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Claudia gets all of three steps into the bar before she stops and grins. Now this is the construction toy outbreak she's been waiting for.
So she turns around.
(the heart won't remember the burning fire)
A while later, she comes back with a stack of papers in her arms, making a beeline for the furnace. If anyone were to get a good look at the papers, they appear to be records about someone, with a few notes mixed in about just how old the data that makes them up actually is.
(next time you feel the flame of desire)
She figures it's time she put some of this Todd craziness behind her.

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He mostly dodges the swat. "Wait, how did you burn stuff to get a thing?" Joshua is a well-educated human being, we swear. "Is that related to all of the construction toys?"

"Yeah. Shove old shit in the furnace, get a new shiny. How I got my tool belt."
This is just the first time she'd had cause to use it since her first Cubefall.

Joshua plunks down beside Claudia. "Huh." That's probably a dangerous thinking face, Joshua. "So how the shit does that work? Is the thing you get related to what you burn up? And how old does the burned up stuff have to be?"

"No clue how it works, and this pile of stuff was from October, so not that old?" Claudia shrugs. "But the idea is kind of an 'out with the old, in with the new' thing."
And it's the most secure way she can think of to get rid of some of these file collections she's built up on people.

"Hm." Joshua leans back in the chair, mind wandering. "So, get rid of old shit, and get some kind of shiny." Beat. "Does it actually help you put it behind you, or is it just symbolic?"

"Guess it depends on how much you're over it already."
The first time, it really helped. This time, well, she still misses Todd, but she didn't need all the notes about his cover story (which has probably changed by now) sitting around her room.

"Hm." He looks up at all of the construction materials that now constitute the roof and rafters. He's mostly muttering under his breath at this point. "Would that help? Do I even really want to..."

"What is it we're meant to be helping, brother dear?"
What, did he think he could mutter like that and not pique his sister's curiosity?

"Er, nothing, Claudia. Just thinking about something." If this was a week later, he'd consider throwing in his dissertation, but he needs those notes right now, thanks.

"And what is it you're thinking about?"
NICE TRY, Joshua.

"Nothing that you'd kill me for." He sighs. "I need to stop thinking out loud."

"Well, now that you have, you can tell me what you were thinking out loud about."

He runs a hand through his hair. "Just thinking about that notebook you keep not giving back to me."

"...Well. If you're planning on burning it, I might be convinced to."
It's just. You know. He doesn't need to poke teleportation again.

"Maybe I'd finally be able to put it all to bed." He shrugs. "I really only want the notebook back for the last five pages. It has some stuff that I was considering for my dissertation back then, and has nothing to do with teleportation. Yeah, the compass got me thinking about that, but it's completely different." It's philotics research, but nothing that has to do with movement or getting stuck somewhere.

Claudia smiles a little. "You might even convince me to let you keep that part."

"Yeah, I'll always be fascinated with teleportation..." and if he ever found a non-compass way to do it, he would be all over that like goo on an Artifact, "but I'm done with the compass and that specific way." He shrugs. "The other notes were... tangental, and actually I'm beginning to wonder if I was really onto something."

"That I can work with. I'll bring it back for ya, but if I miss you when I come in you are damn well waiting for me before you torch it."
It's as much because she wants to see what kind of shiny he gets as to make sure he actually does burn it.

"Alright, alright." Joshua laughs a bit. "I'll even show you exactly what notes I'm taking out. Don't worry. I'm not that much of a Slytherin."

"I know you're not. But I want to see what you get as much as anything else."

"Knowing my luck, it'll take me a week to just figure out what the shit it is. I can't do anything typically, you know." He cracks a smile.

"Joshua Donovan: Doing nothing halfway since 1973." Claudia grins. "Whatever it is, it'll probably be pretty nifty. That's how Cubefall rolls."

"I guess so." Joshua reaches over and picks up a handful of Legos that happen to be in a box next to his chair and starts fussing with them.

"Oh, you are so not starting without me."
Claudia stuffs her new toy in her tool belt (she can swap out some of the tools she won't need to carry anymore when she gets home) and grabs some Legos herself.

Joshua grins. Now this is more like it. Fuck worrying about the future, fuck worrying about the past. There are Legos to be getting on with.

He's starting to make what might just be some sort of castle.