Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 170

Chapter 170 - Interlude - Elvish Responsibilities Part 2

To help keep the peace in what had obviously been rapidly becoming an untenable argument, Rayla had decided to direct the conversation towards something she had noticed both Goa’uld and Tok’ra seemed to have in common. A distinct love of talking about themselves.

“I am what the Tau'ri would call an Archeologist.” Anise said simply.

“We mostly study the ruins of civilizations that had been wiped out by the Goa'uld.” Freya added in with a smile.

A sudden feeling of excitement swept through Rayla at the admittance, and she laid her interface down on the sofa so she could pay full attention to the Tok’ra’s words. “Does that mean you run into a lot of boobytrapps and treasure?”

She knew Daniel would insist that the real treasure to be found was whatever forgotten information about the past an archeologist might happen to uncover. And that was true enough, but you couldn't really stick information in a museum to show off your success.

“Not regularly,” Freya admitted. “The manner in which the Goa'uld wiped out resisting civilizations did not usually lend itself to such things remaining.”

“Aww.” Rayla muttered in disappointment. 

“Why do you care?” Yami inquired idly, glancing over at Rayla with a slight frown. “The amount of wealth the Ancients possess far outstrips anything you might find in primitive ruins.”

“I guess.” Rayla agreed as she recalled Vala's giant diamond and the bag of gold coins Eventus had shown her. “But where's the story in that? I mean without it gold or jewels are just a boring arrangement of atoms.”

“Aesthetically pleasing arrangements of atoms.” Yami added drolly.

“Not really.” Rayla shook her head in disagreement. “I’m sure primitivism has its place, but compared to the sorts of artisanal works you see once a culture advances to even just the point of Earth it doesn’t remotely compare.”

Going over various historical artifacts with Daniel the past couple weeks had made it absolutely clear to Rayla that while primitive humans might try, they just didn’t have the tools needed to draw the potential out of metal and gemstone based jewelry.

“Something the Goa’uld are well aware of.” Anise smirked. “Which is why most of their jewelry is made by lesser Goa’uld in positions similar to Yami.”

“I am not–” Yami began to growl, only to be interrupted by the room's double doors opened with a swish, allowing a quartet of small hovering spheres carrying a single covered silver tray in their tractor beams.

“Please tell me that contains some form of food.” She instantly flipped, eyeing the tray with thinly disguised hunger.

“I told you not to skip lunch.” Rayla chided, watching the orbs float over to the coffee table before lowering the tray down.

“They were serving meatloaf.” Yami spat in disgust. “And if my time on Earth has taught me anything, it's that the Tau'ri are categorically incapable of making an edible loaf of meat.”

Not waiting for the orbs to leave, Yami reached over to remove the large lid, only to scowl at the small colorful geometric shaped cookies that were the only thing on the platter.

“What are these?” She scowled down at things a if their more existence had personally offended her.

“Cookies?” Rayla volunteered, not entirely sure herself. “I can try one if you dont want to risk it since I'm pretty much immune to poison.” 

Yami shot her and odd look. “Unless that immunity comes with the ability to identify any poisonous material you imbue, an immunity to poisons actually disqualifies you from any sort of job as a poison tester.”

Rayla blushed as the logic of that hit her. 

“Toxins are almost never a threat to us anyway.” Anise interjected as she reached down to grab a yellow octogon. “And I do not believe the Asgard dislike us enough to include one of the few substances that can bypass our abilities in their provided food.”

With those words said, the taller woman took a nibble of cookie only to cringe slightly before swallowing it down. “Though the taste unfortunately leaves much to be desired.”

Curious now, Rayla reached over to grab a red hexagon from the tray and took a bit, only to blink in surprise as a flavor that was like a mix between that of a tomato and orange bombarded her taste buds. “Wow, that was really not compatible with human adjacent taste buds.”

Finishing her cookie to be polite, she grabbed one of each remaining color and repeated the process.

“The green one's flavor kind of works.” She offered after finishing the last. “But the others I'd avoid.”

“Why did you continue after the first if they were bad?” Yami asked, staring at Rayla with a look of utter bemusement on her face.

Cocking her head, Rayle spent several seconds trying to work out what about her decision the Goa'uld didn't understand before deciding it was probably just one of those things she wouldn't get. “If I didn't try them all, how would I know I didn't like them all?”

Anise let out an annoyed sigh. “Do remember that despite her somewhat aged form, she has only been alive for a little over a month.”

That made Rayla frown, and she glanced over the two hosts bodies for a moment before looking down at herself. “I don't look that old. Do I?”

Yami smirked at Anise. “You look about half the age of the Tok'ra's host.”

Freya's eye twitched slightly as she glared at the Goa'uld. “I am barely thirty five.”

“Biologically speaking I'm a little over twenty one.” Rayla put forward in hopes of pulling Freya's attention away from Yami's comment. “Dad said it was because he didn't want me to have to go through puberty. Which, given everything I've heard others say about it, was probably for the best.”

Both Anise and Yami grimaced in unison before looking at each other and scowling.

“There is good reason only the young, desperate, or profane take hosts below the age of adulthood.” Yami grudgingly admitted.

“It is one of the few practices the Tok'ra have in common with the Goa'uld.” Anise added in as her eyes flicked over to Yami. “Not that you would know that from some of their host choices.”

This time it was Yami's eye that twitched. “I would not have selected Ashia as a host if it were my choice… She is far too short for my preferences.”

“Don't worry,” Rayla tried to console the clearly sensitive woman. “I'm sure dad can grow you a new host that's whatever height you want.”

The door swished open almost the moment she finished, and she glanced over to see Eventus walk in with a semi-transparent plastic bag in hand. 

“Everything going okay?” He asked, eyes flicking from each of their faces before settling onto the platter of semi-edible cookies.

“Oh…” He muttered, sounding oddly disappointed for some reason. “Well,” He held up the plastic bag and Rayla could see a quartet of tightly wrapped paper bundles inside. “I brought dinner. Thor grabbed a few orders from a deli before we left. And since Asgard food cubes aren't exactly palatable by humans, I thought I'd bring a couple down in case the Asgard forgot to warn you about that.”

Rayla considered that for a moment before smiling happily. “Do you have one without onions?”

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Author's Notes: Thor didn't exactly forget… But sadly Rayla got caught in the crossfire… Though to be fair she didn't exactly hate the experience.