All three of us headed off to the museum straight after a nice big
breakfast. Since it was just over the road we were able to linger over
brekky. It was nice. Even got to read the morning papers. Very civilised.
Only a minor dispute with Giles over who got The Times first over the
Tribune.
"Mm. 50 centuries of recorded history. Can't you just feel it." Honestly if history was an addictive substance you'd think Watcher-Boy had just done a couple of lines of Colombia's finest.
"Last time I went to a museum an Inca Mummy Girl tried to suck the life out of Xander."
"And you stopped her!" You try resisting that one.
"Spike! Trying to be conversation girl here. We did sort of get out of the habit."
"I know. I missed it. Wasn't for lack of me trying though. But…peace, pet. Tell me about it." So she did. Whelp certainly always has been a demon magnet. Still think she should have let the preying mantis have him. But then again… No. Definitely no propagation of the Harris genes should be permitted, for the sake of the future of any species.
"Know what you mean though luv. Hate mummies. Nasty buggers. Especially the flesh eaters. Yuk. Don't wanna come across any of them again in this un- life."
"With both your histories in mind then, please avoid the Mummy Room. We really don't want to have to do any slaying, or cause an international incident. Low profile. Do the tourist thing. I need to go and see a couple of old dig friends here before my appointment with Khalid. If I don't I'll never here the end of it. Besides there are some other things we need, that they can provide. So I'll either see you back at the hotel or I'll leave a message in the room. If you have to leave do the same. Enjoy."
So...here we are…together. In what can only be described as the biggest, most stuffed warehouse of ancient Egyptian artefacts on the planet. Not exactly where anyone would probably put us for a "date" after everything that's gone on maybe.
It works though. There's so much to see we don't have to have "the talk". You can tell it's coming though. Like thunder you can taste it in the air. But always been one to make the most of the moment. This is definitely taking me back to museum visiting with Mama and my youngest sister Lizzie. They both loved the British Museum and we used to go regular. So know something about all this, and what I don't know, or remember, is on the notices by the objects.
I tell Buffy about that. She's so stumped at the thought of me having a family, and one that enjoyed going to museums, that she's silent from the proto-dynastic period right through to the Old Kingdom.
We sit down in front of a pair of incredibly lifelike full size statues. Rahotep and Nofret, it says. Prince of Egypt and his wife at the time of the building of the pyramids, and still together. Thousands of years together wouldn't be enough, but I'd take one year as a start. Blindingly white kilt for him, and long white robe for her. Think I'll stick to the leather. Hiding her hair under a wig. No more hiding, not for either of us. Rock crystal eyes stare right into me. Wonder if they see me, or just a thing? Wonder if she does. Not sure I want to know, but know I need to. Not yet though. Need to get comfortable together first.
There's cute statues that make her laugh. The dwarf and his full sized family. Not politically correct, not that that's ever bothered me, but it's so good to see her laugh. Some of the pharoah statues are of solid granite and basalt. She's feeling the 6-packs on the statues, and I swear I see her doing a compare and contrast with mine. From the look of her I'm ahead on points.
We pass Nefertiti and Akenaten - weird looking bloke - on the stairs. She's taken with Nefertiti and asks if the famous head is here. Tell her how I saw it in Berlin when it first arrived, and how Hitler refused to let it go coz she was so beautiful and "Aryan". Tosser! We got the Sphinx's beard in the British Museum, think he got the better deal. Though the Elgin Marbles ain't bad.
Once she finds Hatshepsut the female pharaoh who ruled for 18 years and got her boyfriend to mind the kid Nefertiti drops well down the charts. Better bear that in mind. Hell, knew the whole girl power thing anyway. Just as long as she doesn't insist on wearing a false beard! A kilt and topless I could probably learn to live with.
Upstairs we hit the jewellery room. So much gold, so many gemstones and semi-precious stones she's in girly heaven.
"Dawn would love this. Look at this tiara! It's so delicate, and so pretty. 12th dynasty, that's ages ago right? Looks so now though."
"Yep, thousands of years old and still sparkly. Little Bit certainly would love this room. Have to keep hold of her sticky fingers though."
"It's your fault you know."
"Oh no. She was out knickin' stuff well before I got to know her, and never taught her owt about it neither. Nope. Not pinning that on me. Not solely anyway. We all should have done better by her. Wanted to. You wouldn't let me see her, not after…"
She continues to surprise me. "You're right. Especially if she doesn't have any kind of soul! God! Spike what do we tell her? How do I talk to her? She wanted to know more about who she is. How do I tell her this?"
I grip her shoulders and look into those huge eyes. "Soul ain't be all and end all. Still the same Dawn. We just know now she doesn't have anything influencing her to be bad or good, she can still be ok. We all can. I got a re-tune on my moral compass, so I don't have any push towards dumbass bad plans anymore. It's a good feeling to be free of that push in the veins. But I got tuned to neutral luv. If Dawn hasn't got a compass at all we can get her to internalise one. Good, or neutral…up to her. Free will, and a positive example. All we can do really. But above all gotta be honest with the bit. She's smart, she'll cry, she'll screech, she'll cope. And you know how. Coz we'll both help her. Been re-tuned, it hurt. She don't have to hurt. Not if we do it right."
She nods.
Tears welling in her eyes, but not falling, we left the jewellery room for the death masks. Huge heavy things. Glad didn't have one of those on when they did me.
We come to the King Tut exhibits. Shedloads of 'em. Can see the shrine things they all came in. Beats Anya for gift wrapping skills. Talk about fitting a quart into a pint pot.
She's easing. Visibly relaxing. We come to one display case. There's lots of smaller pieces in it. But she's only looking at one. It's a little wooden mummy with two small birds whose wings cross over the body.
"Look, isn't it beautiful. How delicate the birds are." It's true. There's no gold on this. You can see the wood-grain. Even the band of hieroglyphics round the mummy is utterly simple. It's one of the simplest things I've seen in a museum stuffed beyond belief with treasures. But this is so full of feeling it looks like a gift of someone who truly cared. The two little birds' wings cross so carefully; looks like they don't want to wake the person, just keep him safe, keep him warm.
"I feel. I feel warm. Why do I feel warm? Oh, weird! No. Oh, feeling dizzy."
She slumps a bit and I drag her away from the case. No more strange mojo for my girl. As we get away from the case she shakes her head and whatever it was clears.
"Ok now that was weird. What was that Spike?"
"Dunno luv. But looks best to be away from it. Not keen on the old mojo."
So we go into the room off the corridor. It's a big one, in all senses. More gold than I've ever seen and stuff familiar from the papers and the telly over the years. Tut's gold coffins, enough jewellery to keep Peaches in hair gel for centuries and the famous death mask. Three gold coffins, and a really heavy gold and lapis mask. Somebody really didn't want him getting out. The work though is amazing, and I've seen a few things in my time.
She's looking into the face of the death mask. Her eyes aren't blinking but the frown is deepening between her brows.
"My head! Ow. My head." She's clutching her head in pain and slumping again. OK no more culture we're out of here. So I pick her up and carry her out of the museum.
Notes. The Hotel is as placed. The artefacts described do exist in the Egyptian Museum, which is incredible and well worth seeing for anyone with an interest in the subject. Any effects are for the purposes of the story. Though the death mask does have a headachy effect on many people, according to anecdotal reports.
"Mm. 50 centuries of recorded history. Can't you just feel it." Honestly if history was an addictive substance you'd think Watcher-Boy had just done a couple of lines of Colombia's finest.
"Last time I went to a museum an Inca Mummy Girl tried to suck the life out of Xander."
"And you stopped her!" You try resisting that one.
"Spike! Trying to be conversation girl here. We did sort of get out of the habit."
"I know. I missed it. Wasn't for lack of me trying though. But…peace, pet. Tell me about it." So she did. Whelp certainly always has been a demon magnet. Still think she should have let the preying mantis have him. But then again… No. Definitely no propagation of the Harris genes should be permitted, for the sake of the future of any species.
"Know what you mean though luv. Hate mummies. Nasty buggers. Especially the flesh eaters. Yuk. Don't wanna come across any of them again in this un- life."
"With both your histories in mind then, please avoid the Mummy Room. We really don't want to have to do any slaying, or cause an international incident. Low profile. Do the tourist thing. I need to go and see a couple of old dig friends here before my appointment with Khalid. If I don't I'll never here the end of it. Besides there are some other things we need, that they can provide. So I'll either see you back at the hotel or I'll leave a message in the room. If you have to leave do the same. Enjoy."
So...here we are…together. In what can only be described as the biggest, most stuffed warehouse of ancient Egyptian artefacts on the planet. Not exactly where anyone would probably put us for a "date" after everything that's gone on maybe.
It works though. There's so much to see we don't have to have "the talk". You can tell it's coming though. Like thunder you can taste it in the air. But always been one to make the most of the moment. This is definitely taking me back to museum visiting with Mama and my youngest sister Lizzie. They both loved the British Museum and we used to go regular. So know something about all this, and what I don't know, or remember, is on the notices by the objects.
I tell Buffy about that. She's so stumped at the thought of me having a family, and one that enjoyed going to museums, that she's silent from the proto-dynastic period right through to the Old Kingdom.
We sit down in front of a pair of incredibly lifelike full size statues. Rahotep and Nofret, it says. Prince of Egypt and his wife at the time of the building of the pyramids, and still together. Thousands of years together wouldn't be enough, but I'd take one year as a start. Blindingly white kilt for him, and long white robe for her. Think I'll stick to the leather. Hiding her hair under a wig. No more hiding, not for either of us. Rock crystal eyes stare right into me. Wonder if they see me, or just a thing? Wonder if she does. Not sure I want to know, but know I need to. Not yet though. Need to get comfortable together first.
There's cute statues that make her laugh. The dwarf and his full sized family. Not politically correct, not that that's ever bothered me, but it's so good to see her laugh. Some of the pharoah statues are of solid granite and basalt. She's feeling the 6-packs on the statues, and I swear I see her doing a compare and contrast with mine. From the look of her I'm ahead on points.
We pass Nefertiti and Akenaten - weird looking bloke - on the stairs. She's taken with Nefertiti and asks if the famous head is here. Tell her how I saw it in Berlin when it first arrived, and how Hitler refused to let it go coz she was so beautiful and "Aryan". Tosser! We got the Sphinx's beard in the British Museum, think he got the better deal. Though the Elgin Marbles ain't bad.
Once she finds Hatshepsut the female pharaoh who ruled for 18 years and got her boyfriend to mind the kid Nefertiti drops well down the charts. Better bear that in mind. Hell, knew the whole girl power thing anyway. Just as long as she doesn't insist on wearing a false beard! A kilt and topless I could probably learn to live with.
Upstairs we hit the jewellery room. So much gold, so many gemstones and semi-precious stones she's in girly heaven.
"Dawn would love this. Look at this tiara! It's so delicate, and so pretty. 12th dynasty, that's ages ago right? Looks so now though."
"Yep, thousands of years old and still sparkly. Little Bit certainly would love this room. Have to keep hold of her sticky fingers though."
"It's your fault you know."
"Oh no. She was out knickin' stuff well before I got to know her, and never taught her owt about it neither. Nope. Not pinning that on me. Not solely anyway. We all should have done better by her. Wanted to. You wouldn't let me see her, not after…"
She continues to surprise me. "You're right. Especially if she doesn't have any kind of soul! God! Spike what do we tell her? How do I talk to her? She wanted to know more about who she is. How do I tell her this?"
I grip her shoulders and look into those huge eyes. "Soul ain't be all and end all. Still the same Dawn. We just know now she doesn't have anything influencing her to be bad or good, she can still be ok. We all can. I got a re-tune on my moral compass, so I don't have any push towards dumbass bad plans anymore. It's a good feeling to be free of that push in the veins. But I got tuned to neutral luv. If Dawn hasn't got a compass at all we can get her to internalise one. Good, or neutral…up to her. Free will, and a positive example. All we can do really. But above all gotta be honest with the bit. She's smart, she'll cry, she'll screech, she'll cope. And you know how. Coz we'll both help her. Been re-tuned, it hurt. She don't have to hurt. Not if we do it right."
She nods.
Tears welling in her eyes, but not falling, we left the jewellery room for the death masks. Huge heavy things. Glad didn't have one of those on when they did me.
We come to the King Tut exhibits. Shedloads of 'em. Can see the shrine things they all came in. Beats Anya for gift wrapping skills. Talk about fitting a quart into a pint pot.
She's easing. Visibly relaxing. We come to one display case. There's lots of smaller pieces in it. But she's only looking at one. It's a little wooden mummy with two small birds whose wings cross over the body.
"Look, isn't it beautiful. How delicate the birds are." It's true. There's no gold on this. You can see the wood-grain. Even the band of hieroglyphics round the mummy is utterly simple. It's one of the simplest things I've seen in a museum stuffed beyond belief with treasures. But this is so full of feeling it looks like a gift of someone who truly cared. The two little birds' wings cross so carefully; looks like they don't want to wake the person, just keep him safe, keep him warm.
"I feel. I feel warm. Why do I feel warm? Oh, weird! No. Oh, feeling dizzy."
She slumps a bit and I drag her away from the case. No more strange mojo for my girl. As we get away from the case she shakes her head and whatever it was clears.
"Ok now that was weird. What was that Spike?"
"Dunno luv. But looks best to be away from it. Not keen on the old mojo."
So we go into the room off the corridor. It's a big one, in all senses. More gold than I've ever seen and stuff familiar from the papers and the telly over the years. Tut's gold coffins, enough jewellery to keep Peaches in hair gel for centuries and the famous death mask. Three gold coffins, and a really heavy gold and lapis mask. Somebody really didn't want him getting out. The work though is amazing, and I've seen a few things in my time.
She's looking into the face of the death mask. Her eyes aren't blinking but the frown is deepening between her brows.
"My head! Ow. My head." She's clutching her head in pain and slumping again. OK no more culture we're out of here. So I pick her up and carry her out of the museum.
Notes. The Hotel is as placed. The artefacts described do exist in the Egyptian Museum, which is incredible and well worth seeing for anyone with an interest in the subject. Any effects are for the purposes of the story. Though the death mask does have a headachy effect on many people, according to anecdotal reports.
