Mid September 2012; Leena's B&B

[damncompass]

Things are actually wonderfully, completely settling out. Thank everything.

Steve's settling in quite well, if a bit over-questioning of Artie sometimes, Myka's back, much to everyone's relief, Helena is much more relaxed, and Joshua is taking a couple days to just freaking do nothing.

Thus, he has installed himself on a couch in the living room, much to Leena's chagrin with his 3Ds, a 2-litre of pop and a bag of potato chips. Watch out, Joshua, you're going to turn into Pete before long.

Comments

[thebettersort]

Myka may be back physically, but she's not quite back mentally yet. She has a mental block between her and the place and everything feels strange. Her heart feels as if she is home, but she's still filled with all the doubts in the world and it makes her feel disconnected.

She isn't sleeping very well and she wanders around the boarding house often, hoping that she'll spot something that will snap her completely back. Right now she's decided to head for the living room with a book, planning on reading her favourite book in one of her favourite places, but she forgets about this when she spots Joshua. "You seem hard at work," she says, peeking over his shoulder.

[damncompass]

"Hold on. I'm almost done with this boss...." Joshua fiddles a few things, moving his system around, and in about two minutes of swearing he closes the player and puts it down. "And if by hard at work, you mean goofing the shit off and playing Zelda." He sits up, and makes some room. "Have a seat. You probably don't want to drink out of that bottle, I've got the sniffles... which could be just allergies, really, but you're welcome to some chips, and why the hell am I rambling?"

[thebettersort]

"I still mean hard at work, since that's the most I can expect out of Pete often." Myka's kidding and her tone shows it, even if her phrasing doesn't. "Are you nervous?"

She sits next to him. She's had a feeling people might be nervous around her for awhile, not wanting to scare her off again.

[damncompass]

"Hey! I think I have at least somewhat of a better work ethic than Pete!" He shakes his head with an amused face.

"No, just relieved, I think." He smiles, and leans back on the arm of the sofa. "It's been a bit tense around here for a while, and I think we're all pretty much relaxing."

[thebettersort]

"I think everyone has a better work ethic than Pete," Myka says with a smile of her own. "Relaxing is good, really. Emotions can be tiring."

And oh, she knows that well.

[damncompass]

"No shit, Sherlock." Joshua rolls his eyes. "I mean, he's good when he wants to be, but he's so easily distracted." He pulls his knees up to his chest.

"Yeah, they can be. Especially when you feel like you're completely out of your element and wondering why the hell you're here in the first place."

[thebettersort]

"Is that how you've been feeling?" Myka gives him a sympathetic look. "You belong here, you know."

[damncompass]

"That's what everyone's been saying. I'm just... I'm not used to being administration. I've always just wanted to be a scientist." He sighs. "And, well, it's not really helping that Artie and I just haven't been meshing."

[thebettersort]

"Can't you still be a scientist? Regency seems to me to be all about being as involved as you want to be." Certain ones far more than others. "Artie... will get used to you. It's just his way."

[damncompass]

"Oh, I am. I'm studying Artifacts. But... I don't know." He sighs. "I'm here, and I get the feeling I'm expected to make sure things work. I'm so far out of my element that I... I don't want to fuck it up."

Seems to happen with just about everything else he does.

[thebettersort]

"Joshua," Myka says, and puts a hand over his. "Isn't my being here a sign that you're already making sure things work?"

[damncompass]

Joshua starts at her touch, and he blushes a tiny bit, smiling a rather dorky smile.

"Well, I certainly know that things don't work half as well without you here. Pete missed a boob joke for fuck's sake."

[thebettersort]

Myka blushes a bit at his blush and then snorts at the comment about Pete.

"It's possible he didn't miss it. Just that it, like the subject, may not have been big enough to catch his interest."

[damncompass]

"Oh, uh..." Joshua blushes a bit more. "The subject was definitely big enough, and, er, quite noticable. There was cold involved."

[thebettersort]

"If cold was involved, his own subject was probably cringing."

[damncompass]

"I... I... I...." Joshua makes a series of faces. "I... did not need to be thinking about that particular subject."

[thebettersort]

"...honestly, neither did I."

Does anyone enjoy thinking about that subject? Other than Pete, of course.

[damncompass]

Joshua shakes his head to get the thoughts out. "Ok, so subject change, stat. Uh...."

He can talk for hours about pretty much anything, but face him with needing to change the subject and he just flails.

[thebettersort]

"How about you tell me about this thing you've been playing?"

Zelda, was it?

[damncompass]

"Oh. It's just... well, ok. It's an old videogame that they've remade for the hand-held console." He flips his 3DS open to the menu screen. "Basically, you're this little kid who has to go through time to save the world."

... no wonder he likes it.

[thebettersort]

"I've seen Pete play that. At times, it involved throwing many things at the screen."

Myka never really understood why, it didn't look that hard.

[damncompass]

"I try not to throw things at the tiny screen, but I have thrown styli across the room and lost them before." He makes a sheepish face.

"It's... harder than it looks sometimes, mostly because the controls can be crap." He shrugs. "It is one of the best and most classic games ever, though. Go on a quest, save the princess, etcetera." He grins. "Although, now that I think about it, we totally need to get a Smash Brothers tournament going. Helena's scary good at video games for a Victorian, and I'm sure that I could teach you how to play, if you wanted to participate."

Just... not Artie. Joshua can't really imagine Artie playing video games.

[thebettersort]

"Smash Brothers? That sounds pretty violent."

[damncompass]

"Nah. It's mostly just people bouncing off of things." He shrugs. "It's not Mortal Kombat. I mean.. I guess we could do Mario Kart, that's just the video game version of bumper cars."

With blue shells.

[thebettersort]

"Oh!" Myka brightens up. "I've played that one. My sister loved competing on it when we were kids."

Her sister liked video games an awful lot more than her, but that one had been too cute to deny.