June 2012: Univille, South Dakota, Leena's B&B/The Warehouse

[damncompass]

Looking back, Joshua realizes as he pulls into the B&B, he should have realized that he could have just gone through the bar for this move instead of travelling for the better part of a day. Hindsight is 20/20, though, and he's finally here now.

He leaves pretty much everything in the car, locks it (force of habit) and goes upstairs. Faced with a hallway of doors, he prays to whomever is listening that he remembers which door leads to which room. He doesn't really like the thought of waking up next to Pete, or worse, his sister.

Counting down the hall, he opens a door, and to his vast relief, walks into Helena's room.

Comments

[claudiometer]

"Hey - the hell happened to your face?"

[damncompass]

"Um. I probably shouldn't have tried to get into bed without her realizing." He does have a sheepish face.

"I'll get you an ice pack, Joshua." Before he can even ask, Leena gets up and goes to the kitchen returning with a medical-grade ice pack. "That should at least help some."

[claudiometer]

"No, sneaking into bed with someone who knows kung-fu is never a good idea," Pete says. (Artie just grumbles something, but doesn't really comment.

After that, lunch goes pretty unremarkably, but by the end Claudia's almost vibrating in her seat.
"Okay, given your eye you're probably not gonna be able to drive, but it's time for your graduation/housewarming present now."

[timelessinventor]

And there's a smirk from his girlfriend. "I can certainly drive him."

[damncompass]

"I have a present?" Joshua eyes his little sister, then sighs and digs the rental car's keys out of his pocket. "Oh, alright. I guess I'll have to let my Victorian girlfriend drive."

[claudiometer]

"It's her or me, dude. At least I'm not sticking you with Artie - he's a nightmare behind the wheel."
So either his Victorian girlfriend drives him or his little sister does.
"Of course you have a present. You graduated. And you're home now."

[damncompass]

"Pete, are you..."

"No chance, dude, I'm going to Featherhead. Comic book run."

"There's a comic book shop in Featherhead? Shit, man. I guess western South Dakota's getting with the times. Alright, alright." Joshua sighs. "I think I'd rather be driven by Helena."

[timelessinventor]

"Very well, darling." Helena grins and takes the car keys. "I promise not to injure him further, Claudia."

[claudiometer]

Claudia laughs. "That was an accident. I won't have your balls on toast for that."

It's not too long before they meet up again outside the Warehouse.
"For the record, Joshua, this is not your present."

[damncompass]

"Oh, Claudia! You got me a Warehouse! It's exactly what I always wanted!" Joshua grins at her, smirking a bit.

[claudiometer]

"No, dumbass, your present's inside." Claudia rolls her eyes.
Once they're inside, she adds, "Also at some point we need to get you into the biometric system, for great letting yourself in."

[damncompass]

"You got me Artifacts?!" He's still smirking. "I'd suggest doing biometrics now, but I don't know if the black eye would mess up the scanner or whatever." He shrugs. "Biology as always, not my thing."

[claudiometer]

"Yeah, yeah, too squishy. I don't think it would, but I haven't had cause to learn how to run the thing yet, so we'd probably have to wait for Artie anyway."
She heads directly for the door out to the Warehouse floor. "And no, I didn't get you Artifacts either."

[damncompass]

Joshua follows, reaching into his bag and pulling out his Artifact ball, which is noticeably dormant. Filing that away for future information, he shrugs, and takes in things here and there along the way.

Lamps, furniture, pens, clothing, all mostly every-day things which Joshua is certain would have awful and disastrous consequences if he were to do anything with them.

[claudiometer]

Claudia plows on ahead without paying the shelves much mind - after all, there'll be plenty of time for inventory later - until they reach Geneva Sector.

[damncompass]

Joshua notes the sign as they get there. "Geneva sector? Really?" He shakes his head, but then notices the... structure built in a, well, he can only really call it a clearing of the shelves. "Is that....."

[claudiometer]

"Don't look at me, that's where the empty space was."
Claudia grins. "I figured the longer you had to wait for a lab, the stir-crazier you would get, and HG needed a distraction anyway, so we teamed up on it."

[timelessinventor]

"There was something in there about sparing Artie and Pete the complete history of breakfast cereal, as well," Helena says, grinning at Joshua's reaction. "Also, you're not too far from Claudia's growing collection, nor from mine, I think."

[damncompass]

Joshua hugs his sister tightly. "I don't know if I want to know about the breakfast cereal, but thank you. Seriously."

[claudiometer]

Claudia hugs right back. "Of course. Keypad code's Mom and Dad's anniversary, at least for now - change it if you want. Eight digits."

[damncompass]

Joshua punches the code in and opens the door, but before he could walk in, a blue static-ball flies down the aisle by them.

"... what the actual fuck?"

[timelessinventor]

Helena, on the other hand, beams. "Hello to you too, darling."

[damncompass]

Joshua just kinda blinks a bit. "Hello to who?" And then it hits him. "Oh... er, sorry. Hi."

[claudiometer]

"...Oh, is that what those are all about?"
Claudia grins. "Never could figure out the ones that happen on good days."

[damncompass]

"Well, I guess that's why." He watches while the static dissipates at the end of the aisle, and then walks into the lab. "Woah."