@initcne cont. from ages ago:
Hardly a night has gone by that Darlene hasn’t caught the kid lurking around whatever workspace she’s tucked herself into for the night. Someone locks a seventeen-year-old up in his own coffin for fifty years and suddenly he’s her problem. Some nights she shoos Ahkmenrah away, tells him she’s busy. Other nights, though, where she’s mindlessly cataloging and doing little else, she indulges him a bit. “Stop staring and have a seat, dude. Must be exhausting carrying the fate of the entire museum on your shoulders, huh??” This is followed by a short chuckle.
Darlene snorts once. “Is that what happened to that bag?? I knew I could count.” She picks up her bag of skittles and shakes a few out into her hand, then turns the bag to Ahkmenrah as an offering. Do mummies eat skittles?? She’s about to find out.
“You really wanna hang out with lil’ ol’ me over here?? My job isn’t nearly as fun as Larry’s. He’s probably wrangling the fucking lions–do not repeat that word–that ate this thing.”
Ahkmen glanced away with a small frown before smiling shyly. “Pardon my gaze,” he muttered politely, settling down beside her. He was careful to mind his wraps, keeping his silky skirts resolutely over his knees and draping down onto the tiled floor of the museum.
“I hardly think of it these days,” he said back to her, not necessarily picking up on the fact she was joking. Ahkmenrah did take a fair bit of responsibility, even if it was all ornamental. It was his tablet that caused all of this night after night, after all.
“Indeed you can.” A little red rectangle made of what Ahkmen has learned is probably plastic, or an uncultured mix of plastic and paper. Synthetic. He surveyed the little beads in her hand and reached into the bag for one. The one he pulled out was green. It smelled sweet. “Sk...Skyttles,” he tilted his head to read off the side of the bag.
“Larry is charged with a lot of running around. I’ve done a fair bit of running around tonight already.” He turned the little green bead over, held between his fingers, and popped it into his mouth.
Ahk’s expression twisted but he didn’t spit the thing out--he was raised better than that. He still grimaced, glancing over to Darlene with worry. “There seems to be something wrong with your Skyttles.”