Almost didn't want to say it because it sounds like… hope, but guarding something that has seen everything means you start to see it too, the little things. it's not just dust settling it's time accumulating like rings on a tree only instead of growth it's… waiting. and the way the light shifts on it, like it's trying to tell you something but you're too busy guarding to listen, right, @stillsettingaplace? you just listen to the hum of the ventilation, the blood in your ears, the questions unasked, gathering in the corners, so many questions that even the artifact wants to answer, i swear. and then notebook fifteen opens. and the back teeth let go, a little. just a little.