The museum reopens [Mingle]

[ourearth]

Date:14-03-19
Characters: Open!
Note: Like all welcome mingles, this is a SoL free-for-all mingle meant to get new characters involved by centering around something relevant to them. This one has the special addition of two NPCs wandering around in the backround so your character can encounter them, if you’d like. Without further ado, please welcome Felicity Sirrell!

---

The clean-up efforts after the tsunami are well underway. The streets have been cleaned, the debris on public and private property has mostly been removed, and while much still stands to be renovated or replaced, Mossgate and Tarwich look more or less like they always do once again.

What better time to have a little event? More precisely, what better time to reopen with a bang. Which is what the town museum on the end of the High Street is doing. Like most houses on that street, the building got hit by the tsunami, but it got lucky insofar as it got only hit by the tail end of it and much of the collections had been evacuated anyway due to the building work in the aftermath of the bomb threat last year. Plus the tsunami did not hit the public library part of the museum, so all the books remained unharmed.

Which is why the museum can reopen now, looking all fresh and… well, not new, but a bit better than before with renovated bathrooms and a new coffee machine in the cafeteria.

And also a special exhibit. It’s been advertised all over town for the last few weeks: The library is reopening, and there will be a temporary exhibit about Bible Errata!

A whole room in the museum has been dedicated to this, showcasing a few original books and having posters and informational material around them and many other examples of failed typesettings and misprints of the Bible that are funny or amusing. It features, among other things, the Book of Kells (in which Matthew 10:34b should read "I came not to send peace, but the sword". However rather than "gladium" which means "sword", Kells has "gaudium" meaning "joy". Rendering the verse: "I came not [only] to send peace, but [also] joy"), the Manchester Edition (in which the heading on Chapter 3 of Leviticus and the first verse has "bees" rather than "beeves" (plural of beef) so that it reads: "How the peace offerings must be of bees, sheep, lambs and goats") and various misprintings of the King James Bible.

The special pride of…. Okay, maybe not the museum, but at least the local gay clubs, which have actually run a fundraiser or two to bring that specific Bible here, is the "Affinity Bible" from 1927, which contains a table of family affinities that includes the line "A man may not marry his grandmother's wife."

On the day the exhibit opens, the cafeteria serves special amounts of cake on top of their usual fare of coffee, tea and scones. There’s a tombola (because why not do fundraising where you can?). And obviously there are speeches at some point, a children’s choir sings, and everyone of distinction drops by to be seen, say a thing, and show appreciation of the reopening.

Comments

[scarsolderthanyou]

"And you're a mystery," Sam counters. Since he does tend to prefer to be direct, he starts with: "Who are you?"

[saveournpcs]

The man tilts his head slightly to the side and creases his forehead. "I believe the custom is to introduce oneself before asking someone else's name."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"That usually happens when you aren't a mysterious little shit who possibly caused a bomb to have to be detonated instead of defused," Sam says. "But sure, I'll play along. I'm Sam. And you are?"

[saveournpcs]

He doesn't look offended by that description at all. "I am Mr Evil."

[scarsolderthanyou]

Sam pauses, then gives him an incredulous look. "Seriously? That's the name you're going with? Not even going to pretend to give me a believable one?"

[saveournpcs]

"It is the name that is my name." Now the man looks offended.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Okay. Sure. Mister Evil." Yeah, right. "Do you have a first name to go with that, or is Mister your first name?"

[saveournpcs]

"Mr Evil is my full name." He shifts. "You will be in significant trouble if you continue inquiring like this."

[scarsolderthanyou]

This is insane. Sam continues to look somewhere between amused and bemused. "What will you do?" he asks, only about half serious.

[saveournpcs]

"Oh, would you not like to know..." He smirks at Sam, bringing up a finger to his mouth and biting it while doing so, and then wanders off in the most majestic way that he can master. Which looks a bit contrived.

[scarsolderthanyou]

You're not getting off that easily, Mr. Evil. Sam wanders right after him, hands in his pockets, all casual-like. "So why were you messing around with that bomb, last time I saw you, anyway?"

[saveournpcs]

He gives Sam a derisive look. "And why would I not?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Usually because blowing up a whole city block usually has more motive behind it than 'because I can'," Sam says dryly. "So I have to assume you're not just completely insane and do things with actual reasons."

[saveournpcs]

"Of course that is not the only reason." He raises an eyebrow at Sam. Seriously.

Not that he's answering the implied question with that or anything.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Then what was the reason?" Sam tries again. Might as well be persistent, right?

[saveournpcs]

"It's what I do."

He smirks, a quite nasty variety of smirk, really, and then abruptly and very quickly marches around a corner. If Sam follows him, he'll.... find that the man is gone, apparently vanished the moment he got out of Sam's sight.

[scarsolderthanyou]

He does in fact follow, and stops in bafflement to find nothing there. He scowls, turns around to look around him, then opens his mouth a little to try and taste the air. Maybe he left a scent?