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

[timelessinventor]

"Indeed it is, darling." Helena sighs. "I doubt Claudia would have mentioned the bronze sector." She did seem a bit perturbed by it (not that Helena can blame her).

[damncompass]

"As in Bronze Age?" Joshua isn't exactly sure what the bronze age has to do with bottling things up for ninety years. He's got nothing.

[timelessinventor]

"More akin to bronzed baby shoes."

[damncompass]

"Wait. What the fuck?" Joshua has a horrified face. "They..." He pauses. "I don't know if I want to be a part of this anymore."

[timelessinventor]

"I asked them to." Really, she would have thought the information he'd got had filled him in by now. "No doubt they'll be discussing doing it again after this mess, but I asked them to in the first place. In retrospect, spending a century with nothing but my thoughts for company was not my brightest idea."

[damncompass]

"Why?" Joshua's still horrified by the idea.

[timelessinventor]

"I... let a personal obsession get away from me." Her right hand strays to her locket (as it almost always does when she's discussing Christina). "Killed a fellow agent in the process, asked them to stop me before I ended the world."

[damncompass]

"Oh." Joshua's horror is abating just a bit. "I... I think I might actually get it. It's like a suicide hotline. You call because you don't really want to do it, and you want someone to talk you down." He pauses. "You didn't really want to end the world, but you didn't know what else you could do."

[timelessinventor]

"Oh, but I thought I did." Helena sighs. "If this is the sort of world where people could do that to an innocent girl, and nothing I could do would bring her back..."

[damncompass]

Joshua squeezes her hand. "You thought you did, but anyone who's so bad that they want to kill themselves thinks they want to do it too."

[timelessinventor]

There's a brief flicker of a wry smile. "I have never once accused myself of thinking clearly at that time." Come to that, she rarely accuses herself of thinking clearly now (she certainly wasn't last night).

[damncompass]

"Generally if you're that bad off, you're not thinking clearly." Joshua reaches over and touches her hand on the locket. "Is that your daughter?"

[timelessinventor]

"Yes. My Christina." She opens the locket and shows him the photo (the only one she has left, these days; god only knows what happened to all her personal effects). "I... if I get my hopes up like that again, it'll be the end of me."

[damncompass]

"She was adorable." Joshua squeezes Helena's hand. "And really, we can't have that." He pauses. "Can you promise me something? If you feel like ending the world again, talk to me?"

[timelessinventor]

After a long moment, Helena nods. "I doubt I will just now in any case. For one thing, I'd need to come up with a new plan - oh, bollocks. May I borrow your phone?"

[damncompass]

"Sure." Joshua reaches over, deposits the pin that had fallen to his lap on his nightstand, and grabs his phone. "Shit. I need to call someone too, but I'll do that when you're done." He hands it over to her.

[timelessinventor]

"Thank you. If your sister wakes up slightly faster than you do, this shouldn't take long." As she suspected, Claudia's number is very easy to find, and she makes short work of dialing it.

[claudiometer]

Meanwhile, back in South Dakota...

It's just a jump to the left! AND THEN A STEP TO THE RIIIIIIIIIIIGHT.
Claudia's had A Day Or Two, and she was sound asleep before her phone started ringing. But she does still get to it before the pelvic thrust. "bzuh?"
Eloquent, we know, but you'll have to forgive her.

[timelessinventor]

"Hello, darling. I do apologize for waking you."

[claudiometer]

"...oh. you're not Joshua. hi."

[timelessinventor]

"No, I am certainly not. Do you have some paper? I need to tell you something."

[claudiometer]

"'k. One sec."
A bit of fumbling later, she says, "Got it. 's up?"

[timelessinventor]

"There was an Artifact in Egypt. The very first Artifact, in fact. It is a trident, and there is a piece missing."

[claudiometer]

"...well, shit, son. Which piece, the spear part or the horseshoey doodad?"

[timelessinventor]

"The cross-piece. I guess you could call it a horse shoe. I know for a fact it was not in Twelve, at least at the same time I was. I was under the impression it was in one piece."