milliways_bar | (no subject)

Claudia was minding her own business, making notes on what else she thinks she can do with the Tesla concept. But let's face it - she'd know that voice anywhere.
!!!
SURPRISE FLYING TACKLE SISTERHUG.

"Ack!" Joshua drops the box in surprise. "You little... what're you doing in the mail room? I was going to mail you your birthday present." He hugs her tight. "Ok, yeah, it's late, but I was busy!" Sheepish brother is sheepish.

"Not the mail room." Yeah, she's still grinning. She's not likely to stop for a while, to be honest.
"Congratulations, you've found yourself another interdimensional space. Do me a favor and check the door?"
Because if he's stuck in another interdimensional space, she'll be having a Word with the management. You know, just as soon as she works out who management is.

"Another... oh, damn it all." He goes over to the door and opens it. On the other side is a fairly benign hallway. "Yeah, that looks like the hall of the lab." He pauses. "Another interdimensional space? This doesn't look like shiny gold nonsense." He's already looking around and taking stock of where he is. "Where is this place?"

"This one isn't shiny gold nonsense. It's Milliways."
Given her history with the said shiny gold nonsense, if it weren't that good, she wouldn't have bothered in the first place.
"At least you're not stuck this time? The door does disappear every now and then, so I check it every time I come in, but if you do get stuck you won't lose time out there."

"Milliways? As in Douglas Adams?" He blinks a few times. "Ok, maybe I might actually like it here." He sighs. "Don't even talk about doors disappearing. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it." Leaning down, he picks up the box. "Well... happy birthday, at any rate."

"As in." Yep, still grinning. "Food and company are better than the last one, by which I mean they... exist."
She takes the box and, what the hell, why not open it while he's here? So she does. "Awww, a box of scraps! You shouldn't have! I'll be sure to take them to my cave when I get home."

"Obviously it's better." He shakes his head. He hasn't talked much about his time in the shiny gold nonsense, but it obviously wasn't fun. "I'm all for not being alone with my thoughts for any length of time again."

"Ok, I'm missing something here." There's a pause. "I think you're making a pop culture reference again. Anyway, one of the guys from the electronics department was dumping out some stuff and let me go through it. I thought you'd like that better than another gift card to Think Geek."

"Dude, I always like ThinkGeek gift cards. But this works too."
She lets the reference slide; she can always explain it later (though she's not sure she should tell him to watch Iron Man without someone around to vent about the science to).
"Anyway, Milliways 101. Apparently the door likes to sneak up on people, and apparently if you take a napkin or something with you it makes the door turn up more easily. I make a habit of checking the door every time I come in, just in case. The official rules are no violence, no naked, and no grudge-matches in the bar proper, not that I think you'll have a problem with those."
(And if he's in a naked-requiring situation Claudia does not want to know about it ever, thank you.)

"Well, maybe I'll just have to randomly send you more, then." He pauses. "I... might've gotten the broadsword umbrella the other day." Sheepish Josh is sheepish. "Hm. Well, I guess having a napkin in my pocket wouldn't hurt anything." Beat. "And really the only person I want to punch in the nose is rather by way of being dead. I doubt I'll bump into him anyway." And frankly, it's probably better that way. He doesn't mention the naked. It's... definitely not something on his radar right now.

"Hate to break it to you, but there are some dead people around here. I haven't seen him yet, but I do kinda have a posse on call if he turns up." She'll take the time in the cells if that's how it falls out. It'll be worth it; no one screws with her family twice and gets away with it.
"Also, even though you don't have half as much context as I do, I should warn you - you might bump into some people you've read about or seen in a movie or whatever. As a rule, don't mention it, but Ray Stantz has seen the movie."

"Posse, my ass. I'm first in line to punch him in the nose." That's not exactly a nice face. "It was twelve years of my life here."

His expression breaks into a huge grin at Claudia's next words. "Oh, shit. I can handle not telling people I know them, but you don't know what I'd give to actually talk to him about the proton pack. You were tiny, but I used to tinker around with trying to make something like that." Beat. "When I wasn't making fake lightsabres."

"No no, he screwed with my family twice. I'm first in line." Then Joshua, then the posse.
"I remember that. Kinda. Didn't you nearly blow up your bedroom one time? And I did - did I tell you about the lightsaber? That was a crazy few weeks, actually, so I don't remember."