the_last_resort | (no subject)

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Who:Jade and OPEN
What:Visiting the museum and running into friends
When:M12 D10
Where:Various exhibits in the museum
Notes & Warnings:None at the moment

Usually back home on Hyllis, Jade couldn't afford to take an entire day off of work, and the moment she got a new assignment, she'd be already out and getting ready. People in Blackstaff were a lot more willing to pay more and pay more often, so she could take more breaks without worrying about money.

Today, she decided to spend some time at the museum. The last time she was here, she came to tell Belloq she was done doing business with him, and she hadn't really looked at the exhibits well enough.

She wandered through the various wings, taking her time in the wing containing unearthed artifacts and reading through the museum descriptions.

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One of the curators told Una that some of the books from the underground library were up in a new exhibit, and would Una like to see them, seeing as how she was one of the group who helped find them? Certainly, Una said—so here she was, having followed the excited curator to a new room where the books were displayed under glass, in dim light to prevent damage to the pages.

Jade eventually made her way through the hallway of ancient vases and pottery. Satisfied with her tour so far, she picked the nearest gallery to explore, which happened to also contain the room with the excavated books.

She followed the sound of people talking, and found Una conversing with the curator.

"Oh! Hey, Una," she said as she walked into the room. "Didn't expect to run into you."

"Jade, hello." Una waved. The curator nodded in greeting as well, and then left, having some business elsewhere in the department.

"Have you seen this?" Una said. "It's rather nice, what they did with the books."

Jade walked up and rested her hands on her hips as she leaned towards the display to get a better look.

"Still can't believe how good they look," she said after going over the binding designs. "You know, I never really thanked you for helping carrying out all of these. And saving Ben." Jade was definitely worried for the researcher back then, but at the present, it was a fun memory.

"My pleasure," Una said with a grin. "Hordes of small creeping nasties aside, anyway." Though even that had been entertaining in its own way. "Apparently translating these is going to keep the staff here busy for quite some time. Particularly the one on the pedestal. Did you see it?" That one had been left in situ for the time being.

"Mm-hm," she replied. It definitely looked like an important text, though Jade couldn't understand a word of it. "They'll tell us once they translate it, right? It's the least they can do to thank us."

And who knows? That book could hold the secrets to this planet, the skeletons that attacked the town a while ago. Countless stories might be hidden among those pages.

"The curator said she'd rep are a report once there was something worth reporting on. I'm certainly looking forward to it." She smiled. "How have you been? Anything interesting going on for you?"

"Nothing much." She stretched her arms. "I went to that swamp a while back. That was pretty interesting."

Minus the times she thought the DomZ invaded this planet and were chasing after her. And then she was nearly blown up by a Creeper. It got better after that.

"I'm getting a good stream of clients at my place. Can't complain there."

"Glad to hear it," Una says of Jade's clientele. "Agent K and I had a swamp adventure ourselves. Very nearly got set on fire, in fact."

She realised that she sounded entirely too blasé about this. "We did at least find something interesting—a sort of little shack or hut. Conveniently stocked with fireproofing potions." She shook her head, amused. "By that point I must admit, I wouldn't have been surprised if the hut had turned out to be made of gingerbread."

Jade gave her a concerned look. At least it was a "nearly".

"Same here. We found an old hut and a skeleton, probably the person who used to live there." She smiled and crossed her arms. "Emilia found some potions, too, but she understood them more than I did."

"A skeleton? And not the shooting kind?" Interesting. "Emilia ... is an interesting character. I'm not surprised she was knowledgeable about the potions."

She thought again of the plague stuff that Emilia had used in the jungle, on their expedition in search of the corpse flower, and shivered a little.

"Nope." She shook her head and smiled. "Just the regular dead kind. Emilia could tell it was dead for a pretty long time."

Emilia was a bit strange, but she was helpful, in any case.

"So what did your potions do?" Una asked. "Or have you had a chance to find out yet? We only tried them because we were in a hurry to get out of the swamp and ... well. It seemed like a good idea at the time. At least it actually was."

"I haven't. I thought it'd be safer not to drink some bottles we found in a shack." Especially since they weren't labeled. It wasn't like she was raiding someone's refrigerator.

"Did you head out right away? Emilia and I stayed the night at the hut."

"We came back right away; neither of us felt like staying past dark, as we weren't nearly as well-armed as we preferred. I suppose that decision somewhat overtook the sense of not drinking from unmarked bottles." She smiled, self-deprecating. "At least the fireproofing worked."

"Neither of us wanted to stay, but the Creeper out there convinced us otherwise." And without a long-range weapon on either of then, engaging one in combat was a terrible idea.

"Wait, how did you find that out?" She asked, concerned.

Una had the grace to look embarrassed.

"I very nearly set myself on fire after sampling the stuff," she admitted with a rueful look. "Which is to say, I was careless. Careless, but lucky."

"I won't ask how that happened." It was probably an accident, she told herself as she smiled uncomfortably. "But at least we all made it out with the potions. Definitely not going back there anytime soon."

Linda has continued to spend her time off exploring different areas of Blackway. Today, it's the museum--or part of it, at least. She has a feeling she'll be spending more than one day there to really get a good look at everything, especially since she's trying to read a lot of the information. Even though she's been on Quadratus for a couple months now, she still feels pretty out of her depth when it comes to understanding the world, and she's hoping this will help.

When she walks into a room in the wing with unearthed artifacts and sees Jade, however, she smiles and heads over to her. "Jade! How are you?"

Hearing Linda's voice, Jade turns away from the display of an ancient food bowl and smiles at her. "Hi, Linda. I was just taking a break from work and checking out this place." She steps to the side to let Linda have a look at the display. "This is my first time actually looking at the exhibits."

"Really? Me too." She steps up to see what Jade was looking at, giving the engravings on the bowl a curious look. "But I think I'm going to have to come back again soon. There's a lot to see."

"Same here." She turns back towards the display. "I thought I could get through all of it in one day, but turns out I'm wrong." She never had the time or money back home to visit a museum of this size, and she hadn't expected all of the plaques describing the artifacts and their purposes.

"I took a couple of photos of these at the digs, you know? Like that." She gestures at a ceramic vase on the adjacent display. It's has no color on it, but the excavators loved it as it had barely any cracks in it.

"You mean you were there when they dug all this up?" Linda turns to Jade, surprised--and impressed. "So they found it all recently? This is...well, it's a really detailed exhibit already." She turns back to take a look at the placard accompanying the vase that Jade indicated.

"Just some of this stuff. I was there to take pictures and document the site, but I had a close look at everything."

The placard describes the vase as one possibly used for transporting water, explaining its unornamented design.

"I kind of stopped going since, you know, the guy in charge was Belloq."

At the mention of Belloq, Linda frowns darkly. She's still bothered by the way that whole affair went--and worried about Niko. "Well...at least you don't have to worry about that anymore."

"I guess." She wanders over next to Linda. "It really worried me, though. Like ,what if I was with him on that trip? That could've been me instead of Niko."

Her expression is still worried, but she tries to sound optimistic as she turns to Jade. "But it won't be. He's gone." And after a pause, she adds, "Plus, if anything did happen? The people here would come after you, too."

She let out a short chuckle. "Guess you're right."Even if she hadn't completely opened up to the policewoman, Jade can't help but feel a bit comforted with Linda's words. "It's just one guy against all of us. He never would have stood a chance."

Linda nods, smiling back encouragingly. She hates the fact that Belloq's actions have made people here feel like they aren't safe--not to mention that his actions have made her worry about Niko's future safety. She wants to help with both of those problems if she can. "Definitely."

And Belloq seemed so trustworthy as first. He offered her a good job and didn't appear to have any agenda outside of unearthing the artifacts. Then, out of nowhere, he leaves a supposed friend to die.

Getting ride of that somber thought, Jade continues down the gallery wing to an island display of small pieces of pottery. "Ever been to one of the sites?"

Linda follows, shaking her head at the question. "No, but you're starting to make me think I should take a look sometime. What's it like?"

Chester's Mill wasn't really a hot spot for archaeological expeditions, after all. She's never seen anything like that in person--not unless you count the artifacts she's looked at in museums, and she's sure seeing them there is nothing compared to watching them be discovered.

"It's pretty nice, if you're interested in those kinds of things. I like exploring new places and finding out new information, so being one of the first people to see someone's things in a few hundred years is pretty exciting."

Hyllis may have been an urban area, but the countless coves and large factories made enough opportunity for her and Pey'j to go exploring.

"That is a pretty amazing thought. Are you able to get close enough to see much?"

She wonders how close archaeologists let the general public get. Then again, she figures maybe a photographer has more of a need to get close up than, say, someone who's just there for protection against the wildlife--like she might be if she asked to go.

"I can't really barge in and watch them dig it up, but I can see it once it's out and safe. And I take pictures of them working on the site, but that's from a distance."

She'd been told that she wasn't supposed to interfere at all with the excavation, but she didn't really care about that, as long as she was involved.

"That makes sense." It's a little disappointing, but still, on the whole, it sounds to her like checking out one of the sites sometime would be well worth it.

They're getting toward the end of the room now, so she adds, "Are there any other specific exhibits you came here to see?"

"Nothing really. I didn't really have much of a plan aside of wandering around, but this exhibit was the only one I really needed to see."

The sign outside in the hall pointed to two exhibits in opposite directions: one about the history of the resort town and the other one containing more artifacts. "I guess if they have something here on the native wildlife, I'd like to see that."

At Jade's words, Linda pauses, reading over the sign showing their nearest options. "Well, maybe the history exhibit will have something like that? Want to check it out and see?" She gestures in the direction the sign indicates.

"Sounds like a plan," she says with a smile and heads down that direction. "It's about time I learn a bit more about this planet's history."

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