Museum Studies

Chocolate and Questions

"What do you mean?" Roberta said, brow furrowing. Did this guy have some kind of... honour code? Like a samurai, or a Jedi Knight?

"I ate the Roman centurions who forced children into the Colosseum, and the Frankish brutes who tried to feed a child -who spoke in the same tongue as those I fought in the place of in the coliseum all those years ago- to me nearly a century ago. Although I'm still in stone, I can guarantee that everything that fool Joseph said is true."

Roberta had expected Wamuu to be far worse than Joseph's story made him out to be. But in all of these sources, all these anecdotes of his- he appeared to have some kind of sense of right and wrong. He knew that killing children was wrong, and he'd take insult at an unfair battle. Would he really being about an Aztec apocalypse?

"But tell me more about your tattoos. What do they mean?" Wamuu said, gazing at Roberta's inked arms.

"Well... This one is Michelangelo's David. It's a statue of a legendary king from the group of people you saved from the coliseum. This one is the mask of Tutankhamen, an Egyptian king. And this is the Mayan calendar, I got it for... For a man who wasn't worth it." Roberta pulled down her sleeve and looked away.

"Was he the one who chased you, and turned off my lights?"

"Yeah, I don't wanna talk about it, ok?" She snapped, before realising that it probably wasn't best to be rude to a giant mesoamerican warrior.

"Sorry."

"Don't apologise, I shan't push. I've got a tattoo of my own, by the way." Wamuu said, tactfully changing the subject.

"Oh really? I don't see it." Roberta replied.

"That's because I'm in my stone form. But, if I am to transform..."

Wamuu lifted his arms in the air, tensed, and was about to burst free when Roberta yelled "STOP!!!"

"If you move, your tag will be set off. Anyway, the UV lights are still on. My blood might let you move in your stone form, but you'll die under more UV. Let me take off your tag..."

She went to do so, but paused.

"Promise not to go berserk and kill everyone? I'd lose my job, and this is important to me."

"I promise." Wamuu replied.

"Warrior's oath?"

"Warrior's oath."

Roberta reached forward, and did what nobody had done in 8 decades. She opened Wamuu's case, removed his tag, and turned off the UV lights. She'd came prepared- her UV torch sat in her pocket, in case of emergency.

Are you sure this is a good idea? LDG muttered in her mind.

He's got an honour code, I've got UV power. Also, he promised. And if worst comes to the worst, I can use you She thought back.

Gee, I'm expendable, thanks

There was a brief pause as Roberta stepped back, and Wamuu flexed. With a yell of "WAMUUU!!!" his stone form was shattered, turning back into flesh- and Roberta gasped at what she saw.

He was absolutely beautiful.

A thin loincloth and a tiny halter top did nothing to conceal his imposing form. Bronze skin rippled over muscles that could have been chiseled from marble, and soft blonde hair covered with a beige headscarf framed a face that was in equal parts fiercely masculine and beautifully soft, with full lips and bright green eyes. A golden ring matched the ones in his ears, and a red tattoo shaped like a broken square rested upon his face.

"Oh... Wow. That's a tattoo, alright." Roberta said.

Heeeeey big guy! LDG crooned. Roberta blushed at her stand, but as he couldn't see the spirit, Wamuu simply assumed that she was blushing at him.

"Like what you see, mortal?" He teased.

"A... Um... I mean, from an archaeological perspective, yes!" Roberta flushed. "But you've shown me your tattoos, and we had a deal. So if you go back into your stone form- the night guards will be here soon-, I'll put the lights and tag on again. But we can talk more tomorrow?"

"I can live with that. It's pleasant to have someone to talk to after all this time. Farewell for now, Roberta Zombie." Wamuu replied, as a true warrior always keeps his promise. He stepped into his case, returned to stone-form, and Roberta reapplied the tag and UV lights.

"See ya, big guy." She grinned, scanning her pass and clocking out for the night. Something felt good about talking to the Pillar Man- something comfortable, like she didn't have to change who she was to appeal to him. Like she was enough. Like she was actually interesting to him!

It's just because you're the only modern human to only talk to a prehistoric person, right? She told herself as she walked away, safe in the knowledge that nobody but her and Wamuu knew about this meeting.

But she was wrong. Far away in the vault, someone else was listening onto them. Santana, locked away in his slumber, could still hear his brother talking to that human- tha nosy human who'd spied on him in his vault! How come she'd awakened Wamuu but not him?

Why am I always second best... Not fair. Santana brooded.

Unless...

He told his fathers about this.

And then, only then, he could be the favourite for once!

But how to tell them? He couldn't walk around in the daylight...

But humans could!