who are dead and those who are not. However, for the most part, they cannot stay away from Milliways too long."

"...

He is quiet for a long moment, before Wellard smiles faintly.

"Milliways was better than what I thought would have been my destination, when I first arrived here. Now, I do not think that quite would have been the case, but I am happy here."

He looks up then, carefully. "...How do you mean, different?"

"I wasn't sure how...you'd react, earlier. I didn't want to lie, but I've had people think of me as other-than-human, and not in any good sense. Lesser."

She pauses. "I was born a little less than sixty years ago, though I age very slowly. But the main thing is more drastic than that.

When I was born, I suffered from a number of congenital illnesses. I wouldn't have lived out a year, normally, and if I did, I would have been crippled and blind. The doctors from my world couldn't cure me. But what they could do is offer me another way to see and hear, and in some ways, move." She pauses to see how he reacts to what she's said so far.

Hurrah for Milliways. Wellard may not understand the exact details in what Helva is saying, but he can pick out the context, and figure out at least the main, important gist of the subject. He nods slowly, listening.

"... Is that why you're an... illusion, then?" Then he smiles wryly.

"One of my best friends here is a griffin, Miss Helva. She is certainly not human, but I do not think any less of her as a person. There are many people here who are different, but in some ways it does not matter."

"People find it too unsettling not to be able to see me, often. So this was a
...compromise. My body is here, but...heh. Have you ever heard the term 'suspended animation'? If not, well, think of it as a kind of unending sleep, set away somewhere safe. The ship acts as 'me', my hands and eyes for what I need to do.
I was linked to it very young, to act as its' mind. There's more than one ship like that, where I'm from, called 'brainships'. "

Wellard shakes his head slowly at the mention of 'suspended animation'. His studies of 'future' technology have been more on the engineering side of things, not medical. However, he can puzzle out enough of this in ways he can understand... somewhat.

"...So its a bit like a dream, for you? But more so? With the ship being you-" He cuts off, and glances around the interior of the ship.

Ahha.

"Essentially, yes. I can't remember a time when there was anything else," she admits softly.

There is a lot of details in this that Wellard cannot quite understand. However, there is an answer to one question in particular that he will-

And that would be the important one, then.

"... You're alright, then? Its... helpful, and good for you?"

The question surprises her, but she smiles softly and answers without hesitation. "Yes.
I have a life that's better than I could have expected, by far. The stars' freedom, and a chance to see for myself. Nor are we as alone as this might make it sound."

That was the important question, and that was the sort of answer Wellard understood- and the answer that mattered. He takes a deep breath, then nods, smiling faintly.

"Very well then- that is mostly the part that I would need to know then."

Helva's opinion of Wellard has gone up several notches with that question.
"You've a good heart, sir," quietly. "Thank you for your concern.
Mostly, hm? Is there something else I can answer for you?"

Wellard blinks, and then shrugs after a long moment. "There's probably a great deal of things I would have to learn long before I could understand most of what you've been talking about." He smiles sheepishly. "Though most of what I have been learning about here is to do with engines, for ships, automobiles and aeroplanes. Not medicine."

Aha!
"Ships or aeroplanes...? Building them, do you mean, or simply the science behind them?"

"The engines for the automobiles and aeroplanes, and enough science to understand it- though its been easy enough so far."

Though, Wellard has only gotten past steam engines, and to very basic petroleum ones.

"The ship I'm building is a sailing one, without an engine." He grins, though. "But it will fly."

"Oh. Is 'she' almost ready to fly?" She's unsurprised. "You're not one to want to be landlocked, either?"

"Oh- no." He shakes his head. "Not yet, and not for a while. I started working on the hull, but then my friend Captain Sparrow arrived, with the Pearl, and she needed a lot of repair work done. That took up most of the good weather last year. We're almost done- when spring gets here properly, we'll finish up, and I'll get back to work on my ship."

Wellard chuckles quietly. "No- at least not when I started hearing about how it was possible to get up into the air."

"It is," a pause. "If you ever wish, too, I could take you on a flight from here sometime."

There is much blinking as Wellard processes this.

"... but the stars outside here... aren't exact. The area around the lake was made to look like Scotland, but whoever did it, didn't know the stars well. I'm not sure what's past there, once you get high enough. But you did arrive here that way, didn't you?"

"I think that we must have somehow found an area of space that holds something like the doors most people use to get here to Milliways. We were
out, well away from any planets, and then the stars I was using for navigation shifted on me." She sounds faintly grumpy about that. " I can't get too clear a reading of the ones above here yet," she concedes, " But I remember the route I took. Retracing it should be possible."

"A trackless road, with only the stars to guide you." A bit of a wry smile.

"Considering how everyone else arrives, I'd guess larger doorways for ships and whatnot would be logical." Wellard bites his lip, thinking.

"How would you find it, then?"

"I have the exact path I took in my memory, as clearly as most people would know, oh, their own names or their best friend's voice.
Mile by mile, or even inch by inch if I really had to," matter of factly. "I could simply lift off and reverse course, if it came to that. Even on autopilot. Assuming whatever 'door' I came past hasn't moved, home's still on the other side."

"That would come in handy, for exploring and going places you didn't know." He nods thoughtfully.

"Where is home for you?"

"I was born on Earth," she answers slowly, "haven't been back in a long time. Home to me is more a...a way of being, than a place. Friends, family, having a purpose that I follow. We go where we're needed or welcome."

"Sounds rather like being on board ship." Wellard smiles faintly. "Traveling about all over, until the closest thing you had of 'home' was where the ship was at the time." He shrugs a bit, biting his lip as he thinks for a moment.

"Particularly if that was all you really had."

"Yes. I've traveled quite a ways from Earth since this ship was commissioned. I had to repay my guardians for their care, but once that was done, I could please myself within reason, as to where I went.

"What about you, Henry? Do you have a crew or family here?" she asks gently. She hopes it's not too personal a question, but that last remark of his brought up echoes of the past.

A faint smile, and Wellard nods. "Mr Kennedy is here- he was fourth leftenant on board the Renown with me. He- he's a good man, and did his best to help me there, and he's helped me here a great deal as well."

"No one else from the Renown as ever arrived, and..." He shrugs. "Given the situation with how Mr Kennedy and I arrived, it may be for the best."

Wellard bites his lip, thinking.

"It would be... rather odd, to see any of my family here." Softly.

"I should like to meet him sometime," and of course she will, but that she can't know yet.
"And the offer of a short or longer flight's always open, friend. I hope I can see your ship take to the air, too."

"He's here at Milliways- and the chief of Security, so he's around and easily found, if needed." Or so Helva will find out for herself.

Wellard blinks, and smiles slowly.

"... I do think I would like that, if you are able, Miss Helva."

"Then consider it a promise, whenever you'd like."

((Oh, yes. *snugz!* Lovely thread- Helva is wonderful.))

(ooc

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