Foolish Red-Haired Girl

"You mean there's actually a whole section devoted to Christmas artifacts?" Joshua asked.

"The Aisle of Noel," Artie confirmed. "It's not as . . . joyous . . . as it might sound."

Claudia burst through the front door ahead of Myka, who'd driven her in from the airport. "Honey! I'm home! Joshua!"

Joshua was nearly all the way to his feet when Claudia smacked into him for her hug. "Woah. Okay," he said. "We won't skip Thanksgiving next year, I promise."

"She uh . . . had a rough time of it," Myka explained.

"We don't really get it," Pete offered.

"Some artifact," said Artie. "She refuses to be debriefed yet."

Claudia pulled back from the hug to give Artie a pointed look. "Hey, I've tried. You're the one who refuses to believe me about the Auditors and the Nothing eating the multiverse."

"That part I get," Artie said. "I'm just still not sure about the gnome."

"Whatever," Claudia said. "Where's my presents?"

[ooc: open for phone calls if anyone feels the need to contact mah girl.]

Claudia lead the way into the lab, leaving Jake standing watch outside. Artie, adjusted his glasses, staring around in awe.

“It really is Joshua’s lab.”

“That’s what I told you, genius.” Claudia rolled her eyes, heading for the center of the room. “Come on, ( let's do this.' )

[ooc: muchly riffed from Warehouse 13 ep 1x04, aptly named "Claudia". NFB, locked to need_no_moon or those in the know enough to place phone calls.]

Claudia was lying on her bed, staring off into space, uncharacteristically idle. She didn't even have any gadgets lying about in pieces.

Any time she tried to focus on doing something, she got distracted thinking about Joshua. What he'd be doing if he was still around. Where they'd be living. What he'd think of Fandom and the classes she was taking and her friends.

She was usually pretty good about distracting herself from these sorts of thoughts -- she'd had five years of practice redirecting the nostalgia into something useful. But today she found herself just wanting to . . . daydream.

Joshua would love Fandom. She was sure of that. If only he could come see it.

[ooc: up for establishing purposes. Door is closed but knockable and the post is open for interaction.]