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On especially long days, or those that followed an especially short night of sleep, a strict schedule of caffeine consumption was an important necessity for Mimsy. The exhaustion of one cup could not be too far from the retrieval of another, unless she intended to account for a more lengthy interruption while she waited for the lull in its effects to be negated once more. Despite sticking to that routine, however, some days did not go quite as planned.

This was one of those days.

What seemed like a critical breakthrough at the time had just turned out to be a misread failure, and what was meant to be just a few more minutes spent observing her experiment had rapidly become half an hour. By the time she made it to the nearest coffee machine, she could hardly keep her eyes open, and was fighting against the sting from the excessive strain that she had put on them.

Hoping that a moment's relaxation might encourage a faster recovery, she stopped to sit in an otherwise empty lounge near the lab. After sending a short message with her phone (which lacked what she'd expected to be an immediate response), she began to impatiently drum her thumb on the small table in front of her.

In that instant, Mimsy was suddenly very awake.

The coffee cup toppled over as she abruptly stood, its aromatic contents pooling beside it on the laminate tabletop as she attempted to disentangle herself from the legs of the flimsy chair, which had been similarly knocked off-kilter. When she finally managed to kick it aside, she took one large stride towards Lucky and flung her arms around him in a stiff, yet decidedly genuine hug. The gesture only lasted for a short moment, before she pulled away to put one hand on either side of his face, her touch about as gentle as an eager toddler with its pet.

"Brother," she gasped, eyes flickering over his features to hungrily consume as much data as they could, lest he go away again. The few details that seemed somehow wrong were shoved aside with immediacy, and her face cracked into a smile, eyes wide and bright and possibly familiar, if he could recall their time together in Wonderland.

"I have missed you tremendously! I truly hope that your adventure was worthwhile." The smile twitched, betraying the pleasant edge to her tone, but didn't falter. There was so little to tell him, considering how frequently they had spoken, but she was sure he had plenty to tell her now. "If you do not mind my asking...ah...how is ALICE?"