[FIN] Old, New, Past, Present; Forward!

[Gwennythe]

Sagestone had enjoyed the slight buzz brought about by the find of fossils in the newly uncovered cave nearby; of course, the presence of 'resurrection' and 'reconstruction' technology had added to, or perhaps been more of, a draw to the town.

The site was finally closed once again, scientists left to pursue their findings in peace, but some in the town still kept the excitement of the find going, and were using it to make money, educate, or simply enjoy themselves by doing something they thought appropriate.

A small, temporary exhibit had been set up in town, a small building used as rented space.
The exhibit showed, for a centerpiece, an ancient ocean and a sea floor, then a shoreline with small icebergs just offshore- the region had suffered a cold period at some point millions of years ago, it was suggested- and then snow capped, young, mountains, with jungle-like forests at their feet and twisting through valleys.
Finally, as though as a joke, a modern day map of the region could be seen, complete with a tiny little Sagestone.

Around the edges, along the walls, of the few rooms, one could find models and non-viable fossils of the different organisms that were supposed to have inhabited the different landscapes shown. Most were in tall glass cases.

Despite no evidence having yet been found to suggest such creatures in the region, various other 'fossil' pokémon were displayed as models, or on posters; a fiberglass Aerodactyl and a fluffy Archeops model dangled from fishing wire above the main room.

There was no entry fee, but there was a donations box that was guarded by a rather judgmental looking administrative woman with a sign in sheet.
There was also a gift shop with a selection of things; a lot of them silly.

Tambrey didn't mind the dusty, stuffy smell of the place, nor the slightly tacky feel of the hurriedly put together collection. The place might have seemed cheap, perhaps, if one didn't know how difficult it was to fund such places, so the absence of an entry fee was a welcome surprise, and she could understand that, tacky or not, someone had put some money and effort into making the place happen.
Outside were other people, and other minor attractions, that would likely eventually move on, but she'd been keen to come in here when she'd seen the sign, and she found herself appreciating the attempt at the display of environments.

"I wonder how some of them would feel if we tried to show them this? It's not really like bringing them right of the, um, past, after all... This time is all they'll have known, but, um, you know how you see a place and you think 'oh that looks familiar' or 'comforting'? I wonder if they could see what we think these habitats might have looked like and feel something like that? Um, if we've gotten them right, of course, I mean..." She couldn't help but ramble her thoughts.  

[TawnyAngel]

"There's a word in German... fernweh? It means being homesick for a place you’ve never been." Aulus stood looking up at the Aerodactyl model as he spoke, his head tilted slightly to the side and a faintly wistful expression on his face. The fiberglass contrivance was nothing special but he had a good imagination, he could picture how the stone skin would look and the sharpness of its eyes and talons. "I had a plastic Aerodactyl when I was little, loved the thing. Dunno what happened to it." It was probably in his parents' loft somewhere.

"Anyway," Aulus looked down at Tam and smiled, "If nothing else we should take pictures to show them, right? Though not all pokemon really appreciate pictures I guess, Tortie calls them dead."

In order to attract the minimum of attention on their day out Aulus was wearing a buttoned shirt with a glove over his metal hand, he'd even put some concealer over the now pale scar that crossed his face and he'd been surprised by how effective it was. The line of the scar was still a bit sunken but you had to be looking closely at him to see it. For once in his life he felt almost anonymous.  

[Gwennythe]

"Oh! That's the word I'm looking for then, um, I wonder if they'd feel 'fernweh'..." The scientist nodded, and then followed Aulus' gaze.
"Oh? I think the guest shop sells some plastic Aerodactyls... I doubt they're, um, the same ones, but we could look. I had a, um, a Kabuto. Like a 'floaty' one. It was supposed to be for the bath. I think it was from a set because I remember a squirty Omanyte too..." Tambrey mused in response.

"Dead? Huh..." She frowned. She supposed she could see that... "Because they don't smell right? I think, um, photographs are a good idea. An interesting experiment anyway..." She wore jeans, sandals, a black t-shirt with a blue Marill silhouette, and her glasses; a bag was over her shoulder, strapped over a grey cardigan bolero.
"Have you thought up any names?" She probably didn't need to specify what she was talking about.  

[TawnyAngel]

"No smell, yeah, and they've got no depth and don't move," Aulus affirmed with a nod. "She likes what's real, a lot of them do, but Rose likes pictures. Do you think vaguely human-shaped pokemon have uh..." he waved his left hand, the right was forgotten and still by his side at the moment, "...words. Like, more similar ways of seeing the world to us? Rose seems very human to me sometimes, and sometimes I'm surprised by how different Tortie is now I have easy translation for what she's really saying word for word.

"Names though, yeah," he nodded, "I was going to try out Helix and Borealis, see if they like them. Heh. Not that imaginative I guess but," he shrugged, "I think they sound nice."

As for the plastic Aerodactyl, honestly he'd feel silly getting one for himself now. He didn't know why and he knew Tam wouldn't judge him but there it was. ...Maybe if it wasn't just for him? "We should buy a bunch of plastic models and hang them from the bathroom ceiling."  

[Gwennythe]

"Ah. Hm. Yes. Big words." Tambrey grinned. "Anthropomorphic tendencies? Um. Hm. Probably... I don't really have any particularly human-like pokémon, but Franklin is, um, kind of a humans sort of shape... Well, you know how she is..."

She nodded as she heard the names. "They do sound nice. Um. I called a Pidgey 'Pygi'... Sure, she's a Pidgeot now, but, um, imaginative? Not very..." She was still grinning. "I bet they'll like them... We should... And I should get an Armaldo figure for my lab station... Oh!" She looked as though she'd suddenly realised something. "Do you think they'd mind if we put stickers on our doors? I bet they do stickers..."  

[TawnyAngel]

"We can put whatever we like in our rooms, right? You know what I always wanted to do? Little LED lights arranged like constellations on my ceiling. I've never got round to it though. Heh. Stars in my room, and the replicas of reanimated ancient life - made from their own remains - strung up in the bathroom. The latter is a bit creepy when you think about it, right?"

Aulus paused to peer at what seemed to be part of an especially large Helix fossil, but the interpretation card had fallen over so he couldn't be sure. When in doubt, ask friend. "Hey Tam, do you know what this is? It looks too big to be a Helix fossil... is it an Omastar or something?"  

[Gwennythe]

"Um... In our rooms, sure, but I kind of want to put them actually on the door..." She explained sheepishly. "Little Kabutops guardian on the door... Oh, um. Actually," Tambrey got a slightly guilty expression on her face, like she felt like she was about to disprove the existence of unicorns or something "most of the materials we use to create plastics and things were probably created from large bacterial colonies, long before um, Omanyte and such existed... It's a bit of a myth that you can make toy dinosaurs out of dinosaurs..." She sounded both pleased to be able to share knowledge, but also a little guilty, understanding it was a belief that a lot of people enjoyed having... Maybe Aulus would be pleased it wasn't true though? He did really care for pokémon, she knew.

She turned her attention to the large fossil he was pointing out.
"Oh, um. Almost definitely. Helix fossils are really pretty distinct, and that one is huge but it really does look like a variation on one. It doesn't look like there was enough of it to be viable for reconstructing though. Not that we even could bypass the evolutionary process in pokémon anyway..." She'd been hopeful about that once, but experiments with Palu's, and then Octavia's, sequences had convinced her otherwise.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Hu, well chalk that up as the thing I learned today," Aulus replied with a grin. "About the bacteria I mean, and it's kind of reassuring? I like the fact that my water bottle isn't heavily processed pokemon corpses, one bit of fridge horror removed from my life. And I guess you could stick one up, see what happens? Worst they can do it take it off right?... I wonder if you could get a giant sticker, or cardboard cut out? You could stick it up with sticky back plastic."  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey smiled. Well that was good then, she nodded.
"It's nicer to know that, I think, too, but, um, I think a lot of people tend to, y'know, like the idea of 'my toy dinosaurs are made of dinosaurs'? That kind of thing... Hm. Anyway... Yes, I guess so. It's not like they'd be hard to take off, the stickers, I mean..."
She considered Aulus' suggestion with interest.
"That would be really neat... Maybe a Kabutops, life size? That'd be a really cool door guardian! Or, get a couple, and put them on all doors. Little, um, cardboard squad of them..."  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus cackled a little at Tam's suggestion and lent down conspiratorially. "What're you doing this Halloween? We could puts lots of them in unexpected places, see how many people we can spook!" He made vague scythy gestures with his arms. "Fear the wrath of the ancients fleshy human!... Or we could just put them on our doors," he conceded with a grin and a shrug, "that's good too. I wouldn't want us getting written up by what's her name, the Russian one, she hates me I think. Is she still even around? It's hard to tell with executives." She had given him Discord though so that was... good? He did like the awful creature, most of the time.  

[Gwennythe]

"Um, for Halloween itself..? I, um, don't really know." She admitted- she never really planned anything when it came to her birthday, but there was always some Halloween party or thing to go to these days anyway. She never felt much like she missed out by not planning.
"That sounds fun," She grinned "and as long as we avoided, y'know, sensitive areas like Labs, and, um, maybe Tech and Medical, I don't think we'd get in much trouble for just leaving them to surprise people. As long as no one's ridiculous and thinks they're real, and, uh, has a pokémon attack one or something... That could cause a mess." She shook her head.
"I don't know- it is hard to tell though, so I don't want to say no, because, well, um, I don't actually know all the higher ups that have access to my work, let alone the labs in general... I know who you mean though, I think..."  

[TawnyAngel]

"We should plan something then, other than the possible spooking of our fellow residents that is," Aulus said with a decisive nod. "Doesn't have to be fancy or frantic or anything but it's good to do stuff. I guess I should make plans for July too. s**t. How did it get so close?" The last year had dragged and yet somehow it was a surprise to him that it was his birthday in just under a month. Weird how time and brains worked, he guessed.

Wandering onward Aulus came upon a plaster model of a Dome Fossil and stopped to inspect it. "Shame we didn't find any of these, and I guess nobody else did either if they've just got a model?" Aulus glanced at Tam and shrugged. "Wrong habitat, I guess?"  

[Gwennythe]

"Um. Sure. It'd be nice to know something actually in advance for once..." Tambrey agreed with a very short pause "Usually it's just a few days before and then something's brought up... Oh," She grinned "Time. We've been busy so time went on. If we ever get to study Celebi or Dialga's DNA, I promise I'll at least -look- for something that might help with that issue." She was half-joking, of course; if they ever got the chance, she'd look, but she seriously doubted anything in the pokémon's DNA would provide any kind of useful time manipulation. Even the legends they had managed to clone, and more or less understand, held secrets that weren't revealed by the science.
"Um, was there anything you really want anything for your birthday?" She could try and just get whatever and surprise Aulus, of course, but, given the fact he'd just rather brought up the closeness of the event himself, it seemed a good time to probe a little.

"Oh! Hm. No, see, um, Kabuto and Omanyte were capable of inhabiting the same ecosystem, at least until evolution, and even then they could still share half of eachothers' realms... Uh, it might just be that the 'Om's'," She smiled a little, it was a fun abbreviation "simply out-competed anything else... Or it might just be that, simply, no one found a Dome fossil and they're still somewhere out there, waiting to be uncovered. Um, same with any of these," She gestured to the various extinct pokémon models around the place "because fossilization is a bit of, well, uh, a luck game..."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Psh, no, there are a lot of movies that have told me about time travel and on balance it sounds like a bad idea. On the other hand it would give me the chance to get ahead on studying Python," Aulus replied with a grin, mainly joking.

Hu, was there anything he wanted? "Err...." Aulus frowned, always a vicious looking expression to the uninitiated but to those in the know this was merely a thoughtful look. "Craft beer is always good," he said eventually, "and I could do with some new headphones for working out, so either of those would be great. Uh, thanks." He always felt a bit weird talking about presents.

As Tam explained about the ecosystems Aulus nodded along, looking around them with another pensive frown. "Maybe there was a disease that affected the Kabutos," he suggested as another theory, there were some unpleasant things that could be very specific in what they decided to wipe out.  

[Gwennythe]

A mother and her little boy, around 4 or 5, had just entered the room in time to see Aulus frown. The mother quickly ushered her child along to different area first, with hushed promise they'd come back.

"Hm. True." Tambrey agreed with the reply regarding time travel, but she was leaning and bending over slightly to have a look at the Dome fossil model a little closer, and thus missed the two-part family beating their hasty retreat.
"Craft beer, headphones." She parrot-replied, taking note of what he'd mentioned; two things that were, mercifully, easy to get.

"Maybe." She agreed "Of course, even then it might have only been localised to this area. It would depend on what it was and how fast it spread and such... Um, anyway, either way, I wouldn't be surprised if we did find Dome fossils in Kodo one day, but equally I wouldn't be very surprised if we didn't. I'd love to get a look at those sequences though... Maybe compare them, and others, with each other and some of the, uh, similar current pokémon. I wonder, for example, if there might, um, be some familial link between Scyther, Armaldo, and Kabutops, or if they're simply showing convergence."