damncompass | Late September 2012: Manchester, New Hampshire

A few days ago, Joshua's boss had rung him up and told him that one of his fellow Regents had died in a boating accident, and everyone was going to New Hampshire for the funeral. Halfway there on the plane, Artie (seated beside him because he refused to upgrade to first class, and Joshua was the one who bought the tickets) started chattering about the case he had sent Claudia on, and his intention of going to check up on her after the funeral.

"Bad idea, Artie." Joshua shook his head. "She doesn't take that shit well."

"Oh, she'll be fine. I just want to see how she's doing."

"Bad idea theater. Honestly."

With another shake of his head, Joshua fell silent again and the rest of the flight was uneventful. At the airport, they met up with his boss and Jane. Artie wandered off to rent a car mumbling something about driving to Boston. After even more admonitions about how bad of an idea driving in Boston would be, the Regent trio shook their heads and drove off to the service.

Joshua was quiet during the entire thing, which seemed so out of place, all of the loud and emotional prayers, all of the gospel singing, and the tributes to the dead woman that made Jane roll her eyes and mutter things under her breath that Joshua never really caught.

Eventually, the service was over, and they proceeded to the cemetery. Everything was fine until the minister started talking about ashes and dust, and something caught in Joshua's throat. Closing his eyes, he quietly backed up and walked away from the group at the grave.

A moment to himself would be enough. He just needed a moment. Really.

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"I told him it was a bad idea, Jane told him it was a bad idea, and my boss told him it was a bad idea. But, well, you know how Artie gets. Did you at least get the Artifact?"

"We did. And we even won the auction! ...Except the janitor stole it before the auction even started, hence the stakeout."
It's a little bit before Claudia continues. "Turns out his son had leukemia and he was looking for a way to let him raise his kid."
As motivations for using Artifacts go, that's one Claudia really can't hold against the dude.

"Shit. That's.... a problem."

There's a long pause before Joshua finally speaks. "Did you... neutralize it?"

"Yeah. Stuck around long enough for the doctors to do their thing - the kid's fine."
She says 'kid' even though the guy's possibly older than her, but it's the easiest way to differentiate.

"Good. Sometimes people need to be allowed to make sacrifices."

Cough cough, dude.

Claudia fixes her brother with a Look. "Yes. Yes, they do. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

"I know, Claud. And I would for you too."

"I know." But that wasn't the right time to, Joshua! She had it under control!
"How was your thing? I mean, it was a funeral, those generally suck, but other than that, Mrs. Lincoln."

"Meh." He sighs, and runs a hand through his hair. "I realized that the last time I was at a funeral was eighteen years ago. And then it all hit me at once."

"Oh, dude. You know you could talk to me about it, right?"
Not like she didn't deal with the same thing.

"I know. I probably will eventually." He pauses, and leans back on the headboard of the hotel bed. "Also, it'll probably be comforting to you to know that the car crash was just that."

"Yeah, I know." And then it occurs to Claudia she'll probably have to explain that.
"Milliways thing - seems if you sleep there around Halloween you see dead people. First year I was there I got Mom and she said as much."

"...Wait, how did you find that out?"

"Remind me not to fall asleep in Milliways around Hallowe'en. Knowing my luck I'd get Reynolds or something."

He shrugs, then looks a bit sheepish. "Well, uh, it seems that if you make two Artifacts before you finish highschool, you ping the Warehouse's radar."

"Oh, come on, then you could troll him - wait, what? Joshua Alan Donovan, what did you do?"
She sounds more amused than upset, despite the full name. That's more out of 'what the actual fuck' than anything else.

"Well, first, thanks for taking care of my copy of Time Machine."

A pause. "And, uh... I guess it was good that Dad made me take the proton pack apart. I don't think it does what we think it does."

"But if it - oh, Class 1. Still, if it's not a flamethrower what the fuck is it?"
Claudia rolls her eyes. "Guess that explains why it reminded me so much of you. You're welcome."

"I don't know, but thinking about it a bit, I don't actually remember it throwing fire, just... setting things on fire. The closest thing I've seen was the guitar's lightning."

"Weird. Not like I remember, I was three. All I remember is you scaring the piss out of me."

"I'm sorry!" Joshua has a very sheepish face. "I didn't mean to!"

"Which I'm well aware of, brother dear. You can stop flailing."
You know, as much as he ever stops flailing.
"So, what, the Regents were creeping on us?"

"Not so much creeping as noticing. Jane said that if your foster situation had been crappy, she would have stepped in."

"Well, that's a relief. Good to know I wouldn't have been abandoned to the tender mercies of the street."
She was lucky and she knows it, but it is good to know that things would never have been that bad.

"Yeah. Considering I wasn't there to help." He sighs, shaking his head.

Claudia sighs. "Not your fault, dude. It was an accident."

"I knew it was possible, though, Claudia. I knew that I could have fucked it up, I knew that I didn't have everything." He shakes his head. "And I didn't fucking care" He stops, a horrified look on his face.

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