#marcella the archivist

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

I'm guessing that Princess Augura was one of the LCs who hid stuff around the Archives, yes? Probably things she didn't manage to smuggle out of Insomnia before her nephew banished her, or things that were just too bulky to take.

(I'm imagining some niche that used to house statues being turned into impromptu hiding space by the way of bricking up a new wall)

Oh, she definitely was.

In life Augura had a certain reputation. One she consciously cultivated. That she loved books and paper and the written word more than her own family.

So it was easy for her to push for a (partial) renovation of the Royal Archives when her father was still alive. It was easy for her to bribe a few workers into building a few extra additions not shown in the construction plans.

Even back then she wanted her findings to be safe. Because she could see the political climate tilting into a direction she did not like.

Jump to present day where Marcella is tearing through the archives like a woman possessed with her 'borrowed' undergrad students and that one foreigner she really doesn't want in here. And she keeps finding things that have either been misfiled so long ago they aren't in her current filing system (and haven't been in the 2 older ones as well) or have never been filed at all.

And then! They find one of Augura's hidden caches. All Pitioss breaks loose.

[brainpal-gachapon]

Omg hi hi hello could you do a creators choice introject of Queen from deltarune? TransslashPOTS and TransslashASPD + cisautism but otherwise up to you :0

Name(s): Queen/Petra/Verena/Valerie/Alma/Marcella

Age: 36

Prns: She/Blue/Blood/Laugh/White/Glitch/Cyber/Mind/Bit/Code/Cyan/Bot/.exe

Gender(s): Transfem + Mirrorgender

Source(s): Deltarune

Species: Darkner (Transspecies boss monster + deer hybrid)

TransID(s): TransslashPOTS, TransslashASPD, Transspecies, Transdead, Transpet(The owning different pets than u do version), TransBPD

CisID(s): Cisautism, CisADHD, CisNPD

Role(s) (if you want them): Archivist, Organizer, Explorer

[hell-yeahfilm]

THE ALMOST LEGENDARY MORRIS SISTERS

Growing up, Klam heard tantalizing stories about Selma, Malvina, Marcella, and Ruth Morris, her first cousins twice removed, who led astonishing lives. According to family lore, they had come to America from Romania in the early 1900s and settled with their parents in St. Louis but soon were put into an orphanage when their mother died in childbirth. Their father promised to return to get them; when he failed to appear, Marcella managed to leave the orphanage and go to work to pay for her siblings’ release. Thereafter, the sisters became inseparable. They moved to New York City, lived in one house together, and finally relocated to Southampton, on Long Island. Most astoundingly, Marcella became a millionaire, donating generously to Brandeis University. When Klam heard the story from various family members, enough contradictions emerged that she decided to investigate. Her breezy family history recounts whatever she could find about the sisters’ lives as well as the surprises and frustrations she encountered during her research. With no training in genealogy or history, the author depended on the generosity of librarians and archivists, whose correspondence she includes. She recounts her travels to St. Louis; Southampton, where the sisters endowed a local library; and Romania, where she found a congenial, helpful guide. She even visited a psychic. Often, she checked in with one of her relatives, whose stories sometimes yielded useful nuggets and sometimes assumptions that Klam discovered were preposterous. Marcella, for example, who apparently became a successful financier, never had an affair with J.P. Morgan, as some in the family believed. Nor did the sisters’ mother die when they were young. Instead, she lived for more than 30 years in an insane asylum in St. Louis, diagnosed with schizophrenia. Klam’s persistent curiosity pays off in a lively portrait of her “weird family.”

from Kirkus Reviews https://ift.tt/3lLDoon

[pin-codex]

Alternate Ending... The kingdom wasn't destroyed after the royal family died?

If Pin hadn't been taken at a young age and turned into an immortal being, he would have lived out his life in the desert empire. He would have taken the throne after his mother had passed until his sister was of age to rule. Cato, Avis, Navi, and Pin would live out their days and find their respective passions.The kingdom was thriving under Avis. She was a benevolent queen with a loving family and now 2 beautiful children with her Wife, Diane- Alypia and Marcella. Pin ruled as Emperor until his sister was old enough to take responsibility, and then sat back as the kingdom's master Archivist. He cataloged every moment of his life, Avis' reign, every story, every new piece of knowledge ever learned. Navi gained popularity as a competing gladiator and gained fame as a wonderful fighter for their kingdom. Cato became a renound architect and built many beautiful buildings. Each sibling lived out the rest of their days peacefully. Navi never married, Cato found a wife very young and left to start his own kingdom. Pin stayed home to look after his nieces and dreamed for a life of magic.

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

In the blinded history au, there's finally some progress in researching the Conqueror's trip when the undergrads are allowed into the Royal Archives. Mostly because they find some random stuff that wasn't catalogued, prompting the head archivist to kick off the Great Reorganisation of the Archives (capital letters absolutely necessary).

Marcella stared at the pile of documents like they had personally offended her. Which they very much had. She clucked her tongue and carefully picked up what must have been a part of a beautifully illustrated scroll once. Now it was maybe half its original size and riddled with ancient fire damage. It was written in Sol.

Normally Marcella would have carefully noted down a description of the document and then stored it with the other not translatable things she had in her archives. That's what she did with old documents that first arrived at her archives anyway. But this document - these ducuments - was not a new arrival. If the undergrad student's description of where he had found it was correce, it must have been here since the archives had first been constructed clost to 1700 years ago.

It was infuriating. It was maddening. It was downright insulting.

From the day she had first been named Head of the Royal Archives nearly thirty years ago, Marcella had always prided herself on having a complete record on what was stored within these ancient walls. It was her privilige to choose who would be allowed to see and touch these treassures and who wasn't.

So when a group of undergrad students had gained the permission to go into her archives from the King himself, she had been furious. Children. The King had ordered her to let children into this sanctum. But Marcella hadn't had a choice. She had let them in, sticky hands and loud voices and all.

After giving these children an introduction into the filing system and sufficient warnings as to what would happen, if they misappropriated, or Bahamut forbid, damaged one of the documents, she had sought refuge in her tiny office. Proposals to document preservations didn't write themselves after all.

And now here Marcella was. Weeks after the children had first entered her archives. There was a sheet of paper with scribbled attempts at translating the remains of the scroll. It mocked her. She looked up.

The children were standing crammed in front of her desk, shuffling nervously and making unnecessary noised. She pointed at the two she knew were most competent at using her filing catalogue. They startled.

"You and you. Take the catalogue and get searching." She lifted up the sheet with the attempted translation. "Whoever did that is going to write a detailed paper with the reasoning behind it. The other two: contact your professor, I wish to have a word with him as soon as possible."

"But Maselle..." one of the braver ones dared to speak up.

"It's just that those words are really similar to Hadnissa," another one muttered.

Marcella cast a truly caustic glare into the group. Silence reigned.

"If you want to use these archives in the future, I highly suggest you do as I told you. Now."

The children looked at each other and hastened out of the door a moment later. Marcella stood behind her desk, victorious. She glared at the pile of newly found documents again.

There were so many things to do before she could personally hand King Regis her newest proposal for archival funding.

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

Ok, but out of nine conspiracy theories you mentioned, three are actually canon and four are correct within your stories.

(No idea about Tenebrae and the hundlegs.)

Just, Noctis accidentally stumbling on all the shit Bahamut tried to hide from the world, except nobody believes him.

My funny bone was taking a break, so I was floundering a bit for ideas there XD

But yeah, that Noctis is stumbling over the truth is part of the Thing. He's just tearing though the Archives (trying very hard to hide from Marcella the archivist - that woman is scary) and in the hidden corners he's finding the wildest shit. He's never made this much progress this fast leaarning Ancient Lucian.

He shares the truth and becomes known as a conspiracy theorist in large part because he can't really say 'I found this cool parchment in the royal archives'.

I'm now also of the opinion that he's copying the stuff that's really brittle and hard to read over, partly by taking pictures of it. Document preservation, yay!

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

@raven-6-10

"Ah, so you're the one."

Epistéme gave the archivist a bland smile. She had heard a million iterations of the same sentiment until now. Lucian academics were the same everywhere.

"Marcella Cartus, Archivist of the Royal Archives. I will show you why you were allowed in here. Do not leave your designated area. If you need anything, you will ask me. No food, no drink, no pictures. If you violate the rules of the archives, you won't be coming back, no matter which strings His Majesty pulled for you to be allowed here. Am I understood?"

Epistéme's bland smile stayed glued to her face. "Yes, of course, Lady Archivist. Thank you for allowing me to be here."

Cartus gave her a long, hard look. Then she nodded and waved Epistéme to follow her.

They walked through long rows of shelves full of books, scrolls, and artifacts. Boxes were piled high in carful stacks. Many of the shelves were carved from the stone the archives had been build into, though in the newer sections they had been made of heavy wood.

Epistéme would have loved to browse through them all. But this was not an ideal world, so she followed the small woman leading her through the maze. It took a few minutes for the two women to arrive at their destination.

It was an ancient reading nook, complete with a table and two benches carved from stone. They looked like they were growing directly out of the wall. Old carvings decorated the sides. Electric lanterns were the only light source back here. A young man sat at one bench, bent over a stack of papers. He looked frazzled. He must be one of the undergrad students Epistéme had heard about.

"The documents you need are all here. That one will tell you what to do." Cartus pointed at the undergrad student who hadn't noticed them yet. "Now, if you'll excuese me, I have work to do."

Wihout waiting for an answer Cartus walked off, back into the maze.

Episéme approached the reading nook and set her heavy bag down with an audible thump. The undergrad student startled, nearly scattering the pages he was working on, all over the place. He looked at her, startled, before his expression shifted into e genuinly happy grin.

"Anagnosta Arra! I'm so happy to see you! Thank you for coming. Trying to translate all of this on my own is sending me into an early grave."

Epistéme gave the young man a bemused smile. She had never had that kind of reaction from a student at the university.

"Epistéme Arra, but you knew that already," she introduced herself. "The Lady Archivist told me you'd tell me what we are to do. Translating these, you said?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry. My name is Falconis Celatum. I'm specialising ancient history. Or rather, trying to. The Lady Archivist lets me work on these documents because I reconstructed a few of the words from what little Hadnissa I know. It's most likely why she even agreed to have you here in the first place."

"Ah, Hadnissaih osarto tu?"

Falconis made a slight face and made a so-so gesture. Epistéme gave him a small, genuine smile.

"That's still more then 99% of all Insomnians can say. Now, let's get to work, shall we?"

I'm guessing that Princess Augura was one of the LCs who hid stuff around the Archives, yes? Probably things she didn't manage to smuggle out of Insomnia before her nephew banished her, or things that were just too bulky to take.

(I'm imagining some niche that used to house statues being turned into impromptu hiding space by the way of bricking up a new wall)

Oh, she definitely was.

In life Augura had a certain reputation. One she consciously cultivated. That she loved books and paper and the written word more than her own family.

So it was easy for her to push for a (partial) renovation of the Royal Archives when her father was still alive. It was easy for her to bribe a few workers into building a few extra additions not shown in the construction plans.

Even back then she wanted her findings to be safe. Because she could see the political climate tilting into a direction she did not like.

Jump to present day where Marcella is tearing through the archives like a woman possessed with her 'borrowed' undergrad students and that one foreigner she really doesn't want in here. And she keeps finding things that have either been misfiled so long ago they aren't in her current filing system (and haven't been in the 2 older ones as well) or have never been filed at all.

And then! They find one of Augura's hidden caches. All Pitioss breaks loose.