October 21st, 2023
9:59 AM EST
Alastar
“Sorry about that Janet.” Alastar said, grinning weakly as he stood up and brushed his pants off.
“It’s alright, Star.” Janet said, grinning loosely. “Lets just hope you clocked in right this time. I don’t want management on my ass because you have such weird hours.”
“Hey, they approved voluntary overtime for me to familiarize myself with the collections. So I’m getting paid.” He grinned cheekily. “I mean come on, as long as I’m actually doing work and not fucking around, who cares?”
“Yeah yeah, whatever you say. I’ll be working up here as long as I can. As much as voluntary overtime sounds like fun, Reshelving books is way easier than whatever you have to do down in your dungeon.” She said, grinning. “Besides, be glad no one’s here yet, you can at least wipe your face off before anyone important comes.”
“Wha?” Alastar asked, intelligently, as he wiped the corner of his mouth with his jacket sleeve. He hadn’t even noticed there was some cream cheese still on his mouth. “Did I get it?”
“Gross, Star, didn’t your mom tell you to use a napkin?” Janet asked, leaning over and grabbing his face to wipe it off with a napkin.
Alastar pouted once she let go, frowning at the childish treatment. “Sure she did, but she also told me not to touch chess sets or pick up snow globes. Sometimes things have to change when we grow up.”
“Well, this isn’t one of them. Go wash your face and fix your hair, or do you want everyone to think your one of the exhibits having come to life?”
“Very funny. For your information, Night at the Museum was a very formative movie for me so that’s actually a c-”
“Go.” Janet interrupted, pointing at the bathroom, and Alastar did quickly.
In the bathroom Alastar got the cream cheese off his jacket sleeve, splashed a little water in his face, and even straightened his hair a little bit, before coming back. By the time he was there were already several researchers who had arrived to work in the research library.
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“Anything yet?” Alastar asked Janet, knowing that his job was usually pretty empty for the first hour or two.
“Nope, why don’t you go organize shrunken heads or whatever it is you do down in the stacks?” Janet said, smiling cheekily.
“I don’t organize the shrunken heads, I’m not allowed to touch them. You need a special license to work with human remains, so someone like me is only allowed to move the container they are in., not the specific pieces.” He said matter of factly. “Besides, they are pretty much all parts of donated collections with special clauses prohibiting them from being separated. Most human remains that don't fall under those sections have been repatriated or moved to special collections.”
“I wasn’t being serious, you dork, Besides, looks like you missed out on some alone time.” She pointed to a glasses wearing man who had just written a request on the Official Materials Request List.
With a sigh Alastar waited for the man to be done and have walked away before taking the clipboard, anything more would be awkward.
***
The Official Materials Request List was something that Alastar both loved and hated on some level. Most of his job was dedicated to this one document, and all he had to do was follow its instructions and acquire the requested materials. Sure, sometimes he’d have to work with Curators or other important people, but they usually had permission to do their jobs without his input. So, he mostly had to work with visiting researchers and this one document.
The problem with this document was just how much time it took every single day. The list was old and archaic, it was completely analogue. It was literally a paper forum written on a clipboard that he had to grab every once in a while. Alastar knew it could have been updated decades ago, or even just turned into a google doc, but the museum had decided to leave this job the way it was. Maybe it was his boss, or his predecessor, he had no way of knowing who was to blame for his plight.
He found it a little bit charming, but Alastar also knew that it just spent it’s time making his job harder. He had to just grin and bear it every time. The first forum was easy, thankfully. “Okay, the Doctor Reis Collection. That’s pretty easy.” There was a second forum, but seeing the first order he knew it would take a whole trip . As a first job for the day, this was pretty simple. The large collection took up a whole quarter of a storage room and was very well organized, he’d just have to dig out the right box and grab the items needed. He was going to do his work in a reasonable amount of time, he was certain of it. He could not let himself fall into the rabbit hole, no matter how enticing. He stuck his pen in his mouth, chewing on it to calm his nerves as he gathered what he needed.
He took the service elevator down to the deepest bowls of the museum. The service elevator was not for guests, and passed through innocuous corners on all of the floors. He knew that the janitors used it during the night shifts, but during the day it was almost always free, allowing him easy access from the top of the building to the older and darker underground.
The image of an underground sub basement style area could use a little updating. The well paid maintenance crew would not allow the flickering lights or dim hallways that were always shown in TV Shows. Hell, the floors down here were cleaner than hospital basements he’d been in. At least, that was the case in the hallways. However, past all of the brightly lit labs and easily accessed science areas, there was his domain.