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 Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2023 7:43 pm
Monday morning, just after Michael and Atticus had left for school, Devyn met up with Peter. They’d talked a bit about what supplies to bring, and though it was a bit up in the air for how long Peter was going to stay on Alastor for, Devyn intended only to stay until that evening.
He trusted Peter to stay for longer, and he’d done what he could to ensure there were plenty of precautions in place to make sure he’d be fine in Devyn’s absence. It helped that Lucien and Soleiyu were going up as well, and each seemed interested in the project–or just seeing what they could get into on Alastor.
Either way, he was glad to know that Peter would have some company when he left.
They’d spent the early morning with a brief tour; he didn’t want to keep Peter from what he’d asked of him or dragged anything out unnecessarily, so he made sure to help him get settled in quickly. There was no obligation to work–it was at his comfort and leisure, and Devyn was grateful for any amount of time Peter could contribute.
The treasury he spoke of had seen better days. Over the years, the constant assault of storm and shadows had left its mark; even if the artifacts were safe, the building itself had been shaken. What was once sorted on walls was more messy than not. There were heaps of artifacts on the ground, and while there was no indication that they had been haphazardly tossed and stored, Devyn had not had the time or resources to clean it up in the way it deserved.
It might as well have been a hoarder's den, only there were only ancient treasures and priceless artifacts in the mountains of objects. Some were fortunate to be secured in shelving, or boxes, and some even still had tags. Devyn had at least managed to complete something of a guide to sort of identify pieces. He knew that Peter was coming in with little information on Alastorian culture or the common identifying pieces he might have used on Earth, and Devyn knew this was a big project even without coming in blind. He’d done what he could to try and make it easier, given the circumstances.
He was looking for a few things specifically, which seemed fairly impossible giving the sheer quantity of what he had stored in this room. It was deep in the Hall, and it would have been easy to lose the way back to the entrance if Devyn hadn’t placed little LED lights to mark the way as they descended. The room itself was large, with high walls and no windows. There was less artwork here than in the lobby, but there were a good few pieces tucked away in back. Some had been wrapped with canvas or left in crates.
There seemed to be no shortage to the array of different items, and Devyn had pointed out some that used to be magical, and some that he’d just recovered or was holding onto for safe keeping. There was weaponry, and jewelry, tapestries and mosaics, figures, trinkets–all sorts of oddities. There was a hum about the area, and if there was anything magical here, it was impossible to tell what.
Devyn had powered up, out of habit more than anything, and had started working in one corner. He didn’t have much empty space, but he’d moved a few shelves from other areas to make them available in the hallway. He’d been working on clearing out a space by the door prior ot Peter getting there, and though there was only a bit of shelf space available there, it was a start--and the more they cleared out the more shelves they could move in to get this place properly organized.
It was dusty–a byproduct of it being difficult for Devyn to get in here, and dangerous for him to have had it open and accessible prior to banishment of the Chaos.
He and Peter had spoken a bit while they worked; Devyn had made sure he knew where there were snacks and drinks, made sure he knew where the important facilities were, warned him not to travel too deep in the Hall–not because he didn’t trust Peter, but because it was easy to get lost.
Devyn was carrying small armfuls of things out into the hallway to sort through and make space; he was using one of the temporary bookshelves as a location to store them out of the way so they could get deeper into the room–and so he could find what he was looking for.
Soleiyu and Lucien were there, each with their own process or idea for how to help. Soleiyu, despite his fondness for his natural form, had shifted into his humanoid form to give him the ability to help move and sort easier. The downside was his massive tail. He’d been disappointed with the amount of dust he’d collected after only half an hour and was doing what he could to keep his tail out of the way, but he was unwilling to give up his access to magic and take any form without it.
In the process of sorting and organizing so they could catalogue things, Devyn had expressed that he was looking for a few particular items–things he wished to retrieve that he knew were in here. He had a vague idea, but he wasn’t optimistic that they’d find anything any time soon. Among the list of items he was looking for specifically was a cherry red box with a smooth lacquer and gold inlay. It was a bit larger than the size of a loaf of bread and should have been locked, but that was the only detail he could give. He seemed determined to find them and had been diligently clearing out the treasury as best he could.
It was cool enough that he didn’t even mind wearing gloves–although, the long, black gloves he’d chosen were certainly every bit as decorative as they were functional. He’d rolled his sleeves up and tied back his hair. Circular lights illuminated the room and gave a soft warmth, and there were sconces with unlit torches available if they needed that. Well, if Peter approved of their use, at least.
He was trying to be careful and follow his lead when it came to handling some of these things. He’d certainly been rougher on them over the years, and he’d listen to some of Peter’s tips on preservation and decided not to tell him about all the times he’d tossed something or kicked it to get it out of the way.
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Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2023 1:26 pm
Devyn wasn’t joking when he said he had a lot of artifacts that he’d collected. Peter only bothered powering up because it was definitely more useful if he was able to carry heavier objects without too much difficulty. Especially since he didn’t want to drop anything and break it.
Who knew what kind of ancient curse he would release.
He was, however, definitely not approving of any fire to be lit around any of these really old pieces of… stuff. He didn’t want them to go up in flames because someone’s tail bumped into something a little too hard.
“This would really be easier if we could get everything sorted by function or shape. Like… weapons in one area and books and scrolls in another,” he said, mostly to himself since that was probably pretty obvious when it came to getting everything organized. But he was excited! He hadn’t seen so many new and unique objects in one place. Well. New to him.
“You said some of these are magical? If I turn into a frog, I’m going to need someone to kiss me,” he snorted in amusement. What might have been amusing to Peter was just confusing to Lucien. He’d been trying to spot any of the requested objects through the piles of things, already frustrated that he could only do so much in the form he was in, but…
“Is turning into a frog common for Earth?” he tilted his head, not understanding why kissing him would have done anything to help. Maybe for good luck?
He spared a glance to Devyn, and then to Soleiyu, before deciding that they would probably tell him if it was important.
But since he was unable to help carry a lot of things, he went back to using a little machine to print out a small tag so he could scan it and stick it to the object in question. They might not get around to organizing things just yet, but if he keyed into the system what the object was, they should at least be able to locate it by scanning for the tag later.
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Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2023 3:03 pm
“Common in fairy tales,” Soleiyu explained, because he caught Devyn looking up, too. “Kisses break curses.”
Devyn carried an armful of things with care, but he was perhaps overzealous in his confidence. He’d done things like this before in his youth, when the artifacts were at full power, so it didn’t much occur to him that he should be careful in case anything decided to lash out at him.
Most of his organization so far had been rudimentary; he had too many things to be particular about what went where, and it was only with the help of these three that he was comfortable enough to even attempt working through things.
“We can do that,” Devyn agreed, but was quick to clarify, “Well, the sorted by function and shape, I mean. But we can kiss in an emergency.” Michael would understand, of course, but Devyn only had so much faith in the legitimacy of fairy tales. Kisses did fix things, though. He’d kiss Michael when he got home to replenish his energy.
He was trying to stay focused but it was easy to let his mind wander while he was doing a basic task like sorting, or moving heavy objects, and there were many memories tucked away in this vault, too.
Lucien was more familiar with Alastor than the others–if his memories let him draw on such things, so he thought he might have more ease when identifying what came from where. Some of these pieces were certainly going to need more than just a quick look over, though. When he set things down for the Mauvians to tag, he did his best to make it easy–especially because Soleiyu had no idea what he was working with and was just operating on what he was given.
He set down another armful of things, sorting it into smaller piles that could be tagged by region first, and then better organized by Peter’s recommendation. Somewhere in the mess of artifacts was a book that logged their original abilities, and had further information about them, and sketches, but–
That hadn’t been updated in a long time, and beyond that, he didn’t even know what information was accurate.
He was covered in dust and occasionally took a moment to brush off his uniform, but he knew he could just power down to clean himself up later. It was more a habit and vanity than necessity to clean himself up between armfuls. At least it was cool enough that there was very little risk of working up a sweat.
“What are your favorite things to work with, Peter?” he asked, because this was all very interesting for him, but it was also his collection. He’d always liked finding shiny things, himself. Or things that felt old. He liked when something had a good story, too.
Devyn was easily pleased by many things, but it was only in his nature to want to look out for interesting things for others, too.
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2023 6:28 am
The answer being fairy tales was responded to with an understanding nod, although Lucien couldn’t quite understand why a frog. A kiss, he supposed made sense. He would have to research Earthen fairy tales once he got back to Earth.
“It’s unfortunate that not all curses are broken by kisses,” Lucien sniffed, although he didn’t seem very committed to the comment. He was busy making notes on the items they were sorting through. Peter snorted in amusement again at Devyn’s agreement to kiss him. Should he be turned into a frog. He appreciated it, of course, but he… well, he really hoped he wasn’t turned into a frog.
“Favorite things?” he hummed thoughtfully as he carefully set aside what looked like some kind of string instrument, but it looked like the strings had been removed, or maybe it was something else completely.
“Puzzles, usually. I’ve come across a number of puzzle boxes or pieces of furniture that have hidden compartments. The puzzles themselves aren’t so much what interests me, but the skill behind making them. If I could solve a box quickly, I could figure out how it worked faster. And apparently... sometimes there’s other treasure that will be destroyed if the puzzle is completed incorrectly. I haven’t had that happen to me, but a colleague at the museum I’ve interned at swears up and down that he had a professor that had a box like that. I think he might have been reading too many books or watched too many movies.”
It was interesting to think of such items existing, but it would be a shame if they really were destroying other, more important treasures due to not understanding the mechanism behind the device.
“What about you? Got any favorite items in this…” He paused to gesture broadly at the literal mountain of treasures.
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2023 5:22 pm
“Oh, a favorite? I don’t know, not in here, probably. Most of these things I took to make sure they didn’t fall into the wrong hands. I didn’t ever really appreciate them like I should have. I just wanted to make sure they weren’t used to hurt anyone. Although, I did steal quite a bit of them.”
He’d taken his fair share by force. Although, he really didn’t seem sorry about it.
If it was a weight on his mind, it was easily dismissed with a shrug.
The more pressing matter was trying to decide if he tell Peter how many puzzle boxes he might have broken. No, it was better to keep that to himself.
“I know for a fact you’ll find a few puzzles here. I think every piece of furniture in my bedroom has a hidden compartment. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of them have spaces I’ve forgotten about over the years, too.” Of course, anything he’d hidden probably wasn’t meant to be found by someone other than himself.
“I like a lot of things, though. In terms of these things? I like old books.” Not just because Percy would have liked them. “Because of all the war on Alastor, things were always changing. My favorite things to find are old stories. Things otherwise lost to time. My village, back when I was young, got swallowed up in a mudslide. Everything we ever had disappeared in an instant. We had local stories, local legend, local history. All gone.”
It was a long, long time ago, but Devyn was and had always been sentimental.
“So books and scrolls are probably my favorite. But most of the ones I’d like probably aren’t magical in nature. Don’t get me wrong, I love the beautiful jewelry.” He picked up a gorgeous gold necklace with deep, green gemstones that seemed to swallow all light that hit it. He set it down in one pile, and then in another, a small, sheathed dagger. “And I love the weapons. I like to play with them. Given that these should probably be preserved, they’re not really the sort that I should be playing with.”
He pressed his lips together thoughtfully and then shrugged. “No, I think if I had to pick a favorite, I’d always go back to the stories. Some of the paintings, too–the ones where stories are hidden? I like those, but it’s hard to find the secrets there.” Now that he couldn’t find anyone to help decipher things.
“There’s just so much that I don’t want to be forgotten. I want to preserve everything I can so someone else has the chance to learn about them, too.”
Well, and find some weapons against the Negaverse, if they could. Or at least something to help keep the boys safe.
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2023 5:40 pm
“I was going to say,” Peter hummed with amusement. “I had a feeling that you would have liked to swing the weapons around. I’m surprised you’re so into books. No offense, but you don’t seem like the type to sit still long enough to actually read books.”
He was teasing, of course. Obviously Devyn had a lot of different interests. And Peter also couldn’t help but feel sympathy for him that he lost everything he had.
“Sorry about your village,” he said after a few quiet moments of setting some other items aside. There was so much to go through, but it kind of paled in comparison to a whole village getting wiped away from some mudslide.
It made his own problems feel miniscule.
“I’ll make sure we get everything as organized as possible. Even if we don’t know what things are, we’ll at least have everything properly displayed or stored,” he promised with a small grin of encouragement. At least he was able to keep busy with all of this. Made it less likely for him to get stuck in his own head.
“I hope you don’t mind if I try my hand at whatever puzzles I find! I’m just kidding. I won’t go through anything you don’t want me to.”Lucien’s tail flicked back and forth as he looked through the items. None of this was familiar, but he didn’t expect it to be. But there was something about listening to Devyn talk that made him feel more at ease.
Or maybe Devyn just had a nice voice, rather than him imagining that it was like a forgotten dream.
Over the time since he’d woken from stasis, there were tiny bits and pieces of memory that seemed to come back, but a lot of it was also still just a fog. Yet somehow he felt as though he already knew about the story of Devyn’s village being wiped away.
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Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2023 3:53 pm
Devyn might have laughed when Peter called him out. He did have a difficult time sitting around. He’d read many books while pacing, but there were far more than he’d only managed to read a page or two before he had to break and get up to do something.
He held onto that smile when Peter offered sympathy for his village. Lucien’s memory was probably too spotty to recall the situation in any other way than Devyn would describe it now. That was fine, he didn’t mind. What was there for Lucien to remember, anyway? A child grieving? It wouldn’t have been a good memory so he didn’t lament that Lucien would have lost it over the years. “Thank you. It was a long time ago,” he reassured. He didn’t touch on those memories beyond a superficial recollection.
“Don’t get me wrong, I like playing with weapons. I had a lot of training when I was young. I just never wanted to rely on them. It’s harder to pull your punches when you’re holding something designed to kill. If you find anything you want to play with, go ahead. Just be safe. You’re a smart young man, I trust you. I’m sure you’ve got a good eye for what you should be careful with.”
He planted his hands on his hips and looked around thoughtfully before he nodded. “I trust you,” he said again, this time with more gravity. “There are few places here that I’d ask you to refrain from exploring. The Core of my world and my bedroom. My bedroom, only because I’ve got things organized very carefully. And it’s very easy to get lost back there, I don’t want you to wind up walking into a trap or something. I’ll have to make sure I’ve released them all. And the Core, well. On a personal level, it’s something deeply important to me. On a practical level, it’s a bit picky. I’d hate for it to throw a tantrum and give you grief.”
He shrugged. “But if you need to go to either place, I trust you.” He meant it. It was hard to imagine Peter overstepping any boundaries. In all the time Devyn had known him, he’d only ever been helping Devyn. It was because of him that he’d found out about Earth, that he’d wound up staying with Michael. He was here now, still helping him.
He brushed his hands together, rolled his shoulders, and grabbed an armful of things rather unceremoniously so he could dig around a bit more.
Soleiyu huffed, because Devyn certainly treated these artifacts with a very familiar respect. He’d been careful, sure, but he’d still just halved one pile and spread his new finds on the floor.
…And then, he paused.
Devyn’s lips pressed together and he tilted his head as he eyed a well-shined, slightly scuffed cherry red box. He crouched to angle better, and dug both hands into the pile so he could carefully pull it out.
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Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2023 5:44 pm
Peter held up his hands as if to show that he was unarmed and made a clearly exaggerated grimace. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t dare go into your bedroom. And your Core sounds like magic I’m not equipped to handle. I’m definitely okay with sticking to the potentially dangerous weapons.”
He was teasing. Mostly. He was still working hard on making notes and keeping track of everything he picked up. It was going to be a long process, but it would be rewarding once it was done.
“This is kind of my dream, you know. I liked being able to dig through the basement archives of the museums I interned at over the summer, but everything was pretty organized already. Some of the labels needed redoing, but it already had a system. This…? This is all new. I just wish I had a way to help figure out what everything was,” he lamented with a sigh, but that was fine. “Find something you recognize, or did the shine catch your eye?” Lucien asked as he paused where he was working to watch what Devyn was doing with the armfulls of things he was moving. Thankfully, he wasn’t doing anything that would ruin their progress, and if it kept him busy and out of the way, then of course Lucien would encourage him to explore the items he’d collected over the centuries.
“It’s a charming color, but I prefer Alastor teal and blue, myself,” he said with his chest puffed out a bit with pride. He might have been a Mauvian, and even though his memories weren’t that great, he still felt a strong connection to his bonded’s world.
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Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2023 5:22 pm
“Ah, because you have good taste,” Alastor praised. He was biased too but he wasn’t going to complain about the box. He cared more for what was inside.
Well, theoretically, at least.
It had a combination code, and though he could not recall what it was, he knew how to bypass it. For the most part, at least. From subspace, he withdrew a thin piece of metal, smaller than his pinky and thinner than a needle. He began to poke and prod at the wood near the hinges.
“I am most fortunate that your dream benefits from my negligence,” he added, briefly glancing up to Peter. If he weren’t so excited to have found this, he might have passed it on to him to see if he could use his puzzle-solving skills to open it. Something clicked on the box but it hadn’t yet opened. He moved to the other hinge and began poking around there, too.
Soleiyu had stopped to squint at Devyn, who either knew what he was doing or was going to break something. It could have been either. He was sifting through a smaller pile, one that he had meticulously organized and sorted and was very proud of. He didn’t know what he was looking for but he enjoyed finding things nonetheless.
“Once things are sorted a bit better, I might be able to find some resources to help you with that. I admire your ambition. I know there’s a catalogue here, somewhere.”
One of the screws fell out from the box but Devyn caught it before it could hit the floor. He pocketed it, wiggled the lid, and returned to his prodding. “I’ll get you all the information I have. I wish there was an easy way for you to read what books I have, I know that might help. Lucien, Soleiyu. Is that at all possible? Some Mauvian technique to waive the barriers of communication?”
Soleiyu was not one to back down from a challenge, but he wasn’t so quick to offer any promising response. Especially when there was one final clicking sound and Devyn managed to pry off the lid rather proudly.
Inside, laid in soft black velvet, were two pale gold bangles, inlaid with a bright teal stone. Devyn lifted them from the box and slid them over one wrist, but he turned the box a few times in his hands to make sure there wasn’t anything else in there. He shook it, but nothing moved. “Oh, it’s too bad. I think there used to be rings, too. No matter.”
He suddenly sat cross-legged on the ground and pulled out a small toolbox from his subspace. He kept the bracelets on one wrist and only pulled out the necessities before dismissing the rest of the tools. Apparently, he intended to repair the box now before he could lose the pieces.
“I want to take these back and polish them up. I don’t know if they still work, but it’s worth trying. These were gifts, a very long time ago. Technically they were a bribe, so I rejected them, but they wound up in my possession anyway.” He paused, and then looked up to clarify to the three, “I didn’t steal them. I only recognized them when they were brought to me much later. They’re supposed to enhance your magic. They worked the last time I tried them, but that was still a very long time ago. I thought it might help keep the boys safe. Peter, while you’re here, if you find anything you can make use of, your protection is more important than my collection. I know it’s a lot of cataloging and archiving, but these things have a way of revealing their nature to you. Especially when treated with respect and care.”
After sorting, there was cleaning, maybe repairing. Identifying. Displaying, or using, maybe. It was a lot of work. He could pay Peter in gold and jewels but he knew how little money meant to the Gallo family. If he could make use of any of these artifacts, of course Devyn was willing to part with them. There were treasures in here that he was certain could help them back on Earth, and he wasn’t stingy enough to keep them all to himself.
They were all in this together. He would give as much as he could to this cause.
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