June 2012, Geneva, Swizerland

[damncompass]

The morning sun is breaking through Joshua's windows, reflecting even more off of the five feet of snow that's starting to melt in the June heat.

Inside, Joshua is snuggled up to the woman beside him, sleeping with a smile on his face.

Comments

[damncompass]

Joshua takes the box, and gasps, as he gets a fairly large mental brain dump. "God, couldn't you warn a guy first?"

Opening the box, there is a small gold eye-of-Horus pin inside. "Huh. So this is the Artifact that made my ball go nutsoid."

[k39zzz]

Oh, come on, Joshua. What would be the fun in warning you?
"Indeed it is."

[damncompass]

"So, what's it do, other than give poor unsuspecting newbies a brain dump?" He eyes it for a moment. "Shit, it's like the Galleons. It lets you know when there's a meeting." He pauses. "Or something like that."

[k39zzz]

Mrs. Frederic is not familiar with that reference, but whatever helps Joshua get his head around the idea.

[damncompass]

Thoughts are flying through Joshua's head, things about the Warehouse, about Agents, about other Regents. Eventually, he gets to a couple specific thoughts. "Oh. I see why the timing's so complicated. I... uh. Is she going to be alright?"

[k39zzz]

Then, one assumes, he also sees why she insisted he take the position before that little tidbit came up.
"Claudia will be fine. But we all need our constants."

[damncompass]

"Yeah we do." He pauses. "I get why you wanted me to take it then. I would have done it just because of Claud, and, well." It would be different.

[k39zzz]

"Precisely. And this offer is on your own merits far more than it is about your sister."
Between the two of them, they would find a way for Joshua to be around, if it had come to that.

[damncompass]

"I might not believe in my own merits, but I guess it's good that someone did." His hand tightens on the box. "Can... can I keep her until next week?"

[k39zzz]

"Of course. Under the circumstances," and here Mrs. Frederic spares the window a glance, "no one was expecting her back today anyway."

[damncompass]

Joshua looks out the window, shaking his head. "Yeah, now that I think about it, how the hell..." He turns back, and Mrs. Frederick is gone. "Oh, no no no. You can't do that. Not in front of me."

[timelessinventor]

Helena can't help but laugh a bit at that. "Oh, but she does that in front of everyone. She probably didn't want you to feel left out."

[damncompass]

"Yeah, but... teleportation." It's a weak protest, and he flops backwards onto the bed. "I've been working on it in some form since I was thirteen."

[timelessinventor]

"Oh?" Helena smiles (she does know a thing or two about long-standing pursuits, after all). "What drew you to it?"

[damncompass]

Joshua blushes a bit. "Um. Er. A book, if you can believe it. I... um. Do you read much old sci-fi?"

[timelessinventor]

"I can easily believe it. And yes, I've read a bit." Written some of it, too. "Which book?"

[damncompass]

"Time Machine." Joshua reaches over and picks up a well-loved and well dog-eared copy of Time Machine from his bedside table. "I really wish I knew why people don't read much HG Wells anymore. He's really freaking brilliant with everything that he anticipated and what he created."

He hands the book to her. "Some of my notes are in that book. I... don't think Claud knew how many notes were in it, or she wouldn't've given it back to me."

[timelessinventor]

It's all she can do not to laugh again. "Oh, indeed. You might say I'm... intimately familiar with that one."

She takes the book rather gingerly. "Oh, that's rather well-loved. Best condition for a book to be in." When Helena flips it open to the first page, she finds it absolutely covered in handwritten notes - all the same hand, but clearly at different stages of life. "Oh. Well. I'd never thought of it like that before. Well done."

[damncompass]

Joshua smiles, more than a bit sheepishly. "I'm not really sure where the idea came from, but it just hit me when I was reading it, and I developed it over the years." He reaches out and touches the back of the book a bit wistfully. "It's one of the few things I have from... before."

[timelessinventor]

"From before... oh, yes, your little incident. Claudia mentioned it." It only took Helena a moment because from her perspective, that was over a century ago. "It is quite a good theory, though I suspect The Space Machine wouldn't have made for half as interesting of a book."

Still, traveling through space by staying at a fixed point in time? Sounds good to her.

[damncompass]

"Yeah." Joshua sighs deeply. "Guess you could call it an... incident." The wind seems to go out of his sails for a moment before he collects himself. "No, I think Space Machine would be something more... interplanetary. Or... something. Besides, time machines are awesome, however improbable."

[timelessinventor]

"And while there is certainly a time and a place for rockets, that book was decidedly not it." She got round to rockets later, both in life and in fiction. "How did your research come to bear fruit, anyway?"

[damncompass]

"Aheh." Joshua sighs and points at his shirt. "Rheticus. Sixteenth century mathematician. Part of his research was teleportation, but everyone thought he was a nut. When I was reading his stuff, I realized that he and I had the same idea, even though he was using different language to explain it." Joshua shrugs. "And then my professor gave me his compass...." Yeah. And we all know how well that went over.

[timelessinventor]

"Those things work? I was under the impression that the entire box of his belongings has been with the Warehouse more or less since he died, all marked 'useless.'" But the man's pursuits were such (teleportation and all that) that it was deemed safer to collect them just in case, as she heard the story. "Come to that, how did you even - ah. James, I take it."

[damncompass]

"Well, I haven't seen any of his other things, but from the writings I did find, it was only the Compass that he used for anything." Joshua sighs, and shakes his head. "Yeah. I should have known he wasn't a physics professor. Claudia knew more than he did, and she was ten." There's a long pause before... "I don't know how the hell I missed that secret panel. I spent twelve damn years with only the compass for comfort. I... I thought I had it. I was so sure that I could do it."