[ti]closed[/ti][S][C/Alicia][OFFLINE] Accelerated Diagnostics

Helen was modest. A bit too modest. She was the way Josh used to be: never wanting to take credit for what he did, always exalting others alone for what he had accomplished working together. "Think of it like this. You may do this every day, but the impacts you make on the lives of your customers keeps them coming back," Josh attempted to instill within the clearly shy tech. "You saved me a lot of money and a lot of hassle."

As Helen went deeper into the machine, Josh went deeper into his run. "Really need some scaling soon..." she may have been able to hear Josh mutter, letting the Latios plush rest near his arm as he solved his own puzzle. The difference between Helen's work and Josh's was that his was purely for entertainment. Hers was restoring a device that was very important to him.

Once she was done, Josh swiveled his chair toward the laptop and set his portable gaming device down. "Good timing - ended up losing that run just now. All the income in the world isn't going to help if I can't find scoring." With that, he plugged a flash drive into the computer. Lo and behold, the computer not only remained functional, but it read the device perfectly. "Thank you so much. You're a miracle worker." He reached for his wallet, ready for the bill. "Now, what are the damages?"

The price left Josh floored; this was cheaper than even the base hourly rate any online firm would charge. "This... this really can't be much more than cost, can it?" he asked as he wrote the check to Helen's firm. Little did he know she could offer those rates due to the business being a virtual, sole proprietorship. Once he signed and dated the check in the amount requested, he hid some extra cash beneath it before sliding it toward her. He hoped she wouldn't notice until the tech had left.

"Your work is excellent," Josh began to shower her with compliments, even live-writing a review on his desktop and giving her excellent ratings. "I can tell what you do isn't just a job. It's a passion. I'm gonna tell all my friends and family about you and how amazing you are. You truly make it painless." He wondered how she would handle less tech-savvy customers; from what he could tell, she seemed appreciative of Josh's level of tech knowledge.

The way she walked and expressed herself looked... surprisingly familiar to Josh. He couldn't quite put all the pieces together, but something deep in his mind made him feel like he had seen this combination of traits somewhere else.

Once he was done writing his review and submitted it, Josh led Helen back upstairs. "Need one more can for the road?" he kindly offered, unsure how far away her next job was.