omegafriends | Omegawatch and Action

[Omegawatch! Before you stands a figure clad in golden armor. There seems to be a faint radiance about her that you're almost positive is NOT your imagination.]

Well met, Omegafriends. I had heard that Venture City was busy, but had trouble believing just how bad it was. About a week after I came here, I had to stop a cyborg velociraptor from attacking a school bus, and started to realize that maybe your reputation IS warranted.

It took a while to attract the Omegafriends' attention, but I have finally done so, and offer my power, as there is strength in unity.

I am the Radiant Dawn.

[Meanwhile, at the Venture Museum of Natural History!]

A tall woman sat at the museum cafe, taking a break from the crowds to enjoy a cup of coffee and an overpriced croissant. Her nametag identified her as Leona Solberg, and as a curator for the museum. The museum was extra crowded today, as it had just opened up a new exhibit, "Secrets of the Mediterranean: A new look at ancient civilizations from Northern Africa and Southern Europe."

Leona was rather tired after a week of dealing frantically with last minute preparations trying to get everything sorted out (A task plagued with hordes of problems, from mislabeled crates, to a Mycenaean vase that was accidentally delivered to Guatemala.), but now the exhibit was open and there was finally a moment with no crisis she had to deal with right now. She savored the peace.

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Later on, Leona was wandering the exhibit herself, more interested in the people looking at the pieces than in the pieces themselves. Eventually, she came to stop beside a young lady who seemed to be looking for something more than just old murals.

"Like what you see?"

Rozalin very nearly jumped out of her dress, so quickly did she straighten up and whirl around to look at Leona. "It's-it's all very interesting!" She managed to squeak, turning red as she did so.

She coughed and rolled her shoulders a bit, smoothing the facade back into place. "The study of history, that is. All the subtle changes in iconography and styles, It's easy to see how one could get lost in it."

"Didn't mean to startle you." She muttered, allowing Rozalin to regain her composure. She cleared her throat and continued.

"You can. You start searching for something specific and find that there's no bottom to it. Everything is interconnected."

"Well, yes. Though that can make it hard to tell what, exactly, one is looking at." Rozalin looked Leona over, taking in the staff badge. "You work here?"

Leona nodded. "I do."

She turned to the mural Rozalin had been looking at. Donkey headed demons taunting some nobleman, who turned his back to them with contempt. "Did something draw you to this piece?"

"I-I wouldn't say anything drew me to it exactly." Rozalin shook her head vehemently, then peered at it again. "There's no translation of these inscriptions here though...so I am a bit curious about what it says."

Donkey headed they might be, but something about them had struck a chord of familiarity with Rozalin.

"Unfortunately, so am I. This is part of a larger piece, so we only have part of the inscription, the rest having crumbled to illegibility centuries ago. We think the language belonged to one of the Myceneaen's trading rivals in the 5th century CE. There are few records of them, and no known translation of their language has been found."

"So much lost. It must be difficult for you to not know these things." Okay, so probably not a threat then, unless someone time travels through history to dig up a dictionary.

"What about this piece?" Rozalin turned without looking to the next part of the exhibit.

"That is a Phoenician vase, with depictions of what is probably an Assyrian battleship on it."

She wasn't going to quiz Leona on the whole exhibit, was she?

"Battleship? It looks more like a floating castle!" Indeed, the giant galley depicted had not only scores of oars, but also towers built along it's hull for the archers.

"But you know what this one is, and not the other...so what's the most mysterious piece in this collection?"

"A fan of history's cold case files, are we?"

Leona gave this some thought. Eventually she zeroed in on a black ceramic goblet with strange decorations in bas relief. "This one, I think. It was found near the ruins of ancient Carthage, in an old treasure vault along with some gold coins a few years ago. The odd thing was that there was absolutely no wear and tear on it. It could have been newly made, were it not found in a vault that hadn't been opened in over two millenia."

Rozalin felt a cold dread work it's way up her spine at the look of the thing-before realizing that while it might depict a family member, it was thankfully her father, not her mother. Dear old dad. A bit of a joke really. But there he was, transforming humans into monsters that would then...eat their families?

Suddenly, her father, a distant figure kept away by a psycho mother for years, was far more ominous than he had ever been.

Leona noticed her guest's discomfiture. "I am reasonably certain it has never cursed anyone since we found it."

"I'm not worried about a curse!" Rozalin hauled herself back and turned to face Leona. "It's just...It's a hateful thing, isn't it?"

"It's a cup. It might have a strange past, but here in the light of day, it's just a cup."

She gave a weird sort of half smile, "It's amazing seems strange and mysterious until you just apply a bit of light."

"It's a cup depicting a demon warping humans into monsters. There is very little mysterious about it to my eye."

Wait, could a human even tell that was what the imagery meant? She couldn't recall if they could interpret those symbols...

"Is that what it looks like to you?"

Leona peered at the goblet. "You have a very active imagination. Just looks like a bunch of abstract designs to me."

Omegawatch and Action

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