#it's tricky bc I wanna balance 'proper science and animal care' with 'everything still goes to shit and several people die'

[blorbologist]

21 - maybe something sci-fi?

21. Blessing of Vivec, Morrowind soundtrack

Every time Vax has asked what his sister is up to, she’s simply replied ‘NDA’. 

The accompanying wink is implied, or imagined, because it’s all been over the phone since she took a plane to Costa Rica for this mysterious contract.

It’s Vex his thoughts go to, though, as he carefully pries the flat mudstone in two. The dark, delicate impressions of feathers fan out in his hands. Part of a wing. 

He sits back on his heels, taking a moment to bask in the excitement before something at the edge of the slab catches his eye. “Keyleth!”

With her mane of red hair tied back and protected by a bandanna, Vax can’t pick her out of the crowd of working grad students and volunteers until she stands. The tarp overhead flaps and waves to announce her arrival as she picks her way closer. 

Keyleth has a “Sorry! Just gotta - scoot by,” or an “Oops! Sorry, let me just -” for everyone as she picks her way across the dig. For Vax, though, she has a smile warmer than the sun they’re hiding from. He basks in that too before nodding towards his find.

“Oh, that’s gorgeous!” Keyleth gasps, crouching down for a better look. She reaches out as though to touch the feathers. “That’s gotta be… a raptor, right? What’s the little one in this formation again?”

“Acheroraptor,” Vax says. “But I think this might be too big of a wing for that little guy.”

She rocks back and forth on her heels. “Do you think - oohh! That’s exciting!”

“Definitely.” His throat suddenly dry, Vax clears it of dust. “But this here - that’s a ginkgo leaf, right?”

Keyleth’s gaze jumps downward; this time she touches the fossil. Which really isn’t - but he wasn’t supposed to crack anything open until they’d hauled it all back to the lab anyways. “Oh, definitely! Can’t be anything else. Or, it could be, but I don’t think so - we do know ginkgos from Hell Creek, but they’re pretty -”

She stops herself. “Do you hear that?”

He doesn’t - unless she means his heart beating a mile a minute, overwhelmed with everything (a preserved wing in his hands, Keyleth by his side, you know). 

No, she definitely means the whirr of what can only be a mother fucking helicopter steadily getting louder. 

--

Vex is the last person he expected to see hopping out of a helicopter.

Between the terrible reception where she is and how busy he’s been since finally getting tenure (on top of running the dig in the summer, and - well, other shit), he hasn’t seen her in the last three years.

She looks good - better than he does, at least, after half a day sweating in the middle of the badlands and what feels like geologic ages of stress weighing on his shoulders.

He’s very glad he elected to leave his precious fossil behind; it leaves him free to tackle her into a hug and spin her around and around until they might achieve liftoff.

“You couldn’t have sent a heads up first?” Vax squeezes her tighter in retaliation; he can’t tell where his laughter starts and hers ends. “Where the fuck have you been, Stubby?!”

Vex wheezes nonsense. Fine - he puts her down, enjoys her dramatic gasps for breath, and endures the weak punch to his shoulder. “You know what? I can actually tell you about that!” She glances over the gawking dig team. “Maybe in private, though. Are we near your base camp, or would you like a ride down the mountain in style?”

“Can I come too?”

They whirl around. Keyleth sticks out her hand, smile stilted and nervous. “I mean, hi - oh, hi, I’m Keyleth, I’ve heard so much about you -”

Vax chuckles. “Keyleth, Vex. Vex, Keyleth.” He was going to teasingly ask if Vex could handle a walk over the hill, but the sight of feathers in Vex’s hair stops him dead. “Shit - wait! Vex, I’ve got the coolest fucking thing to show you first.”

As he takes her wrist to show her the fossil, Vex giggles. “I’m sure it’s the tits, but - fuck, you won’t believe what I’ve got in store for you.”

She gasps, struck by a thought of her own. “Oh, please say yes. You better say yes - you’ll finally get to meet Trinket!”

Keyleth, jogging up behind them, asks, “Trinket? Who’s that?”

Vex winks. “That's under NDA.”

--

[Jurassic Park is technically scifi ;3]

For my Spotify Wrapped prompt game!