happy hour!

[claudiometer]

The elevator to the garage opens, and Claudia walks into the bar proper, looking... pretty content, under the circumstances. The door's still gone, but the El Camino is done, and that's worth being pleased about

Comments

[tobeclosetohim]

"So, where can you get one of those phones?"

Obviously, someone was listening in earlier.

It's a bar. Close stools. It happens.

[claudiometer]

And really, even in a place like Milliways, there are only so many places a person can go.
"I got mine from the Bar," Claudia says. "So you might have to wait until I'm done back here. I think the original note said the person who brought 'em in had some with him, but... I haven't actually talked to him face-to-face."
The wonders of modern technology!

[tobeclosetohim]

Jo's suspicions drop a little.
She doesn't trust much here.

But she trusts Bar.

(For more than her paycheck.)

"Is it just phones, or other toys, too?"

[claudiometer]

"It's... more sort of a phone that only has an instant-messaging client. But it's good at what it does."

[tobeclosetohim]

"Interdimensional AIM." There's a snort.
An only in Milliways head shake.

"I'll have to look into it."

Beat. "First Happy Hour?"

[claudiometer]

"First any kind of bartending at all," Claudia says. "Bar seems to think I need something to do."
She's probably right, really. Otherwise Claudia's down to not much to do but have a staring contest with the wall.

[tobeclosetohim]

Jo crossed her arms on the edge of the bar.
"Yeah, she does that when we're all out."

"Any good reason She thinks you need to do something?"

[claudiometer]

"It's that or have a staring contest with the wall until my door comes back."
Okay, she probably could come up with something else to do, but still.

[tobeclosetohim]

Jo winced. Sympathetically.
With a glance back to hers.

Ever to make sure.

"Sorry. That blows."

[claudiometer]

"I usually check it every time I come in, just to make sure, but... this is also the first time I didn't know it was coming."
Claudia's used to a very special door.

[tobeclosetohim]

"Explain?"

Beat. "And a whiskey shot."

[claudiometer]

"At home we... they collect weird stuff," Claudia says, as she starts working on the drink. "Usually stuff that makes people act weird. So there's a door, in a frame, not connected to a wall or anything, that goes directly here. On a good day, you tell me 'Milliways' and I'm on that like white on rice, but I have... issues with the 'interdimensional space you can get stuck in' part. So, checking the door. But this time it actually caught me off guard."

[tobeclosetohim]

"What kind of weird stuff?"

Jo had heard the rest.

But the beginning.

[claudiometer]

"Well, there was the time I tried to change a light bulb with a little help from a magnetic lab coat and got myself magnetized to the ceiling for my trouble. That got a lot funnier once I wasn't in mortal peril anymore."
As happens sometimes.

[tobeclosetohim]

"Like cursed objects?"

Jo sounds incredibly serious now.

[claudiometer]

"I wouldn't say cursed, as such. Sometimes it's just that some aspect of the owner... rubs off on the object, I guess you could say. Other times, like with the lab coat, I think they're just inventions that got a little out of hand or otherwise didn't get inflicted on the rest of the world. I mean, they can and have killed people, hence the rounding-up, but as far as I know actual demonic or magical bad juju need not apply."
That's not to say it absolutely couldn't - they had bad enough luck with Poe, Claudia doesn't even want to think about anything that might be tied to HP Lovecraft. But it's a vanishingly small corner of the field.