OOM: Mid-June, 2012, Geneva, Swizerland

[damncompass]

They've been snowed in for three days, and it's starting to get old.

It's not the company that he objects to, as much, Helena is one of the few people who can keep up with him, no matter what he's babbling on about, but it's just that he's beginning to wonder about the state of his food stores.

So as he gets up and goes to open his pantry, he comes to a realization.

"Helena? If we want to eat today, I think we're going to have to brave the rest of the snow. I'm almost out of anything that's not mac and cheese." He opens the fridge. "And I think my milk's gone off too." You'll have to excuse the boy. He wasn't really in the right state of mind last week.

Comments

[damncompass]

"Oh, right. Bus." Joshua runs a hand through his hair, and gets on, swiping his bus card, and putting in money for Helena, before flopping down in a seat. "I... probably shouldn't take notes while the bus is going. I'll miss the stop and we'll end up in France or something."

... no, Joshua. France is the other way.

[timelessinventor]

"I think we're going in the wrong direction for that, but you do know where we're headed better than I do." Which isn't to say she won't be looking out the window anyway.

[damncompass]

"Er, yeah. France is the other way. I'm an idiot." Joshua does put his notebook away, however. After a couple stops, he grabs her hand. "This is our stop. There's a few stores around here that I think you can probably find some things in."

They get off of the bus, and Joshua waves at a street of shops. "Your show now."

[timelessinventor]

Helena considers the window displays for a while (no, no, god no...) before grinning and heading into a store with several business-dressed mannequins in the window. "This looks promising. Do feel free to go about your notes while I shop."

[damncompass]

Joshua follows her in, finding a chair, and plopping down with his notebook and a pen. After a couple moments, he's lost in his thoughts and his writings.

[timelessinventor]

Helena's gone for a good half an hour or so (she could do with some new things anyway, quite aside from the fact she has a week to go before they return to South Dakota). But eventually she finds him, now wearing her standard trousers, vest and blouse. "There. That's much better."

[damncompass]

Joshua looks up from his notes and grins. There might be a tiny tiny hint of sappy in the grin. "Now that suits you. I can get things for you if you want." He's... well, he's a bad judge of time and doesn't realize how long it's been.

[timelessinventor]

"Already done." She hefts a couple of bags. "I didn't want to interrupt."

[damncompass]

"Oh. I could have got that for you." He blushes a bit and stands up, sticking his notebook back in his bag. "I was just scribbling. Nothing that important."

[timelessinventor]

"And why would I want to impede scientific progress just so you can pretend chivalry isn't lying bleeding on the doorstep?" Helena smiles. "In any case, I think we can move on to lunch now."

[damncompass]

"It's not completely dead!" Joshua shakes his head, and takes one of the bags from her. "Hey. I don't get to really be nice to people much. Claudia just grouches at me, and, well..." Joshua doesn't actually have that many friends.

[timelessinventor]

Helena rolls her eyes. "It was mostly dead in the 1890s. One would think they'd have given up by now."

[damncompass]

"Hey, we have a few things going for us over the Victorians." Or so Joshua likes to think.

He leads her down a couple streets, making comments about this or that, until they get in front of a fondue restaraunt. "How about some fondue?"

[timelessinventor]

"Oh, trust me, if you didn't have a few better points I wouldn't have tried sticking it out this long." Helena is a woman of action; she could have implemented her plan (or tried to, anyway) much sooner if she'd felt the need. "Fondue sounds lovely."

[damncompass]

Joshua's not exactly sure what to say to that, so he just goes into the restaraunt (holding the door, of course) and gets his usual table by a window. The waiter comes and hands them menus then scuttles away.

"I... I'd translate, but I think your French is probably better than mine, actually."

[timelessinventor]

Helena laughs. "A bit old-fashioned, in all likelihood, but quite passable." It needed to be, with as much family as she had living in France (quite aside from French being the diplomatic language of choice at the time; she's still not used to that now being English). She scans the menu for a while, and has a few things in mind by the time the waiter returns.

[damncompass]

"My Latin's pretty good, and my German's passable, but neither of those are really that helpful." Joshua shrugs as the waiter returns. He orders what he wants as well as a bottle of wine.

[timelessinventor]

Helena places her own order; as the waiter leaves, something returns to the forefront of her thoughts (she'd put it aside once Mrs. Frederic left, but for whatever reason it came back). "So they've pegged Claudia for the next Caretaker, then?"

[damncompass]

"Good catch." Joshua nods. "Yeah. From what I can figure from the brain dump, it had to do with what happened in Egypt. She probably hasn't figured out how to actually talk about it yet, so that's why she hasn't told me." He's not miffed. It's not as if he doesn't have a huge thing himself that he's not talking about.

[timelessinventor]

"I'm not surprised it's taking her a bit. When we left for Egypt they'd only just addressed the bit where the Warehouse does in fact pay attention, never mind that it was one of the first things I learned when I started." She rolls her eyes; honestly, the way Artie approaches giving out information (or doesn't) gives her such a headache sometimes. "It's a very interesting choice, but once she get her head round the idea, I'm sure she'll be a good one."

Very different from Mrs. Frederic, though. But then, Josephine was also rather different (the Warehouse likes a wide variety of people).

[damncompass]

"I don't know why Artie thinks to think that some things that probably should be basic knowledge are a need-to-know basis." He sighs. "She'll rock it. That's what Claudia does."

[timelessinventor]

"Perhaps the same reason he thinks my past is reason enough to hang me now. I wouldn't be surprised if he thinks I somehow engineered Warehouse 2's awakening." As though she had that kind of time.

[damncompass]

Joshua sighs. "He'd probably rather bronze me and have done with it too, really." He shrugs, but the food comes before he can go on.

He falls silent while they eat their first course. For some reason, he's all of a sudden awkward.

[timelessinventor]

"What's wrong, darling?" Helena, on the other hand, wouldn't know awkward if it hit her in the face.

[damncompass]

"Nothing. I promise." Joshua does awkward like most people do normal. "Just normal awkward."