"Yeah. I'll let you know once we've figured something out. Imliss might be better at it than me, honestly."

"Because engineering?"

"I'm a poet who has very little business doing anything else but at least a lot of practice at killing things with swords. Coming up with random sampling procedures from that many worlds, that's all yours."

"Matt's not doing it because -"

"Conceivably useful."

"Bar, longest written works from all worlds that use Quenya and reference a Melkor or Morgoth - is that an uncountably large number -"

409,344,021. Pause. 409,344,027.

"If anyone finds a 'wipe the multiverse of all life' button don't let me near it -"

"I sincerely doubt such a button exists but I definitely won't."

"How many now -"

"Bar, don't answer that. Matt, can I calm you down -"

He twitches and makes a horrible strangled whimpering sound. 

"Make yourself really good headphones," he says to Cam.

"...okay," and now Cam is wearing noise cancelling headphones.

And he sings, just a couple notes really, half-whispered, but pouring all of himself into it, they got through the end of the world this way, just the two of them and the omnipresent oath -

And he is no longer splintering into a thousand pieces each of which are screaming - 

And he is giggling delightedly, he's never felt so safe and happy in his life -

--And the stress drains out of her like pasta water through a colander and everything's fine, everything's fantastic--

- and this is creepy and Cam is going out to the backyard.

He's going to walk with Matt - not touching him but sheparding him - up the stairs to Matt's room - sorry, Imliss, he's going to take a little while to be okay, song'll wear off in a few minutes but not abruptly or anything -

It's fine! she calls merrily after him.

It is fine! Everything's nice and fine! "Can you hang out by the bar and not let the evil Maitimo open the door and if anyone comes in the door call us? You can let me know to come back as soon as you get tired of it, we just try to make sure that there's always someone here and I think that display of casual large-radius mind-altering magic spooked Cam a bit."

"Sure! How do I stop him? Elves are stronger than me! I don't think using magic on him without his consent is allowed by Security! How do I tell him apart from you?"

"If you can get to the door first, he can't pull you off it without Security getting involved. If not, just call us so we know what's going on right away. Don't let me near the door either, we're not letting one second longer than we need pass in Abaddon. You can also ask Bar which one it is."

"Okay!"