|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2026 10:37 am
Room 1: The Fossils While some exhibits appear to have been carefully and meticulously reconstructed, this one is far more archaeological. The room opens into an enormous circular hall, where skeletons of all shapes and sizes have been meticulously constructed. The most impressive of all of them takes up nearly the whole room; suspended overhead by invisible supports was the fossilized skeleton of a creature so immense it nearly disappeared into the darkness above. At first glance it resembled an octopus, but its proportions quickly betrayed something stranger. The creature had been enormous, and each arm stretched dozens of feet, and ended in a diabolically sharp spear. It was posed as if it were half moving, half attacking--no easy feat, given the enormity of its remains. Though the bones were interesting on their own, parts of it were covered in strange crystals, locking up joints. Some of the bones were cracked where the crystals had grown into it. The rest of the room is filled with smaller, but equally unique skeletons and fossils. Each specimen has a uniquely aquatic appearance--from eight legged turtles, and fully crystalized jellyfish that hung from displays like artwork. Some of the specimens had a sketch of the creature as it was in life, but many did not. A neighboring display features only a single bone--a whale tooth, very ground down and still nearly four feet tall. One common feature amongst all of the specimens stood out: each of them bore curious crystalline growths. Pastel crystals had spread through portions of the bone like veins of quartz, glittering softly beneath the gallery lights. Whatever phenomenon had caused this anomaly seemed to have been localized to wherever the specimens were sourced, and Almadel had clearly chosen preservation over restoration.
"What the hell language is this?" he muttered, turning it sideways as if that might help. It did not.
The print was beautiful, at least. Expensive looking. Everything in this place was expensive looking, which only made Arawn more convinced he should keep his hands to himself and his elbows close to his sides. He didn't trust rooms full of priceless things that he wasn't used to dusting at least twice a week and had time to get to know each object. But he definitely didn't trust magic museums. And he didn't trust invitations from people who smiled like they knew more than they said.
He trusted Laon.
He trusted Remarque.
So he stayed close to them, closer than he probably needed to, trying not to glower at anyone who might glance in their direction. The trip there had been disorienting, the museum was too big, and whatever new medication they had him on made everything feel a little too sharp and a little too muffled at the same time. It left him tired. Cranky. More on edge than usual… which was saying something.
Then they stepped into the circular hall, and Arawn stopped.
For a moment, he just stared up at the enormous skeleton suspended overhead. It looked like an octopus if an octopus had been designed specifically to drag people into nightmares, still long arms and spear sharp ends. The crystals in its bones glittered softly under the lights, pretty in a way that made his skin crawl.
"Okay," he breathed after a moment, quieter than before. "That's… actually kind of cool."
His fingers twitched at his sides, then flexed when he realized his hands were shaking. He crossed his arms over his chest to keep them hidden and glanced away, pretending to study the smaller displays instead.
"The crystals grew into the bones," he observed, frowning at one of the specimens. "Cracked some of them."
He didn't like that. Pretty things growing where they didn't belong. Ruining something from the inside out.
Arawn glanced sharply at Laon.
"Still don't tough anything," he warned, although there wasn't much heat behind it.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2026 10:39 am
Remarque took a brochure but deposited it into his subspace, and Laon did the same because if Remarque did it, it must have been a good idea. It meant that he kept leaning in close to better see Arawn's, even if he couldn't understand anything. He followed quietly, with curious, eager interest.
The room was impressive, by Earth standards and all others. He was in awe, dwarfed by these ancient creatures with some otherworldly affliction.
Of course, when Arawn again told him not to touch anything, he flushed. "It's a museum," he protested, like this was evidence that he knew not to touch anything.
Even if it wasn't part of some curated display, Laon did not make a habit of touching strange, magical things. Especially when they involved crystals growing out of bones. What if it was contagious?
He kept his hands to himself--mostly. His pinky curled around Arawn's.
There wasn't anyone else here, and though Laon was already shy about physical affection, it wasn't like anyone who looked at them wouldn't have known they were together.
Remarque's eyes had fixed on the colossal skeleton above them. The two younger Dark Mirror Senshi had impossibly bad luck so his first act was to make sure that it didn't look like the ceiling was going to cave in on them if they stayed here for too long. It looked sturdy enough, so the next action was just to absorb the room around them.
"Probably wasn't very comfortable," he mused, eyeing a large, jagged crystal jutting from one of the enormous bones above them. Of course, he was also wondering if that crystal counted as a gemstone, and if it did, how much was it worth?
...But then, that wasn't the first time he'd thought about monetizing organic crystals. He began to walk around the room slowly, observing the strange crystals--and stranger skeletons--with a thoughtful expression.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2026 10:41 am
Arawn glanced down when Laon's pinky curled around his, and for a moment his expression softened. Then his hand shifted just enough to hook his pinky back around Laon's.
He glanced back towards the enormous skeleton, following the jagged lines where crystals had forced its way through bone. His expression shifted into a grimace.
"Probably wasn't comfortable," he echoed, quieter. "Yeah. Sounds like a pretty bad way to die."
He lingered on it a moment too long, imagining something growing where it shouldn't, splitting through flesh and bone until there was nothing left but a shell. He forced out a breath through his nose and looked away.
Instead, he stepped closer to one of the sketches, squinting at it like it might have some hidden message or reveal something obviously important.
"Do you think there's supposed to be more information?" he huffed, glancing between the drawing and the skeleton overhead. "Like… I dunno… before pictures. I want to know what they all looked like before it turned into crystalized seafood. Oh, here's one…" He made a face at the creature in question's image, and then squinted at the associated skeleton as if trying to imagine it.
Without really thinking about it, he shifted a little closer to Laon again, his pinky still hooked with his.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2026 10:44 am
“I wouldn’t count on it. I don’t think Almadel’s known for being particularly straight forward with the truth unless there’s something in it for him.”
Remarque had very few dealings with him for a purpose, and while they both dealt in a similar business, Almadel very distinctly reminded him of a snake-charmer. Pretty words and grand gestures, but too much misdirection and sleight of hand.
He shrugged, and meandered deeper into the room, never straying too far from the other two. The giant tooth had caught his eye, and he’d crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head as he scrutinized its enormous shape. “I think I’ve got a good idea of why Earth is the only place that still has life,” he grumbled.
The blunted tooth was not intimidating but for its size; it was blunt and ground down, but any amount of pressure would have been crushing.
Laon had an infinite slew of questions, but if Remarque didn’t have the answer, he doubted he’d find it elsewhere. The language around them was completely foreign to me, despite his best effort to become magically proficient between one blink and another.
He admired the exhibits with obvious interest, and with an overactive imagination, he seemed to be enjoying himself despite the morbid nature of the room. Even if he wasn’t fascinated by those, the display case and presentation was still enough to catch his attention, and he had no doubt that Remarque was taking note of them, too.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2026 10:45 am
Arawn glanced over at Remarque when he spoke, then scowled harder. That was exactly the kind of answer he didn't like. Not because it was surprising but because it made the most sense.
"Right," he scoffed, looking back toward the enormous skeleton overhead. "So he's not straightforward unless there's something in it for him, but he invites a bunch of people here to wander around his very expensive, very magic museum… for free?"
He glanced over the smaller fossils, the sketches, the crystals glittering through bone.
"Just so we can have a nice educational afternoon without actually being told anything about what we're looking at." Arawn didn't sound convinced, nor did he look it. His shoulders were tense again, although his pinky stayed hooked with Laon's.
"What's the point?" he asked, quieter. "Showing off? Collecting information? Seeing who touches what? Seeing who reacts to what?"
He cast a suspicious look around the room, like maybe he expected the displays themselves to be listening. Maybe they were. He didn't know. And he hated that he didn't know.
His eyes landed on the giant tooth Remarque had stopped near, his expression twisting faintly.
"Yeah," he muttered. "No offense to whatever this stuff came from, but Earth being boring is starting to sound pretty good."
He shifted closer to Laon again, not enough to crowd him, but enough to brush shoulders.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2026 10:46 am
Laon instinctively leaned into Arawn, comforted by the pressure where their shoulders met.
“He's just showing off, probably. He seems to have an ego.” Remarque wasn’t actually complaining, though. “He seems interested in the people of Earth. I don’t know. From what I’ve heard about space, it’s pretty empty. Maybe he’s just lonely. If he’s not doing something ‘important’, he’s doing something weird.”
Maybe the quirk of being an alien.
“I won’t say I’m not interested in the museum,” Remarque admitted–because he’d been taking his time and was carefully examining everything, “But I’m more interested in what’s outside of it.”
There weren’t many windows here, but they’d passed a few, and Remarque fully intended to spend some time in front of a good one before they left.
“Did you know there are whales in space?” he asked, eyes on the tooth.
Laon’s eyes lifted. “Like on other worlds?”
“Oh, certainly. But no, I mean in space.”
For a few seconds, Laon stared at him, and it was clear that he heard the words, he just didn’t understand them.
“When I first joined the Court, and a bit before then–I’ve told you about the Surrounding.” And, for as upsetting as the whole situation had been, Remarque missed it. He dreamed of a rainbow bridge beneath an unending sea of stars.
He hadn’t been invited back. But then, Chronos Knights were hard to find.
But he wasn’t a man who gave up easily.
“I don’t know if it was big enough to have teeth like this.” He stared intently, and then shrugged. “Maybe it was. It was a long time ago. I’d like to see one again. From a distance.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2026 10:47 am
Arawn stared at Remarque for a moment, waiting for some indication that he was joking.
There wasn't one.
So. Space whales.
"Sure," he said after a moment, looking back at the tooth with a faint, uneasy grimace. "Yeah. Fine. Why wouldn't there be whales in space? There are giant snakes trying to eat planets, so apparently the universe is just like that."
It should have sounded absurd. It did sound absurd. But Remarque wasn't the sort of person who told pointless stories, and Arawn trusted him more than he trusted most things. If Remarque said there were whales in space, then there were whales in space.
Arawn glanced down when Laon leaned into him, and his expression tightened with quiet concern. He shifted his hand enough to catch Laon's more properly, thumb brushing over his knuckles.
"You okay?" he asked under his breath, quieter and just for him. "You're not getting dizzy or anything, right?"
Maybe he was fussing. He didn't care.
He glanced back up at the crystal threaded bones around them, then to the enormous skeleton overhead.
"Maybe that's the point," he said after a moment, frowning. "Maybe he's not just showing off. Maybe this is a warning."
Arawn looked back to Remarque.
"If Almadel doesn't give straight answers, maybe this is how he gives them. Puts a bunch of dead things on display and waits for everyone else to figure out what they're supposed to be worried about."
His mouth pressed into a thin line. "Crystals growing through bones… Giant sea monsters… Space whales… Whatever did this was localized, right? What if he's showing us something that happened somewhere else because something like it is coming to Earth?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2026 10:48 am
Laon blinked, glancing at Arawn and then shaking his head slightly. “No,” he said quietly, like he had any reason for not wanting Remarque to overhear. He squeezed Arawn’s hand, and then swung their hands slightly.
While Laon wasn’t always good at being physically affectionate, he was always by Arawn’s side, and in the immense room, surrounded by morbid unknowns, he wanted to be as close as possible.
From next to them, Remarque considered Arawn’s words, shrugged, and then nodded. “Maybe.” There were many options for what it could be, but Arawn’s suggestion wasn’t a bad one.
“I guess you have to be enormous if you’re going to make it out in the middle of nowhere. Not sure what they find to eat out there, but.” He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Guess there’s always worlds to snack on.”
The universe was big enough that there were probably things out there they’d never see, for better or worse.
“If Almadel was going to give us a warning, it’d be great if he could use his words. I see something like this,” he gestured vaguely, “And I think of Mirrorspace. Before–when it was a bit more unstable,” not that it was ever stable, “We all got trapped there. Crystals started growing out of people. If we’d been stuck there, I’m sure we’d have wound up as wraiths, but.”
He exhaled and moved away from the tooth, onto the next crystal-cluttered skeleton. “The last thing we need is people assuming that Mirrorspace is going to come after them or something. So don’t mention that to anyone else.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
