Notes On A Preserved Specimen

Knowing how deeply obsessed her sister was with humans, Kisse was just as surprised as Dexter when Roswell turned down his invitation to explore the Alpha Labs. She had come along anyway, of course, because they were a trio at this stage and being parted felt odd. Still, she took no notes, no observations of the various human mechanisms they passed by as they worked their way down. Dexter was the opposite, peering into every cupboard he could open and leafing through ragged papers at his leisure. He could read human runes somewhat, but he had said before that most of it was guesswork. Kisse still thought it was impressive and his feathers had puffed up when she told him so. Roswell was idly playing with an articulated skeleton, not a dinosaur but something small and rodent-like, perhaps a raccoon like the Craftsmaster but it was hard to tell without the fluff. Kisse came to settle next to her, not having any luck trying to read over Dexter's shoulder.

"I thought you'd love a place like this," she said, nudging her sister's side.

"Oh it's cool, undeniably, but it's just not useful for my line of study," Roswell huffed. Kisse tilted her head and that was enough to make her elaborate. "If you wanted to learn how to hunt deer, would you observe them in the wild or in a cage?"

"In the wild, if they're in a cage they're already caught," Kisse responded easily.

"Exactly! If I want to catch a human then studying areas where they were enclosed doesn't do anything for me. I need to see their natural habits, not what they do under duress," Roswell explained excitedly. Kisse nodded, she could understand that line of logic, even if she thought her sister was still insane for believing humans were still around. Even Dexter with all his geeking out about human relics didn't believe that.

"There's a lot of useful information down here, don't count it out," the studious tabby raptor called from his place under the desk. He rolled out a long tube filled with water and held something suspended in it. Kisse stood up and squinted at it, seeing an egg floating and spinning with the momentum of the rolling. It looked strangely lonely, sitting in its little specimen jar all alone. Without any rational reasoning, Kisse picked it up and held it to her chest, cradling it like she would a live egg. 

"Poor little thing," Roswell sympathised, "Didn't even have a chance." She stood up to look at the find, placing the small skeleton down gently where she had found it on a shelf. Dexter was still busy reading whatever he had found in the drawers of the desk but he was vaguely aware of the sisters examining the egg. He didn't have the stomach for it, looking away any time they encountered a wet specimen down here. It was the main reason why he wouldn't venture into the Labs alone, the strange voyeuristic graveyard of unlucky souls. It felt disrespectful to look at them, like he was violated the peace of their eternal slumber. According to the notes he managed to find in relation to these specimens, it seemed most of them were placed in the tubes alive. The notes continued to observe vital signs, implying they were still alive for months afterward too. There was no denying that they were dead now though, and he shuddered when he began to wonder when they had died. He returned his attention to the notes and perked up at the word 'egg' standing out in its faded black ink. These notes were about the specimen that Kisse and Roswell were looking at. 

"I can't tell what kind of dinosaur this is," Kiss admitted, turning the jar over in her claws. "Maybe it's not a dinosaur at all?"

"Ah, no it has to be, look at the size of it," Roswell remarked, pressing her nose to the glass. She looked up at where Dexter was still pouring over the notes. "Did they write about what was in this?"

"Not that I can read," Dexter sighed, "They might have but I can't find it." Kisse looked back down at the jar in her claws and felt something pull at her from deep in her stomach.

"Would it be weird if I wanted to keep this?" she lamented, holding the jar even closer.

"It won't even be the weirdest thing in our home," Roswell joked. Still, she shot a concerned look at Dexter who missed it entirely, still reading. It wasn't like Kisse to show interest in things like these, often elevating herself above the two of them by her insistence on not forming an obsession with human conspiracy. Her worried thoughts were interrupted by a groan from the tabby Utah as he rose to his feet.

"You can bring it, I'm not going to get through all these down here, we'll have to come back another day," he complained, gathering the papers up in his arms. He managed to keep them in a neat pile as he pressed them close to his chest, gently holding them in a way that wasn't dissimilar to the way Kisse held the specimen jar. Seeing no sign of an ally in Dexter, Roswell sighed and started to gather more of the notes. If he could decipher these over time maybe it would remove the mysticism from the egg and snap her sister out of this strange attachment.