God damn it. Where had she packed it? She could've sworn it was in the box nearest to her bed. It was one of the only things, without fail, that she kept near her. And yet, somehow, here she was. A trail of old newspapers (say what you want about that dying medium, newspaper is the ultimate packing material) littered the floor all the way back to her bedroom as she searched through box after box for the desired item.

Ah well, she thought. At the very least it got her procrastinating ass to start unpacking the rest of her essentials.

Of course this was what it took to get her motivated. Figures.

Wait...

Iva dug her hands into one of the more unassuming boxes in the corner of the room. Her hands touched the familiar smooth top and even smoother glass.

"There you are ya little son-of-a-bitch. Come here."

Iva lifted up her coffee maker from the nest of paper. Setting that to the side, the girl pulled out the three coffee mugs she'd packed along with it. Part of her wondered why she only seemed to keep three coffee mugs. Perhaps it felt less depressing than keeping one, but didn't feel like an overabundance. It didn't look like she was over-compensating for anything, but it also didn't make her look as if she was pathetically alone either. It was the socially acceptable amount of mugs to have when living alone.

Or it saved her trouble of tedious dish washing. Either way, either way.

Once she got everything set up and washed off the newspaper ink, she started the coffee. Despite everything else , Iva had not forgotten to buy her food and drink necessities.

Good job, you managed to keep yourself alive, she thought.

So here she sat, sipping on a cup of victory coffee and looking around at the mess she had made in pursuit of said cup of coffee.

"Cheers." She said, taking a big gulp.

Knock knock.

The sudden sound caused Iva to nearly choke on her drink. She sat there coughing and sputtering for a minute before frantically making her way to the door.

"H-hello?" She called.

"Yeah, hi. My grandson said... he said you came by our house earlier and wanted to speak with me?" The voice that spoke was gravely, deep. Definitely the voice of an older man.

Oh shit. Oh shit.

"Uh... just a sec!"

It was him. He was probably here to demand why she was snooping around his place. Oh no. Of course she should've expected this. God damn it. Well... she supposed it would at least give her the opportunity to apologize.

Iva knew she didn't have time to do anything substantial with her appearance, but she managed to wipe up the trail of coffee down her chin before opening the door.

... Whatever she had been expecting, this was not it. Well, she had been expecting it, but was surprised that she got what she expected.

He looked exactly like what someone would imagine an inventor looks like. His hair was a complete mess of blue-grey, going in every which direction one could imagine. The man even sported a wild unibrow. His eyes were icy blue and had an almost unnaturally intense gaze, the gaze of someone who studied everything around them. Around the corner of his mouth was some kind of greenish mucus. Even his body, being incredibly lanky and wrapped in a lab coat, matched the stereotype.

He was the quintessential mad scientist.

But what was most surprising was the large box of various gadgets he carried with him. What... why would he bring those?

Iva realized in that moment that she had been staring at this man for an awkward amount of time.

"Uh..." Crap, what should she say? "H-hi! Yeah, I... I was the one asking for you."

She stuck out her hand. "I'm Iva."

The scientist didn't speak for a moment. He seemed to be simply stating at the girl with with a look in his eye that she couldn't quite place. Curiosity? Recognition?

Finally he took his eyes off of her and glanced at her hand. Shifting the contents of his box to one arm, he offered out a hand himself.

"I'm Rick. Rick Sanchez."

His hand was, much like hers, rather bony. But unlike hers, it was almost coated in hard callouses from years of constant use.

"So ya gonna... gonna invite me in or what?" He asked.

"Uh..." Iva glanced back. Not only was there newspaper all over the carpet, there was also a fresh coffee stain near the kitchen. The idea of inviting this scientist into her home for a professional interview was... well...

"It's uh... it's not really unpacked in there. I don't think you'd want to-"

"Trust me, I don't care. Now do you want to t-talk to me or not?"

Iva bit her lip. Well, he had taken the trouble to come over here. It was only fair that she let him in.

The girl moved out of the door frame.

"T-thanks."

Rick took a few steps in. Iva watched his eyes wander around and take in the interior. His eyebrow raised in a quizzical expression.

"Quite a set-up you have here."

Iva sighed, her eyes moving to the floor.

"...I was trying to find my coffee pot."

His eyes moved over to the kitchen area. On the counter-top separating the tile from the carpet was the half-full pot, along with the cup, still dripping with wayward liquid.

"Looks like you managed to find it."

"Y-yeah... so, would you care to sit somewhere?"

Among all the half-unpacked boxes and newspaper was really only one place for them to sit. In the middle of the room was a tiny love seat left-over from the days living in her family's basement. Rick, noticing this was the only furniture in the room, plopped down and set his box on the floor beside him.

Iva walked over to him. "I-I am so sorry about this. I haven't had much time to unpack yet and I wasn't expecting company and If I'd have known you were coming I would've-"

Rick held up a hand in the "stop" gesture. Iva went silent.

"Believe me, I d-don't expect a clean house from someone who moved in, what... two weeks ago, give or take a couple days?"

"Y-yeah, actually."

"Furthermore, I really, truly, genuinely don't care."

Iva gave a nervous smile. "W-well thank you."

Now both of them were silent. Iva stood where she was, waiting for Rick to say something.

"Y-you gonna sit down or what?"

"O-oh. Yeah."

She sat down on the other side. Though, considering how small it was, that wasn't saying much. The proximity was almost a little too close for comfort. At least, it seemed that way to her.

Rick began rummaging through his box.

"Thank you so much for coming, Mr. Sanchez. I really... I really appreciate it. I'm very sorry for the way I brought this up though."

"Eh, you have nothing to apologize for. And... and also, my name is Rick. I don't wanna hear any of that 'Mr. Sanchez' crap. I may be old, but- but... not that old."

Iva nodded. She wasn't entirely sure what to make of Rick. He had a rather abrasive manner, at least that was what she got form him, and seemed to pepper every statement with stutters and burps. Hardly seemed like a professional. But, honestly, she kind of liked it. It felt more genuine than the phony politeness and formalities usually associated with first meetings. She felt as if she was talking to an actual person instead of the polished version of a person.

That didn't she was any less terrified of making a bad first impression. Ah hypocrisy, thy name is Iva.

"So what do you have there?" She asked.

"Well... well since you wanted some inspiration, I thought I'd show you some of my inventions. Get a feel for what I do and... and get the ol' gears turning."

"Oh, wow! I... thank you, thank you so much!"

That was... incredibly kind of him! Iva felt truly touched by the gesture.

"No prob. So- so what kind of science fiction do you write about? Deep space? F-futuristic technology? Time travel? You seem like the time travel type."

Iva shook her head. "Actually, I'm more of a parallel dimensions type. It's much more interesting to me."

He looked up from his box. "Really now?"

"Yeah." She felt herself ease a little more into her seat. "To be honest, I tend to stay away from time travel. There's really nothing that hasn't been done. Besides, you have to deal with all the paradoxes and... and the butterfly effect stuff... the whole thing is really messy. Seems kinda pointless, y'know?"

Rick looked back down for a moment. "Y-yeah..."

Iva tensed back up a bit.

"Uh... I also dabble in genetic engineering. You know, a little Frankenstein type stuff. Sometimes I mix in fantasy with sci-fi, since they can be so... they can be closely related sometimes. But mostly the multiverse thing."

The older man finally seemed to settle on something and pulled a gadget from the box.

"Y-yeah cool. Well, anyways, this is a Meeseeks box."

He offered out an object. It was, indeed, a box. The main color seemed to be a dark grey, highlighted with blue edges and aqua circles on the center of each side. On the very top was a button.

"W-what does this do?"

"In your case..." Rick began. "It'll help you clean up all this shit."

A.N.: Well here's chapter three! I hope you all enjoyed. Thank you so much for all the feedback! ^^