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[deuceoftears]

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[littletonoidea]

"Oh." It's weird how much that means to hear out loud. "Neat."

He's sure Jedao will notice, but he doesn't care as he taps away a quick two-letter Morse code with his foot while they gear up.

TU. Thank you.

And Eiffel is careful to grab a whole heap of torches, tucked into his many overall pockets and more shoved into the duffel he's grabbed so they can't possibly lose track in the dark when they do finally depart the ship.

[deuceoftears]

One of the flashlights flickers a little as Eiffel fumbles it.

C8

Jedao does notice, but he also doesn't know morse code. Kel drum code works on the same principle, but of course the cipher is totally different.

"Will you teach me? What you're using?"

[littletonoidea]

He looks at Jedao in a moment of surprise.

"Morse? Sure. It's not exactly standard radio code, but I still remember my ABCs. You'd get the hang of it pretty fast." He bounces his flashlight in his loose grip, watching the light beam wiggle in the dusty air. "I think a few people on the Barge remember it, actually, I know B does, so probably Steve too."

[deuceoftears]

"It looked a little like drum code, but it'd be good to know things people actually use here. You never know when something like that will come in handy," Jedao points out.

[littletonoidea]

"Yeah, I can see that." He tosses his light from one hand to the other, and grips it firmly in his left as he thumbs it off. "Alright, so, might as well start with the most important one. International human distress signal - SOS."

And he'll turn flick the torch on and off to demonstrate - three short, three long, three short. And he'll repeat it, this time adding the letters.

"S-" short "-O-" long "-S." short. "All the cop-type folks on the Barge are gonna recognise it, it's practically drilled into 'em with a diamond tip."

[deuceoftears]

"Sos?" He sounds slightly bemused, pronouncing it as one word. Even after over a year on the barge, he still calls ships moths in his backbrain, so the acronym doesn't immediately register. But it's easy enough to remember the pattern. He clicks his tongue to copy the pattern.

"Did you learn it in prison?" he asks casually; it makes sense to him that prisoners would want to listen in on the communications of their guards.

[littletonoidea]

Jedao will be able to sense the way Eiffel tenses at the question automatically, as his brain fights to not parse it as an accusation.

"It's just S.O.S, actually." Just the letters, buddy! "But-- before, actually. I knew some before I joined the air force, and I learned the rest there. Same with a couple other radio codes, actually."

[deuceoftears]

"Oh, fuck me, is that military? You were not." He sounds ruefully aggravated, but not actually angry or disbelieving. Because.

Eiffel. Eiffel you have got to stop coming for Jedao's kinks. It's downright unfair at this point.

[littletonoidea]

...uh.

"Yeah, uh. We've got three little piggies that make up the United States armed forces - the army, the navy and the air force. Plus the marines, they're like the big bad wolf." He's gotta do his girl Shaw justice. "I only joined 'cos a career as a soldier was way easier than anything else in the job market. I, uh."

His light whips around as he uses the head of the torch to scratch his neck. "I got discharged. Dishonourably. Turns out the brass don't like someone who doesn't give a rats what his orders are supposed to be."

[deuceoftears]

"You're a crashhawk," Jedao breathes, and he can't even be suprised, because of course, of course he is. Fuck. Jedao wants to put him in Kel drag with no gloves and make him come in the uniform pants.

A fucking crashhawk.

"Stop being hot on our friend hang, you fucker."

[littletonoidea]

Eiffel goes bright red under the yellow flashlights.

"Hey!" His indignation echoes through their cave. "I'm existing here! You got a problem with that, take it up with the Big Guy." And he jerks a thumb up, like Jedao is supposed to know he's referencing a God that Eiffel doesn't even believe in.

[deuceoftears]

"Oh, I don't have a problem with it," Jedao says in a smooth baritone half an octave lower than his usual voice, although if Eiffel looks, his cheeks are pink too.

"But you're the one who decided to be a sexy traitor, so if I can't kiss you about it you're going to need to give me a minute."

[littletonoidea]

So he is adjusting - slowly, but surely!! - to Jedao's manner of flirting with him, which means he has the bravado to look Jedao in the eye as he does.

Which doesn't help, actually, because seeing Jedao blushing as he does just makes Eiffel's cheeks go even darker as his eyes automatically flick down to Jedao's mouth before he can catch himself and look away.

"Okay, uh, yeah, sure, let's-- try not to make out in the middle of a horrible underground cave system on the edges of some galaxy far far away. That's always how the first people die."

[deuceoftears]

Jedao licks his lips - not salaciously, just a small, reflexive movement, just a glimpse of his tongue.

"You're not going to die. I'll feel anything coming," Jedao promises. And then, after a moment to think about it - "Make sure that carbon monoxide detector is actually turned on, though, I might not notice that."

[littletonoidea]

"Not if you're distracted, you won't," he comments in a dry mutter, but he is very much turning on the monoxide detector, which to the Barge's credit actually looks like one of those remote-y wands with a big ol' butt on the top for the actual detecting, and runs it through a quick initialisation to establish a baseline while the air was still good.

Though it's his turn for a question now. "So, wait-" he looks back at Jedao, more confident now the mood is behind them. "You really haven't been on like. Proper Terra Firma before?"

[deuceoftears]

"Just the one with the dinosaurs, and the one with New York."

But a New York of canals and waterways and far future, post-post-apocalypse ecopunk, not the one Eiffel would recognize from his own time. Jedao shrugs, but adds wistfully, "Before I came here I was on a station that orbited a planet, at least. I could look out one of the observation bubbles and see the big storms when they were in season."

[littletonoidea]

"Huh. Kinda like being on the Hephaestus, I guess." Being able to see the solar flares was definitely beautiful, on the days where it wasn't exhausting or terrifying or boring. "I can't imagine spending my whole life out there. But... I guess when you have, that doesn't seem so weird, huh."

[deuceoftears]

"It doesn't feel weird. I'd get wistful about it. What it might be like. But...there were people on the Citadel of Eyes. More than Hephaestus or the barge, at least, even if who I could actually talk to was pretty controlled."

Which is not the place Eiffel saw in Jedao's memory - but really, being under Kujen's thumb and Mikodez's thumb were similar enough, once you took the war out of the equation.

[littletonoidea]

"You think that's a perk on the Barge, in comparison?" he asks idly, flicking his torch up as his attention catches on one of the big ol' snails making its way downtown. "You can always get up in people's business here, barely any excuses required."

[deuceoftears]

"People don't hate me here. That's the perk." Even if Jedao isn't particularly outgoing, it's nice to have the option to just...talk to someone, without the weight of the Immolation Fox hanging over everything.

"Oh, wow...it's all..." Jedao is genuinely fascinated by this snail, now.

[littletonoidea]

"Oh, yeah." He looks back at Jedao with a pleased little smile, at the way his friend lights up at the discovery. "You could see a few of these guys from the Barge, they're pretty cool. They look like when you stick a magnet in a bucket of iron filings. You think we can...?"

He's going to move forward, closer to it, and stand up on his toes to try and reach it to poke it in the weird metal plates.

[deuceoftears]

"They are iron. Or - the shell is close to the same density, anyway."

Jedao catches Eiffel's wrist just before contact.

"Maybe let me try first? In case it stings or something?"

[littletonoidea]

He doesn't flinch when he's grabbed, but he looks back at Jedao quickly in surprise.

And. "Oh, yeah, that's- probably a good idea." He'll step back, but make a grandiose gesture up to the snail with his free hand and a bright grin. "All yours, Jepolean."

[deuceoftears]

Jedao's already grinning, but his eyes crinkle a little more at the mystery nickname. He gives the snail a tentative brush on its shell. Nothing stings or burns, and the snail itself - confident in its armor - trundles along without seeming bothered.

"Okay, seems fine."

[littletonoidea]

Eiffel grins perhaps a bit too eagerly when it's his turn to pat the snail, trying to make sure he avoids its noodly eye stalks and giving an excited little giggle despite himself.

"I know this is probably like super normal to some people but it's still weird," he says brightly, still watching the snail toddle along as he stands down again.