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

[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."

[timelessinventor]

"Why is awkward your normal state of being? You've no reason for it." Helena smiles. "You're quite an accomplished young man."

[damncompass]

Joshua makes a face and shrugs. "I don't really think I'd call myself accomplished. I have a technically-posthumous Masters' degree, and I'm probably going to fail my doctorate massively. I... I don't really think I've accomplished much of anything except useless science."

[timelessinventor]

Oh, Joshua. How very silly of you. "You helped your sister grow into a remarkable woman. You had enough work in place to be awarded the degree; even James couldn't have done that much for you, if you hadn't. And as I said Friday, the Regents wouldn't have offered you a position if they didn't think you deserved it."

[damncompass]

"I missed most of Claudia's growing up." Joshua shrugs. "I had work in place, sure, but I never finished it." And he really doesn't want to go into the whole Regent thing.

[timelessinventor]

"You were there long enough to make sure she knew she could do whatever she bloody well pleased with her life, and she certainly took it to heart." Helena helps herself to some more fondue.

[damncompass]

"Oh, she really did take it to heart." Joshua rolls his eyes. "She certainly does whatever she damn well pleases."

[timelessinventor]

Helena laughs. "That she does."

[firstprotector]

"She certainly is that." A very dignified man pulls out a chair between the two of them and sits down. "Agent Wells, Regent Donovan." He nods at them both.

[damncompass]

"Uhm, hi?" Joshua notices the pin, so he figures the man is one of his new colleagues, but that does not mean that he's not flustered. "Er, I haven't done anything wrong already, have I?" He just... felt that he should be wearing the pin, even though he wasn't going to anything official.