"Well . . . it's because of you, isn't it?"

"I have yet to go far wrong assuming that things are because of me but I was hoping for more detail. Like, should I be imagining that you are presently employed in the maintenance of captives, or just that the service market is going to crash if a lot of people kill themselves."

"Are a lot of people going to kill themselves!"

"I wouldn't say 'a lot'.  A fair few; not enough to crash any industries."

"Why?"

"Well, because of him.  Or because of ourselves."

"Hm."

"Does that mean you are currently employed in the maintenance of captives?"

"I do lots of things."

"But yes, the comparative lack of captives maintenance is why crystal healers as a whole are freed up enough for this offer."

"Sketch, but I should probably have some crystal healer around. Do you have an opinion on New Year's Eves, my current crystals person is one."

"Not a particular one."

"Damn, I was hoping that would be a really high-information interview question. Are you in fact interested in moving to my city in a cavern in the column below the surface of this Earth, which is going to be substantially occupied by resurrectees and sapient cats, and doesn't have comms service yet but it's on my to-do list, and is currently awkwardly illiquid?"

"I don't know what a few of those words mean but it sounds nice."

"Sorry, I don't actually speak Latin, I speak a mysteriously near-identical language from another universe."

"When the stars align!  Are liquids not objects, for you?"

"...I can make liquids." He tilts his coffee mug for her to see, and then adds a dusting of cinnamon.

"I don't have a second guess for what illiquid means."

"It means we don't have cash. Fabulous material wealth in all other forms and not cash."

"Oh, well I think Andrea said they're going to keep paying me, so that doesn't seem like a problem for me personally?"

"Right, you'd have money, but nobody around you would be using it, at least not right away."

"Well, it sounds lovely."

"Cool. I can bring you home with me though we might not make it all the way back down to Atriama till later today, I have more topside errands to run."

"Whatever's convenient for you is fine by me."

"Is there a batch of victims who might want to also leave for Atriama today or do the gears of society take longer than that?"