Memories and Namesake coming as prompts so close together seems like you're hinting at something... you're getting a pet and you're planning on naming it after some other pet you had? Sir Phillip, the pheasant, perhaps? Or Mr. Wriggles?
Namesake Fabian and Dread were finishing up the call with the usual discussion of when they were both free to meet for dinner, and having remarkably little success finding anything that week due to a collection of bureaucratic engagements that neither particularly enjoyed. Then, as Fabian closed the call, the exciting knocking on his door was loud enough to make him drop and spill the tablet onto the desk, where it slid and pushed a small pile of loosely scattered papers onto the floor. "Come in," said Fabian, knowing that the knocker was probably already doing that, watching the papers flutter to the ground like sad, white moths. "The figurines have been repaired!" "That's nice," said Fabian. He knelt down to pick the papers up, resisting the urge to sigh as he felt it would be a little impolite of him. "You should be tidier," said the voice, and now it filtered through Fabian's distracted mind that this was a different voice to the one that had first spoken. "What figurines?" Fabian started to stand up and bumped his head on the desk. "Ow," he said, edging away from the desk and standing up more carefully. When he turned round, rubbing the sore spot, he found the Maestro standing at the front of a small group looking twenty years younger, Cass stood behind him holding an armful of paperwork, and Rystin hovering at the back looking embarrassed. "Museum property," said Fabian. He made a split-second decision that he didn't want to listen to Cass lecture him on office tidiness and then dump paperwork on him. "Which I should be going to see, as it's important." "But I--"
Fabian cut her off as nicely as he could. "I've been expecting the Maestro and Ry-- our consultant," he said, remembering that Rystin felt that caution should be employed around his status. "It would be rather rude of me to tell them to wait just because someone else turned up at the same time as then. If you'd been earlier...." Cass's mouth moued and while she didn't stamp her feet, she did seem to make a little more noise than absolutely necessary as she turned and shouldered her way past Rystin out the door. "I'll be in my office when you're done playing with toys," she said icily, and it was probably for the best that no-one reacted until she was out of earshot. Fabian's face crinkled with laughter, Rystin looked mortified, and the Maestro's eye twinkled with rage as he murmured toys under his breath like he was planning murder. "Right," said Fabian. "Excellent timing, gentlemen, let's see these figurines then!" It wasn't entirely a lie that he'd told Cass either, he found he was genuinely interested in seeing what these figurines did and how they did it. Cass might only see toy soldiers fighting a long forgotten war, but there was art in what they did and how they did it, and if that acted as a reminder of things that shouldn't be easily forgotten, then so much the better. "We've set them up downstairs," said the Maestro. "In the Fabian Theatre. It's got the best light." And the most space, thought Fabian as they walked through the Museum corridors. He was certain that the Maestro intended to show these off to the whole staff after Fabian had seen them. Which, he mused, might just be a good way of encouraging people to accept Rystin as part of the Museum. Maybe, just maybe, the Maestro was thinking the same way. Even as he thought that, he realised that the Maestro had said the Fabian theatre and he realised that Cass must have got her way at last -- she'd been hunting for a while for a way to name something after him because she claimed that each Director had a namesake in the Museum somewhere. For a moment he was horrified, and then he considered that given the way she'd stalked off he was probably lucky this was done and she couldn't rename a toilet-block after him instead.
3 comments:
Memories and Namesake coming as prompts so close together seems like you're hinting at something... you're getting a pet and you're planning on naming it after some other pet you had? Sir Phillip, the pheasant, perhaps? Or Mr. Wriggles?
Namesake
Fabian and Dread were finishing up the call with the usual discussion of when they were both free to meet for dinner, and having remarkably little success finding anything that week due to a collection of bureaucratic engagements that neither particularly enjoyed. Then, as Fabian closed the call, the exciting knocking on his door was loud enough to make him drop and spill the tablet onto the desk, where it slid and pushed a small pile of loosely scattered papers onto the floor.
"Come in," said Fabian, knowing that the knocker was probably already doing that, watching the papers flutter to the ground like sad, white moths.
"The figurines have been repaired!"
"That's nice," said Fabian. He knelt down to pick the papers up, resisting the urge to sigh as he felt it would be a little impolite of him.
"You should be tidier," said the voice, and now it filtered through Fabian's distracted mind that this was a different voice to the one that had first spoken. "What figurines?"
Fabian started to stand up and bumped his head on the desk.
"Ow," he said, edging away from the desk and standing up more carefully. When he turned round, rubbing the sore spot, he found the Maestro standing at the front of a small group looking twenty years younger, Cass stood behind him holding an armful of paperwork, and Rystin hovering at the back looking embarrassed.
"Museum property," said Fabian. He made a split-second decision that he didn't want to listen to Cass lecture him on office tidiness and then dump paperwork on him. "Which I should be going to see, as it's important."
"But I--"
Fabian cut her off as nicely as he could. "I've been expecting the Maestro and Ry-- our consultant," he said, remembering that Rystin felt that caution should be employed around his status. "It would be rather rude of me to tell them to wait just because someone else turned up at the same time as then. If you'd been earlier...."
Cass's mouth moued and while she didn't stamp her feet, she did seem to make a little more noise than absolutely necessary as she turned and shouldered her way past Rystin out the door.
"I'll be in my office when you're done playing with toys," she said icily, and it was probably for the best that no-one reacted until she was out of earshot. Fabian's face crinkled with laughter, Rystin looked mortified, and the Maestro's eye twinkled with rage as he murmured toys under his breath like he was planning murder.
"Right," said Fabian. "Excellent timing, gentlemen, let's see these figurines then!" It wasn't entirely a lie that he'd told Cass either, he found he was genuinely interested in seeing what these figurines did and how they did it. Cass might only see toy soldiers fighting a long forgotten war, but there was art in what they did and how they did it, and if that acted as a reminder of things that shouldn't be easily forgotten, then so much the better.
"We've set them up downstairs," said the Maestro. "In the Fabian Theatre. It's got the best light."
And the most space, thought Fabian as they walked through the Museum corridors. He was certain that the Maestro intended to show these off to the whole staff after Fabian had seen them. Which, he mused, might just be a good way of encouraging people to accept Rystin as part of the Museum. Maybe, just maybe, the Maestro was thinking the same way. Even as he thought that, he realised that the Maestro had said the Fabian theatre and he realised that Cass must have got her way at last -- she'd been hunting for a while for a way to name something after him because she claimed that each Director had a namesake in the Museum somewhere. For a moment he was horrified, and then he considered that given the way she'd stalked off he was probably lucky this was done and she couldn't rename a toilet-block after him instead.
Greg - no. Just no.
Good to get back to this story. Looking forward to seeing the figurines in action!
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